The house was large, too large for one person. Its door was ornate and painted a rather bland shade of oatmeal. Taehyung didn't want to be here. He didn't want this case, and he didn't want to see the Oracle. It wasn't just that he thought he was wasting his time here, but he had known the Oracle in junior high. He feared that the Oracle would recognize and remember him. 

Before he could even knock, the door swung open to reveal a thin woman. It had been many years since Taehyung had seen her, and he barely recognized the woman who had once been his friend. 

Her frame was thin, almost too much so, yet it had a sort of strength to it. Taehyung imagined he could easily snap her in half, but she wouldn't even bat an eyelash. As Taehyung soaked in her features, he recognized her as very conventionally beautiful. She had long legs, a small waist, silky hair, and fawn eyes framed by long lashes. She was gorgeous in an almost boring way; she was the most average beautiful girl he had seen. Her features made her attractive, but extremely forgettable. She could have been anyone. She could have been, but she wasn't.

"Taehyung." Her voice was low with a sort of rasp, yet comforting. "I've been expecting you."

"I bet," Taehyung scoffed, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Your boss called," she said, pursing her lips. "The Oracle wouldn't concern herself with who's going to pay us a house visit."

"Is refering to yourself in the third person part of your..." Taehyung motioned his hand up and down. "...sales pitch?"

"I'm not the Oracle." She shook her head slowly.

"You aren't?" Taehyung asked. "Well, where are they?"

If she wasn't the Oracle, then it made sense why she looked nothing like the girl he had known years ago.

"Taehyung," she said, looking at him curiously, "I am not the Oracle, but only the Oracle's vessel. I'm still Amaris."

"No you aren't," Taehyung said before he could stop himself.

Her eyes widened, and a look of amusement passed through her eyes as she let the corners of her lips pull up slightly. A soft exhale from her nose was about the closest Taehyung felt he would ever get to her laughing. When her full smile spread across her features, Taehyung finally recognized the Amaris he remembered. Just a little to the right just below her lips, a telltale dimple formed a small indent.

"I suppose you're right," she chuckled. "Come inside."

As Amaris opened the door wider and stepped back, Taehyung peered into the ornate home of the Oracle.

It was very clearly the house of the Oracle and not Amaris'. The furniture was just as ornate as the outside of the building, and everything was spotless. Nevertheless, everything looked cold, stiff. Nothing was used, no favorite chair settled into, no drink spill stain on the carpet. It was a house, not a home.

"Tea, two sugars, and a dash of milk." Amaris placed a china teacup on the coffee table and motioned for Taehyung to sit with her.

In taking it all in, Taehyung hadn't realized that she had gone of to get tea and cookies.

"Thanks." Taehyung nodded in appreciation before lifting the cup to his lips.

"You're welcome," she said.

"Wait." Taehyung put the cup back down and looked at its contents. "How did you know how I like my tea?"

Amaris smiled softly, and just for a moment he wondered if the Oracle actually existed. But if the Oracle wouldn't care to see who was coming, why would it concern itself with how he liked his tea?

"You were my best friend," Amaris said into her teacup, "I remember that time very vividly."

"That was a decade ago," Taehyung said incredulously.

"When you're the vessel for the all-seeing Oracle, you don't get to have many friends," she said, and he picked up on a sort of bitterness in her voice. "And by not many, I mean none."

"You haven't had any friends other than me?" Taehyung asked. He was so intruiged by this new Amaris that he completely forgot why he had come in the first place.

"I was sixteen when the Oracle chose me." Amaris' voice shook ever so slightly. "That's why I left school so suddenly. You were my only friend in junior high, so you're the last friend I ever had."

"That's so..." Taehyung searched for the right word. "Lonely."

"When you have all of the past, present, and future at your disposal, it's kind of hard to have friends." Amaris smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

Taehyung looked down into his tea and mulled over this new woman sitting in front of him. The last time he had seen Amaris, she was a loud extroverted girl with an appetite for adventure. Now, there was this frail exoskeleton of a ghost with another person living inside. He wondered if she had truly spent the last ten years all alone in this ornate prison. It wasn't a house, he decided, it was a prison. A fancy excuse to keep the Oracle in one place where they could keep an eye on her.

"Well," Taehyung said suddenly, forcing himself away from his depressing thoughts, "we both know I didn't come here for tea. I need your help, Amaris. Or, I guess, I need the help of the Oracle."

"No one ever comes here for me." Amaris smiled knowingly. "Follow me."

Although it was an aside and she didn't seem hurt, Taehyung felt as if he had just broken her. It wasn't fair. He didn't know what to do, what to say. He didn't believe in the Oracle, but he couldn't deny that Amaris was trapped. 

Taehyung followed Amaris up the stairs and watched the subtle sway in her hips as she led him to the third floor.

"Do you know what my name means?" She asked without looking back.

"Can't say I do," Taehyung admitted. Standing beside her, he felt like there was a lot he didn't know.

"It means 'given by god,'" she said, "many think my gift was given by god."

"And you don't think so?" Taehyung asked as she came to a stop at the top of the stairs.

"No." She turned around to look at him and he saw something terribly sad in her eyes. "I don't."

"What's the hardest part?" Taehyung searched her sad eyes, looking for a glimmer of life in them. "Of being Oracle, I mean. Is it the flocks of people? The expectations? The weight of seeing the future?"

"What does it matter to you?" She looked him up and down before turning back around and continuing into a dimly lit room. "You don't even believe that the Oracle exists."

"I'm just curious," Taehyung replied.

"I think the worst part is the loss," she muttered, "I’ve lost everything. Of all the things I’ve lost, though, I miss my mind the most. I’m not just me anymore. I can’t think my own thoughts. A lot of the time, I don’t know if it’s me in here or the oracle."

And when she turned around to look at Taehyung once more, he finally saw something in her eyes other than lifeless sadness. Now, he saw her pain, her fire. She was a stranger in her own body, forced to share a space made only for one.

"Now, let's solve these murders."