Chapter Five: Joanna

We were still driving towards the destination the man had told us to come to. Luckily for the both of us, I had a pretty good memory. I looked towards Megan, I already knew what she was going to say.

Me: "45940 Xavier Street is our exact location if you were wondering."

She gave me a look that showed that she was speechless and amazed.

Megan: "You totally knew what I was going to say? Wild, guess you learned from me."

Me: "Sure, I'll say that."

She chuckled as a response to my statement.

Megan: "Alright, hold on tight, we're going to go a little faster!"

She wasn't kidding either, we were going pretty fast down the road now. Well, at least she didn't drive like a maniac.

Me: "Let's see if this man is actually trustworthy or not."

Megan: "Yeah, if not, I'll be popping a cap in his temple."

Me: "You know, that sounds a lot less intimidating if you say it like that."

Megan: "As long as you get what I meant by that, I couldn't really care less."

I simply nodded as we sped off towards 45940 Xavier Street. We were about ten minutes away from it now.

Megan: "Best get yourself ready in case you need to kill someone."

Me: "Yeah, I get it."

I gulped, hopefully no killing would be done. We could only hope for the best now, neither of us wanted to use these guns.

Fast forward another ten minutes of nothing and we were at our destination. We both got out of the car and made sure our guns were out of sight. Luckily the pockets were quite huge on these trench coats.

Megan: "Where is he? He said meet him here."

Me: "Get ready, I have a bad feeling about this."

We started to look around the entire area, both of us heard nothing for a split second before we heard footsteps approaching. After those footsteps we were on alert.

Megan: "Who's there? We can hear you!"

Me: "It might be him, but if not, then.."

We both swiftly pulled out our handguns, ready to shoot if necessary. There was no need though, since it was just the man from the website. He came out with his hands up in the air.

Man: "Hey, put the guns away, there's no need."

Megan: "How exactly do we know that?"

Man: "You'd be dead by now if this was a trick, calm down."

I put my gun down first, and then Megan put hers down as well. We both kept looking around us to make sure no one was here.

Man: "Alright, stay calm kids. I'll even give you my name, Trevor. Does that convince you?"

We look at each other and sigh, we place our guns in our pockets as Trevor placed his hands down. He looked in his early thirties. He had a skinny figure, greasy, pulled back hair, brown eyes and skin the color of sand.

Trevor: "There you go, now we can get to business."

Me: "First off, do we need to pay you anything?"

Trevor: "Aw come on, you're kids, consider this my kind deed to help you out like this."

Megan: "Why us? Why are you deciding to help us when there are other real detectives out there?"

Trevor: "Listen, I've worked with tons of detectives."

Me: "How are we supposed to believe that?"

Trevor: "Now is not the time for this, you want to find your friend don't you?"

Me: "Yeah, you're right. So what's the address?"

Trevor: "Follow me to my house, I'll show you how I do it to make this go by faster for you two. You're on a time limit here."

Me & Megan: "Time limit?"

Trevor: "Of course, police, fellow detectives. Stuff like that."

Megan: "I suppose that makes sense."

Trevor: "Exactly, now get in your red station wagon and let's go."

Me and Megan both get into the red car as Trevor gets into his brown SUV, we drive off towards his house.

Megan: "What if there are men at his house? We won't know what's in there until we get inside."

Me: "Yeah, our guns won't be able to help us with that one. Especially if they're armed too."

Megan: "Hey, we might have a chance, I can beat some up and you can use your fast reflexes to dodge and shoot."

Me: "I don't think that would work."

Megan: "You never know."

Me: "You think he's watching us right now?"

Megan: "Yeah no, he would have said something otherwise."

Me: "I guess he would have, well, let's see how his house looks."

Megan: "Hey Colson, I've been wanting to ask this question for a while now but I never really got the chance."

Me: "Oh yeah? What's up?"

I take my glare off of the road and look at Megan to see what she wanted to say, she took a heavy breath before asking her question.

Megan: "How come your parents don't stop you from doing this? Sorry if this is personal, but I was just curious."

I shake my head to signify that it was fine, I had actually never told her about my parents.

Me: "They could care less about what I do now, it was nice growing up with them and all, but when I reached seventeen and was almost eighteen they just stopped caring all of a sudden, gave me some money, bought a house for me and sent me off."

Megan: "Holy… how long have you been living in that house of yours?"

Me: "About six months now, I haven't seen them in a decently long time."

Megan: "Jeez, I never knew. I'm sorry for asking, Colson."

Me: "It's alright, not like I care much or anything. What do you tell your parents whenever you go out to help me with this stuff?"

Megan: "I don't tell them, they're usually at work all the time anyways, so that's why I need to get home by at least ten."

Me: "I see, how are your parents?"

Megan: "They were laid back before, let me go to a friend's house whenever I wanted. That was until one day when one of the savages had tried to make out with me. Destroyed my trust completely. They started being super strict and I can see why, but I've met people like you that helped slowly rebuild said trust. I've tried to tell them so many times that I can actually trust them but they don't listen."

Me: "Sounds like they're just protecting you to me, nothing wrong with that."

Megan: "Yeah but, I want to have fun sometimes you know? You're a cool dude Colson."

She pats me on the back.

Me: "Thanks, Megan. You're pretty good yourself."

With that, we weren't too far from the house now. Trevor had made a couple lefts by the time we were done talking.

Me: "Well, we're almost there."

Megan: "Yeah, I need to get home in a couple hours though, so hopefully this is quick."

A couple of minutes later, we were finally at the house. We both had a little sigh of relief before we got out of
Megan's car. I took a quick look at the house, which actually didn't look bad at all. It looked as if it were a three story house and was painted yellow with a hint of white. It had lamps surrounding the outside and seemed as if it had a backyard.

Me: "Jeez, Trevor looks as if he's living the life."

Megan: "Indeed, that's a very nice house."

Trevor noticed us talking and motioned for us to follow him, once we were inside it looked like one of those houses from the mid-1900's. There were tons of chandeliers everywhere, accompanied by sofas, a TV, and wooden chairs. That was the living room though. Trevor had invited us into the kitchen.

Trevor: "Take a seat, we'll talk at the dinner table."

His hands would point towards literally the only table in the kitchen, like we didn't notice. It was nice of him though, we sat down in the two chairs that faced the windows, Trevor sat right in front of us.

Trevor: "Hold on, let me bring my computer down here."

He had gone upstairs before we could have said a single word, we decided to just wait. After a few minutes of hearing him yell, he came back down with the computer and cleared his throat before apologizing.

Trevor: "I am deeply sorry, I was just looking for my computer."

Me and Megan looked at each other before nodding.

Megan: "It's fine, but please make this quick, I need to go soon so-"

Trevor: "Of course, almost forgot you kids were still in school."

He sighed before shaking his head, what was up with him?

Trevor: "Alright, I'm wasting your time so I'll tell you how to do all of this later. Just go to 59830 Grace Boulevard and keep going until you see a white mansion, you'll find her there.

Megan: "That's it? Well we'll take it. Again do we need to pay you or-"

Trevor: "GO."

His tone shifted from that of calm to a more angered and menacing tone.

Megan quickly arose from her seat before telling me to get up. I was surprised at how fast his mood changed, I nodded and got up, we left without saying another word.

We got into the station wagon and drove off, it was time to pay Joanna a visit.

It was time to get to business, we had arrived at about nine-thirty. We nodded at each other and silently walked up towards the door. I told Megan to stay back, I would be the one who'd knock.

I knocked about five times before someone answered the door, it was a girl who looked to be about nineteen. She looked like she hadn't slept in ages, the girl looked at me with a deadpan stare.

Girl: "Who are you two? Don't you realize how late it is?"

Me: "Yeah, we're just detectives. Are you Joanna Fritz by any chance?"

She took a deep breath, as if I had annoyed her or something.

Joanna: "That's me, what about it?"



Chapter Six: Enemies


Me: "We need to ask a few questions if you don't mind."

Megan: "Would you please let us inside so we can talk?"

Joanna: "Well, if you two actually are detectives I might as well."

She opens the door and moves out of the way, allowing us inside. We both nod towards her as a way of saying "Thank you."

Joanna: "Why don't you two sit on the couch in the living room? We can talk there."

Me: "Got it, thanks."

Megan: "Yeah, thanks."

The house was completely pitch black, that was until Joanna had turned on the kitchen light, which had helped us see a little bit. I took off my hat and placed it to the right of me as I took a seat. Megan would sit right next to me as we waited for Joanna.

Joanna: "Would you two like something to drink?"

Me: "That'd be great, but not right now."

Megan: "We're good, thanks though."

Joanna: "No problem, so what questions do you two want to ask exactly?"

Megan clears her throat, guess she wanted to ask the questions. I nodded and leaned back on the sofa.

Megan: "We just want to know what happened about two days ago, a late night on the eighteenth. We know you were there when it happened, so that's why we came here."

Joanna simply chuckles.

Joanna: "Well, you guys know what you're doing it seems, the eighteenth was a.. wild night to say the least."

Me: "Yeah, we know. Can you remember any details from the party you all had?"

Megan simply hit me on the chest, I nodded and backed away.

Megan: "If you know anything, please, tell us. We're going to need all we can get."

Joanna nods and takes a heavy breath, she closes her eyes and tells us everything she remembers.

Joanna: "Right, there were four of us. Me, Victoria, Maxine, and Tricky. We got bored, so we invited a boy over, his name was Michael."

Megan: "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Michael who?"

Joanna waves it off, basically saying it was fine.

Joanna: "His name was Michael Fransier, we had invited him over to see which one of us he'd like to go spend a night with. He wasn't really too much of a confident guy. We felt bad for him, that's why we invited him over."

We both look at each other, Michael was that kid I had befriended not too long ago. About a day ago. We look at her to see what happened next.

Joanna: "Right, since he thought Maxine was so nice, he chose her. After they left, we may have cracked a few jokes. I never meant for it to be like this though-"

I could see a visible tear come down from Joanna's eye, she was quick to wipe it though. It made me feel horrible, I suddenly wanted to cry too, but I held it in. I didn't even want to ask what happened next, because the answer was quite obvious. Her breaking down like that made it pretty easy to predict what went down after that.

Me: "I can't believe I befriended him, I thought we were cool, but then he goes and ABDUCTS my best friend!"

Megan sighs, she nods towards Joanna and pats me. Signaling it was time to go, I didn't say another word as we walked out, I was honestly speechless. I just grabbed my hat and placed it back on my head, we were going to visit Michael soon enough.

We both got back into the red station wagon and drove off towards Trevor's house. I refused to speak, I was still boiling from learning about my "friend" Michael.

Megan: "I know it's tough being betrayed by one of the people you considered a friend. Trust me, I know. I'm sorry that you had to learn that about him. We're going to teach him a lesson once we get there though, aren't we?"

I smiled and nodded.

Me: "Yeah, we are."

Megan: "That's the spirit!"

A few minutes later, we arrived at Trevor's house, only to see that the lights were out. He was asleep, of course. Well, tomorrow would work fine I suppose.

Megan dropped me off at home, we said goodbye to each other before she drove off. I nodded before going inside
my house.

Me: "They won't like it but, I want to visit my parents."

I take off my detective disguise and put on a black jacket with khaki pants. That was a good outfit, right? I nod as I start to brush my hair. I hadn't seen them in quite the while, I missed them.

I got out of my house and started walking over there, it'd be a while but I'd be able to make it.

Meanwhile, over at Trevor's…

Trevor appeared to be on the phone with someone. Someone unknown, he was pacing back and forth in his room and seemed to be in a heated discussion with someone.

Trevor: "Yes, I sent them over. Don't worry, they'll be with him soon."

The unknown person seemed to be heated, like they had had enough with Trevor.

Trevor: "Don't worry, I know it'll work. They will do it, if not, I'll deal with them."

Trevor then hangs up the phone and takes a heavy breath.

Back to Colson..

While I was walking over to their house, I started to hear noises from all around me. I slowly started to get suspicious. Something wasn't right.

As I had suspected, people were here. I wasn't sure who they were, but one of them I could make out pretty easily, Tye Andrews. He was back for more, before I could attack though. I was thrown onto the hard concrete by one of the others, I couldn't get a good look at them since it was so dark out here. I grunted as one of them pinned me down and socked me square in the face.

Tye: "You thought you could embarrass me like that and get away with it? Think again."

Next thing I know, my head was rammed into the hard ground, I had been knocked unconscious. The last thing I saw was Tye pulling out a knife. Was he really going to?

Me: "You… wouldn't, I know you aren't that stupid, Tye.."

I barely managed to form that sentence, I wasn't able to move. I had lost consciousness. There I was, laying on the sidewalk.

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