It was midnight. The horrifying scream of a girl woke up the entire household. Everyone rushed outside the manor and towards the pool area where found Maria, the maid, kneeling beside the hot tub, the water in it turning a dirty brownish red. In the hot tub lay Diego, lifeless. His grey eyes wide open, his silver hair damped with blood, his pale skin was paler than usual, as if someone had drained out the remaining blood from his body, which was the case. There was a wound on his head, which explained where all the blood came from.

A woman in her early thirties clumsily rushed to Maria and took her inside.

All the members of the house were shook. The children started screaming while the rest seemed as if they had seen a ghost, their eyes filling up with tears.

The men told the women to take the children away and take care of them, while they handled the situation. The police were also informed about the situation taking place.

A man in his late forties stood by the hot tub, trying to control his tears when another man in his early fifties approached him.

"Aaah...Benedict, I am so sorry for your loss.." sighed the older man. "We all knew he was gonna die soon due to his illness...but I didn't expect it to be this soon and due to hatred.."

"What do you mean by hatred, Layonal?" Asked Benedict irritatedly.

"Why...of course. Whoever did this to the poor lad, did it in spite...maybe to take revenge for something or because of hate." Replied Layonal.

Benedict stared at Layonal. "My son was loved by everyone. If I am to take a guess of who did this...it would be your son Casey of course...he was always jealous of Diego."

Layonal looked at Benedict with hate and disbelief. "My son...? He's an angel..he doesn't have the stomach to wound someone, less kill, we all know he couldn't even harm a fly...that's how well natured he is. Grief does make a person mad I say." Layonal spat near Benedict's shoe and left him standing.

A female in her late thirties approached Benedict. "What did he want?"

"Layonal?...nothing new...just trying to make others feel miserable," replied Benedict with sad eyes, then finally burst out as he couldn't control his tears anymore.

"There, there...we'll find out who did this..." said Lucrecia, comforting her husband, snickering while he couldn't see her face.

Lucrecia was the second wife of Benedict and the step mother of Diego. On the outside she may be all loving and caring, but everyone knew how much she hated Diego, except Benedict as he was blindly in love with her. Lucrecia hated Diego as she wanted to inherit the Mayhem family fortune but she knew very well that Diego's name was all over it...but perhaps now she had a chance?

It was the next day. The lounge was filling up with family members of the Mayhem house. Everything had been left as it is because the famous detective, Anston Murella was called upon to investigate the murder.

Two young women sat next to Lucrecia on a red velvet couch. One of them was the real daughter of Lucrecia, her daughter with her ex husband, her name was Sarah, and she was gorgeous. She had thick red curls and light brown eyes, pale skin accompanied by dimples. The other girl seated was Carla. She was not as good looking as Sarah, but she was unique in her own way. She had long black hair and a stern looking face, upon which she wore heavy and dark makeup.

Coming to the next household member, there was a boy, no older than his late brother Diego, he was sixteen. Jaime was the other son of Benedict. Both Jaime and Diego shared the same mother, although the brothers didn't look like each other at all. Jaime had brown hair, golden eyes and tanned skin, whereas Diego was quite the opposite as his looks had completely changed due to his illness. His black hair had turned to silver, his green eyes turned colourless and lifeless and his skin lost all the signs of blood from it, although most people thought he resembled an angel.

Then there were Carla's parents. Her father, Mikael was a little older than Benedict but looked as if he was in his late twenties only, his hair was black, accompanied by blue eyes. Taking Carla's mother into account, Jessamine was known to be a very elegant and beautiful woman and used to be a model in her early twenties, she quit when she had Carla. Jessamine had long blonde hair and light brown eyes. Her cheeks were always flushed red, no matter how pale her skin was.

Then of course there was Maria the maid. she was an average looking girl of fifteen years of life, with her long brown hair always braided away and her sad grey eyes. Her parents had died in a fire so she got a place at Mayhem manor. The cook of Mayhem manor was Mrs. Puffy, who was just like a mother to Maria. Mrs. Puffy was a kindred old spirit, her cooking loved by everyone in the house and she was adored by everyone, even the stubborn Carla was a fan of her.

All the household members were present in the lounge at the request of Detective Anston.

Everyone was talking about the incident to each other in low voices, while they awaited the great detective.

Even the trees outside were hustling amongst themselves like cautious whisperers.

A man arrived from the main gates. He had black hair, curling at the tips and jet black eyes which started analysing everyone in the room since the minute he entered. This was him, the famous Detective Anston Murella, who had solved a number of cases all over the world, though he was originally from New Orleans, a city in Louisiana.

"I have arrived," he announced with a smirk on his face.