Yeah, my next chapter.

So yeah, I got a lot from my last chapter and just for everyone's info, that WAS NOT JEANETTE he was FIGHTING with in the flashback.

So yeah, but you'll find out soon. Thanks for my reviewers and readers!


Alvin sat in the living, waiting for his friends and enjoying the air conditioning. Last time he checked, it was over 110 degrees outside and the temperature was rising. Thank goodness he had air conditioning.

He sighed. Things had been settling down since his talk with Simon five days ago. And luckily, nothing strange or bad has happened since then. Hopefully, it would stay like this until Dave got back. Alvin still hadn't found his hat and Theodore had gotten a cheaper replacement tire in the meantime while waiting for the other to come via UPS, but things were definitely getting better.

Just then, The Chipettes and Charlene came in, talking animatedly about shopping and they seemed sweaty.

"Oh, my gosh," Brittany grumbled. "If it was any hotter we'd have to cancel our trip to the mall." She was wearing a pink tank top and matching skirt and seemed to go with Charlene's outfit which was the same only it was yellow.

"I guess we're lucky it has air conditioning then, huh?" Eleanor said, trying to fix the straps on her green sunflower dress.

Alvin looked at Jeanette who was wearing a dark purple shirt and black jean shorts. She seemed to be spacing in and out. It wasn't necessarily unusual for her, being the thinker of the group, but she sort of had a troubled look on her face that worried Alvin. "You okay, Jen?" He asked.

She snapped her head around to him and nodded quickly. "Yeah, but the heat's got me a little dazed." As she said this, Alvin wondered if this was really true or not.

"Well, then let's get going before it gets worse," Charlene said, before he could ask anything else. "Where are Theodore and Simon?"

"Hang on, I'll get them," Alvin said, running out the room.

Upstairs, Simon stood in front of the bathroom mirror, contemplating whether or not he really wanted to go out with the others today.

As far as he knew, the pills should be helping, but so far, since he'd taken them, they'd start making him either drowsy or causing him to lose focus or even...blackout. He sighed. Why was this happening to him? Before, the pills hadn't done this, but maybe this was just a side-effect of not taking them for such a long time.

Suddenly, a knock came to the bathroom door. "Simon, hurry up in there." It was Alvin. "The others are waiting."

Simon let out another sigh and smoothed his white and blue shirt. He made a promise to his brothers he'd take the medicine, so that's what he'd do. But he was a little scared of what would happen. "I'll be right there," he called out, taking two of the pills.


At the Spring Hills Mall, two LA police detectives sat at the Dairy's Donuts. The younger one was in his mid-twenties. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a white shirt and slacks. The older and much more heavy set one, who sat across the table from him, was wearing what seemed to be his usual uniform, which was a white striped shirt and tie with brown pants and had what he called his 'signature detective coat' slung over the back of his chair.

The younger one sighed heavily, staring down at his untouched donut. His higher up looked at his new recruit and eyed him warily. "What's wrong Jackson?"

Detective Jackson shrugged. "Nothing really, sir," he said, taking a small bite out of his chocolate peanut donut, which didn't taste very good.

P.D. Elton shrugged and pick up his other sugar donut. "Well, tell me rookie, how's your first week been?"

He shrugged. "Okay. A lot more boring than I thought it would be."

Their waitress, a pretty young teenager, walked over and laid down their coffee and asked if they needed anything else. Detective Jackson supplied her with a polite 'no thank you' while his more seasoned colleague answered by ordering two more chocolate covered donut, one with sprinkles, and a glazed one before she scurried away.

"Since we just became partners, Jackson, you should tell me a bit about yourself," Elton said, taking a large gulp of his de-cafe. "Are you married?"

Jackson shook his head. "No."

"Well do you have a girlfriend?" When he shook his head again, Elton let out a chuckle and put another small donut hole into his mouth. "I nice handsome young man like you don't have a girlfriend? For what reason?"

"No reason. I've just been real busy trying to get into the P.D. business and it caused me and my old girlfriend to break up."

Elton nodded sympathetically. "I know the feeling. Lost two marriages in this job," he said. "But I guess when it comes to it, stopping the bad guys is real important. I ended up with a real love for this job, but it comes with a price. Not just socially, but it takes away from you mentally too."

Elton looked out the glass window they sat by. "Do you know why we're here Jackson?"

He shook his head. "I'm not really sure, sir."

Elton rolled his eyes. "C'mon Jackson, I can't have you dragging me down." He took a large bite out of his fourth donut.

Jackson smiled slightly, watching his partner eat yet another donut amazed him. "You don't have to worry about that," he mumbled.

"What was that?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, I know that there've been a lot of robberies here lately."

Elton nodded and waved his beefy hand toward the window. Jackson looked and saw a whole bunch of people lined up at the large jewelry stand. "You see, Jackson, not only does this place have some really good donuts, it also has a great view of the place most likely to get robbed. Since the mall is renovating, the security cameras have temporarily shut down."

He blinked. "So we're pretty much doing a stakeout?"

"Yep," he replied. "Now, keep your eyes sharp. We don't want a thief getting past us today, or, anything worse."

Jackson nodded and the pretty waitress came back again, with Elton's other three donuts. "Anything else?" She asked.

Elton picked up the glazed donut and was about to say something but Jackson spoke up first. "That'll be all for him, thanks."

She smiled at Jackson and walked away. Elton gave him a look, then smiled. "You gota good mind, kid."

Jackson let Elton gobble down that donut and he looked out the window at The Glitz Jewelry Stand. A bunch of people were standing around, chatting and seemed pretty happy and content with their lives, something he hadn't felt in a while.

Jackson looked back at his partner. "What did you mean when you said this job gets to you mentally?"

Suddenly, for the first time, Elton put down his donut and coffee. He gave Jackson a weary look. "Well boy, if you really want to listen, I'm a tell ya' something I wished someone had told me when I first started in this business." He took a napkin from the napkin dispenser and started to wipe off his hands and mouth and then started to explain.

"When I said this job picks at you mentally, I really mean it. Even from the toughest ones who come into the police force looking for the jobs that seem exciting and will keep them from being 'bored.'" Jackson felt a twinge of guilt by the look Elton was giving him, he didn't know why though, but he did know that he probably said the wrong thing when he told Elton he was bored with his job earlier.

Elton went on. "I was one of them people. I thought I could handle it because when I was fifteen, I watched my closest friend get gunned down."

"I'm sorry, sir."

Elton just shrugged and picked up his coffee. "Don't worry about it. It was over thirty years ago, so it isn't a problem. But what I mean is, I experienced this mental chipping just as much as the next officer." He leaned in closer. "It chips away and that block of sanity in your head, slowly, like some axe, and it hits that one weak spot we all have, even the ones who swear it's not there, but it does."

"What's the weak spot?"

For a long few minutes, Elton didn't reply what so ever, seemingly now staring at his coffee lost in his own thought. Jackson thought maybe Elton had ended the conversation, until he spoke again in a low, meaningful voice. "Jackson, police have been around for a real long time, and there's one question that's been implanted in all of our minds, which we still don't know the answer to yet. Probably never will," he added.

Jackson cleared his throat. "What's that, sir?"

"Is it all right to care?" Was the first quiet words out of Elton's mouth. "Getting our emotions caught up in a case are the only problem with taking one up. Eventually, when you start to get attached, feeling bad bad for the victims, sorry, like it's fully your responsibility to fix what someone else broken, it will start to break you down gradually. Case after case, murder after gruesome murder… After a while, you feel like you've seen it all, until the next case comes around, worse than before, more emotional, pulling you in and taking away from the sanity you've so carefully built up over the years. And then finally, some people snap under the pressure. But most, most just go on, remembering, wondering, pondering through their thoughts and contemplating if they should've cared or not, or gotten attached or unattached. But eventually, it breaks those tough walls, your weak spot being your feelings, and your only thoughts when you realized your alone with no one else for comfort or company because you've pushed them all away, though only thing you can think of while you sit in the darkness is:

'Was it okay to care?'"


Meanwhile, the others were walking up to the Spring Hill Mall from the large and very full parking lot. Alvin listened while Eleanor and Caleb talked about their plans this weekend for going to see a live wrestling match this weekend.

"The Ultimate Smackdown Tournament 3 is going to be awesome," Eleanor exclaimed happily with a squeal.

Alvin nodded in agreement beside her. "I still can't believe we got tickets."

Caleb shrugged but still had a satisfied look on his face. "It was easier than it looked. I can't wait till the Iron Fist takes out Mr. K.O."

Eleanor laughed like he had said something pretty funny. "Yeah right. Mr. K.O. can take on the Iron fist with his eyes closed."

"Please," Caleb said, rolling his eyes. "He lost the last tournament. Which means he'll lose this one."

"Want to bet on it?"

"Sure, I'm not scared." Caleb challenged and glanced over at Theodore. "Speaking of scared, are you coming with us, Theo?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. It sounds like it's way too violent."

"It's not that bad, Theodore," Eleanor assured. "It's not like you'll be in the ring. What are the rest of you doing Saturday night?"

Alvin noticed Jeanette look away nervously and then Brittany spoke up. "Unlike you guys and your crazy testosterone filled fight night, Charlene and I are having a sleepover with some friends we haven't seen in forever."

"Then I'm even gladder I'm going to the Smackdown," Alvin said with a chuckle and kept walking.

As they walked, Alvin came up beside Jeanette. Strangely, she hadn't said anything. "Are you alright?"

She blinked and turned her attention to him. "Yeah, I'm fine."

When they walked into the mall, they stood around, enjoying the air conditioning and talking, well sort of arguing, about where they should head first. After a while, also being indulged with some glares from the security guard, they thought it be best to split up for a while first.

"Did you want to come with me and Caleb, Simon?" Alvin asked his brother, who hadn't said much that day either. He was starting to wonder if something was going on.

He shook his head in reply. "Nah, I think I'll just take a walk."

Alvin shrugged and they all split up, promising to meet at lunch time. Eleanor and Theodore went toward the East Wing, where cooking supply stores were, while Charlene and Brittany headed toward the shoe section. Simon and Jeanette both seemed to simply disappear.

"Hey Alvin," Caleb said. "Is it just me, or is something going on?"

"Well, I guess we can't do anything about it until they talk to us first."

For the next couple of hours, the two walked through stores of the mall. After a while, Caleb stopped Alvin in the large vehicle section. "Alvin, look at that."

Alvin was surprised to see one of those giant mechanical bulls on display. "Whoa, where have I seen one of those before?"

Caleb laughed. "Don't you remember? That party we went to like three years ago? Cohan was hosting it at his old house and that barn across from it. Then again, do you think it's strange that that's all I can remember too?"

Thinking about it more, Alvin did vaguely remember that party and everyone wanting to ride that giant mechanical bull. Cohan was hosting the party because his parents were selling the place. But that was the only thing he could remember clearly. He and Caleb had gotten so beyond drunk that night that he couldn't remember much.

But it was strange, how something all of the sudden, from that night, was nagging in the back of his mind. What was it? And why did it seem really important to remember? He remembered how just around that time, Simon started acting a little strange, but nothing big or alerting. But still… It was like, something really important happened that night, something he should, well, needed to remember, but couldn't. It was like the party was a large black space in his mind where it was hiding from him, but the memory was so close, he could practically feel it, but it kept moving away, and he kept getting lost in the blur and blackness of that night which sat in his mind.

"Hey Caleb," he said. "Do you remember something strange that happened at that party? I feel like there's something I should remember, but what was it?"

He shrugged. "I have no more knowledge of that night than you do, probably less. But maybe, if you buy that bull and take a ride on it, it'll start coming back to you," he added with a smirk.

Alvin laughed. "Dave would kill me if he came home and saw a giant mechanical bull in the living room."

Caleb laughed along with him and they both started walking around again, enjoying the familiar surroundings. Still though, Alvin felt this memory was taunting him, willing him to remember something he couldn't. Eventually, Caleb's words snapped him out of his thoughts. "Hey, it's about time for lunch. Let's head to the Food Court."

Alvin nodded, trying to forget about the thought poking in the back of his head. But the thought refused to leave.

Immediately, the two spotted Theodore standing at the cafeteria, looking a bit worried. "What's up, Theo?"

He looked at them. "I lost, Ellie."

Alvin chuckled. "Eleanor will be fine, she can take care of herself. Let's get something to eat." Saying that perked Theodore up a little bit and they all picked up lunch from the Fast Chicken and sat down. A few minutes later, Brittany showed up, carrying eight bags and pretty furious looking.

"What's wrong Brit?" Caleb asked with fake worry. "Did you break a nail?"

"Shut the hell up!" She yelled at him fiercely, sitting down. "You won't believe what just happened to me!"

Just then, Eleanor came walking over that second, with her purse slung over her shoulder and flipping through a Punch&Kix magazinethat was in her hand. She was probably reading more about the upcoming tournament and other boxing and any other sport which most likely included very muscular men, probably on steroids, with broken noses and other injured organs and internal bleeding, still playing their game. Most likely it was something like Padless Rugby or Killer Bull Running.

"Hey, everyone," she said, sitting down. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Brittany was just about to reveal to us what made her day crappy," Alvin told her.

Brittany started to explain. "Okay, so earlier I saw these SUPER cute lacey pink heels at Miss FootWear and I didn't know if I wanted them or not. So a little while ago, a made up my mind to go buy them, but it was a pretty far walk back and Charlene wanted to go to The Glitz Jewelry booth. We split up and I went into the store and picked up the shoes when I saw them, I also saw this really rude bitch I saw at Mickey's and she was so eyeing my shoes, so just for fun I kept the heels close to me and for the next like thirty minutes or so, I decided to keep trying on shoes just to tick her off and get her to leave. And they had some really cute shoes too. Like, there were these Apple Bottom Sneaker's that…"

Alvin put his head on his hands as Eleanor took a fry from his tray. They all sort of looked at Caleb who they blamed for starting Brittany on her never ending oral blog on what happened to her today. They knew that when Brittany got like this, she'd probably go on for days.

A few minutes into Brittany's monologue over shoes, Jeanette showed up. Alvin spoke up, glad to have an excuse to change the topic. "Jen, what's up?"

Jeanette just shrugged and sat down. She still seemed so spacey and bothered. Alvin really wanted to know why. He also noted that Eleanor and Caleb seemed to notice this too.

"Back to what I was saying," Brittany interrupted.

"How about just get to the point?" Eleanor asked, annoyance dripped from her voice. She sounded as annoyed as Alvin felt at that moment.

"Well, here's what happened. This little girl came to me and asked if I could help her in the next aisle with reaching some shoes. Being the kind person I am, I went over there and pulled them down for her. When I went back, my heels were gone! And I know that bitch stole them!"

Caleb spoke up. "Technically, they weren't yours, since you hadn't bought them yet."

"But that's not the worse part. The worst part is that I saw her talking that little girl after I walked out the store. God was I pissed."

A moment later, Charlene walked up, smiling and holding three shopping bags. "Hello, My fellow tamias et les amis!" She sat down next to Brittany, the Chipette still fuming mind you. "Sorry, for not coming back to you Brit, but the lines were so long and I saw the cutest earrings ever!"

Charlene pulled out a small box and showed everyone golden ribbon earrings. "They're gorgeous!" Eleanor exclaimed. "I want a pair."

"Me too," Brittany said, eying them with a wanting. "Let's head there."

Charlene shook her head and slipped them back in her bag. "Sorry to disappoint ladies, but these were the last pair they had." She took a fry from Caleb's tray and asked, "Where's Simon?"

Alvin mentally slapped himself for not noticing sooner that his other brother hadn't returned. "I have no idea."

They all gave each other worried looks over the member of the group that had yet to return. "Ya' know, he might be-" Brittany started, but Alvin didn't let her finish.

"Brittany! What did I tell you about bringing that up?"

She huffed. "Who said I was talking about that?" Everyone at the table looked back from her to Alvin, nervously, except Charlene who still seemed a bit confused on exactly what they were fighting about.

"I know you Brittany, and I know that's exactly what you were going to say." He stopped, having memories start to come back to him that he definitely didn't want to remember now or ever. They had all made a silent promise years back to never bring it up. But let it be Brittany of all people to be the one to cross that invisible line that was so clear to everyone else.

"Just don't go there, Brittany," he went on. "There's no reason to ever go there, so let's just never bring it up again."

"Never bring what up again?" A new voice said. Everyone turned to see Simon standing behind Alvin and an awkward silence sort of came over them.

Alvin spoke up. "Um, Brittany and her whole shoe problem. It was quite boring really, why not sit down?" Simon nodded and took the empty seat next to Jeanette while Brittany angrily turned away from him.

Charlene gave Alvin a wary look, almost positive Alvin wasn't talking about Brittany's shoe rant. If she had to guess, they were probably talking about what happened after she left. But was it really that bad? Had Simon really done something so terrible that it scared the others into never talking about it again? It made her even more curious about what happened. Even so, did she really want to know?

"So, where should we go next?" Caleb asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Can we go to the Electronics Epicenter?" Eleanor asked quickly. "I really want to look at new laptops. Do you want to go Jeanette?" Eleanor asked her sister.

She nodded. "I need to get a new USB drive."

Charlene agreed. "Yeah, I do too."

"I think we all should go, my laptop crashed a few months ago and I hate gong to the library," Brittany said, then gave Caleb a warning look. "Don't you even think about it."

He shrugged, knowing better and looked at Alvin. "You need a new cellphone right?"

Alvin had almost completely forgotten he didn't have a cellphone. "Yeah, so I guess we're all heading there then?" Everyone agreed.

"Wait, is it even open?" Theodore asked. "I mean, it's in the area of the mall where the renovations are taking place."

"Don't worry, Theo, it's open," Eleanor assured him.

"How do you know?" Charlene asked.

Eleanor paused for a minute, then said, "Well I…uh, asked a security guard earlier because I was going to go, but when I noticed the time I came here."

Was it just him, or did it seem like she was lying? Because Alvin had a really suspicious feeling she was. But why?

"Let's not stand here like idiots," Brittany said. "Let's go!"

And with those words, everyone took the long walk to the renovation area. It was not crowded like the rest of the mall. In fact, no one was really there. He noticed most of the stores down this way were closed and borded up, along with the smell of new paint and plaster.

Caleb nudged him and pointed to one of the stores that were open. It was a hunting game store. Everything you needed for hunting was sold in there, especially guns and bullets.

"Maybe we should start hunting," Caleb said. "Might be fun."

Alvin sighed. "I don't think I'd trust you with a gun around me or anyone else. Especially since your drunk all the time."

He shrugged. "Hey, last time I checked, I haven't been drunk in three days, so I'm getting better."

Theodore walked up beside Alvin. "Allllviiiin, you know I don't like guns," he said. "Can we just head to the electronics store?" Theodore pointed down the hall, a good fifteen yards away stood the Electronics Epicenter, open and the others were already heading inside.

The three boys walked inside following the others, and were pretty amazed at how large and nice the place looked. There was a large counter to their left that had cellphones and signs overhead, directing where laptops, televisions, games and everything else were. It looked like laptops were all the way in the back. But the store looked completely empty.

They all decided to split up; Theodore went to look at TVs, while Charlene and Jeanette went to where the USB drives were. Brittany and Eleanor headed toward the back and Alvin lead Simon and Caleb to the front counter where the cellphones were displayed.

Alvin looked at Simon who seemed pretty fidgety. "Si, what's going on?"

Simon just shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really want to be here right now," he said. "Maybe we should just go."

"Just calm down Si, we'll leave soon. Let me just look at some phone's cause I doubt I'm getting mine back anytime soon."

Alvin went up to the counter and rung the bell, since no one seemed to be there. When he got no answer, he called "Is anyone here?" But still, no one came. That was strange, since the store was definatley open. Suddenly, something didn't feel right.

Meanwhile, Brittany and Eleanor walked toward the laptops. Once they were away from everyone else, Brittany turned to her baby sister. "Why did you lie earlier?"

Eleanor looked back at her, surprised by the question. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," Brittany persisted. "Why did you lie when Charlene asked how you knew about this place being open?"

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "C'mon Brit, why would I lie about knowing how this place was open?"

"Exactly what I want to know, because what I do know that you weren't telling the truth," she said. "And you never lie unless you have a pretty big reason to."

"I didn't lie," she said angrily. She tried to pass Brittany, but her sister kept getting in her way, crossing her arms.

"Tell me the truth, El."

"It doesn't matter," she said, and turned away and walked back towards the side aisles. Brittany sighed. Eleanor was keeping something from her.

She turned and walked down the next aisles toward the very back, where she knew the better laptops were kept, still deep in thought. She was still thinking about Eleanor when her foot caught on something large and caused her to trip, falling flat on her face.

"Fuck," she mumbled, lifting her head. That's when she realized the smell. It was an awful, metallic smell that she remembered smelling before. It started to bring back memories of something like this happening before.

Brittany turned, trying to figure out what she tripped over. When she saw eyes staring back at her, blank and unmoving, she knew exactly what she had just tripped over.

She screamed.