"You really are a walking disaster, aren't you?"

"You really are a walking disaster, aren't you?" I mocked Torryn as I drove around the streets of Paradise. 

Valentine's was going pretty well. We'd gone to a painting class after we left from that cliff and then we went to a karaoke bar. They were both amazing and I also told an unhealthy amount of people that Torryn was now my boyfriend. I was totally over the moon and into the outer space. 

Now, we were going back to Mad Batter since I couldn't find my phone anywhere else and that was the last place I could remember my phone at. Torryn, being the little bitch that he was, was making fun of me. 

"Alright, one more mean comment from you and I'll leave you stranded, on the side of road," I warned him. 

He smirked back, forest-green eyes gleaming wickedly. "So that you can lose your way five minutes later?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. Did we somehow interchange personalities?

Torryn saw my expression and chuckled. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. No more mean comments, I promise."

"Too late," I smirked. 

"Wait, what do you m—I apologised," he protested, sounding nervous. "I—woah!" 

Five minutes later, our ride was parked in front of Mad Batter and Torryn technically jumped out of the car. Why? Because I'd just covered the twenty minute distance in five. In a very rash manner. 

"How was the ride, honey?" I asked in a voice that was too sweet to be good.  Then as an afterthought, I added, "that's what she said." 

Torryn just shook his head as I snickered and followed me to the door of the cafe.

"Mr Hatter leaves it unlocked?" Torryn frowned as he noticed the open door of the cafe.

"Not really," I frowned, my gut singing bad tunes. "Maybe he's just spending some time in there?"

"It's almost midnight, but I guess we can hope," Torryn nodded but I didn't miss how his stance tensed and he entered before me, as if expecting a fight.  

Mad Batter was hauntingly quiet. Torryn and I tried to breathe in sync with the stillness of the cafe. I looked around and walked to the counter with a protective Pigeon attached to my side.

As silently as I could, I checked the drawers and found my phone in the second last one. It had a sticky note attached to it that said, give to shorty tom.. Only Jax called me that since he was like a lamp post compared to my height. It also made sense since I last came to the cafe to see him before my date. 

You need to tell Cole, my subconscious urged, and the others too. 

I will, I sighed, soon. Remembering my conversation with Jax, I pursed my lips and glanced at Torryn. He raised an inquiring eyebrow at me. I shook my head. This was supposed to be a romantic date, not one filled with worry.

Bam!

Torryn and I both stilled. 

I looked in the direction the noise had come from, to the back of the cafe where Mr Hatter's office was, and then exchanged a glance with Torryn before quickly shooting a text to a certain number. Before he could stop me, I moved stealthily in the direction of the noise, more silent than even the cafe. An exhausted sigh followed me to the back of the cafe. There was no noise now but the closer we got to Mr Hatter's office, sounds of shuffling could be heard. 

A shaky sigh released me in the dark and just as I was about to turn the doorknob—

Slam!

Torryn and I stared wide-eyed at the person standing in front of us. Well, there wasn't much to stare at since it was really dark but I could still make out their face. 

"You—"

The person pushed me back into Torryn and we both went tumbling down. The loose tile near the office didn't help at all, seeing how I twisted my ankle. The figure however, wasn't attacked by any loose tiles as he ran away from us at lightning speed.

"Son of a—"

"Shit, sweetheart." Torryn was by my side in seconds. He gingerly held my right foot. 

I stared at him. " You're supposed to go after the intruder," I said, trying to calm down my heart at the worried look on his face. 

Torryn simply handed me a deadpan as the sound of a door slamming shut echoed throughout the cafe. "You're hurt, I'm not just going to leave you. Besides, we already know who it was."

I waved off his concern. "I have fractured my foot before, this is a minor injury compared to that. Go see if the—" I cut myself off when I noticed something near my foot. 

"What is it? Is your ankle hurting too much? Let's go to the hospi—"

"Cole, I'm fine, look," I nodded, shifting a little so he could see it too. We made a few adjustments to the flooring and then raised our eyebrows at the sight that greeted us. 

Remembering all the times I'd tripped over it, I should've seen it sooner really. But I had always passed it off as the cafe being really old. The thought that there would be a trapdoor beneath the loose tile in front of Mr Hatter's office in Mad Batter never did cross my mind. 

Well, it would've if you didn't spend so much time in your own world, talking to me, my subconscious sassed. 

Ugh, not now.

Torryn removed the entire tile and set it up next to us. After struggling a little, (and showcasing the muscles in his truly wonderful arms), he got the trapdoor to open. All we could see was darkness. 

I shifted in my place and leaned against a wall, so that Torryn would have more space to look around. He got the memo, as he switched on the flashlight of his phone and bent over the opening and looked inside, his butt hovering in the air in front of me.

The villainous part of me wanted to kick him into whatever was there down below but the good part of me didn't allow that. But I really wanna kick it. 

Focus, Aria!

"I can't see much from up here," Torryn observed. "Only a ladder; it doesn't go that long. Here," he handed me his phone, "Point it downwards. I'll see what's down there."

I caught his hand. "You know there are usually giant, three-headed dogs down there, right?" 

"Uh-huh?"His lips quirked at that. "Well, then it's probably a good thing I have experience with dogs."

I nodded, before trying to get up on my own and not succeeding. 

"Yeah," Torryn nodded. "You're not coming down there in this state." 

I tried to protest but Torryn was already descending into whatever was down there. I pointed the flashlight at his head but he didn't need it for long because suddenly the room below was flooded with light. 

"Hey, you still alive?" I asked.

There were a few moments of dreadful silence. Then Torryn's head stuck out of the trapdoor. 

"You need to see this,"  was all he said. 

A few minutes and a few kicks to the face (in Torryn's case) later, I was standing in what seemed to be a nicely-lit room big enough to fit Torryn's bedroom in and I once got lost in his bedroom. Now, that wouldn't have been a problem if this room were empty or hell, even if there was a giant, three-headed dog. No, the problem was the rows and rows of packaged white powder. 

I turned to look at Torryn, my jaw feeling comfortable on the ground. My mind was racing at 100 miles per second. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. 

Thankfully, Torryn did. He slipped his hand in mine and gently squeezed. "I know."

"Are we really sure these are drugs though?" I asked, biting my lip. 

"What else could it be? Baking powder?" Torryn asked me with a straight face.

"Well, this is a bakery, you know," I grinned halfheartedly.

Torryn shook his head and helped me out of the stupid room. Then we went inside Mr Hatter's office, expecting the worse. Which was, according to me, at least one bleeding corpse. 

"Everything seems to be in place," Torryn frowned at the orderly state of Mr Hatter's office. 

"Not really," I shook my head after I had done my own observations, pointing to the main desk. "Look, the carpet is a little crumpled. I know for a fact that Mr Hatter never lets the carpet crumple."

"So, he was searching for something beneath the table?" Torryn bit his lip in thought. 

"Bing-pot," I smiled. "Now, let's assume that the tra—"

Slam!

Torryn and I stilled again. 

"Aria?"

"Oh, thank God," I sighed to myself. "Coming," I yelled back.

"Let's go," I said to Torryn who was squinting at something. He hurriedly snatched something before helping me walk to the front of the cafe.

"I got your text," the figure said.  

"What took you so long?" I asked as I crushed Mae into a hug. She froze in confusion before hugging me back. 

"Jeez, did you see a dead body or something?" She asked. I shook my head with a chuckle.

"Well, you're about to," Owen said, entering the cafe. 

I raised my eyebrows, exchanging a look with Torryn, who then promptly escorted me to the nearest table so I could sit. 

"Ethan committed murder," Rhea panicked into the cafe, along with Mason, who was trying his best to calm her down.

"I did not," Ethan argued as he and Matt dragged a body in before shutting the door to the cafe. 

"Right," Matt snorted. 

"This is why I'm late," Mae shook her head in an annoyed action. "I think we spent a good fifteen minutes outside or else we would've been here sooner."

"It's cool," I nodded at her before turning to Ethan. "Whom did you kill?"

"I didn't kill anyone," he whined. "I was getting out of the car and I opened the door and this dude ran straight into it, like straight into it. See? It wasn't my fault."

We all stared at him. 

"Anyway, he was either dead or knocked out cold," Matt continued and nodded at me. "We figured you'd be our best bet at burying a body." 

"I don't think he's dead," Mason announced crouching near the body Ethan and Matt had dropped on the floor.   

I shot an impressed look at my friends. "Between all of us, we've "committed" a lot of crimes tonight," I said, doing air-quotes at the word committed. 

"No, we haven't," Rhea panicked some more. 

"Well, that's what it's gonna look like," I shot her a grim look, enjoying how worked up she was getting. 

Just as I was about to start listing our jail sentences, Torryn called out to me. "Miller, it's him. He must've been running away from the cafe when Ethan knocked him down."

"I didn't knock anyone down," Ethan grumbled in the background, as he went on and on about how he had to leave his date half-way because Mae called him up and now some random idiot had decided to jump in front of a car door.

I stood up in my seat to look at the figure on the floor and let out a low whistle. 

"Well, I'll be damned," I stared at Anthony Jacobs' weasel-like face. "Good job, Ethan."

"—I must've sounded so rude, I'm sure she will never forgiv- wait, what? Did you just say 'good job'?"   

"Uh-huh," I nodded. "You caught the killer."

"What?" Everyone screeched. 

"Well, the potential killer," I shrugged.

"We'll explain everything," Torryn said. "But first we need to tie him up." 

While Torryn, Matt and Mae tied him up to a chair, I quickly shot another text to another number before I started explaining to my friends how we were so focused on Selene being the killer of Elektra, that we completely ignored the weasel that Anthony was. And how he was snooping around here and what we found beneath the trapdoor. 

"I almost forgot," I gasped, "My ankle got twisted because of him."

"Yeah," Torryn winced before turning to Owen. "Could you set it straight?"

Owen nodded before bending on a knee and gently turning my ankle this way and that as soon as I got my shoe off. 

That's right, everyone should bend the knee to me, I smiled with satisfaction.

You sound delusional, my subconscious commented. 

Shut u—

Snap!

"Oh my God," I screeched, kicking Owen away. "What did you do to me?" 

Owen chuckled. "I twisted your ankle back into place."

"You're never coming near me," I announced, grimacing. 

Maybe people shouldn't bend the knee to me.

Torryn chuckled before rubbing my ankle for a while. "Good?"

I smiled down at him. "Good." 

"What about calling Inspector Bryant?" Mason asked. 

"You just had to interrupt them," Ethan grumbled under his breath. 

"Isn't Mr Hatter bestfriends with him, though?" Owen frowned, ignoring Ethan. 

"Yeah, would that be such a good idea?" Rhea ventured.

"I can't say," Matt shrugged, splashing water in Anthony's face. "But maybe he can." 

"Try twisting his ankle," Torryn suggested, a scowl marring his handsome face. 

"It's okay, Cole, let the poor guy wake up first," I smiled at his thirst for revenge. He muttered incoherently about someone not getting away with hurting his girlfriend. 

"What did you just say?" Ethan squeaked just as Anthony woke up. 

Everyone ignored Ethan as Anthony coughed a little. Torryn helped him by wiping off all the water on his face with the dirtiest rag he could find. 

"Why am I tied up?" was the first thing Anthony said. He moved in his seat, as if making sure this was actually real.

"Because karma caught up to you," Ethan glared. "This is what you get for not being a polite person and being the reason my date was cut short, you old fart."

Anthony stared at him with wide eyes. 

"Okay, buddy, c'mon. Let's not scare him just yet," Owen tugged Ethan down to a seat beside him.

"Hi, Anthony. Remember me?" I flashed him a wolfish grin. His eyes widened. "Mind telling us what you were doing here before?" 

"I wasn't here," he denied quickly before remembering his rather unfortunate position. "Why. Am. I. Tied. Up?" He asked through gritted teeth. 

"Because no one trusts you after you pushed me on the floor, quite roughly, I must say, and ran away," I explained as if it was very simple. 

"It wasn't me," he said, breaking eye-contact.

He isn't even good at lying? My subconscious shook her head in disappointment. This is going to be easy. 

"Now, let me go and no one will know of this or else my wife will call the cops if I don't get home soon," he threatened.

I scooted my chair closer to Anthony's, Torryn still standing next to me protectively. 

"No, she won't," I chuckled softly. "She doesn't even know you're here. In fact, you both aren't even on speaking terms. So close to divorce," I mused quietly, watching Anthony's face get paler and paler. 

"How do you know that?" He asked, his face completely white. 

I smiled. It was probably a good thing that all my friends had great poker faces because my schemes would never work otherwise. 

"Your company's going through a rough patch and Selene isn't a fan of asking her family for help, is she?"

"God, she won't even listen to me about it. I got Ellie to help a while back and she—wait, why am I telling you this?" Anthony scowled in confusion. What a blabbermouth.

"Whatever, dude," I shrugged. "Anyway, you either confess that you were here before or I'll just take my revenge now." 

"For what?" He asked increduously. 

Everyone else in the room pointed at my ankle. 

"It wasn't even that hard a pu—I mean," he cleared his throat. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" Torryn raised an eyebrow, before raising an object in his palm. "Then what was this doing in Mr Hatter's office?" 

The familiar tie-pin rested comfortably in Torryn's palm. 

I nodded his way, Good detective work. 

He smirked, I am your boyfriend after all. 

I smirked back, turning to look at Anthony's face that was as white as a....hm, was it sheep or was it sheet?

"Wha—how?" Anthony's eyes stared, aghast, into Torryn's. Then they hardened into steel before glaring. "Give it back."

"So, you don't deny that it's yours?" Mae asked. 

Anthony took in an annoyed breath before looking back at us. "What on earth do you want?"

"What's so special about a tie-pin?" Owen asked, the ever-present curiosity in his eyes sparkling brightly. 

I had to admit, I was curious as well. Why would he willingly admit that he was breaking and entering—speaking of, where was he?—unless, oh. Of course. 

I smiled softly at Anthony and he flinched. "Elektra gave it to you, didn't she?" 

His silence told me I was right. 

As always, I smirked. 

Except for when you're wrong, right? My subconscious quipped sarcastically. 

You're so hard to impress, I complained before focusing back on Anthony.

"What do you want?" He finally muttered in defeat. "Money?"

Matt perked up. "Ye—"

"No," Mae glared at him. 

"We don't want your money," Rhea muttered to Anthony. 

"Yeah, we're good people," Mason reassured him. 

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Mason. 

"What?" He blushed. 

"We're lowkey holding someone as our prisoner," Ethan snorted. 

"Anyways," I interjected, "we just want some information."

"What do you want to know?" Anthony raised a suspicious eyebrow in my direction. 

"Why did you kill Elektra?" I asked. 

"What?" His eyes went as wide as saucers. "I didn't kill her." 

"That's what every killer says," Mae deadpanned, twirling a pen in her hand that turned into a knife in a flash. Anthony gulped.  

"No, I really didn't," he protested. "I wouldn't ever harm her."

We all just stared at him.

"I wouldn't," he insisted. 

I raised an eyebrow. 

"I was in love with her!" His voice, hoarse by now, raised. 

I raised both my eyebrows. He broke so soon. 

What is this weak-o doing around people involved in drug rings and how is he still alive? My subconscious wondered. 

"I mean, that wasn't bad info, but we already knew that," Mason told him. 

"What? How?" Anthony frowned, fear faintly visible in his eyes. 

"Everyone knows about that," Rhea shook her head in pity as we all agreed with her. 

"Yeah, you weren't as subtle as you thought you were," Matt admitted. 

"Dude, no wonder your wife wants a divorce," Ethan snorted.

"God, you're all so annoying," Anthony muttered through gritted teeth. 

"Tut, tut, tut," I warned him gently. "Do you really want to do that?" I pointed at Mae. "She has wanted to waterboard someone for quite a few months now. And, my boyfriend," I nodded towards Torryn, "wants to take revenge for my ankle so bad." I smiled brightly at Anthony, "Now, do you want to comply or be rude?" 

Anthony seethed silently. I sighed.  

"You say that you didn't kill Elektra, fine," I shrugged. "Then who did?"

"I don't know," Anthony shrugged back. 

I shot him a disappointed look. "I thought you wanted to comply."

"I don't care about that," he spat, fear vanishing from his eyes. "You can waterboard me all you want, I'm not telling you shit."

I raised my eyebrows, a delighted smile overcoming my lips. "Pity. Personally, I prefer mental torture over physical." I nodded at Torryn. "Cole, you can do the honours."

Torryn maintained a straight face while placing the tiny tie-pin on the ground and raising his foot. Anthony's eyes widened when he understood what Torryn meant to do. 

"No!" He yelled, his body straining