In the Night

As evening falls about the town of Twinbrook, the innocence of daylight falls with it. The mask we wear in the open is shed, and the things we don't necessarily want others to know become unveiled.

It is in the darkness that the truth takes light, where secrets lie dormant, and true intentions are concealed. What guilty secrets are the inhabitants of this sleepy town keeping from their peers? What plots are brewing behind closed doors?

It's a question that's pondered quite often in this town, where gossips dwell and snoops love to peek through windows... And it's a question that just might finally get some answers.

But, those answers may just be a path to another strange -- and elusive -- mystery.

---

Amelia Kane always loved to bike in this direction of town. Although she never considered her family "poor", especially not when comparing to her best friend Alesha's household, it always felt as if she was escaping to someplace where money was never a worry, where everyone lived in luxury and peace.



Of course, what Amelia didn't know is that being rich comes with a price of it's own -- and most of them are never, if ever, at peace. But... Well, a girl can dream; of what she'd seen of her Grandmother's home, being rich certainly had it's perks.

But it wasn't her Grandmother's house she was headed to, today. Instead, it was someone entirely new in her life that she was going to visit, and as an excitable young girl, Amelia could barely keep the smile off her face.



"Hi, Mrs. Leman!" she said in a squeaky voice when Carolina Leman answered the door. "Naomi asked me to come over. Is it already if I come in?"

"Ooh, of course, you must be Amelia," Carolina responded, although regarding the little girl suspiciously. "We've been expecting you... Naomi's waiting for you just inside."

Sure enough, Naomi was just inside the door, waiting for Amelia with a small smile on her face. Amelia did a little bounce up and down with joy; Naomi seemed cheerful enough, but Amelia could never tell with her.



"So, whatcha wanna do tonight?" Amelia asked, feeling really chipper about being at her new friend's house for the first time.

"Well, we were just about to eat... Then we can go watch movies in my room or somethin'."

Amelia couldn't help but squeal a little. Her own TV in her room?! How cool was that! "Sounds good to me... I was thinkin' though, do you think we could invite Alesha over too? I think it'd be a lotta fun if she was over with us..."



"Alesha?" Naomi asked, laughing a little. "You mean that chubby girl that can barely afford new shoes and always smells funny?" Naomi continued to laugh. "Why would you want her to come over?"



"Oh, well, I uh--" Amelia stuttered. "I dunno, I mean -- what was I thinking? 'Course I don't want her to come over. It was just... a joke, you know."

Amelia gulped a little back as Naomi went into the other room to grab her food; Amelia followed after, her guilt hanging like a rock in her stomach.



As she sat down and began to stuff her face with salad, Naomi's dad turned to Amelia and watched her, a little amused. "So, Amelia.... Amelia Kane, right?" When she nodded in response -- her mouth clearly full of food -- he continued with, "I know Kane is a fairly common last name, but I was curious... Does your dad happen to be Jebidiah Kane, the private investigator?"

After swallowing her food, Amelia paused for a second, her eyes fixed on her plate, as she was still embarrassed about her suggestion to Naomi.



"Oh, y-yeah," Amelia stuttered out. "That's him. He's a crimefighter... Just like a cop! Except he works whenever he wants to and stuff. You met him?"

"No, no, I haven't," Mr. Leman responded with a rather blank expression. "But I've been meaning to be introduced ever since we've moved into town... I've heard quite a few things about your father. He sounds like someone I would be very interested in meeting."



Amelia gobbled through the rest of her food as fast as possible, as Naomi kept sending her funny looks across the table. "Well, thank you for dinner, Mr. Leman! I really appreciate you guys having me over!" She realized, after she'd spoken, that she'd practically screamed her enthusiasm at him -- it was probably pretty obvious that she was growing more nervous being here by the minute.

After putting her plate away, she gave Mr. Leman one last grin before disappearing upstairs with Naomi -- Thomas merely watching her as she left,  a vagrant smile on his face.



"Man, I can't believe you have your own flatscreen in your bedroom!" Amelia said in awe, giddily bouncing  a bit on the bed as Naomi climbed up to sit next to her.

"Well, my parents give me pretty much anything I want," Naomi said with a shrug. "My dad's a real sucker for us kids, he's really easy to win over."

Amelia smiled weakily in response, her eyes still fixed on the TV. "I guess my dad gives me whatever I want, too... Sometimes..." But, probably not a flatscreen in her room.



Well, the girls did have a fun night, even if Amelia wasn't able to spend the night; they laughed at comedies, almost made it 10 minutes into a thriller, and Amelia found it odd to notice that neither parent bothered them the entire time they were watching movies.

Kinda strange, if you asked her -- she couldn't remember the last time she did anything at home without her mom nervously breaking in to make sure no one had stubbed their toe.



Still, Amelia couldn't help but feel her guilt growing about Alesha; she didn't have to include her best friend in everything, but she had a sinking feeling that Naomi didn't want to include her in anything... And she had just enough foresight to realize that that may not end up well for anybody.

But, at least she didn't have to worry about it for now.

---

As Amelia came home and tucked herself neatly into bed, her older brother was only getting started on his nighttime activities on the other side of her bedroom window.



Up above, the stars twinkled and danced, and Bradley couldn't help but feel immensly important -- and immensely trivial -- while looking up at them. He spent most nights out here, trying to escape the sour looks from his brother and the sympathetic stares of his parents. Brad didn't mind Amelia, so much, but she was too young to understand, too young to really care...

But, perhaps that's why he actually could stand to be around her: of all the people in his life, she's the only one who remained unaffected by what had happened to Emerald... She was a solid rock, a small piece of what life was like before everything was shattered into pieces.



It was chilly, but he didn't mind. Their house wasn't the greatest for stargazing, either, but he made do with what little he could see; the constellations were nice little logical constructs, nice little distractions from everyday life.

I mean, really; they were all mathmatically swirling bodies, orbits and stardust and back holes and planets and... and...



... and memories.



He couldn't escape her.

Everything he did, everywhere he went, she was there -- it was as comforting as it was painful. His heart throbbed bitterly as he stared into his telescope, staring at a galaxy that Emerald had been able to pinpoint with her naked eye, her finger pointed upwards to plainfully gloat to him that finally, she knew something that he didn't.

Bradley couldn't take it anymore.



Screw the laws of underage driving -- he couldn't stand being in this house anymore.

He quietly escaped to the yard, started the car, and disappeared down the road and out of sight of their house. He knew it wouldn't matter how gently he pressed the gas pedal, the car would still be loud -- but he desperately hoped that his parents wouldn't know he'd escaped until morning...



... because, he knew he wouldn't be back until morning. There was only one place that Brad could sleep tonight... only one place that he could be.



And that, that was by her side.

---

For a moment, silence permeated the building like a hot stench. Even the crickets outside couldn't penetrate the tensity that was binding everyone in the room, making the hairs stick up at the back of their necks, and their muscles tensed to react to the slightest aggravation.

They were having a terrible disagreement.



"I highly doubt my dad's going to go for this," Shark Racket finally said with an unease voice. "With the way the cops have been on our tail lately, it's just asking for trouble."



"Of course it's asking for trouble!" Sinbad finally exploded. "It's impossible! It's... It's stupid! I'm not putting myself on the line on some false chance that we're actually able to pull this through."

"You're not even going to consider it, Sinbad?" Marta asked in a quiet, seductive tone. "You haven't even heard all the details."



"Goddammit Marta, I don't need to hear the details!" Sinbad yelled, grabbing his head in anger. "Even if we didn't have to worry about the cops being on us constantly lately, we're dealing with the Lemans, here! No one messes with the Lemans! Ever since they arrived in town, they've had a complete monopoly on all the enterprise moving in and out of Twinbrook... Compared to them, we're just buttonless scrubs, Marta."



After a moment, Sinbad finally cooled down, and turned to Marta with a blank look. "So?"

"So," she said with a confident shrug. "We're only ever going to be buttonless scrubs unless we actually take some advice from someone that knows what they're doing."

"Yeah, but how do we know we can trust him?" Sinbad growled, still rubbing the back of his neck ferociously.



"Because," came the voice from the silent man waiting in the corner of the room, a mere observer as he waited for the moment when the other three were finally ready to hear him speak. "I need you -- all of you -- to get what I want."