"IKBAL?"

The girls yelled at the man cloaked in darkness.

"Yes. It's me, Zachary Ikbal."

"Fiona... Fiona is your daughter?" Mahnoor exclaimed in disbelief.

"Sorry for breaking into your house by the way." Abir added quietly.

Ikbal nodded, sighing and placing his head in his hands as he thought for a moment.

"I can explain everything. Why don't we take a walk? I find it easier to explain things when I walk and talk." Ikbal says with a slight shrug, moving aside to let the girls out of the pink infested room.

Mahnoor, Oliwia, Abir and Alice all stared at each other before silently agreeing to follow the man they once thought was boring and beige.

Ikbal waited at the door, allowing the girls to walk through then closing and locking it behind him.

He then glanced shiftily between the girls, "Um... let me just get my coat." He mumbles before rushing away, leaving the four of them left in the hallway.

Oliwia shrugs, "Well, this is strange. It was Ikbal all along?"

"So it seems.." Mahnoor muses quietly.

"Hey Let's go to the kitchen, I have an idea!" Alice exclaims, grabbing the other three and dragging them to her destination.

Once there, she lunges towards the kitchen drawers, throwing them open and bringing out the very same knife caked in blood as the one they spotted before.

They froze as they heard the thudding steps of Ikbal heading towards them.

Alice thrust the knife into her jacket and span around to face Ikbal, who motioned for them to follow him out of the front door.

Ikbal walked beside the four girls, sighing as he mulled over what to say.

"Let me start at the beginning.

My best friends in university were the beautiful Suzanne and the outgoing Fabio, an exchange student from Switzerland.

We were like the three musketeers, we were the kings and queens of Oxford University. We were at the top of the world.

I had a top-notch education, a dashing girlfriend in the form of Suzanne, and the most supportive best friend in the form of Fabio.

But if you're at the top, the only way forward is falling back to bottom.

And that's exactly what happened: You see, Fabio had always loved Suzanne, and he resented me for being with her.

He finally got his revenge as he sabotaged my examination and got me kicked out of oxford."

"This is a very sad story and everything, but what does it have to do with Fiona's murder?" Abir piped up, somewhat annoyed.

"Let me continue, everything will soon make sense.

Suzanne, being a the heiress to a prestigious family, had no place dating a cheat kicked out of Oxford, moved on to Fabio.

But, despite her heritage, Suzanne still loved me. While she pretended to be in a committed relationship with Fabio, she would continue to meet up with me in secret.

Alas, our relationship was not perfect, I was a violent drunk, wallowing in depression after being kicked out of Uni.

I did not treat her like she deserved. Eventually Suzanne became pregnant, and although I knew the baby was mine and Suzanne knew she could have ran away with me, she chose to stay with Fabio, a man who would treat her and the baby properly, despite her not loving him.

She and Fabio moved away, to a town near here after Fabio landed a job in the hospital.

I decided to turn my life around, to forget about Suzy and what I knew to be my unborn child.

I started to train to be a police office and I settled into a normal life.

But however hard I tried, I could not forget my daughter."

They had finally reached the edge of the woods, the sky was a hazy pink, the sun just beginning to set.

Ikbal sighed, checking his watch, then ushering the girls through the rusted iron gate and into the forest.

"I took a break from my police training and decided to become a babysitter for a while.

My appearance had changed in the four years I'd spent away from Fabio and his family.

I managed to get myself hired as my own daughters baby sitter and I finally found happiness."

Ikbal led the girls astray from the worn forest path, a whimsical smile appearing on his face.

"Suzanne and Fabio led busy lives, so I was able to see Fiona, for that's what they had named her, nearly every day.

We became close friends, me and Fiona. The time passed quickly and soon they didn't need a babysitter anymore.

I had to meet her in secret near the playground where she played.

It wasn't creepy or weird, Fiona loved to see me, I was her dad after all!"

They continued to trek into the denser woodland, the moon now settling into the darkening sky.

Ikbal took a deep breath before continuing.

"But this small slice of happiness could not last. Fabio had been suspicious of Fiona's parentage for a long time and, after checking Fiona's DNA, realised what had been going on behind his back.

Fiona, just as I had suspected, was my child, not his. He confronted Suzy and she revealed everything, all of our secret meetings.

Fabio left, feeling betrayed by a wife who had cheated on him.

About a year before this event, Suzanne had given birth to another child, Fillipa. Fillipa was Fabio's only real child, you could tell by her different eyes, ones that matched Fabio's instead of mine.

So Fabio took Fillipa with him back to Switzerland, where she has lived in a boarding school since."

Oliwia, who was barely listening spoke up suddenly, "Okay this story is great and all, but is there a point to it?"

"Of course there is! He's telling us Fiona's back story." Abir, who was invested in the tale, replied, annoyed at the interruption.

"Thank you. As I was saying, Fillipa was taken to Switzerland with Fabio and Fiona stayed with her mother in England.

You four probably know the story from that point onwards. Fiona became... more aggressive after Fabio and her sister moved away. She went to school, led the life of a normal child and I went back to police work. Suzanne banned me from seeing her, so I kept that pink room you four were in before as a shrine to my daughter and all the memories we made."

Ikbal soon stopped in a clearing and the girls immediately knew where they were.
It was the scene of Fiona's Murder, police tape still hung to the trees, fluttering in the evening breeze.

"Why are we here? Why did you tell us that story?" Mahnoor asked quietly as she watched Ikbal walk up to the tree where FF's body was found resting beside.

"The truth needs to be told. You girls need to understand. And I have a special guest arriving who will tell you the rest of this story. I just have to pray that she'll come as agreed." Ikbal muttered quietly, checking his watch.

The girls, unsure of what to do, stood around aimlessly, waiting for this 'special guest'.

It didn't take long for her to arrive.

When she appeared from the darkness, a familiar, spiteful smirk on her pretty face, the girls could hardly believe it.

They never thought they would see her again.

After all, she was supposed to be dead.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I like to make my entrances fashionably late. Oh, are you surprised? I suppose I would be too, if I saw someone come back from the dead. But then again, stranger things have happened." Fiona Filipowski giggled, stepping into the clearing, the moonlight illuminating her ivy green eyes, eyes the four girls would never forget.

"After all, today is a Wednesday. And the strangest things always happen on a Midweek day."

_____________________________________

This time it's actually F.F, or is it?

2 more chapters left

Next chapter is a flashback of what actually happened on the day of F.F's 'Murder'

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