Nalda sat across from her mother in the living room of Mrs Michelle. Her mother was smiling but there was a clear threat hanging in the air.
"Nalda." Her mother said.
"Yes mother?" Nalda said in the most innocent tone she could muster.
"Nalda." Her mother repeated in the same warning tone.
Jep, Nalda's screwed. She was never going to see the light again.
Mrs Michelle, the kind and amazing old woman, put a hand on her mom's shoulder. "Oh dear Soleia, please calm down." She sounded panicked, her panic only increased when she realised that she was getting ignored.
Nalda wondered why for a moment but then she remembered that her mother had a knack for burning kitchens down when she was angry. Nalda avoided her mother's eye contact and instead tried to hide underneath the table.
"Uh, mother, mama, mom, I didn't do anything wrong!" Nalda said, ducking under the table when she spoke.
Her mom was starting to have enough, she realised. "If you didn't do anything wrong, why are you hiding?"
"Mom, everyone would hide if they saw you like this…" Nalda retorted quietly. "But no, I seriously haven't gotten in any fist fights or fights at all recently."
Her mother ran a hand down her face. "We're going home now. We're finishing this discussion there." She said harshly, while standing up. She turned towards Mrs Michelle who looked very pale and went quiet. "...Do I need to call an ambulance…?" She asked hesitantly.
Mrs Michelle shook her head and collapsed on the couch. "No, a funeral would be better…." She sounded quite distant while speaking.
Both Nalda and her mother panicked.
"Nalda quick!"
"Yes, yes!" Nalda fumbled with her phone while her mother immediately went to check up on Mrs Michelle.
'Is she having a heart attack? No! No! Noooo!'
The living room door suddenly burst open and the person that came in was…
"...dad?" Nalda was about to burst into tears.
At last, the true saviour came in like a fireball. He immediately shooed Nalda's mother away and helped Mrs Michelle.
Turns out, Mrs Michelle was fine, she was just tense for a little too much and got tired. All she needed was a little bit of rest.
Nalda's mother apologised a few times and eventually even wrote an apology letter. She seemed to feel quite guilty.
On the other hand, there was Nalda's father. He didn't seem to have any particular emotion towards the situation. Though from how he came in earlier he probably had a mini heart attack earlier.
Though Nalda probably didn't have any room to talk considering what she was doing now. "Grandmaaaa…" Nalda was sitting beside the couch where Mrs Michelle was lying down. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears as she held onto the elderly woman's hand. "I'll do anything, just tell me." Mrs Michelle looked a little helpless, opening and closing her mouth.
Eventually, Nalda's father messed with Nalda's hair. "Why don't we go home and let Mrs Michelle have a good rest?"
Nalda looked up at her father and then at Mrs Michelle. "Really?" To that question she received a weak nod with a grateful smile.
Nalda sighed inwardly. Why did people always send her away when someone was tired? She was fairly certain that she could take good care of them.
Suddenly, she remembered what Mave told her a few years back when they were younger. "Wicked demon! You are stealing my life force and making me tired just by standing near my sick and tired body."
At the time, Mave had been sick to the point that she was spouting absolute nonsense. That's what Nalda had thought of that comment but with how often people told her not to go near when they were tired she believed that she needed to reevaluate that comment…
"I'll go home with you." Her father said with a smile that said 'don't worry, I'll save you' but he quickly froze when he felt his wife's glare. It caused him to quickly add something to his sentence. "Or I'll stay and take good care of Mrs Michelle and you can go home with your mother and have a good conversation between mother and daughter."
What scared Nalda was how he spoke without taking a single break.
Nalda's face turned into a look of utter despair and mouthed the word 'coward' towards her father. He just looked at his wife and shook his head. It looked like he was trying to say that fighting was pointless and that he had already given up.
Nalda stood up from Mrs Michelle's side and followed her mother out as if she was being dragged to the slaughter house. It wasn't much different to be honest.
An angry Soleia Masson was definitely not something you wanted to deal with. Nalda thought that Mave definitely took her mother's angry character.
She already gave up on herself while entering her own house. She'll never ever see the sun or the blue sky.
***
Mave returned home late. She had a lot of complicated feelings about what happened.
She felt like everything was moving too quickly. It was to the point that it was overwhelming.
The murder case her little sister got involved in was partially neglected and then suddenly they were trying to fill in for Winter's absence. It hasn't even been a week, she wondered if Winter's family ever got any compensation.
Well, Mave wasn't sure if Winter even had a family. She used to do everything but anything related to family and never did she explain why.
She thought back of her first time meeting Winter Treewell. It had been a time before the deceased woman became famous and was just a regular employee.
"HAHAHAHAHA-" Winter was laughing so much she fell off of her chair. "No way, you didn't!" She had literal tears in her eyes. "H- how many feathers did- did you get at least?" Mave showed her the white feathers in her hands. "One, two, three- pfft-" she burst out laughing again as if she found the best thing in the world.
Mave didn't know how to respond but then Winter reached out and patted her shoulder. "Alright, alright, you're definitely part of the team now. Pulling off that chicken's little side wings isn't something just anyone can do, well done." She sounded delighted.
Mave just slowly nodded. "Are you going to help me now?"
Winter suddenly turned serious and coughed in her fisted hand. "How about next time?"
"That's what you said last week."
Thinking back about it made her think that she might've been scammed a few times back then. She'll have to get 'compensation' for that.
With a deep sigh Mave entered the house. Nalda was probably already home and considering her current situation, she wouldn't be surprised if she found Nalda in a kitchen cabinet.
The only thing she didn't expect to see was Nalda getting scolded over something. No actually, it should've been the norm but Nalda always got a certain privilege as the youngest.
The most surprising part was that her mother was suddenly there. "Mom? When did you even come-" before Mave could even question it, the front door opened again and her father stepped inside, looking around wearily. "Dad too?"
Her mother suddenly turned towards her. "Mave, why did you take your father's habit of not answering phone calls?" Her father froze where he was standing and threw a weak smile in his wife's direction.
Mave was about to retort with the fact that she always responded to phone calls but then she remembered that she has been in meetings from the afternoon until now. Her head was starting to throb from all the stuff she was dealing with today.
Mave shrugged and spoke. "I was very busy. I have other questions though…"
She looked at Nalda who looked like she had just heard that she'd get executed tomorrow.
Her mother understood what she was trying to say. "I spoke with her for a while. She got herself in quite some trouble after all."
''Quite some trouble' is an understatement. We haven't even found out who this serial killer is. Though to be fair, if the company actually had the intention to catch that fellow then they wouldn't be able to outrun them. I can't even properly investigate either considering the mountain of work I already have and will be getting.'
"Mave! Save me!" Nalda suddenly realised that Mave was home.
Mave looked at her pitiful sister. "No. Figure it out on your own." Before she could get dragged into this mess, Mave left to go to her room. She wasn't going to sleep or anything, in fact, she was actually planning on going through every bit of data to try and figure something out about the serial killer.
She'll probably have a sleepless night but if she could somehow ensure that the serial killer would be caught as soon as possible then she was fine with it.
When she got to her room, she immediately opened her laptop and started working again. She was reading up on other reports regarding the serial killer.
Someone is a serial killer once they kill two or more people while leaving a certain amount of time in between the murders. That was the definition but people tended to think of something much grander when they hear of a serial killer.
Mave was certain that her little sister was terrified when she heard that the murderer was actually a serial killer. She remembered how pale Nalda went back then.
Mave would've explained it properly, if she wasn't hesitant on bringing up the subject. In fact, the reason why she even suggested watching a movie with Nalda on Wednesday was because she wanted to explain what came out of the investigation.
It failed in the end because Nalda looked like she had seen a ghost. That's why Mave even began nagging in the first place.
Seeing her own sister's condition deteriorate left a sour taste in her mouth. It made her feel resentful for everyone who was lazing around in the company instead of figuring things out. They were always like this.
Mave wasn't sure what she would do to the company if she lost her sister because of their lack of effort. Probably nothing good.
She was shaken out of her thoughts when she heard a sound coming from her laptop. It was a message from the company group that barely anyone used.
The message read was simple but it made the hairs on Mave's hair stand up.
––––––––––––––––––––––––
Groep chat for the depraved
Roscoe Vance (work)
Akili.
Don't do anything stupid.
I'd hate to fire you over
something small and
irrational.
;-)
(Think about what your
sister would think if you
did something stupid)
––––––––––––––––––––––––
Of all people he just had to send a message the moment she was thinking of burning down that hateful company. Stupid chicken, even using her little sister to threaten her.
Mave sighed and shook the feelings she felt off. He always did stuff like this on purpose to rile her up. She wasn't sure why he even liked pissing her off but oh well, it was none of her business.
She finally got to the actual task at hand, her personal investigation on the serial killer. She needed to at least do something for now.
She opened the first file on her laptop and began to read it. There were actually quite a few clues and that was the problem. There were far too many clues that pointed in every direction.
That's why the first hypothesis was that the serial killer had a gift or curse that allowed them to confuse others. Recently thought it was proven wrong as Aurelia personally confirmed that the serial killer could turn invisible while looking through Nalda's memories.
'Now that I think about it, why did it even take them so long to figure this out when they did so well in the first case?'
The first file was filled with information. There were a lot of side notes.
With a frown Mave looked at the next file and immediately understood what happened. The file was almost completely empty and the investigation had been postponed.
Mave sighed and looked at the third file. This was the most recent case, Winter Treewell's case. This one had more information.
Her eyes briefly lingered on the mention of Nalda being a suspect. That was absolute nonsense and she'd very much like to punch the person who wrote it to get them back to their senses.
Other than that there wasn't much new information. She had already heard most of it directly from Himi, Paige and Aurelia.
That meant that she needed to make her own conclusions now. The first thing she thought of was the possibility that it was multiple people who were a part of this. There wasn't just one serial killer but at the very least two. Otherwise, Mave wouldn't be able to explain how a random serial killer had two abilities without Roscoe knowing.
Having two abilities is highly unlikely and those kinds of things don't escape that chicken's eyes. He was all about efficiency and profit, people with two abilities were profitable and needed to be watched just in case something happens. He didn't necessarily care about these people, he only cared about the advantages they bring.
In conclusion, there are most likely two or more serial killers. That means that there's at least double the amount of work! Yay, Mave is ecstatic.
Mave powered her laptop off and stood up. She went downstairs and took her jacket. Her father gave her a look. "Work again? Well just get home safely and ask if you ever need help." Her father said before turning back to a book he was reading.
Mave didn't reply because she didn't see a point in replying. He wasn't even paying attention anymore.
She left through the front door and finally began the true investigation. She'll have a lot of work from now on.