After I finished emptying myself out, I decided I'd had enough for today and ditched school. I didn't grab anything, I didn't say goodbye to anyone, I even forgot to tell Darwin not to wait up on me. I just had to get away from there, the police, and Rob. I felt like the longer I spent there, the more sick I'd get and the more I'd think about Alan and Tobias and Penny and…

Penny had messaged me. I was halfway home when she did. She asked me to come see her, in a jumble of text I wouldn't have otherwise been able to read if I hadn't known her for so long. She rushes out messages when she's crying.

I turned around and sprinted off to her house, which wasn't far from where I was now, but I realized I needed to see her. It seemed like she needed me too.

Before I could even knock on her front door, Penny threw the door open and pulled me in in her arms, almost squeezing all of the air out of me. She tried to say something, an apology maybe, but I wasn't as good at making out her jumbled up words as I was her hurried texts. But I held on to her anyway. She buried her face into my chest, soaking my hoodie and trying to say something to me. I patted the back of her head and kissed her on the forehead, trying to calm her down.

After a few minutes, she calmed down. Her breathing was steadied and no more tears rolled down her cheeks. We were in her room now, laying down on her bed. The afternoon light dimly lit her room through the blinded window by her bed. I let out a puff of smoke above us, and it glowed as it caught the light. On any other day, this would have been a perfect moment, but my mind was filled with the events from the last two nights as well as for worry for what would come next. Penny didn't know about the Tweakers' plan, but she was probably still worried I might go to jail. As she took a long drag, I broke the silence and told her what Carrie and I saw the night before.

A thin wisp of smoke fell from her mouth, and she hung off the side of the bed with a sad sigh, nearly lighting up the carpet with her cigarette. She seemed to drift away as I told her the details of Alan's murder, and the hand by which it was done.

"And you didn't tell the police?" She asked me when I finished.

I shook my head, "No."

"Good." She rolled back up next to me, "You need to lay low, stay away from Rob. Even if he doesn't get to you, someone else will if they find out you were the one who ratted him out."

"Yeah, and I'm really starting to question the professionalism of the police."

She nodded, "Can't say I disagree."

She closed her eyes and rested her hand in my hair, twirling a long, blue strand around her finger. Her arm wrapped around my chest and she pulled me closer to her, and I pulled her closer to me. My hand ran down her backbone, and she wiggled around with a small laugh. It was where she was most ticklish. She playfully punched me in the shoulder and called me a jerk.

It was nice she hadn't been broken by all this. She was strong, and could spring back up through all the trauma. I wasn't anything like that. I could feel myself falling apart. I could have walked off Tobias' death no problem, but with the police starting to take over school, Alan's death, and the Tweakers about to cause mayhem, I was starting to feel like an Autumn leaf in winter. Buried, and slowly being stripped away.

I imagined Penny in my shoes. She may get overwhelmed sometimes, but she tended to get right back up when she was down. She never gave up. She could have gotten away with killing Tobias, she probably would have done it better than Tobias. She would have gotten Rob locked up by yesterday, before he even got the Tweakers rallied up. I couldn't even make it home tonight.

Speaking of which, my Mom called me a few minutes after I seemed to find a passable state of mind. She was mad, but felt relieved when she heard I was with Penny, then she got worked up for different reason. Penny took the phone and said, "Don't worry, Mrs. Watterson, my parents are home and we're just watching a movie in the living room." Mom must have been busy or trusted Penny more than me, because she didn't even ask to speak to her folks. She just told me that she'd be over to pick me up in an hour, and that she wasn't happy she hadn't seen me for an entire day. I apologized, said I loved her and goodbye, and hung up.

Penny giggled, "Only an hour more, huh?"

I snickered, "Afraid so."

She smiled, and rested her head in the crook of my neck. I wrapped my arms around her tight, and my eyelids became heavy. I took one last sweet drag, put out my cigarette, and drifted off.

I awoke to a loud knock, and assumed an hour had already passed and Mom was here, but Penny looked startled.

"Something wrong?" I asked her, half-asleep.

"I think someone's trying to break in!" She whispered.

I peeked through the blinds and saw a bunch of bikes piled up in the backyard, all of which belonged to the Tweakers. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and a rush of adrenaline woke me completely.

"We gotta go."

I stood up on her bed and cracked open the window, punching out the the mesh covering behind it. I looked back at Penny as I realized what I'd just done.

"Oh, uh, sorry."

"No no…" she said, already sticking one leg out of her window, "I had the same idea."

She dropped into a bush underneath and rolled on to the grass. I followed her lead but missed the bush and landed on one of the bikes. Penny helped pull me up and we heard something break on the side of the house, and bolted. We cut through the neighbor's backyard, and their neighbor's, and their's… until we broke out onto the sidewalk and made our way to my house.

We were practically pounding on the front door, looking all around to make sure we weren't being followed, when Darwin opened the door and let us in. At first, he seemed excited to see we were finally home, but the smile faded away when he realized how scared we were. Mom walked down the stairs and saw us, she looked like she had just been about to leave. If there was a God, I thanked whatever it was that we had caught her before she headed over to Penny's place.

"What's going on?" She asked us, "I thought I was picking you up."

"T-they were…" I said between shaky breaths, "trying to break… in…"

"What?!" My Mom said, alerting the entire house.

Penny stepped up, "We heard someone trying to break down the door and we rushed over here before we could see who it was."

"Oh my God." Mom rushed up to us and held Penny and I in her arms. Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"M-mom we're fine." I said, "We got out of there."

"And I'm so glad you did." She said, tears streaming down her face, "I don't want you to end up like those other boys."

"Miss Watterson." Penny said, as Mom begin to squeeze a little too hard.

"Oh, I'm sorry Penny." She let go of us and wiped her eyes, "I'm just thinking about how I would have found you like… like them."

Mom made extra sure we were safe, fixed a snack for us, and made sure Dad made it home on time. She invited Penny to stay over, as if she had anywhere else to go tonight. Before she left for work, she was Penny and I's shadow, making sure we were ok and asking us about the break in. Darwin stayed by us too, but he didn't say much, but he looked worried. Penny and I kept glancing at one another, frightened by the close call with the Tweakers, and both knowing we had to talk when we had the chance.

Dad didn't show any resistance to us going up to my room like Mom might have, I don't think he noticed, but Darwin followed after us.

"You didn't see who it was at all?" Darwin asked us when we got in our room.

"Nope." Penny lied calmly, "We heard someone breaking in and left through the window."

"Did they sound strong? Or like they were having a hard time breaking down the door?"

"We weren't really paying attention Darwin." I said to him.

"Not even for a grunt or a swear? I don't know anyone who's silent who tries breaking someone without making a little noise."

"Darwin." Penny grabbed him by the shoulders, "You'd make a really good investigator."

"Yeah, you're questioning us harder than the police did."

Penny and I snickered a bit, but Darwin didn't stop asking us questions. He kept us occupied with ideas and theories about how we could figure it out without having seen them, and we went along with it for a bit to try and keep ourselves from looking suspicious, but once Darwin asked us if we could smell whoever was there, we shut him down.

"I'm just happy you're safe." Darwin said to me, "I'm worried about you, Gumball, you haven't really been all that careful these last couple days. First you were out with Carrie when Alan died, and now you and Penny were almost…"

I covered his mouth before he could finish, "I know, I'm sorry. It's not safe for me to go out like this right now. I've just… had a lot on my mind lately. I went out a bunch before everyone… y'know."

He and Penny stared at me. Darwin looked like I was some precious treasure he couldn't afford to lose but couldn't have for himself, and Penny was calmly anxious, totally aware of the thin line I was walking across. She darted her eyes between me and Darwin, as if asking if we should let him know.

"No." I said sternly, looking at Penny.

"No?" Darwin asked.

"I mean, no. I'm sorry. I shouldn't let you guys worry anymore. I should be more careful while this guy is still out there. I can't pretend I wasn't being stupid yesterday, or this afternoon."

Darwin nodded, "Just promise to come home with me tomorrow? And stay here."

"Sure." I said, "I can do that."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could say it, we heard a knocking sound. We nearly jumped out of our skins at the sudden sound, realizing it was coming from outside the room. Darwin and Penny wrapped their arms around me, and tried to keep me low to the ground, but some instinct in me said to go back to the window. Just as I threw it open for all of us to jump out of again, a white hand reached up and grabbed the frame.

Carrie pulled herself up and rolled into the room.

"Hey." She said, slightly out of breath. She spotted Penny and nodded in her direction, "Hey Penny, your house was on the news."

"Oh, cool." She responded.

"What are you doing here?" Darwin asked Carrie abrasively.

"I wanted to see if Gumball…" she yanked on my arm, "…wanted to hang out." She walked over to Penny and grabbed her arm, "Do you wanna hang too, Fitzgerald?"

"Hey, wait!" Darwin spoke up, "There's a serial killer in the area, you can't go anywhere with my brother!"

"Why don't we all hang out here?" I suggested.

Penny nodded, trying to stop things from getting out of hand with Darwin.

Carrie looked at both of us, and then at Darwin.

"Darwin, could you go get the sleeping bag from downstairs? I think Carrie should stay over tonight."

"What? Why?"

"Like you said, there's a serial killer out there. He's probably looking for some other poor kid to gut since he missed Penny and I."

Darwin looked like he wanted to argue, but he just left the room to go get the sleeping bag, leaving Penny, Carrie,and I alone in the room.

As soon as she was sure he was out of earshot, Carrie pulled Penny and I by her sides and asked us everything, and we told her about how the Tweakers.

"You're sure it was them?" Carrie asked.

"Positive." I said, "Their bikes were piled up in the backyard."

Carrie groaned, "Figures they'd go after you first, Penny."

She shuddered, "I prefer to think they were after both of us."

"I mean, they probably would've taken care of Gumball too since he was there. They'll probably still go after him as long as they don't get caught."

"I just… don't want to think about being alone in that situation."

"So they weren't caught?" I asked Carrie, changing the subject, "No one saw them go in or leave?"

Carrie shook her head, "You didn't see it? Almost all of Elmore's local stations were interrupted with 'another child murdered in Elmore.'"

"What?!" Penny exclaimed.

"I turned on the TV an hour ago and saw your mom crying her eyes out while the police explained the case."

"What'd they say?"

"That the serial killer broke in, wrecked the place, and your body has yet to be found."

"Well," Penny motioned to herself, "I'm right here."

"Good Lord you're gonna be famous in the morning. The police'll definitely want to ask you some questions once they find out you're alive."

Penny sighed and reached into her pocket, pawing at it for a few seconds, before sighing again, "Of course I left my phone at home before we left. My parents are probably worried sick."

"I'll call them." I said, pulling out my phone.

"Wait." Carrie said, putting her hand on mine, "Think about what you're going to tell them."

"What do you mean?"

"Darwin doesn't know right?"

"No. I don't see what that has to do with…"

"What'd you tell everyone when you got here?"

Penny and I looked at each other, "We told them that we didn't see whoever was breaking in."

"And don't you think it'd be a little strange then if you gave incriminating evidence like seeing their bikes in her yard?"

"Yeah but…"

"Think about it: your family's gonna want to know why you didn't tell. Or they'll hear it from the police, and THEY'LL wonder why your story is so different all of a sudden."

"But…"

"How're you going to explain that, Watterson?" Carrie said, stepping up in my face.

"I don't know! But we need to get rid of them before they can try this again!"

Penny and Carrie both put a hand over my mouth, and locked their eyes on the door.

"Quiet!" Penny whispered.

"I do too!" Carrie said in a low voice, "But you have to think about this logically. The police are going to wonder why you lied in the first place if they hear from your family, and if you tell them the truth, you're going to have to tell them why you told them otherwise to begin with. Then, you either have to lie more, or…"

"Tell them what you saw in the woods." Penny realized.

Carrie nodded, "Plus, I don't think you can make them out as attempted murderers without telling them that either. They might just make it out as a robbery. They stole a bunch of shit and Penny is still alive…"

As much as I wanted to get the Tweakers off my back, Carrie was right. If we told the police the truth, then my family would wonder why we lied to them, and if the police found out we had differing stories, they'd also want to know why we had two different accounts of what happened. And since Penny was still alive, they'd only be pressed with breaking, entering, and stealing. Come to think of it, since the police assumed only one person broke in, then could they really arrest all of them? Penny and I didn't stop to count how many bikes were in that pile — I assumed the whole gang was there — but the Tweakers might be able to pin it on only a few of themselves and leave the rest to their goals.

"Ugh." I said, burying my face in my hands, "What've I gotten us into?"

"Hey," Carrie said, "This is a team effort. I could have called the police as soon as I figured out you were the one to kill Tobias. And I could have told them everything when they questioned me earlier."

Penny nodded, "She's right, Gumball. We're all in this now. In a… twisted, terrible sort of way."

"Yeah. And we'll figure out how to stop the Tweakers in a twisted, terrible sort of way. But right now, we need to lay low and figure this all out."

I looked at them both, and then at my phone, and then out the open window into the dark street. The street lamps were out, they had been for weeks. First the one in the window went out, and then the rest. No one had come to fix them, and it didn't seem like anyone would anytime soon. I couldn't see what was out there, in the dead of night. Perfect for when you wanted to get rid of someone.

Darwin walked in with the sleeping bag, and saw all of us huddled together by the window.

"What're you doing?" He asked.

"Calling Penny's parents." I said, raising my phone to my ear.

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