note: check out the link for the drawing in this chapter by replacing the * with a dot.

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"Charley?" I looked at Larry in shock.

Sally, now alarmed, turned tense. She then turned to me. "Did you know too?"

I hurriedly shook my head. "I-I… I only know about it now. Both him and Mrs. Sanderson were always comparing their collection with each other. But I don't know if that was enough for Charley to even wanna murder someone else about it."

Turning to the taller guy, "Would he, though?"

"He definitely would. He accused me of stealing his snacks one time." Larry's face turned to a sneer. "Fucking fatty."

Sally nodded her head, as if what she had heard was enough. She went over to his speakers and turned the volume down. "The loud noise might just be more suspicious than if we just talked with our voice down." Was her explanation before she craned her head back up to Larry. "Have you told the cops yet?" she asked and he nodded his head, his hair swaying with his movement.

"I did. But they just waved me off. As if my words alone weren't enough." He rolled his eyes at that last part.

"We need some kind of evidence to prove that he did it. When we do, there's no chance they'll look away this time." I piped up, going up into a stand so I could go closer to the two.

"That's right. But we need a plan first. We can't just go anywhere willy-nilly without one. Especially since he's still on the loose and the cops had no idea the killer is here." She agreed.

Larry, on the other while, was staring at the two of us dubiously. "Wait… You actually believe me?" He sounded skeptical and I couldn't help but find that funny for some reason.

"Duh!" I gave his shoulder a little playful punch. "Of course, I believe you! Charley is… well, he's always kind of been a bit unnerving to me. And now that I thought about it, Mrs. Sanderson was someone he considered an enemy. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually did it."

"Same with me." Sally spoke from my other side. "You're a good person Larry. I saw in your eyes genuine emotions. That was enough for me to know you weren't lying."

Sometimes, Larry can get a little bit intimidating due to his height and overall appearance. But I also learned that even someone like that can be touched at times too.

"Thanks, you guys."

I grinned at him and response while Sally's eyes crinkled at the corners, indicating that she did the same.

"By the way, what's up with the guy at 103?" She suddenly asked.

I tilted my head. That was Mr. Addison, right? "He's the owner of this building. He's a bit shy, ain't he?"

"..well, it seems that it was more than just 'a bit' shy."

"Yeah, he never leaves his apartment anymore." Larry said, shifting from one foot to another and scratching the back of his head. "He used to go outside but not anymore. He's always just locked up in there."

Suddenly, I was reminded of the very particular hobby of our landlord. I raised my hand in the air enthusiastically. "Oh, he makes such amazing tea!"

Sally blinked at that while the other rolled his eyes. He was all too familiar with me and my obsession with the tea.

Well, I'm not that obsessed but I just really like it. Even when mom and I headed down to the nearby café to hang out, their teas didn't really compare with the ones Mr. Addison makes.

"They're so good. You should try it sometime, Sally."

She was silent for a moment before she nodded. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Pausing, she then added, "Do you like those?"

"She does. But don't get too attached to the stuff, though, dude. It's addicting."

"It's only slightly addicting."

"Yeah sure, Ms. I can't live without Addison tea."

He was punched for that and he winced. I can somehow tell that the girl was amused by us. She then shook her head and the serious atmosphere was back.

"Okay, game plan."

Larry and I straightened up, ready to listen to whatever plan it was that she had in store for us. In our little town, there was barely anything fun to do. As fucked as the reasoning may be for it, I was actually a little hyped to be in on this. And looking over at the tall guy beside me, I can tell that he felt the same way.

"Your beard looks so weird!" I said loudly with a laugh, watching as the mean officer guarding Mrs. Sanderson's apartment turned red from anger.

"What did you say?"

"Exactly as that."

This was my part in the plan. Distract the officer. I don't know about you all, but I was doing a pretty good job. People tend to tell me I was somewhat of an expert when it comes to irritating someone.

But for what reason? Well, it was to have the chance for Sally to slip by unnoticed and head to my apartment. I think it was to check something, as she had said, but I don't really know what else is there to see our home. Maybe it was to talk to Mom or something?

Having the cop guarding the apartment next to ours makes it nearly impossible to go through unless you really lived where my Mom and I was. Heck, I remember getting questioned for hours on end last night by the same guy that I was currently annoying. I didn't get enough sleep and it was such a disaster for me. It was a good thing that it was currently our break from school or else I wouldn't have been so nice as I currently was.

"Where's you even get that kind of style? The 30's? Don't worry, I can tell. I'm an expert when it comes to old people hairstyle. Trust me. You'd want my opinion on this stuff."

"LISTEN HERE, GIRL-"

Yup. You don't want me any meaner than I already am.

"You're so mean, Mustache Guy." I commented off-handedly, momentarily distracted when Sally brushed past the two of us. If I hadn't been looking out for her, I wouldn't have even seen her go by. She walked as if it was a normal day and she was just heading to school. She's kind of like a ghost.

Seeing me staring at something, the officer quickly turned his head to look and I quickly yelled in panic,

"SPIDER!"

"WHAT WHERE!?"

I feigned jumping around and being squeamish, making it look like I was afraid of the invisible eight-legged creature of Satan when, in reality, there was no such thing. To be fair though, the cop was more afraid of the 'spider' than I was and that was such an amusing thing to witness.

While I was busy, I caught sight of Sally looking over at us from where she was, half-way through our door, having only just opened it. She looked mildly concerned and I gestured for her to go while the cop still had his back towards the both of us. She nodded her head, then entered the Hall/Wright humble abode.

As soon as she was gone, I calmly turned to the still panicking man beside me and flatly said,

"Oh, it was just a dust bunny."

Then, I walked away as if nothing happened. In my wake was the mean cop, his mouth agape before his face turned red and he yelled out,

"WHAT THE HELL!"

I started running for the elevator (which was conveniently open) and I started pressing the close button rapidly while trying to insert the key card so that I could go down to the Johnson's home. It wasn't closing and I realized it was because of a strip of duck-tape that was placed on top of the 'open doors' button. Ripping it away, the doors finally closed and bangs soon followed as the elevator started descending. I'm pretty sure insults and swears were thrown by the pissed off cop but I wasn't too sure.

The sweet humming sound of the elevator and my gleeful laughter drowned it out.

DING!

The door of the elevator opened, and I headed out. The next part of the plan I actually have no need to do anything, it was all up to Larry to carry on.

What he was supposed to do was use the radio he had and make a fake dispatch call to the specific unit of the officers that was inside the Addison Apartments. It was originally going to be about a bank robbery thing but Sally suggested that we switch it to a gas station robbery instead, just to be a little more realistic. Then, once the coast is clear, Sally would head inside Mrs. Sanderson's unit to look for clues.

We just need something that showed that it was Charlie who did the murder, that was all we needed and we can be done with this incident once and for all.

Once I had gotten inside Larry's room (I didn't want to head anywhere else on the building in fear that the cop from before might just give me a piece of his mind), he gave a wave from where he was casually sprawled on his bean bag.

"Hey." I greeted and he greeted back with a "Hey" too.

We were silent for a moment, both of us unsure of what to say to each other, when Sally's voice filtered through from the walkie talkie that the guy left in on his drawer.

"Larry Face."

We both exhaled relieved sighs that neither one of us noticed. Larry picked up his walkie talkie.

"Sally Face. I'm here. What's up?"

"Can you call in the report?"

Larry straightened up his way of sitting, brushing his hair out of his face from when he had rose too quickly. "You ready, dude?" He asked, and I started becoming nervous for some reason.

Weird. I wasn't like this back when I was messing with the mustache guy.

I was a little confused, but whatever it is, I decided to think about it later.

"Yeah. Whatever it is that Ellie did, this bastard looks pissed off."

That statement from the girl alone made me all the more nervous and I scratched my chin sheepishly.

"Heh." Larry sent a smirk in my way and I blinked innocently back, mouthing,

'I did nothing.'

He rolled his eyes and mouthed back, 'Sure.' I thought he was going to leave it at that but boy, I was wrong.

"What'd she do?"

"…"

Sally didn't answer for a bit before she chuckled slightly. Apparently, the dumb stuff I did was amusing to her as it did to me. I expected her to comment on it but there was only the familiar click of the walkie talkie… and then silence.

Larry groaned and he sent the girl one last message.

"Real funny, dude."

CLICK!

He then stood up and walked past me to get to his radio. I turned and watched him pick up the microphone from it and put it near his lips. Hunched over his own dresser, staring at his himself from the mirror for a bit, he averted his gaze and started his part of the plan.

"All dispatches report to Maple Leaf Street. There's a call come in about a robbery on the gas station. I repeat, all dispatches report to Maple Leaf Street. There's a call come in about a robbery on the gas station."

With his voice droning on unemotionally like that, it really seemed like he was made for the job of being a cop himself. Never mind the long hair and the obsession with the metal band Sanity's Fall, of course. I sat down on the bean bag he previously occupied and listened as a response came in.

"Dispatch 27B, Officer Durley and Officer Sanderson reporting to the scene now."

CLICK!

It took a bit of time but afterwards, we heard some shuffling from upstairs, a door closing, and then silence. There was the faint sound of a siren in the distance, but we didn't need to hear it to know that we succeeded in getting rid of the two police men.

Once again, we exhaled sighs of relief.

Larry turned to me, a hint of worry showing on his usually uncaring face. "It's up to Sally now. Let's hope things go well."

I smiled slightly, also worried. Whatever it is that Sally finds, I hope she wouldn't be too affected. Even when I had not seen Mrs. Sanderson myself, the sight of the blood from last night was… too much. I didn't want to see the horrible corpse of the person I once thought of as my aunt.

The new girl was a stranger to all of us (in the friends' zone now with me and Larry) but that was more especially true for her and the late woman.

I hope she'll be okay in there.

Unbeknownst to her, Sally was beyond okay and was standing in front of a woman smiling at him. There was a large gash on her throat, and it was still pouring blood as if it was just cut moments ago.

A voice sounded but her lips didn't move. Instead, her wound acted as her means of speaking to the fifteen-year old.

"Hello, and who might you be?"

Sally nearly dropped the walkie talkie that he held.

Holy shit.

A/N: Hello! So it's been awhile, I know. I've actually been sitting around with two chapters already done but I wanted to at least have a drawing for each chapter. I didn't get to make one for this chapter until now 'cause I had gotten busy and forgot about it;;

I'm sorry!

On another note, I coloured the drawing differently in this chapter so it looks better than the last two I made~

Hope you had fun reading this one! I'll try and have a new chapter posted soon but I have a drawing I have to finish before working on chapter four's so please bear with me.