It's early when Denzel wakes up, and he's in an unfamiliar room. He reaches out for Lucky and then remembers that he gave the bear to Luca in the night. Oh, yes. He remembers now. This is Keaira's old room. Denzel turns over and sure enough, Caru is still asleep next to him. He wouldn't wake him yet. 


Climbing out of bed and rubbing at his tired eyes, he decides he'll visit Luca one last time before heading back home later. Denzel leaves the room quietly, avoiding to make too much noise that would disturb the others living here. Once at Luca's bedroom door, he lets himself in, closing the door behind him. "Good morning, Luca, Lucky." He smiles to himself and sits on the bed next to the other boy.  "It's a shame you're still not awake..." 


There Denzel sits for over an hour, just talking about anything he can think of, rubbing his thumb comfortingly over the back of Luca's hand as he holds it. Trust Denzel to sit with someone he's only met once and still show the amount of kindness expected from someone such as a best friend.  


"...And I've been told that bears in the wild aren't all that friendly. But I suppose that doesn't matter to me if they're scary. I don't think I'll ever meet one that isn't in a zoo anyway, so I don't have to worry about being attacked by one. I still think they're really cute..." The white haired boy looks down at the calm face of the other, sighing. "Luca, you have pretty eyes you know. You should open them. I know your family misses you very much."


"He gets his eyes from his mother. " Alois is standing, leaning up against the door, watching him. Denzel didn't even hear him come in. Had he really been talking that loudly? What if he woke Alois up? He'd probably be in trouble. "How long have you been with him?"


Denzel shrugs. He's never really been one for keeping time. It seem's Denzel has lost the ability to use his tongue around Alois. There was just something about the older blonde that was intimidating, so for the time being, he'd just stay quiet until he finds the courage to speak.


"I hear people think that he won't wake up at all-"


"He will." Denzel smiles at Alois. "If people go around saying that he isn't going to wake up, doesn't that mean they've pretty much given up on him and lost all hope?" He looks back down at Luca with a saddened expression. "If everyone gives up on Luca he'll see no point in waking up and he'll just give up on himself as well." Denzel pauses for a few seconds, thinking. "What if he wants to wake up? Maybe he just can't wake up because his sadness is pulling him down. Keep believing he'll get better and he will. He'll find his inner strength to pull through once he realises everyone is counting on him. Once he is aware that everyone cares about him more than he thought, he'll get better and return to those who love him the most."


Alois doesn't say anything for a while. He for one hadn't given up on his son yet, but given a few more days and he might have begun to feel hope slipping away. It seems odd to him for considering what this nine year old said could have some truth to it. "You barely know Luca. Why are you here with him, showing him so much consideration?" 


"I mostly go by first impressions of people and to me, Luca is a lovely boy. Everyone needs a friend to help them though the tough times and apparently Luca doesn't have a boyfriend or even many friends. I'm only doing what I hope someone would have done for me had  I been in his position. I've been keeping him company in case he is scared and frightened." Denzel giggles a little. "If he's not scared like I might be, then maybe I'm hoping he'll wake up just to give me a slap and to tell me to shut up and stop talking..."


Smiling a little at the thought, Alois opens the door. "I doubt he would. You should get back to Caru now. I'd prefer to sit with Luca for a few minutes on my own before walking Ajax." 


Denzel nods and leans over, giving Luca a quick kiss on the forehead. "Get better soon. Lucky, look after him." Hopping off the bed and wandering across the room he makes his way towards the door. "Tell Uncle Malmal not to give up on him either." He gives a little wave before skipping back down the hall towards Keaira's old room. He highly doubts Caru is even awake yet. Caru is a lazy boy who sleeps too much. Running into the room and jumping onto the bed, landing on the other boy, he starts shaking him. "Caru, wake up! I'm hungry. We have to go and get breakfast."

Opening the door to Denzel's bedroom, Elias steps inside with a smile on his face. "Fancy taking a walk down to the lake with me this morning, Denzel? You can feed the ducks if you want." He sits at the foot of the bed, waiting for the young boy to respond.


Denzel sits up, his hair a mess. "Yes! Yes I do." He quickly pulls himself out of bed and fixes his hair in the mirror. "What should I wear? I think it's too cold for a dress."


"Then don't wear a dress. Trousers will do. I'll be downstairs. I'll fix you some breakfast and then we'll head out. Don't be too long." Elias takes his leave and heads downstairs into the kitchen and makes Denzel some cereal.


Changing out of his nightclothes and into something more suitable, Denzel grabs Lucky and goes to eat his breakfast, adding a sneaky extra spoonful of sugar to his bowl when Elias's back is turned. "All done." Putting his hat and gloves on, he waits by the door, impatient. "Come on Eli, you're taking too long!"


Elias joins him and opens the door, laughing. "There is no rush. You make mistakes when you do. You forgot to get some bread for the ducks. Good thing I remembered." The child seems to ignore him and skips outside, the bear in his hand.


"I love it when we go out for walks together." Denzel stays by Elias's side as he walks. Lifting up his hand, showing Elias his glove, Denzel giggles. "This possum is going to eat you. Rawr!" He then reaches out to take Elias's hand in his own to hold. They walk silently for a while, observing their surroundings before Denzel comes to a halt, pulling Elias back. "Look at them all!" He points to the group of large black birds in the field next to them.


Elias nods. "Yeah, there are a lot of them. Do you know what kind of birds they are?"


Denzel beams up at him. "Yes! Crows. Like Sebastian!"


Crouching down, level with Denzel, Elias shakes his head, smiling. "Look closer. Some have grey on their heads, and some have large white beaks. None of them are crows."


Denzel bites his lip, and leans forwards towards the birds, squinting his eyes. "...I have no idea. Tell me what they are."


"The smaller ones are jackdaws, and the big ones are rooks. They group together in the winter and come down into the fields and pick at the worms in the ground."


Pulling a disgusted face, Denzel sticks his tongue out. "Ew. I hate worms. I've seen crows do that before. Sebastian eats worms for dinner."


Elias laughs, rolling his eyes. "Yes, of course he does." The pair carry on their walk until the lake is in view, and Denzel holds Lucky out for Elias to hold, and then takes the bag of bread from him in exchange.


"Look after him, please. I don't want him to accidentally fall in the water. I don't know if bears can swim." Walking down to the waterfront, he is greeted by several ducks and a pair of swans. Pulling a slice of bread from the bag and ripping it to pieces, he starts to toss it into the water. Elias remains standing behind him at a short distance, keeping a watchful eye on him to make sure that he doesn't get too close to the waters edge. "Elias, there were more ducks here last time. I bet it's too cold and they're all still snuggled up in bed. These ones are just hungry. Some days, I stay in bed and only come out to the kitchen when I'm hungry. Ducks don't have a kitchen...so they come to the people instead."


Elias sits down on a wooden bench overlooking the lake and places Lucky down next to him. "You could be right, Denny. Or maybe they've gone on holiday some place warmer." Leaning back and stretching his legs out, Elias thinks about the time he took Skye down to the lake and how they both ended up going for a 'swim'. "Not so close, Den. The bank is muddy and you might slip."


Nodding and taking a few steps back into the dry grass, Denzel starts breaking up the bread and laying it in a circle on the ground. "I have an idea, Eli." He then sits himself in the middle of the circle of bread and remains completely still as the birds come up the bank and start to pick at the bread around him. Keeping his eyes on one of the swans, Denzel smiles more as he sees it come up onto the bank to join the other ducks. The boy speaks quietly, whispering as not to scare them off. "You're so pretty... I will call you Solange, and your friend over there is Cross. In memory of my mummy and his friend." He very slowly extends his hand to touch the swans wing, stroking it.


He remains there, still and quiet until all the bread has been eaten and the ducks lose interest and move away from him. After watching the swan clean it's feathers, and hop back into the water, joining it's mate and swimming further out into the lake, then does Denzel stand up and pick up one of the swans feathers it had pulled out. Turning back and skipping over to Elias, grinning excitedly, he holds out the feather. "Look at what he left me, Eli. A gift for giving him a name. Swans get sad if they don't have names. They're too special and pretty." Denzel tucks the feather into his hat so that he doesn't lose it. "We ran out of bread. Is it time to go back now? My toes are cold."


Elias nods. "Yes, I suppose so. I think it was nice of you to give them names. I'll bring you down here again in a few days and you can do that again if they're around." He gives Lucky back to Denzel and holds his hand and sets off walking back to the manor. "I'm just so glad you didn't fall in. Skye did when I took him down here."


"Did he?"


"Well, your father didn't fall actually, but he jumped after I told him not to, because I didn't think he could swim. Turns out he could, and he just likes to play games. I found out he could swim right after I jumped in after him."


Denzel giggles, "Silly daddy, making you worry like that..."

Elias ascends the stairs to his room only find a strange boy situated on his bed. He stands in the doorway for a few seconds his brow raised, taking in this kids somewhat wild attire. A fishnet- No, you could barely call that a shirt, it didn't really cover anything up... Half covered with what would appear to be an actual shirt. He was wearing  fingerless gloves on indoors. Why? The teens hair was another story altogether. Very...exotic looking. Elias can see that he is holding the picture frame which contained his only picture of Skye and shifts a little uncomfortably. It was one of his most precious belongings. 

The boy notices Elias's presence and looks up, grinning. "Is this your room?" He gets a nod in response. "I'm Chester. Sebastian told me I'm to share your room with you from now on. He said you're very friendly, so you wouldn't mind sharing your bed."

Elias stands a little straighter, confused. Oh. No one mentioned anything to me... "Okay... I'm Elias Taylor. Pleased to meet you, Chester." 

Chester's eyes focus back onto the item in his hands for a  few seconds, and then back up to meet Elias's face. "Is this guy loud in bed? He looks like he has quite a mouth on him." He grins, then laughs lightly. "I'd screw him any day. He's got such a cute face. I'd show him a good time." 

Elias quickly strides across the room and promptly takes the photo from Chester, frowning somewhat. "I'd rather you not touch that, or talk about Skye in that manner at all. He means a lot to me and I don't wish to imagine you doing such acts to him." The elder of the two puts the picture back in it's rightful place, then turns back to Chester. "Why do you wear that? I can see your... Uh..." He points to his nipple. "It's unappealing, you know. I don't really like it. You shouldn't flaunt yourself off like that." 

Sitting up, with a smirk, Chester licks his lips before speaking. "I thought you were single? Sebastian also said that you were friendly. At least he wasn't wrong about you being attractive. Your scar does indeed make you look hot. I bet you like seeing my body really, you're just too shy to admit it." Chester stands up and looks Elias in the eyes with an alluring gaze. "Entertain me, Mr. Taylor. Let's get to know each other if we're going to be sharing a bed together from now on~"

Elias rolls his eyes and looks away from the younger boy. For the love of God... Sebastian, is this how you get your kicks? I bet this is very funny. You're one Hell of a cruel demon. Ignoring Chester's comments, Elias turns on his heel and heads towards the door. "You have my bed for one night. I'm sleeping on the sofa. I'll be having a word with Sebastian in the morning. You will not be sharing a bed with me, Chester." With that, he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Fiddling with his hair, looking rather disappointed, Chester sighs, before settling himself back down on the bed. Jeez, lighten up, dude. I thought you'd be tons of fun to share a room with.

Riley: *pops up behind Elias in the manor, being sure no one else sees him* ...*plants a microphone in his hair carefully*

Eli: -turns around quickly, sensing him there- Did you know it's not nice to sneak up on people?

*smiles sweetly* Hi, Elias. How are you? *leans on him*

-lightly pushes him off- I'm not really up for your crap again today, Riley.

I just came for a visit. *pouts* Oh, come on. Give me a ki- *remembers what Ulixes said* Hug. Give me a hug.

You came to bother me again. I'm not an idiot. No hugs. -sits down-

*plops down next to him, his head in Elias's lap, and flips through a newspaper casually* Hm. *shows him an article about killings* Does this interest you?

-sighs, rolling his eyes- Sure...It's interesting I suppose.

I'm excited to find out who the killer is. I think he's nearby. I KNOW he's nearby. *smiles sweetly up at him* Don't you think so?

-nods- Probably closer than you think. It seems the things you can't find the most are quite often right under your nose.

That's a shame, isn't it? *pouts up at him* You really oughta work with me, to help me bust the killer.

I'm too busy. Surely you'd love all the credit of catching this guy, right?...

I would, actually. Too bad I've asked Ulixes to help. *makes a cute frowny face*

Then you don't need me, do you?

The more, the merrier, I always say. Would you like to join me and Ulixes soon? *giggles a bit* Ooh, that sounds dirty... Oh, but we could do that, too.

Ulixes already knows who the killer is. Why not just ask him? -pushes him off onto the floor and sits on top of him- I don't think so. Not in a million years.

I didn't have to get the answer from him - I figured it out myself. He only confirmed it... *smiles up at him* I like this, you on top of me like that.

Ah, so you're smarter than I gave you credit for. I'm sorry...-leans forward a little- So you're clever? Then I guess I don't need to tell you that playing with fire is dangerous? -runs a finger along Riley's neck, grinning, then whispers- I also like being on top of you like this. Perhaps we should so this again some time.

*shudders a bit, his neck tingling from where Elias touched him* Oh, w-won't you quit that! Damn it, I'm going to get in trouble... *red*

You get turned on from something so simple? That's kind of disgusting. You should curb that habbit. You're already in trouble, Riley. This fire is out of control. -puts his hand into his pocket and then removes it, showing him a drop of blood on his finger, then places it on his own lips, and gives him a light kiss, transfering the blood onto Riley's mouth- You got burnt.

*studies all of this, his brows furrowed, and makes a note to watch for whatever is in Elias's pocket* How do you do it, Elias? How do you kill them?

-smiles at him- You know how they die. It says so in the papers, does it not?
...Show me. *shoots him a challenging frown, unsure of whether he should be worried or not*

Here?... -laughs- Where Denzel and the others can see it? -shakes his head- No. I'll come for you when I'm ready. You have no idea when that'll be. Could be within a day, or a few months. Maybe you'll get scared, thinking every day could be your last.

*reaches up and takes the microphone from Elias's hair* Oh, I do hope that worked... *pouts a little* Or else I'll have to dig out the others.

-smiles- This doesn't bother me in the slightest. Everything happens for a reason. If I get arrested for this, then so be it. -points up- I have people watching over me. They've kept me safe so far. My mother wouldn't let someone like you stop me now.

*turns off the microphone and stuffs it in his pocket* Now, about that threesome...

-gets off of him- I really must be out of my mind not to put an end to you right now... -looks away from him-

Well... You could always take me someplace more private. *winks*

-grins- Ulixes will know for sure that the job is over and you're still asking for things like that. He wont be pleased now, will he? -steps closer to him- There is only one person I'd go that far with, and it's not you.

*sits up, looking up at him* He'll be fine, I'm sure. *thinks a bit* But like I said - threesome. Not cheating. *nods matter-of-factly*

You're still not getting it. I'm sure Ulixes wouldn't even agree.

Mm... Well, I got what I needed and I'm not getting what I wanted... So... *stands up* Adios. *waves and zips off*

-fiddles with the rose sash around his waist- Don't come back any time soon...

Elias: I did it. I actually admitted to Riley that I was responsible for the murders. Of course, I didn't say 'I did it, Riley. I cut their throats out and watched them bleed to death.' Riley asked me how I did it. How I killed them. Then he had the guts to ask me to show him. Don't worry, Riley. You'll find out soon enough. The wait is well worth it. It's to die for.


I may just have to give you some kind of special treatment. You've really hit a nerve. I do not appreciate you harassing me in the manor for my confession. What if Denzel had seen and heard you? I had to give you the kiss. Well, you had asked for one before, and you got one. Now, know this. The more you bother me from this point on, the quicker your death will reach you. I might appear harmless and you may not see me as a threat, but I'm good at what I do. How else would an eighteen year old be able to take down and slaughter over twenty fully grown men?

'It's the Devil's kiss. The kiss of evil.'

Controlled by sweet hallucinations,

I play a tune that blooms from my five fingers. 

The sound of crimson tea dripping,

as I gouge them into your neck.

Will my thoughts not reach you?

Who's relection is that in your eyes?

Is my heart broken?

Will you ever return?

Will carved wounds ever heal?

Then what about the wounds of time?

Realise these feelings, why wont you realise them?

All of you, I want you.

I want you so much I'm shaking.

Insanity is overflowing,

Should I stop piercing into your delicious pulse?

If I crush my feelings, what should I strife for?

I dirty your skin,

But the one defiled is me.

My overflowing love can't be stopped.

Stroking it lovingly,

To kill my urges.

These screams coming from your shrivelling throat,

The melody becomes a vermillion rainbow.

This hue from slaughtering you,

What a sweet and deep colour it releases.

These screams coming from your shrivelling throat.

When red rains down painting my lips,

I ascend this wonderful stage,

Where I dance alone.

Has that wish collapsed?

Have those thoughts been suppressed?

Has that hope been severed?

Have those eyes been set aflame?

Has that skin been defiled?

And will there be no one left?

The true me is no more.

I'll tear this life to pieces,

And let the red and silver burst out.