{{Alice pulled out the black velvet. The cloth for her dress. Velvet, with black satin gloves.

This was going to be the perfect murder. Carefully planned out, she would kill them. No problem at all. And because of it, she would be feared by all those goons in the underworld.}}

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Domhnull sat in his apartment. It was completely dark, save for a single, small desk lamp on the floor where he was writing. It was easier this way. It was easier to get into the mood of the story he was writing if he was in the dark

The walls were completely filled. He was currently working on copying down what he had from the walls to his typewriter, and continuing with the story. With some luck, the story would be done by the end of the month. He would know what would happen to Alice. And if he were lucky, he might even get a publishing company to take a look at his work.

The apartment was filled with papers. The inside of his closet had folders full of books that he had written, that publishers hadn’t even bothered to look at. After the first two times, he had stopped writing them by hand. It was obvious they wouldn’t like that. But he needed to figure out what they did want. There were hundreds of famous novelist that he knew he could outdo. If only he had something that caught people’s eye.

A sudden knock on the door pulled Domhnull out of his stupor. He stood quickly and jumped over the couch to reach the door. He opened it a small amount, the chain holding him back from pulling it further. Outside was a girl with black hair and blue eyes. He was about to ask who she was, when he recognized her. He quickly shut the door and pulled the chain back, before opening the rest of the way.

“Emily!” he said, smiling. “What’d you do to your hair?”

“You like it?” she asked, running her hands through it. “I thought maybe I could try black hair for a little while.”

“It looks good,” he said. “It’s very different. What’s up?”

“I thought maybe we could go out and get a bite to eat together,” she said.

“Um………” Domhnull hesitated. “Now’s not a good time. I’m a little busy.”

“Oh,” she said, quietly. “Okay. Well, then……I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah. See you later.”

Domhnull watched as she walked away, looking dejected. He shook his own, naturally black hair out of his eyes before turning back into the room and shutting the door. He didn’t like turning her away like that, but he really did have work to do. He didn’t want to be a gravedigger his whole life.

“What I need,” Domhnull said, quietly. “is the publicity.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

James flipped through the files that the Chief had just dropped off. It was one in the morning, but it really didn’t matter. As it turned out, after what he had sent that night, he couldn’t get to sleep. He was even almost afraid to.

“Man,” he groaned. “what kind of crazy fuck kills a guy with seven other people in the same building? What kind of crazy fuck can kill somebody with seven other people around, and still get away with it?”

The whole bizarreness of the situation was enough to drive any detective up the wall. The fact was, there was no way that the manager could have been stabbed in the head, had body parts dug out, and had a shelf smashed on him without anybody in there noticing until it was too late. Even then, wouldn’t the person seemed suspicious in the first place, with bloody hands and clothes? And had the person even left the store after the murder was committed? If not, then which of the people with their names taken down had done it, and how were they able to cover it?

“Dammit,” James swore again.

“You shouldn’t swear.”

James spun around in his chair to see his ten-year-old sister, Emma, standing in the doorway. She was in her pajamas, looking tired and slightly irritated.

“What are you doing up?” James asked. “You’ve got school tomorrow.”

“What are you doing up?” Emma asked back. “You have work tomorrow.”

“I have paper work to do,” James said, rubbing his eyes.

“You should have done your homework earlier, then,” Emma said, smiling slightly and raising an eyebrow.

Normally James would have been happy to play along. Things were happier between the two of them when there was a little friendly teasing. But tonight he just wasn’t up to it.

“Emma, just go to bed,” James said, irritably. “I don’t want you worn out. You have to actually learn something.”

Emma scuffed the floor slightly, and sighed. “Alright,” she said, finally. “But you get some sleep. You have something to learn tomorrow too.”

She closed the door behind her. James sighed again. Emma was right, he did have something to learn tomorrow. He should at least make an attempt at sleeping.

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Notes: I updated. Yay. Not quite as exciting as the last chapter. But still a big plot bunny. Please review!