Chapter 7 - 7 — One step ahead

A new day dawned once again, another day to uncover the mystery behind Georgina's death. Veronica arrived to work on time. She saw Mj, Abayomi, Amari and Raymond. Mj was talking to  a man Veronica hasn't seen before, he had long lavender hair  with glowing tips, he wore a brown trench coat with beige trousers. Raymond sat by the reception table working on his computer while Abayomi and Amari watched him.

     

          "Good morning"  Veronica said, walking towards the reception table. "Good morning" Raymond said, he didn't even look up to see who greeted him; he was so engrossed in his work. "What's he up to ?" Veronica asked, "Oh well, he's looking into everything about Georgina especially about the rivals Layla told you and Jared about"  Abayomi replied. Veronica was about to ask more but was interrupted by a voice.

      

        "Ooo so this is the new comer I have been hearing about". Veronica turned around and saw the lavender haired man walking towards her along with Mj. "Good morning Vero, let me introduce to Amare Simon, he is...". Before she could finish her statement, Amare got down on one knee and held Veronica's hand. "I have come across a radiant flower, You're as beautiful as the silver moon and graceful as the swan. Your beauty is incomprehensible".  Veronica was unaffected by his words and shot him a blank look "What the hell ?"  She thought.

         "Amare ! You shouldn't be doing that, she's new here"  Abayomi said, "Isn't it a bit too early to start disgracing yourself Amare ?"  Mj asked in a sarcastic voice. "Don't be like that you two, so what do you say ? Will you  be my damsel in distress while I be your Knight in shining armor ?"  Amare asked with stars in his eyes. Veronica was unimpressed by his actions which showed through her facial expression, "Hell nah !"  Veronica said in a blunt voice. ''huh ? But why mademoiselle?" Amare asked with puppy dog eyes, "ugh, don't give me such eyes it's cringe, nah, everything you said just now is cringe, you kinda sound like an unlucky guy who just got rejected 5 times in a row" .  Her words pierced Amare in the heart, he felt so hurt that he laid on the floor and held his chest.  "Mademoiselle why ? Why say such a cruel thing ? Whoever thought a beauty could have sharp thorns"  He said in a weak voice.

       Mj and Abayomi bursted into laughter, Veronica couldn't understand why Amare reacted in such a manner and why Mj and Abayomi were laughing so much. Their laughter ceased when Diana walked in. "Good morning" they all said in unison. "Good morning, have you gotten their location ?"  Diana asked, "yes I have" Raymond said with a proud smile. "Good, anyways, three people will go to Georgina's residence to look for more leads, this is due to the information we received from Georgina's mom"  Diana said.

        "So who are the  three people that will be going ?"  Veronica asked, "that will be you, Amari and Abayomi"  Diana replied. "Where are we going to find her residence ?" Amari asked, he hasn't said a word the whole time; Diana handed him a sheet of paper. "This paper contains the details of her residence, i got the detailed from her mom"  Diana said. They carried out her instruction with immediate effect, Veronica could overhear Diana asking Mj why Amare was on the floor; the next thing she heard was Diana's laughter.

         They headed towards the garage, Amari open the garage door. They all walked towards the car and got inside, Amari started the engine and drove off. "So where are we going to find her residence anyway  ?" Veronica asked, "you'll see" Amari replied. He drove into a nearby alley which made Veronica confused. Amari murmured some words under his breath are a portal opened in front of them, Veronica was astounded. He drove into the portal and everything became blank. By the time everything became clear, Veronica saw they were no longer in their world but a different one entirely, she looked around and noticed the people outside didn't look human, most of them had horns, dragons were seen in the sky. "This is dragonia, another words the Dragon realm"  Veronica said realizing their current location.

          "You're right, you seem very conversant with this place, apparently Georgina is only known within the non-humans realm" Abayomi said. "So Amari, where are we gonna find Georgina's residence" Veronica asked. Amari explain the seeing how they were going to a certain place known as Lakewood, "according to the text Diana sent, Georgina's mom told her about a certain lady that usually assist Georgina. She said you can get more info about Georgina from her". "I see"  Veronica said. Some minutes passed and they arrived at Georgina's residence. It was a bungalow painted  blue black and red; "looks like she prefer the quiet life considering the location of the house and the fact it has a meadow beside it" Veronica said. They went inside the building, despite how beautiful the outside was the inside wasn't so great. Papers were everywhere, furniture was turned upside down, everywhere was a mess.

         "Well this not good, what the heck happened here ?" Amari said as he bent down on one knee to examine the papers on the floor. "Ahhhh" Abayomi screamed, Veronica and Amari turned to look at her, Amari's eyes wided in shock. A needle like substance pierced through Abayomi and she began to decompose, before they could even do anything, Abayomi decomposed completely. "ABAYOMI!!!" Amari cried. Veronica stood there speechless she couldn't believe what had happened before her very own eyes.

            ....

          "Well this isn't good, what in the world happened here ?" Amari said as he bent down on one knee to examine the papers on the floor. Without a second thought, Veronica grabbed Abayomi by the arm and pulled her. At that very moment, a needle like substance was short as a picture on the wall; the exact place Abayomi stood. The picture began to decompose as a fast rate living nothing but a black liquid. "That could have been Abayomi's state, it was so fast that I couldn't sense it" Amari thought. Apparently Veronica used her space-time manipulation ability to prevent Abayomi's death. "Veronica are you okay ?" Abayomi asked seeing Veronica stagger a bit "Yep, I'm okay" Veronica said "Using my ability sure does take a toll on me" She thought.

        

          "Who are you people and what do you want ?"  A voice said, the three of them turned around to see a beautiful young lady emerge from the darkness, she had short red hair, lights blue eyes and a petite stature. Her dragon tail stuck out, it had spikes all over it. She had a dark facial expression. "Bitterness and anger is written all over her face, I can see it even her eyes shows it"  Veronica thought, Amari introduced himself to the lady which made her calm down a bit. After hearing their story she became totally calm. "Oh I'm very sorry for the way I acted please take your seat and please don't mind the mess on the ground I'll be right back" The lady said.

       The three of them sat down on the couch, Veronica began to look around the sitting room, she saw many awards and trophies mostly the ones of the best author of the year and so on. "Wow looks like she really is a successful author, I've never really seen this much trophies and awards" She thought. The Dragon lady came back holding a tray which had four tea cups on it. She placed the tray on the center table, "here's some tea, you can take that while asking your question I'm ready to answer to the best of my ability". None of them took the teacups, "I believe you are miss Georgina's assistant" Amari said "yes you are correct she was my master anyway she's late now" the lady said in a melancholic tone.

       

              "Sorry but how did you know your master has passed away"  Veronica asked. The lady show them her phone to read the latest news, they were shocked to see Georgina's death as the headline. "The news has reached these world already despite the fact Georgina died in the human realm"  Veronica thought, "there are many speculations surrounding her death, most people believe that it is the humans that are the cause of her death though no one has found out the real cause of her death"  the lady said as she sipped her tea. "Mind telling us your name please" Amari stated "Claire"  She said.

             Claire answered each and every of their questions, she made mention of several threatening letters Georgina received and the times that Georgina was stalked which made her traumatized. She handed them some of the letters she had kept as well as Georgina's diary. "Normally Georgina told me to dispose of the letters but I kept them in case anything bad were to happen and they could serve as clues"  Claire said. They thanked her for her cooperation and got up to leave, at that moment Veronica remembered a question she wanted to ask. "By the way Claire, did Georgina tell anyone about her where abouts ? Like did she tell anyone she would be residing at a hotel ?" She asked "no, I was the only one that knew she would be residing at a hotel and she told me not to tell anyone so I don't believe she told her family members. That reminds me, she mentioned how she wanted to see a famous artist whom she was a fan of, apparently that was just an excuse to escape from whoever was trying to harm her, I guess that's why she didn't want anyone to know her where abouts" Claire said. Veronica pondered for a while and thanked Claire for telling her and they left.

              "So the letters are from who ?" Amari asked, by this time they had arrived in the human realm. "See for yourself"  Abayomi said handing a letter to both Veronica and Amari, "6CN6C  FC88A what's this supposed to mean now ?" Amari said visibly annoyed. "Looks like a code, more of a cipher if you ask me" Veronica said "is there any way we can decode it ?" Abayomi asked. "Well the fastest way to decode it is to know the key that was used for the code, there are tips we can use to decode it but it will be much faster if we use the exact key" Veronica said.

           They finally arrived at the hotel.  They found out that Daisuke left to attend to an urgent matter. "Welcome"   

Mj said as she cited the three of them, Amari mentioned he needed to be somewhere so he requested that Abayomi handed him the letters, Veronica pleaded with him to give her some of the letters and asked if she could keep the diary. Amari didn't seem to mind so he fulfilled her request, Abayomi left as well leaving Veronica and Mj. "So what did you guys find ?"  Mj asked "a lot of things" Veronica said. At that very moment, Veronica swiftly turned, took hold of someone and tackled the person to the ground. "Ow !" The person yelled "just give it up already, just because you tricked me twice doesn't mean you trick me the third time Jared" Veronica said.

 

         "I understand now please let me go,  you're hurting my arm"  Jared said in a weak voice. Veronica let him go and with that his stood up and dusted himself. Veronica explained all that happened when they went to the dragon's realm, "wow you guys achieved a lot, and you seem quite determined to solve this case looks like we've got ourselves a heroine" Jared  said with a slight smile across his face. Upon hearing that, veronica's mood changed, something about that word heroine didn't sit right with her. Her facial expression darkened as she turned to face Jared, her sudden dark expression sent chills down his spine. "Don't mistake me for any hero or heroine Jared, don't even call me one, I'm just doing this because one, it is my job and two, I feel somewhat sorry for the mother cause I know how it feels to lose a loved one. The term heroine doesn't fit me so please don't use such term for me"  Veronica said in a dark tone. "O.. ok"  was all Jared could utter, something about her facial expression made him feel as if a silver knife, no, a sword was put to his neck. Mj quickly hugged Veronica which made her calm down a bit; realizing what she did, she apologized to Jared.

          "Heyyy guyyys" a voice called out. The three of them turned to see Amare walking towards them. "Oh this dude, I totally forgot he's working here as well"  Veronica thought. "So as you can see some of my ingredients are finished and I was wondering if one of you could do grocery shopping with me"  Amare said, " I'll go with you, I don't really have anything to do so I'll go" Jared said, "I'll go too, I need to blow off some steam"  Veronica said. "Ah mademoiselle I'm so glad that you want to accompany me, I'm also glad that you also want to accompany me Jared. Anyways let's go"  Amare said heartily. As soon as they left the building, Veronica spotted a person by the edge of the building. A person wore a trench coat, Veronica wanted to ignore it but something urged her to talk to the stranger so she walked up to the person.

       "Hello do you need something ?''  She asked. The person was visibly startled by her approach, Veronica couldn't see the person's face because of the hat the person wore. She looked closely and saw a tail which stuck out a bit from the trench coat; it looked like a dragon tail. "Ehrm, are you also related to Georgina ? Perhaps you're here to ask about her"  Veronica stated, before she knew it, the person fled. She was about to chase after the person when she saw a paper fall out from the person's pocket which she picked. Her eyes widened with shock when she saw what was written on the paper.

    "Veronica aren't you coming ?" Jared asked walking towards her.

       "Hehe...hehe"

       "Huh ?"

     "Don't worry about me Jared, I just found something worth more than gold"  Veronica said with a satisfied smile carved on her face