Young Writers Society

Summer


So much for good people skills.

I picked up courage and looked at the voicemails.

"Hello, um this is Sally, call me back."

"Hello, this Robert, just getting back to your moving request, call back."

" hi sweetie, I have some important news, call me back, love ya!"

"Hi, call me back, or meet me at the basketball court parking lot, alone."

"Check you back door, I have something for you."

"I know you're in there. Come see your package."

" . . . . . (Heavy breathing)"

Ok, I am really scared but want to ask the neighbors for help. Hopefully they'll understand. I look outside my back door, sure enough, there was a package. With a purple bow. Ok you need to get your butt out there. I run outside to Alice's door. (Heavy breathing)

"Huh. That's really interesting. I honestly never knew much about ghosts..." She didn't even know for sure that they were real. But this gal could see them! So they must be! She started to wish that she could see ghosts too. Could it be that, if this neighborhood was quite haunted as she said, that there could be one in her house? Could there be... any of her family or friends who were deceased?

"I think you said you can talk to them, right? Not just see them?" Schadel had her full attention now - or, she would have, if she didn't spot the cookie girl running towards them now.

She looked distressed... did... she want the cookies back? What was wrong? "Uh..." She looked at Schadel, and back at the girl approaching them.

Schadel:

"Yes, I can talk to them," Schadel replied. She was prepared for the girl to ask her another question regarding ghosts (she still needed to ask her name!). What she wasn't prepared for was the sight of the girl who had given the cookies when she followed the girl at the door's gaze.

The same girl who had run away when she said who she was.

Did that mean that she was scared of her? She looked her outfit over. She didn't think that part of her looked scary. Was it her height? But she was shorter than usual. Maybe being six feet tall was intimidating to humans? Maybe it was her face? Schadel crossed her arms. No, that couldn't be it. Her accent, then? It had been decades since World War II, but maybe that girl's family had a strong hatred of anyone German? She shook her head. That was just as preposterous as the last idea. Modern Germany was a very different Germany than Hitler's Germany - she had seen both with her own eyes.

Maybe it was because she was in charge of a necromancy agency? That was probably it - Blanx had told her that humans were really scared of death...

Whatever the case was, the girl was running back to the house for some unknown reason.

Summer


"Schadel, I really need your help, like right now!

I was panting so hard.

"Alice, I'm sorry I ran away."

"Schadel, I didn't mean to offend you, It's not you at all. I really need your help!!!"

Schadel:

She was officially confused.

Alright, she knew that the girl had run away when she appeared. That was a start. She still had no idea what the reason for fleeing was, but she could work on that later. It definitely wasn't her fault, according to her. But now the girl needed her help?

She didn't even know her name! (She had finally learned the other girl's name, thanks to the cookie girl calling her Alice.) She loved helping people. But still...Something about this entire situation unnerved her.

Schadel tried to adopt what Blanx had called his business mode. She had observed Blanx acting professional many times - some of them without Blanx aware of her presence - so she had some form of an idea.

"What do you need help with?" she slowly asked. Her hands, which had previously been in her gigantic pockets, were withdrawn and hung at her side. "If it's a ghost problem-" which it probably was, since she was asking her for help, "-I'd be happy to help. But if you need help with something else, I can't call ghosts or anything to assist you. It doesn't work like that."

(@JokerWritingWorks, this Schadel isn't the same Schadel from other roleplays. This is a newer version, whose story takes place in our world. Just wanted to make that clear.)

"Looks like you have your first customer," Alice commented quietly, trying to be encouraging to Schadel, who seemed just as confused as she was, but perhaps also a little shaken by the sudden interruption. She listened to the girl explain, and apologize.

"It's alright, sweetie." She managed to reply before the girl's attention was turned back to Schadel. Whatever the situation was, it must've been very serious. Her face grew more solemn as she listened to the urgency in the girls voice. She couldn't help but begin to wonder if there was something more going on with her. Was she living with anyone else? Did she have parents? Was she old enough to be living on her own? But perhaps these questions weren't so important as the bigger one that the girl was posing.

Would Schadel help her? Would... she help her? Alice took in a sharp, determined breath. She would help in whatever way she could. Schadel had said she wanted to help people, right? Well, so did she!

Summer

"Here have my phone, burn it, crush it, solve it! I'm really freaked out, there's this package outside my back porch, and it has a purple bow . . ."

(Pants)

Schadel:

"A purple bow?" Schadel slowly repeated, confused on the significance of color. Did the girl have some traumatic memory associated with the color? No, that couldn't be it. She mentioned her phone as well. Therefore, something else was at play here.

The sender of the package must have known her address. From the way she ran off earlier, and her frantic actions now, Schadel decided that she wasn't exactly the type to give her address out.

Her gaze traveled to the phone in the girl's hand. She didn't know enough about phones to make an assumption - something that really annoyed her.

With the lack of crucial information, she would have to rely on the simple method. With a sigh of frustration at her inability to deduct people's pasts like her fictional hero, Schadel pulled out her pen and notebook from her jacket.

She quickly flipped to the first page. The tip of her pen hovered over the blank lined paper. "Why is your phone a problem?" she asked the unnamed girl.

Even though she was nervous, she found that she was incredibly excited at the prospect of solving a mystery and helping someone.

She could so run a business.

Alice

Alice looked at the girl with a confused expression. Burn it, crush it, solve it? Those didn't seem like reasonable steps to take. Then again, she had no idea what was going on with this girl. She looked terrified.

Maybe she had a stalker? Some predator was after her? What could get someone so shaken up?

She looked to Schadel as she prepared to face this mystery head-on.

Summer

I slowly pointed to my house, I was going to say something, but shook my head.

Schadel:

Schadel followed the girl's gaze back to her house. She opened her mouth - as if she wanted to say something - before closing it almost immediately. Why was the package so terrifying, and why did the girl want to destroy her phone?

Maybe the notebook wasn't the way to go.

She returned the pen and the notebook back to her pocket. After brushing a strand of hair out of her face, Schadel smiled at the girl in the hopes it would calm her. "I want to help you. But I can't unless you tell me more about why you're so scared. It would also be helpful to know your name."

When the girl didn't answer, Schadel left her and Alice to investigate the mysterious package. She crouched before it and experimentally poked the package with the butt of her pencil. It didn't explode, which was a relief. If it had, Schadel would have had to explain why she came out unscathed.

Summer

"There's someone after me. I know who it is. But if he finds me, he'll kill everyone in his way to get me."

I shake.

Alice

"Oh my." That got very intense very quickly. But she had been right, to some degree. The girl did have a stalker... just, a very violent one. She took in a deep breath. She'd faced death before, right? So she could definitely help this girl.

"Don't worry. We'll help you," she said, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

They'd just have to wait a moment for Schadel to return from wherever she went off to.

Schadel:

Once she was sure the package wasn't going to blow up in her face, Schadel picked it up from the ground. It felt light, but most things weren't hard to lift for her. She tucked it under her arm before returning to Alice and the unnamed girl. "I'm back," she said. "I was just investigating the area where the box was."

She realized her mistake when the two stared at her.

"Is. I mean, where the box is." No need to alert the girl. She was terrified as it was. Schadel met Alice's eyes with the hope she would understand what Schadel had been up to. Just in case the message didn't get through, she turned her back to the girl and slightly opened her coat to reveal the hidden package.

Schadel, closing her coat, turned back to the unnamed girl. "I promise that I'll protect you," she solemnly informed her.

"I promise that I'll protect you!" And then, only days later, he was gone. Lifeless eyes staring in hers. An apology that had never left his lips, and the cross he had given her hanging around her neck.

"I promise that I'll protect you!" And then, only days later, she was gone. Leaving a trail of blood that she could never follow. Her murderer walking loose in the world, and the guilt increasing in her chest as someone else joined the dead.

She couldn't stop the tears as they slipped down her cheeks.Why had she said that?! She couldn't protect anyone - Adam and Chi had proved that! By promising to protect her, she was giving the girl a death sentence.

Alice

Oh. Oh shit. Dear god, Schadel, I hope you know what you're doing. She took the box with her?!? She really wanted to put her trust in Schadel, but this just seemed... well... scary. The possibilities of what could be in the box were all not good. Did Schadel know how to defuse a bomb? What if the box had some sort of tracking device? I mean, if they were dealing with some kind of creepy, obsessed, murderous, stalker here, then they should probably tread with caution.

She noted that Schadel wasn't revealing the fact that she had the box to the girl, and while she understood her intentions of not wanting to cause her more worry, but something told her that it'd be best if the girl knew. Clearly whoever this person was who was trying to get her, she'd been avoiding them for a while. She must know about them and what they're like. She might have an idea of what's in the box.

Alice gave an understanding nod towards Schadel, taking in a deep breath, and letting out a quick sigh. For now... for now she'd go along with what Schadel was doing. Putting one arm around the scared girl's shoulders, she looked back at Schadel.

Wait... was she... crying? "Wh... what's wrong?" Did she have bad news?

"What happened?"