I AM HERE

My baby blue house smells like... lavender or citrus?

Me and Detective Bria got out of the diner and in to our own cars. She went out of the parking lot first. I followed after her. The town is quite big. I never thought it would be this huge. I'm sure there's a place that I could be a normal young adult. Then again, I was never born normal.

My mother taught me to be unique, to go against the flow. Hence, my obsessions with assassins when I was a kid. Normal kids would play with other kids, me? Well, I watched videos on how to do martial arts, climbing trees, camouflaging, and the likes. My parents never scolded me for doing the things I was doing, even when I come home drenched in mud.

They never forced me to be a model child like all the others. They taught me to be vocal in what I believe in, speak my mind. I was reminded of my childhood. The time of my life. I went back to taking stock of the town. There were several diners, shops of different kinds, and a mall as well. There were also tall buildings. Hmm, maybe I could get a job there once I graduate and decide if I should stay here for good. Nothing wrong with preparing.

I followed Detective Bria until we came into a quaint village that was smack dabbed in the middle of the western side of town. Most of the houses were in a plantation style mansions. If these were the kind of houses available in the area, no wonder she said that it won't be cheap. Oh, well. I have the money to pay the rent, anyway. After we entered the village, we turned right when we arrived at the first intersection, then went straight again. We stopped a few houses after turning right. Maybe four houses before mine.

It was indeed a plantation style mansion, the same as the others, only a different color. It was a nice shade of powder blue with violet accents. Two of my favorite colors. I love it already. "Is this it?" I asked her, pointing at the blue house. She nodded, and I squealed in reply. I can't wait to move in. "Who's the owner of the house? I want to discuss the terms now so I can put my things inside already." I asked again.

"Actually, I'm the owner. And I'll give you the papers for the rent later. Let me give you a tour of the house first. Come on." She motioned for me to follow her. The front lawn was huge, I could probably start a garden up front. Just need to decide if it should be a vegetable or flower garden. While I was pondering on that, Detective Bria called me back to reality. I followed her inside the house.

We were greeted with a nice fragrance. I couldn't discern the smell, can't decide if it's lavender or citrus. "What's that smell? Is it lavender or citrus? I can't tell. Did you put a freshener around here?" She looked at me like I grew two heads all of a sudden. I got confused, what was I said that made her look that way at me? "What's the matter, Detective? Did I say something wrong?" She shook her head. "It's nothing. It's just that I never used a freshener nor did I placed flowers around the house. This was once owned by someone rich who moved to God knows where. I just bought it when it was on sale and started to renovate so I could have it rented out." That was odd, my nose was never wrong when it gets a smell.

I shook my head and motioned for her to continue the tour. I'll take care of the scent later, when I'm alone. I already have a hunch about it. She showed me the living room, which is at the end of the hall. To the left is the kitchen that is connected to the dining room. I checked the kitchen and saw that it has all the appliances I needed to cook, bake, and grill. It also has a hood in case I wanted to grill on charcoal. A built-in fridge, freezer, and wine cooler in one corner of the room. And an island at the center. Most likely, I will eat here than eat at the dining table.

To the right of the hall is a small office with several bookshelves that were empty. I'm going to have my books at home shipped here, I'll ask Mr. Sawyer to do that later for me. After we were done with touring the first floor, we went up to the second floor. From the stairs, there were three rooms to the right, and two rooms to the left. All of them have their very own bathrooms, which was quite convenient. The master's bedroom was the first room on the left. It had a king-sized four poster bed at the center with two side drawers. There were also empty bookshelves to the side of the room, complete with a study table. There were two other doors in the room. One is for the bathroom, and I'm guessing the other one is a walk-in closet.

I first went to the door on the right, and found the bathroom. It had a jacuzzi, aside from the usual tub and shower. You can also easily set the temperature of the water coming out of the shower head. Thank God for that invention. I always get either scalding hot water or ice-cold water, but never the perfect mix of both. I'm going to set up a laboratory in one of the rooms for making my poisons, and probably distilling some herbs to get their essential oils and use them for my baths.

I got out of the door and quickly went to check what's inside the other door. It was indeed a walk-in closet. there were several racks that I can fill in when I buy new clothes at the shops and at the mall. I need to buy more black body suits, and black boots, in case I get jobs even while I'm here. After checking everything, I went back to where the Detective was waiting for me. I found her sitting at the living room with a white folder in her hands. I cleared my throat so she will know I entered the room.

"You done checking your room?" She asked me, I nodded with a big smile on my face. "What you got there, Detective? Hopefully the papers for the rent of the house, and not something else." I said while half laughing. She chuckled and said, "It's not something else, I can assure you that. Here's the agreement for the house rent. You can check it out, and ask if you have any questions regarding the terms of the p*****t. Or maybe you want to change some of it, it's up to you." I nodded and read the terms.

They were good, though I would probably forget them afterwards. I just needed to know when I'm supposed to pay and how much. The amount was reasonable enough for the size of the house and grounds. I forgot to check the backyard. I'm checking it after I finish reading the contract. I checked when I was supposed to pay the rent and was also fine with it. All in all, it was fine for me. So I got my fountain pen, signed the papers and gave it to Detective Bria.

"Here you go, Detective. It was fine for me. I'll give the p*****t for this month. I'm apologizing in advance if I sometimes forget to pay. I'm a bit forgetful at times." I lied. I have perfect memory, photographic memory, if you will. It's better they don't know everything about me. It would cause a problem for me. "It's okay. I'll be here to remind you, anyway. And please, call me Bria." She said to me as I nodded. She stood up and said, "Well, if you don't need anything else from me, I'll be going ahead. I still need to work, you know."

"Oh I know. Don't let me hold you any longer that needs to be. Thank you, Dete-Bria. See you around." She nodded her head and went to go to the front door. I followed her to close the door. I waited for her to leave in her car before closing the door.

Okay! I'll check the backyard first and see what need to be done to have it a taste of Louisiana. I went to the kitchen and went straight to the back door located there. When I got out, I was greeted with the a big tree at the far right corner of the grounds, near the entrance of the forest. Someone tied a swing on the tree, and made a tree house at the top of it. It looked like it was made quite recently. I went to check the swing of it could support my weight. I liked playing on the swing even when I was a child. it was a bit like flying. It was sturdy enough to hold my weight. I now have a place to relax whenever I get stressed.

I also went to the ladder that connects the treehouse to the ground. Even though I know how to climb trees, even difficult ones, I still used the ladder because of its purpose. I was a bit surprised because when I got up in the treehouse, I saw a few things lying around inside. An old notebook, an old bag, and clothes that were neatly stacked in one corner. I got curious and checked the contents of the bag. There was a blood-crusted pen, a bloody handkerchief, and a wallet. I opened the wallet and saw a beautiful red head that was probably in her teens. I found several ID's with the picture of the red head. Anabelle Ross, so that's the name of the red head. It suits her. Now the question is, why is this here?

I took the contents of the bag and placed them inside the bag again, took the notebook, and went down the treehouse. I left the clothes they weren't that important for what I need to know about Annabelle. Sure, they might be here, but what help would that be? I went back inside the house and placed the bag on the kitchen island. I went to my car and took my bags out of it and placed it on the kitchen island beside the battered bag of Annabelle. I took some of my test tubes with a swab inside of it, took some sample of the blood from the pen, and took some from the handkerchief as well. I will examine them later.

I took the notebook out and opened it. I found out that it was Annabelle's diary. It was dated back to last year. I went to the last page of the diary and saw them to be ripped in half. Is she dead? When that question popped into my mind, someone knocked on my door. I literally jumped at the sound. s**t! Me and my nerves. I quickly shoved everything back to where they belong. I then shoved Annabelle's bag inside one of my bags so that no one would think something is out of the ordinary.

"Coming!" I shouted to whoever was at the door. When I opened it, I was faced with a thick wall. A male human wall, to be exact. I was entranced with how his muscles were attractively bulging inside his shirt, leaving little to the imagination. "Like what you see, princess?" I snapped my head upwards at the owner of that voice and was greeted with bright green eyes, chiseled jaw, strong nose and blue black hair. Damn it, why does he have to be so attractive. Arrrggh! I think I have an attractive neighbor to deal with everyday.