Chapter 5
Lukas
Patience was not a virtue I clung to. It had never been. When I walked in on the first day of my internship with Edison Hildonbrand, I felt the warring relief of finally starting and the vicious longing I felt for this case to get underway and for Aster to go behind bars.
“You’re early. I like that,” Ed remarked as I walked into the break area of his office. The receptionist had told me he’d be there.
A perk of impatience—I was never late.
“Ready to get to work,” I responded with a smirk. I didn’t care about seeming overeager. Though I was.
“Perfect. I have your office set up and ready for you. On your desk, you’ll find Aster’s lab journals.
Go through them and flag anything that you think might be pertinent—notes about the love potion or the poison variant.
When you finish all of them, start over and look at them again.
The notebooks have already been submitted as evidence, but I’m curious if there’s anything else we can pull from them. ”
I nodded, feeling his dismissal as he looked back down at the phone he’d been on before I walked in. I quickly found my office by asking the receptionist.
It was a small office, but it had its own door, not just a cubicle.
I was impressed. There was a single desk with a computer monitor, a package of new pens, and a stack of lab books.
There were also sticky notes, tabs, and a fresh notebook.
The desk chair appeared brand new as I sat in it, with no signs of wear or tear on the leather.
I couldn’t lie to myself, though. This was a boring assignment.
When I’d spoken with Ed just last week, I had the impression that I would do the actual potion work for the case, such as making the truth serums to be used on all witnesses.
I never considered that I would just be the busywork assistant, but it got me into the courtroom as more than a spectator, and for that I could be grateful.
Pulling the notebooks out, I flipped through each one, noting the dates written at the beginning of each book.
They were leather bound, each the same color, but some were more worn out than others.
At first glance, the handwriting was perfect and neat.
Rows of writing and drawings were perfectly organized.
Maybe that would make my role easier, simpler.
I ordered the books by the first date in each and started with the oldest. It was two years old, and I wondered if there were more lab books hidden somewhere that belonged to her. Surely there were, but hopefully these would be enough.
When the love potion attacks began, they actually didn’t bother me. I was with Felicity, and I deeply cared for her. The potion seemed to give us a fun way to interact, and we were already in an established relationship.
During one attack, I wasn’t even on campus. Felicity called me and cried that she was under the effects of the potion and couldn’t find me. She rushed to her dorm, and we stayed on the phone until the effects of the potion wore off enough for her to calm down.
Our relationship had started six months prior when I’d met her at a social held at Alexander’s house, one of my teammates. We’d hit it off and went on a few dates until I asked her to be my official girlfriend. I liked her a lot, and we had fantastic chemistry.
But I’d never been in love with her. She was very critical of every move I made.
I couldn’t drive my car without her having something to say about it.
By the time the love potion attacks began, I’d been growing more and more weary of her, but not quite ready to break things off.
The love potion reinvigorated our relationship, and she even backed off with all her critiques.
The night of the football game against Castleton Academy, we’d gotten into a large fight over the way I’d been going to the gym more often in addition to football practices.
She was upset that I wasn’t spending enough time with her, which was a valid issue.
However, it devolved into an argument about how much time I spent doing anything in my day-to-day life, and I felt as though she was trying to control my schedule.
We had to cut the argument short because I had to be at the field to get ready for the game, and that aggravated her even more.
My frustration with her was so high that night; I felt caged.
Once we sealed the win, Forrestbriar students flooded the field for celebration, and Felicity remained in the stands.
I remembered watching her cross her arms as she glared at me, and it sparked my anger anew.
Then Gracyn Powell was standing in front of me, trying to get my attention.
The rest became a haze as the love potion assaulted my senses, and I supposed that my anger with Felicity clouded my thoughts, and that Gracyn was a beautiful girl.
She had pulled me out of the fray, trying to get me to engage with her.
We’d made it out of the stadium and down the paved sidewalk nearly back to the main area of campus when my head cleared enough for me to realize what was happening. I ripped myself away from Gracyn, apologizing to her if I’d hurt her, and ran back to find my fuming girlfriend.
We’d created our own version of an antidote to the potion that night, because the fight between us that ensued burned whatever love potion was in our systems and left nothing but disdain on both ends.
No amount of explanation or apologizing could make up for what I’d done.
Felicity was done with me, and as she stated, the potion told her everything she needed to know.
Humiliation, hurt, and anger were all that remained. For weeks after, Felicity would text me and remind me how much of a shitbag I was. I couldn’t really blame her. No, I wasn’t in control of my mind, but I had still followed another girl.
It made me so angry with myself, and even more with Aster. I couldn’t fathom the thought process behind doing something like this to an entire campus of students. Through the trial, hopefully, I would find some answers and see justice served.
Pulling open the lab book on top, I sifted through each line, moving on quickly when I saw nothing of interest on the first pages. I skimmed through them, hoping that I would find anything that could give us a clue as to when all of this started.
It took hours of skimming and taking notes, flagging certain pages with tabs for me to come back to. I planned to go through every book more than twice so I wouldn’t miss a single thing. I would use every detail in these notebooks to see Aster imprisoned.
After what could have been hours, I finally noticed something out of the ordinary. There was a second handwriting in the third book. I marked the page, quickly flipping forward, hoping I would find more of this second handwriting. I took a note to bring this to Hildonbrand’s attention later.
The notes in the second handwriting didn’t seem to have anything to do with what was on the pages, but also didn’t appear to have anything to do with the love potion. By the time I finished the third lab book, I didn’t believe the second handwriting was very important.
“You know what time it is, kid?” I looked up to see Ed peeking through the door.
I turned my hand over to check the time on my watch for the first time since sitting down and saw it was well past eight.
“That’s enough for today. Good work.” He looked approvingly at the sticky notes and notes on my desk.
I said nothing, shocked that I’d been so immersed in the work without realizing how much time had passed.
There was still so much work to be done, and I could have stayed for a few more hours at least. But Ed waved me on with a gesture of finality, so I closed the lab book and gathered my belongings.
“Don’t worry, Lukas. There will be plenty of time.”