Zenon's Game Chapter 125

Zenon rubbed my arms to relax me and I exhaled, feeling calmer again.

"You should go upstairs and check on your family," Zenon advised, "We haven't heard anything since her first reaction."

"You're right," I nodded and had to tell my legs to move before they actually listened.

My mum confronted me the moment I arrived at the top of the stairs, "What is your game plan? Hmm? Do you know who did this? What kind of sick games are you involved in? Have you been bullying someone? Is this their retaliation?"

"Mum, so many questions. Uh... Wait, no! Don't touch the jersey. I need to take photos first as evidence," I exclaimed, reaching out to stop my mum from picking it up.

"No, young lady, the first thing we need to do is call the police," she corrected me, but she stepped away from the jersey and let me take photos.

My sister also took some. I saw her choosing filters and asked, "Please don't post this on social."

"But it's great content."

"Don't," Zenon ordered, walking up the stairs.

His opinion ended the debate and Heidi put her phone away.

"Can you guys spread out and start looking for clues? There must be spatters of blood somewhere and clues to where this came from," my mum asked us, interrupting her own conversation with the police to get us moving.

With her voice in the background, asking to speak to an officer, I said, "We should split up. Some of us should stay on this floor to look for blood traces or any misplaced items and others should go around the house, trying to see how this person entered."

"Good idea," Bryce agreed, "But can I sit out for this round? I'm getting tired after all this drama and work."

"You're coming with me," Zenon answered, "We'll check out the garden and windows."

"Thanks," I said and tried to lead the charge, "Let's go!"

"Uh Candace?" Axel pointed out, holding something in his hand, "You forgot your shoe."

So, my mum reported the crime and that's when she learnt that the police station already had a file open on me.

She couldn't find out what was in the file, but it was basically my statement – of the threatening letters, the "$1 h-oo-ker inside" spray painted on our house and the stolen necklace.

The police advised us to send in the pictures of the bloody jersey and they would add it to the report.

Meanwhile, the rest of us were scouring the house for clues like we were in an episode of Scooby Doo.

I'd look under the bed and find Axel looking under it on the other side.

I'd look into the bathroom and find Heidi searching the.... Oh no, wait, she was just putting on makeup.

"Can you, like, leave?" she exclaimed, with mascara in one hand.

"Sorry," I quickly shut the bathroom door.

We were downstairs and some delicious smell was wafting out of the kitchen. Somehow, Gloria found actual food in our fridge and was cooking something for us all...

This detective work was exhausting.

I threw open a window and saw Bryce walking round the side of the house. He was grumpily looking at the shrubbery on one side and windows on another. Then he tripped over a garden gnome and cursed it.

"What is this troll doing at your house, Candace?! That hat is so pointy it can stab someone! And it's smiling at me like it's going to kill me. We've all seen Chucky!"

Zenon appeared from the other side, having heard the complaining. He saw me and smiled.

I smiled back and leaned out the window to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Bryce screamed louder than anything I've ever heard. He paused to breathe... and continued, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Has the gnome killed him?" I asked.

"AH!" Bryce's last gasp.

Zenon and I both stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. The window directly above us opened and my sister's head peered out from the second floor.

Axel came running down the stairs and barged into the living room, squeezing beside me to peer out the window. "What?!"

Bryce's face was as shocked as if he'd seen a ghost.

Suddenly, my sister screamed. Another, ear splitting screech.

We all looked up at her now, confused why she was screaming. We must look like some out-of-tune choir. Who was going to sing out next?

"What is it?" Axel called out, the curiosity eating him up.

"I know what Bryce is seeing," my sister answered, speaking like an oracle, "Because I see it too."

"About the jersey?" I asked, feeling my heart race in my chest.

She nodded, "It wasn't ketchup. It's real blood."

*End of chapter*

Not really...

My heart thumped one hundred miles a minute. Real. Blood. She said real blood.

And then she disappeared.

Seriously, my sister was gone.

She'd fainted. We heard a thud. I wanted to run upstairs to help her but my own legs wouldn't move. None of us could move.

It's well known that my sister gets queasy around blood and needles. Which means she must've seen....

My head turned to look at the shrubbery in our unkempt yard. I didn't want to look. I didn't want to see what they had seen. How can you un-see?

But I had to get this moment over with. One of the worst moments in my memory. I looked at the crispy, dead leaves and the shrubbery and...

There she was. Blood stained on the grass around her.

"Oh my god!" I cried out, my hand covering my mouth, "A raccoon!"

A poor little animal was lying on the grass, motionless.

Axel was beside me in the living room, with the window open in front of us. He rested his hand on my shoulder to comfort us both. He was equally shocked.

And then he said, "This may not be the right time to say this, but, that's not a raccoon. That's a cat."

"Axel," Zenon gave him a warning look.

"I thought she should know the truth. It's obviously a cat."

"Why would a raccoon be the go-to animal?" Bryce asked, emerging from his statue state.

"It's a cat?" I asked, the tears coming to my eyes.