Enter and Exit

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"Esteemed Count."

The maids and servants around Cole turned and bowed at a 90 degree angle, never daring to look the Count in the eyes.

Only Cole stood still and didn't bow, he knew it wasn't the time for that. If anything, his father was most likely to slap him for such uselessness.

"Count."

"Colden. Tell me what happened here and why the Countess is dead."

"That I am unable to answer."

Cole glared at Clyde, his eyes fixed on the deep ocean blue hue.

Cole gestured to the returning maid with a flick of his wrist. She understood and hurried to hand him the silver spoon. With the silver spoon in his grasp, Cole finally dipped the lush silver into the light purple tea.

He stirred the spoon clockwise and counterclockwise, yet no black spots appeared. With a click of his tongue Cole gently settled the tea cup onto the desk with a quiet clink.

Clyde raised an eyebrow at his son's actions. His finger tapped the sleeve of his shirt impatiently.

"Well? What is it?"

"Damn. I guess we will have to do this the hard way…"

Cole ignored his fathers question and shrugged. He thought it was a waste of human life, but he needed to figure out what kind of poison this was and how the poisoner could have gained access to such a poison.

If it was common then it meant it was someone who probably didn't have enough money to buy a rare or expensive drug. However, this is a generalized case. Not everyone will buy the cheapest option, not if they want a clean getaway.

"You there,"

He pointed to the same maid who brought him the silver spoon. And with a flick of his finger, she appeared at his feet. Her curly brown hair was quivering and her knees where weak.

"Y-yes?"

"Drink."

He handed her the tea.

As expected, the maid squealed and began to back up from Cole. She stumbled and not even two steps later, she was on the floor with tears in her eyes.

"Do I really have to do everything in this room?"

Cole grumbled to himself and put a hand under her chin, lifting her head up. He then tilted the cup onto the maids lips and pinched her nose. With her throat full of tea and her nose pinched, she would have to swallow the tea to open her mouth and breathe.

When he was sure the maid had swallowed the tea, he took up and placed the cup back onto the desk.

The observers around him gasped and clasped their hands to their mouths or their eyes. Even Clyde let a face of disgust show, his mouth curved down and his eyes squinted. Everyone was witnessing the monster in front of them.

The scariest part was how Cole never showed an ounce of emotion. Every motion of his was done with grace and cold determination.

Was he angry at his mothers death? Was he sad? What prompted him to kill an innocent maid?

"Oh no! Ginny!"

Somewhere behind Clyde a startled scream echoed in the silent room. A moment later, a head of strawberry blonde hair shot out from Clyde's side and landed beside the downed maid.

The maid, Ginny, was trembling uncontrollably. Her body was seizuring, each limb was frantically twitching and her body wormed around on the floor. Her mouth oozed vomit as her face turned a bluish purple from suffocation.

"Well that's a shame. Seems as though this was an alkaloids poisoning… My best guess is Hemlock, and what a great choice of poison. Easy to obtain and easy to hide from the silver spoon. Best of all, it's relatively cheap considering it's classified as a weed."

Cole gave a slightly disgusted chuckle. He should have guessed, Hemlock. The number one easiest poison to find, distribute, and hardest to cure. Poison Hemlock was the famous poison that killed Socrates and favored by the Romans for centuries.

Unlike cyanide, Hemlock is a poison that has no known cure. Everyone who has ingested its killing dose has died, no expectations.

'Looks like this dose was heavy, whoever was poisoning really wanted the victim to stay dead. If it was a lighter dosage then the victim had a chance to evade death… they could have simply ended up bedridden. No wonder the silver spoon didn't pick it up.'

"Why… Why did you have to kill her? She was innocent!"

"Huh? Oh, I guess because she was the closest… I mean what did you want me to do? Use it on myself? Or would you have liked to try a sip? I'm sure there's still a little drop left in the cup…"

"Mon… Monster! You're a monster! A heartless beast! Murderer! Killer!"

"..."

Cole dropped his light smile and exhibited a slight frown. He squinted his eyes and really studied the concubine's face.

Her hair had loosened when she had run over and her lips were swollen. The woman's eyes were leaking tears, marring her beautiful face. Everything about this lady screamed innocent and pitiful.

'It seems her crocodile tears are enough to fool everyone around me. Shit. Why did I say all that… really made me look like the killer.'

Cole wasn't buying her performance for a second.

"I did was what I deemed the right course of acti-"

"No, you killed another human being. You stole the life of an innocent in the name of an already dead person. Your little game isn't funny and because of it an innocent person has been killed, your sickening. Let's all leave and let the butler deal with this… mess."

Cole froze. His shoulders quivered and his eye twitched in anger.

'What? His WIFE just died! My mom just died! That dickhead is ignoring this? What about finding the culprit? What happened to justice?'

"Wa… wait! What, what about finding the poisoner? What about th-"

"She probably killed herself. That's what we'll tell the people. Hilbert, write that down and arrange for the body to be buried and the room cleaned for the next Countess."

Cole was shocked. Interrupted again and this time he couldn't do anything about it, the Count had already turned and began walking away.

Arabella, the concubine on the floor, was pulled off the fallen maids body by surrounding maids. They whispered sweet nothings to Arabella as they gently led her out of the room and down the hall.

The only remaining people in the room were Cole and the servants designated as the corpse cleaners.

He took his hand and swept back his bangs, smoothing the loose flyaways back onto his head. His messy hair turned into a somewhat gelled style.

Taking a few deep breaths, Cole started walking out of the room, his mind a whirlpool of thoughts.

'Fine, I don't need the Counts help. Catching the killer will be easy, just use the process of elimination. First, the killer couldn't have been just anyone. Mom was cautious of the people in the mansion, so some situation had to have happened where moms trusted turned against her. Either willingly or not. Murderers like to return to their crime and see the result of their hard work, so I can eliminate every maid and servant in the room I was just in. The people left close to Mom were loyal and dedicated to her, so there's no way they could return back to the scene where they killed their master. They wouldn't have been able to stomach it.'

As Cole was walking back to his room, he realized what it would mean now that his Mom is dead. He essentially lost a lot of influence in the household. The only claim he had left to becoming Count was the fact that he was born from the official wife of the Count.

Even if she was the late wife of the Count.

Cole shook his head and regained his focus. Later. He could think of these things later. Right now, he had to focus on the killer.

'Basically, the killer couldn't have been hired. They must have been close to Mom, trusted by Mom. And they couldn't have been in the room since they won't stomach killing their master. Ugh, I swear it's on the tip of my tongue…'

Cole stared at the ground, letting his feet guide him back to his room.

Not long later, he reached the large doors to his room. For some reason, the shadows and curves of the door seemed longer. Deeper and more immense. The aura around them was suffocating.

Cole took a deep breath and pushed one of the doors open and stepped inside.

"Ah…"

He couldn't help the gasp that escaped from his mouth. With a deep sigh, Cole walked silently towards the window where the silhouette of a woman was highlighted against the morning sun's rays.

"What a beautiful sunrise."

"Indeed…"

The woman never turned around to meet Cole, yet he knew exactly who stood staring out the window.

Her high bun was alight with the orange and pinks of dawn. Each wrinkle and mole on the woman's face was highlighted with a beautiful golden glow. She had sad eyes. Eyes that expressed a longing for something that's been lost, forever. No shine, no will to live was visible. An angel who had fallen from grace.

"You look ghastly."

"Indeed… Young master, I want you to know that I loved your mother like my own daughter. It pains my old heart to stay in this mansion without her."

"I know."

Cole felt something cold and wet slide down his cheek. He put a hand up to his cheek and saw it come back glossy, with his tears. He was crying. Tears streamed silently down his cheeks and into his mouth, snot shot uncontrollably from his nose causing him to sniffle.

He eventually stopped trying to hold back his tears. He let the waterfall of emotion slide out on him.

Cole tried really hard to stay under control, each breath was forced and every blink was planned. His brave facade was broken into pieces, he wasn't calm. He wasn't collected or indifferent. Right now, he was just a boy. A 6 year old boy who had just lost his Mom.

Cole's hands were shaking as sweat began to bead his small palms. He refused to make any wailing sounds, but he couldn't help it as some small moans and groans escaped his mouth.

"Mo...mom… She's really gone now… Forever. I just got her to… Why. What did I… do?"

He wasn't talking to anyone in particular. However he would probably say that he was crying to God, if there really was one.

'She was so nice and kind. Who would want to hurt her? For God's sake she was the mother of a little boy, who would orphan such a small and innocent kid?'

He knew his questions were stupid and easily answered. But he was angry and sad at everything and everyone. He couldn't direct any of his emotions towards anyone in particular, everything was so complicated and messed up that everything and nothing made sense.

While Cole silently wept, the woman finally turned and looked at the small boy. She felt something tug her heart. She had sinned, she was the one who turned an innocent boy into an orphan. She had ruined her daughter's descendants' life. With a final resolve, the woman drank the tea that was beside her.

"Come here. Shh… it's okay. Cry everything out, it's okay to hate me and the world. People are monsters, don't ever trust… any… monster… esp… especially a… green eyed… monster…"

The woman had started coughing and trembling as she held Cole, her arms were shaking and shivering. The lady's voice was muffled and became softer and softer. Eventually she was spitting blood and vomit.

When the lady's body went still and her face was decorated with shades of blue and purple, Cole stopped crying. He looked at the woman who was hugging him on the floor of his massive room, at the vomit and blood on his clothes, and the simple cup sitting on the window during a beautiful sunset.

"Thank you… Thank you Mariam. I forgive you, I forgive you…"

He stopped his crying and hugged the body for a little longer. Just a second more. Just another moment. Just a little while longer.

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