THE LIPSTICK PRINT (Mystery Story)

CHAPTER 1

"Shantelle, are you listening?"

"No." She admitted, staring at the café table sheepishly.

Maria rolled her eyes, tossing her mane of ash blonde her across her shoulder. "Well listen then! This is serious."

Shantelle chuckled to herself. Serious? Her best friend's serious meant having a bad hair day, a chipped nail, mismatch of makeup. Serious was murder cases, mysteries, lurking villains, top cases and risking your life. Her whole life was serious. What Maria was talking about, however, was NOT serious.

"What are you chuckling about? Do you think what I'm saying is not serious?" Her bestfreind put on a genuinely wounded look, mouth set in a familiar, firm pout.

"Well, I couldn't really tell seeing as I didn't hear a word of it."

"You mean you weren't listening."

Shantelle gave another shrug, inspecting her untouched cappuccino, resting on a wooden café table.

Maria gave another groan. Any more and she'd sound like she was in labour.

Lately her and her best friend had been drifting apart. Majorly. It's just, Shantelle found their conversations now dull, and well, cheap. She knew it wasn't a nice thought to think, but, well, it was true. After her last case, it was the last straw. She felt the urge for that familiar adrenaline pumping feeling of excitement when she was on a case. Her life of mystery was like a drug. So very addictive but deadly. Every time she was solving a mystery, her life was painted with excitement. And now, she didn't fit in with normal teenagers her age of 17.

"Now, did you listen?"

Her train of thoughts came crashing down at the sound of her friends voice. She realised her friend has been yattering on through out the time she was thinking.

This time, Shantelle pretended she had listened. "Yes, that's so, err, cool?"

Maria gasped, her large, bambi-like eyes widening. "How could you say that?"

"No- I never meant-" A blush deepened across her cheekbones, tinting them with a rosebud red.
It suddenly dawned on her. What if what her friend said was negative news? Fumbling across her words, she stammered, "No, I meant cool as in cool. Icy cool. Freezing cool. As in, that's so frosty."

Maria gave her a strange look.

"Long story cut very, very short, I basically just told you that my mum's boyfriend's little daughter died when they visited Australia from severe sun-burn, and you're saying that's 'icy cool, freezing cool, so frosty' ?"

Oh Crapp. Now that was actually serious. Cursing herself at her stupidity, she looked around for a way out of this awkward situation. Right on cue, her mobile started buzzing in her jeans pocket, vibrating her left thigh. She flashed it out.

"Um, I'm gonna take this." Not waiting for her friend to reply, she almost ran away from her friend towards the girl's toilets.

"Hello?" She panted down the phone, once she was inside the girls toilets.

"It's MI5."

A smile tugged at her lips.

"Ok, wait a sec."

Quickly, she skimmed her eyes under the cubicle doors, checking if anyone was there. Phew! Coast clear!

"Ok, no one's here."

"Good. Now listen very closely-"

"Are you Thomas or Thimmy?" Thomas and Thimmy were the famous twins, part of the crew, and no one could tell them apart. They had the same looks, voice, size, personality, clothes- Basically, they were almost clones. The only difference was that Thomas's pinkie finger's a mm shorter than Thimmy's, but that was literally it. Of course, this likeliness came handy in investigations.

"Both of us. We have a new mission for you."

"That must mean you're on speakers. I-I mean, if it's both of you."

"Is that of any importance?"

A giggle escaped through her lips. They even spoke at the same time, in the same tone.

"Any Joke you would like to share with us, Lady In Red?"

A thrill rushed through her bones when they called her that nickname. It was hard to believe that person staring up at her in the newspaper was really her. When she placed on her disguise, she became a complete different person. A complete different personality.

"Plenty! Although, it's probably best if I keep them to myself and put on my serious face."

"The face that we can't see. L.A.R (LADY IN RED) we need you serious inside and out." They both chorused.

Grimacing, "Yes, that's what I meant."

"Are you ready to hear your new mission?"

"Yep, that would be tip top fantastic."

A sigh escaped the phone, and she heard them murmur in the background.

"God, I really hope she switches to Lady In Red pronto, Shantelle Gwenn is no use to us."

A twist of pain stabbed at her heart. They didn't like Shantelle Gwenn's behaviour, they needed L.A.R. (Lady In Red) L.A.R wasn't so immature and childish. So she would become L.A.R.

"We have received news of A girl of 17, attempting suicidal attempts. These attempts have left her scarred and injured, the story then goes on, that she was transferred to hospital and is in severe comma. She can not speak, move, see or even hear, like a normal patient in comma. She's only left with her feeling senses. Touch."

Shantelle Gwenn would've gasped at this tragic news, but L.A.R was used to these miserable tales.

Thommy/Thimmy then continued. "However, we sense something fishy about this particular newspaper headline, and believe that the accident is not all it seems. This girl is not any ordinary girl, but Eve Sparrow, a secret mole for MI5. We fear that someone is trying to prise away our most worthy mole away from us, resulting to the fact that Eve Sparrow is in severe danger, and enemies will do whatever they can to kill her. Last year, same date, another one of our most worthy moles were killed and the year before, another was forced to turn against us. Whoever this person is, knows top Security information that no one else outside of MI5 will know. We believe there's an intruder amongst us. Your mission is to find this intruder, and put an end to it. This might result in the fact that you may have to pretend to be one of the enemy."

L.A.R nodded firmly, understanding flashing through her eyes.

"If they find out, your life is in immense danger. Because, in this case YOU are our mole."

L.A.R barely flinched, just nodded her heart head. "I will take this information on board, although I hope you don't expect me to solve this mission without a little extra information."

She didn't have to see their faces to know they were taken aback.

"W-What information?"

Her voice remained steady and cool.

"Well, I know their are a few members of the MI5 crew I haven't met, yet, the Top Secret one's and backups. It will be required to meet all of them, and also every one of your ex-colleges."

"B-But that's TOP PRIVATE information, we barely found out all this a year ago."

"I need to meet all of them. It is vital to this investigation. Do you want this investigation to turn to shambles before it's even started?" She demanded down the phone.

"N-No, L.A.R, we will arrange a meeting. We're available tomorrow, the earlier you arrive the better."

And with that they hung up the phone.

A waitress entered the toilets, eyeing her warily. "Madam you were in here ages."

L.A.R would've snapped, "Were you counting the seconds?" or "I hope you weren't spying on me as I entered the toilets." But Shantelle had returned back to normal Shantelle Gwenn and just gave a feeble shrug before walking out.


Her table was empty, it seemed like Maria had stormed out on her. Oddly, Shantelle just didn't seem to care.