《Steam's Shadow》Steam's Shadow Chapter 7: Lady in red

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Previously the albino boy, who was responsible for the murder at the mansion, has saved John and was thus offered the job as his assistant. He gratefully accepted the offer, however without a name to be called by, John swiftly came up with a new one. His new name was to be Matthew or Matt for short and ever since then he has lived with them in the apartment. Two weeks have passed since he joined them and Matt has made himself useful in the house. Serving John, who was lazy at home, while also aiding Aaron in the kitchen and helping him out with chores.

At first Aaron didn't know if it was a good idea to have a murderer live in the same house as them, however they turned out to be have become pretty good friends. Especially since Aaron teaches him many recipes, and actually spends a lot time with him. Before, Matt was alone, driven by revenge and suffered. Neglected by his family, having lost his friends at the orphanage, he had nobody. Despite that, now he has finally found a spot to fit in.

It was the 7th November, a Monday morning.

John just woke up and began to take a shower, the first after his stay in the hospital. He had washed before, but very carefully without touching the wounds.

The apartment had three bedrooms, each person, John, Aaron and Matt had their room, there was also a large office room, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a storage room. The main entrance connected to a main hall, aligned with the door was the office. To the right of it was the kitchen, and further downwards the bedrooms. The bathroom was to the left of the office, while the second one was around the corner to the left along with the storage room.

John was inside the first bathroom, which was left from the office. He just got into the shower and carefully took his washing cloth, put some soap on it and attempted to clean the wounds. Meanwhile Aaron was in town, they needed fresh bread and tea, so the young boy with his shining, white hair was the only other person at home. He was hard working, but there was one thing which could even make the most busy men act like a child.

"John?" Matt knocked on the bathroom door. "Can I please come in? Just for a second? I'll be quick I promise!"

The shower was quite loud, hence why John had a hard time listening, "Sorry kid, would you mind waiting for ten minutes, I can unlock the door then," he said, flinching every time he touched one of the cuts.

"Fine..." he sighed.

He walked through the house, impatiently and furiously, even starting to walk weirdly, all the time keeping a close eye on the clock, which hung in the office. Ten minutes had passed, which caused Matt to carefully run over to the bathroom and once again knock on the door, this time more hectic.

"John?" his legs formed an X shape as his voice cracked. "Are you done yet?"

Actually, the blonde man in the shower was not done yet. The process of washing oneself, whilst having the stinging pain every time the cloth touched a scar, was not an easy task. He had to carefully clean up each scar in order for it to properly heal, that was quite painful and time consuming.

"Sorry kid, not yet. What do you want from here anyway?"

The boy's face got paler by the second as he jumped around, "Please I just need to use the toilet, come on!"

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The next thing he heard was an outbreak of laughing. John couldn't believe that the boy waiting this long, just to go to the toilet. He didn't even feel bad, especially because of a certain fact.

"I'm sorry Matt," he laughed, grabbing onto a brass pipe on the shower wall to support himself. "You really didn't need to wait for me, you know? Just go around the corner and use the toilet there."

"..." Silence came through the other side of the door.

"Why you! Damn it John! You---" Matt wanted to release his anger on John, but he simply couldn't wait any longer. He rushed to the bathroom around the corner, he couldn't believe he never knew about there being a second toilet there. It was a small room, it literally only had a toilet and a sink in it, but it was enough for Matt.

The next thing John heard was like as if a water tap was left running on full throttle, flowing into a full sink. Meanwhile Matt could hear John's wholehearted laughter from the other side of the wall behind him, which was thin and merely separated the two bathrooms. John held his stomach, barely breathing through his laugh, which started to sound like a cough by now. After Matt was done, he smirked and yelled, "Enjoy this, you prick!" He pulled the lever next to the toilet, causing it to be flushed. A scream of pain sounded through the building, John, who had been careful about his scars, was hit by some of the hottest water he had ever felt, causing the tides to have turned, since now he could hear Matt laugh. It was a justified laughter for him, "Serves you right!"

"You brat!"

About half an hour later, John was came out of the shower, with a large towel whirled around his head, while wearing a white shirt and brown cloth trousers. He was visually annoyed. At the same time, Aaron came home with two large shopping bags. Matt immediately took one of the bags and helped Aaron bring them to the kitchen, whilst the black haired man wondered why John looked so stung.

"Oh don't worry about him, he just had a nice 'hot' shower is all," Matt said sarcastically.

After the two of them had put all the contents of the bags into the shelves, John's head was freed from the towel, with this brown blonde hair almost looking black, because they were still wet. They were still open, untied and reached down to his hips, they seemed longer when untied. His bangs on the front were quite a bit shorter, making sure they wouldn't completely cover his eyes. However his ears were almost covered, because he hates them. They were big and pointy on top, back when he was a child he was compared to an imp for it, hence why he decided to cover them with hair.

Meanwhile Aaron stared at the wet haired detective and giggled. After John gave a hum as if questioning the reaction, Aaron told him, "Don't mind me. It's just that whenever I see you like that I wonder who that woman is."

John growled, knowing the woman was meant to be him. Especially since he was 17 and still didn't have a sign of beard growth. Meanwhile Aaron had to shave every day, simply because his beard disturbed him a lot, however his face still showed a grey outline, where the beard would be. Even Matt had a few thin hairs near his chin, however due to its white colour and the fact that he was merely 15, one could barely even see them.

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John didn't mind it though, he liked not having to waste time shaving, neither could he imagine even having an itchy beard. He knew how it must feel like, since Aaron would usually complain if he forgot to shave for a few days. Thus, even if he was annoyed by Aaron's statement, he didn't feel bad about it.

Before he even had the chance to get back at him, the door bell rang. Quickly, John put on his jacket and brushed his hair so it wouldn't look like a wet mop. Aaron prepared tea while Matt poured some biscuits into a bowl. John then opened the door and hurrying inside came a young woman.

"Please come in," John said sarcastically, since she was already inside, leaving him only to close the door behind her.

She looked about John's age, had long blonde hair and she wore a red dress with ruffles on the skirt and the wrists. Her eyes had a darker red to the dress, while her face showed no sign of make up it was slightly tanned, but not much. As beautiful and stunning as she was, it left John quite cold. Possibly because of the spoiled aura which surrounded her.

"How can I help you?" he asked.

She turned around, swirling the skirt, nearly slapping her braided hair into his face, "Please stop wasting my time, where is the detective? Detective Sterling that is."

Aaron came inside with a wooden plate, on which the bowl of biscuits and three cups of tea stood. Matt had to stay in the kitchen, since they thought it might look weird if these two young men had a small boy living with them.

Unlike John, he was actually very surprised to see her, however the reason was not because of how she looked, but because of who she was.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am the said person. I am the Detective Sterling."

Her eyebrows frowned, "Yes, yes, very funny. Now then where is he?"

"I am not kidding you, it is me."

"That is true my lady. This is indeed the only detective you can find here," Aaron confirmed.

"What? I was told the man I was looking for was old, but this one... it's a snotty brat," she vividly said, aiming her flat hand towards John.

John was more than simply mildly offended by her comparison, but swept it off quickly, knowing that a wrong reaction would merely confirm her belief.

"I figured. Has nobody told you that the old man is dead? He has been for a few years now. I am his son, Johnathan Sterling."

"I see, well I am sorry for bringing up the topic then. I will take my leave now," she wanted to walk out but John clapped onto the door with his flat hand, refusing her choice to leave just yet.

"Excuse me, I may be younger but that doesn't mean I am less skilled," although he knew he was indeed less skilled. "If you have a request just tell me."

She stared at the young man with his damp hair, "How very rude of you! Fine then, show me how professional you can be."

Aaron pointed her towards the desk and the client chair, which was a brass chair, with a fluffy flower cushion. She sat down and took a cup of tea from the plate, so did John.

"So then, let's try this again shall we? What is your name and what is your request?"

Both Aaron and the woman in red stared at him like as if he was joking, "John, you don't know who she is?"

John was confused and hummed to say 'no'.

"This woman is the only child of the kingdoms banking overseer, lord Rosenfeld, she is the daughter, Kimberly Rosenfeld," he said disappointedly, supporting his face with his hands.

Her father was quite old and was one of the most important people in the country, mainly due to his influence on the financial part of the kingdom. He was also the second richest man, only behind the king in the country. Sadly however, she was his only child, thus Kimberly, was the next in line to inherit everything. Because of the status of women in the kingdom, she had many enemies, believing she isn't fit to be in such a position.

Slightly irritated that the detective didn't know about her, she still continued and gave him a letter. It had already been opened, crudely folded together. John went ahead anddrew the actual paper out of the letter. He was surprised to find it being written by hand, but it still looked like it was written by a three year old.

"Kimberly Rosenfeld, may the sword, which will soon hang above you, never fall down upon you. It would be a shame," the letter briefly said.

After a quick thought about everything, John was confused, "So then, why is this a problem? I mean it seems like that person cares about you."

"Nobody actually cares about me, they all just see me as a thorn in their eye or try to use me, which is why I believe this anonymous writer chose to use sarcasm," she said, staring at the desk with worried eyes.

"Is there more context to this? Because I think if you stay with your fathers guards you should be safe." John felt ridiculed by this request. Why would she come to him if the answer was this simple?

"My birthday is in 2 days, on the ninth of November. It is also the day that I will announce that I am about to inherit half of my fathers business, as a trial. However, the party I will hold is public, and it would be impossible to keep an eye on all of them," she paused, looking at their open jaws.

"You are about to have control over half the business? Well now I get the letter, you too John?" Aaron stands in awe.

"Yes, who doesn't know the famous story of the sword of Damocles. A King allowing a commoner to be king for a while, letting him learn about the responsibility which comes with great wealth. The people who envy you, who will try to kill you for it. Until the person begs the former King to be released of his punishment. If it is really like you explained it, someone is trying to say, 'I will try to drop the sword upon you'," John deducted, almost seeming professional. "However what should we do, I mean I can't really send in a bunch of bodyguards for you, can I?"

"Well, I thought you might know a useful Doppelgänger for me, someone who can substitute as me," she embarrassingly admitted.

"Let us say that I do somehow know a woman who looks like you, you can't possibly throw someone else below the blade."

"I am aware of that."

"Wait so let me get this straight, you are looking for someone who is about your height, has long blonde hair, slim and is flat chested too?" Aaron asked rudely.

"Oh!" she was hurt, crossing her arms. "How dare you talk like that to me! Have you no shame?"

"Well, I am just trying to put down the facts for this Doppelgänger search, but I think I already know the perfect person for that job," he defends himself, looking over to John and back to Kim, back to John and then Kim, grinning like as if he had an evil plan.

It took John a few seconds to realize the hint, until he scratched his head, awkwardly touching his hair, pulling it forward, towards his eyes.

"What!" he screamed. "You cannot be serious! You mean I am supposed to cross-dress?"

Kim let out a slight giggle, before being stared at by her 'about to be' Double.

"Well, would you rather an innocent girl get in danger?"

Aaron smacked John with responsibility, knowing that now he can no longer deny the idea. Apparently it even worked, he was curling his hair, as if trying to imagine himself but he shook his head trying to dig himself a way out of this problem.

"Surely she has a speech going on too, meaning my voice wouldn't fit hers, unless suddenly she started talking deeper." He crossed his arms, believing he had won.

"Well theoretically yes, but since the party will be held on such a large scale, we will use voice pipes," she smiled with her eyebrows tilted upwards, as if trying to apologize.

Voice pipes are brass pipes which can carry the sound which enters through the mouth piece, enhancing the volume, exiting through other horns placed around the facility. It was a commonly used feature for many speeches.

"You see while you stand up on the podium, I can hide in a room with bodyguards and talk through the horn, all you need to do is try to synchronize your lips to my speech. Basically, I really only need you to look similar."

Her wits have put all of John's hopes into dirt.

"You.. had all of this planned out?" He threw his face at the table, disappointed.

"Yes..."

"And what is in it for us? I mean, I am risking my good name here."

His eyes rolled as he grinned, expecting her to have quite the prize for him.

"Well, I heard you visited the mines, however we bought them up, which is why I offer you anything you seek. So that you know how much I can offer you, I thought you might like this prepayment."

She offered him a wooden box, however as he picked it up, he saw it was a chest. John slowly opened it and within it was one large blazestone. It was barely holdable, his hands were about the same size, combined. The shimmering glow of this specimen made John curious, as well as the fabulous flat and clean finish of it. He wanted to take it out of the box, but quickly saw that the cloth around it was slightly charred. He knew that it was due to this stones size, it created enough heat to even burn cloth, which usually doesn't happen. John had high hopes for his prize, without thinking any further he grabbed her hand and shook it vividly.

"We have ourselves a deal!"

John just accepted a deal which would include him cross-dressing, in front of the public, to aim the sword above the young woman onto himself. What will happen to him? What kind of trouble has he gotten into? We will see next month, when he acts as a stand in for the possibly richest daughter in the country.

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