She didn't think Sameul, the sweet guy, was a Dolv. But then why would the Dolv be the maroon guy? Shouldn't he hate the organization?
Orion dropped to the ground, clenching the grass and gritting his teeth. His body trembled with rage.
"The murderer escaped from my hands at my very home."
Now he had hunger for more. He had a hunger to catch the murderer.
******************************************************
Orion stared at the ground, waiting for her response. What followed was a brief silence. A silence that made him even more desperate.
"Wren." He muttered and turned his head back towards her. "Don't hide things from me. Tell me."
She gulped and shook her head. "You are getting too hard on yourself! I-I promise, I promise I'll tell you everything. But first let's head inside and maybe have some dinner." She stared at his frail figure on the ground as she spoke, worried if she needed to support him standing up.
Her desperate tone made his face darken. Her continuous persuasions almost angered him. She was going too far, meddling in his business. He knew she cared about him but...
"You are worried about my safety. I am worried about the people's safety."
She wanted to argue about how he had already confirmed it was no serial killer to be afraid of. She wanted to argue that caring for the person that is trying to save many is as important. She had a lot to argue. She knew his pressures, his promise to her, his struggle since childhood, his gifted intelligence that she could never compete with, never help him. She had never been an actual help in reality but maybe just a burden...? All she could at least try was care for him, help him remember things he forgot, help her only brother... She wanted to burst out all these feelings. But she didn't.
She kept silent. Looked at him. Took a deep breath. Learned to understand him.
"Let's go to your study immediately so you can start your work. I'll explain everything there. I'll bring the food up there so you can do things by your convenience. Just try to understand me..." Her voice faded into a whisper in the last words as she looked away. "Just I hope you understand...what I am trying to say." She rephrased her words.
He nodded. The night silenced with the acceptance.
She took him up the stairs where he looked at the mess of paperwork he had left on his table that morning. A weird feeling surged over him.
She explained him everything. The two visits. The conversations. The reactions.
"The Red Scorpion wouldn't easily reveal themselves in broad daylight. But then, they are a secret. A secret nobody knows except their targets. If the first visitor was an agent, it would make sense if he was fascinated by your reaction at seeing him. As if you know something. A reaction that no one gave to the outfit, ignoring it like something usual unlike you. Your face is really expressive sometimes, you know, Wren?"
"So, what do you say? Was he the murderer or not? The Dolv?"
"The Dolv is against the Red Scorpion. There is no sense why he should try finding people that may be associated with the organization by acting as them. But then, surging in and forcing for answers, quite unprofessional. Oh, I haven't told you something right. The two victims. The one that was first discovered by the tree, the one who looked like a worker, was a disguise. He had soft hands for a worker. So, he was a agent in disguise. But the agent died and there were no points that showed harm. Poison intake. Poison was found that had slowly killed his with time. His death was planned, planned really professionally, by none other than the Red Scorpion. Strange how they killed off their own member and made it look like a victim of one single killer."
He took a mouthful of food then chewed it while his sister looked at him with drowsy eyes. He felt she had understood nothing.
He chose to summarize for her.
"So, basically the Dolv killed the whipped victim and the RS agent killed the victim by the tree. And the Dolv that came here today might be your Sameul. You said long, messy tied hair, didn't you? Really wild for a disciplined organization. So that leaves the maroon guy. If you don't see him again, then he must be a bad agent that was killed off. Ok, you can go and sleep."
He let out a long, exhausted sigh. He waited for her response. Nothing came. He looked at her. She had dozed off sitting on his bed. He rolled his eyes but smiled to himself. He walked over to her, made her lie down and covered her with a blanket. He patted his little sister's head, the one who had believed in him forever. He smiled warmly then after one final look, he went back to his table.
He spread out the newspapers with articles of the journalist Tyler. He needed to know what made him get taken away. Was it the case of his parents? He had checked the years old newspapers of their time and found some secret codes between the news like bolding certain letters or intentionally left typos. He had believed that was the reason his parents were targeted. And now, he believed that it was the same with Tyler.
"Bingo!" He whispered to himself with excitement.
Tyler had played with the headings. Leaving two letters unbold among the bold heading letters in his every weekly article. Two letters at a time. He was certainly cautious about the things he knew.
[The King Releases a New Article.
The Regular Landslides Near The Bridge To The Capital.
Waterlogging in the Southern Towns Increasing.
and so on]
He tried to read.
"Rsiswatchingmorenow."
He smiled. "RS is watching more now."
He flipped through the next group.
"Privacygoneforsecurity."
He chuckled. He realized the sentences became readable once you organized the papers in groups.
It was challenging, however, as they were grouped randomly sometimes. "Privacy gone for security."
The next codes were strange.
"Donotcomeasher."
"Shit."
Orion frowned at the final code. "Shit?"
Organizing and decoding took a lot of time. He went to sleep late. He actually forgot to sleep. His body gave up at last and made him sleep on his table. His destructive sleeping habits made him wake up late, leading him to start the next day's work really late, much to his annoyance.
Wren had woken up very early. It was almost dawn. She stretched her legs and blinked her eyes.
Wait. Did I sleep here? Then Orion-
She looked at her brother who had fallen asleep working. She felt guilty for taking his bed. She didn't wake him and tip-toed to the door. She opened it while pausing every second, trying to silence the low screeching sound. Finally, out at the corridor, she went to her room. She walked inside and went to open the windows. She stopped. A chit was stuck between the little space of the window. She didn't take it in at once but looked around to see if someone was observing her. None. It was good that there was light outside. The paper was moist. She frowned.
Wet? By the night's dew. They must've left it in the dark.
She opened the note and gave out a inaudible gasp.
LIAR
"When did I lie? What did I lie?" She asked herself with panic, trying to remember yesterday's events. She couldn't. She could only tell one thing now.
This is going to stress me out the whole day. Unless I remember, of course.
Her fingers ran through her hair, massaging her scalp slowly, trying to calm down. 'Unless I remember', she scoffed. She knew she won't. After all, what's more unpredictable than your memory; forgetting the things you just did and remembering things out of the most unrelated situations ever.
"I need water."