Aurora Heroux

12 | Digging Through The Past

AURORA'S POV

"I hope there's good news for me, Luna." Luna sighed heavily when she's at the door. "Close the door." She took a step forward and closed the door behind her.

"I've been working my ass off searching for these. You better forge those report card of mine." Did Luna just ... she wants me to help her cheat?! "You know perfectly well that cheating is against school rules. What did you found out?" Luna took a seat in front of me and sighed heavily.

"A lot of things. Dark, gore things that I never expect existed before." She gave me a couple of thick envelopes she carried earlier and let me opened it. I took the brown envelope first and looked at the content.

"Pictures of the crime scene and weapons that were used." She explained.

The first picture that greeted me was the picture of Lord Abel's corpse who's hugging his wife. "The weapon that was used was this ax." She pointed at the picture not far from where I'm looking at. I took that picture and looked at it thoroughly.

"The bodies of Lord Abel's kids were scattered throughout the mansion. The first daughter, who's married a baron not long before they were attacked, she was pregnant." She pointed at the picture of bloodiest bloodbath I've ever seen.

"The police knew that she's expecting after they found the unborn child was forcefully taken out from its mother's womb."She showed me a picture.

"Jesus Christ." I looked away.

"See. Told ya I've been through hell. The other picture is parts of limbs from the other children of Lord Abel. They were dismembered in such cold-blooded way that the police need almost 2 months just to find every single limb that was scattered."

How can someone be this cruel towards another human being?

"Where's the proof of Lady Charlotte's death?" I asked.

"That's what puzzled me." Puzzle? I looked up to Luna. "The police never found a complete part of a body from the mansion that describes Lady Charlotte. They did find a burnt corpse inside the Lady's bedroom. The police assume it's her because she was wearing the family's necklace."

"This." I know this necklace.

Charlotte always wore them whenever we play together. "So they assume Lady Charlotte was burned alive?" Luna nodded. "There's something perk my interest. It's in the second envelope." I placed the pictures down and opened the second envelope.

"Stocks, bonds, investment, it's simply disappeared. It's like Lord Abel never even existed. His legacy is all gone." That's Impossible. "Lord Abel was well known for his sincerity and kindness towards other people. His business and companies he owned should There's no way he's simply gone."

I looked through the paper. She's right, there's no trace of Lord Abel's wealth in any records. What's going on here? I remember him like it was just yesterday.

He came from a renowned noble family that dates back for hundreds of years. He's filthy rich! "Something fishy going on here. Anyway, did you find anything about Maya?"

Luna nodded.

"There's something that I found unsettling. When Maya was found, the Clementine brought her to the hospital for wounds, wounds that resembles a knife or something sharp through her body. Lady Harmony requested that the hospital forge the paperwork regarding the injuries for safety measure because of the assassination."

Wait, did Lady Harmony ..... "Aurora I think Lady Harmony was the one who saves her from those people who try to kill Maya or Charlotte. I think Maya is Charlotte." I stopped her.

"We don't have enough proof. We need more proof. I don't want assumption I want solid proof stating she's Charlotte."

"May I suggest something?" Thea suddenly appeared from the veranda door. "Take Maya down to memory lane. To the mansion. Your family sealed the Mansion am I right? Your father was Lord Abel's best friend after all." Thea suggested.

That's not a bad idea. If she suffers amnesia, she might remember something from 13 years ago. Just maybe...

If she is Charlotte... "I need to talk to Lady Harmony about this. If she's the one who saves Maya or Charlotte from the nightmare, she will know what really happened inside Lord Abel's mansion on that dreadful night." This is rather surprising.

"Do you find anything about the servants?" Luna scattered the papers and showed me a piece that enlisted the servants. "The head maid, head guard, head chef. Every single one of them is on the list." The dark truth about the people who work for us.

Some say my family will suffer the same consequence like Lord Abel's if we keep on hiring an enemy assassin to work under us. But I don't mind at all and as well as my family. Death comes when you least expect it. That's the law of life in this world.

"Not even one of the maids were killed that night. They all disappeared. Not even a trace of them inside the mansion when the police came." Luna explained. Thea was behind me.

"How did the police know about the incident then?" Thea asked. "Their neighbor reported about the fire coming from several rooms."

Luna did a good job finding the reports. Thea was looking through the crime scene photos while I read the reports thoroughly.

"Hey, hun, look at this." Thea pointed out one of the weapons. "This looks awfully familiar, don't you think?" Thea's finger tap on the picture.

"Really? From?"

"Remember that museum we go to on our vacation last time?" I think for a second.

"You mean the torture museum?" Thea nodded. "They use this weapon to gut a person out. It's a form of ancient execution for prisoner of war." Luna suddenly slammed her hand.

"Gut a person out?!" She half yelled while frantically search through the pictures.

"One of the sons, his internal organs were gutted out. The killer took its time to display the organs around the corpse. The victim's face was slice repeatedly as well. Every s***h was filled with hatred." She read through the report and showed me a picture.

"Jesus!" I looked away when she shoved the picture to me. "Honey, I think we should go to the mansion and see for yourself. Let's treat it like we're on a mission to solve a mystery! Like detectives." Thea suggested.

She looks happy for some reason.

"The case was declared close a few years back because of lack of evidence to convict anyone. Since your family owns the mansion now, you have full access." Luna too seems happy for some reason.

"Are you two by any chance likes this kind of stuff?" I asked the two of them. The grin on their face tells me that they do.

"Come on Aurora! Your brain works better than us when it comes to mystery. Let's investigate." Luna literally begged like a child.

I sighed. It can't help. "Bring everything with us. I'll make some calls." I stood up from my chair and reached for my phone.

Maybe it's a good thing to visit the mansion. Maybe we can find more evidence of Maya and Charlotte.

***

"Wow. This sure brings back a memory." I said when I walked out of the car. "This place used to be filled with happiness and laughter."

I looked around. "There used to be a huge maze garden here where ..... Braylin, Charlotte and I used to play hide and seek." Gosh, my heart can't take this.

"Are you okay?" Thea asked me when she wrapped her arms around me. "Yea. I'm fine. It's just .... looking at how this mansion looks right now, it's so much different than when they were all ... alive." Thea rubbed my side.

We both noticed Luna walked up towards the front door.

"Be careful Lady Luna. The mansion was preserve but the material does age." Ruby, my trusted maid warned her. "Yes yes, I know." She opened the door without waiting for us.

I heard she gasped. "Exactly what I thought the first time I was here too." I chuckled.

"What a wicked architecture." Luna praises the interior.

"Red spot." Thea pointed at the old bloodstained. "The Heroux did clean up the whole mansion after the police gathered all the evidence. Maybe this stained can't be removed." Luna stood up from the floor and went to the vinyl player.

"Do you think it still works?" She asked while turning the handle and placed the needle down on the vinyl record.

"El Choclo. This probably the last music they heard before they ..." Luna didn't get to finished her words when Thea glared at her. "We have work to do." She gave us both her dry laughter.

She beginning to take the crime scene picture out. Luna beginning to look through the picture. "This is where the police found Lady Margaux's body. She was killed by the blow on her head. The weapon that was determined, an ax." Margaux.

She's the second daughter of Lord Abel. Luna gave the picture of the crime scene to me. She and Ruby lead the way towards the living room. We stopped walking even further when our eyes landed on the blood-stained carpet.

"Living room... living ..... room." Luna hummed. "Found it. The first son, Sir Anthony, the third son, Sir Les and the fourth son, Sir Daniel was found here with their head missing." Luna handed two pictures to me.

"Sir Anthony, his organs were gutted out and Sir Les's body was facing down the floor without their head and Sir Daniel's body was found here at the corner of the room, sitting while resting her back on the wall, also without his head." I'm beginning to think this assassination was done by a psychotic group of people.

Once again Ruby and Luna lead the way while Thea stayed close to me. "This is the door towards the ballroom," I said when we walked passed a grand door. "Ballroom...." Ruby pushed the door and let us in. "This is where they found the third daughter, Lady Elizabeth and the second son, Sir Griffin cut in half."

That's awful, just awful.

"The assassination of the whole family was dubbed as the most gruesome and extreme crime ever done in the history of Esnaria," Thea said beside me. "Onwards," Luna said while walking out from the ballroom towards the stairs.

"They Found Lady Penelope's, the first daughter body inside her room while her husband was dismembered inside the tub." She gave me a picture of Lady Penelope and a tub with head and limbs scattered inside the blood-filled tub.

"They Found Lord Abel and his wife, Lady Anastasia inside the library. Surprisingly, they didn't get dismembered or anything. Just repeated blows on their body. That's why the police thought it was done by a group of people. Their killing MO were different for each victim."

Luna leads the way towards the playroom. "This is where they found the fourth daughter, Lady Emily and fifth son, Sir Luca was found. They were strangled to death. There's rumor stating that their babysitter was the one who killed them. That leaves us with the fifth daughter, Lady Charlotte."

We all went to the burned room not far from the rest. When we walked inside, the sad scene of a human being was burned alive invaded my mind. "This is where they found the so call Lady Charlotte's body. What do you think Aurora?" Luna asked me while I looked around.

I looked around the burned room. "I remember this room like it was just yesterday. Nothing is missing at all. Even though ..... I don't know what is the right word to express this feeling." Thea stood beside me. "Let's look around the room for evidence of anything that might help with this mystery." She suggested.

We searched the whole room even the whole floor, but our result is the same as the police did 13 years ago. There's nothing that could lead us to the killer or even a clue! I stood in the middle of the hallway while the others searching for anything that might help us.

I looked around the abandoned hallways that used to be so grand. The memories of them walking down the hallways, laughing, chasing each other playing in my mind like it's on rewind loop.

The image of Lady Penelope and her husband, expecting their first child, smiling, looking at each other with love .....

The image of Lord Abel and Lady Anastasia wanting to see their kids grow old in front of their eyes shattered on that fateful night...

The image of the other young members of the family wanting to be something when they're older, destroyed on that night as well...

"Aurora ... we didn't find anything but we do find this." Thea lead me towards the huge part of the upper stairs where the stairs connected to the other part of the house. "Their family portrait." Ruby and Luna were looking up the huge portrait.

All of the family members were present. "Hold on," Ruby said while pointing at Lady Anastasia picture.

"This woman, she's the mistress of the house correct? Late Lady Anastasia?" I nodded. "She looks a lot of Maya. Just look at the resemblance." My God, She's right.

"Now that you mention it, she does look like Maya... and her." Thea pointed at another member of the family. "That's Lady Penelope," Luna stated. I tilted my head.

"Ruby, Hefner's new creation, the one he sold to the hospital branch. Does it available in our mansion?" I asked the maid.

"Yes, Lady Aurora. Are you going to find the resemblance of them in Maya?" I nodded. "There's no harm in trying to find the truth using modern science...." They all turned to me when I didn't finish my sentences. "Aurora, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Thea was concerned. I think.

"Umbilical cord," I said.

They all looked so confused.

"Umbilical cord!!" I said again.

"Yes we know but why?" I sighed. Seriously this person. "Nobility likes to keep their newborn child cord in a box for a walk in the past kind of thing. I should know because my parents did that too. They preserve it. I'm sure we could do some DNA identifying if we could find Charlotte's cord."

"Oh yes. That thing. I still cringe when I found mine." Luna said. "But that could help us if they did keep it." I'm sure they did.

Lord Abel is my father's friend after all. "So what now? Find the cord? Where? This house is huge." Thea stating the obvious.

"Let's start at the library or study. My parents kept ours in the library. Hell, he even frames them for everyone to see." This time I lead the way.

"This is not a four-person kind of job. Even the library is huge." Thea nagged. "Stop complaining or they will be no reward again for you." I heard Thea sighed.

"What I do for rewards." She mumbled.

We've been searching for hours but there's nothing until Luna came across a vault inside the study. "Any tricks to open a locked vault, Thea?" We all turned to her with hope.

"Why does everyone looking at me when they stumbled something like this?" She asked while looking at the vault.

"It's an old vault. I can open them with mini explosive." Explosive?! "You carry one?" I asked.

"Yea." She actually carried one!

"It's a small one but lethal. She reached out for a cigarette like a box and slowly opened it. "5 mini c4. The size of a cigarette." She looks kinda happy for some reason.

"I'm so happy I get to blow stuff up." Jesus... she never changes.

All three of us watched as Thea finally showing her true colors. There's a reason why she's the leader of the covert squad. Since I know her, she's always been the mysterious type of people that hid thousands of secret behind those eyes. Her vast knowledge in gathering information was exceptional, even for my parents.

Getting to know her was a challenge for me. Her family is one of that open-minded kind of people but not her grandparents. They're conservative and tradition is everything for them. After knowing Thea and I are dating, there's even a moment where her grandparents asked a group of men kidnapped me at some point.

That action made Thea hate her grandparents to the core. She's never afraid to kill anyone who causes harm to me. Another reason why I find her irresistible.

"Done. Let's hide behind that couch." Thea grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind the couch. She took a lighter from her jacket pocket.

"Thea, why do you have a lighter?" I asked the woman. "Umm... blimey. Probably my brother's." She looks suspicious.

"Alright then. But if you smoke again, I'll shove the cigarette down your throat." I said in the nicest way with a smile on my face.

She gulped down her saliva and let out a nervous laugh. "Don't worry Honey. I won't be that crazy to make you mad at me. Not again."

Good answer Thea. "Cover your ears." We all did as tell as she lit the wire. Thea automatically grabbed my body and waited until the mini c4 exploded.

"It's open." I waved my hands in front of my face when the smoke beginning to invading my nostril. "What's inside?" I asked.

"Guns. Some old papers... and .... bingo." Thea showed me a couple of small boxes. "There's even a name on each box. Thea searched for Charlotte's name and handed the box to me. When I opened it, I was glad that it's what we've been looking for.

"Let science determine this matter for us shall we." I smiled at them all.