#sitdliam

[beesartandstuffs]

Shot in the Dark: Interim- Chapter 2

(THE SPOOPY MONTH IS UPON US!! Prepare for LOTS AND LOTS OF SITD CONTENT)

SHOT IN THE DARK MASTERLIST (find more stories here!)

~~

Anna has always had this weird draw to her dead great-aunt.

It started out innocently enough— curiosity about the Manor Mystery, a cold case way back from the 50s. Her great-aunt, Emma Bailey, had died in that case, according to Anna’s dad, as well as the celebrity Markiplier, the then-current mayor Damien Crowe, and some other less-essential persons.

Anna was a bit of a history nut, even from childhood, so it was no wonder that such a mystery would grab her attention. Her parents humored her for a while, and then later when Dakota and I came along we did too. It seemed fairly harmless, and otherwise she was a fairly practical, mild person, so we didn't think much of it.

Then, when she and Dakota started dating, I thought maybe she would be over it. That seemed to be the case for about a year or so.

Then, one day, out of the blue, as the three of us sat around a table at our local coffee shop, she spoke up.

“So I bought the manor.”

Dakota and I exchanged glances, racking our brains to see if we remember what the heck she’s talking about.

She smiled brightly and stirred her Cafe Mocha. “It’s okay, I didn’t tell y’all about it before. I wanted it to be a surprise. It’s the Markiplier Manor, from the Manor Mystery!”

A look of dawning horror began to grow on Dakota’s face and I spoke up before he could exclaim in protest. “Wow, that’s crazy! How did you even find it!”

“Well~” She twirled a lock of her curly, strawberry-blonde hair around her finger, biting her lip. Dakota instantly melted and I released a breath. Crisis averted by a cute girlfriend. “I may or may not have been digging around,” she said. “And I managed to find the exact location. And it was for sale!”

“How much?” Dakota said, remarkably calmly for someone whose girlfriend appears to have gone off the deep end.

Anna named a figure, and I whistled.  “That’s cheap.” I risked a glance at Dakota. “...Right?”

He shook his head, at a loss. “Insanely cheap.” He eyed Anna. “...Why was it so cheap?”

She smiled, a bit sheepishly. “Well, you know. Rumors.”

“Of?”

“It’s so haunted, isn’t it,” I whispered, my eyes widening dramatically.

Anna grinned, and Dakota groaned.

Anna and I high-fived. “That’s so awesome,” I laughed.

Dakota glared at me. “Don’t encourage her!”

“It’s just a house, babe,” his girlfriend said soothingly, reaching across the table to take his hand. He instinctively gripped it and she rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, tilting her head imploringly.

His brow was furrowed, but the hard lines in his face softened. “What do you plan on doing with the house, now that you’ve evidently bought it?”

“Explore! Investigate! Don’t you want to know what really happened to Emma and Markiplier and the others?”

“They died,” Dakota insisted. “They all died in a freak accident.”

“Actually,” I said slowly. “They… didn’t find any bodies. That was just the police report covering it up.”

Dakota gave me his best I can’t believe you’ve bought into this glare while Anna looked at me, impressed. “I didn’t know you looked into this kind of stuff,” she said.

I shrugged, smiling disarmingly. “What can I say? I love a good conspiracy.”

She laughed at that—a bright, delighted sound—and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “And we love our nerdy emo son.”

“It’s not emo, that’s an entirely different subculture—“

“Punk?”

“Flattering, but I’m not super into anarchy…”

“Goth?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. What do you call all black, mostly t-shirts and skinny jeans, a few chains and minimalist jewelry, sometimes but not always accented by an obnoxiously loud pattern and/or color? “Probably not goth, either.”

Dakota leaned back, still holding Anna’s hand, and sipped his coffee casually. “Let’s just call it ‘Brendon Urie Style’ and be done with it.”

“That man is an inspiration,” I said over Anna’s laughter. “So I’ll take that as the highest of compliments.”

“Good. He has good music.”

Anna stopped laughing and stared at her boyfriend agape. “You listen to Panic! At the Disco?”

“What? I can’t be a stick-in-the-mud and like popular music? You expect too much.”

Anna and I exchanged glances, and simultaneously imagined a future of the most obnoxious, concentrated collection of references to P!ATD songs that the world had ever seen.

It was glorious.

“Anyway, back to what we were actually talking about,” Dakota said, effectively interrupting Anna’s and my temporary psychic link. “So you plan to just… explore and investigate the manor? For fun?”

“Well, it’s kind of remote,” she said slowly. “And it’s in the next city over, so… it wouldn’t be practical to drive back and forth every day.”

I could tell that Dakota knew where Anna was going with this, and didn’t like it at all. For once, I didn’t intervene, choosing to let this play out.

“Anna, you know I love you, right?” Dakota said slowly.

“Yes, of course!”

“You know I would give you the world if I could, right?”

“I don’t think I would trust myself with a dictatorship, but I recognize and appreciate the sentiment!”

He smirked a little at that, and I marveled at their weird shared sense of humor. “So with all that in mind, love of my life…” Dakota leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If you’re planning to live in that house let me be the first to say I love and support you, but that sounds like a dangerous, risky, kind of incredibly stupid idea.”

“Aw Dak, that’s not fair,” I protested, but Anna waved my words off.

“No, he’s right,” she said, in a tone of voice I recognized but hadn’t really heard come from her mouth before. “I’m not smart enough to take on something like that. I’ll probably get kidnapped on the first night.”

We were both taken aback. Anna had been angry before, even sarcastic, but this...this was bitter.

Dakota looked hurt. “You know that’s not what I meant,” he said softly.

That seemed to shift her attitude. “I know, babe, I just…”

Dakota worried his lip, then spoke up. “What if… I go with you?”

I nearly choked on my iced frappe.

From the get-go, the two had been incredibly, painfully clear that they weren’t going to live together until they legit tied the knot. It was something really important to both of them and they’d talked a lot about it. That Dakota would even suggest that they move in together… he must have been really worried.

Anna blinked at him, then frowned. “No.”

“It’s probably pretty big, we wouldn’t even have to see each other if we didn’t—“

“It’s not that, Dak, I just…” she sighed. “I… I need this, you know? I need to… be on my own. For once.”

Dakota looked like he wanted to argue more, but I understood instantly. Anna had grown up in this little city and never lived anywhere else. Even though she’d had her own house for a while… I knew what it was like to feel stifled. Trapped.

Dakota may have disagreed, but he bit his tongue. Maybe literally, judging by the look on his face.

"We'll visit her," I said. "Maybe we can take a weekend trip or something."

He looked at me. He still didn't say anything, but appeared to be relatively pacified.

"And we can facetime whenever you want," Anna added.

"Alright, alright." Dakota took a deep breath and leaned his elbows on the table. "... I still don't think this is a good idea, but… if this is something you really want to do, Anna, and you think you can do it safely, then… I'm not going to try to stop you."

Her answering smile lit up the whole cafe, and Dakota immediately relaxed.

I didn't need any convincing… I had been on board from the get-go. I was excited for her to have this opportunity, and Dakota was just a worry-wart. I wasn't going to try to keep her from exploring her past and learning new things about herself. I wasn't going to take that away from her.

Although these days… sometimes I wish I had.

~~

To follow (and take part in) Emma and Damien’s story, go here.

~~

Tag list: @mayor-damien-protection-squad @markired @blackaquokat @pleaseletthisjimbetaken @gravitykaz@jojored22@neverisadork @withjust-a-bite @221biotchplease @gmcfyuffins @the-asexual-reaper @satansladydoor (If I’ve tagged you and you don’t want to be tagged, please tell me! Inversely, if you would like to be tagged in these, don’t be afraid to ask!)

[beesartandstuffs]

Shot in the Dark: Interim- Chapter 1

(This continues from the end of A Bit of Madness Part 3.)

SHOT IN THE DARK MASTERLIST (find more stories here!)

~~

I stopped writing.

My pen shook in my hand, and I quickly set it down to avoid getting splotches of ink on the paper.

She really did shoot her.

My laptop dinged cheerfully, and without a thought I reached out and closed it. I could answer that later.

I leaned back and ran my fingers through my hair… I had forgotten to gel it into a fauxhawk that morning so it was soft and fluffy. I’d considered just letting it grow out but that seemed like such a hassle….

Right, Emma.

She had shot Celine.

I leaned forward and tugged a piece of paper from my stack of notes. To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of information about the event that I didn’t already have. None of those who had been there had written much down about it, so most of what I had was second-and-third-hand, from news reports and gossip magazines.

I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and started a summary from where I left off.

The others found Emma, shaking on the ground, with Celine’s body slumped in a chair, a bullet wound straight through her heart.

The house was oddly quiet as they removed the corpse. The storm outside was gone, freeing everyone to come and go as they please. Unsurprisingly, nobody was eager to return.

The manor burned down mere days later. They all refused to comment.

After Celine’s small funeral, the group went their separate ways.

The Colonel—whose full name Emma found out to be William J. Barnum— turned himself in as Mark "Markiplier" Barnum’s murderer. Detective Abe Eckerman had the joyless task of taking him in, and at the same time turned in his badge.

The Chef went back to culinary school, realizing that he could always refine his skills.

Benjamin the Butler became Benjamin the Office Worker, having decided that he would finally be his own master.

Emma and Damien… well, their story could be considered the most interesting out of everybody. For several months after the manor burned the two didn’t speak. Both were wracked with grief and guilt… each haunted by their own decisions.

However, one day Damien showed up at Emma’s apartment with

Clattering from the other room had me automatically shoving my extra notes and notebooks into my desk drawer. I yanked my laptop open, clicked back onto Ancestry.com and scattered some random, safe notes on the desk.

I leaned back to admire my handiwork.

Good enough.

The apartment was quiet as I opened my bedroom door, but after a few seconds I heard the tell-tale creak of our gross old couch.

The couch faced the doorway to the hall. I walked the short distance and leaned against the frame, waiting.

Dakota Farz, local law student and one of my two best friends. Also my housemate. He had his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, breathing heavily, like he was wearing an oxygen mask.

After what seemed like forever he looked up. “Hey, Liam.”

“Hey, man. Any luck?”

He shook his head wordlessly. Missing persons posters and legal documents stuck out of the folder on the coffee table in front of him. I crossed over to sit on the arm of the couch, picking up the folder.

Have you seen this girl? Asked one paper in bold type. Name: ANNA BAILEY. Age: 21. Last seen…

I looked at the next page. It was a photocopy of a missing persons report. Of course Dakota would have photocopies… but the disorganized folder was unusual.

"Liam."

I looked up.

Dakota was leaning back, his burly arms crossed over his chest. His eyebrow was raised at me. "Have you eaten at all today?"

Somehow the charm on my necklace had gotten between my teeth. I spat it out and paused to think.

Did I eat today? I'd been writing since that morning… "Uh. No."

Dakota didn't complain. He simply got up and wove through the furniture to get to the tiny kitchen, which was open to the living room. "Do we have any Korean left?"

"Think you had the rest of it already."

"Right, right."

I sat on the counter with the folder in my hands as Dakota dug through the fridge. "So did you find anything else about Anna's aunt?" he said, frowning at a moldy hunk of cheese.

"Nuh-uh." I started folding a blank sheet of paper into an origami frog.

He turned his frown to me. "You sure?"

"Look, Emma didn't write anything down about the event before it happened, and a lot of documents are classified. There's a reason they call it the 'Manor Mystery', y'know?"

"Well, they couldn't have all died in a more convenient way…"

"They didn't all die," I said, cautiously. "At least two eyewitnesses escaped, the butler and the chef. They… may have surviving descendants. I've been trying to find them," I said quickly as Dakota's eyes lit up with hope, as well as indignation that I hadn't told him right away. "But they did everything they could to get off the grid. Whatever it was that happened… they don't want anyone to find out. But I'll keep looking, don't worry."

He seemed satisfied with my explanation, and turned back to the fridge.

We ended up eating cold fried chicken and waffles. Under the pretense of doing more research, I retreated to my room as soon as I finished the dishes.

My bedroom door felt rough against my back, even through the barrier of my shirt. Slowly, I slid to the floor and put my head in my hands.

She's fine. There's no reason to worry. I know exactly where she is.

A compact mirror was heavy in my palm. I didn't even remember taking it out of my pocket.

No. That's a last resort. Things are different, now.

I'd tell Dakota… eventually. It just wasn't the right time.

I had time.

For once, I had time.

~~

To follow (and take part in) Emma and Damien’s story, go here.

~~

Tag list: @mayor-damien-protection-squad @markired @cosmic--frappucino @blackaquokat @pleaseletthisjimbetaken @gravitykaz @jojored22@neverisadork @withjust-a-bite @221biotchplease @gmcfyuffins @the-asexual-reaper @satansladydoor (If I’ve tagged you and you don’t want to be tagged, please tell me! Inversely, if you would like to be tagged in these, don’t be afraid to ask!)

[beesartandstuffs]

Shot in the Dark: Interim- Chapter 3

(Have you been paying attention?)

SHOT IN THE DARK MASTERLIST (find more stories here!)

~~

The room is too bright.

Dakota cracks his eyes open, then immediately closes them again, a pained groan biting past his teeth.

"Hey, man. Welcome back to the land of the living."

The brightness lessens, and he opens his eyes again, attempting to find the source of the cheerful voice.

Liam, his roommate, is sitting on the arm of the couch at his feet. There's a rubik's cube in his hands, which he is solving rapidly without looking at it. He's chewing on his star-shaped necklace.

A familiar scenario, except waking up on the couch with a headache is not typical.

Liam gives him a gap-toothed grin at his questioning look, spitting out the necklace. Despite the smile, however, his dark eyes are shadowed with concern. "You fell. Hit your head. Did you forget to take your iron again?"

"My… iron?" Dakota shifts, trying to sit up.

"You can't keep forgetting that, Dak." Liam drops to his feet and sets the completed cube on the coffee table. "I mean, I know you try to eat steak and stuff pretty often, but a deficiency isn't gonna let ya—"

"I didn't fall."

Dakota raises his hand to feel the back of his head. It seems a tender lump quickly formed.

If I fainted, it's highly unlikely that I would have fallen backward.

He looks up at Liam, who's wearing an expression that, at a glance, could be interpreted as barely-restrained concern.

But Dakota knows Liam, and he knows when he's lying.

"What happened, Li?"

The boy's face is unreadable. He opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again. He seems pensive. Dakota starts to speak again but Liam interrupts him. "I'm… I was going to tell you something, actually. It's… well, it's something I probably should have told you already."

Dakota pauses, slowly sitting up and leaning against the back of the couch.

His head is pounding.

… Yeah, that sounds right. Liam was going to tell him something. "What is it, then?"

Liam blows a puff of air from his cheeks. "I… I really appreciate that you, like. Give me privacy and stuff. That means a lot to me, y'know?"

Dakota raises an eyebrow. "Uh, sure."

"Well, I just… I've been pretty unfair to you. So… as thanks for, y'know, taking me in and stuff, I thought I'd tell you something about me. Just so we're… even."

"Dude, you don't have to—"

"Just— just let me? Please?"

Dakota shakes his head at Liam's puppy-dog eyes. "Alright, yeah. Go on."

Liam rubs his hands together nervously, then shoves them in his pockets. "I wanted… I wanted to tell you my name. My real, full name."

It's hard to figure out why that's the thing Liam wants to share with him, but he doesn't want to ruin this moment. After all, it seems important to him. So Dakota nods.

"Go ahead."

"My name is…"

Liam bites his lips together, staring at the ground.

"My name is William."

He lifts his head, and there's something in his eyes Dakota has never quite seen before. For just a moment, he seems… much, much older.

"William J. Barnum, Jr."

~~~

~~

~

Tag list: @mayor-damien-protection-squad @markired @blackaquokat@pleaseletthisjimbetaken @gravitykaz@jojored22@neverisadork @withjust-a-bite@221biotchplease @gmcfyuffins @the-asexual-reaper @satansladydoor (If I’ve tagged you and you don’t want to be tagged, please tell me! Inversely, if you would like to be tagged in these, don’t be afraid to ask!)