Generation Nine Chapter Six

As I woke up, the night before slowly came back to me. I had been completely unprofessional. I had been holding in my feelings for Abby so far, not letting them get the better of me, but now things had gone too far. After thinking this through for a few moments, I got out of bed.

 

Abby was still fast asleep. I quickly put my pajama pants on and went into my bathroom to have a shower. After the shower, I went back into the bedroom to see that Abby had already dressed, and was waiting for me.

 

“Hi,” she said shyly, blushing slightly.

“Abby… Abigail,” I started, and she looked at me, confused, noting the change in how I addressed her, “Abigail, I think we should talk about what happened.”

“I suppose, it’s not like I was planning on all of that happening, but I think our feelings have been made plain,” she said. I sighed.

“I’m sorry. I acted completely unprofessionally and it shouldn’t have happened. You’re my client, and I shouldn’t have told you any of my own personal problems. I’ve acted completely unprofessionally this whole case, and it needs to stop. I was confusing a cover story with real life, and it shouldn’t have happened. For that I apologise,” I said.

 

“Are you freaking kidding me? You sleep with me, and now you say oh it’s unprofessional?” She yelled. I stepped back in shock.

“I didn’t – I wasn’t – things got away with me last night, I wasn’t thinking, Abigail. But things shouldn’t have progressed like that, not while you’re my client,” I said. She calmed down for a moment.

“Now while I’m your client?” she asked softly. I hesitated, before a small nod to confirm she’d heard correctly. She smiled at me.

 

“All right. I understand. But I think I should go home,” she said.

“You don’t have to do that. I know that you must be worried about being there,” I said. Abby just shrugged.

“I need to, just for a while, anyway,” she said. I nodded.

“If you’re sure,” I said. She nodded, and then left to her house.

 

That day I went into the office to do some paperwork. I wasn’t there very long when I had a call from Abby.

 

“Aaron… someone’s been in the house. You have to come over, see if you can find anything. Please,” she said.

“I’ll be over right away.”

 

I arrived and looked up at her house. I had gone through it briefly before, when I first took the case, but vampires were involved, and our kind was very good at covering their tracks. I would look more carefully this time.

I walked through the door, and Abigail looked at me before throwing herself on my shoulder.

 

“They… this is… I…”

“I know, I’m sorry,” I murmured. I let her cry on my shoulder for a few moments before I carefully extracted myself from her.

“I need to go look for any clues, okay?” I said. She nodded, and sat down on her couch while I went upstairs.

 

First I went into Abby’s room. Someone had obviously been in here, and looking through her clothing. I knew Abby, she did not leave a mess like this. If they had been trying to hide, they would have put everything away. It had been a message to Abby. They wanted her to know she’d been in her house. I took a picture, and looked carefully through her stuff before I went into her fathers room.

 

Rather than a few small piles of clothes there was one big one. I looked carefully through his things, and looked through his drawers. One draw was full of small personal belongings, papers, jewellery. After reading through a couple of the papers he had, I went back downstairs to talk to Abby.

 

“Abby, your father borrowed money from vampires. They seem to be a big group. He couldn’t pay them back, and I think they demanded another sort of payment that he wouldn’t agree to, so I think they kidnapped him. Your neighbours saw him arguing with a vampire a few weeks ago, he could’ve been telling them then that he wouldn’t agree to that payment. Is there anything precious to him that he wouldn’t be able to part with?” I asked. Abby thought for a while.

“My mother’s engagement ring,” Abby said. I shook my head.

“No, the vampires wouldn’t want or need that, it would be something that… oh…” I said, staring at Abby as the thought crossed my mind. I didn’t want to think it, but now I had, it made complete sense.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“You know, you’re very beautiful,” I murmured.

“Kind of topic, but thanks…”

“And you smell delicious,” I added.

“What has that got to do with anything?” Abigail asked. I sighed.

“They wanted you as payment.”