Chapter 3

{the manor. 8:00 am}

At the dining table after the maids had set the food on the table Lily said“ dad, the power is out in the entire city and it is not good for business”

Jane said “ how about we go out just the both of us and you can show me around until the power is back on.”

“ That would be a good idea.” Agnes said.

Lily said “ I will be glad to show you around but....”

“Lily, how about that restaurant downtown, that is a good place to start.” said Lily’s father

“ Just so you know, you owe me cake dad. Come on Jane, we have places to go” Lily said.

{ in the car, in front of the restaurant}

“This place is crowded” said jane

“ I know, I think it’s because it’s the only restaurant that is open around this area since the power went out.”

{half and hour later

Lily and Jane entered the restaurant, it was full of people.

“ Oh my God, how many people are here and look at that line.”

Said Jane looking around the area.

“Let’s go, we will come back tomorrow.” said Lily.

“No!, I mean no.”

And old lady comes out of the restaurant kitchen “jane”

“ Do you know her?” lily asked

“She is friends with my mother.” Jane said.

“ What can I get for you?” the old lady asked

“ umm…” said Lily as she was thinking”

“ We would have specially spiced food,” said jane.

The old lady and Lily looked at each other confused.

Jane clears her throat and says softly “ for the SW’s.”

The old lady says “oh” in remembrance and walks into the kitchen and brings out a bag of food and gives it to Lily.

“ How much does it cost?” said Lily as she opened her purse.

The old lady holds Lily’s hands and says “ it’s free.”

“Okay.”

As Lily and Jane were walking out the door. A man standing in line started to yell “ how come she gets her food first? I have been waiting in line for hours.”

“ you can have my food, if you want.” said Lily

The old lady said “ no, take your food and go, I will handle them.” practically pushing Lily out of the restaurant.

“ That was weird, right?” she asked Jane as she entered the car.

Jane replied in a shrug.

{ the Blues manor.}

“ Dad.” Lily called out.

“Yes, Lily.” her father said

“ Well, I couldn't eat over there, so I brought the food here. And i got an alert on my phone, the power is about to get back on in 15 minutes, i will be heading to the company to check how things were going there. And i also wanted to ask, at the restaurant, they turned on their back up generator, why didn’t we turn on ours.” said Lily.

“We tried turning ours and both the company’s on but none of the Generators in the city are working. Weird how that restaurant’s own still works.” said lily’s father

“ Well I don’t care what happens, don’t touch my food till I get back, if you do, I will...”

{the power comes on}

“Well that was fast, is it even up to 15 minutes yet. But just so you know, I wouldn't touch your food go be free to work.” said Lily’s father

As soon as Lily walks through the front door, he opens the food “ well this looks tasty.” he carries a spoon and takes a scoop. Lily’s mother walks up behind him and says “ look at William stealing his own daughter's food.”

“ It's just a little bit Gloria, you can take a little bit if you want to.”

William feeds Gloria and Gloria feeds William back.

{ Jane's room.}

Jane throws the food she got from the restaurant in the trash can.

“ has Lily eating the food yet.” said Agnes

“ I don't know mother, if you really wanted Lily dead so bad then do everything yourself.” said jane

“ Shh, be quiet. That kid gets everything, she inherits everything, but what do you and I get probably nothing or just something very small.” said Agnes.

“ Well, she is their daughter.” said Jane

Agnes scoffs and says “ are you really sure.”

Then they both hear a scream. They rushed to go check what it was.

“ Now we know if Lily ate her food or not .” Agnes tells jane softly

Jane whispers “ well don’t just stand there have remorse for him, he's your brother, before someone figures out something suspicious is going on here.”

“ oh, my God, William, what happened to him? Someone call the cops.”

She bursts into fake tears as she kneels down by Williams' dead body. She then turns and looks at Jane and winks. Jane just rolls her eyes.

{ at the Blues Architect}

Wendy and a man walks into Lily’s office. “ Wendy, don’t you knock.”

“ I am sorry but this is Agent Wilson from a top secret organisation and his my brother, in emerald city,” said wendy

“Our building kind of got destroyed and we're thinking of building a new one, I heard you are the best, I mean your company is the best.” said wilson.

“ Do you have a description of the building?” said lily.

He brings out a file and says “ here it is.”

Lily looks at it. “ Okay I will have my designers draw it up and come back maybe next week to check if it is okay with what you want.”

Wendy and William leave the office, then Lily’s phone rings.

She picks it up.

[ Lily] “ hey susan, i am at work can’t talk.”

[susan] “ this is an emergency come home quick.’

[Lily] “ no, because anytime any of you call and says it’s an emergency it is just something stupid, last time dad needed me to teach him how to salsa dance, and also mom needed me to help her pick out the perfect wine for a party. And then just a few days later you asked me to come help you pick out a dress for your date.”

[susan] “ you salsa dance.”

Lily hangs up the phone. After a few moment susan calls her again

[susan] “ lily this is a real emergency”

[Lily] “ well what is it, and if it is something stupid i promise i will…”

[Susan] “ Lily, your parents are dead!”

[Lily] “ what?That is not funny. I don't have time for expensive jokes.” she says in a shuttering because she is not sure if it is real or not.

[susan] “ this is not a joke, you know i don’t joke, just get here and see for yourself. I have to hang up. I am about to be questioned by the cops.

Lily sat on her chair frozen not knowing what to do. Her phone chimes. A text from Jane saying “ come here quickly it's an emergency.” Lily then gets up from her chair and bolts out the door. She runs into Wendy. “ Wendy asks, “ ms. lily why are you running?”

“Wendy, there has been an emergency, and I have to go home. Could you finish up the paperwork for me.” Lily says hurriedly.

[ the blues manor]

Lily pushes the front door open. She sees a detective and a forensic examiner. The detective walks up to Lily and he says “ where were you in the past few hours.”

Lily replied “ I left work as soon as I got an alert that power was going to be back on, I had to rush to work.” with a teary voice as susan patted her back to comfort her. “ I can't believe they are gone.”

The forensic examiner walks up to the detective and says “ there is no sign of injury on the victim's body but I did notice their pupils were dilated, and there was excessive sweating on the body. My only conclusion for this is poisoning. I am not sure but that's the only thing I could tell.”

The detective said “ thank you Linda for the information.” Then he turned to Lily and said, “ Did you and your parents have the same breakfast this morning?” Lily wiped the tears off her eye and replied “ yes we did have the same breakfast, the power was out so we just had fruits and cheese no big deal.”

The detective asked, “ Is there anything else they ate.”

“ I am not really sure what they ate…” Lily then turned to the spot where her parents lay dead and saw the plate of food that she got from the weird restaurants. Lily walks up to it and picks up the plate saying. “ I thought I asked them not to eat this.” the detective moves close to lily and asks “ what do you mean you asked them not to eat this.” Lily said. “ This was the lunch I was supposed to eat, but I had work to do and before I left I specifically told them no to eat the food because it was mine.”

The detective held his hands to his chin thinking. “ What if the poison was meant for you, but your parents happened to have eaten it? Tell me where the restaurant is so I can get some answers. Linda could you examine the food and check if there is anything suspicious” Lily said'' I am coming with you I need to find who tried to kill me.” the detective said “ okay, but i am driving.”

[ at the restaurant]

Lily and the detective both enter the restaurant but to their surprise, it is now a party club. The detective pulled someone to the side and asked “ isn’t this a restaurant.” the person then says “ it is, tonight is just club night.” Lily then turns to look at a door. She then taps the detective. “ You see that door that is guarded by those two guards. I saw the old lady that runs the restaurant come out of there, maybe she is there now and can answer some questions.” The detective says “ that is a good idea but if we take out the girls, it will start chaos, which gives whoever is in charge time to escape.” the detective’s phone rings.

[detective] “ hello linda”

[Linda] “ this is so weird.”

[detective] “ What is so weird?”

[ Linda] “ So get this, I examined the food you gave me looks delicious but it has a substance that i had never seen before. It is like it doesn’t exist, and it is highly poisonous. I tested it on Emmy the rat and she died within seconds with no symptoms. Rest in peace Emmy.”

[ detective] “Okay great news, we are about to catch the suspect.”

The detective then tells Lily about what Linda found about the food. Lily sadly sighs. “ detective says “ we will need a distraction to keep all these people from starting chaos.”

“ distraction you say.” Lily takes off her jacket and says “ hold my jacket.” she walks up to the DJ and whispers into his ears, he gives her a headset. Then she goes up to the stage and yells “ hello everybody do you want to party.” Everybody in the club cheers.” Lily grabs a pole on the stage and whispers to herself “ I can't believe I am doing this. But it is to find my parents' killer” a beet then starts up she then starts to sing and dance around the pole.” The crowd cheers, everybody dancing. The detective then goes to the door protected by two cops “ can you move out of the door, he shows his police badge. One of the guards points his gun at the detective. The detective then knocks him out with his punch. The other guard then grabs the detective and starts choking him. Lily in the middle of her dancing and singing sees the detective being choked , her heart beats fast then her eyes glows blue and a chair comes flying out of nowhere and knocks out the remaining guard. Lily pauses her singing and dancing, then the detective makes a sign telling her to continue. She then resumes and the crowd gets louder.

The detective goes through the door holding his gun and says “ this is the police'' as he points a gun at the old lady. The old lady then tosses her walking cane and then she slowly starts to walk close to the detective, she grabs his face and mutters an incantation and She then disappears. Lily comes into the room where the detective was and she sees him cuddling himself on the floor looking scared and rocking himself saying “ monsters are everywhere, they are everywhere they are out to get me”. Lily says “ okay'' in confusion then goes to comfort as she hugs him, her eyes glows blue. The detective says to himself “ I feel safe all of a sudden.”

[ in detectives car]

Lily said “ what happened back there”

The detective says “ honestly i don’t remember, but all i can remember is i was seeing all things i was afraid of, monsters, insecurities. Until you came in.” he then noticed that Lily was not listening anymore. He asked what was the problem. Lily said “ my parents just died, other people would lock themself in the room grieving and mourning their parents death, and I am here singing and dancing on a pole, I feel like a bad person.”

The detective said “ You're not a bad person, you're just different from other people. By the way, you're an amazing singer.”

“I always wanted to be a singer, to sing to the world someday,”Lily said.

“ Let me guess your parents disagreed.” the detective said.

“no,they were totally fine with it… it’s just that I saw how my dad looked when he found out no one would take over the company, so I decided to cheer him up by throwing away my dreams to become a singer.” lily said

“ I think we're at your manor.” said the detective

Lily comes out of the car before closing the car door. She told the detective “ don’t go looking into my parents' case anymore, after what happened to you today I am pretty sure you should just close the case, I am not worth that much trouble.”

The detective said “ fine I will think about it.” Lily and the detective both smile at each other and then Lily closes his car door. The detective drives into the night.

Lily stands in front of the manor's front door, she takes a deep breath and opens the door she was in shock of what she saw. Susan said “ Lily I am sorry it was Agnes’s idea.”

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