There's a lot of banter and rambles here...
I don't own Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.
Enjoy!
~Frank
The psychologist that I was sent to was Dr. Stellar. I had visited her since Friday, ever since ATAC decided they were responsible for my mental breakdown. She worked for them on and off, and had agreed immediately to help me.
We talked a bunch during the sessions. Mostly, it was me rambling and her taking notes. But this session was a bit different than usual.
"I think I figured out what's the cause of your pain," Dr. Stellar said as I took the seat opposite of her.
"Um… Didn't Stacy cause it?"
She sighed. "What I meant was why those people were targeted by your mind. You said that you couldn't bring yourself to imagine some people hurting you, while others just came in an instant."
"Yeah…"
"All the people on the list that you made, you hate in some way, right?"
I thought about it for a second. All the people I had imagined I considered as my friend. But then again… I had been upset with them before Stacy got to me. "Yeah, I guess…"
"That hatred is the base for the breakdowns. You have to release that anger if you want to overcome the effects of the hypnotism."
Already, the task seemed impossible. Sure, it might sound simple. But I had realized something ever since I talked to Joe last night. I hated people I thought I could never even begin to dislike. I denied it, but deep inside I was furious.
"That's gonna be a problem." I looked down at the maroon carpet. "I mean, I think I might have gotten over some of the anger and all, but there are some people…"
"I know it might be a challenge, but you have to let go of that anger."
"How? Just wish it away?"
"Anger goes away over time."
"I have school in five days," I pointed out. "And I live with my Dad every day."
"Well, you should try to talk to your father. Have your brother there to support you."
I felt like saying this was bull. If this woman had been listening to me at all for the past few days, she would know I didn't want to talk to my father any time soon. "Sure, I'll try."
Please let this session be over soon…
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An hour later, I left the building. I drove the car to Phil's house, where Ivy's car was already parked in front of the place.
"Already back?" I asked as Ivy answered the door.
"Yeah. The second I get home, Phil called me to come over and help him." She closed the door behind me, and I put my cost into the closet next to the door.
"With what?"
"You think I know? I just got here, and Phil ran up to his room without saying anything but 'hello,'" She sighed. "How're the appointments with the doc going?"
"Not so well at the moment." I briefly explained the last session I had. "So, how do I talk to a man who probably hasn't accepted the fact that I'm as straight as circle?"
"'Straight as a circle'? Where did you come up with that?"
"I didn't. Joe's been saying that all week."
"You listen to Joe? Something must be wrong with you then," she commented as she headed towards the stairs.
"Yeah, I figured." I followed her up into Phil's room. "Whoa."
Ivy scanned the room. "A tornado?"
Phil looked up from the pile of clothes he was bringing over towards his bed. "Um… maybe?"
"Time to clean your room?" I asked, looking at all of the piles of clothes, books, papers, and art supplies everywhere.
"Pretty much. I was trying to reorganize my clothes, since my cousin finally got over his Goth and punk phase, and sent me all of his stuff."
"You're going punk now? Never thought I would see the day." Ivy maneuvered around the piles.
"My mom won't let me. She's letting me keep some of the stuff, and I have to give the rest away." Phil shot a smile at me.
"No way…"
"It's not too bad, Frank! The crazy pieces stayed with my cousins." Phil pointed to a box near the door. "Go ahead and look. They won't bite."
"That's what he says," Ivy added darkly.
I walked around the piles and managed to get to the box without falling over. I opened it, to find an array of black clothing and shiny silver chains and such adorning them.
Ivy hopped over a pile of paints. "Wow. I think I can actually imagine you wearing this stuff, Frank."
"Really? Because I can't."
"You don't know until you try."
"I'm not gonna try."
She sighed. "Now I know why Phil invited me over. Come on, it won't be so bad."
"So you say."
Ivy went through the box, picking out a button down, black and white horizontal striped shirt, a pair of black jeans, and a black tie. "Go and try these on."
I looked at the clothes, trying to imagine myself in them. "Do I really have to?"
"Yes, you do." She pushed me towards the door. "Go!"
I came back a few minutes later, dressed up in all of the black clothes. Why do I listen to Ivy again? I thought silently. I looked like I was going to a funeral or something!
"It actually suits you a bit. Kind of the whole 'stay away from me' vibe you've been giving off for a while," Ivy commented.
"I have?"
"Yeah." She turned to Phil. "Well?"
"I like it." He got up from hunching over a large pile of books. "Very dark and mysterious."
"Thanks a bunch." I felt myself blushing. "Do you two really imagine me wearing these clothes at all, though?"
"You will," Ivy said, as if it were obvious. "You're gonna let loose and be a goth-ish figure."
"No, I'm not."
"I would bet, except I'm broke."
"Thanks, Ivy," I said sarcastically.
Phil shook his head. "I never knew you guys were such good friends."
"Thanks for noticing." Ivy sighed dramatically. "You'll join the dark side soon, Frank. We have cookies."
"I'm on a diet."
"Really?"
"No."
"Note to self; don't invite Frank and Ivy over at the same time," Phil said, bringing a box to his closet. "Can you two drop the argument long enough to help me?"
Ivy and I shared a look, before chorusing "Nope!"
"Love you too."
A ringing ended our conversation, and Phil attempted to reach for his cell phone on his desk. Attempted being the key word. Instead, he landed face down after tripping over a pile of art books.
"Nice." Ivy reached out, grabbed the phone and took a glance at the screen, before flipping it open.
"You shouldn't be talking," I mumbled, helping Phil up. "Answering other people's phones and all."
"Shh!" She put up her hand to signal me to be quiet. After a moment, she said "We're at Phil's. See you in a bit."
"Well?" Phil asked, snatching his phone back from her.
"Another mission," Ivy said. "Joe and Callie ran into Vijay in the mall, and got a nice package with our new assignment."
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We all crowded around Phil's computer, after managing to clean up enough space for us to actually stand. The present that Vijay had given my brother was on the bed, holding some gadgets that would be of some use later.
"Phil, how do you live here?" Callie asked. "It's worse than Joe's room!"
"Hey! You never saw my room!" Joe protested.
"I visited your house weeks ago so Frank and I could do a project. It was kinda hard not to notice all of the trash thrown around."
"That was not trash!"
"Yeah, right." Callie rolled her eyes.
Ivy cleared her throat. "We have a mission to be briefed on, if you two remembered."
"Sorry."
"Now then…"
"You sound like a teacher," I said.
"You look like a rebel."
"You all are gonna be helping me clean if I don't get to put in this disc in a second!" Phil snatched the disc from Callie and popped it into the computer.
"You shouldn't have made it a complete mess in the first place," I mumbled, turning my head and observing the mess. "How does cleaning your closet become Joe's room?"
"HEY!"
Thee rest of Joe's words were cut off as the monitor turned completely black. Within a few seconds, a picture of a girl that appeared to be our age appeared on the screen, smiling a brilliant smile.
"Uh oh," Joe whispered. Joe and I had enough experience to know that this first picture was the picture of most likely a murdered victim.
Sure enough, the picture morphed into a cold corpse, wrists covered in blood. But something seemed off about it. The cuts were clean and simple, not like any other victims I had seen so far.
"It looks like she committed suicide," Phil said, ghosting his fingers over the screen of where the cuts were.
"I dunno. It looks like a combination of the two," Ivy said, tilting her head. "There's something off in it."
I pointed to the knife that was grasped in the dead hand. "That's it. Only the blade is covered in blood. She has blood all over her hands from the bleeding, but the handle is untouched."
Callie pointed at the girl's other hand. "She's holding a chess piece, I think. It looks like either the queen or king." I stared at the little bit of black plastic that could be seen from the picture. It did look like a chess piece, now that Callie mentioned it…
The voice of our contact came from the speakers. "You are looking at a picture of Adria Fox, found dead at the outskirts of River Heights, Illinois."
Joe and I exchanged a look. A group of River Heights kids, including Nancy Drew and some of her friends, were in an exchange program with our school. There was some long story behind it involving the principals, but long story short, the odd exchange program developed. Basically, a huge group of River Heights kids would come over, occupy some apartments that the local college didn't need, and stay here until June. Bayport kids would do the same the following year, and so on. I almost signed up for it last year, but the ATAC missions were more important to me.
"Think Nancy heard about this case already?" Joe asked. I shrugged as the contact continued.
"Most of the River Heights community thinks that Adria committed suicide. Her parents, however, are fully convinced that someone murdered their daughter. They aren't the only ones. We here at ATAC have found something disturbing that is almost proof that Adria was killed."
"I hope they mean something besides the knife and blood thing," Ivy muttered darkly.
A picture of a king chess piece appeared on the screen. "After some analysis, it was discovered that something was inscribed on the piece. By putting it under a magnifying glass-" A digital magnifying glass appeared on screen, hovering over the base of the piece. "-it was shown that it was a message."
I read it out loud. "'She lost the game.'"
"We believe the murderer might be in the exchange program in order to distance themselves long enough until the case dies down. Frank and Joe, you two know some of the people in the program. Try to find out information from them, and as a group, determine if the murderer is among them or not. If so, bring them to justice."
"As usual, the disc will be erased in five… four… three… two… one…"
A heavy metal rock band began to pour out of the speakers as we all looked at each other, silent.
