Daddy Next Door

by Tina Lee

  I wanted to catch up with Ben and Sia. I missed my friends. I wanted thing to go back to normal, where we would hang out every night at the Snake’s Head and laugh, then go home with smiles on our face.

  “How is business?” I asked her. I didn’t know what else to call it. It was hard to imagine her still pleasuring other men while with Ben.

  “I quit. I mean, it was fun, really really fun, but I think the time has come for me to retire.”

  “Your customers must be so upset.” Sia was well known among the pack. She had a reputation of her service being the best. I didn’t want to imagine what that meant.

  Sia rolled her eyes. “They have been stalking me. They all say the same thing; ‘please, just one more night. I’ll give you anything you want.’ They just can’t accept that it’s over, and I love Ben.”

  She loved him now. It seemed that I had missed out a lot. I was happy for them. We all deserved to be happy in this cold world. “So what you plan on doing now that you have retired.”

  She turned and looked at the bakery, and I joined her gaze. “I’m going to work here.”

  “That’s great! That means I can eat all the buns I want.”

  She looked at me and smiled. “As much as your heart desire.”

  I stared at Sia, replaying old memories of us.

  “What?” she blushed.

  “Nothing.” She definitely had matured. I was proud of her.

  Ben came outside, dust of his pants, then sat on one of the old barrels. “You want anything? I can get you another loaf if you want.”

  “No that’s fine,” I said. Sia leaned on him, like it hurt her to spend any second away from him. I understood her. I really did. I was missing someone of my own.

  Someone inside the bakery had started baking. People walking by the shop, going about their day, had stopped, if only for some seconds, to inhale the mouth watering scent of baked pastries.

  “Hey, look, it’s Margret,” Ben said.

  “Who?” I asked, then I saw her. It was the old woman from my old village. She looked much healthier now than the last time I saw her. It seemed Ben kept his promise of looking out for her. I felt good knowing I had helped someone, and I wanted to help more people.

  She stopped in front of us. Her white hair tied in one. Wearing an apron. Carrying a pan full of herbs and spices. “Good morning.”

  I got up and hugged her. “I’m glad you are doing well.”

  “All thanks to you.” She held my hand. “Thank you,” she said in our native tongue. She nodded at Ben.

  “Anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask me,” I told her.

  “I have everything I could possibly want. The North has been kind to me.”

  “Glad to hear.”

  “It was nice seeing you. I must get back to the kitchen,” she said.

  “One of these nights, we’ll have a beer,” Ben said.

  She laughed and fanned away Ben. “I’m too old to drink.”

  As I watched Margret walk away, I saw someone I never expected to see, approaching. Diana strutted as she normally did, with her back straight and her chin high. She held an umbrella over her head to shade herself. “Good morning,” she said to us.

  Sia stood, and with a bright smile, she replied, “good morning.”

  “What brings a woman such as yourself here?” I asked.

  “I felt like taking a walk. The castle gets boring.” Her gold earring glistened every time she turned her head. She sniffed. “Hmmm. That smells lovely.”

  “Tastes delicious too,” Ben said. “I could get you one if you want.”

  “No, that’s fine, dear, but thank you.” Ben blushed when she smiled at him. She did have a lovely smile.

  “Care to join me for a walk, Elizabeth?” she asked.

  I knew Leo wanted me to avoid her completely but I had to join her, or else it would have looked suspicious. “Yeah, sure.” Two guards keep their distance behind her.

  “I won’t take long with her,” Diana said to Ben and Sia.

  “Take her for as long as you need.” Sia laughed. If only she knew how much of a bad idea this was.

  Diana shook Sia’s hand, then stretched her to Ben, but he refused.

  “My hands are dirty from my days work. I heard you are a woman of cleanliness.”

  “One dirty hand won’t kill me,” she smiled. Ben shook her hand and blushed again. Sia didn’t seem to mind Ben blushing over Diana, because she too was in awe.

  I walked with Diana, knowing there were two guards behind me, so I kept my ears open. I had no weapons on me, so if they were to attack me, then I’d have to take Diana’s umbrella and kill them with it.

  “Your friend thinks I’m too feminine to shake a dirty hand. Did you know I grew up with mostly boys?” Diana asked.

  “No, I didn’t know.”

  “Oh yes. There were not many girls in Lukas family growing up. Do you know why is that?”

  “Very few girls were born?”

  She chuckled. “No, Elizabeth. Many girl babies were born with the Lukas name. Now, those girls are nowhere to be found. What happened to them?” She waved at boy who called her name. “I’ll answer it for you. Some men in the Lukas bloodline murdered their baby daughters.”

  My heart sank.

  She continued, “can you believe it? They murdered their own daughters because they didn’t believe girls were strong enough to carry the Lukas name. We are inferior in their eyes.”

  The thought of it disgust me, But why was she telling me this? “These men must be held accountable.”

  “Men and accountability are like oil and water. It was done in secret but everyone knew. No one was brave enough to stand against it. You see, with a bloodline filled with mostly men, it becomes difficult for them to understand a woman and to empathize. So why would they stand against the cruelty to our gender. In their eyes, their cocks meant they were safe from such cruelty, and they only cared about themselves.”

  Eyes watched us as we walked. Some of the vendors stretched their hands as Diana walked by them. With the same hand that she shook Ben hand with, she stretched her arm and let it hang, touching everyone’s hand as she walked. Smiles after smiles, as people looked at their hand, the hand that just touched Diana Lukas.

  “What can we do?” I asked.

  She smiled at me, and I didn’t blush, something I was proud of overcoming. “Not much anyone can do, yet. That’s why it’s important that we women stick together. If no one is going to protect us then we have start protecting each other. Do you agree?”

  “I agree.” All while she spoke, I doubt she was the bad woman Leo was talking about. She spoke so passionately about protecting us, women. She understood me when I said that women have more strength that they could ever imagined. She understood. I wasn’t crazy, after all. Someone else could see it.

  We had so much in common, and she saw it too. We just wanted women to realize their full potential. That was all. Were we crazy for believing that we could?

  She stopped and pointed up at the King’s castle which stood tall in the distance. “One day, a woman will rule the North. Do you think I’m crazy for saying that?”

  She closed the umbrella. The sun made her glow. Her eyes watched the castle while her mind went elsewhere. My guess would be; she was fantasizing of the day a woman would step out on that balcony and look over her city.

  “No, you are not crazy. I believe in such a day too. There is no limit to a woman’s spirit,” I said.

  “They will challenge us. Remember that, Elizabeth. A woman realizing her worth is their greatest fear.” She returned the umbrella over her head. “Thank you for walking with me, Elizabeth.”

  ****

  “Elizabeth!” One of my assistants came running. I rolled my eyes. I wanted more than anything to go to my room, shut the door, kick off these slippers and take a nap. I had heard my name far too many times today.

  “We found something,” she said.

  I wished I had taken
one more loaf of bread. My first regret for the day. “Found what?” I asked.

  She came closer and whispered to me, “we found the poison.”

  “Are you serious?”

  She nodded, with a grin on her face.

  I went to see what they had discovered. My feet were hurting from the walking. They felt so tender and beat out. I promised myself that if they had wasted my time and made me walk this far for nothing, then I would kill them.

  The morgue was always eerie. It was how old the building was that frightened me rather than the actual dead bodies.

  I was still thinking about that loaf of bread.

  “We were almost ready to give up, then we noticed something. In the roof of all of the victims’ mouth, was a tiny purple spot.”

  I took a seat, and it felt so good to sit. Orgasmic.

  “They all had this in common. So we decided to check it out. We emptied the stomach and dug around until we found it.”

  The other assistant began to laugh.

  “Why are you laughing?” I asked.

  “Because it’s a stupid leaf.” She carefully handed the glass slide to me. “Take a look at it.”

  It fell from my grips and smashed. I stood, frozen with shock, I stared at the pieces of glass and the piece of purple leaf.

  “It’s okay, Elizabeth. The leaf is harmless like this,” she said, then began picking up the pieces of glass.

  I hugged both of them. “Good job.” They had made me proud. In coming months, they would have to take over as master healers, and I had complete faith in them.

  They found the poison, and because of that, I knew who was behind the murders. I couldn’t tell them. There was only one person I could tell.

  My hands were shaking. I must accept some blame for everyone that died. I left the morgue so they wouldn’t have to see me cry.

  I took Leo’s whistle from around my neck and blew it. I needed to speak with him immediately before anyone else got killed.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Leo

  “Elizabeth.” I saw her sitting beside on window ledge, looking out. I approached her with the intention of kissing her and to have her into my arms. When she turn to me, I could see that she was crying. “Whats wrong?”

  “I vouched for a murderer,” she said.

  “Come.” I held her hand and made her sit on the bed. Her sitting on the ledge made me uneasy. “Now, explain.”

  “I know who poisoned those people.”

  I pressed my finger on her lip, then I went and check outside the door, then I came back in and shut the windows. “Who was it?”

  She hesitated, then bowed her head. “It was Margret.”

  “Who?” I was wrong about my predictions. I first suspected that somebody inside the Lukas bloodline was doing this, for some motive that I hadn’t thought of yet.

  “Margret walked up to the gates some months, in winter, and the guards were going to turn her back but I vouched for her.”

  I sat beside her, trying to understand what was the connection. “Did you know her before?”

  “No.”

  “So you vouched for someone you don’t know?”

  Elizabeth wiped her eyes. “She was going to freeze to death if I didn’t. She was an old woman. She knew my mother.”

  “Ah. I see. She’s from your village.”

  “You have to believe me, Leo. I didn’t know she was capable of doing something like this.”

  “Of course I believe you, Elizabeth. You were acting off the goodness in your heart. Don’t blame yourself. You hear me?”

  She wiped her eyes and asked herself, “how could she do this?”

  “How did you know it was her?”

  “My assistants, they found piece of poisonous leaf in the victim’s stomach. It’s called muerte púrpura. Once the leaf is boiled, it will kill you if you swallow it.” She took a deep breath. “It is only grown in my village. She must have brought the seeds with her and grew it here.”

  “Who else have you told about this?” I asked.

  “Only you and my assistance know of the plant, but only you and I know Margret is responsible.”

  “Good. Good. It must stay that way.” This was good news, in more ways than one. All of sudden, I was given the opportunity I thought didn’t existed. I needed to act fast.

  I consoled Elizabeth, and made it clear that she couldn’t possibly had known an old woman would do something like this. Even I didn’t completely believe what I was hearing.

  I gave Elizabeth instructions on what to do. I wanted to personally interrogate this woman. Elizabeth would lure her to the edge of the woods, where there was no one in sight, and I would speak to her.

  Later that night, when the moon was above and bright, I stood at the edge of the woods with Dante. There was Elizabeth, walking with the old woman, using force to make her walk.

  The old woman resisted but Elizabeth pulled her by the arm. The old woman’s eyes became wide when she saw us. “Your Grace. My Lord. Why am I here?”

  Elizabeth stood between Dante and I, and the old woman knelt before us. “You have no idea why you are here?” I asked.

  “No, Your Grace.” She bowed.

  She was a murderer and still I felt this was too harsh. Having an old woman bow before me made me feel weak. She looked like she belonged in her home, drinking some tea. She had such a honest face. “You know why you are here,” I said.

  “No I don’t, Your Grace. Was my cooking unacceptable? I’m just an old woman. I wake, go to work and go home.”

  “We found the leaves, Margret,” Elizabeth said.

  “What leaves?” she said with such innocence. She had me feeling guilty for keeping her up past her bedtime.

  Elizabeth shook her head in disgust. “I trusted you.”

  Margret looked at all of us with watery eyes. “I don’t what you are talking about, but you have the wrong person. Your Grace, what did I do?”

  It was hard to watch her cry like that, begging for her life. I wanted to ask Elizabeth if she was absolutely certain that this woman was behind all these murders. She didn’t look like it, but looks can be deceiving.

  The disappointed Elizabeth shook her head and said, “Why?”

  The Margret crawled to Elizabeth’s feet and said, “I didn’t do any—”

  “Enough!” Dante barked. He took a knife from his waist and held it at the woman’s throat. “I won’t stand here and watch you lie to our faces. I’m going to count to three, and if you don’t confess then I’m going to slit your throat.”

  “Please!” she cried. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “One!”

  “I’m just an old woman!”

  “Two!”

  Suddenly, all the distress left her face. It was stone cold. “Fine, I did it,” she said in an entirely different voice.

  Dante stepped back beside us.

  Margret looked up at Elizabeth. “You sold out your own people, for them.” She spat at Elizabeth.

  I stepped forward. “Fine, you did what, exactly.”

  “I poisoned them. I would hide the leaf under the flesh and they ate it all up.” She laughed.

  “You monster,” I said.

  “I’m the monster?” She laughed hysterically. “Says the man who go village to village and rip children from their mother’s lives. Your kind raped our women and murdered our people! And you call me a monster? You must not forget, you’re the one who turns into a beast. Not me.”

  She was right. My people have done some horrible things to humans. Those are the things I worked towards ending. No human should have to suffer. I was dedicated to fight for their right.

  “And you,” she said to Elizabeth. “Have you forgotten what these people had done to you? You’re here laughing and smiling as if you’re one of them. You’re not, and you will never be. Your mother would be so ashamed.”

  “Shut up!” Elizabeth smacked her across the face. “Don’t ever speak about my mother. You’re a mur
derer! Don’t you see? You’ve hated the murderers so much that you became one. You are no different than the men who wiped out our village.”

  “How dare you compare me to those savages!”

  “The North took you from the cold, fed you, sheltered you and this is how you showed your appreciation?”

  “Appreciation. Don’t make me laugh. Shifters are the reason I was in the cold in the first place. You poor soul. They have brainwashed you.” She looked Elizabeth in the eye. “You can paint stripes on a horse, but it will never be a zebra.”

  Dante and I shared a glance. We weren’t naive. We knew of the awful things our kind had done. And if we were in her shoe, maybe we would have done the same thing. However, that didn’t change what she had done.

  “Where is the rest of the plant?” I asked.

  “In a bucket, by my window.”

  I made her stand up and I brushed the dirt off her knees. She was confused as why I hadn’t killed her yet. “I have one more job for you,” I said to Margret.

  “What!” Elizabeth stepped in front of me. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Calm down, Elizabeth. I’m doing what must be done.”

  “Who?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Diana,” Dante answered.

  “You’re in on this too?” she asked Dante. “Have you two gone mad?”

  “I told you this before, Elizabeth. Diana must be dealt with.”

  Elizabeth had her hand on her head. “She’s not a threat. She just has dreams like any woman. She wants to inspire women in a society where you men look down at us. What is wrong with that?”

  “She wants to kill you, Elizabeth,” I said

  “No. She wants to work with me, and achieve great things together. Women joining forces.”

  I had never seen Elizabeth so naive. She desperately wanted to believe Diana cared about her, even if it meant putting her own life, and the life of her child, in danger.

  Dante handed her a letter.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “It’s an invitation that you will receive tomorrow for one of Diana’s dinner. She will invite you to sit beside her. She will drug your wine with sleeping powder. Then she’ll tell you to take a rest in one our guest rooms, where a man will be waiting to cut your throat while you sleep,” I said.