Rosekiller

{Lies of the future and truths of the past, one must survive no matter the cost}

The faint sound of gunshots echoed through the range, he felt his heart thumping loudly in his chest as he shot another round, the target was filled with bullet marks so were the walls but at least he didn’t miss.

He took off his head set with a sigh, just as a familiar voice spoke up.

“Didn’t expect to see you here of all places” Sirius turned to his brother with a slight smile and shrugged.

“If there’s one thing our so-called father was good for, it’s having a shooting range in his basement” he looked at Reggie who was leaning against the wall eyeing the damaged target with interest.

“Wanna try?” he gestured to the gun in his hand, Reg thought for a second before nodding.

Sirius handed him the gun. “You still remember what to do?”

“Yeah take the gun, load it, picture the person you wanna shoot then shoot” as he said that he fired four rounds each one hitting its target perfectly.

He hummed and shot at another target. It hit it perfectly of course, but he couldn’t help the longing he felt, he looked behind him to a painfully empty chair.

Teddy would be there now yelling about how he wanted a turn and Sirius let him and Remus would get so angry, he sighed wistfully at the memory.

“Did Remus tell you where to find me?”

“Nah, the door was unlocked” he nodded reluctantly. The room was silent apart from the occasional gun shots.

It was sort of comforting, just being here with the company of his brother, he is still pretty sure Remus put the younger one up to this but that didn’t really matter now.

“Remember when we got the call?” Reg said as he placed his gun down and tuned to him, Sirius did the same.

“Yeah, I remember after we got home from the morgue we started laughing” he saw Reg smile in the counter of his eye.

“Of course who wouldn’t, Father had a heart attack while Mother fell down the stairs trying to get help” they both burst into laughter.

“Honestly, what a way to go out” Said Sirius in between laughs.

“I got something for you” he got something out of his bag that was placed next to him along with the gun, he then handed him a small wooden box, Sirius took the box but not without giving his brother a confused look, Regulus rolled his eyes.

“Open it”

He let out a small gasp at the sight.
It was a music box of sort, but instead of the classic ballerina, there was a wolf, a black dog, and a small black wolf in between the two, the three were covered in a glass like ball, almost like a snow globe,
engraved in the wood at the bottom were three names: Padfoot, Moony & Teddy Bear.

His heart sank, it took everything in him to not turn and show this to an invisible Teddy, he was broken from his thoughts by a small sound coming from the box, he recognized it and almost laughed.

“‘Honey honey?’” Reg smiled. “The song changes to whatever you want, you can even plug it into your phone”

“Okay that's cool and all but ‘Teddy bear’?” he sighed. “You can guess who’s idea that was, James wanted him to have a nickname like you guys, I apologise for his clear lack of imagination” he waved him off.

“I would have given him the same name” he scoffs. “Of course you would”

“You know it’s strange, we own this place yet we never use it” Sirius shrugs still looking at the music box.

“What do you wanna do with it?” It was Reg’s turn to shrug. “I don’t really know, there aren’t a lot of good memories in here save for the ones I have with you”

“Why don’t we make our own memories then?”

“What are you suggesting?”

“We renovate, you know turn this house into a home and all that shite” Sirius gestured around.

“I’d like that” Sirius saw a strange glint in his brother’s eyes.“In the meantime, we could burn our parents' portraits” he smiled.

“Sounds good, mini me”
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She sighed as she placed a plate of cookies on one of the tables,
The person sitting there thanked her and Emmaline smiled at them and walked back to the kitchen where an unexpected guest was there munching away on candy canes.
“Mary” she scolded lightly, her girlfriend turned around with a cheeky smile. “Hi my absolute diligent, not to mention brave girlfriend”

She rolled her eyes. “Emmeline means diligent and brave and two other things I can’t remember-but aside from that, what are you doing here?”

{Note: I realised that I was spelling Emmaline wrong but also not, it was just a different spelling, so I’m using both now I guess, if it gets confusing let me know}

“I got off work early” she said, taking another candy cane. “Did you eat anything substantial? Or just the Candy canes?”

“I plead the fifth?”

“Are you asking me?”

“No-no I’m telling you”

“So you're bossing me around now?” Mary pouted as she walked towards her,
Emmaline was slightly shorter than her so it made it easy for the other girl to slightly bend down and kiss her,surprisingly she didn’t really mind the taste of Candy canes.

She pulled away first, smiling. “How about you sit by the counter while I work, and I’ll ask Fabian to make you a smoothie” Mary perked up.

“He’s working today?” she nodded. “And Gideon” (I do not know how to spell apparently, is that how you spell his name?).

At that Mary immediately walked to the front, Em knew her girlfriend loved to gossip with those two, she grabbed a few more Candy canes and followed after the older girl.

When she got there Mary was already chatting away with the brother’s, just as another guy sat down near a window, she remembered her and Evan sitting there a few months ago, she really did miss when times were simpler.

“Hello there, welcome to Emmey’s Bakery and Cafe, what can I get you?” she asked taking out a small notebook, the man took off his hat and smiled at her.

“S.P” She looked at him in confusion “Excuse me?” the man kept smiling at her.

“He says it begins tonight, and all players are to act accordingly, the prize will of course be freedom and the boy, if he wins he gets Evan”

“Who are you?”

His smile grows becoming almost manic as he says. “Well I’m but a messenger, a narrator if you will, I have no name”

“Gideon call Alice” she yelled, he picked up the work phone and dialled the numbers.
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He picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?”

{Hi, is this Barty?}

He nodded, then he remembered he was on the phone.

“Yeah um who is this?”

{It’s Frank, Alice’ partner, um I called Raba and he is on his way but we need a lawyer of some kind now and he told me to call you, he said you went to law school right?}

That motherfuc–

“Yup, I did, I never practised though, but how can I be of assistance?”

{We brought someone in who knows the guy that has Teddy, the first thing that came out of his mouth was lawyer, and it’s bloody Riddle}

“Isn’t he still defending those three guys?”

{Kinda, he and Raba are in the middle of sorting out a deal, look, how fast can you get here? Raba’s still stuck in traffic}

He sighed.

“I’ll be there soon”
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He walked into the interrogation room along with Alice, she gave him a brief run through over everything–Like he didn’t know already–and told him to be careful around him, when he asked whether that warning was for that guy or Riddle, she just smiled and opened the door..

“Les–who are you?” Barty looked at the guy–Riddle honestly he was kinda fit (With a nose, I mean have you seen the guy?)
He sat down opposite the two, apparently he managed to catch the guy in the hat off guard too, making him mumble something about a ‘plan’.

“He’s running a little late, something about Traffic, Barty Crouch Jr.” he extended his hand, Riddle being the posh person that he is, didn't take it, thank god.

“Crouch, like the judge?” he nodded. “I wasn’t aware that his son was a lawyer” he leaned back in his seat as he opened the file of the guy in front of him.

“I’m not, I studied but never practised—It says here that your name is Mark Matthews, and you're from Wales is that right?”
He nodded, his smile seemed to be faltering.

“Great, why don’t you te—” he was cut off by the door opening, Raba walked through and simply sat down next to Barty.

“Apologies for my late arrival, Traffic was horrendous–hello Mr. Mathews , Riddle” His tone seemed bored when regarding the other lawyer.

“Should I take my leave now?” Raba shakes his head. “No need you're already here, Detective Alice gave us a list of questions to ask your client” Riddle gave him a curt nod.

He slid another paper to Barty.

It was the list of questions plus a note.

‘Say the guys name, make sure he knows the plan is falling apart, oh and aggravated him a lot, shouldn't be hard since you do it on the daily <3’

He internally rolled his eyes.

“Do you work for Spencer?” he held contact with Mark as he spoke, his jaw clenched at the question.

Riddle noticed and was about to retort when he held up his hand.

“Yes, I do”

“And he sent you to that Cafe?”

“Yes”

Barty exchanged a look with Raba. why did this seem so easy.

“Can you tell us why he wants Evan?” Asked Raba.

“Oh sure I can, Mister says that when he was in college he and Evan were partnered up for a writing exercise: they had to write a short love story with an unrushed ending, Mister says they bonded over shared interests and author’s such as?”

“Edgar Allen Poe”

He nodded.

“After they passed Mister thought it was a good time to ask Evan out, but whenever he wanted to get him alone he was always with his friends,
Then when the time finally came he saw Roland they had just gotten back together, after graduation Mister looked online for anything about him and found so much, when he heard he was still living in the city, he tried to find him, then Mister saw him with you” he points to Barty.

“You were laughing and talking in the park that night, Mister followed you two home and took it from there”
Barty stood up, instead of aggravating Mark, the guy turned it on him.

“Barty before you go, you should know that Mister Spencer wanted to start tonight because he just couldn’t wait to get his hands on–in his words–his beautiful Rose, he told me in detail what he wanted to do to him, first he would—-”

“Mark, I believe it would be best if you shut the hell up” Raba interjected,

“Are you threatening him?” Asked Riddle (Forgot he was there lol).

“No just a simple suggestion, If you can give us a location we can discuss deals”

Their voices became faint as Barty walked out of the room, Alice and Frank were there with concerned looks on their faces.

“Are you okay?” he nodded silently.

Two officers entered the interrogation room as Raba walked out.

“Hey” Frank placed a hand on Raba’s shoulder and the latter gave him a grateful smile, then turned to Barty.

“Go”

“What?”

“It’s obvious you want to make sure he’s okay so go”

“What about–”

“You said it yourself, you're not a lawyer, so this isn’t your problem” Said Alice with a sly smile.

“Also, I know you walked here so take an umbrella” he nodded.

“I’ll uhh, Thank you guys” with that he practically ran out of the station.
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He was on the couch reading when he heard his doorbell ring. It wasn’t that late but he also didn’t order take out.

Sensing the obvious murder set up, he grabbed a kitchen knife and walked to the door, he quickly hid the knife behind his back and opened the door.

“Barty” he nearly dropped the knife, the other man was soaked, and panting (I’m sorry WHat?), did he run all the way here?

“Rosy, are you okay? Nobody but me came by right?” Evan sighed and placed the knife on the table by the door.

“No I’m alright, come inside before you catch a cold” Barty looked like a kicked puppy at Evan’s tone, to be fair he didn’t mean to sound so bitter but can you blame him?

He gave him a change of clothes and a towel for his hair, after he changed, they both sat on the couch in silence, Bea cuddled against Barty as he stroked her head.

“Where were you?” He broke the silence.

“Looking for info on Teddy” He hummed. “Did you find any?”

“Yeah, uhh, a guy went to Emmey’s and warned Emmaline about something that’s gonna happen tonight, the guy said it was about you so I raced here”

“Did they bring him in?” He nodded. “Look Ev, I listened to your messages” he looked up.

“You did, huh?”

“Listen I’m sorry, I haven’t called in a while, and If you're mad—-” The blonde scoffs.

“I’m not mad or pissed or anything like that, I was just worried about you, but it wasn’t all for nothing, you found the guy kinda so Teddy will be home soon”

“I love you” he smiled at him. “I love you too, Bee”

He shook his head, and reached over to touch the other’s hand.

“I really do love you, you know that right Rosy?” he nods.

Why does it seem like a lie though?
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