The Blue Rose

21. Aster

TWENTY-ONE

ASTER

M y hands are shaking. Sweaty. My breaths shallow and way too fast. Why are the cops here? My vision goes black around the edges. They can’t know I’m the Morbid Monet, I’m always so careful. That’s right. They’re not here to take me. I hear Serena talking to the cops at the door. They’re trying to come in, but they aren’t allowed in without permission. I don’t want them snooping around my property.

I wipe my hands on my sweats and walk to the front door. Bracing my hand above Serena's head on the doorway, I look down at the two cops, recognizing one of them from Serena's house. My jaw tenses when our eyes connect.

“Gentleman, what can we do for you?”

Serena tucks herself into my chest and I wrap my free arm around her. She looks up at me with a small reassuring smile and squeezes my arm.

“Are you Aster Graves?” I nod my head, fingers digging into Serena's stomach from the nerves swirling around in mine. How do they know my name? Is this about my parents? Was I too careless about breaking my rules? “We would just like to ask you a couple questions about a missing person, Tyler Blackwell,” the one with the sheriff badge says. He holds up a photo of the guy I killed for trying to kiss my girl when she clearly wasn’t interested.

We both look at the photo, neither of us giving anything away, but I know they have to have something to show up at my door, so I don’t lie, instead opting for a half truth.

“He went on a date with my girl, got handsy, I told him to back off, and that was the last either of us saw him.” Serena’s grip on my arm tightens, but she gives nothing away.

“Mind if we come in and get the details of that night?” the sheriff asks.

The younger cop, who thought he recognized me, is staring at Serena wrapped in a blanket. Only a blanket. I pull her behind me and level my glare on him. He clears his throat and looks away. The sheriff looks between us, then levels his own glare on his deputy.

“Give me and my woman a minute to get dressed, as you can see, you interrupted us.”

The sheriff bows his head and apologies, and the deputy's face turns bright red as he turns around and looks off into the distance, embarrassed he was caught ogling my woman. If he wasn’t a deputy I’d lay his ass on my table and enjoy the screams I would rip from his throat. But they’re here, and they know who I am, kind of, so unfortunately can’t kill Mr. Looky Look.

I shut the door, taking Serena's sweaty hand in mine, rubbing my thumb across her wrist. She’s nervous, though she shouldn’t be, I know exactly how to get them off of our trail and leave us alone. “Aster, what are we going to do?” she says, taking her hand from mine, fidgeting with them, and looking everywhere but at me.

I grab her twisting fingers, stopping her fidgeting and place my hand under her chin to look up at me. “Everything will be fine, my little vixen, you just tell them about your date, and I’ll tell them how it ended.”

She looks up at me, eyes wide, with her mouth parted in an “o” shape. “You crushed his hand, and I stood there and watched, are we really going to tell them that?”

I pull her into me and rub her back, as I rest my chin on top of her head.

“If they’re here, they already know what I did.” Her head shoots up at me, fear laced in her blue eyes, the ocean is swirling within them. Her eyes will always give her away. I need to teach her how to wear a mask.

Kissing the top of her head, we walk over to my closet, and I hand her a pair of sweats and a shirt. She mindlessly puts it on, and I do the same. She bites her nails, and I stride over, taking her hands from her mouth.

“I’m scared, Aster, what if they take you away for hurting him?” she whispers.

“They won’t do that,” I say matter of factly.

“If they were going to arrest me, they would have done so when I came to the door.” I feel her body relax a little as she takes a deep breath and nods like she’s ready for battle.

“Okay, let’s go tell the police what happened.” She lifts her head, charging for the front door, pulling me right along with her. A chuckle releases from my throat as I watch my brave vixen walk towards the lion's den.

Opening the door, we only see the sheriff there, and every bone in my body freezes, fear of if the deputy started walking the property lacing through my brain. Scenario after scenario plays out in my head of what he could find. If it stumbles upon my shed, and starts asking questions or wanting to enter it. Scared their discovery could lead to Serena discovering the truth. Then everything relaxes as I see him jogging back to the house from his car with a pen and notebook. I open the door further to allow them inside my home, every instinct screaming at me for allowing them to taint it with their presence. We go into the kitchen, and the officers take a seat at one side of the island while I grab the two other chairs and pull them to the other.

“Ms. Raven-”

“You can call me Serena.”

The sheriff clears his throat, pen on paper. “Serena, I am told the night the victim went missing, you were on a date with him?”

She steels her shoulders and places her hands crossed in front of her. “That is correct.”

He scribbles some more on his notepad, and the deputy is just watching us. “Can you tell me how your night went? When did you last see Mr. Blackwell?” His bushy eyebrows relax as he waits for her to respond.

She takes a small breath and looks the sheriff right in the eye and repeats the events of the night. My girl is so smart, showing no signs of nervousness or signs she has something to hide. The sheriff is furiously writing everything down, and I feel eyes penetrating me. I look up and see the deputy staring at me, his eyebrows pinched together, not looking away from my gaze. He must still be trying to figure out who I am. I look like my mother and if this deputy knows who she is, he can put two and two together. My face was all over the news when they were taken, and after I started my venture into their hobbies, I made sure my face wasn’t anywhere again. I look the same, just older. Even if he does connect the dots my files were sealed after I turned eighteen, I made sure of that myself.

Serena finishes her story with me showing up, then the sheriff places his hand up to silence her. I see her nails dig into her hands, my back tenses, and I crack my neck, pinning my glare on his hand. If he wasn’t a sheriff, that hand would already be snapped and his head would be bashed into my island, blood dripping to the floor.

“Aster-”

I place my hand up to silence him the same way he did to Serena. “Call me Mr. Graves.”

His eyes round and his fat head shakes a little. “I’m sorry?”

Is this guy dumb? I place my hands infront of me, the same way Serena had hers, and stare this dumb fucker right in his eyes, repeating slowly so he can understand. “I said, you can call me Mr. Graves. Don’t call me by my name, only those I trust can call me my name, and you, and your deputy, aren’t on the list of names I trust, so, again, call me Mr. Graves.”

The look of shock on his face turns to anger quickly. He points his fat stubby finger at me. “Now you look here boy , I very well will call you whatever I please, so you better respect your elders and answer my questions,” he cautioned.

I lean over the island to get closer to him. “You’re in my house, and, by law, I can kick you out anytime I please.” The sheriff's hand tightens around his pen, face turning red. “I’ll answer your questions, but if you place your hand up to silence my woman again, the respect you want from me will be the same respect you showed to her.” Leaning back and crossing my arms, I continue. “Apologize to Serena, and if she forgives you, we can continue this conversation. If she doesn't, then both of you can leave my home and take your questions with you.”

The vein in the sheriff's forehead pulses, and his cheeks puff out. The deputy places a hand on his arm, making him take a deep breath. He looks at Serena and grits his teeth, like it's painful to have to apologize to her. “I’m sorry, miss, that was awfully rude of me to tell you to be quiet with my hand.”

Serena looks up at me, then back at him, her eyes growing darker.

She’s pissed.

She narrows her eyes on the sheriff. “While I find it was very rude for you to silence me when I was only answering the questions you asked, I’ll forgive you only because I want to help you find Tyler, so let's continue.”

That’s my little vixen. I smirk.

They both clear their throats, and the sheriff turns to me. “When you got there what happened?”

“I punched him for trying to force himself on Serena and told him to lose her number, after that, he ran away, and I walked Serena to her car, before following her home to make sure she was safe.”

“So, you assaulted the victim?” The deputy finally speaks, making me clench my jaw.

“No. I protected my woman from a boy trying to touch her without her permission.”

“If she was your woman, why was she on another date with a different man?” the deputy asks.

He’s really pissing me off and testing my patience by asking dumb questions. I wish I could kill him. “She wasn’t officially mine at the time, but I saw him hurting her arm, so I took action.”

“The action being, punching him in the face?”

“Yes,” I grind out.

“We have footage of you doing something else after punching him.” My fingers press slightly into my hands, my heart rate picking up. The deputy gets out his phone and shows me the footage of punching him in the face, but you can’t see me crush his hand. My hands relax, and my pulse slows down as he points to the screen, “What is it you told him when he fell to the ground?”

“I already told you, I told him to lose her number and that was it, then we walked away.” My hands start to open and close, my breathing becoming faster as my vision narrows. I’m about ten seconds away from laying this deputy on his ass, consequences be damned.

“Are you sure that is all? Because when he gets up.” He points at the screen, “He’s holding his hand. Did you do something to his hand?” he questions, with an accusatory tone.

“No-”

“That's enough, deputy.” the sheriff interrupts silencing his partner. The deputies face contorts from shock to anger and then annoyance. “I think we have enough information, thank you for your time.” He gets off the chair and tips his hat. “And I’m sorry, again, for being so rude.” Serena offers him a small smile and we walk both pigs to the door.

Before I can shut it the deputy says, “I remember you from last time, but I still don’t know where I know you from.”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” is all I say, slamming the door in his face.

I grab Serena's hand and walk us back into my bedroom. My steps slow, and back tense as I lay down in the bed and pull her on top of me.

“Aster-”

I cut her off by smashing my lips against hers, our tongues dancing around each other and her hips start to grind against mine. I slide her off me and pull her into my arms. We lay there in silence, both saying so much, without saying anything at all, and after a few minutes, I feel Serena relax into me and hear her breaths become deeper.

She’s asleep, I can tell by her tiny snores. She’s exhausted, falling asleep almost instantly. After our fucksesh, and the cops interrupting our dinner, her body is shutting down to recharge. I don’t blame her. I’m exhausted. I pull her closer, basking in her warmth. I can’t believe I was so stupid and got caught on camera. I am usually so careful, but the anger I felt in that moment, when Tyler's hand was gripping her arm… I saw red. The red of his blood staining my hands, and I didn’t care about the consequences. Yet… now I have cops sniffing around and asking questions. If they think I did something to him, they could come back and search my property with a warrant. I was careful. I cleaned up and disposed of his body, but after Serena leaves, I will go to my workspace and make sure everything is truly clean. I can never be too careful especially with the slip up of getting caught on camera.

Serena’s body starts to fidget around me, and little whimpers escape her lips. I brush my hand on her head and shush her, pulling her tighter into me. Her body starts to relax, and the whimpering stops. Her breathing evens out, and whatever dream plaguing her has now ceased. I close my eyes, my breathing starting to match hers until eventually, sleep takes me too.