Passion and Partnership

At precisely 10:30 in the morning on a November morning, the weather outside feels chilly, the leaves from the trees start to fall to the ground, and people of El Corazon begin to wear clothing that would warm themselves. It was a chill month for them, but it was of many unfortunate cases that were about to happen.

The steps from the outside lead to a gruesome scene upon entering the house, "Oh, it's you, detective Francis. What brings you here?"

Francis looks at the person who calls out to him, standing and greeting Francis with a question in mind. Francis then sat at the guest chair to discuss the murders and missing cases that had been going on since October.

Following the meeting and jotting down notes, Francis has decided to look into the missing student case for the time being.

It's no coincidence that the killer's victims are prostitutes. An autopsy report indicates that the victims were sucked dry blood and had their internal organs cut open like a surgeon. As if the murderer has organ fetishes.

Francis said as he lifted the cover to see the victim, thinking about how to get leads on this murder case.

"Oh yeah, does this maniac murderer have some name?"

"Hmm, let's see here,"

A man in a dark blue uniform that had gloves on their hands picked up a piece of paper from the ground and opened the letter with red ink written, and it read.

"Yours truly, Jack the reaper…."

As the clock ticks, so as the people do with their daily lives counties. "T-This not going to work," I look at the sketch I made and sigh. I rip the paper into pieces, unable to appreciate it as it is. It's been weeks since I attended the art exhibition with my brother Francis.

A stranger suddenly changes my mind when he tells me there will be a painting contest next week.

I don't know why I'm acting like this. Hugo was surprised to see that I can also do painting and arts. I got up from the chair, threw myself onto the couch, and stared at the ceiling for no reason to think of any ideas on what to paint.

I groin as I stretch my arms and feet to relieve my stiff muscles, I look at the clock still pondering, as the clock ticks and so the time still moves, Francis then comes into the art room, and he looks at and says,

"Hey, want to come with me to the clock tower?"

"…"

I had forgotten that Hugo was visiting the clock tower after the whole fight that had happened last month. I had become infamous throughout the campus, the guy who had the guts to go face to face with the popular fencer Jerome and accidentally destroyed the founder school statue.

After meeting Lena and getting apologies from Naiver, even with that, the very next day, the principal was furious at my action and scolded me. I became well-known on campus for quite a while and received permission from the club leader to use the art room, whom he seemed to fear when he saw me.

I might have gotten permission because the leader pressured me by my appearance and decided to allow me. It does feel lonely that the fact that the other students have started to distance themselves from me.

After all of that, Hugo still talks to me as if nothing happens (he's one of the best friends you'll ever get.) I thought as I stood up from the couch and joined him on the way to the clock tower. Once there, the voice of the doll speaks up and says,

"I know someone is coming here; however, why in hell names is that boy doing here!"

Alicia made a disgusted expression when she saw me coming in with Hugo; she pointed her finger to comment on my presence in this place.

Fiona tries to calm Alicia down by handing her a brewed tea; as Alicia relaxes her muscles and thus she calms, Fiona gets up from the tea table and approaches us both. Hugo and Fiona greeted each other seems that they had gotten along well as they meant not long ago.

As we are both about to take our seats, Fiona then stops me in my tracks,

"Hey, something I would like you to do?"

"Yeah, what is?"

She then brought her closed hands towards me. It seemed she was about to give me something, I then gave my open hands as well, and she opened her and came to drop a few coins and paper money.

"What is this for?" I asked Fiona with a question in mind why she was giving me money, and she replied with an answer,

"Have you seen the bakery selling sweetbreads in the shopping district?"

"I mean, yeah, I did come across that bakery shop at one point…."

"Great, how about you do us a favor and buy us some snacks to eat."

"Why is that had to be me?"

I asked the snowy white hair friend of mine as she gave me a list of things to buy. And Fiona glanced back over Alicia, who was staring coldly at me, "Also, her favorite was." as she said that, Look back at her and made an expression saying, are you sure is this going to work? She said something to reassure me and tapped my shoulders back as I left the clock tower with the task on my mind.

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The brick-tiled road in the shopping district looks as good as ever as I stroll down it. Many of them were wandering around with their families and loved ones. When I look inside the window, I see a lot of cakes and pieces of bread on display. I see small groups of students wearing uniforms as they are also a part of this busy crowd.

(This looks delicious, no wonder this shop is recommended by many.) Many conversations at the campus talk about a new bakery shop in the district.

They claim that their products were good and tasty as if the shop was fancy expensive but after coming inside here gave me doubts, the main problem was that the interior was bland and didn't match the tasty-looking products they are selling.

I'll give that when stepping inside the shop gave my nose the taste the smell of baked bread around inside the shop.

It does give me the feeling of a baker's shop. Once there, I then saw someone looking familiar. As I approach the line, I know a woman in her school uniform who wears a news paperboy hat with short reddish hair as I come close.

I recognized it as Lula and then called after her from behind; she then reacted to my sudden calling. And tilted her head to the right, and thus, she asked with confusion on her face.

"Uh, you know my sister?"

"Wait… you're not Lula?"

As both of us looked at each other puzzled, we sat at a nearby table in the bakery store, and, as we were total strangers to one another, we had the chance to interact.

"…."

It shows that I am bad at starting a conversation with someone new; as I look back at her in front of me, I can see she is avoiding my eye contact, and her hands start to touch each other. I reason that was calling her Lula because they both look alike, so I asked her that question.

"Is she your twin or something?"

"Ah-h… that's right, how do you know her?"

"Because she is the one who had interviewed me last month ago."

As I said that line, her fidgeting stopped, And look at me as if she had got the identity of who I am.

"Y-You are Angelo, right!"

"Yeah, you got the bill right."

It seems that Lula's twin sister has the expression that she had to find her lost pursue, and then she both held my hands together with sparkling on her eyes,

"Can you please illustrate my novel?"

"Hah..?"