The previous night had been a whirlwind and Murphy’s head had been spinning when he’d finally gone to bed a couple of hours after the sun had risen. The trial hadn’t gone on for as long as he had expected. After Jake’s testimony Lazarus had just seemed to have… given up. Murphy wouldn’t have thought that likely from what he knew of the ancient from Ben, but after a few things had come up during Jake’s time on the stand, Murphy had realised there was a lot about Lazarus and Jake that he hadn’t known.
The mortal had gone straight home and started writing up his notes, wearing his headphones so he could replay parts of it. He had to stop himself every now and again though, when he realised his writing had too much feeling. Ben was his best friend, it was difficult to write objectively about something so horrible that had happened to him, but Murphy kept going. He went back and re-wrote parts, removing the emotion and skimming over the more detailed parts of the description.
The Doctor was interesting and Murphy highlighted his parts a little more than maybe necessary. He’d run into plenty of vampires and some of those could probably do with a trip to a therapist so mentioning he was available couldn’t be a bad thing.
Just as he was finishing, his email dinged and a smile lit up his face as he read it:
Murphy Hilton,
Attached are several sketches from the trial for your article. I would like to see the article when it is published.
Astrid Kragen
Murphy hadn’t really expected her to send anything over, especially not so quickly. But this was plenty of time to get one or two included in the article. He examined the photos carefully, trying to pick which should be included.
Murphy eventually settled on the sketch of Lazarus cross-examining Ben – it had been difficult for Ben, but he had stayed firm and Jake was proud of him.
The other sketch he chose was of Jake. Murphy didn’t want to let himself think about the youthful looking vampire at the moment. He would be going round to see Jake the following night and at the moment he was pretty confused about what he wanted from that. It was only the previous night that Jake and he had spent hours chatting, getting to know each other, and that kiss…
But when they had met Jake had been with Lazarus and Jake had never thought it should come up. Murphy couldn’t help feeling that those meetings just hadn’t meant as much to Jake as they had to Murphy – but it hadn’t felt that way at the time. Jake had been pushing to get to know him, asked to kiss him. Maybe he had just been a bit of fun that first night. Finding out about Lazarus like that during the trial had been difficult though.
Pushing those thoughts from his mind Murphy responded to the witch’s email.
Good morning Astrid,
Thank you for sending over those pictures so quickly. They look amazing. I’ll send you the published article and ask for the payment to be forwarded on to you.
Kind regards,
Murphy
Once that was done he took a final read over the article, tidying up a few bits and bobs before writing the email to forward it to his editor. His finger paused over the send button though and instead saved it as a draft. It wasn’t often he wrote about people so close to himself and he wanted to get some sleep before a final review.
Once he finally crawled into bed, Murphy fell asleep quickly, worn out from the activities of the previous few nights and his body clock being messed up from the usual hours of his companions.
He awoke a couple of hours before sunset and busied himself with showering, then eating a bagel smeared with peanut butter as he re-read the article. He didn’t make any more amendments, but something still kept him from pressing send. He was going to see Jake tonight and it was that which was making his hesitate. He wouldn’t let Jake read it first, but… maybe something would come up in their conversation which would add to it. Something about that relationship which hadn’t come up in the trial.
Oblivious to the theme of the night at White Rabbit, and intending to speak more privately with Jake tonight, Murphy dressed in black jeans and boots, teamed with a dark red shirt over a white t-shirt. His hair was clean and roughly styled and he felt comfortable and confident, rather than going all out to impress.
At the last moment Murphy grabbed his tablet and shoved it in his bag – if there were amendments to be made he could do it on the move and get it sent off ASAP and if there was nothing to change then it could go as it was. Murphy locked the door behind him and headed downstairs just as the sun was setting.
Murphy set off in the direction of the White Rabbit, but popped into the newsagent at the end of his block to grab an iced coffee drink. As he was handing over the money in the empty shop, he realised the shopkeeper was watching him a little more carefully than usual and Murphy raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Charon would like to invite you to Penbrook tonight,” the shop keeper said conversationally as he handed over Murphy’s change.
“Thanks,” Murphy replied with a nod, pocketing the coins and turning to leave quickly. He hadn’t set a time with Jake and to be honest maybe it would be best not to turn up just as the sun had set. Jake probably had loads on anyway, and depending on how the conversation went Murphy might not want to rush off from the Prince.
He paused outside the shop, opening his glass bottle and taking a long drink of the sweetened coffee as he mulled over the change in his evening plans. The message hadn’t indicated timings either – but it was definitely ‘tonight’. Without any more hesitation Murphy stepped towards the road and hailed a taxi to take him to Penbrook.
The ride didn’t take too long and Murphy was soon stepping out in front of the manor and the door opened as he ascended the stone steps. He'd been here plenty of times, most recently only a few nights earlier, but it had been a while since he'd been summoned like this and it made him nervous. He tried to swallow down that fluttering in the pit of his stomach though, to focus on why he was actually here.