| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
Owodog used the duplicate keys Fabien handed to him to let himself into the apartment. It was dark except for a lamp Fabien had switched on so he and Ashley could see where they were going. He reckoned it was Ashley who remembered to keep the lights off just in case someone was watching.
Owodog shut the gate and door and locked up before he flicked on the lights.
Ashley and Fabien were sitting next to each other on the sofa but both of them were just spacing out.
Owodog registered Fabien’s blank expression and Ashley’s annoyed one.
“Yu! I told you not to hit on my partner.” Owodog accused as he got himself a beer and joined them in the living room.
Fabien shot him a dejected look. And Owodog swore Ashley would have been growling and baring her canines at Fabien if she was a dog.
Ashley slammed her can onto the table and a few drops of beer flew out and splattered on the table soundlessly. “Let’s get down to serious stuff now, shall we.”
It was a statement, not a question.
But Owodog shook his head. “No, not before I get out of this.” He glanced at the suit he was wearing. “Yu, take off my shirt and return it to me.”
“Not in front of me, please. I have no wish of puking in other people’s house.”
Owodog looked at Fabien. “Pal, I don’t know what you did. But you sure got on the wrong side of her.”
“I have no idea either. But you bet I did.” He sighed.
A minute later they were back in the living room again but Owodog’s got his own clothes back on and Fabien was in a casual t-shirt and shorts.
“Quick.” Ashley said.
“Yu, repeat everything you told me just now.”
“Okay.” Then Fabien filled her in about the whole presents thing.
Ashley frowned. “Did you have any real girlfriends, other than all your one-night-stands?”
“Yeah. ‘Course I do.”
“Okay then fill us in.”
Fabien nodded somewhat reluctantly. “The first one was in high school—”
“Uh, actually, start from the latest one, or else we probably won't find out anything important till the next morning.” Owodog interrupted.
“Ha, okay. Then the latest one is Alicia. Alicia Liew. She’s my colleague in Sugar Factory but we’re in different departments.”
“Any queer behaviour from her after the break-up?” Ashley prompted.
Fabien nodded uncertainly. “Yeah I guess. I told Quan already.”
Owodog helped Fabien recount what Alicia had said and done.
Ashley furrowed her brows. “Think she’s a possible suspect?”
“OH!”
“What?” Ashley and Owodog echoed each other.
“Let me show you the presents first before we continue.”
“Yeah, that’ll be helpful.”
Fabien took the few boxes from on top of the shoe rack and returned to his seat. He placed them on the table. “These are all. Six altogether. The last two turned nasty.”
Ashley stuck her palm out at Owodog.
“What?”
“Gloves, blockhead.”
“I don’t have any.” Owodog said.
Ashley grimaced at him. “Now we can’t touch those things.”
“But I can. I’ll open them up for you two to see.”
“That’ll be nice, thanks.” Ashley said. It was the first time her tone wasn’t snide or too formal to Fabien.
Fabien untied the ribbon on each box and laid the contents on the table.
Ashley studied the sweets and chocolates, hoping to find some clue from them. Owodog scrutinized the blood letter.
“ ‘Love is sickening devotion’.” Owodog read aloud. “ ‘Sticking with you for life’. Eek.”
Fabien shuddered. “It gives me the creeps.”
“Yeah, I can see that. It’s freaky. Ash, see anything significant in the sweets?”
“Yeap.” Ashley said, “They’re all strawberries & cream.”
“Oh God.” Owodog rubbed his temples. “The chocolates?”
“Smell them.” Ashley said.
And Owodog did. There was a faint strawberry smell coming from the chocolates.
Ashley then pointed to the boxes. “Think we can get prints from those? Or the sweets and chocolates?”
Owodog shook his head. “But they’re worth a try.” He turned to Fabien, “Yu, we’ll bring these back to the station to have them looked closer at.”
Fabien nodded. “Sure.”
“Okay, then do us one more favour; put them in a ziplock bag.” Owodog said.
Fabien got down to his task immediately. Then he passed the ziplock bags to Owodog.
“Thanks,” Owodog said, checking his watch. “But I think it’s too late to go back to the station now, Chad should have gone home already. We’ll pass these to him tomorrow.” He directed his words at Ashley, who nodded.
“Shall we continue from where we left off just now?”
There was silence, so she assumed they all consented.
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Alicia opened another tub of strawberry ripple ice cream to eat once she got home. She was tired of watching Fabien every night.
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After they had listened to around more than ten stories, they concluded that the only suspicious one was probably Alicia’s.
“What do we do now, then?” She then asked, without much thinking.
“EH. Let’s go home.” Owodog said after a good deal of deliberation. He stood to leave, so did Ashley.
Fabien stood up too.
Just as Owodog was about to step out of the apartment, he turned back abruptly and looked over Ashley to Fabien. “Yu, you be careful.”
“Yeah, will do.”
Owodog shot him a tired smile then walked off into the corridor towards the elevator.
Ashley was going to follow after Owodog when she felt Fabien’s hand on her shoulder. She whirred round. “Yes?” She said rather irritably.
“I—I’m sorry if I—well, pissed you off.” Fabien stuttered, ruffling his hair absent-mindedly.
Ashley raised her brows in surprise. She hadn’t expected anything like an apology from Fabien. In fact, she didn’t imagine that such a narcissistic playboy who seemed so conceited, self-absorbed and egoistic could actually STUTTER. But in any case, she accepted his apology with a nod and strutted off.
Fabien half wanted to call her back, but he decided to abandon that thought and want at the last minute. He stood at the door and watched till the elevator doors closed before he locked his own gate and door. He certainly didn’t want the killer to take advantage of his living alone to ambush him.
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Ashley yawned. It was already 2.40AM. She rarely stayed up till so late.
In twenty minutes, Owodog’s car reached her apartment block. “Alrighty, Ash. We’re here. See you later.”
But there wasn’t a response.
Owodog looked at Ashley. She was asleep. He poked her. “Ash~ Ashley~ Wake up. We’re here.”
She stirred and hit his hand away. And continued sleeping.
Owodog watched her in amusement. It wasn’t the first time this happened. The previous times, though, Ashley was still staying at another apartment with a room-mate and he easily got that room-mate to open the door for him and the room-mate took over from there. But this time Owodog wasn’t exactly sure what he should do. He could either bring her up to her home or take her to his home which was five minutes away.
But. The first option would mean he had to find her keys. Which he had no idea where they were. Well, she wasn’t carrying any bag of any sort, so that meant her keys were in one of her jeans pockets.
Owodog ruminated on the idea of sticking his hand into her pocket for a while. Then he quickly dismissed that idea and cursed himself for having evil designs on Ashley, especially since he had just warned his best friend not to touch her.
He gazed at her again. Maybe Fabien was right. He should get a girlfriend soon.
Sighing, he reached over to lower her seat so it was inclined at a larger angle. Being alone with her wasn’t exactly a good idea at this point of time, but bringing her home would probably be more dangerous. So Owodog decided to sleep in the car instead. After he moved her seat down to an angle more comfortable for her, he stretched his hand towards the back seat to take his jacket and covered her with it.
Then he lowered his own seat and dozed off a few minutes later.
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Fabien switched on the television and channel-hopped. He didn’t suppose he’d be able to fall asleep anyway. He was wondering if this lifestyle he was so used to was going to be the cause of his death.
He was 27. Perhaps it was time he settled down. Possibly it might save his life too. He wasn’t sure if Alicia was really the one behind all these, he couldn’t imagine someone like Alicia would be so ruthless. It sort of made him want to swear off long-term relationships.
He channel-hopped to Animal Planet. Then he conked out while watching some male praying mantis being devoured by the female one after mating.
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lalala~ well that's chapter 6 for you. (:
->shuang.dao