Like Mother Like Daughter

Mom was a liar, but I had no right to judge. Because I, too, was a liar.

It all happened one night when I had a bad dream and wanted to see them.

I silently listened to it all in front of their bedroom door: the two of them were arguing for a while before it eventually turned to fighting, screaming, and eventually silence.

Maybe if I hadn’t opened the door, my life would be different.

There I was, locking my gaze with my mom in a crimson-stained room, her knuckles pale from gripping the knife too hard, her eyes tainted with death.

Mom killed Dad, who found out about her crimes of killing others behind his back and wanted to stop her.

When I asked her why, she said she stopped him to protect us.

I didn’t get it at all. It wasn’t like Dad was planning to hurt us. He never did.

It was only when I met Ray that I finally understood what Mom meant.

One day, while I was out doing my tasks for the journalism club, I had to deliver a stack of copies to my club. Of course, with my vision wholly blocked by a tall stack of papers, I was bound to fall eventually, and that happened while walking downstairs.

I slipped and braced for a bad injury, but I instead ended up falling into the comfort of Ray’s arms. He brought me back to my feet, helped me recollect all the papers, and walked with me—all with a reassuring smile. This was also when he met Maria, and the three of us started hanging out together ever since.

I didn’t know when I fell for him, but my heart started to dance since then. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t stop getting him out of my mind. I wanted to see more and more of him! His smile, his voice, his warm eyes…! It was no wonder he had so many friends!

Right… he had a lot of friends. He was also popular with the other girls. It made sense, really. Who wouldn’t like him? Maria once said she wasn’t interested in him in that way, but then there were those other girls.

They wouldn’t stop bothering him, pestering him with invitations to outings when he was clearly busy with his studies. They kept teasing him for his shy personality. They kept toying with his feelings. They kept taking advantage of him.

He didn’t deserve any of that.

At that point, I finally understood why Mom got rid of Dad.

It was so that he wouldn’t stop us from dirtying our hands.

***

“Hey, Blanche, do you have a crush on Ray?” Maria asked, smirking.

I choked on my boba tea and coughed. “H-Huh?! N-No…?”

“Hehe, but you’re blushing hard, Blanche!”

“Eh? I, erm… th-that’s…” I sighed in defeat. “Geez, was it that obvious?”

“Haha, you bet! You’ve been ogling him ever since we started hanging out!”

I tried sputtering out denials, but Maria shushed me with a finger on my lips. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a single soul.”

I relaxed my shoulders. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

As we continued to idly chat in the clubroom, a single ping of our phones was all it took to change the room’s atmosphere.

“Oh geez, another girl from our grade went missing,” said Maria, scrolling on her phone. “This is getting kind of serious…”

I stared at my phone and shrugged. “Yeah, it is,” I murmured.

Maria looked up and tossed me a frown, staying silent for a brief moment. “Blanche, aren’t you scared? These girls from our class! We could be next!”

I twitched my finger, cleared my throat, and said, “O-Of course, I’m a little scared,”—of getting caught—“but I know how to fight back.” I confidently waved my arms around. “Mom taught me all kinds of self-defense, y’know! I can definitely watch my own back.”

“Hm, I guess so…” Maria looked back down on her phone and sighed. “It’s just… I can’t shake off this feeling that whoever’s behind this is another student.”

I froze and twitched my arms. “Wh-What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I mean, it kind of makes sense—all these missing girls are from our school, so the culprit has to have ties to this place, right? How else would they know the victims’ schedules and whatnot?” She tapped her finger. “They’re all girls too… Could the culprit be another classmate and have something against them? What do you think, Blanche?”

Me? What did I think?

Was she suspecting me? Did she already figure it all out? Did she already know that all those girls were tied to Ray? When she asked me for my crush, was she confirming her suspicions? Was she taunting me? I couldn’t tell at all.

This girl… this girl was way too unpredictable. I couldn’t possibly think of getting rid of my friend, but…

I couldn’t let her expose me. She would get in my way. I just knew it.

“I think… you can be a pretty good detective after all,” I wryly said.

And as a detective, she’d never get along with a murderer like me.

***

“What a shame,” I cooed, kneeling before Maria as she sprawled on the grass. “You’re a nice friend, but you just had to stick your nose into every little mystery you could find, didn't you?” I slid a hand into my bag and gripped my pocket knife, switching it open. “Don’t you know the phrase, ‘curiosity kills the cat?’”

“B-Blanche,” she croaked, twitching her limbs. “W-Wait…”

I tilted my head.

“I’ve… never planned to expose you…! I just wanted to find the truth!”

I paused and entertained the thought, only to be interrupted by a wave of ghostly cries above us and met Crowley’s gaze, his ripped eye sockets flickering red out of excitement.

In the end, I simply smiled and said, “Sorry, I guess we’re just not meant to be friends after all. Goodbye, Maria.”

With that, I pulled out my knife and finished the job.