Fiend’s Mark

Mika sips her warm chai in a green iconic mug she won in a raffle from a comic convention adventure. "Manay Sol, you really know what I want in chai."

The copper-haired lass smiles sweetly as her sister beams back in gratitude. "And this would be the yummy cookies you can pair with the chai."

"Manay An!" The sisters hug each other as their other sister put the plate full of cookies on the table.

"How about some music, DJ Mika?" Mika's elder sisters teases a bit.

With a snap of her fingers, a beautiful melody they all enjoyed plays about the room they are in until the song turned into screaming.

"Mika!" Solaris calls and reaches out to her eldest sister as a shadow pulls her further from her sister covering her nose with a handkerchief that made her sister fall asleep.

"Save us, Mika!" Ansley crawls towards her sister's feet but as the young Mika pulled her elder sister up, a boa slithers from her feet encircling her fair-skinned sister's body until she's unconscious.

The figures fade to black and a booming voice replaces her sisters' screams. "You will pay for everything, Mika! My revenge is well on its way to you!"

The voice seems to surround her and close in on her with an evil cackle at the end. Fright made the young girl's heart pound, soak her in her own sweat as uneasiness, fear and

the thumping sound of her heart woke her up to the continuously ringing alarm. Finally, she felt some warmth on her cheeks, that gave her discomfort in knowing it was again a dream.

She habitually clicked the alarm off and blinked sadly and slowly, even squinting her eyes from the light entering her room. She puts on her glasses as a sigh passed off her lips. "Just a dream but I may have to write this again like before when these vivid ones appear," she thought.

As she was preparing her breakfast, her thoughts go to being responsible for her sisters' deaths. "If our parents have just believed me and let me accompany my sisters or anything just to save them, this would not have happened."

'I may be okay alone but my sisters are precious too. I did not wish for this God, but please help me at least find out what actually happened to my sisters."

Writing everything in her diary, a ring from her phone startled her. "Hey, Mika. How are you doing?"

"I'm pretty fine, Farrah. But all these deaths still make me feel so vulnerable to even think I caused them," she replied back to her friend/therapist.

"I presume you're writing your dreams, right?" the therapist confirmed.

"Yes and...wait, what if I solve these mysterious deaths just through clues from my sisters' things, web accounts, news and whatnot?" Mika said having a eureka moment.

"Would you want me to help you on this?" Farrah asked again.

"If you are willing." Mika sipped her chai as she waited for a reply from the other line.

"I'll join you then," the therapist's voice sounded hopeful. "I also would want to know what actually happened to my bestfriend."

"Let's start tomorrow for my day off."

***

Walking home with earphones in, Mika passed by an antique store which has this coiled green and copper serpent pendant. She took a picture of it and wondered where she had seen the symbol. Unknowingly, a man bumped onto her purposefully shaking her up from the daze she had on her phone. "Watch where you're going, four-eyes!"

She glanced back at the buff guy and shook her head. "So mean," she thought. "May karma hit you hard."

***

Concurrently, the buff man called Jafet texted his boss, a lady who's the current mayor of Mika's hometown and leader of the Copper Serpent Crew named Lynda. "Boss, I found the target and located her in Mayfield Apartment, second floor."

"Good job, Jafet. Now to execute plan C for the third sister," the lady grinned devilishly and called her twin brothers after.

"Twins, I want you both to search for Mika Manlagnit in Ichabod City. Jafet said she's in Mayfield Apartment in the second floor. Search for where she is located in that floor and report to me where she goes."

Smiling in her villanous grin and luck, Lynda thought, "Your time is up, Mika. Tick tock, little country mouse!"

***

The naturally copper-haired lass immediately prepared and ate dinner and went to reading her notes sitting in her bed. With the cold air of the electric fan, Mika's eyes slowly went heavy and she fell asleep sitting. In her bathroom window, a firefly entered and travelled in towards her bedroom. It looked like that little bright bug is finding her. And after an hour of almost flying, it finds her lying in bed in a fetal position facing her left. Sobs can be heard from the young lady and as her tears rolled down her cheeks, the glowing fly landed on her tears as if kissing her sadness away.

In her dream state, Solaris appears before her sister, "Mika, my lovely little sis, find this pendant in the large pink shoebox I kept in my old room at home."

Mika stares and sees the same pendant she took picture of as she was walking home that day. "Wha...w-why?"

As she glances back at her sister, she is already fading. "Manay Sol, wait! What do I do with this? What does this pendant mean? Wait!"

With her last scream in the dream, a song played from her phone signalling a call for her. Mika reached out to her phone and found it under her notes. "Hey, Farrah!" The young lass yawns and scratches her eyes.

"What time do we..." the therapist was cut off as Mika replied, "Oh, no! What time is it now?"

The sleepy girl looked at her clock as the therapist immediately replied, "It's still okay for us to prepare for our mission today, Mika. Don't worry it's just 7:30 am."

The copper-skinned girl relaxed. "Okay, I'll call you by 8:15 or 8:30. I'll just prepare. I'll be going to your clinic. I have to tell you something about my dream last night."

In a hurry, Mika went to Farrah's clinic to tell her what happened. "I'll start from the very start when I went home yesterday."

The part-time barista retraced her story from when she took a picture of a pendant that showed up in her dream.

"And then my kinda murky dream was like this: I saw Manay Sol with hikers. They planted seedlings and then, they kinda reached the summit of a mountain and watched the sunrise. This made me feel my tears roll down from my cheeks. Then, the next part was so chaotic: Manay was thrown off the mountain; the perpetrator was mugged by some of her colleagues; I searched for where Manay is and was screaming but the people in my dream doesn't seem to see or hear me, some of her colleagues ran to help her and she mentioned a name, 'Jafet'; and then all of them even my sister was hit by a branch that the suspect grabbed somewhere in that summit.

'I still tried to grab my sister's hand to save her from falling off the mountain, but everything went black. And then she appeared again, told me to find a pendant in her large pink shoebox in her old room at home. Then I woke up." Mika looked down at her lap and bit her lip to avoid herself from crying.

Farrah hugged her and said, "This will fall into pieces soon. Right now what we can do is gather information on that pendant you showed me, why it is connected to your sister and who is that Jafet guy and if he is involved in killing your sister."

***

Mika has her afternoon shift that Saturday she and Farrah discovered some clues as to what happened to one of her sisters, so she went to the café right after lunch. But even the avid customers of the café she's working can see that she is bothered. Observing this, her boss told her to get in the office for awhile.

"Mika, how are you doing at work so far?" Her boss, motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs.

"I am fine, boss." A smile spread across her lips hiding her thoughts about her sisters.

"Are you sure? Because you seem not yourself this afternoon," the lady looked at her employee worriedly.

"I think I'm just jittery about the midterm exams, Ma'am. Nothing too serious." She smiled uneasily again.

"Why don't you take a short break and just sort yourself out?" Mika's boss worriedly smiled.

Mika nodded and went out of the boss's office and climbed to the rooftop of the building by a back staircase. She untied her apron, folded it and put it on her lap. A couple of sighs passed out of her. "This is not what I intended to be feeling. I should feel relief instead."

She was still brooding and lamenting on her fate when she was disconcerted by a familiar husky baritone voice calling out to her. "Fellow newbie, hey!" She turned towards the sound.

"Oh, hey. Uh, Nico right?" She gazed at the young man towering as he stood then slowly descended into sitting next to her.

"Nig-uh..Jojo, fellow newbie," he scooted closer which made Mika move a bit farther to give space to her companion and to give him a hint that she wants to be alone. "I saw you were not yourself today. Care to tell me what's happening?"

"Why? So you'd make a story out of it making me a villain in there?" She crossed and folded her arms in front of her, biting her lower lip bitterly.

"No, you're like an inspiration to me ever since we were hired." He stopped for a moment glancing repeatedly to his workmate. "When we work, it's like you were born as a barista. You always ace on making those drinks that make the customers smile and change moods. Its surreal actually but I am a fan."

"Well, thank you for that but I don't need your praise. I'm outta here." Mika put on her apron, stood and walked away from her fellow barista.

Nigel aka Jojo sprung from his seat and blocked her from walking away. "Wait, Mika, I just want to help! Even if it's just about sharing your burden. Someone once told me, 'There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you, help you.' Not that I love you, I mean we're but workmates in this café."

The young man cleared his throat and dusted off his shirt. "You see, when you share your worries and let others help you on it, it gets halved. And sooner or later, you'll find yourself solving whatever you are weighed down of and then, you'll find yourself happy. If you share that happiness you feel too, it gets doubled."

"You are so persistent, aren't you?" Mika massages her forehead and sits back at her spot again. "Alright, Persistent Mr. Jojo, do sit beside me and I'll tell you a tale you will never like."

"Avoidant Ms. Mika, tales are essential for humans to express, suppress and develop themselves and their culture. So, whatever that is, I won't judge you." The young man smiled at her before looking at the sky and stretching his legs a bit forward before getting back to sitting cross-legged on the rooftop's floor.

"Well, one of my friends thought that she may have initiated the death of her sisters through a person who has this deep envy towards them. She also sent me this picture of a pendant which recurred in her dreams. I even accompanied her to one of my therapist friends to make her calm because the pendant is bothering her in every dream she had for the past few days already." The copper-haired girl seemed to shrunk smaller as she told the story to her workmate. She hugged her legs close to her body and bit her lip suppressing her tears. "I don't know what I'd feel if I was in that situation as hers." She glanced at Nigel and shook her head.

"Maybe my brother can help her. I'll send you his business card later since I don't have an afternoon shift. I'm planning to go to his office later anyway," he said looking hopeful at his fellow barista. "For now, I think I'll accompany you downstairs. Our avid customers are waiting for your drinks now."

Mika thanked Nigel heading back to the kitchen and the young man smiled. "Your problem will be solved soon, lady."

***

"Manay, we have already installed hidden cameras and recorders inside her room. We must commence plan C soon," one of the twin brothers called their sister/boss in the revenge operation.

"Good, very good! Has anyone seen you or knew you there?" their treacherous elder sister asked for confirmation.

One of the twins named Lance recalled his last visit in the café with Jafet. He saw a few people looking at them but he suspected none of those people knew them. "No. No one knew our presence here." Lance shook his head even if his sister can't see him. "Later, we will start the recordings so we can start plan C."

"At last, our plans are unfolding and falling in place and in our favor." A sly grin gradually spread across Lance's elder sister's face.

***

Ding!

"Oh, this must be Jojo's message!" Mika stopped eating her dinner for awhile and rushed to open her phone. Her workmate sent her an image of a business card showing who she would find in the agency to help her.

Mr. Nigel Ramirez, Detective

Go Figure Protective and Detective Services Agency

2nd Floor Salvation Sanctuary Bldg., Ichabod City

Office hours: 8 AM to 8 PM weekdays, 8 AM to 4 PM weekends

"That's the building in front of the coffee shop. Strange!" The young lady immediately told Farrah about it in a call.

"Woah, really? That's so kind of Jojo to help you." Farrah smiled on the other side of the phone. "I'll also see if it's legit because scams are rampant nowadays."

"Yeah, thank you. And you really are right that everything will be falling to pieces soon." Mika wiped some tear from her right eye. "This is such good news before Christmas."

Her therapist confirmed it to be a real agency and with that, the young lass told her workmate that her friend will visit the next day to his brother's office.

The next day, Mika visited the office. "I'm looking for this man?" She showed the business card to the front desk personnel.

"Do you have any appointment with him?" the lady asked her.

"Uhm, actually a friend of mine recommended him to me...sort of?" The young girl smiled a bit uneasily.

"Alright, I'll notify him if he received an appointment today because I think it may have not been written here yet." The front desk personnel instantly called Nigel from a telephone in the booth.

After a few seconds, "Ma'am, you may get in the office."

"Thank you so much." She smiled to the lady who assisted her and walked fast to the office suggested to her.

Tok tok!

"Come in, please." A man hollered from inside the room and Mika opened the door.

"Good day, si-" the girl stopped midsentence as her brain registered that the man before her looked familiar.

"I was expecting you, Ms. Mika Manlagnit." Nigel slowly took off his glasses and looked at her smiling.

"Jojo?" The young barista froze at her spot.

"I thought you'd find out later." The young man pouted a bit. "But I also found out that it is you and not some random friend you have who needs help."

A grin spread across his lips as he gestured for her to sit down on one of the chairs. "I can memorize faces and less of names but you looked so familiar that when you put down your glasses, I knew you were Jojo. Are you stalking me?"

"Heck, no. Your sisters' case is my first one to solve but the information I have here is scarce because of lack of evidences and I know something is not right..."

"Like someone planned it?" Mika completed his statement.

"Exactly." Nigel snapped his fingers. "About my disguise as Jojo, I ask you to let that be our secret and I was in disguise because I was protecting you. Two people have actually been following you in the café. One of my workmates here reported that to me one time they visited me in the café."

The girl gasped, "Have you seen them? What time do those people appear in the café?"

"The first man who appears at about the first hour every afternoon when you have whole day shifts except yesterday looks buff, has this grey fedora on and a large tattered coat. The other one is slimmer and appears on half day shifts except yesterday which was strange."

"Why didn't you tell me? How long have they been doing that?" Mika's hands trembled a bit as she bit her lip in fright and worry.

"About a month now since we both got in the café. One time they actually ordered in the menu and I got their face." Nigel showed her a picture of two men.

"Brent and Lance Corteros? Where have I seen these two men?" Mika remembers something from her childhood. "If my memory is still fine, they're about two years ahead of me at school. I'll access their social media accounts if those two are really from the same school I attended."

The girl scrolled through her phone and found some younger pictures the men have saved in their accounts. "Confirmed, they are my schoolmates. Wait, those two were my bullies before. Brent gave me outrageous gifts to silence me from their bullying and Lance would be the messenger and bodyguard of his twin for the people they bully."

"What happened to them now?" Nigel pulled back the files.

"I am not sure though. All I know and the last time I saw them was before my sisters died. Brent sent me gifts since he started high school and I would either give those gifts to people or sell them to my classmates. I store the money in a bank account." Mika said. "I don't know why he's so obsessed but if he would be the only living guy here on earth during an apocalypse, I'd rather die unmarried."

"You really are disgusted, huh?" Her friend chuckled as she slipped a smile to him. Mika stopped for a second, realizing something.

"I may add some info to that case of my sisters after my midterm exams since I'd be getting back home for a few days, but I just noticed something. What is the connection of those twins to my sisters' death?" The copper-haired barista put her chin atop her right hand.

"You're not alone in wondering, Miss. Oh, would you like me to help you in finding more info for this case?" Ramirez, in a friendly gesture, suggested.

"Maybe you could be of help. Okay then, accompany me next time I go back in my hometown."

***

"I overheard that Mika will be getting home in Rowan. Brent, what is written in our next step?" The lady boss asked her younger brother.

"The day the girl goes home, her parents would vanish," Brent replied with a malevolent grin.

"Plan C is getting exciting!" A hearty but wicked laugh coming from the eldest sister ended the call between the siblings.

***

Mika passed a note to Nigel after sending her leave form to their boss.

Go to rooftop by 3, I'll be waiting there.

Mika

When Mika asked for a break, she immediately went to the rooftop and soon enough, Nigel followed after her. "I'd be going home Wednesday to look for more clues in my sisters' rooms. We'd go to the train station by 6 am so we can find more stuff."

"Alright I'll be there. Anything more?" Nigel waited for her answer.

"Let's see, maybe bring a few clothes. There's a chance we'll stay there for a few days." Mika nodded and let out a huff. "See you on Wednesday."

They both ran back to the café kitchen and continued their work. "Wow, fastest break yet in this café's history. Was Jojo with you?" one of their workmates from the kitchen asked the young lady.

"I-uh...no. Why would he accompany me or something?" A blush increasingly spread on her cheeks heating her face then her whole body. She lowered her head and exhaled a fit of air to regulate her body's sudden warming.

"Okay! Chill, dude." The larger dark-haired lady held her hands up and chuckled nervously. "Don't be defensive, man."

"Who's defensive?" Nigel walked inside the kitchen and clipped another order.

***

"So...the train would have eight stops before we reach my hometown. We will be going out at the ninth stop, which would be in Rowan. We will either ride a rickshaw or walk from the terminal straight to my home which is just a few meters away. Since it would be a bit of a long ride, we can recharge sleep losses with snoozes in the journey," Mika explained things to her city-born workmate as he munches his chicken burrito. "Farrah knows that since we're both from the same town. By the way, will you be visiting your siblings, too?"

"I think I would surprise them, yes." The therapist smiled and soon enough was the one to fall asleep since she's by the window. After a few minutes, Mika soon dozed off unknowingly laying her head against Nigel's left shoulder. The young man panicked a bit but slowly wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulder so she would not fall off her seat.

Meanwhile, Mika sees her second eldest sister moving her wheelchair towards her companions to help them clean the beach. This makes the young lady smile at her sister's presence. "How I missed that smile, Manay An!"

But then, the smile is short-lived because chaos ensues soon after. Ansley is hit hard by a ball tipping her wheelchair to throw her into sea. At first, Ansley is still crawling out onto the sands and is being rescued by her companions but as the waves grew stronger, Ansley and some of her companions are carried out further from the shore, making some of them drown, while some continue saving Ansley but she perishes. Mika feels such immense pain from it as she watches her sister float in the deep sea. The dream scene fades into black and then, Ansley calls her sister, "Mika, please don't be sad. Be brave little sis. Manay Sol and I will not leave you alone. You can still visit us through here but, please solve our deaths. I have a hunch who killed us but I may not be sure. If you know of a lady who possesses an intertwined copper snake for a pendant, she's the one who killed both of us. She each gave us that pendant that we never wore. I discovered that it is a tracking device so please crush it once you have solved our deaths. We will always love you, sister."

Outside her mind, Mika's tears are rolling slowly down her cheeks which made Nigel jump for the second time. He slowly wiped her tear with his pinky finger. "Don't worry, we are near the answers."

Mika's face calmed and involuntarily, her arms hugged Nigel. "I will fulfill your wishes, Manay An and Manay Sol."

After about a few minutes, Farrah woke up to see that both Mika and Nigel were asleep. The therapist found it a bit funny looking at how the two sat beside each other: Nigel's left arm is loosely hugging Mika as her left wrist is rested on the edge of his right lap. But this scene put the lady to tears when she remembered Ansley.

***

Once they reached Mika's home, her parents were surprised of the guests she brought. "Farrah, Nigel. Welcome to our home!"

"Dad, when did you know Nigel? What's happening here?" Mika was left a mute after knowing Nigel and her father knew each other.

"He's one of the few people trusted by the police in our town to ensure safety for you in Ichabod City. They recommended him to us and some time before you went to college, we met him for that purpose," her father smiled in great gratitude to the man and pat Mika's head. "We are in great gratitude to you, young man."

"My pleasure, sir." Nigel smiled.

"By the way, Dad we'll be finding clues from my sisters' stuff since they're always in my dreams. They must be giving me clues of what happened to them before the alleged accidents," Mika straightforwardly said. "And we'll possibly spend a few days here again."

"If you need help, we'll be right in the kitchen, okay?" Mika's mother hugged her. After Mika's parents exited to the kitchen, the three talked in the living room to plan their search. "I think we can split the job," Farrah suggested.

"But if one of us finishes first, we must help the other in the search," Mika added agreeing to Farrah's suggestion.

Mika's friends nodded. "I'll go to Ansley's room. You two go in Solaris' room," Farrah volunteered.

***

Mika opened her sister's room and memories flooded in making her tear up a bit. "Her room is unmoved. This is where I have spent a part of my life before and..."

The young lady's right fist clenched as Nigel gently held her left hand. "We will solve this. I promise you that."

The young man, then, hugged her as she let her sadness and grief flow out sharing it to her friend.

***

"We will bring justice to you Ansley," Farrah thought as she hugged the stuffed toy she won for her friend which was placed in her bed. Her tears rolled down her cheeks and suddenly a cold wind caressed on her face.

"Ansley, are you here?" the therapist whispered. Unexpectedly, a firefly appeared and landed on Farrah's nose as if saying, 'We will solve this puzzling case. We will help you.'

Seeing this, Farrah's sadness turned into joy even if her tears kept rolling down her cheeks. She wiped it off her face and tried to smile again. The glowing bug then flew to a cabinet. Farrah opened it and it revealed a diary, some printed conversations from FaceMessenger and a serpent necklace. "What the hell?"

***

Mika, surprised of her hug to her friend, pulled off from it and wiped her tears. "Don't tell anyone I cried." She sharply looked at Nigel. The young man exchanged a smug look and sighed.

"You're not weak and it's normal to cry. Even I did when my parents died. But that's not the point. Right now, we have to find Solaris' clues that may lead us to solving this case." The young man started to pull cabinets open and take the things out carefully.

After about half an hour of finding clues, a firefly entered the room and landed on this certain brown cabinet that looked off in the bright pink room. Mika poked her friend on the arm, "Hey, let's try this one."

The two pulled open the cabinet and found a pink shoe box. "This what she told me in my dream, Nigel." Together, they found a diary, photographs of Solaris and her bestfriend, and a serpent necklace.

"This is it." The two looked at each other.

***

By lunchtime, the three discussed what they found out in the rooms.

"As far as I know, the people who own this customized serpent necklaces are part of Copper Serpent Crew," Nigel said.

"But in both their diaries, they weren't part of that awful band of people," Mika added.

Farrah's hand shot up. "Ansley explained that they were both given chances to join that group but she and Solaris both refused. If we have these information, would it not make the siblings move forward to their next plan like hurt one or more from Mika's family?" Farrah asked Nigel.

"We really should be wary of them." Nigel pondered. "Before we went here, my agency alerted the police here so the Manlagnit's would be safe. I already saw some of them in disguise earlier as we went in here."

"We are in great debt to you, Nigel," Mika made a small bow to her friend who helped her so much.

"Whomever I can help, I will help in as much as I can."

***

As night cloaked the sky with a dark sparkly blanket, the Cortreros twins parked their motorcycle just outside the Manlagnit household. Cops in disguise readied themselves to get in the household if commotion comes.

"Hey, Mika. Long time no see, darling. Where is your father?" Brent pulled Mika to his side, almost kissing her.

The lady looked at her furiously and signalled Farrah to scream. "Help! We're being robbed!"

Soon enough the cops rushed in. "Hands up! We have a warrant of arrest for you and your siblings' faction for killing innocent people."

"That is fake! You have no proof!" Brent shouted and pointed a gun at the policemen. Lance shot Mika but as he was going to do so, Nigel rushed to disarm the twin so the bullet struck a wall. "Darn!"

"That's what you think. Aren't recordings, hidden videos and recorded calls from sim providers not good enough proof for you to be arrested?" Nigel struggled to keep the braver twin at bay. Thinking about Brent doing a shot to get revenge for disarming his brother, Mika's father dashed to the other twin and disarmed him, too.

With this, the cops cuffed the twins. "You'll do the explaining when we get to the office. Anything you say can and will be used against you if you step on the wrong path, dudes."

But as they are walking out the gate, Mika remembered that both her sisters knew of a girl who wore a serpent pendant and that she's the mind behind the deaths. She wants to confirm if that girl is who she knows she is. "Wait, I still have to ask the twins about something." She hurriedly grabbed the picture from her eldest sister's room.

The cops stopped and made the twins face the young lady for a moment. "Do you know the people in this image?"

Lance rolled his eyes and said, "That's your sister on the left and our eldest sister on the right, the one with the copper pendant. Don't you recognize them?"

"I knew it. She's the leader of the Copper Serpent Crew. Take them to jail." Mika's eyes were filled with anger and grief. Her parents immediately hugged her from behind as the policemen dragged the twins to their car.

***

Trials proceeded soon after and every proof Mika and Nigel gave to the lawyers really added depth to the case showing what actually happened to the sisters. Even the autopsy showed signs that point to Mika's dreams to be on point on what happened to her sisters. As the trials progressed, Lynda was added to the perpetrator.

"Did you kill the sisters?" The trial lawyer for Mika's family asked Lynda.

"They deserved that because their father robbed our father's true love."

Everyone gasped. "Care to elaborate why and what happened?"

"My father loved Solaris' mother during their younger years and by the time they were about to get married, Solaris' mom called it off. Likewise, Solaris always gave me a reason to get jealous even with the leadership camp we were both supposed to go but I did not join because she did not help me." Lynda's eyes are flamed and fumed with great madness. "Ansley is a conniving force with her sister so I killed her, too. Mika would be the next since she is the haughtiest of them all."

Until the last trial, the siblings and their minion, Jafet all had been proven guilty for killing the sisters though they felt no guilt for the deceased sisters. Lynda was put in an institution for her dwindling mental health while her brothers and minion were in jail for being the perpetrators for the killings. Mika crushed the pendants given to her sisters and deleted the image of it in her phone.

***

"Do you think they'll be at peace now?" Mika rested her head on Nigel's shoulder as they both looked at the lovely starry night sky, months later after the trial had the final verdict.

"I think they may be smiling down at you and your family, being proud that you solved their unusual deaths." Nigel combed her hair gently using his left hand fingers. A kiss on Mika's forehead followed after.

"I think I should transfer to a better apartment building. What do you think?" Mika glanced at her friend.

"Your choice."