Peace talks

First I went to the front doors. My knowledge about lockpicking was nearly non-existent, so I just checked them to see if there were any strange scratches or other obvious signs of breaking in. Didn’t find any. For sure I had locked them before going out and they were still locked when I came back. Moreover, this was a new flat. The lock itself was a fairly advanced one. Simple tricks involving bobby pins could be immediately excluded.

This time, to regain peace of mind and reinforce the security, I also locked the pre-installed door bolt and started a detailed flat search.

All I found was a bit of dirt in the corridor and tiny puddles of water near the desk. Which was strange as earlier I cleaned this place spotless.

There was nothing like that in other rooms, so it was easy to guess that the laptop was the target and the culprit knew its exact location.

I scanned Vic memories. Excluding me, there were only three people who have ever been inside this flat. Violet, Viktoria, and Silvie. On the other hand, today I also found out that these memories were not 100% reliable.

If there is even one thing that I can't remember, then there's no guarantee that more of them won't pop up sooner or later.

Although ‘find the suspect’ game was just a byproduct of this situation, it helped me to calm down enough to proceed to the main point, which till now was being ignored.

I moved one of the chairs to the desk and sat down. This was going to be my first contact with a computer in over a year. But! I couldn’t help it. I had to find out what was going on, maybe some clues were left on it.

With a sickly grin, I pressed the power button and enjoyed the unique hum of a booting up machine.

…
…
…

Nothing. Literally nothing. It has been restored to factory settings.

I spent an hour, setting it up to my liking and downloading all the necessary programs. At the same time, I was researching Victor's memories connected to it. Other than him frequently visiting darknet to satisfy his rather disgusting fetishes I didn’t find anything strange.

Just as I was about to check if some of my favorite forums existed in this world, I had an epiphany. The keyword ‘online forum’ was connected with lots of strange memories from Vic’s side.

Why were they strange? It was because they were only half complete. I learned that there was a forum that Vic often participated in, but its name, what topics it dealt with and stuff like that were all gone. I got a grip on myself and finally remembered that my original goal in checking out this laptop wasn’t to have fun on the internet.

That's when it hit me. Even if locally everything had been wiped out, online traces were a lot harder to erase.

Let's hope that the memory of Vic having only one main email account is a correct one.

After logging in, I checked all the messages marked as ‘read’ and finally found it. An email with an activation link to a forum that I had no recollection of.

It was the Claymore city official forum.

It wasn’t hard to gain an access to Vic’s account. He was the type that always used one of his four original usernames, as for the password it was sent to me with practically a single click of ‘forgot my password’.

What I found there wasn’t pretty. Countless troll posts criticising everything and everyone but kept in check just barely as to not get banned. Especially when the topic was connected with Viktoria. Seventeen jeer posts in ‘the winners of the annual math contest’, six scolding messages in ‘the leaders of our city young generation’ and over twenty disparaging poems in 'our city rising star Viktoria Amato'. That was just the tip of an iceberg. Vic had left countless sparks of flame wars all over the place.

Was this surname accidental? Not at all. Viktoria Amato was Victor’s twin sister. Even their own mother had once said that every single drop of talent went to her and Vic was just a useless piece of trash. Of course, it wasn’t that harsh from the very beginning, but the more Vic tried to retaliate and compete with his twin sister, the more twisted and disturbed their relations became, pulling into this swamp all their family members. Both parties were to blame and if Victor had been the more talented one, their roles would have simply swapped, without any real improvements.

Even though I was just browsing through his memories as an observer it was still rather unpleasant. My sanity points were under attack from the splash damage and renewed realization that now I was the one in control of the body that had participated in this fight.

Reading the records showcasing one side of their struggle, I finally found something essential. Two messages saved in the inbox.

[hello
i noticed your posts in my thread if what you wrote is true and you are really interested in changing your life for the better all you have to do is to answer this message]

As the forum only stored incoming messages, I couldn’t check what exactly Victor wrote as reply.

[Great!
Yes, it’s true. Even if it’s not, you won’t lose anything by trying right? If you really want to get rid of the title ‘black sheep of the Amato family’ this is the way to go. Let’s meet tomorrow on the roof of Sunshine shopping center at 2 pm. We can drink a cup of tea in a crowded place and discuss the details. Don’t worry, I will find you without any problems.]

The first message was from 30th of January, second from 31st. Three and two days ago. Unfortunately, other than that person username ‘sunkentree’ I couldn’t find anything else. The sunkentree’s account has already been deleted, as well as all the posts and threads involved.

These holes in Victor's memory really raise the difficulty. Was Victor the one who leaked his identity to sunkentree or not? What was written in that mysterious thread? Was it connected with Silvie and her power?

Damn. I really want more information or someone to explain it to me.

After mustering all my willpower I detached myself from the laptop and turned it off. Searching for clues on the internet without a solid starting point was a fool’s errand. I was pretty sure that for now this was all I could get.

Let’s try contacting Silvie tomorrow. I've got a feeling that if I play it right it will lead to a breakthrough.

Before going to sleep I double checked the lock and bolt of the front doors.

*Ding* *Ding* *Di, di, ding* *Ding* *Di, di* *Di, di* *Di, ding*

Once again my new reliable alarm clock is here right on time. But… it's a bit strange. Yesterday she tortured the bell with all her might, but today she's playing some kind of a melody.

While putting on my clothes I tried to figure out what kind of melody it was. It sounded familiar. Slow, maybe even sad tune, repeating the same key notes over and over again. Due to the laud nature of a doorbell, a large part of the meaning behind it was lost.

*Ding* *Ding* *Di, di, ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Di, di, ding*

The moment I realized what kind of melody it was, I suddenly speed up and went straight to the door. After all, it was Chopin’s funeral march.

“Hooooo~ Good morning scum.”

“Hello Vio. Why the long face? It’s a brand new day, cheer up.”

“I give you two minutes, my dear scum. Please explain.”

“Explain what?”

“...”

“Vio? What’s wrong? Come on, tell your brother.”

“...”

“By any chance… was the message I sent you yesterday, not to your liking?”

“Not to my liking?!”

She exploded like a volcano and pushed me inside the flat. I somehow managed to avoid the first plastic bag swing, but the second hit my side hard. The impact was accompanied by a metallic sound.

Cans, a lot of cans are going to be involved in today's dinner.

I caught the bag right when she was preparing for a further assault.

“I was just a joke! A little prank. Why are you so angry?”

Since she realized that I had finished setting up my defenses, we moved on to the truce negotiations. My position was bad. Really bad. Not only she won the first battle, but now it was further reinforced by her tearing up a little.

“Scum.”

I was silently waiting to receive her demands.

“That message you send. It arrived right when I was in the middle of a class.”

“I just wanted to thank you for the food.”

“I forgot to mute my phone.”

Well, that could be a bit embarrassing, but was it really a reason to start this war?

“The teacher told me to read it aloud.”

“No way… seriously?”

Ok… that is bad.

“And, and... I had to... in front of the entire class…”

I let go of the plastic bag and kowtowed right on the spot.

“I’m really sorry!”

“Scum! Trash! Idiot! Useless piece of society!”

“Please forgive me. I will do anything you want.”

“Forget it.”

I shot a glance at her. Why was my sister gaze so cold? Why was she twisting her face in disgust?

She put down the bag and was about to leave. From this position, all I could do to stop her was to quickly grab her ankle.

“Please wait. I’m willing to do anything you want. Is there anything you want me to buy you? Just give me a chance please.”

She stood there for a while and finally sighed deeply.

“Let me go.”

I released her leg and stood up.

“Vio, please. If I knew it would end like that…”

“I know.”

“Really?”

“Brother scum. You’re somewhat different today.”

“I just realized my mistakes.”

She was watching me carefully for a longer while. I couldn’t read her expression well, but it looked like something finally managed to convince her.

“For once you don’t look like a beggar.”

“I’m trying hard to change myself you know?”

“I won’t forgive you right away… but I will think about it.”

“Thanks Vio.”

“You better prepare! Buying my forgiveness won’t be cheap.”

She left.

At first glance, it might have looked like my defeat, but in reality it was my hidden victory. I managed to catch a shade of a delicate smile right before she turned her back to me. However, preparing my wallet to be emptied was a must.

Well… I could still count myself lucky if she was willing to forgive me just with that.

As for the message I sent to her?

[Yooo~ the food was good. Every day I thank the heavens for a brocon sister. I will pray for you in the future, let’s hope that one day you will leave the ranks of ‘flat is justice’ club.]