Sage's Obsession

~06

As soon as I entered I noticed the heavy atmosphere as Violet stood in the threshold biting her nails in anxiety. I made the mistake of making a noise and her head snapped towards me. Her lips were pursed in disapproval and she dragged her gaze to my freshly bandaged hand. Honestly I still remembered I was mad at her.

"So, where were you?" She asked in a clipped tone with her hands on her hip. Sometimes she could be overbearing with her mommy complex. I've tried to stay grateful but nowadays everything was annoying me and she wasn't an exception to that. I dragged my hand up showing her silently where I was and I moved past her to go to my room but she stopped me mid way clutching my wrist. "I'm sorry" she softly muttered, her eyes warming with apology.

"You need to understand that your past doesn't need you, your future does. I don't want you self destructing anymore." She said, her voice cracking with emotion as she looked at me with desperation. I sighed as I took my wrist out her grasp and levelled her with a look that made her squirm uncomfortably. She knew I didn't like being coddled and these situations made me uncomfortable. I needed to limit her screen time on Pinterest. I couldn't be mad at her for long, we had been friends since childhood.

I interlocked our pinkies together promising her and smiled slightly to not hurt her feelings. I broke my silence. "I've been too caught up in the investigation, someone even died because of me." I spilled habitually what was partly bothering me, holding back the bigger issue that consumed me. If I had told her I had gotten myself involved with a murderer and got drugged on the same day she would smack the sense into me until I stopped investigating. Right now I didn't need that, this recklessness would help me to have the courage to confront the murderer.

She gasped in horror before her eyes softened in sympathy. "Still it's not like your a heartless murderer. Stop guilt tripping yourself." She reassured. My eyebrows shot up in surprise and I nearly snorted at how cheesy her reaction was, she definitely learnt that from a romcom. "Yeah, I'm just a regular murderer." I said jokingly before briefly side hugging her in gratitude.

She swatted my arm before a small smile appeared on her face. "You horrify me." She said teasingly. Now I knew that was a blatant lie, she stayed awake worried waiting for me this late. "But you still cling to me." I said smirking arrogantly, choosing my words carefully as I didn't want to throw her caring for me back in her face. She only rolled her eyes in response before yawning tiredly and stared down at my outfit with dismay.

"I didn't notice that you went to club in a decade old dress." She said scrunching her nose in disgust. It was only 1 day old, I had never owned such a plain dress before. She knew what my closet consisted off, I only had bought dresses for the Egyptian weddings I attended. She was acting like she hadn't heard me shower in so long.

"Would be weird if I went to the club covered in sparkles and glitter a day after the funeral." I said, shrugging. She just rolled her eyes like I was making excuses. Honestly I was. I just didn't feel like dressing up and hoped everyone would leave me alone if I showed up in mourning clothes.

Violet seemed to ponder for a small moment while looking at me unblinkingly before her eyes lit up. This was terrifying. "Let's binge shop for dresses for each other when we get our pay checks. I should help you get a better sense of style." She said snapping her fingers. It was honestly offending the way she was looking at me genuinely, if it was an insult I would of brushed it off.

I was about to get ready for another debate with her but her droopy eyes made me reconsider. Instead i nodded and pushed her in the direction of her room. She had come from her shift tired and it was obvious, her body muscles were tense like she was trying to hold herself up. I had to start appreciating her more. She mumbled a goodnight before dragging herself to her room.

So I proceeded to sit on the sofa alone after she left and pulled my laptop from the table on the side into my lap. I needed to research about Killian's men and dig deep to find the pattern of this potential serial killer. The victims must have something in common that they targeted them specifically for. But there was also the fact I didn't know how many victims they had. So I was only comparing two cases. This meant I needed to go to the morgue and check the pictures taken of the dead bodies but I didn't know if I was ready to see my parents in that state.

Unfortunately I couldn't ask Killian to do it for me since he would be arrested on the spot if he ever went near anything to do with the law. I'd have to keep that in mind incase I ever wanted to get rid of him later. First I needed to know who had drugged me to get a clue of who the murderer could be.

My parents were always busy for days and to spend some time with them I learned how to hack because regular hackers were wary of officers. So I decided to start easy by I trying hacking into Medusa's playhouse security system so I could see the cctv cameras. I knew it was rare for a professional serial killer to ever leave evidence behind but a slip could happen anytime. Or I hoped.

I had clearly underestimated their firewall because my arms had started to cram and my neck was aching from the shitty posture I had been in for over an hour. My sleep schedule was already messed up and I was making it worse. Honestly I was scared to fall asleep like I never particularly adored kids but watching from the sidelines as that kid suffered, hurt me from within.

Finally the current footage of Medusa's playhouse started playing on my screen. People were still sloppily drinking and swaying offbeat. I was so close to throwing my laptop away in cringe. Jeez, I hope I wasn't acting out like that otherwise I'd willingly sacrifice myself to the Jinns. I dragged my mouse to play back the footage to when I was sitting at the bar. I remembered I had left my drink unattended when reaching for my phone.

I scowled in confusion when I saw nobody had gone near my drink. I played it back slowly to see if there were any cuts to see if someone had replaced or removed the clips. I wonder if I was drugged before then? If so, when? Maybe the flower shop. Holy fuck. Was the smell not from the flowers rotting but from an intoxicating flower? I immediately took out my phone to text my employees but I had already received a message from one of them.

Ophelia had written how there was a strange smell lingering even after the rotting flowers were disposed of so she and my other employee had to close as they both were feeling flushed and feverish from it. Shit, that sounded like the angel's trumpet. I had used it before. It was known to cause confusion, dilated pupils, fever, difficulties breathing, paralysis, coma and even death. The murderer seemed to have no knowledge about flowers as I only faced minor side effects though. But did this mean I was the next victim?

A/N
To anmolpreet you have inspired the character of Violet. I miss your spitting and hitting 🫦