CHAPTER TWENTY TWO ANASTASIA'S POISON.

         Cyrus Potter is miserable and disappointed in himself, he let Gerard deceive him. When Gerard told him that he was going to help him win. He was elevated.

 Remembering the next call he received from Gerard. When he asked Gerard how he got his phone number. He told him that he got it from one of his subordinates, and he also asked Gerard why he was willing to help. 

   Then Gerard reminded him of moon city, when it was attacked by rogues he was among the people that saved many lives and chased the rogues away. That's the reason why he got a high position and was praised to be second to Trent.

  Hearing all that, Cyrus believed Gerard and happily waited for the evidence to present itself. While Cyrus was celebrating. Gerard and his friends were freaking out, they couldn't find a shred of valid evidence hence. 

   They all left Clive's house looking dejected. Gerard reached his house and found the neighbor's son scaring the girls with a creepy doll. The creepy doll was wearing a pink cloth with blood stains on it. Seeing the doll gave Gerard an eerie feeling. He went to the boy and had to bribe him with Ten dals.

   After that, he called Flora and the rest. They met up and realized they got Lilith.  They were happy and believed that God was on their side.

   ( Lilith is an orphan demon who kills families out of jealousy of not having one. Her soul is divided into four(4) and can only possess dolls and the body of her founder.)

    They left the doll inside Boyle's family basement. Where Cyrus came and fought Lilith and took her back to the organization believing that he had solved the case. They would have gotten away with it, if not for the meddling Serah.

   He is now demoted to rank 10 from rank 12. They wanted to demote him to rank 5 and collect the fine of twenty thousand dals but were saved by the interruption of his family and Aurelia. 

  Cyrus entered the small briefing room even though he was demoted; he was still a senior investigator. He took a seat 💺 next to another senior investigator.

   A guy in a brown suit walked in. He has blonde hair and was wearing medicated eyeglasses. He was holding a blue file. He cleared his throat and stood next to the projector screen. "Good morning senior investigators! My name is Connor Wright. The guy was calm and has a soothing voice that resounded all over the room. "Good morning!" They greeted him.

   "A week ago, the cops found the body of a woman with the name of Rosaline Rodrigo. The screen went black and turned on showing a picture of a beautiful Latino lady.

 Her best friend Natalia Sanchez was arrested for her murder.

 "Rosaline's head was smashed with a bat," Connor said before the screen blinked and a picture of Rosaline, laying flat in the pool of her blood, another picture showed the crack in the back of her head.

    The senior investigators whispered among themselves except Trent and Cyrus who kept looking at the screen. 

    "What does this have to do with us?" All the investigators turned to look at Trent. "That's because they found Anastasia poison in her system." The field agents were shocked, including Trent and Cyrus.

  "Did you just say, Anastasia poison?" A field agent asked. "Yes," Connor answered calmly.

       History of Anastasia Poison.

   Five hundred years ago, A powerful King married the most beautiful lady known as Anastasia. Her beauty was known all over the kingdoms, men fought over her but only one won her heart, king Atticus. Their marriage was the talk of every kingdom, they were both living a peaceful and happy life. The day they found out that Anastasia is sterile, this broke the couple's heart. But the king stood by her side because of the love he has for her.

  The queen-mother wasn't happy about it and introduced the king to a beautiful consort named Estella. The King at first did not agree to have another woman but his mother nagged and emotionally blackmailed him until he agreed to impregnate the consort.

  King Atticus told Estella that he could never love her and only loves his queen Anastasia. Estella didn't mind at all,  she was kind-hearted and didn't look down on people, she was patient and diligent. This attitude of hers made the people of the entire palace like her. King Atticus also fell in love with Estella because of her caring nature.

 Soon Estella was announced pregnant, it was a joyous occasion. The people of the palace and kingdom celebrated and were all waiting for the day the child will be born. The queen-mother and Atticus pampered her. This made Anastasia jealous, and the king didn't care about her anymore, he spent all his time with Estella. 

    Envy and rage burned in Anastasia's heart.  Six months into the pregnancy, Estella was found dead. Her inside looked like it was burnt with a very high amount of heat. The King was heartbroken. He was still mourning Estella when Estella's personal maid told the king that she saw Anastasia's maid adding something to Estella's tea, on the day Anastasia invited her for tea.

 Atticus was angry with the maid and accused her of trying to set the Queen up and she was locked away. A few days later, what the maid said kept haunting Atticus, and called his best spy to find out what truly happened. After a month Anastasia was found guilty of Estella's death.

 The poison was found in the cupboard of her room, not only that she also asked her maid to feed the poison to all the concubines brought into the palace by the queen-mother.

  Atticus was disappointed and heartbroken. He asked why she did it. Her answer was simple. "You forgot me as soon as you found a woman who could give you a child." he saw the pain in her eyes and he could only blame himself.

Even in her final moments. Anastasia never told them where she brought the poison from. She died from the poison.

And so it was named ANASTASIA'S POISON.

        The poison was banned from usage by any person found using it by the house of justice, seventy years ago. They went to different places, every corner until they gathered all the poison and stored it in the underground of the HOJ. It was now used only by the HOJ to sentence the worst criminals to death.

        After Seventy years a woman was killed by the poison, which came as a surprise to everyone.  "It's simple, the person in charge of this case is to find the murderer and bring in Anastasia's poison."

 A field agent raised his head. "Yes," Connor said with a stoic look. "What if it was her friend who killed her with the poison?"  "Good question but you see, the lady was questioned under the influence of the truth serum, although it proved that she was innocent, she hasn't been released from the custody of the police. 

  Another investigator raised his hand. Connor's eyebrow plucked into a frown.

"Yes, what's your question?" "Who is in charge of this case?" Everyone started murmuring that they all wanted to know. Cyrus was hoping to be picked, that way he could redeem himself.

   "A junior investigator by the name of Samuel Bassett."  Everyone heard the sound of the chair scratching against the floor, they all turned in the direction of the sound and saw a pretty-looking chap in a black suit. "Good day everyone! My name is Samuel and I am honored to sit amongst you." Ella was beyond nervous. Cyrus gnashed his teeth together. Trent smiled to himself, it wasn't easy for him to make the old man give Ella the case. He didn't even notice her in the room. Ella went to Connor to listen to the rest of the information.

  Ella was listening to Connor. All of a sudden she felt goosebumps all over her body. She felt the intense stare that was about to make holes in her back. She turned around and found Cyrus throwing daggers at her. 

   "Here!" Connor's deep voice got her attention. "You will be going as Timothy Rodgers. A press reporter who wants to uncover the truth about Rosalinda's murder. Here is the file that contains all the details, including the name of your partner." Once he gave her all the information. He left the room without sparing a second.

   Ella opened the file and saw the name of her partner written in bold capital letters. 

"Trent Vanderwood," her voice came out as a whisper but the devil 😈 still heard her. "Yes love, you were calling for me" he smiled sheepishly at her. Ella has already turned red. Trent was so close that she could feel his breath on her cheeks since he was facing the left side of her body.

   She felt goosebumps all over her body again, this time it was because of Trent. "You're too close" she quickly pushed him aside. When she faced the door, she saw the pairs of eyes weirdly staring at them.

    And she quickly left the meeting room with Trent tailing her behind.