The Revenge Scam

Two Lies and a Truth

"Where have you been?"

She had come in looking a little flustered and a bit of red could be seen from under her sleeve. She quickly covered it up. Blast! I would have hoped he wouldn't be here already! Straightening her back, and staring him in the eye, she spoke, "I went to go get some food as I said." She had responded with as much fervour as she could. She showed him the measly amount of vegetables she had gotten and put them on the small, round table in front of her. Charles still gave her a skeptical look.

"It took you two hours to get that?" He questioned, not quite believing her.

"Um, no, I also went for a walk around Venice and checked out the jewelry shops. You know how girls get when they see a fine pair of earrings." She said, forcing a dreamy look in her eyes. By this point, Charles had sat up from his bed, put his book down, and shoved the blanket off of him. He walked towards her.

"I went on a walk in that part of town taking in the scenery and didn't see you there. Are you absolutely positive you were there?" He said, his eyes narrowing to the point where he almost couldn't see. His blue hat had tilted covering the left side of his face and he brought his hand up pushing it back.

Ignoring his question, she took a better look at Charles. "Are you wearing a nightgown? It looks completely ridiculous!" she chuckled, using her hand to cover her laugh. Charles flustered greatly, not used to people seeing him in his pyjamas.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. And I will have you know that wearing silk to bed is proven to relieve stress when you sleep in it." he retorted, quite put off. Shaking his head he started again, "You're ignoring my question. Where were you?" This time he was not going to let her change the subject.

"Ok," she sighed, showing signs of giving up, "you're right, I didn't check out the jewelry stores. I-" She cut off and began looking side to side as if someone could be listening in. She began to whisper, "I wanted to figure out for myself a bit about the case."

Charles looked at her a little shocked. "You? Working on the case? You're a lady! You shouldn't be doing stuff like that, it is unconventional."

Sophia scoffed. "You're the one to speak, Charles. Look at yourself, wearing a nightgown with one of the most ridiculous hats I've ever seen. I'd say that's unconventional." She walked over to her bed and sat down. "Don't you think it's only fair if I look at things? Mind you, this is my case, my fortune lost, not yours. Who are you to care if I go out and look for clues myself?" She glanced up at Charles with a smirk, "Don't you want to know what I figured out?"

Charles looked at her with wide eyes, "Well of course I want to know!"

"Ok, so I got to market and headed towards the vegetable stand. I had paid for them, then I noticed this guy being creepy, so I kept tabs on him. That's when I found out he was following me. I think we have someone watching us." she said ominously at the end.

After telling him this and watching his face turn grim, she went to the dirty bathroom. Unbeknownst to her, she had left the door open a crack and Charles could hear when a sudden slight gasp of pain went through his ears. He quietly walked up to the door and peeked through it. He was about to turn back around when he saw a dark crimson colour in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around and shoved the door open. The sight in front of him was surprising, to say the least.

Sophia had her arm hanging above the sink, a slight gash strung across it. It didn't seem too long, but it did look as though it went deep into her skin. She didn't seem too disturbed by it and was aggressively rubbing it under the sink to get the blood off of the rest of her arm, where it had spilled. There were no tears in her eyes, in fact, she looked almost accustomed to it, as if it had happened on numerous occasions.

Charles ran into the bathroom and gingerly took her arm in his hands. Trying to ignore the butterflies that erupted in his stomach, he asked her what happened. She started to stutter saying that she just got it caught on a rusty nail that was sticking out from an old pole.

"Ok, ok, don't worry, I got you."

Sophia looked at him as if he had grown bull horns on his head. "What! I don't need help from you! Why do you care anyway?"

"I don't know why I care. I think I care about you because I-"

Sophia grew a look of confusion on her face, "You care about me? Because what? Wait, do you mean you fancy me?" She slid past him and walked into the room laughing, "Oh Charles, you always make me laugh. You like me? Ha, that is hilarious. I am way out of your league. You are being paid a great sum to figure out my case, not to fall for me."

Charles turned red and became flustered. "Me, liking you? No, that's not at all true. I mean to say I care because I want to be paid. I'm aware of the amount I am getting to solve this case. Just because you are a fancy duchess doesn't mean that you can go around doing whatever you want. Some people are trying to do their jobs here."

"Doing their job? I haven't seen you do any work lately. I'm sure that I have discovered more today than you have so far. All you have done is go around and write poems while walking around the city," She grabbed her nightclothes and headed to the washroom, "Your poems aren't bad but I'd consider doing your job instead."

She disappeared leaving Charles wordless. She read my poems! How dare she do that. He looked over to his notebook and placed it inside the nightstand. What was the nonsense about me liking her? Who in their right mind would like her. There is no way that I like her...right?

His thoughts were interrupted by Sohpia entering back into the room. She was wearing a long, white robe that was sleeveless and went down to her ankles. She didn't look at him and headed straight to her bed. "Well, I bid you goodnight Charles." She slipped into the covers and fell asleep, her arm now covered in bandages.

"Goodnight Sophia." He said softly as he too began to fall asleep. There is no way I like her...no way at all.