Mystery (Needs New Title ^ ^; )

Mystery

Soft music played through the slightly cold, breezy night, the moon having begun its ascension into the great black of sky. At Leander High School, a special event was going on; it was the annual cultural festival, a place with many different attractions and booths to draw in students, faculty, parents, and other neighborhood people as well. In one area, a miniature Japanese paper lantern fair, in another lay a haunted house, a hall of mirrors, various food booths, and the like lined the wide parking lot of the school. People laughed, hanging out with friends or escorting children for games and goods, faculty and some of the Blue Belles and Cheerleaders running the thing mostly along with a handful of volunteers. The night was cheery, calm...

A flash of light burst up into the air, unfurling its spectral tentacles of ghostly energy about the area, the ground shaking, when just as quickly it was gone and the sound of many thumps could be heard.

Nothing Changed, Yet They Did

A soul collector flew over head. He gazed at the sky watching as the creature slithered through the air much like water snakes.

"I wonder how they do that with no water up there," he though very intellectually. Before his brain could begin to ponder why he wasn't pondering the dragon creature being at his school, in Leander there was a bang. He heard people screaming and smiled, "I bet it was the riceballs. I would guess the Blue Belles but they wouldn't be able to make anything that beautiful." He ran off so as to not miss a chance to see the wondrous blaze. When he got to the site of the explosion depression overcame him. There was no fire... though the dead bodies were nice, wait, they weren't dead, not really. The "corpses" began to rise. "Shit, pink zombies... what has the world come to... oh wait. Nothing has really changed at all."


"Agh. Run, zombie preps," someone said apathetically.

He was about to laugh when he noticed the soul collectors disappearing around the corner. He ran after them. He saw something drop, metal clanked on the floor. He bent down and scooped it off the floor then straightened quickly to resume his game of demon chase with the flying apparitions. They were gone. He looked around, "Where could they have gone? All the doors were closed and they have no hands." He shrugged it off and looked at the thing in his hands. It was a silver cross with a ring around the middle. He looked at it for a few moments then put it on. "Maybe I should get away from the zombies now." Hair dryers and make up waved through the air in the zombie's hands as they stumbled through the hall like they all had hangovers.

"It's ironic really," he mumbles to himself, "How little has changed, it'd be like a normal day at school is it wasn't dark outside."

Poof

"Lillian?! Lillian, where are you?!?!" Gage shouted, running frantically in the opposite direction of the panicked crowds, weaving towards the mass of apathetically jogging people, some grimacing, some blank. "Lillian!!! -OOF!" Then the boy with soft dark brown hair collided with someone and fell to the ground with a grunt, before blinking and peering up to see another boy with low rim glasses and roughed hair, a beard starting on his chin. He wore mostly black and... "Hey, that's my necklace..." Gage commented then mentally slapped himself before rising. "Have you seen my little sister?! She's only eight, she dressed in a sort of lolita fashion... um... Her name is Lillian..."

"Even if I had I wouldn't know it," he responded, mentally thinking "I'm keeping the necklace."

"GAGE!!!" a small voice called out, a small girl running from the hordes of zombified but not dead preps when she tripped on a rise in the floor, having glanced behind her. "GAGE, HELP."

"HEY, BACK OFF!" a strong feminine voice growled, shoving aside some of her fellow Blue Belles to quickly scoop up Lillian. "Where's your parent?"

Lily shook her head, face creasing to watch the crowd behind them. "No, my brother, Gage... He's over there! Thank you um..."

"Julia, and don't mention it," the girl said, smiling down at the kid. "I wonder why I wasn't like them... seeing as how they mostly seem to be Blue Belles or cheerleaders or were formerly. They don't seem dangerous at least; just stupefied."

"Lillian!" came Gage's relieved sigh as Julia transferred the girl into his arms. "Great, now where do we go?!"

"EVERYONE, THIS WAY," came the sound of a teacher, who pulled them into the elevator just as another crowd of zombies turned the corner. "Phew, that was close huh?"

Hall of Mirrors

He looked at Julia, “Why aren’t you zombiefied?”

“I was wondering that myself.”

The elevator opened and Ms. Annette led them to a hall of mirrors. “I wonder why we are here,” he thought to himself, “it doesn’t seem any safer here then it did where we came from.”
He heard the hordes of zombies approaching and made a move as though to run away.

“Wait.” He looked at Ms. Annette then shrugged.

The zombies filed into the room and looked towards them. They seemed ready to charge when they noticed the mirrors. They froze, staring at themselves. “I see. The mirrors trap them.”


Gratitude

"Again, thank you for saving me," the little girl said softly, hands clasping each other in front of her ruffly skirt, her black dress frilled with lace and ribbons, her frilled head band keeping her long dark brown hair swept out of her face and eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lillian, I should have kept up with you better," Gage mumbled, scratching his head in shame while she merely shook her head.

Hidden

“Why didn’t I become a zombie?” Julia thought to herself as she shuffled past her former team mates.

“You don’t seem to be taking this too hard,” he stated flatly.

“Well hey,” Julia replied, “it’s quieter now.”

“Right.”

Julia looked at the little girl clinging to her brother’s hand, “Are you okay… Lillian, right?”

She nodded. Julia looked up at Lily’s brother, “I haven’t seen you around much, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You too, thanks for finding my sister, I don’t know how this could have happened.”

“Soul collectors.” Everyone looked towards the other guy.

“Soul collectors?”

“Someone had to have summoned them and would have to be controlling them.”

“Then what are we supposed to do about them… and who are you?”

“Do whatever you feel necessary. My name is my own, you have no need of it.” He turned and walked away leaving the rest of the people alone.

“So what happened? Did you see anything I mean you are a blue belle after all.”

“Yeah, ha… that’s what everyone thinks of me. My friends won’t even hang out with me anymore because I got onto the dance team. Ha, if you like dance you apparently can’t be gothic so these new ‘friends’ got forced onto me.”

“You don’t sound like you like them very much.”

“I don’t, they are so annoying, but I like dancing so…”

“Did you see anything before they became zombies?”

“There was a bright flash then everyone fell down like dead. Next thing I know I’m running away from them… then Lily and you… now here.”

Gage’s Gauge (flashback - Gage's POV)

“Ne, Brother, why don’t you have a girlfriend?” Lillian asked simply, her face blank and empty of any possible malice in the question, boasting only curiosity. We sat at the picnic tables, each of us trying to poke out perfect shapes from the soft cardboard foam material with toothpicks. “Oh…!” Lillian sighed suddenly and held up hers. “…It cracked…”

“You have to do it like this, see?” I showed her while she stared at me expectantly, waiting for an answer to her original question. “I don’t know… I usually end up getting turned down. Guess I’m just the friend at best, huh?” I smiled at her. “Don’t worry about your big brother! Its my job to worry about you.”

“…If you say so,” she agreed half-heartedly and then stared off into the distance at the marshmallow moon.

“How about we get some snow-cones?” I offered, grinning like a fool to cheer her up and sure enough she cracked a hidden smile.

“’Kay,” she said and took my hand to walk through the festival. Glancing around, I sighed, and let go.

“I don’t know where it is… Can you stay here? I’ll be right back when I find the stand,” I told her, kneeling down to peer at her with importance.

“Of course,” she scoffed lightly. “I’m eight. It’s fine.”

I grimaced a little and took a few steps away, glancing back but she was still there, watching the various festival goers. Assured, I jogged to find the stand and not even three seconds after I had paid for and gotten the strawberry snow-cone to share, a burst of light shot up into the sky and an immediate panic filled the area. “Lillian!” I dropped the snow-cones and ran back to where I had left her. “LILLIAN!! LILY!! LIIIIILLLLIAAAANN!! WHERE ARE YOU?!” I shouted, racing frantically around the area. In all the mass chaos, my little sister had been swept away by the stampeding crowd. Running I peered from person to person, only to shy away from the people… no, girls on the ground who soon rose to stagger about. I felt bad, but someone would help them, my responsibility was my sister.

"Lillian?! Lillian, where are you?!?!" I shouted, running frantically in the opposite direction of the panicked crowds, weaving towards the mass of apathetically jogging people, some grimacing, some blank. "Lillian!!! -OOF!" I collided with someone and peered up to see a guy in mostly black wearing… "Hey, that's my necklace..." I commented then mentally slapped myself before rising. "Have you seen my little sister?! She's only eight, she’s dressed in a sort of lolita fashion... um... Her name is Lillian..."

"Even if I had I wouldn't know it," he responded.

"GAGE!!!" a small voice called out, a small girl, my little sister! running from the hordes of zombified but not dead preps when she tripped on a rise in the floor, having glanced behind her. "GAGE, HELP." And everything seemed to unfold from there…

Lost Lily (flashback - Lillian's POV)

“How about we get some snow-cones?” Gage offered me, grinning like some strange kind of Cheshire cat and I stared blankly at him. He couldn’t be more obvious and despite effort, I could feel a tiny smile curl.

“’Kay,” I agreed, grabbing his hand since I was but a child so we could make our way into the crowds. He paused and made a strange face and I stared forward, rolling my eyes ever so slightly, uncaring. What was it now?

“I don’t know where it is… Can you stay here? I’ll be right back when I find the stand,” Gage said with some worry, kneeling down so we could be on the same eye level.

“Of course,” I scoffed. Honestly, he should know better by now… seriously… “I’m eight. It’s fine.” He left unsurely but I ignored him, still thinking of my question to him earlier as I peered up at the moon then trailed my gaze about the people. Gage deserved someone. He deserved someone good. Watching everyone, the picks were slim but somewhere among the hordes of too-high-maintenance girls, gangster wannabes, and utter and complete idiotic delinquents there had to be someone worthy of my caring and normal brother.

Nice guys don’t have to finish last…

Tendrils of light swirled to rupture and pierce the mourning-black sky and not too soon after, I was pushed along with the hysteria of the people here. When I could finally walk on my own, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to give a gasp because it was not a familiar face. Rather, the blank eyes of a zombie girl stared back at me and I let out an ‘eep!’, dropping the thing in my hand I had been holding for reassurance.

I could hear Gage calling and then a good person connected their knee to the zombie’s face, scooping me up to run like a bat out of Hell and then I was swept along again.



Unveiled

Ms. Annette, Lily, Gage, and Julia ran across him again a few minutes later. They walked up to him. “What do you think; we were trying to figure out how this happened so we could reverse it. Gage thinks that one of the blue belles created a type of portal in the microwave by burning cookies,” Julia said with a smile.

“You guys are pathetic if you really want to know who did it why don’t you look at the little girl clinging to her brother’s hand.”

Gage glared at him, “Don’t even think about blaming my little sister for this.”

“If you don’t believe me why don’t you try asking her?”

“Can we by chance know your reasoning behind such a strong accusation?” Julia asked, holding her hand out so that Gage wouldn’t rip him to pieces.

“It’s simple really, the only people it can be are me, you,” he said pointing to Julia, “Ms. Annette, Gage or Lillian because we were the only people around the crime scene when it happened. It wouldn’t have been me because I came right after the explosion so I wasn’t at the site when it happened. That narrows it down to four. It could have been any of you. Ms. Annette because she says at the beginning of the year in her class that she doesn’t like cheerleaders or blue belles. Julia has plenty of reasons, she doesn’t like blue belles because they annoy her, she could be doing this to prove to her friends that she is still gothic and because she is associated with Goths she probably has easy access to books on the occult which would explain how to open a portal. But then we have the issue of the necklace next to the crime scene which points everything to Gage since he clearly stated it was his, but that doesn’t make sense. It couldn’t be Gage because he would never do anything to harm his sister as we can all clearly see. So that points the main suspects to Annette and Julia. Annette knew how to stop the zombies and Julia has a reason not to like them, but Julia didn’t know what soul collectors were which could have been a lie, but it didn’t seem like it and I know for a fact that Ms. Annette knows practically nothing about Japan other than it being a chain of islands, besides that she really has no reason to turn preps into zombies because she doesn’t really not like anyone. That eliminated both of them so I started thinking about who it could be since everyone had been eliminated. Then I thought about Lily. She doesn’t seem like she would be a likely candidate which is exactly why she would probably be the one most likely to get away with it. It made no sense to me why she would have been separated from her brother if she loves him so much then it dawned on me, maybe she was separated from him because she loved him. Then I remembered that I saw Gage earlier and he wasn’t wearing the necklace he claimed to be his. Lily is a child and children are more apt to believe in the supernatural which is why Lily was able to summon the soul collectors. So that brings us down to why she would do it. My guess is because her brother is single and she doesn’t want him to be made fun of, or he got rejected by one of them, either a blue belle or a cheerleader. So which is it?”

Lily peered at her feet, her hair sweeping into her eyes as Gage looked down at her. “Lillian… C’mon, say he’s wrong… I mean, I knew you were gifted, but there’s no way you’d pull off something like this…”

“…I’m sorry,” Lillian murmured and held up her hand to brush the chin of a blue snaking dragon-like soul collector that had crawled up her shoulder. “…I didn’t think it would hurt anyone… They’re not dead after all. I just needed time to sort through the souls and find one compatible with Gage’s, but with everyone here I could never get a chance… Please don’t hate me.”

“Lillian…” Gage sighed, and gave her a hug. “It’s okay, I’m not mad, but can you put them back now?”

“So a little girl did all this,” Ms. Annette mused and Julia smiled as they all watched the two.
“Of course,” Lily agreed and clasping a hand over her heart she drew out all the souls she had stolen and released them into the air.

“So I was right. Hm, interesting,” the guy said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“Listen… Gage, why don’t we go out…?” Julia suggested, smiling sheepishly and leaned in to kiss the surprised boy only for the other guy to slip between them and kiss him instead. “H-hey!”

“W-what just happened?” Gage asked confused, looking from the guy to Julia and back while Lillian and Ms. Annette giggled.

“I solved the case, I get the reward,” the guy smirked and Julia made a face at him, beating him playfully, while Gage stared in a lazy smile daze between the two, Ms. Annette chuckling behind her hand, and Lillian grinning happily at her brother's happiness.

Nothing Changed, Yet They Did

A soul collector flew over head. He gazed at the sky watching as the creature slithered through the air much like water snakes.

"I wonder how they do that with no water up there," he though very intellectually. Before his brain could begin to ponder why he wasn't pondering the dragon creature being at his school, in Leander there was a bang. He heard people screaming and smiled, "I bet it was the riceballs. I would guess the Blue Belles but they wouldn't be able to make anything that beautiful." He ran off so as to not miss a chance to see the wondrous blaze. When he got to the site of the explosion depression overcame him. There was no fire... though the dead bodies were nice, wait, they weren't dead, not really. The "corpses" began to rise. "Shit, pink zombies... what has the world come to... oh wait. Nothing has really changed at all."


"Agh. Run, zombie preps," someone said apathetically.

He was about to laugh when he noticed the soul collectors disappearing around the corner. He ran after them. He saw something drop, metal clanked on the floor. He bent down and scooped it off the floor then straightened quickly to resume his game of demon chase with the flying apparitions. They were gone. He looked around, "Where could they have gone? All the doors were closed and they have no hands." He shrugged it off and looked at the thing in his hands. It was a silver cross with a ring around the middle. He looked at it for a few moments then put it on. "Maybe I should get away from the zombies now." Hair dryers and make up waved through the air in the zombie's hands as they stumbled through the hall like they all had hangovers.

"It's ironic really," he mumbles to himself, "How little has changed, it'd be like a normal day at school is it wasn't dark outside."