Rosekiller

As a kid Evan had always been fascinated with crime shows and podcasts, so much so that he took to writing, at first it was all for fun just a little thing he did to pass the time that was until his sister Pandora found out about it afterwards she pushed him to speak with their cousin who was a publisher he did and his cousin liked it and offered him a contract

And that's how he ended up here; in a room filled with fellow authors, holding an award for best new writer after he had just published his second book,
All of his friends were there offering their congratulations, he lost sight of his sister a while ago, -probably off with her girlfriend- he thought, taking another sip of his drink, if he was being honest all of this;
The flashing lights, the fancy clothes, the attention, it was all a little much to him,
All he did was write a few scenes of blood and gore and he got an award, what has this world come to?
Soon everything became a little overwhelming so he made his way outside the venue hoping for a little peace and quiet,
He stared up at the moon, thinking about what his next novel should be about, he was broken from his thoughts by a soft voice.

“Want one?”
He turned his head, the man was slightly shorter than him with pale skin, messy dark brown hair with even darker eyes, he was wearing a velvet dress shirt tucked into a pair of black slacks, his shirt was open revealing a large snake tattoo going from the right side his chest onto the side of his neck, he had a few rings on his fingers and a gold watch, and if you look closely at the mans face you could see some black eyeliner.

He held out a pack of cigarettes, his sleeves were rolled up so you could see a tattoo of a thorn vine going around his arm.

“Sure”

Maybe he didn’t need peace and quiet after all.The two stayed in a comfortable silence neither daring to speak, it stayed like this for a while until surprisingly Evan himself broke it

“Are you an author?”
The man scoffed in what seemed to be amusement.

“No, a friend invited me, I’ve never actually read any of the books being shown here”
The man smiled at him.

“What about you?”
He asked, leaning close to Evan but not enough for him to call the man out on and even if he leaned in a little more Evan doubts that he would mind. “Yeah, I am” he waved the award in his left hand.

“Can I see?”
He handed the man the award, and he took it with care examining every detail, his eyes stopped at the writing and he tilted his head to the side.

“‘Best new writer’”
He handed it back, and leaned against the wall, both of the men’s cigarettes long discarded.

“What kind of novel’s do you write?”

“Murder mystery”
He answered simply, the man let out a hum. “Now that’s something I’d be into, what’s your name?”

“Didn’t you see it on the award?”
The man shrugged.

“Wasn’t paying attention”
He examined the man’s features to see if he was joking, he was not.

“Evan Rosier, you?”
The man’s smile grew.

“B-” “EVAN!” he heard his sister call, when he turned back the man was gone he would have thought he was crazy if not for the cigarette buds on the ground,
Now the question is; who was that?

“Evan”
There stood his sister, hands on her knees trying to catch her breath, “are you drunk?” he shook his head, she stood up straight.
“Can you drive me and lils back to our apartment? Reg’s drunk, Siri’s pissed and lord knows James and Remus have their hands full”

He nodded.

“Did they start rambling in French yet?”

“Worse”
He tilted his head in question.

“They started singing queen and they can’t agree on a song”
And that was all he needed to know. Pandora’s phone chimed and she looked even more panicked than before.

“We have to go now! They just asked Lily if Remus is hotter than James and we both know the answer to that”
The pair made their way inside.

_–_–_

The next couple of days passed in a blur, and Evan had forgot about the mystery man when he told Pandora about it she mentioned something about it being something out of phantom of the opera,
And now four days have passed, it was a normal tuesday he followed his routine of; struggling to get up in the morning, getting ready for the day and then sitting at Emmy’s cafe whilst fingering out what his next novel should be about,
He had his laptop open and was staring intently at the blank document. He would do this until he got bored and just went home but he actually felt like writing.

“Look at you being all productive”
He looked up and there stood the Cafe’s owner Emmeline Vance, she wore a yellow sun dress with a white apron, with her dark curls tied into a bun letting her bangs frame her face, she had flour on her cheek and she held a tray with a caramel iced coffee and a small red velvet cake with vanilla frosting.

“Is that for me?”
He perked up, she looked at the tray in her hand and placed it down on the table. “Yes actually, don’t worry about pay”
He gave her a soft smile and took a sip of the coffee, then went back to staring at his laptop.

She sat down on the chair across from him with her arms crossed over her chest and he looked at her, he only now noticed that she was wearing glasses.

“Contacts go dry?”
He asked, she nodded. “But that’s not important, you have been staring at that blank screen for about two hours now and frankly everything about you today has been gloomy, so what is it?”

“Nothing I’m just having a bit of writer’s block”
She nodded. Her expression unsure.

“Right, well-just tell me if you want a refill”

“Will do”
He offered her a small smile and she returned it.

She then got up and made her way to the kitchen supposedly, he decided to look at the news for a while, just as he was getting into it his phone chimed.

Unknown.

Hey I don’t know if you remember me.

I’m the guy from four days ago I got your number from Reg.

I also read your book, it was very inspiring :)

The same time he read that, he heard the reporter-Mary, Emmaline’s girlfriend say;

[--And just this morning at 9am,The body of 25 year old Logan Anderson was found in an abandoned house just off the edge of the town ‘Barnet’, Anderson had shown signs of being tortured, yet the cause of death had been due to him being repeatedly stabbed several times in the neck,
The lead detective on this case; Alice Fortescue-Black, had said that quote “He had multiple slash marks on his back and his tongue had been cut out, whoever did this had to be experienced” end quote,

The yard have not found any leads surrounding this case yet, but should anybody know anything of this please contact the following number—---]

As soon as he heard the cause of death he froze, didn’t he write that? The time of death, the town everything’s the same except for the name.

Was he just going crazy?...