Richardson

CHAPTER 20

-PRICE WILLIAMS' POINT OF VIEW-

In this place of loving words, where the earth welcomes back her own, I find a tranquility, a sense of connection to those I have passed on. It is a place to feel that expansive universal love cementing in bones. Cemetery is place for soulful reflection, to hear the emotions with a clarity that comes with such quiet. We were sailors on a stormy sea, each blaming the other for the wind. A pile of brown frosted-like leaves, the innumerable flashing fragments shine in the brilliant sunny light, for today there is no weather; no wind, no cloud, just normal warm temperatures. Even the leaf stems lie brown and sharp. Ahead the path glistens like silver quartz, yet silver lining on weary concrete is all it is. All this beauty over everything dead. And here I am to add to it with a bunch of pink roses in my gloved hand. I pause, my breath rising in visible puffs, then I remember why I came. I need to talk to her and this is the only way. The proximity to her frigid bones and the gift of flowers will close the gap between us for a moment, and in that brief window of time I will feel her love again.

"hey!" I utter as I place the flowers over her tombstone.

"I brought you roses, pink ones. Isn't these your favorite?" I chuckles as I continue to talk as if she was in front of me, breathing.

-FLASHBACK-

(3 years ago)

"Hey! Let's go! We need to come quick hermana, mama and papa would be joining us for dinner. We don't have much time to roamed around" I hissed as I saw her talking over the flower outside of a Pastry Shop.

"These flowers that grow where I dwell, these tenacious blossoms of the town streets, born to take whatever comes their way and make beauty of it, I admire them. It is as if they call for some trees to accompany them, to make the streets brighter, to refresh the air that we breathe. There are times I feel that they are nature's graffiti, that chaotic rebellious element cheering us on." She speaks loudly

"Really? Managing to be poetic at this point of time?" I sarcastically asked while putting the sweets we bought in the car

"hush down brother, mama and papa would be quite late due to weather. So don't worry" she giggles and go straight towards the car.

"You two! What took you so long! I'm bored here you know?" Gray murmurs as we both reach our seats

"Lycko was fantasizing flowers again" I stated and started to drive, focusing my attention to the road.

"Do you want me to send you flowers? What is your favorite? Daffodils? Dahlias? Tulips? Sunflower?" Gray said with a teasing voice

"Really? How can you be my brother? Seriously? You are our twin brother yet you don't know my favorite! Unbelievable" She hissed with irritation and rolled her eyes

"Just kidding! I know it's pink roses. I'm just messing up with you" Gray convincingly utters.

It's only a matter of time with teasing and laughing until we arrive to our home.

Sol y Luna

The flowers lie on the table, their once beautiful petals curling at the edges from the summer heat, already their stalks are limp and she pick them up, their heads fall with gravity towards the table.

"Holy Crap!" she inwardly cursed. "maids should have put them in the vase the minute they picked it from my garden." She sadly stated

"it's nonsense, called Jeffrey to put 'em on the vases" Gray utter as he rang the bell calling his butler.

"Is there something you want sir?" Jeffrey said as he enters the hall

"Yep! I wanted you to put that flores on the vase" Gray utters as he lit his cigar

"Okay, sir" his butler quickly does what he says and we continue to prepare for the dinner.

Out of boredom I took a glance towards the walls. The art on the wall is beautiful in its corporate way. The flowers are white and the yellow nectar looks sweet. The petals fan widely over the canvas and sometimes when someone pass it they can almost detect a fragrance.

I've moved around a lot, from coast to coast, but wherever I go the picture goes too. It reminds me of her, always. It reminds me of how she loves flower, how she adores and how she wanted to have one.

It's always been hers.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"Hey! I accidentally imagined your face, when Chase gives you a flower for the first time! It's ridiculous!" I exclaimed with a soft laugh as I continue to reminisce things.

-FLASHBACK-

(3 years ago)

"Hey Gray, where is Jeffrey?" Lycko interrupts our session with a sad and dismay face.

"hmm… why is there anything wrong with your garden?" Gray worriedly ask.

"Nah! it's just that… N-Nevermind!" She seems so anxious about something, her eyes were as deep as the night that doesn't have any stars to give light.

"Hey! What's the matter? We know you that well you can't hide" I ask while I took a glance on Gray to send my signal that we should accompany our sister to the mansion, he nods in return and we decided to walk with her passing through her garden.

Without any minute, she reached something from the table sadly, it was golden petals that blooms confidently throughout the ray of the sun.

"Sunflower? What's wrong? It's beautiful" Gray stated as he held the flowers and observe it. "Who send you this flowers?"

"Knight Drain send it to me" she simply answer

"so this is the reason why you're sad? Does it?" I ask her teasingly. A part of me wants to laugh hard and half of it wanted to hissed towards Chase' face for not recognizing what my sister's favorite flower.

"Not at all, it's just that I already told him my favorite flower yet he can't give me one" she sadly stated

"then send it back to him" Gray proudly suggested his idea

"No, I told him I like it" she hissed that makes Gray and I burst out laughing like idiots. "Hey! Stop making fun of me!" She hissed

"Why'd you lie?" I asked her as I finally recovered from laughing.

"I didn't lie at all! I appreciated his efforts, it's just that I don't want him to feel bad because of a little mistake" she added as she took a deepest breath and sat on the swing.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"You love that Idiot that much huh!" I hissed as I suddenly noticed tears starting to flow on my face. "You love him more than yourself, you even sacrifice yours" I utter bitterly

"I messed up big time Angelycko! I couldn't manage to guide you, to protect you. I rely myself on you because I can't fight well. Because I am a nerd who only hides myself over those stupid books" I hissed as I continue to cry.

Those painful memories are like books with chapters, deep and horrible; and so I always deciding to leave them on the shelf to gather dust. I can pick them up if I need to learn something, to gain a perspective that helps me to create my own good story yet I couldn't, I am too coward to face the reality. I can use them to re-see situations through the lens of needs and traumas.

I want to choose what to write on those blank pages.

…

"I don't realize how quickly everything can fall apart until it does. It makes us never want to give up anything good ever again yet I can't recognize what is good on everything." I manage to talk as if I am reflecting and evaluating my whole life.

"I never planned that one day I'd be losing you."

"Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through or feel we've had enough time. I hope that the world turns and things get better. I hope that everyone may understand how this fucking world revolved, I never meet you again. Laugh with you, cry with you or kiss you… I love you. With all my heart I love you…" I stated as I burst all my anger, despair and sadness out of my chest.

"I really messed up" I hissed

"Yeah big time!"

I immediately look towards the direction of the man who spoke.

"You heard everything didn't you?" I asked him coldly

"hmm Kinda!" He playfully stated as he handed a flower on her grave.

"Tss! Get lost! What do you want?" I hissed. I can't manage having friend like him. He was the reason why my sister was lying on this stupid yard.

"Sorry for the indecent interruption but we need to start investigating now. Someone put a box full of dead and bloated rats and a syringe on the quarter's door after everyone leave" He stated formally as he straightly walk on my direction and handed me his hand.

"Fine! Just don't messed with me" I stood up and walk towards my car without looking in his eyes.

I drive quietly keeping my temper low and convincing myself to calm down. A part of me want to kill Knight Drain yet a part of me having a hope that Knight Drain has something to explain or something and I hate myself for having that kind of shitty hope.

…

Arriving the place, Gray opened the door and lead us to the way where the box is located, after a few walks we saw Knight Lock looking on the contents.

"Any idea who send that?" I asked him but he automatically show gestures that he don't know who is behind all of this.

"Pendelton receives it." he simply stated

"I don't have any idea who's behind this. The alarm suddenly turns on, then as I go straightly to the door, then there's a shadow and when I opened it he ran away and leave that thing alone." Drain stated as he handed us gloves

"Price, did you think we can use this syringe to get any lead?" Gray utters as he grabs the syringe and put it on the tray.

"Yeah! It is possible, but what about the rats?" I asked

"We should open each rats" Knight Lock stated, grabbing the scalpel he automatically slices wide open each rats yet instead of getting any lead we just saw how the organs and bloods came out

"There's nothing! So it is clear that this thing was the only way we have to get that bastard" Lock said while pointing on the tray locating the syringe.

"No! what if it's a puzzle" Gray stated while observing the rat's organ.

Something Strange.

It looks familiar

-FLASHBACK-

"My God! Lycko! why do we have rats! It's gross!" I exclaimed as I saw rats on our laboratory for the first time.

"Are you crazy? Seriously? Stop being a girl! It is a laboratory rats okay!" she stated as she tries to make me calm.

"I know but fuck! Are you kidding me?" I hissed as I move away myself on her

"Seriously! rats have long served as research animal models due to their anatomical, physiological, and genetic similarity to humans. Advantages of rodents include their small size, ease of maintenance, short life cycle, and abundant genetic resources." She explained

"Fine! Alright! But why do we need rats? What are we going to do?" I asked her and she smiled creepily.

"We will try different substances and see what happened on them" she said and started to inject liquids.

The rats started to die in pain as she continues to do what type of activity she wants.

"Amazingly! Look at this rat it's bloated! What happened" I asked with so much excitement on my voice

"I just inject potassium"

-END OF FLSHBACK-

"PRICE WILLIAMS!"

"I'm sorry, what?" I stated as my senses comes back

"are you even listening? I said I'll check the syringe and you go get the rats and dispose it with chemicals! Jesus Christ!" Gray stated with an irritated voice

"What? No we can't dispose the rats" I hissed and go straight forward to grab another gloves to double the gloves I used to wear.

"Bloated heart, blocked veins, destroyed arteries" I spoke as I check each rats if they were the same.

"what" Lock ask

Potassium.

"no injection marks?" I hissed as I continue to find certain spots

Gotcha!

"Clever but not so clever" I stated "no need to test that thing it's potassium" I said pointing on the bag where gray puts the tray containing the syringe.

"How can you be so smart?" Gray hissed as he walks towards on my direction.

"I just, got something in my mind that's all" I said while grabbing the equipment for gathering fingerprints.

"Are you sure that you can get a fingerprint from this?" Gray asks as he removes the syringe out from zip lock bag.

"I don't know but I have to try, I can't mess up again" I said as I convince my trembling system to calm down.

"Price what's happening? Are you okay?" Gray asks me as he hold my arm "you're trembling" he added

"I-I'm fine!" I hissed as I took a deep breath

"Focus!"

"Okay Focus!"

-FLASHBACK-

"Okay focus! Each fingerprint pattern is unique to a specific person, and therefore a very reliable way of identifying a suspect. There are different types of fingerprints that can be left behind" She explains as she continues to circling the victims

"Yeah, an imprint in a soft surface, such as wax or soap, a patent fingerprint, visible to the naked eye, such as those resulting from dirty hands and latent fingerprints, which are invisible." I enumerate nervously

"Are you terrified?" she asks me while preparing the equipment.

She changed.

She's not anymore my little sister.

The way she walks, talks and even act.

"A little bit, did Gray know this stuffs?" I ask as I helped her to lift the equipment.

"fortunately yes, he already knows everything" she simply said and manage to give me a weak smile

"Sorry! I'm late!" Gray shouted as he enters the laboratory "Did I missed something" he playfully asked

"Missed your ass bastard!" Lycko hissed as she looks sharply towards Gray

"Easy now little sister, I need to go on a conference with my boys" he explained and wear some laboratory suits.

"Is it your boys or talk to a so-called chick privately and have sex?" Lycko sarcastically said greeted her teeth towards Gray

"wait? Gray has a girlfriend?" I ask with confusion in my face

"Girlfriend his ass!! That girl name Alice Richardson is just our brother's side chick!" Lycko sarcastically stated

"Alice Richardson?" I repeated "Is she beautiful?" I added

"none of your business my dear brother" Gray said teasingly go towards our direction.

"Oh! Really? None of Price' business or it's just that you're threatened that probably your Alice might choose Price over you?" Lycko teasingly hissed

"You know what! Your rude! Tsk! I guess no one will admire you, sister! Your too harsh" Gray teasingly fight back

"I don't care if no one likes me either admires me. I wasn't created in this world to entertain everyone." Lycko simply said as I sense tension between this two

"H-Hey can we continue now?" I butted in

"Alright! Where do you guys stop?" Gray asks me

"On the invisible fingerprints" I said as I continue to observe the things in front of us and also the lifeless bodies.

"Okay! To make them visible, we have to find a way to detect one of these substances present in the invisible fingerprint. The easiest method is what we called dusting, in which we use a very fine powder that can stick to the oil in the fingerprint. Once the fingerprint becomes visible, we can lift it from the surface with clear tape and transfer it to another surface to then take into that part of the laboratory to analyze further." He asks while pointing to the left wing of our laboratory after demonstrating how the procedures work in real time.

"Fingerprints are most easily detected on smooth, non-textured dry surfaces. The rougher or more porous the material the more difficult it will be to get good fingerprint evidence. Another factor is the skin condition of your fingertips. If they are very sweaty and oily, you are more likely to leave behind prints than if they are dry and clean." Lycko added as they continue teaching me those stuffs.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"Price!" Lock said

"hey! Man what's happening?" Gray utters

"You look so terrified" Pendelton stated

"W-what happened?" I asked as I manage to bring back my senses. My head aches as if I was beaten by a madman.

"N-Nothing it's just that my head hurts for a moment" I stated

"Fine! Let me do that for you, just sit there on the couch or grab some ice from fridge" Gray utters worriedly

I wonder why I kept on reminiscing things that I didn't want to remember. I am not hallucinating I can hundred percent guarantee because all those memories are true!

Am I ill?

Fuck.

"Excuse me for I have to take this call" Lock stated and answered his phone.

"Hmm unusual phone calls" Gray murmurs as he continues to gather information.

"Do Knight-Lock have a girlfriend?" Pendelton asked Gray

"Impossible! He's too obsess with his coffee!" Gray teasingly said

"Idiots! Sorry to disappoint you guys but we have to move! My boy Peterson called, someone named Alice Richardson breaks in my shop having potassium in her pocket" He said after he ended up the call

Alice Richardson?

RICHARDSON…