'You have been warned. Do not share information on this. Only share crucial information.'
"But-" Before Nalda could even argue, the letters changed form again.
'This is a warning. This is not something to be discussed.'
How is she supposed to keep something like this a secret forever? Do the letters not know that everything eventually gets revealed? Can she even keep this a secret from her own family? What will happen if she accidentally slips up and says something she wasn't supposed to?
The shadows in her room returned back to normal soon after she finished reading. Nalda felt lonely again. She didn't know what to do at all.
How often hasn't she felt lonely these days? Not to mention that she also cried a lot more than usual.
Well that was kind of logical. When else would she cry in her life if not for when she feels like everything is working against her?
'Why am I like this? Why can't I just change?'
She hadn't realised she'd been pulling her hair until it actually started to hurt. She looked at her hands and found that she pulled quite a bit of hair.
At least that snapped her out of it for a moment. Before she could start spiraling again she quickly grabbed her phone and started to distract herself by watching whatever came up first.
It turned out that it was a bunch of cat videos. For some strange reason they had a healing effect. It calmed her down and completely distracted her.
After a while she looked at the brown strands of hair on the ground and decided to hide them under her bed. So she stood up and used her foot to sweep the hair under her bed.
It wasn't the time to give up and break down after all! She just got a few clues! Giving up now is like… well she didn't have any analogies but in simple words it was stupid.
"Yes, yes, very stupi- AAH!" While giving herself a pep talk, her sister sneaked up from behind her.
"Did you not hear me opening the door? I think I was very obvious."
"No I didn't! I wouldn't have screamed like that if I did!"
Mave raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You always sound like that to me." Nalda punched her sister's arm. "Ow, now you're committing an act of violence..." She paused for a moment, making Nalda curious, before she spoke again. "Oh, yeah, mom and dad are coming back in a few days."
Nalda lit up. "Really?" But then she realised that it probably would make her investigation harder. She wasn't sure how to react after realising that because if she did change her expression, Mave would probably notice.
Mave nodded at Nalda's excitement and gave her pat on the back. "Alright, come back down. I didn't cook anything but I ordered some food. We're watching a movie together."
Mave sounded so certain that Nalda almost thought that they made plans in advance.
"Wait, wait, wait, says who?" Nald asked in bewilderment.
"Says me." And Mave didn't hesitate to start dragging Nalda out of her room after that.
"Hey no! We didn't discuss this in advance!"
"Why would we need to discuss this in advance? What do you think we're doing? Trying to strike a deal?"
"No but you still have to warn me in advance!"
"Stop screeching like an old door. I'm not deaf yet."
There was no winning when it came to dealing with Mave so Nalda eventually gave up after a bit of back and forth. She let herself get dragged in front of the TV. Mave stood beside her with the TV remote in her hand as she started the movie.
She put down the TV remote but still didn't sit down. She was probably waiting for the food to arrive.
As soon as the bell rang, Nalda paused the video and watched as her sister went to get the food from the delivery person outside. At that moment the letters showed up on the screen again. This time they twisted everything on the screen to form letters of varying textures and colours.
'Do you want another clue?'
Of course Nalda almost yelled. How could she not when she saw the faces of the actors twist all of a sudden?
"Uhm… What?" But when she read the letters she was just confused.
Why would the letters ask her first instead of just telling her immediately? She felt a sense of foreboding as she slowly nodded.
The letters disappeared and shortly after Mave came back as well. "This one is for you." Nalda watched as her sister gave her a box and took her own box.
"Uhh… what did you order for me?" She said why slowly opening the box. She had a feeling that the clue the letters mentioned was inside the box.
"Kebabs." Mave answered while taking a bite out of her own kebab. She had opened her box without hesitation and began eating, that's why despite getting the box later, she was still the first one to begin eating.
Nalda looked inside her own box to find kebab and fries. "Huh? You also ordered fries?"
Mave nodded. "Only for you though. I'll have my fill with just the kebab." She answered with her mouth full.
"Are you calling me a glutton?"
"Yep." Mave was once again eating her mouth wide open.
"I'm not a glutton. You're the one eating like a wild beast."
"You eat as much as a wild beast." Can she not close her mouth while eating? Seriously.
"I do not. My portions are perfectly normal."
"Yeah, yeah whatever, let's just continue watching the movie." Mave ended their civil discussion with that.
Nalda had very easily forgotten that she was supposed to receive a clue. So easy that she suddenly got jump scared by the letters when they showed up on the TV screen again.
Luckily she didn't yell this time but she did jump a little cause Mave to raise an eyebrow at her. Nalda acted like she didn't see that and instead read what the letters had to say.
'Look behind you.'
Nalda suddenly felt like she was in a horror movie. Her heart began to beat much faster than usual.
She slowly turned around. Behind her was a window. It was dark outside, the streetlights were the only sources of light outside.
There on the opposite side of the street she saw someone walk by but as soon as they came by her house, they disappeared. She froze that instant, thinking of turning away and acting like she saw absolutely nothing but then the person reappeared again but they made eye contact with Nalda.
She immediately turned away and looked towards the TV again. She felt Mave's gaze on her but when Nalda didn't say anything, she turned backwards and looked outside of the window. It looked like she didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Mave then turned back towards the TV, Nalda wasn't sure what kind of expression she was making but it probably wasn't good. In fact by the end of the movie, she still hadn't completely finished eating and was frowning instead.
Nalda hadn't finished eating either so it wasn't really her place to talk. She looked at her cold remaining fries and kebab. It wasn't that she lost appetite, it was just that she was deep in thought.
Eventually Mave sighed deeply and looked at her sister. "Nalda." There was a slight warning in her tone. "You've been acting strange today." It seemed like she was suspecting something. "You didn't happen to cross another crime scene, or did you?"
Nalda had been prepared to come up with some excuse about watching a horror movie but when her sister asked that question her brain short circuit.
"Huh?" She felt like she had been making that sound a lot lately. "No, wait, turn that back, how is that the conclusion you make?"
Mave shrugged. "That's what you seemed like to me on Saturday."
'Sometimes I feel smarter when I talk to her. Overthinking doesn't always lead to the correct conclusion.'
"No you idiot. If I came across another crime scene, you would know. You've been taking me to school and back home the entire week."
Her sister nodded. "I know but I don't know what happens when you're in school."
"Who would commit a crime on the school grounds?" When she saw Mave about to answer, Nalda quickly cut her off. "No, nevermind. Keep my mind innocent and naive. I prefer being naive over knowledgeable."
"You're almost an adult. Nativity won't be accepted." Mave retorted instantly.
"I won't be in school after becoming an adult."
"Are you trying to say that you will give up on your studies? What happened to going to university?"
Nalda actually completely forgot about that. "Ugh, stop nagging. I'll be fine by then."
"'By then' is less than a year from now." Mave retorted instantly.
Well she wasn't completely wrong. Nalda probably needed to become less naive if she didn't want to be taken advantage of. It really wasn't fair how quick Mave was with finding fault in Nalda's reasoning.
"Yeah yeah I'll cross that bridge when I get there and stop nagging me. I'm not a complete idiot." Nalda replied. She didn't feel like listening to her older sister right now.
Mave was the type to nag and nag and nag without any kind of ending in sight. Sometimes it got to the point that an argument would break out between them.
Mave probably sensed that a fight would break out if this kept going so she didn't continue to press Nalda for answers. "Just come to me if anything happens. Don't wait until it becomes dangerous." That was all she said before standing up with her kebab and leaving the living room.
Nalda felt a bit of regret after seeing her sister's expression. She has been seeing that complicated expression a lot more often these days. If only there was a way to reassure her that Nalda was completely fine.
She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts.
There was no way to do that so it would be pretty pointless to think about it. Instead she needed to find use for the clue the letters had given her.
Nalda looked behind her to see if the person from earlier was still outside. After a few moments of looking, she didn't find anything. Instead of turning around again she decided to lay down and think.
Of course she was still eating. Even if her kebab grew cold, food was still food and her stomach was very welcoming towards food.
'That person… That person definitely wasn't the serial killer, right? There's no way this fellow would be caught that easily, right?'
Nalda was used to the letters not explaining anything but this time the letters were supposed to give her a clue so they probably wouldn't want her to go off course. The silence that followed made her question if her answer was even remotely close to being correct.
'It reminds me of that strange phone call that mr. Comwell. The so-called 'clue' had nothing to do with the serial killer.'
She was seriously going to do something if the letters didn't explain anything instead of just giving her some random clues.
At that moment the letters popped up on the TV screen again.
'Home'
For a moment she thought she read it wrong but then she understood what the letters said and began to laugh.
"Hahaha… This person really targeted me because we live on the same street, didn't they?"
Now that part of the motivation was clearing up, she finally understood why the astronaut was such an important item. She smiled brightly as she turned off the TV.
She felt like the clues were slowly coming together.
Next Friday. By then she'll have figured out who it was. Two weeks after first discovering the murder.
Not this week Friday because of school and because she had quite a bit of neighbours but that was fine. After all, the deadline was two weeks after that. She would be fine for now.
In a good mood she stood up and headed to her bedroom.
"Today was really a rollercoaster of emotions but I'm on the right track so it's fine."