Studying The Star Crossed Lovers

❧Chapter 22☙

Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. 

❦❦❦

Claire could tell when her father had been doing drugs. He would stumble into her room in the early hours of the morning to tell her something. 

He would be excited and talking non stop in almost incoherent words.  His pupils would be large. He would reach up and wipe his runny nose on his sleeve. Occasionally as he spoke he would twitch before continuing one of his long rants. 

Then the next morning when Claire would go down to the kitchen she would see her father looking exhausted sitting at the kitchen bench. He would have his driver take her to school as he wouldn't trust Annie or her car. Some morning he would take them to school himself. 

When it was really bad he would yell at Claire, Annie, or anyone else in the house who got in his way. 

When Claire was younger she would rarely see her father like this but as she got older it happened more and more. 

Luckily for Claire, she wasn't often seeing her father. Her parents had begun to spend more and more of their time at the Dancy mansion while it seemed James was spending more and more of his time with Claire. 

It was regular for her to wake up next to James and go to school with him and Annie. Diane had taken great joy in decorating one of the guest rooms for James and buying him a full wardrobe of clothes. 

It was one morning when Annie, Claire, and James were on their way to school when they first seriously talked about it. 

"Do we tell someone?" Asked Annie as she looked at her friends confused.

"Who would we tell?" Replied Claire with a sigh.

"They are getting out of control. Something needs to be done to stop them."

"Are they that bad?" Asked James, joining in the conversation. 

"Dad is getting more and more violent. I'm guessing he is also getting involved in more and more illegal activity." 

"My father is too." 

"So what happens now?" Asked Annie.

"We will just have to figure out a way to stop them."

Claire couldn't sleep. Maybe she was getting too used to having James asleep next to her. Maybe she had a coffee too late in the afternoon that day. However, Claire did what she always did when she could sleep. 

It wasn't until she walked into Annie's room did she notice something different from normal. There were two bodies in the bed. 

"Who the fuck is in your bed?" Asked Claire as she flicked on the light. The people in the bed sat up and Claire stared back at a face she knew very well. "Robin?"

"Please don't tell your parents." Begged Robin clearly worried for her job.

"Aren't you nineteen?"

"No, eighteen." Corrected Robin.

"Oh, that's not bad then."

"So are you gay?" Claire asked now directing her attention to Annie.

"I'm Bi."

"Oh okay sweet, well I'll leave you to it." Said Claire as she kissed her friend on the head an walked out of the room. "Oh and Robin?" Claire popped her head back into view.

"Yeah?"

"If you hurt my friend I'll kill you. Now have fun lovebirds." Annie threw a pillow at her friend and Claire dodged before she ran away, laughing. 

James, Claire, and Annie were all having dinner together in the Dancy home. They had invited some friends over so they could spend the night and the security cameras were rolling. 

Claire's parents had left to spend the night with the Dancys. It was lining up to be a good night for the teenagers. They had the maids set up mattresses and food in the theatre so the group of friends could fall asleep watching movies. 

By five in the morning, the Whiting household was silent as the teenagers slept peacefully. Over at the Dancy Mansion, the maids were just arriving and beginning to do their job. 

Claudia Silveto had worked for the Dancys for two years. She had woken up and carefully gotten out of bed in order to let her husband sleep for a few more hours. She got herself ready for work and then made her children their lunches for their days of school. 

She had gotten in her car and arrived for work ten minutes early like she did every day. Her job was hard but it paid well so she worked with a smile. 

By two past five in the morning once all the staff had gone over the plan for the day she started her day. Her first job was to open all the curtains in the large mansion so the light could flow in and help naturally heat the house. 

She opened the doors to the lounge and a scream fell out of her mouth as she was greeted with a horrible sight. Four people lay dead in the living room. She stumbled into the room and curled over as she felt like she was about to vomit. 

One woman lay on the couch, one woman lay next to a shattered lamp that had been sitting on a knocked over side table, one man lay on the floor next to the window, and the final man was slumped over in a chair. 

There was blood in most places in the room, pools of it surrounded each of the people. Furniture was knocked over. Empty bottles and items that could only be described as drug paraphernalia were littered all around the room. 

When one of Claudia's fellow maids rushed in finally answering her screams the girl's eyes widened at the scene and she began to cry. 

"Run and get the security. Have them call the police." Shouted Claudia and the girl ran off towards the room the mansion's security team ran their operation out of. 

When the security guards arrived the walked her away from the scene. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders and a cup of tea was placed in her hands before the police even got there. 

It didn't take long before she was being questioned about how she found the bodies of Brian Dancy, Michelle Dancy, Micheal Whiting, and Diane Whiting.