In which bonds are made and broken, and the lives of two people will never be the same.

Elisabeta loved Belgium. Oh, yes. It was a lovely country, the chocolate was to die for, and she knew the language (at least, one of them) almost as well as she knew that which she had been raised on.

And the people were wonderful. Every new person she met was sweet to her, but none more so than the brother of her best friend, Bella Peeters. Her brother's name was Lars, and he was the most gracious man she had ever met.

Elisabeta had come to Belgium on holiday from her husband. Goodness, she did like him, but not enough to deal with him shutting himself away to play with his piano all day long. She'd think he was doing something else, something more scandalous, but the lovely notes floating around the house didn't lie. Unless he had someone else playing for him.

She really didn't miss the cold manor in Austria-Hungary one bit, not like the castle she had been raised in. But it was her husband's now, and he hated traveling there. So Elisabeta made do by traveling the continent, calling on old friends who had stayed in the castle with her for a season with their parents.

Bella was one of the people Elisabeta knew best and as such, she visited Belgium more than any other country. Oh, France was fun, Germany was lovely, and Russia had its history, but Belgium was where her friend was, and was the closest to her heart.

Recently, though, the streets of Brussels had been dangerous. Young women were being brutally murdered in the dead of night, and the police were baffled. They had apparently called in a specialist from France to look at the evidence, but even he was piecing together nothing that made any sense.

Bella warned Elisabeta not to leave the house at night, and to stay home with Lars while she went to get the shopping and things. She knew Brussels better than she knew nearly anything, and any killer who went after her would have another thing coming to them, she said. Elisabeta told her it was too dangerous, but she wouldn't listen. Nothing had happened to her yet, but the Hungarian girl worried for her best friend's life.

Well, most of the time. She would fret quite a lot, it was true, but sometimes she was distracted by…other things.

Other things which happened to be Dutch, a full six inches taller than her, her best friend's brother, and extremely good-looking.

Lars flirted with her incessantly. It was almost embarrassing, but Elisabeta was definitely not immune to flattery. Oh, quite the opposite. The way she craved the attention was actually a bit unseemly, but she didn't care.

She just wanted to be loved.

Lars was just there. He wasn't anything special (well, he was, oh, so special, but not in the way Elisabeta was thinking). He was nice enough, yes, and definitely attractive enough, but Elisabeta wanted more. She wanted more than a very good friend. She wanted more than her husband. She wanted…

"I'm back! I got extra potatoes today, so I think I'll make some salad. Will you help me, Elisabeta dear?"

The Hungarian woman was knocked out of her thoughts by the late return of her friend. As of late, Bella had been spending more time out on the dangerous streets, and Elisabeta couldn't help but worry. In fact, she worried so much that she thought she was getting stomach pains. She tried to take her mind off of it as best she could, with the help of Lars, but he wasn't always there and she had to find other ways to cope.

Like fantasizing about the perfect man. Elisabeta shook her head. What was she, eleven? Well, when she was eleven, she was too busy wrestling with her brother and riding horses and acting like a boy to fantasize about men.

She'd even thought she was a boy. Dear god.

"Y-Yes, I'll help you!" she cried back, far too late, and she chided herself for it. Bella probably thought she was spacing out, or busy with something…unsightly. The Hungarian woman blushed. She would never do something like that!

She wouldn't need to.

She walked to the kitchen to find her friend slowly sorting out items in paper bags. There were definitely a lot of potatoes. They must be in season. Or was it carrots that were in season? Or…mangoes?

She noticed a red stain on Bella's sleeve. "What's that, Bella?" she asked, pointing at the stain.

Bella glanced at it, then covered it up, eyes widening fearfully. "Oh, it's nothing, I was at the butcher shop and something must have splattered on me…" She laughed nervously.

Elisabeta smiled. "Okay!"

She really didn't buy it, though. Bella was a terrible liar. Something must have happened, and she was going to get to the bottom of it!

Right after she finished putting the food away, and went to bed, and had breakfast and such. But then she would get to the bottom of it!

After a few minutes, the girls were done, and Elisabeta retired to the spare bedroom in Bella's townhouse. It was a lovely place, on the corner of…well, Elisabeta didn't know what they were in Dutch, but Lars translated the street names as Rooster Road and Lion Lane. And then he had smiled at her like he did, and she had hidden her blush behind the fan she had taken with her on the walk, but she wasn't hiding anything a few hours later after Bella left, oh, no…

She quickly slipped on her nightdress before her memories of that night got too vivid, and went to sleep.

The next morning she was up with the sun, and since no one else was awake yet, she decided to brew some coffee and make breakfast. This was usually Bella's job, but Elisabeta was getting really sick of waffles, no matter how good they were, and settled on an omelet and some bacon.

She looked through the icebox for some bacon, but instead found a strange piece of paper. There were red stains on it that almost looked like blood. It was full of names—women's names, Elisabeta realized. Some were crossed off. Quite a lot, actually. And she recognized some of them, but she didn't know where from.

She slipped the list back under the rump roast Bella had brought home the night before and decided to think on it while she made the eggs.

Lars and Bella came in about a half hour later, just as Elisabeta was finishing setting the table. "Oh, good morning!"

"Good morning," Lars yawned, and Bella repeated it. "Oh, you made breakfast. Nice." He grinned at her.

"It looks lovely. May we sit down?" Bella asked.

"Of course!"

Elisabeta decided not to bring up the strange list she had found in Bella's icebox. After all, it could have been something important, and she wanted more information.

What if it was related to the stains on Bella's dress? It was a lovely dress, too, it was a shame she might never get that out.

While they were eating, Bella said suddenly, "I've got half a mind to make paella tonight for dinner. I'll need to go down to the market to get some of what I need, so I'll be gone for a few hours."

Elisabeta swallowed a bite of omelet. "Paella? What about the rump roast in the icebox?"

Bella stared at her. "What rump roast?"

"There's a roast in there, I saw it when I was looking for bacon. You're fresh out, by the way."

"Did you see anything else?" Bella asked slowly.

"No. Just the roast. Why?"

Bella smiled. "No reason. We'll have the roast tomorrow night, okay?"

"Yes, that sounds good."

The meal lapsed into silence again.

Bella took her time leaving after breakfast was finished. She insisted on cleaning all of the dishes herself, drying them, putting them away, everything. Then she made a big show of finding her wallet and the right coat and shoes to wear with her dress. Finally, though, she was out the door.

Elisabeta was relieved. Just after the short conversation, Lars had started doing some very interesting things with his feet under the table and Elisabeta couldn't wait for her best friend to leave.

She practically ran to Lars' room when her friend was finally gone, and they wasted no time. All the foreplay had happened at the breakfast table in the form of two pairs of very eager feet, and she didn't bother with taking off more than her dress for what she was going to do. She needed what only Lars could give her now.

Just as the tables had turned and she was about to go on top, though, someone came in the house. "I realized just when I was paying for some shrimp that there was no money in my wallet! Silly me, I'll just get…"

They had forgotten to close the door.

They had forgotten to close the door.

Well, to be fair, they didn't think Bella was going to be back for another few hours, but they always closed the door.

"What are you two doing?" Bella stopped in front of Lars' room, seeing her brother and friend in a very compromising position.

"It, it isn't what it looks like, I swear…"

"Get off of my brother!" Bella screeched. She pulled Elisabeta to the floor forcefully, then screamed, "You whore! How dare you? After all I've done for you, this is how you repay me?"

"I-I don't understand what the big deal is—"

"You soil my brother and you don't understand what the big deal is? You bitch!"

"Bella, calm down, it was my—" Lars started, but Bella turned on him.

"Oh, my sweet brother, did she do anything too bad? She didn't actually do it, did she?" She put her hands on her brother and he groaned. "There doesn't appear to be anything too wrong with it," she said with a smile. She planted a sweet kiss on him, then turned back to Elisabeta, who was crawling toward the door. "Don't move a fucking muscle."

"Bella, please!"

"Enough with the pleading. They all plead. 'Oh, no, please don't kill me!' or 'I'm getting married soon, please don't!' 'I'm pregnant, you won't just be killing me, you'll kill my unborn child! Don't do it!'" Bella sneered. "But I killed them all, Elisabeta. And though it wasn't planned, you're next."

Elisabeta screamed, scrambled to her feet, and ran out of the room. She heard Bella making pursuit, so she dashed out the door and down the steps, running right into a man who just happened to be passing by.

"Please, you have to help me!" she cried.

"Calm down, Miss." His blue eyes stared directly into hers. "What's wrong?"

"B-Bella, my best friend, she caught me with her brother, and she got so mad and now she's trying to kill me, you've got to help!"

"Elisabeta~" Bella called from the house. "Come back in!"

The man nodded. "Right. I'm almost a policeman, so I think I can help you." He ran a hand through his golden hair. "Just leave it to me." He looked over her. "Also, what are you wearing?"

She blushed and smacked him, then tried to cover herself.

"I suppose I deserved that. Well, come on, let's go take care of this."

"What do we do?" Elisabeta asked. "She said she's killed before, that it was planned, and I saw a list of names, and some of them were crossed out, and she had a red stain on her dress and I think it was blood, and—"

"Really?" The man smiled in an almost predatory manner. "Okay, here's the plan. You will run in there and distract her as best as you can. I'll come up from behind and knock her out."

Elisabeta nodded. Really, it was a terrible plan, but it was the only one they had. "Thank you, Mr.…?"

"Bonnefois. Detective Francis Bonnefois, private eye."

Elisabeta smiled. Something about this man told her to trust him, so she did.

And on that day, on the corner of Rooster Road and Lion Lane, everything changed.

AN: And the rest is history.

Poor Elisabeta. Never make friends with a girl named Bella. This is like the second fictional Bella to be completely crazy. We all know who the first one is. At least this one's just an insane, incestuous, mass-murderer.

This barely fits T, but I never said the names of anything. For all you know, I could have been talking about something completely different than what your dirty minds were thinking of!

This is just one of like three stories you guys didn't know about when I published MotVE and ASiR. It's the origin story! Yay!

And by the way, there was a clue to who the Rose was in this, but I took it out. Now you'll never know. Until later. So you will know, it will just take a long time for you to know. Yeah.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! :D