"Marissa. He's not here. We have to go back home. Maybe there's a ransom note or something. You must have searched the whole park a hundred times over."
I sighed. He was right. I dejectedly shuffled back to the car. Johnny drove home, I stared out the window. Maybe I'd see something.
We got home at about four thirty in the morning. A paperboy rode by on his bike, chucking a paper at us. It slammed into Johnny's head.
"GODDAMIT! GET A BETTER AIM!" I could tell he was itching to throw something sharp at the kid, but he didn't.
"I don't even ORDER the newspaper…"
He scratched his head.
I went inside to see if the phone had rung or ANYTHING. I'm starting to realize why people spend five million dollars to get their kids back. I'd only known the little guy for one DAY and I was freaking out.
I went around the whole house, looking for I don't know what. When I came back, Johnny was in the kitchen, reading the obituaries. He had a red marker. I saw about two thirds of the obituaries were marked. I desperately hoped those weren't the ones he DIDN'T kill. He was giggling psychotically, which didn't make me optimistic. I went to the local section, hoping for the comics. The headline caught my eye.
"Local girl murdured in apartment." I read out loud.
"Don't look at me, I've NEVER broken into an apartment."
I looked at the picture, and gasped.
"Nny…"
"Yeah?" He looked up. And froze.
"Oh my god…"
The picture on the front cover was Devi.
"What the HELL is going on?"
"I don't know, Marissa."
"They have to be connected somehow. Two things like this don't randomly occur in one day. They just don't."
"I know."
The phone rang, I dove for it.
"Hello?"
"Marissa?"
"Oh, god. Squee, where are you?"
"I'm-"
"He's with me, Johnny."
"I'm not Johnny."
"Oh. Er… put him on, will you?"
"Yeah." I keyed the speakerphone button.
"Johnny." The man on the other end said, his voice dripping hate.
"Give us back Squee." Nny said coldly.
"Oh. Why? Do you love him?" The guy made a sing-song voice. "Do you love him like you loved Devi? Like you love Marissa?"
Fear flashed through Nny's eyes.
"Why are you DOING this?" I asked.
"Johnny knows."
"Uh… no actually I don't."
"Here. Maybe this'll help. Mmy."
"Me? What does that-" I cut off at the look on Johnny's face.
"Ah. We all understand it now. My little brother, Mmy. The linking factor in a twisted horror story. Now, this is all quite simple. I am determined to ruin your life, Johnny. And I'll do this by killing the few people you actually care about."
"You'd just kill a kid, to get back at his NEIGHBOR?"
"No. I won't just kill him. I'm going to frame YOU for it. And just to make it worse, I'm proposing a contest. You have two hours to find 'Squee' here. After that…"
The phone went dead.
Nny's eyes were the size of eggs. I imagine mine must have been quite the same.
"What are we gonna do?"
"Find him."
Oh, the suspense. This is my favorite chapter I've ever written. I love it like joy and cheese. Mmyep.