"WATCH OUT FOR SATAN!"

She speedily raced towards the kitchen and practically let the entire tank fall into her hands, water splashing onto the ground. Almost instantly she whirled around, leaving the poor turtle ramming into the side of the glass, and ducked as the sword flashed above her head. She glared at the troll and managed to toss the tank back onto it's already wobbly shelf, and made a run for the living room.

"I don't mind you trying to kill me and all, but please, have some respect for the small reptiles," she advised, standing straight for a moment. She couldn't even see the person's reaction before they violently grabbed for the nearest lamp and tried to throw it directly in her face.

"Okay maybe I do mind," she grumbled dryly.

She managed to dodge the lamp swiftly, her robe flying in the air, and within moments had grabbed the troll's hair and yanked it towards the ground. He went flailing down to the floor, yelping at the pain.

She was so caught up with this strange intruder she didn't even notice the phone practically vibrating on the table in the kitchen, only the fact he had leaped to his feet again, angry. She dodged a quick punch to the face before scrambling to the front foyer of the home. He came back at her, grabbing whatever she could find to defend herself. Apparently the first object she could find was a small skull sitting on the coffee table before her. She hoisted it above her head, threateningly, and attempted to throw it back at him. He avoided the blow to the head, countering by trying to use his sword to pin her to the couch. Struggling, she pushed against the weapon and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying back.

In a last act, she grabbed the lamp he had thrown earlier and swiftly whacked him in the back of the head, holding only the stem of it, and watched as he fell unconscious to the ground.

She shot the troll one more glare before shaking her head and reaching for his own weapon.

"Moron."

It was about now when she had finally heard the buzzing of the phone.

She groaned and promptly stepped over a small coffee table to reach it.

"Hello?"

"Do we need milk?"

***

"So the glass just... cracked?"

She rubbed her thumb over the small, but sure, hole of the glass tank. She frowned and turned back to Lilith. The turtle stared back at her from within it's broken little shelter. Possibly very traumatized. Poor Satan.

"Yes." The answer was slightly annoyed and exhausted. She sounded as though she had just woken up. Jade sighed and looked back into the living room, where Lilith Holmes was sprawled on the couch like a small child, her legs dangling over the sides. It was nearly noon and she still wore that silk robe, spilling down over the sides of the flaky old couch.

"Got any more cases for this week?" Jade asked as she set her bags down on the kitchen table. She gave the overflowing tubes of chemicals and liquid a dirty look. She wanted to ask about the small puddle of water on the floor before the tank, but decided against it.

"Nope."

"So why did the turtle nearly get a beating?"

Okay maybe she decided for it.

Lilith only now decided to glance up from her unknown universe in her mind. Her eyes rolled over to Jade, who stood in the kitchen and kept looking back and forth between the tank and her as though she was trying to figure out the puzzle for herself. She groaned.

"You really do ask too many questions," she remarked once again. She didn't see Jade roll her eyes and step out of view in the kitchen. The detective's eyes darted over towards her phone on the table. She smiled.

"Come on, let's go." As though she was never laying on the couch like an utter baby, Lilith suddenly shot up, marched towards the phone, and yanked her coat from it's hanger beside the front door. She was so quick, Jade nearly spilled her glass of water.

"Go where? You just said you don't have any cases."

"Yeah, well, I lie sometimes," Lilith quipped back. She grinned and waved her phone in the air in front of Jades's questioning face. "When you were calling me. There was an eleven second gap between each redial. Only, between them, there was a notification, so it wasn't you. Averagely hard to notice between the calls. You couldn't have sent it since you were busy calling me. Everything else on my phone is on silent except for my emails. And nobody emails me unless they have a case."

Jade chuckled faintly, staring back at Lilith. "Do you even know what the case is?"

"I haven't had one in a whole five days, I don't even care what it is at this point."

"Yeah, five days ago I shot a man. Five days ago you nearly died." She didn't know why she was saying this.

"And your point?"

"I'll grab my jacket."

***

At first it was rather odd, at least, for Jade, that they had arrived at some unknown but incredibly large building right in the middle of nowhere. The cabbie arrived on the street and gave a silent nod to the girls as they paid and left the vehicle. Lilith's hair was dancing through the wind at a remarkable pace, but Jade decided not to mention it.

"Where are we?" Jade asked, staring straight up at the perfectly white building. It flourished up into the air and through the trees. She couldn't even see where it ended, where the marble walls came to an end and the roof was actually visible.

Lilith huffed and slid her mittens on. "You'll find out once we walk in."

And yes, Jade did find out once they stepped foot into the building and came face to face with a stenching aroma and parade of colours flying at their faces.

The smell was nearly enough to cause Jade to leave. It filled all their noses, although she seemed to be the only one affected. Or the only one who cared to be affected, give or take. She wanted to recognize it, really she did, but she couldn't even begin to describe it to herself. She had no idea what the hell she was inhaling, and it slightly startled her.

She could honestly have been inhaling toxins and she wouldn't know it.

And then there were the colours. Oh, the bright, glorious colours of the works of art piling onto the walls of the room. Velvet ropes held them back from entering. Trolls were surrounding the artworks, all standing around in groups like school children on a field trip. Out of the corner of her eye, Jade could see several trolls in black suits standing with their backs against the walls and eyes roaming the area. They were at an art gallery.

"Why are we here?" Jade asked, eyeing Lilith with eyes that could only come out with displeasure.

But she didn't get an answer. She didn't even know if the girl had heard her. She watched as Lilith's glassy eyes drifted across the room, skipping in their own world. For a moment, she thought Lilith was distracted. She recalled the last five days of knowing her, and realized she had never seen her so spaced before. It was odd.

"Lilith?"

"Hm?"

"Why are we here?" Her voice grew more and more annoyed.

"Considering I literally said we have a case ten minutes ago and we're now standing at a perfectly reasonable destination for a crime to occur, that's a fairly stupid question to be asking," Lilith replied coldly. She no longer looked dazed. Jade wished she was.

"Would it be stupid to ask who called you here?" Jade asked questionably. Lilith smirked in reply.

"Probably."

Trying their best to ignore the absolutely disgusting stench taking over the building, the girls began to walk according to the paths led by ropes. It felt as though they were celebrities walking down a red carpet. The room was decorated in elegance, surrounded by people of importance. Jade felt incredibly out of place in a building such as this.

Once they found themselves standing at the end of the path, face to face with a man dressed in complete back, they stopped. The six hands of the three trolls all stayed behind their backs.

"I'm here for Miss Harper," Lilith began in a lifeless voice. "She asked for me."

The man, his hair as sleek as ever, only shot them a small glare. "She's waiting for you in her office. Follow me."

So they did just that.

And just like the first floor of the building, the other 16 were as sophisticated and posh.

Jade truly wondered if the queen or king had rested foot on these marble floors.

Miss Harper's office was on the very top floor. Climbing high into the top of the treetops outside and miles above ground. And despite how amazingly glorious the visit had begun, Lilith didn't faze at all. It was pure business, and Jade knew that.

Still, it was hard to not stop and admire the priceless pieces of art which they passed the entire way up.

"Miss Harper's that billionaire art collector from the news." Jade spoke quietly to Lilith once the man had left and both girls were standing side by side before Harper's office door. "So why does she need your help?"

"Urgent matter, she said," Lilith shrugged. She glanced down at her companion. "And don't ask what. I don't have all the answers you know."

Jade grinned foolishly. "That's an ambitious sentence coming from your mouth."

"So is about 88% of everything I say," Lilith reminded, smiling. Jade shook her head and lifted her hand to knock on the door of their new mystery.

When the door opened, automatically, Jade and Lilith came face to face with a splash of colour sitting across the room behind a desk. In the form of Miss Harper.

"Miss Holmes!" Her voice was naturally thrilling. The moment she opened her mouth and let the words pour out, Jade knew one thing was for certain. She was the type of person who did not belong sitting behind a desk like she was now. She didn't say a word about it, though. "Thank you for coming, and on such short notice."

"Oh, I wouldn't miss it for the world," Lilith replied in a forceful similar tone. Jade had to resort from snorting. Lilith's voice could never be so fulfilled without sarcasm. With her hands behind her back, she watched as Harper decided not to care about Lilith's extremely noticeable rudeness.

"And Dr. Watson," she continued, nodding curtly at Jade. "I'm glad you could make it as well. I've heard a little about you, you know."

Almost instantly Jade's faded yellow ears shot up. "Oh?"

"Of course-"

"Yes, and while you're at it, why don't you pull up a cup of tea and discuss childhood stories?" Lilith snapped, rather harshly, at the two of them. She sighed rather dramatically and sat on one of the two chairs before Harper's desk. "You know her, and you know her. Now can we please get onto the oh-so urgent matter you wanted me to attend to?" She narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Oh, and happy anniversary. I see your partner's given you that necklace within the past 24 hours. Cheap, bought it for under 12 pounds. You can tell it was poorly packaged just by looking at it, although he isn't an unwealthy man himself. And it's a big anniversary too. Might want to consider breakup."

Harper's eyes went shallow. For a moment there, she seemed almost crossed with Lilith. Which was totally understandable. Jade managed to shoot Lilith a small but quick glare, as though she was a mother scolding her kid. "Lilith."

"Sorry. Anyways carry on."

Harper's eyes went whimsy for a short moment, but then she looked normal again within seconds. Jade noticed how her hair don bleaks and splashes of all sorts of colours. Her outfit only showed the opposite to her remarkable hairstyle. Her eyes drew seriousness as she began to explain the situation. "You probably have been smelling something rather disturbing while you two were downstairs."

"Yes... rather hard to not notice," Jade admitted slowly.

"It's chemicals. Last night someone managed to break into the gallery and vandalized several of our pieces of work. Some are extremely priceless, although nothing was stolen. What you were smelling were very strong traces of-"

"Volatile organic compounds," Lilith interrupted, rather rudely, her face lit up with fascination. When she noticed the confused look written on Jade's face, she sighed. "It's used in paints. It's what gives it that smell."

"But that strong?" Jade asked, glancing back to Harper.

She shrugged. "Whoever broke in must've used paint with a lot of it."

"Why would they do that?" Jade asked again, firing questions one by one. "Ruin the artworks, but not take them?"

"We haven't got a single idea," Harper answered. She turned to look at Lilith, who could only stare back at the woman in interest. "We've checked the security cameras, and for some reason, they've all been turned off from 10pm to 12pm. All the guards say that there was no way for them to restart them, but when they inspected the building and sent the cops in, there was absolutely nobody here." She scoffed to herself quietly. "It might be partly our fault they weren't caught, anyways. We let it slide, our head guardsman left his shift early."

"Hm, maybe you were right," Lilith smirked, tilting her head slightly towards Jade. "Maybe this will be fun." Her face lit up in an alarming wave of delight.

"I said it would be interesting," Harper reminded, her face turning into a frown. Jade filled the awkward silence with a scolding cough directed to Lilith. She sighed and stood up, shoving her hands into the pockets of her long coat.

"Well, thank you for the fun case," Lilith said dully. "And I hope your relationship ends."

"Don't you mean ends well?"

"Nope. Just ends."

And without another word, another insult, another backlashing comment, Lilith strolled out the front door of the office with a very conflicted Jade following her out of habit. Harper leaned back in her chair and sighed.

***

Jade poked her head through the arch door of the kitchen, peering into the room. "Mrs. Catherine? Where did Lilith go?"

The aunt of the woman only shrugged, her head partly emerged in the fridge as she pulled out numerous unknown objects and items. Most weren't even edible. "I have no idea, dear. Maybe she's out on that case you two were on."

Jade frowned slightly, but nodded and turned back into the living room. It had been only a short while since returning from the gallery and Lilith was already out. She felt the room go silent, ever so calmly, before finding herself sitting on one of the two sofa chairs seated before the fireplace. It crackled quietly in the distance of her ears, the flames as small as possible but lighting the room a small bit.

"Jade!"

She whipped her head around, probably much too quickly for it to be safe, hearing Catherine's voice. The woman was now standing in the doorway of the front door to the pod. She couldn't recall hearing the front door opening, not even the smallest noise.

"There's a car out there for you." The older woman's voice was quieter now, as though she was telling her a massive secret. She pointed a hasty finger out the door and gestured towards the street outside. Jade looked through in confusion, her head cocked towards the door.

"Who sent it?"

"I've got no idea."

***

She was expecting a casual vehicle. But the moment she saw it, the familiar stinging suspicion crept through her skin and her bones. She thought that perhaps it would be Lilith picking her up, but that was far from what was reality. The slender, pitch black limo was parked right in front of 221B, the door to the back wide open and ready for her to walk in. She had always known not to enter strangers' cars. We all are, aren't we?

So why did she enter the car?

No idea.

The front seats were blocked off. The windows tinted dark. The seats were absolutely luxurious. For a moment she thought she might be off to see the queen or something. She couldn't see the driver and she couldn't see where she was going at all. She wondered how badly she was going to regret this later.

When the car seemed to begin to pull into a break and the tires screeched in misery, she was impatient to open the doors. She felt the palms of her hands begin to sweat and her heart starting it's daily marathon. When the door opened, she was expecting to be outdoors.

But obviously that's not what happened.

"Jade Watson, I assume."

She heard the voice but not the person. She heard the echoes but not who made them.

All she saw was the empty, abandoned building of rubbish. The horrid smell filled her nostrils. It was bright enough to see her own hands in front of her face, but not near light enough to see anything within a two meter distance from her.

"Where am I?" she asked, hearing the broken voice which belonged to her bounce through the room.

"The Outskirts of the Burned Rose." A male's voice.

She turned around, attempting to find the direction which it came from. She could barely see the car that brought her here anymore. All she saw was nothing more than darkness. Her chest went cold, her fingers numb. She wished she didn't get into a stranger's car like a dumb child.

"What's that?"

She could hear a small chuckle. "Lilith solved the case five years ago. She was still so young, hardly an adult, but smarter than any of the other inspectors."

As soon as she heard her friend's name her heart started hammering in her chest. She felt her hair flip back and forth on her shoulders as she tried to look around more. "How do you know Lilith?" She squinted at nothing.

"I'm what you could call a rival of hers," he said harshly, the words feeling toxic on his tongue. "Somewhat at least. She always hated labels."

Her voice was beginning to crack but she didn't even notice it. "I'd appreciate it if I could see the person I'm speaking to."

"Good Lord, you're as stubborn as she is," the voice complained. "Always have to have your way."

She didn't really expect him to walk out of the shadows like some ghost waiting for it's soul. Although she realized that perhaps it was best to stop expecting things and let them happen as they do.

His hair was a curly, but clean, mop of dark violet hair. He wore a suit which could've been worn at a gala or a ball. He reminded her of someone but she couldn't even think of it. She only thought of hating this person with avery inch of her soul. She hated herself for getting into that car. She wondered where Lilith was. Not the time to be thinking of her, but she did. She just hated.

"Who are you?" she asked again, proud that she sounded powerful. "And why am I here?"

"The Outskirts of the Burned Rose," he said again, avoiding eye contact as though he only thought of her as nothing more than a peasant. "Five years ago Quill Patrick killed his best friend Rose Turner by trapping her in an underground parking lot and burning the place to a crisp."

For a moment, Jade was wondering why he was telling her seemingly unrelated information. Then it clicked. Her insides churned like butter. She felt her heart sink to her toes.

"This is where it happened," she said.

"Yes. Right where you're standing."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Why else?" he replied, a sense of snark in his voice. "I only tell relevant things."

"Then tell me what I asked."

He sighed, drumming his fingers on the sides of his legs. He was tall. Taller than Lilith.

"Nobody could figure out what happened to Rose." He continued his story as though he was telling a young child their bedtime story. "They only found her burned corpse in the parking garage. She had no family, and only a few friends. Mr. Patrick was one of them. And no matter how much they questioned him, he never confessed to anything and was found innocent. So they let him go."

"But he was the killer."

"Exactly. Prior to her death, Quill and Rose had a falling out. He lost all her trust, she lost all his. There were lies among them, secrets. Eventually he decided he would lure her to the lot and burn the whole place down. Nobody knew where he went and spent months trying to find him."

"How did they know it was him?"

"They didn't. But that's what Lilith Holmes told them."

She snorted silently. "Is that what everyone does? Listen to whatever Lilith has to say?"

His smile shrank into a thin line. "Like I said: stubborn."

"What happened then?" She gave up on asking why she was here. Who he was. Where exactly was she. Was he going to kill her. If she was setting herself up for death.

He let out a loud sigh, and the two trolls listened to it echo through the empty lot. There was a sort of soothing-ness to it. Two complete strangers standing in a dark, previous crime scene. She looked down. She could see her feet. She wasn't able to do that earlier. She smiled faintly, noticing the dimmed light entering the room from a window on the ceiling.

{🎵}

"Do you really want to know?" he asked after a moment.

"Yes."

Outrunning karma, that boy

He's such a charmer all the

Bugs and their larva follow him out to Colorado

Jade could only stand there and blink. She watched as the lyrics drained out of the man's mouth, his voice clear as day. Out of the corner of her eye she could notice the lights of the underground lot beginning to brighten.

Them down to Colorado

A modern desperado

At first, she couldn't understand a single word he was trying to send through to her brain. Out of nowhere, the song came from. Or so it seemed, at first. Her heart was going through many roller coasters today.

He's never gonna make it

All the poor people he's forsaken, karma

He didn't even move a muscle.

It's just a game of waiting

From the church steeple down to Satan karma

Eventually he began to walk. Only a short distance, one foot in front of the other, pacing around Jade in circles. Almost tauntingly. She took a breath and tried not to exhale too loudly.

She thought of the boy called Quill who killed the girl called Rose.

Last days of Sparta follow

Him out to meet Apollo

By now half the lot had been lit brightly. She could see his skin, glowing almost, but yet so lifeless. The colour was beautiful, she had to admit. She told herself she was only seeing things and it didn't look anything like Lilith's.

He's never gonna make it

All the poor people he's forsaken karma

Is always gonna chase him for his lies

She thought of the man who killed the woman.

She thought of the man called Quill who killed his best friend.

She thought of the horror of the friendship he ruined.

She wanted to stop thinking about it.

The strange singing man never stopped walking until he reached back to the vehicle which brought her here. He gently leaned against the passenger door and stared back at her, his gloomy eyes tormenting her own. He crossed his arms and watched her stand there, motionless. She felt a burning pit in her stomach, as though she had just swallowed a whole bottle of alcohol.

He's never gonna make it

All the poor people he's forsaken, karma

Is always gonna chase him for his lies

A liar.

A murderer.

A fly in the ointment.

A virus in the data.

A terrible friend.

A betrayer.

She listened to his majestic voice fill her ears one last time until the song came to an end.

***

She dragged the items and objects through the opened front door, grunting at their weight. Her aunt watched from behind, hands at her sides, not seeming to even consider offering her help. By the time Lilith managed to bring all seven of the artworks into the center of the living room by herself, she was very close to being out of breath.

"So what are all of these?" Catherine asked, pointing at the first sculpture. It was small, but already proven to be heavy. A clay model of a dancing troll. A splash of blue paint staining the front of it. The stench was nauseating. Both she and Lilith tilted their heads in unison to the right slightly, staring curiously at it. "Are we collecting them?"

"All seven of these were damaged last night at the art gallery," Lilith muttered quietly, as though she wasn't allowed to be telling her aunt this information. She crossed her arms and almost glared down at the first artwork. Her usual coat hung on the table behind her, and she only wore a frilly shirt and slender skirt, which reached all the way to her ankles. "And there's one very prominent factor about all of them."

"What's that?"

"They're all made by the same artist."

***

There was so much silence in the room, lingering about their eyes and contaminating the air. A person's behaviour can tell a lot about a person, Jade knew that for sure. She could tell how impatient, how calculating, how stubborn Lilith was within the first day of knowing her. She thought she was rather good at reading people's personalities like an open book. The man was different. He was so lifeless she didn't even know if there was anything for her to read. This book was closed.

"So." He cleared his throat. "Do you understand what happened?"

She swallowed the burning salvia seeping in her mouth, but when nothing came out, he spoke again. "Quill Patrick killed her, and he ran. He thought he was fine, leaving it all behind. Was probably planning on restarting his whole life, changing his name, finding a new home. But that never happened. Lilith Holmes was able to track him down with only a shoeprint and a broken piece of glass."

Jade nodded curtly.

"I hope you understand what I'm trying to tell you," he said mysteriously. She opened her mouth but no words came out again. "I can see how much Lilith puts up with you."

She snorted. "I think it's the other way around."

Even he smiled. She thought of him to not be the sort of person to smile as gently as he did. She felt proud of herself for making him smile.

"Lilith's the sort of person who doesn't understand people," he said.

"And you are?"

"Not in the slightest."

"So what are you trying to tell me exactly?"

He let out an exasperated sigh, as though the words were difficult to get out. "Trust is something you can only have for so long. Nothing remains the same. You trust Lilith Holmes enough to move into the same pod as her on the second day you've known her for. You're solving crimes together. At this rate you might as well get married." There was something grim about the way he spat the last sentence.

"You told me that story because you don't want me to spoil the trust I have with her," Jade realized, bopping her head. "So... why do you care so much about her safety?"

"I worry. Constantly."

"That's not an answer."

"Is it good enough for you?"

She didn't answer.

Then he said something that made Jade want to dissolve on the spot.

"Anxiety." The single word flew out his mouth like he said it twenty times a day. He stared directly down at the girls' hand. "Your therapist says you have it but you don't want to believe her. You think it's rather... pathetic."

She didn't notice her whole body stiffen like a block of ice.

"Lilith already deduced you have it," he continued casually. "As well as the war."

She wanted to die.

"Yes," she managed to choke out, feeling her eyes narrow at the man. "Yes, she did."

"Let me ask you something." He took a step forward. She didn't mind. "Doctor Watson, do you miss the war?"

This time she didn't hesitate. "You just deduced I have anxiety and I went to war. Lilith deduced I got hurt and have spent the past few weeks alone before I met her. So do you really expect me to miss the war, sir?" She spat it out like gum.

"Actually, yes I do," he said quietly, his eyes trailing off somewhere else. She frowned and followed them. All the way down to her hands. He looked back up and smiled at her. "Your hand hadn't trembled at all since I started talking about it."

"And why would it?"

"I think you know why, Doctor Watson."

She could only look down.

He sniffed and stood up straight. "Well I'd better be off." He eyed her, seeming to be trying to form a sentence. Eventually he found one. "Tell no one of this. Not even Lilith."

"Why should I?"

He didn't answer.

When he gave her a small nod and began to turn away to leave, all she could think about was his voice floating through the air, the words of his song hovering above her head. She heaved a sigh and turned back to the car.

She totally was going to tell Lilith about this.

***

Her hands were shaky as she carried the pot of soil through the aisle. She felt her heart racing, silently wishing she didn't have to be there so late. She wished she could simply drop the pot and leave. But she had a job. And she was going to accomplish it.

"Demi? Are you here?"

She sighed, appreciating the feeling of knowing she wasn't alone. She smiled. Turning her head over her shoulder, she carefully called back. "Marcus? Is that you?"

But she didn't get an answer.

"Marcus?"

Out of the shadows of the dark aisle, a small hand reached out to the light. It belonged to Demi. And Demi was concerned. Demi was wondering where her fiancee was. Demi was scared. Demi was shaking again.

"Marcus, where are you?" She peered over the corner of the aisle. A blooming sunflower obstructed her view of the front desk. "Marcus, you can't be here-"

A hand clasped over her mouth before she could finish the sentence.