Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Oh, well shame on her, lying is very bad.” She looked at me reproachfully as if I had been the one in the wrong. “You’re not a nice person if you lie to people you just met.”
“Really? And what does that say about you then, huh?” I asked her with my arms crossed over my chest. “Since you’ve been lying to us from the beginning.
“I’ve not been lying.” She batted her eyes and gave me an innocent look.
“Really? So, you were at the show tonight?” Athair m貌r asked her with a frown on his face.
“Of course I was. Where else would I have been? Everyone was at the show.” She was putting on an air of confusion. “When the show started, I saw that Glory was standing on top of a floating star made of pure light. There were giant people created with her magic and I saw that the show was filled with lots of love and emotion. And then.. and then.. then.. I..I..-” I saw that Hibiscus was giving Aunt Glory a confused look. “I don’t remember what happened next. Why can’t I remember?”
“Oh Bissy?” Aunt Glory took her hand and held it tightly as she tried to sooth her friend. “I think you might have been controlled by someone.”
“Controlled? What are you talking about, Glory? I don’t remember anything like that ever happening to me.” Hibiscus was shaking her head gently from side to side. “Wouldn’t I know it if I had been controlled?”
“No, the others didn’t know it.” Aunt Glory was speaking to her in a soothing way. “The others had all been completely unaware that it had happened to them until after it was all over. I am sure that you couldn’t have known.”
“R..r..really?” Hibiscus started to tremble even more. “I was being controlled by someone? B..but why? What did they make me do?”
“From the looks of it, they made you kill Frida.” Joaquin dropped that bomb on Hibiscus, and I watched as she crumpled in on herself. I had to wonder though, was it real? I hadn’t met Hibiscus before. I didn’t know how she usually acted or what she usually looked like. For that matter, it was hard for me to know for certain what exactly was happening with her. Not to mention, I had never interviewed any of the others that had been controlled, so I didn’t exactly have anything to base my suspicions on.
I was going to hold onto my reservations about Hibiscus though. Until I got to the bottom of this she was still on my radar. She might be able to slide past the others, but she wasn’t going to slide past me.
“OK, Hibiscus, you say that you remember the beginning of the light show, and what you said adds up. Can you tell me what the next thing that you remember is? Was there anyone around you that was acting funny? Did you see anyone or anything that you didn’t recognize? Anything at all that was out of the ordinary that you might be able to remember?”
I was still pressing her like she was a suspect, and I could tell that it was making Aunt Glory angry. She wanted me to let Hibiscus be so that she could cope and recover. That would all come in time, though. I still had questions to ask her and I didn’t mind playing the bad cop if I had to. Someone had to do it.
“Riviana, I don’t-.”
“No, there was no one out of the ordinary. I didn’t sense or see anything.” Hibiscus was shaking her head as she answered me. She had interrupted Aunt Glory who seemed like she was about to tell me to stop with the interrogation.
“Nothing? Absolutely nothing at all?” I asked her with a raised brow. I didn’t believe that there was absolutely nothing that she had seen or heard. “Think really hard for me.” I asked her with a firm tone in my voice. Aunt Glory’s frown that she was giving me deepened, but she didn’t say anything as she looked from where I was standing to Hibiscus’s chair.
“No, I really don’t think-.” She was about to deny it again but then she stopped. “Wait, there was something. There was a man dressed all in black. I thought that was weird, given that it was the light festival after all. He was standing near the back of the row I was in at the amphitheater. I didn’t see his face that well, but I know that I hadn’t ever seen him before.”
“Can you describe the man? What his clothes looked like and what his hair, eyes, and face looked like?”
“I can try.” She nodded.
“Can I get a pen and some paper?” I asked Aunt Glory before Hibiscus started the description. They were given to me immediately, magically of course, so I then motioned to Hibiscus to continue.
“OK, well, I saw that his hair was a shiny, silver color that was shimmering every time one of Glory’s lights glinted off of it. His eyes were in a shadow, but they looked to be silver as well. He was pale, so pale that his black clothes made his skin look pure white.”
“That’s good so far.” I encouraged her to continue as I wrote the coloring down on the paper. “Can you tell me if he had a narrow face or wide face?” I asked this question and when I got the answer that I needed I moved on, drawing what she told me. Piece by piece I added the features to the face that I was drawing. It wasn’t as good as Juniper’s would have been if she drew it, but I have to say that I think it turned out to be just what we needed.
When I showed the picture to Hibiscus she gasped.
“That’s him.” And I could tell from the look on their faces that Aunt Glory and Athair m貌r knew who that man was. So, that should make it easy to find and identify him.
****
Riviana
****
I was a little lost in thought while Aunt Glory and Athair m貌r said good night to Hibiscus and summoned a few of Aunt Glory’s guards to take her home. They didn’t want to chance that someone might come after her again while she was on her way back home.
I wasn’t as worried about Hibiscus, for some reason, something was telling me she wasn’t in any danger. I could feel Joaquin’s eyes on me as I thought about what it was that we needed to do next. I knew there was something that he wanted to say to me, but I could also tell that he didn’t want to say it here.
When I turned to look at him, I saw that there was a serious look in his eyes, but that seriousness was also mixed with a good amount of confusion. There was a lot that we needed to talk about, but I wanted to wait until it was just me and him. I didn’t think that it was a good idea for Aunt Glory and Athair m貌r to hear what it was that I had to say right now.
“Go straight home, Bissy, do not stop anywhere else. The guards will see you to your door. And over the next few days I will make sure that there is someone outside your house at all times. You won’t be alone at all, I promise. There won’t be anything for you to be afraid of while they are there.”
“Thank you so much, Glory. You truly are the best friend that I could ask for.” Hibiscus gave a forced smile, fighting past the grief she was feeling.
“I will be coming to see you soon, Bissy, count on that, alright?”
“Glory and I will be in touch soon.” Athair m貌r added.
“Thank you, Valerian, you’ve always been like a brother to me.” She gave him a grin then, a look that didn’t seem to be holding the grief from just a moment ago.
I watched as the guards surrounded Hibiscus and led her out of the room, their eyes vigilantly watching their surroundings. I wish I believed in Hibiscus like the others seem to. That would be better. I really didn’t want to have to tell my aunt that I suspected her best friend of more than she was letting on.
When Aunt Glory turned to look at me, I knew that she was going to ask me if I still thought that Hibiscus was the one behind all of this.
“Riviana, what should we do now?” She sat across from me and looked me in the eyes.
