Earth

{I guess I'll get us started}

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Sawyer grinned to herself as she read on, eager to find out what Holmes was getting at. Fictional or not, Sherlock Holmes would always be the world's greatest detective in her mind. The teen sat on the windowsill, her nose buried in her book while her parents were working. On weekends like this, she spent most of her time hanging around the store, either helping her parents or reading mystery stories. Honestly, there wasn't too much else to do besides that. But that was the price of living in a small country town like Twilell. Nothing interesting ever happened.

The last thing Sawyer wanted was to spend the rest of her life here and end up regreting every second of it. She wanted to travel somewhere exciting, at least to a city where things actually happened. But no, she was stuck here, just like her parents had been. And her grandparents. And her great grandparents. And the worst thing of all: They'd actually liked living here. They'd had no problems whatsoever with spending their entire lives in monotony. It was like they'd been born without ambition or desire for excitement.

So, at least until she graduated, Sawyer was stuck in Twilell, reading about amazing adventures as her only escape.

She was just getting to the good part when someone ran into the store. Sawyer looked up to see Mrs. Dawson, panting and obviously upset about something. That in itself at least piqued her interest. The womans next words had her completely hooked.

"It's Hick Van! They just found him in the field. He's dead!"

While her mother tried to calm Mrs. Dawson down, Sawyer's mind was spinning. The general store was a hot spot for gossip, but it was always stuff like animals getting sick or someone selling their old tractor. Never anything like this. Everyone knew Old Man Hick Van. He owned the largest farm in town. He and his family were practically Twilell royalty. He was also the biggest grouch she'd ever met. Despite that, everyone respected him, and he was very healthy for his age. So how was the guy dead?

"Are you sure it's not just some story that the kids made up?" Mrs. Parks asked gently. Mrs Dawson shook her head frantically.

"No, I saw it myself! He was covered in blood, the police say he was shot!"

"That's ridiculous," Sawyer's father butted in. "What would anyone have against Hick?"

'The teenagers he's constantly yelling at might have a bone to pick', Sawyer thought, but kept it to herself. Her dad was right. Egging his house, that was more likely. But... murder?

"If you don't believe me, come see for yourself," Mrs Dawson challenged.

Mrs. Parks turned to Sawyer. "Honey, watched the store for us while we're gone."

"But mom-"

"No buts. We'll be back soon."

Sawyer could only scowl as the adults left. As soon as they were far enough away, though, she flipped the sign on the door to 'Closed' and ran out the back door, her book forgotten. She just had to tell Ace about this!

“Laaalalalaalaaala!” Kimico sung out as she skipped through the never ending rice patties. The water glimmered and sparkled in the setting sunlight. Various bugs began to chirp and whistle while the clouds turned into a rainbow of sunset colors. Kimico took in a deep breath, absorbing the nature around her. The onlt thing in sight was rice patty, forest and her family’s farm house. It was a perfectly normal day in this God forsakenly borning old town… But Kimico was a sucker for sunsets.

Suddenly her mother comes running out into the fields. “Kimico! Sweetie, get in the house!” she yelped grabbing her and running her into the home. She thrashed through the white frail door with it white paint peeling to find her brothers and father in a heated discussion.

“Hick Van is dead!!!” Jin jr gasped. Kimico nearly screamed in fright when she heard this. He was the largest land owner in town, a local. “Was he MURDERED?!?!” She squeeled interjecting dramatically into the conversation. “Yes daughter. He wa shot in de..” Jin senior pointed to his head, forgetting the English way to say it. Kimico didn’t even hear the rest of what they said. She ran out the door as fast as she could, nearly slamming it off its rusty hinges.

"Girl you would not believe the shit I've gotta go through to get some decent reception for my phone in this freaking back water place!" Angie sat on the root of a large old tree a quarter mile or less away from the Yang's family farm. "Yeah uh-hu yeah I know!" She relished the moments when she was able to talk to her friends from Vinton. "Right now I'm sitting by this tree next to a rice farm, it's like the only area that has any signal, and man I don't want to go back to my aunt's house right now, so yeah I'm bored....What? Yeah you heard me right a rice farm, it's owned by some Asian family I don't know if their Chinese or Japanese or what, they have a girl that goes to my school, she's alright, but yeah everyone's going nuts here cause some old Farmer Hick Van got killed." The sun melted into the horizon and Angie kept talking oblivious to her surroundings. "I'm not kidding his real name was actually Hick," she let out a high-pitched girly giggle, and shifted the position of her bottom on the tree. "But yeah everyone's going crazy about it, shit like if murder doesn't happen all the time, this kind of crap wouldn't even make it into the front page in Vinton...and it's not even really a mystery the guy was a jerk, so was his family, when they saw me the first thing they said I swear was 'We don't need another hussy in this town, what's becoming of this degenerate youth' that's actually a quote." She started laughing again in unison with her friend, until a noise roused her back to reality. There was something in the bushes near by she was sure. "Um...Casey girl I'm sorry though I'm going to have to let you go," she tried to hide the shakiness of her voice as she spoke. She hung up and kept her finger pressed on the 9 to dial 911 if necessary, and looked around frantically, she felt very uncomfortable now and began walking rapidly away from the bushes without quite breaking into a run. She was in complete darkness now it was amazing how fast the night catches up with you when you're not paying attention to the sun. She sent a text message to Kimico as she started walking towards her house, looking back while pushing the buttons, to make sure she wasn't being followed. "Hey grl wat r u up 2?" "please respond, please respond" she chanted under her breath as she moved.

A lone black Hyundai Sonata coasted across the dirt road, kicking up a gentle dust behind its exhaust as it did. Inside, two men, one about a decade older than the other exchanged a few words. Their conversation detailed the rather dull sight that was the greenery, crops, and sheds that seemed to be the main attractions of this place known as Twilell Town.

“Sheesh…talk about the boonies, how the hell are we supposed to find the contact? Everything looks the same!”

The voice complaining belonged to the senior of the duo. A tall (even when sitting), slender, dark-skinned fellow. While his chin was covered with black stubble, facial hair, his hair was styled with long light-brown dreadlocks, they reached a bit past his shoulders. The private investigator dressed nicely, yet comfortably in a gray, long-sleeved button down and a pair of fitted black pants secured by a white leather belt. He topped the entire wardrobe off with a pair of slick looking white gators. However, the most striking features of the fellow were his golden irises, never before has this narrator seen a pair of eyes so interesting.

“Well Demetri-san…she did give us an address, and promised a hefty reward for a solution to the case,” The next one to speak was the junior. A young man, no older than seventeen, pale of skin with messy light blue hair and cerulean eyes. He donned a pair of square framed glasses and dressed similar to his boss, only with a white shirt instead of the gray, and he wore a pair of brown loafers on his feet rather than spiffy gators. The boy looked kind of frail. “You’d want that wouldn’t you?” He turned to look at his boss, who was lounging in the passenger seat while he, the assistant, had his hands on the wheel.

“Of course, this is the first job we’ve had in weeks,” Demetri let out a yawn, stretching his arms up to the roof of the car as he did so, “I just hate that we had to come so far out from the city, I’m at home in the grimy streets…I get all fidgety when I’m in the country, way to quiet for my tastes.” The dread-locked detective nodded, as if to assure himself of his own thoughts, but a fearsome realization hit him, interrupting his rest, “Kinta, pay attention to the road!” The boy had been busy trying to find a new radio station out here in the boonies—not busy watching the road.

“Waaah!”

Had I mentioned that young Kinta wasn’t very reliable?

Well, young Kinta wasn’t very reliable. And, at that moment, the black Hyundai Sonata was sent careening off of the risen land of the dirt road, and off the hill, and into a surprisingly large, but not too deep, ditch.

Demetri and his clumsy apprentice had bailed ship just before the front half of the car was sent off the road. They rose up now, together, and extremely dusty from the landing. Kinta’s face was red with embarrassment, while Detective Maverick was simply staring at the wrecked vehicle with a dropped jaw.

“Kinta…” He muttered, fiddling with the white pair of headphones around his neck, perhaps to still his hand from striking the teenager, “This is coming out of you’re check.” The man let out a deep breath as he shoved his hands in his pockets, strolling down the dirt road, they were just outside the town ‘gates’. An old large wooden sign, built between two giant arced trees read ‘Twilell Town’.

“T-that’s it sir?” Kinta opened up his left eye, still keeping the right one shut out of fear of a sneak attack, “Whew…I thought---“

“You didn’t let me finish, it’s coming out of you’re paycheck.…for the next three years.” Kinta yelped out at Demetri’s punishment, nearly collapsing right there on the road. Demetri himself though, seemed to be in much higher spirits after the fact, and was even whistling the course of a tune.

The tune he whistled came from the song that could still be heard playing from the all the way turned up radio in the wrecked Hyundai.

Have you heard the story?
Hey-Ho!
About a man, who had a plan—a plan!
Ohhh to keep it movin’,
Stress free!
No he ain’t trippin’ trippin’ no more!
I’ll tell you how he do it…
Gotta keep it too trill….
No showin’ love or affection…
Learnin’ from life’s lessons…

"Whoohooo! Yeah!!"

Ace was in a particularly good mood today. He was zooming down the long and endless dirt road on his rattly and rusty old two-wheel bike. He peddled as fast as he could with all his might. He threw up his hands in the air, feeling the wind blowing back his hair as he zipped down till the scenery around him was nothing but a blur. He might as well have been riding a motorcycle, he was going that fast! Around his neck was his trusty camera with the best lens he could ever afford to own, and it banged against his chest with every bump the bicycle and road made.

"Damn, isn't this great, Ben?" he yelled over the wind, a huge smile on his face. Suddenly, a rat poked its head out of the pocket of Ace's shirt. It gave a short squeal before ducking back to avoid the camera that had just nearly hit it. Ace laughed, holding out his arms to the side, still peddling. His balance was great, and he could continue doing the no-hands riding until he made it back to his home. It felt like flying.

Ace had been assigned by his father to take a quick and nice shot of a small Dachshund dog that had been lost for weeks. The dog finally returned to its master, dirty and hungry. The picture Ace took was the dog in the little boy's arms, with the background intensely blurred to make it focus more on the boy and dog. The background was the little kid's family cottage, but in the picture it looked like a huge brown mess. Just the way the picture was meant to be. Ace grinned, quite proud of the picture. He couldn't wait to show it to his dad. Sure the picture and his father's story wouldn't make it to the front page, but at least it was enough to get the next pay check.

Ace was that happy that he closed his eyes and breathed in the country air, taking in every vague detail of the moment. Big mistake.

Out of nowhere (or at least out of nowhere to him), a black Hyundai Sonata veered off course and was just a few inches to crashing right into him. Ace quickly dropped/slammed his hands onto the bike handles and did a complete 360 curve to avoid getting hit. Once far away and back to safety, he rode on. His eyes were wide in surprise and in a "holy crap!" sort of expression. He allowed himself to glance over his shoulder to see two men, one older and one younger, dive out of the car. Ace let out a low whistle as the Hyundai Sonata landed in a ditch with an audible crash. He quickly concentrated back to the road, not wanting the same thing to happen to him. Inside his pocket, Benjamin squirmed.

"It's alright..." Ace said, comforting his white pet rat. He let out a breath between his teeth. Now that was not something that happens to you everyday in Twilell Town. But still, the near death/injury experience left him breathless. And he liked it.
A grin came to his face when he realized that he was nearing Sawyer's general store. He glanced down to address his little friend. "You wanna visit Sawyer, buddy?"

"Chiit, chiit!" Benjamin squeaked.

Ace let out a chuckle. "Alright then." He was just about to make the turn that would lead him to the general store when (geez, twice in a row!) Sawyer suddenly ran right in front of him. Ace hit the breaks like a maniac, causing the bike to suddenly stop and lurch forward. He quickly got it balanced and under control, his eyes wide again. This time he was gasping. "Holy crap, Sawyer, where did you come from?!" he said, though he was laughing. He glanced up to look at her, and saw that the expression on her face was far from excitement. "What's up?" he asked her, curious. Benjamin climbed out of the shirt pocket and scurried over to stand on Ace's left hand.

Kimico sat in the giant bush she had ran to. She could see the shadows of the leafs all along the ground. She knew what was bothering her but she didn’t want to think about it. It would be too painful. Kimico sighed and leaned back. What if he wasn’t okay? What if he was hurt? Kimico shuttered. She was his Kimi, what if he- what if… Kimico jumped up out of the bush as her phone vibrated.

There was Angie, for her school. She knew Angie and she liked her, but she was a bit of a big mouth. She could talk your ear off for weeks. Kimi always liked that about her, she seemed a bit dramatic too.

The anguish was obvious on her face, she was a good actor, in fact she loved acting but she couldn’t do it when she was upset. She looked a Angie miserably. Angie looked scared. “Ang, hey! Where are you going?” She inquired distractedly. She wanted to go see if her boy friend, Tom, old man Hick’s son, was okay or not.

Sawyer knew it'd probably be a waste of time to check Ace's house. He was probably off taking pictures for the newspaper. While other guys focused on sports and girls, Ace Fletcher had only one thing on his mind: getting his perfect shot. He was serious about his photography, and that seriousness sometimes made him hard to get along with. When it came down to it, though, he was a nice guy and the best friend a tomboy could ask for.

"Watch the store for me, Jas!" The tabby barely acknowledged her, opening his eyes for a second before rolling over on the counter and falling right back to sleep. The girl bolted out the door and around to the front of the store, trying to think of the best place to start looking for Ace. She didn't have to look hard; she'd just started down the drive when he nearly ran her over with his bike.

"Gah!" Sawyer stumbled back, landing square on her rear end as he barely stopped in time. She looked up at him, glaring as he laughed like an idiot. "You nut! What're you trying to do, kill me?" Another thing about Ace: he was a maniac behind the wheel of anything. The girl stood up, deciding she could criticize his driving later. "Nevermind, you know Old Man Hick?" Stupid question, everyone did. "Apparently, someone did him in. They found his body in the field up by their house. We've got to go check it out!"

Demetri pulled his silver pocket watch to check the time. Inside of the top of the trinket was the word ‘Congratulations’ and the date ’09-13-03’ carved into it. A look of nostalgia crossed his face briefly, right before he shut it and shoved it back into his pocket.

“Sir…?” Kinta took notice of his boss’ dreamy look, the dread-locked detective only made a look like that on two occasions: either he was sick, or he simply had gas. Kinta prayed it was the former, and not the latter. “Should we not have stopped for burritos?” The boy wheeled around to the front of Demetri, poking his head up closer to the man.

“Dumbass,” He shoved the boy out of the way, frowning from the embarrassing question. “Nothin, the dust of this town’s just got my allergies acting up, all of this dust and grass ya know?” A boy sped past them on his bike, probably spooked from the crash—but shouldn’t southern hospitality have made him stop and check if they were all right? Weren’t small town folk supposed to be caring? Or something like that? Demetri shrugged and shoved his hands into his trouser pockets.

“So…where do we go?” Kinta asked him, still a bit curious as to the nature of Demetri’s previous look. “The contact said to meet them at sunset, but we’ve got at least six hours to kill until then right?” He was taking an interested look around the area, they had finally entered the town and it was…just as expected. Plain.

“I’m surprised the places aren’t made out of twigs…” Demetri wasn’t fond of the country at all, his opinions of the locale was extremely pessimistic, he was a city-slicker to the extreme. “Seeing how we’re stranded here, we better see if there’s a hotel—I mean, ‘inn’ we can stay at. But first…” He took a look at a sign posted on the side of the center town-path, “Park’s General store hm? Sounds homey. Let’s see if I can get a cup of coffee there. We’ll getcha a glass of milk Kinta.” The man’s mood immediately lightened, just the idea of coffee got him excited.

The town itself had an odd kind of vibe as they entered, the townspeople all had grave looks upon their face as they ran in and out of different houses, one woman in particular had a bigger mouth than them all.

“It’s Hick Van! They’ve got him! They’ve got him!” She wailed as she charged into another building. Seconds later she came back out with another adult by her side, who hollered back into the building to ‘watch the store’ or something. As he stepped towards the front of the said building, he saw the large sign up front that read ‘Store’ huh, very helpful.

"Holy crap, Sawyer, where did you come from?!"

"You nut! What're you trying to do, kill me?"

It was the boy who sped past their car wreck like a mad man, and a girl whom he never saw before (which wasn’t odd…he was new to the town anyway). The boy was laughing joyously, while the girl seemed less than amused.

"Apparently, someone did Old Man Hick in. They found his body in the field up by their house. We've got to go check it out!"

“Demetri-san.” Kinta whispered, Demetri only nodded. The two stood about ten meters away from the duo, listening in on the conversation. “How could they have only found the body today…if we got the letter about the murder a week ago?” Demetri was scratching at his chin hairs while Kinta speculated. “Do you think they’re have been multiple crimes?” The senior detective shook his head.

“Nah, if this was another one in a series of murders, the town wouldn’t be so electrified. Nah…” He shut his eyes for a moment, recollecting the words of the letter he had received about the ‘Twilel Town Murder’. Hick Van…that name was definitely in the letter.

“Should we—“ Kinta turned to address his boss, but he was already gone and mixing it up with the kids “He’s so impulsive…”

“Yo, I’m new in town…mind telling me what’s going on here?” Demetri grinned trying his best not to sound pushy—but he needed that information. “Who’s this Hick Van I’ve been hearing so much about?” He swatted the air with his hand in a calm fashion shifting his weight just a bit to the side to make his posture more relaxed, and a lot less formal.

((this is RegretIt on her main account))

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"Why're you trying to do, kill me?" Sawyer had yelled at him.

Ace grinned. "Yes." He watched her as she climbed back to her feet, not pouting or fixing her hair like most girls did. He liked her for this. Ace was then quiet when she explained about Old Man Hick. He was so absorbed into the news that he didn't notice Benjamin gnawing on his hand. "He's...dead?" Ace said. Whoa. That was...That was... His face lit up. "Throw the Dachshund out the window, this is front-page news!" He immediately grabbed his camera, causing Ben to let go and scramble back into his pocket. He held the camera up to Sawyer and, without asking for permission, snapped a picture of her. "Local Sawyer Parks of the general store informs Ace Fletcher, local photographer of the Twilell Town News, about death of beloved farmer Hick Van," he said dramatically. "That'll be the caption. Great huh?" He grinned widely at her. "Come on, hop on!" Ace pointed to the small metal seat behind him. "I gotta be the first one to turn in this article before anyone else does!" He gripped hard on the handlebars, ready to take off when a man suddenly walked up to him.

"Yo, I’m new in town…mind telling me what’s going on here? Who’s this Hick Van I’ve been hearing so much about?"

Ace stopped, criticizing him. Somewhere in his 20's, dreadlocks, not one of those formal pushy adults... Ace looked past the man and saw a younger person behind him, who looked quite nervous. Ace waved at him cheerfully in a "hello" sort of fashion. It was then that he realized these guys were the ones who escaped the car that fell into the ditch. Cool! More news!

"Old Man Hick is..." Ace stopped, correcting himself. "Was the owner of the biggest farm here. Everyone knows--knew him. It's been said that he's been killed. We're just about to go there and check it out."

------

Vic jogged down the streets, a mailman bag banging at his side as he ran. He was breathing steadily as he looked at the letter in his hand. "5th street, number 6..." he read. He glanced up. There was the house. Without stopping, he opened the mailbox and stuffed the letter in, closed it, and continued running. "Next letter..." he muttered, digging into the bag for another. If only his bike didn't get a flat tire. He groaned. Stupid potholes.

Vic was just about to read the address when his cellphone vibrated. He reached into his pocket and read the name of the caller. It was his dad. Vic stopped running, knowing that his strict father would question him for his heavy breathing. And that would mean that Vic had to explain to him what had happened to the bike. When he had already promised to be extra careful. He sighed as he held the 10 dollar cellphone to his ear. "Hello, dad."

"Victor?"

Who else? "Yes, dad?"

"Listen, son, I need you to go straight home right away."

Vic frowned. "But dad, I'm still working. I still have, like...over 30 letters to go."

"Listen, Victor. There has been a murder here."

"A MURDER?!"

"Shh!" his dad hissed on the other line. "Farmer Hick Van. A few other officers and I are heading there right now to see and investigate. Trust me, everything is under control. Now you get going home now. We haven't caught the murderer yet. It ain't safe to be out."

Vic gulped. Then he nodded, though of course his father wasn't able to see it. "Yes, dad."

"Good boy. Keep the doors locked." Click. Beeeeeeeeeep.

"Bye, dad..." Vic felt a faint smile of sadness cross his face as his father hung up without saying goodbye. Well...policemen were busy...right?
Vic turned around, ready to run home when he suddenly stopped. No...he didn't want to follow another order from his father. Besides, he was curious about Old Man Hick and needed to know more about his death anyways. Right now. "Sorry dad," he muttered softly before breaking into a run towards the farm.

"Old Man Hick is..." The boy stopped, correcting himself. "Was the owner of the biggest farm here. Everyone knows--knewhim. It's been said that he's been killed. We're just about to go there and check it out.”

“You don’t say…” Demetri crossed his arms, now assessing the two children briefly, rather than the situation itself. It wasn’t as if he could simply ignore this occurrence. Why would the contact send him a letter, a week ago, about a murder that happened today? If the sender was the culprit, why send someone a letter informing them about your crime? Commonsense would say keep that under wraps—unless you wanted it to be known. If that was the case, then old dreads was looking at one cocky bastard. The letter would have been nothing but a taunt—he doubted that the ‘contact’ would even show up at the meeting place tonight.

Regardless, he had to go see the crime scene, might as well go with people who knew their way around town. Demetri all of a sudden wasn’t feeling to keen on wandering around aimlessly.

“I should do my job as an adult and scold you two, for going towards a crime scene and all.” He shrugged.

Kinta grimaced, “Job as an adult? Please…” the boy scoffed.

“But I’ll look past it if you show the way,” He grinned goofily, “I’m Demetri, Demetri Maverick, and this is young Kinta Unami, he’s a co-worker.” The detective waved for the boy to come up and show himself. The young man blushed just a bit as he hurried to his boss’ side.

“Hello, pleased to meet you.” He bowed.

“Sheesh, lighten up.” Demetri looked at his young acquaintance with a frown, “So, we’ve got a deal?” He laughed. The man wanted to keep his identity as a P.I. under wraps for the time-being.

Sawyer raised an eyebrow, smirking at her friend's enthusiasm. "Why would you throw a Dachshund out of a window? That's just stupid. And vaguely cruel." She blinked when Ace snapped a photo, momentarily blinded by the flash. "Ack! Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Ace Photographer." The nickname fit. Ace never went anywhere without his camera, and took pictures of everything and anything. Which, much to her exasperation, included Sawyer. "Save your film for the corpse, though. You can take photos of me after I solve the murder."

Yep, that was her plan in a nutshell. Snoop around for clues, find out who killed Hick Van and why, and catch the killer red-handed. It sounded like a longshot, yes, but Sawyer was confident in her abilities. She'd read and reread every mystery story she could find, sometimes managing to figure it all out before the detective did. Solving the mystery wouldn't be a problem. The real challenge: keeping her folks from finding out.

"Come on, hop on! I gotta be the first one to turn in this article before anyone else does!"

Sawyer laughed. "Okay, okay, Mr Bossy." She climbed on behind, fully aware that this was less than safe and not really caring. "Hi-ho Silver, away!" And with that, the two teenagers were off... sort of.

"Yo, I’m new in town…mind telling me what’s going on here? Who’s this Hick Van I’ve been hearing so much about?"

As observant as she was, Sawyer was just as surprised as Ace when a guy with dreadlocks and a blue-haired teen appeared practically out of nowhere. 'New in town' was an understatement. This guys were clearly city boys. So what the heck were they doing in a place like Twillel.

Ace filled them in on the information he'd just gotten from her. Obviously, he wasn't big on the whole 'don't talk to strangers' bit. Stranger were rare, so when you ran into one, all inhibitions were usually thrown out the window. Sawyer couldn't help but notice that they seemed very interested in Hick Van's murder. Yeah, it was interesting, but this... this was borderline creepy.

Unless they had a reason?

"So, we've got a deal?"

Sawyer tuned back in, wondering for a moment what he meant before remembering the offer to overlook the fact that they were going off in search of a dead body. "Yeah, that'd be nice. I'd rather not get busted for something I haven't done yet." She gave the two a once-over. Demetri Maverick and Kinta Unami. Clearly as interested in the murder as she and Ace were. "What's it to you, anyway? A couple of city guys like you never seen a murder before?"

Angela Conti "Angie" Angie stood stunned for a moment and her heart skipped a beat when she saw movement in front of her. Relief washed over her like warm water, when she saw the familiar silhouette of Kimico coming towards her. Angie took a deep sigh and closed her eyes to center herself and not look so dammed scared, fear clashed with her image much like checkered and plaid worn together. "W-were am I going?" she tried to sound casual but her voice cracked slightly. "Eh? I don't know...Shit anywhere but my aunts house!" she let out a forced giggle. She then continued yammering before Kimico could get a word in. "Actually I was wondering what you were doing, I know everyone's going all nuts about this murder, but this kind of stuff happened in Vinton all the time, I don't see what's the big..." she eyed Kimico carefully as she could in the darkness, she remembered that her boyfriend was the son of Hick, so she decided to change her sentence's direction so as to not come off as an insensitive witch with a 'B' "So yeah maybe you want to talk about it? Anyways you know the mosquitoes are starting to get annoying, can we go inside?" In reality she didn't feel the two of them were safe, standing their in the darkness surrounded, by all sorts of vegetation.

“Course” Kimico said starting to walk toward Hick’s house. “At his house. I just have to see him, I have to know he’s okay… Its not far from here” Kimico said noticing the fear in Angie’s eyes. She knew Angie wanted to run to the nearest house and stack it out a couple hours while this murder was fresh but Kimico had a mission. Wether she came or not, Kimico would see him. There was a deep fear in the pit of her stomach, she knew that something more than what they had known was wrong and it had to do with him.

Kimico had grown up with this boy as her best friend who because her boyfriend who became her soul mate and lover. If she lost him… she didn’t even want to think about it… But was a second soul mate possible? She had truly found it in him. She felt sick with worry.

Angela Conti "Angie" "Nah that's fine we could go to Tom's," Angie waved her hand dismissively, and widened her stride to keep up with Kimico, who had already began speed walking in the direction of the Vans' house. She didn't want to be left alone, in what was now entirely night. Even if that meant moving towards a destination that was a murder scene a few hours before. "I'm kinda surprised they got rid of the police line so quick, it's almost like they, the cops know something huh? Hey I'm glad you don't care if I follow you, if I'm being a bitch let me know k? Oh yeah I remember a few weeks ago my aunt was making stuff with her friends for a charity bake sale or some shit can't remember, I do remember your mom's awesome almond cookies though, but anyways what was I saying dam I forgot. Oh right Mrs. Taylor was saying something about Hick having won a lawsuit against a seed company or something, come to think of it Mrs. Taylor's always talking smack about the Vans, but then again you can't blame her, since her husbands lost his land, and the Vans bought it with the lawsuit money. Did Tom ever tell you how much money they got from the sue?"

Ace nodded. Okay well these two new guys seemed alright. Or...could they possibly know something about the murder? Or, Or! What if they had something to do with the murder...?

He looked suspiciously at them, then realized he was just being paranoid. "Alright." The same smile came back to his face as he pushed off the ground, easily taking balance and control of the bicycle. Twilell Town wasn't a very large place. You could get from one end to the other in less than an hour. It'd take only 10-15 minutes to get to the farm. Five minutes if you went at breakneck speed like Ace usually did. But since Mr...er...Maverick and his little buddy were tagging along, he decided to glide the bike smoothly and slowly.

"So..." Ace said. "You two interested in a murder?" Sawyer did have a point. "I thought people that didn't live in small towns like this are already used to murder happening every day. Oh and Sawyer..." He turned away from the road (like an idiot) and glanced over his shoulder to look at her. "Who's taking care of the general store now since you're here? All the adults are out, right?"

The man moved like a predator on the prowl, full of purpose and maybe a few steps behind graceful. He dragged the large stone grate belonging to a wood furnace, more so that it worked like an incinerator. It did its job impeccably, leaving no trace, no hairs, no fibres, and he disposed of his “used” clothes there as well. The only qualm he had with it is that whenever his gaze fell on it, he had the sudden urge to stick his hand in there or ponder what would happen if he'd brought a victim back and let them roast. These were the kind of wild thoughts that got him in trouble—well, as troubled as someone like him could be. The only kind of trouble he could find himself in was being caught. Sometimes, it was as if the cops were sniffing at his back door, just waiting for him. Paranoia plagued his mind more than he'd like to admit, and it wasn't something he could easily forget. Perhaps if he were ever caught, he could plead insanity? Neither jail nor a mental institution seemed bad. Freedom to do as he wished was the true problem.

Bonnie adjusted the rabbit-shaped mask on his face, it was made of clay and didn't breathe well but it didn't matter. His scarred skin underneath was only slightly irritated, and he dared not take it off. It wasn't that he was “afraid” to be caught or found out or seen without it on—who would know him anyway? There were only tales of the dirty trail he'd left behind in other states, bigger cities that only had vague theories of who he was. His past was as muddied as a dirty puddle, he didn't even want to remember anything. Someday, they'd find him and tag him as “John Doe.” Shaking his head, and sucking in a rasp breath of air, he shoved the rest of his evidence of doing such a deed in the furnace and slammed it, clasping it shut. Once he flicked a switch on the wall, flames burst to life in the furnace and he sat on a nearby stool, naked. At times like this, he wondered why he tried so hard to cover his tracks with rag-tag redneck cops in this small town. No. Village.

“I'm an artist.” The man breathed hoarsely through his mask, glancing around until he found a pair of boxers and hospital pants, neatly folded for him. He slipped off the stool, pulled his garments on and laughed. It sounded like crackling leaves, pathetic and sickly, before he examined his scarred and burnt chest. “I'm a damned artist. That's what I'll say, that's what.”

Maybe he'd make this more interesting.

((Sorry for talking so long, what'd I miss, what're you folks doing? XD ))

(Oh goodie, the murderer has arrived! Don't worry, you haven't missed much.)

In the back of her mind, Sawyer was wondering why they were leading a couple of guys they'd never met before to a crime scene they probably shouldn't be visiting in the first place. Of course, the answer was simple: so she could solve a mystery. Twillel was one of those sleepy towns where big things didn't happen very often. She wasn't going to let her one chance at excitement slip away quite that easily. So there she was, arm hooked around Ace's waist so she could stay on what little of the seat she had as they made there way up to Van's farm with a black Hyundai Sonata following them.

... What? She never said she used good judgment.

The teen shrugged. "My cat." Even with his eyes on the road, she could tell Ace had a look of skepticism on his face. "Oh, come on. You really think anyone is going to come by the store when someone's been murdered? Besides, Jasper is one tough tabby... when he isn't sleeping." The boy chuckled, clearly not convinced. "It'll be fine. The only thing we have to worry about is my mom spotting us." That was definitely one of their bigger problems at them moment. If either of their parents found out what they were up to, the two would be grounded for a month. That meant no phones, no hanging out with friends, and especially no crime scenes. And Sawyer wasn't going to be able to live with that.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we're here!" Sawyer had already hopped off of the bike before Ace had even stopped it, running the rest of the way to the fields behind the massive house. Well, massive by their town's standards, at least. There was already a huge crowd surrounding what she assumed to be the crime scene. People were so packed together that she wouldn't be able to get through to the actual body if she tried. Sawyer scowled, glancing around for a way to get through. Then her eyes landed on a huge oak tree and a smile crossed her face. By the time the others had caught up, she'd climbed up to a limb with a decent view of what was going on.

From the distance she was at, Sawyer could see much detail, but it was enough to get an idea of what was going on. She could tell that the body hadn't been moved yet, probably because no one wanted to touch it. Murders weren't exactly common, so she doubted anyone had any idea how to deal with this kind of situation. The crowd formed a ten foot radius around the large red blotch on the ground, murmuring and generally looking shocked. Straining to hear what they were saying, she inched forward on the branch, trying to keep her weight even. The girl glance back and waved to Ace, gesturing for him to climb up. They'd be able to get a better look if he used his camera.