i should probably stop leaving pointless author's notes at the beginning of every chapter...

-𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓽𝔂

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Evan had yet to grab onto Lance or Sam. That was mostly because he refused to look scared in front of Sam. He had convinced her that he was mature enough to handle this, and he was. He was, he was. He kept telling himself that.

But a door slammed from upstairs, and he leaped a solid 10 feet into the air. He quickly brushed it off; it was just Wyatte and Lucia. But he still couldn't prevent his heart rate from spiking.

"Evan," Sam said gently, "...Are you scared?"

"No! I'm not scared! You're scared!"

Evan was not going to let his sister embarrass him. He wasn't scared!

He was terrified.

But no one needed to know that. He kept walking, and they followed him. However, Lance and Sam were both looking at him like worried parents looked at their child, and he was well aware of this.

"I'm not!"

"Oka--" Sam started, but cut herself off with a sharp gasp as her foot got caught on something and she sprawled out on the floor.

Evan coughed as the dust that Sam unsettled filled his lungs. Cursing his sinuses, he noticed what Sam had tripped on. A purse. He quickly grabbed onto it, figuring it might be useful.

Meanwhile, Lance just about fell over on top of Sam, having been walking directly behind her. Quickly regaining his balance, he reached out to help her.

Sam was just about to grab onto his hand, when she suddenly froze. When Sam fell, she had been put at just the right level to see underneath a nearby cabinet. In the darkness, she could just barely make out a shape. 

She didn't waste a second before plunging her hand into the darkness underneath the cabinet. 

"Sam, what are you--?"

Sam knew perfectly well how dirty her hand was getting, but she didn't pull her hand out until she had found what she was looking for. In her hand, with was now slightly grey from the excessive amounts of dust, was a cell phone.

The case was bright pink, and Sam winced as she recognized it.

"It's Rosaleen's..."

Sam pushed the power button, but the screen stayed black.

"It must be dead. It had been under there a little while," Sam commented, wiping the dust off the screen.

"We have to charge it!" Lance said, "There could be evidence on there."

"Definitely," Sam agreed almost instantly, nodding.

Evan wasn't going to lie; he felt like a third wheel here. He then realized that he was doing something very serious at the moment, and felt bad for thinking something like that.

However, he didn't have much time to dwell on it. Because before he knew, the three of them were racing towards the basement. Lance was pretty much carrying him because his tiny legs couldn't run nearly fast enough.

Why?

There had been a scream.

♠♦♣♥

Arthur was almost dying of laughter. His face was completely flushed with lack of oxygen, and he was gasping frantically between wheezes of laughter.

"I'm fine...!" Aisha repeated, again and again as the entire group now stood in the basement.

"Why did you scream?!" Lucia asked, out of breath--but not with laughter.

"Nothing! Nothing happened! It's perfectly fine!"

"Obviously not!" Lance insisted, "Why does Arthur look like he's about to pass out?"

Aisha was silent for a moment, and so was the rest of the group((except for Arthur, but he had almost gained control of himself)).

"...there was a spider."

And then all of Arthur's control disappeared, and he was laughing harder than before. He collapsed to his knees and--oh my God, did they need to call an ambulance?

"Shut up, Arthur!" Aisha hissed.

Arthur wiped several tears from his eyes as he finally stopped laughing. He was okay, for now. He has a constant dorky grin on his face that would not go away.

And Aisha was not happy about it.

"I was unprepared. I was digging through all the garbage in the basement--" Aisha was explaining, "--and suddenly, there it was. The eight-legged demon from hell, bigger than any I'd ever seen before."

"It was not that big...!" Arthur said.

"It was! You didn't see it! It was a completely warranted scream, I can assure you!"

Arthur let out a soft sigh, then laughed a little bit again before shrugging. "Okay, sure. Fine. Whatever. I think it's safe to say that we didn't find anything, except an 'eight-legged demon from hell'. So, what about you guys?"

Wyatte gave Lucia a very intense glare, and she caught it before saying, "Not anything that we can use to solve the murder. I think we should all go check out the balcony after this, though."

"Well, you guys were all useless, but--" Sam said jokingly, hoisting the cell phone into the air, "One cell phone...!"

"Rosaleen's?" Arthur asked.

Lance confirmed, before saying, "But it's dead."

"Me and Evan are going to take it home to char--"

"No you're not!" Aisha suddenly snapped. Lucia looked like she was ready to pounce directly onto Aisha, but she paid no attention. And neither did anyone else.

"...what? What do you mean?"

"What if you're trying to tamper with it? "

"Are you accusing me?! Are you serious? I would never--"

"We can't be sure," Aisha defended her claim. "If there's incriminating evidence, then no one can be left alone with the phone.

"Then how else are we going to charge it, if no one can be trusted?!" Sam said, eyebrows furrowed with anger.

Arthur's face suddenly lit up, "I have a portable charger on me. We can use that."

"Are you joking?" Wyatte protested immediately, "I'd rather not stay here any longer than I have to! I do not want to sit here and wait for her phone to charge!"

"I don't think we have any choice..." Lucia said quietly. Wyatte scowled, but said no more.

The group traveled into what would be considered the living room, no one really bothering to question why Arthur had a portable charger on him, and they waited.

It was very tense, due to Aisha's distrust in everyone else. No one spoke. Aisha had just confirmed that Sam was on the suspect list, and Lucia wanted to scold her, but couldn't do so with everyone else around.

They sat in dead silence for a little while. Rosaleen's phone didn't need to be 100% charged; they just needed to turn it on for a few minutes.

Suddenly, the phone blared to life. Sam was the first to react, grabbing the phone. With a very heavy glance at Aisha, Sam explained very clearly what she was doing.

"I'm looking through her social media," Sam declared, "--nothing, nothing, nothing."

"Now... her text messa--" Sam gasped, and everyone demanded to know what she had seen.

"--meet me in the cabin in the forest in 10" Sam read out loud, "Sent: Monday, 8:47 PM."

"Who's it from?!" Lucia asked.

"I don't know..." Sam admitted, "Rosaleen never put anyone's real name as their contact... It's just a bunch of heart emojis."

Everyone immediately spun around on Lance, backing away from him as he rapidly tried to defend himself.

Sam realized what she had done, and desperately clicked onto Rosaleen's contacts.

"Wait...!" Sam cried out, watching as everyone turned back to her, "There's... there's multiple. Multiple names that are all heart emojis! We don't know that this one is Lance!"

Lance was very uncomfortable. He had been fully aware of this, and he had tried his best not to let it bother him. But it did. A lot.

"But what if it is!?"

"It's not, it's not...!" Lance insisted.

"Fine," Aisha spat, "Call it."

"What!?"

"Call the number. The one that texted Rosaleen. We're gonna find out. Right now."

"No...!" Sam refused.

"Why not, Sam? Why not?"

Sam realized she didn't have a choice. She looked at Lance, and saw the look in his eyes that said "I didn't do it, I swear". She winced, looking away.

"Fine! But only if everyone turns on their ringers, and sets their phone down in the center!"

"What?" Lucia argued, "My name obviously doesn't have a bunch of heart emojis next to it in Rosaleen's phone!"

"Do it!" Sam insisted.

Everyone did it, despite lots of protesting and arguing at first.

Sam, taking in a deep breath and sharing another look with Lance, pressed "Call".

A phone rang.

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