Young Writers Society

Schadel:

"I'm fine," she lied, giving the largest smile she could muster. "I just got some dust - alright, a lot of dust in my eyes. That's all."

She turned around and frantically wiped the tears away. She tried to remember what Blanx had tried to comfort her after he put two and two together and realized why he had found her sobbing over Adam's body.

"Humans die, Soldier," Blanx said. Schadel let out a fresh sob. The cross around her neck was a painful reminder of the life that could never be regained. Upon noticing her tears, Blanx pulled her in close and let her cry into his shoulder. He rubbed her back, but even his kind words and actions couldn't stop the tears. "We cannot do anything about that. That is why you are not supposed to get close to a human. Because long after they are gone, we will still roam the Earth."

"You took his soul, Blanx!" she suddenly realized. "Can't you make him into a ghost?"

He sadly shook his head. "That would be his own decision. And now that I have turned it in..."

Instead of helping, recalling that memory only brought the questions that had never been answered. Why didn't Adam chose to become a ghost, when he left behind both his family and Schadel? Who killed Chi and her parents, and why?

She pinched herself to return to the present. She turned around to face the two girls once more. She might not be able to stop them from eventually dying.

But she could make sure their death day was far off in the future.

Alice

Alice frowned, seeing clearly through the small excuse Schadel gave to brush off the questions. But she couldn't blame her. As much as she would love to help the girl - or girls - work through their emotions, now really wasn't the time, especially if there was an imminent threat.

At that moment, she knew she had to make the decision to help with the issue at hand. No matter what the cost.

"I'm sure it'll be ok." She assured them all. "I know it will."

Schadel Kueper:

Her gaze dropped down to the package after she finished wiping away her tears. Her heart was telling her that she should open it; even though she was a detective, anyone that knew her would be able to say that her actions were based on her emotions and not logic.

Her heart was also telling her that she should tell the girl the truth. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face her. "I need to admit something to you," she hesitantly began. She tried to make sure her voice was calm and steady, but she wasn't sure if she was doing a good job of it. Usually people comforted her, not the other way around. She grabbed the box from underneath her coat and showed it to the girl.

Blue eyes widening in terror, she took a step back from Schadel and the box. "It's alright," she tried to comfort the girl, but her attempt to do so didn't help.

"It's from him!" she exclaimed. She nearly tripped as she rushed to get away from the box. "He'll kill anyone who gets in his way!"

A glance at Alice, and Schadel saw that the girl's fear had started to rub off on her. Though she wasn't having an audible reaction, her eyes had widened slightly.

The threat, admittedly, didn't worry Schadel. She carefully held the box out before her and walked over to her yard. "I'm going to open it!" she shouted to the two of them. The girl frantically shook her head in an attempt to stop her from doing so, but Schadel was stubborn and her heart was already set on opening the box. Curiosity had taken ahold of her. Even though it seemed like the girl knew who the sender of it was, Schadel had to find out what was inside.

She took a deep breath and opened the box.

Almost immediately, gas was ejected from a small canister taped to the bottom of it. Her eyes widened as she stumbled away from the box. Tripping over her own two feet, she fell to the ground.

She coughed. "That smells terrible!" she exclaimed. After the gas dissipated, she got to her feet and returned to Alice and the girl. The latter of the two looked as if she had seen a ghost when she saw Schadel walk over.

"Whatever that gas was, it smelled horrible," Schadel commented. "Like roadkill or something." She shuddered and hesitantly sniffed her clothes. She frowned. "I do too now, apparently." Coughing one last time, she turned to the girl. "I think someone was just pulling a prank on you. All that did was smell bad."

Summer

I gasped as she opened the box. I covered my nose, when the gas disappeared, I yelled,

"HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT?!"

Then once I calmed down I made a confession,

"Trust me, this is NOT a prank."

I sighed, and a tear escaped my eye.

"I'm a wanted villain. . . My father basically will do anything to get me back."

Alice

Wanted villain? She looked at both the girl and Shadel with a look of bewilderment and confusion. This went from innocent girl with cookies to really serious really fast. Did she need to call the police? Apparently her father was bad, so she deduced, and he was following her.

She felt extremely under-prepared for this situation. Even in wanting to help, she wasn't sure what to do. Should they contact the police? Connect her with child services? Hide her away and take her in?

With her abundance of questions, she settled on once. "What can we do to help keep you safe?" Although, she felt even the little girl was unsure herself. She did imply that she had been running from her father, and the fear in her eyes and body language indicated she found him to be a very formidable man.

Schadel Kueper:

Despite the startling revelation that the girl was a villain and that her father was the one who had most likely sent the box, she couldn't get her mind off an all too important fact that she had so easily glossed over as she frantically tried to tell them the truth.

Schadel had survived something that was supposed to be deadly.

Why had she been so impulsive?! Blanx always berated her for not thinking things through before she came to decisions. She could imagine his voice now, almost as if he was by her side and shaking his head in disapproval. Soldier, he would say in his comforting and familiar British accent. You put your heart where your head is; now look what that has done for you.

Her stupidity, if either Alice or the girl took note of how she had survived, would cause monumental problems. She didn't think she could face the Elders if the truth was revealed. She could barely face them normally. The secret that could possibly be revealed would be the reason they had been seeking for so many years. They would finally have a reason to condemn those who supported humans; "human-lovers" would be deemed a real threat if her mess-up went full course.

She gulped.

"So, uh, why are you a wanted villain?" she finally said. Better yet, why had she even used the word villain? Criminal was a more realistic term. Villain was something she would find in her books.