Rosekiller

Love;

An intense feeling of deep affection.

A great interest and pleasure in something.

To feel deep affection for someone.

Love is something Evan rarely felt and when he did, it either; didn’t last long, or it ended badly, he has only ever been in love thrice the first time it was a simple crush and the second time he ended up dating the person and the third he doesn’t talk about, now he's not saying he loves Barty it’s way too soon for that but rather he likes talking to him, and sue him for being a little excited for this date.

He stared at himself in the mirror, Pandora had decided that she was in charge of his outfit which makes sense but she proceeded to judge every piece of clothing he owned, deeming everything to be ‘to Evany’ so she brought an outfit from work and told him to keep it,

So she had dressed him in an emerald green dress shirt, a black and grey waistcoat with a gold rose embroidery, paired with black slacks and dress shoes. At least it was somewhat simple.

Said sister was attempting to hype him up the next few hours leading to now, he had been texting Barty for the past ten minutes while Pandora and Sirius had been on either side of him buzzing like a bunch of children excited for a new toy,
And once there was a knock on the door the two ran fighting over who gets to open it Reg won.

“Hey Bee”
Reg said with a smile. He heard a small chuckle from the other side of the door, he walked closer and there he stood, he was wearing a dark maroon shirt, a grey coat, black slacks and dress shoes.
Just like the night they met his shirt was open so you could see his tattoo, he smiled brightly at Evan.

Evan heard a small gasp next to him. “Snake guy” Sirius exclaimed, “You know him?” asked Reg, looking between the two.

“Yeah I did his Tattoos”at this point Sirius matched Barty’s smile and they were beaming at each other, he looked to his other side and saw Pandora with her arms crossed over her chest eyeing Barty up and down and cleared her throat, oh god.

Barty looked at her smile never wavering, okay this man may smoke and he may have tattoos and is that an ear piercing? Nevermind that, he may do and have all those things but the way he was looking at Pandora was the most innocent face Evan has ever seen.
“What are your intentions with my brother?” How was this the same person who was excited just a second ago?
Barty just smiled at her.

“What?”
At this point she was gonna eat him alive, so he took Bartys hand and quickly walked out the door,
They walked in silence until they reached the front of the building, “My cars over there” Barty pointed and led the two of them there.

Once they were in the car Evan spoke. “Sorry about her” Barty shrugged. “I didn’t mind, I was just caught of guard I guess”
Evan nodded.

“Do you have a music preference?”
Barty asked after a moment.

“Not really”
He expected a snarky comment or something but Barty just smiled. “You trust me?”

“With the music I mean” he added quickly, Evan nodded and the two began a conversation while ‘Angeleyes’ played in the background.

_–_–_–_–_

By the time they sat down at the restaurant they had gotten into a pretty good conversation about each other’s music taste and other stuff like; favourite animals Etc.
Soon the waiter came with the menus and Evan suddenly remembered that this is an Italian restaurant.

“ecco i menu, per favore fatemi sapere se avete bisogno di altro”
She said with a smile.
[here are the menus, please let me know if you need anything else]

“Grazie”
Barty said, returning her smile.
[Thank you]

He turned back to Evan and tilted his head. “Something wrong?” Evan felt himself smile, and he shook his head.

“Nope”

“You know what you want?”
Evan looked down at the menu and immediately closed it. “You know what I trusted you with the music what’s one more thing”
At that Barty grinned.

After that they had a genuine nice time, after dinner they had desert and a little to much wine sorry Evan had a little to much wine,
After they left Barty drove them to a park, and the two walked around for a bit hand in hand.

“You said you're an artist right?”
Barty nodded.

“What kind of pieces do you do?”
He thought for a moment.

“I paint anything that catches my eye, I have a few of my works in galleries as well”

“I wanna see them”
Barty stopped.

“Maybe next time” he said after a moment. “I better get you home”

On the drive home Barty was strangely silent, he didn’t talk until they reached Evan’s apartment.

“I’ll get going now”

“Hold on, I uh-I had a really good time tonight” Evan then leaned in and planted a kiss on Barty’s cheek, when he pulled away he gave him a lazy grin.

“Good night”
He said softly, Barty’s hand touched the place where Evan had kissed him, he smiled. “Good night”
Barty let his hand drop and he began walking. “Let me know when you get home!” he called after him.

Barty shouted back a quick ‘will do’, and Evan walked into his apartment and went straight to bed.

_–_–_–_–_

The next morning Evan woke up with the worst headache ever, Italian wine was no joke, he walked into the lounging area, made himself a quick cup of coffee and checked his phone.

Barty. <3

B: Made it home
23:16

B: :)
23:16

He smiled, he then got a notification from Emmeline.

Emmy.

Em: Did you see the news?
09:17

Ev: No why?
09:18

Em: Turn on the TV.

Ev: -_-

He got out his remote and turned on the screen,, he switched to the news and he froze, on the screen was a girl no more than Nineteen with her mouth slit and the top of her head gone and replaced with red rose’s she was tied to a pole in the middle of the room,
Yet there wasn’t much to tie, one of her legs were gone and her skin was scratched open till you could see tissue and bone. Despite that, the killer had dressed her up in a soft blue dress, drenched in blood.

And to add more fuel to the fire written on the wall behind her in big bold bloody letters were the words;

“WELCOME TO THE SHOW”

He remembered writing that, he remembered the time, the place and the moment he felt sick, this had to be a joke right?

[--On october tenth 2024 at six o’ clock in the morning the body of Nineteen year old Sarah Winterson was found in an abandoned club, Forensics found no DNA other than Sarah’s in the club,
The people that were in the area at the time the murder took place claimed to have heard nothing at the time,

Meanwhile the Yard are still looking for the killer, as per request of the lead detective we urge everyone to stay aware of your surroundings at all time’s this killer is curl and kills solely for the thrill of it,

For more on this case look to the daily prophet–]

Suddenly he wished he had more wine…

_______________________________

Later that day he got a call from Pandora telling him to meet her at Emmy’s at one, he arrived ten minutes earlier and waited at what Pandora calls the table of panic,
She got there wearing a light blue cardigan, a long black dress underneath reaching until just above her knees,
She paired it with dark brown boots and an owl necklace Lily gave her. Her hair was in braidings which was weird and she was holding a file.

She spotted him at the table and sat down in front of him, she placed the file on the table and slid it towards him, she didn’t say anything so he just opened it and he blinked.

“What is this?”
He asked slowly.

“Okay so, Mine and Lily’s anniversary is coming up and I have nothing prepared. Last year she planned it and now it’s my turn and I don’t know what to do!”
He held her hand over the table.

“Firstly; calm down, Secondly; what does she like?”
She thought for a moment, while Evan ordered them drinks.

“She likes; Books, Architecture, Mythology, and the outdoors”
He hummed thoughtfully.

“What about films and music oh and food”

“Her favourite film is The wizard of oz, she likes classical music, and her favourite food is lasagna”

“Okay so we have options, but I have an idea”
She nodded and he continued.

“Okay so, you know that summer cottage we have in wales right, the one close to the forest, in the backyard there’s this stone path leading to a greenhouse, you can either put a projector in there and watch the wizard of oz, or you can move some bookshelves in there and have a quiet reading session, it doesn't have any plants in there don’t worry and for food I know you can cook, heck you can even play the violin for her”

By the time he was done Pandora had the biggest smile on her face. “From now on I’m sending everyone to you for advice” he chuckled.

“Please don’t, we wouldn’t wanna put Remus out of business do we?”
She let out a laugh of her own.

“So, I take it your date went well?”
He felt his cheeks heat up.

“Oh. My. God. Did Evan Rosier get laid!”

“What? No, we went to the restaurant and afterwards we took a walk in the park then he dropped me off at home and I kissed him–”

“You snogged him?!”

“No, I kissed him, on the cheek”

“Oh, is that it?”

“Yes”
She hummed.

“I remember me and Lily at least kissed, on the lips on our first date”
She took a sip of her iced coffee.

“Yeah and I remember you two dancing around each other for four years”
He deadpanned.

“Oh Fuck off”
She said with a smile

“No thanks I’m fine here”
They continued to talk for a little bit, before Pandora’s phone went off. “It’s work, sorry” he nodded they both stood up and Evan paid for the drinks.

“We should hang out again, Maybe next time go to an antique store”
He nodded.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and smiled teasingly afterwards.
He waved her goodbye as he walked to his car, phone in hand.

“She looks well”
Evan turned around and glared at the person that stood behind him.

“Seph”
He said, trying to keep his voice level. The man in question just smiled. “Hey Evan”

“What do you want?”
The more he saw his face the more he wanted to punch him.

“That’s a rude way to greet an old friend”
Evan Laughed humorlessly.

“Oh yeah? Well I think it’s just right”

“I saw you last night, with that guy”

“And?”
He snapped.

“Come on Ev, you know I miss you”

“Get the-”

“EVAN!”
He turned and saw Pandora walking towards him, how did she know?

“I came here with a cab, can you drop me home”
She asked when she came a little closer. He nodded. She then turned to Seph.

“And you, If I ever see you near my brother again I will make sure it’s you in the hospital this time”
Seph scoffed, gave Evan a once over and left. Once he was gone Pandora turned to him.

“Are you okay”
She asked softly.

“How did you know?”

“Em texted”
He nodded.

“Come on I have some Ice cream at home”
He took his keys and got in the driver’s seat, that’s probably for the best.

___________________________________________

After they arrived back at Pandora’s flat, she got the ice cream as promised and they sat on the couch watching Sweeney Todd for the hundredth time, it was only half way through the movie when Evan spoke.

“Didn’t you get called into work?”
She paused the movie, and looked at him. “I told them I had an emergency, so they gave me the rest of the day off”
Then her phone went off. She looked at it then got up and opened the door.

“Where is he?”
He turned and saw reg standing there. Once he saw him he pulled him into a hug.

“Did he do anything to you?”
Evan shook his head. He heard Pandora talking to someone and looked to see who it was, and he smiled.

“Hey cas”
He waved weakly. She walked up to him and gave him a big hug.

“Sorry I haven't been here lately works been shite”
She says.

“No worries, how’s Marls?”

“She sends her love” she looks at the TV and gives them a questioning look.

“Sweeney Todd” both twins say, both Regulus and Dorcas smile.

“Come on we’re re-watching it from the top”
She flips her hair and walks over to the couch.

All four friends sit down and Pandora brings more Ice cream Evan restarts the Movie.

__—_—__

Alice is drained, they don’t have any new leads and more victims are popping up, she’s barely home anymore either, It’s currently five minutes past midnight so she doubts Cissa is awake.
Imagine her surprise when she sees her wife curled up with a blanket on the couch reading a book. When She doesn’t see her at first, so Alice sneaks up behind the couch and hugs her from behind, unsurprisingly Narcssia doesn’t flinch; she just cups her cheek with one hand gaze focused on what she’s reading.

“Your home earlier than usual”
She says, eyes leaving the book to look at her. “Frank made me” Cissa hummed.

“Remind me to thank him”
Alice let go of her and walked around the couch, she sat down next to her and cuddled up by her side Cissa automatically covered her with some extra blanket. She looked at the book in her hand.

“New book?”
She nodded, and put her bookmark in Alice remembers giving her that for their two year anniversary last year, she handed the book to Ailce.

“A Crime novel?”
Narcissa hummed, playing with Alice’s hair. She had a soft smile on her face. “My distant cousin, Evan wrote it”

“I heard Reggie talking about it so I wanted to read it myself”
She continued. Alice smiled up at her.
“How is it?”

“Amazing, everything in there is accurate, oh hold on” she stopped playing with Ailce’s hair and got out another book. She handed it to her and Ailce wasn’t surprised by the markings and highlights when she opened the book, Narcissa turned a few pages and tapped on it.

“Read the descriptions of the crime scene”
Alice nodded, she loved how passionate her wife got about books, especially when the book is good.
Once she starts reading she freezes.

“Ali? Is something the matter?”
This can’t be real.

“Cissa, have you watched the news lately?”
She shakes her head.

“It’s been upsetting, and I’ve had work, why? What’s going on?”
Her voice is getting worried.

“I’m sorry love, can you tell me a bit more about these books”