The Sisters: The Curse of Gabriel's Gardens

Revenge

Alexis Warren was sitting in her favorite armchair with a book on her lap. She was scanning the words, magnified by her glasses, and the story the author wanted to tell continued unwinding in her head. Reading was Alexis' obsession. Addiction. She was dived into the story so much she almost forgot to breathe...

Until she was interrupted by a loud "Shit!" coming from her sister.

Alexis sighed and put the book aside. "What happened?"

"Angel's Tears got interrupted again because some dork got killed."

"You should have some respect, Dee. A person just died and you brag about a soap opera."

Angel's Tears was the most popular soap opera in Gabriel's Gardens. It told a story of Marianna, a young, poor woman living in a slum district Daybreak who works long hours like a slave to have money for food. She has to choose between two men - Gareth, a rich older man with questionable past from The Centre which would be able to end her poverty and let her live in luxury, and Aidan, an university student from East Haven who isn't very rich, but loves her genuinely.

Almost every day at four, the sisters had a relax hour. They just sat in the living room and Alexis grabbed a book while Diane watched a new episode of Angel's Tears. Alexis often mocked her sister for watching the show since it was suitable more for middle-aged housewives.

"Who died?" Alexis asked. Diane pointed at the TV. Apparently, the murdered man was Grayson Forrestal Sr., a rich businessman from The Centre.

"Just a mafia settling their accounts," Diane noted. "Those rich dandies from The Centre die everyday. Doing business in Gardens is a rough thing and it brings some risks."

The police officer on the screen started to speak: "Grayson Forrestal senior was killed presumably today at night; the autopsy will tell us the exact time of death. We can't share more information with the media right now, but we will keep you updated if anything changes."

A long reportage about Forrestal followed. He was a quite handsome man with short gray hair and pleasant, wrinkled face, usually smiling. He was always clean shaved, wearing an expensive suit. He was the biggest producer of security systems in Gardens.

The set of short videos depicted him at public events, openings on new shopping malls which used his security systems (ForrSafe-T, pronounced "For safety") and charity events. He was quite popular even among the "commoners" - he was known for giving better jobs to people from Daybreak and Morningstar, the two slum districts of Gabriel's Gardens - the working conditions in these districts were terrible and getting a different job was like a blessing for those people.

He clearly didn't look like that type of "kingpin of the crime", a rich businessman capable of doing anything to eliminate the competition and gain even more money and power.

"This one seemed like a really nice guy," Diane summed it.

"I agree that out of the businessmen in The Centre, this one deserved death the least," Alexis said. "I met him personally once. It was at school, when I won a contest about the best short story. He gave me the prize and said my writing skills are excellent," she blushed a little.

Diane raised her eyebrows. "So there's a personal bias?"

Alexis shrugged. "Yes." Alexis went to her room and returned with a high-capacity flash disc with a logo of ForrSafe-T. "This was among the prizes," she said.

"Maybe he's that kind of dude who acts nice in front of the cameras and turns into asshole when they stop recording," Diane hinted.

"No. I'm pretty sure he was being honest."