Vera, Vera, Vera,

I gave you a task. You didn't complete it. You refuse my orders.

Unfortunately, I'm getting bored. Perhaps, I should just release what really happened that day to the press... You're being useless after all.

Follow my instructions and prove your worth or the whole world will learn where you truly belong: a jail cell.

Tik-tok, darling. Time's running out.

-Secret Keeper

A/N: Pic above is not an aesthetic, I know. I just put the Kleizmick mansion this time so that you get a better view of it.

I hate the Kleizmick Mansion.

It was cold, creepy and just really strange. It wasn't that it was old. Hell no. It was the exact opposite. With it's thousands of fountains, five courtyards, ten thousand pools (including a couple roof pools), killer view of the ocean, aquarium, and fifty thousand rooms and bay windows it was a killer house. But the fact remains that only five people lived in it. Four now that Jason's gone. So, the house, despite it's many qualities, always felt shallow and empty.

Sure, there were servants that worked around the house. But they weren't always there. And even if they were, they quickly learned to stick to the shadows, so they weren't much help.

It wasn't the type of place that made you feel all happy and cheery. But still, I owed it for holding one of my best memories yet, or at least until recently.

It was the day I met the Kleizmick's.

"Alyssa! Stop braiding my hair! I don't like it!" I yelled at her as I winced.

"Why not?"

"Because it's tight! I feel like my head will explode!"

"That's the point! It needs to be tight so that it's not in your face!"

"That's stupid!"

"Girls!" Uncle Lucas called up to my room from downstairs. "Stop fighting!"

"We're not!" Alyssa hollered back. I winced again. Alyssa's voice at nine years old was way too high pitched for my eardrums.

The parent's resumed their conversation and Alyssa tied my hair up before closing the bedroom door as quietly as possible.

"What are we doing?" I whispered. When Alyssa came over, she just sort of barged into my room and said we were going on a secret mission. Then she started to painfully braid my hair.

"We're leaving."

"To where? To do what?"

"Spy."

"But how are we supposed to get out if our parents are right next to the stairs? They'll see us going outside, no matter which way we go!"

"Who said we were going to use the door?"

My eyes widened as they landed on the window.

"No."

Alyssa jumped onto the window sill and pushed the glass upwards. "Come on. It'll be fun."

"No."

"The parents aren't gonna check on us for another two hours."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a window! We'll die! And, we're sneaking out! That's bad!"

"Most people do it at least once."

"Most people don't start until they're a teenager!"

"It'll be fine. We're pre-teens."

"We're not ten yet!"

"Fine. Pre-pre-teens."

"That doesn't solve anything! We're still too young to jump out windows!"

At this point Alyssa had already hoisted herself onto the roof adjacent to the window.

She crouched down and shrugged, "Guess we're just ahead of the learning curve."

"No."

After some more persuading and fuss, Alyssa finally managed to get me onto the roof. After that, I freaked out that I was on a third-story roof and that we had to jump to the second floor roof. Yet again, we had to jump onto the swing. Again, I freaked out. Finally, after her trying to calm me down with every jump, I set foot on the ground.

Careful to avoid the windows, we snuck to the garage and grabbed our bikes. Silently giggling, we zoomed past the gate and out onto the street.

"Where are we going?" I questioned.

"There was this girl I met the other day," Alyssa explained. "Her name was Julia. She's one grade younger, but she's kind of cool. I thought we could all hang out."

"Couldn't we have just invited her over?"

"Yeah... but I also want to see her house again. I saw it when I was biking around and it was HUGE."

"Why didn't I ever see it?"

"Because it was down through a secret road in the woods. They have all the big houses there."

"We have big houses."

"But their's is bigger. And they can see the ocean."

"We can see the ocean."

"But they get private docks in their backyard! Our private docks are farther along the beach."

Suddenly, Alyssa turned into a two lane road hidden between trees. I followed suit.

"How did you ever find this place?"

"I was trying to go play with my friend. He lives here. His name's Tyler."

I shook my head. Alyssa and her friends.

"He's really cool. His dad's a race car driver! You should come with me next time I go to his house."

We pedaled out of the woods and spotted the first stunning house. I was shocked at it's size, but nothing else seemed extraordinary.

"That's Tyler's," Alyssa informed me.

"Not bad."

"Not bad?! You have awful taste. It's perfect!"

"Sure..."

"Come on," Alyssa pedaled forward, quickening her pace. "Julia's house is at the very end of the beach strip!"

We biked down the long stretch of land. There were eleven houses in total spread out along the beach strip. Ten were on either sides of the street, protected with gates and trees. I was never into houses, but even I could tell that these houses were huge.

The Kleizmick Mansion was at the very end of the lane, completing an almost U-shape. Or at least their gate was. The house was somewhere in the distance beyond the gate. I could barely see the roof.

"What's it like on the inside?" I asked Alyssa.

"I don't know."

"You've never been in there?"

Alyssa shook her head.

"Then how did you see it?"

"I climbed one of the trees outside of the gate."

"How did you know it was Julia's house if she never invited you?"

"She walked out of the gate."

"What if she was visiting someone?"

"She closed the gate with a password that she knew. It had to be her's."

"Oh."

"Come on. Let's go to the gate and then send in a message-"

Shouts interrupted Alyssa. We looked at each other before pedaling faster to the Kelizmick Mansion, following the shouting.

We rounded the small divider and came face-to-face with two boys and a girl. One boy and the girl had identical green eyes and brown hair. The other boy had brown eyes. The girl was crying while the brown-eyed boy was picking himself up off the ground, blood running down his arm.

"Tyler," Alyssa gasped at the bleeding boy then looked up, "Julia."

So the crying girl was Julia and the bleeding boy was Tyler. I wondered who the other boy was.

Alyssa kicked down her kick stand and helped Tyler off the ground. He looked mad.

"What are you doing?!" she boomed at the other boy. Normally, Alyssa could make anyone shrink away in fear, even at such a young age. But it did nothing to the green-eyed boy. In fact, he just gave her a look that made me want to go hide in the bushes.

"He stole an apple," the boy explained.

"Jordan," Julia complained.

"It wasn't even your apple!" Tyler argued back.

"It was our tree!"

"The tree is outside of your gate!"

"It's next to our gate, so it's ours!"

"No, it's the neighborhood's!"

"And who owns the neighborhood, dumbass?"

"Jordan!" Julia complained. "That's a no-no word."

Jordan looked behind him at Julia and gave her a confused look, "Why the hell are you crying?"

"That's a no-no word too!"

"I don't care! Why are you crying?"

"Because you pushed Tyler!"

"So?!"

"You were being mean!"

"He stole our apple!"

"It wasn't our apple!"

"It was on our apple tree!"

"It's not our tree!"

"Yes it is!"

"Not it's not!"

"You're being stupid."

"Hey!" Alyssa shouted at Jordan. "You don't get to call her stupid. If anything, you're the stupid one!"

"And who are you?!"

"She's my friend," Julia and Tyler said in unison. They blinked at each other.

Tyler smiled at Julia, "Wanna be best friends?"

"Sure!"

"But... but he stole our apple!"

"It wasn't your apple!" Alyssa shouted back at Jordan.

"What's going on here?" a boy called. We all looked up to find a blond haired, green-eyed boy crouching on top the Kleizmick's wall. He picked an apple off the tree, dusted it a little and bit into it, an amused expression setting upon his face, eyes glinting with mischief.

"He stole our apple!" Jordan pointed his finger at Tyler.

"No he didn't!" Julia argued back.

The boy rolled his eyes and jumped onto the apple tree before jumping to the ground. He took another bite into his apple and turned to the three of us, completely ignoring the two siblings.

"Tyler, right?" the boy asked.

Tyler nodded.

He turned to Alyssa and looked her over once and said, "Aren't you the one who climbed our tree the other day?"

Jordan gave a gasp and looked aghast, "She did WHAT?!"

Alyssa straightened her back and lifted her head at the blond boy, as if challenging him, "Yeah."

I resisted the urge to face-palm. This was why Alyssa was always getting in trouble.

Surprisingly, the boy's lips upturned into a smile, "Impressive."

"No, it's not!"

"Shush, Jordan," Julia commanded.

"I'm older than you! You don't get to tell me to shush!"

"I can do whatever I want!"

The boy, once again, ignored his quarreling siblings as Alyssa stuck out her hand, "I'm Alyssa Adler."

The boy shook it, "Jason."

He turned to me and smiled, "And you must be the quiet one."

Jordan looked at me as if just noticing that I was here, "Who's she?"

"Her name's Vera," Alyssa said for me. "She's my friend. And cousin."

"So a friend of mine," Jason said. "All of you are now."

"But he stole our apple!"

Jason rolled his eyes, "You and your apples."

"It's not our apple!" Julia argued.

"That doesn't matter," Jason said turning, finally acknowledging his siblings.

"Why not?!"

"Because even if it was our apple, we shouldn't make a big deal about it just for picking it off the tree."

"But it was our tree! He needs to know that."

"Stop being a baby, Jordan. You don't even like apples. You should thank him for taking one and decreasing the amount of apples mom has to force feed you. In fact, Tyler, you can take an apple a day. It'll help keep the doctor away."

"But it's our tree."

"Now you're just being petty. Grow up. Be a gentleman. The ladies love that."

Jordan stepped closer to Jason who still looked like he was entertained by the whole thing. "Don't mom me. Just because you're ten doesn't mean you need to-"

"-put up with your nonsense?" Jason interrupted. "Agreed."

Jason stepped forward and gave his younger a warning look effectively cutting off any other words of protest, "You can either grow up and become a nicer person or you can keep being a cliche movie bully with self-confidence issues and end up figuring out what it feels like when a frog suddenly appears under your pillow in the middle of the night."

Jordan kept his mouth shut and Jason stepped away from him and turned to Julia. "Tell me if the idiot does something like this again," then he blinked. "Why were you crying?"

"Because he pushed Tyler."

Jason shook his head, "One is too tough, the other is too sweet. This is why I'm the best sibling."

Jason looked back at us and smiled, "You guys should come in. And you," Jason pointed at Alyssa, "and I will have a race up the tree later."

"Deal," Alyssa said. "Be ready to lose."

"Don't get your hopes up, Adler."

Jason pressed some number and took an eye scan test allowing for the gates to open. We walked in, Jordan sending Alyssa and Tyler glares as he looked at me with sudden curiosity. Julia caught up to Alyssa and Jason and the three started talking animatedly as the rest of us quietly followed.

The gates slid shut.

Our friend group was made. Well, technically it was made two pool parties, one ball, and three fist fights later, but that was the essential beginning. The one that started the entire chain reaction.

The one that had led me here, back in front of their gates with a bike, trying to sneak in, in the dead of winter after I had killed the sole reason that our group had ever worked out or even thought of being friends.

I had no idea how I ever ended up here, and I hated it.

I shivered in the slight breeze that kissed my cheeks. Global warming was making California colder than ever before.

I looked up. The apple tree was now bare and swaying in the wind. It brought back memories, too many memories.

The police car lights flashed, a man was holding a gun, the windows exploded.

I blinked realizing, once again, where I was. For a moment, I didn't move. Where the heck did that come from?

I shook my head, deciding that it was some random dream and started to cross the street to the gate.

It was Wednesday. After going home at around 2 AM Monday night from the race, I had to finish some of my homework which took me until 6 AM. This meant that had no sleep, forcing me to pull an all-nighter. Too tired to think about anything Jason or Secret Keeper related, I dragged myself through the hallways and managed to get through the day. As soon as I got home I fell asleep, then woke up and did my homework for five hours, and fell asleep again. To be honest, I don't remember much about yesterday. It was all just blurs.

However, Secret Keeper never forgot about me. By this morning, she had a not ready for me at the top of my locker, reminding me that I was sent a task to complete.

So here I was, trying to snoop around my best friend's dad's office for a random person that I didn't even know who somehow knew about me killing the best friend but yet doesn't know about whatever the heck they were looking for with his father's things. They didn't even specify what.  

All it said was, "Any information you can find."

That could've been a number of things. I could've found out that David Kleizmick likes to use BIC Sparkly 0.7 mechanical pencils. Or what Elizabeth Hargrove's aging cream was, although I highly doubted she had one. She was always a natural-beauty-minimalist-makeup type of person.

I sighed and took out my phone, placing it on a scanner. A green light lit up and the screen directed me to line up my on the biometrics scanner. I did so and a green light flashed again. The gate slid open.

Hopping back onto my bicycle, I pedaled down the half-mile path to their house. The small road was lined with apple and orange trees that separated it from the golf course that stretched around the front yard of the house. To the sides were the basketball courts, outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts and the outdoor conference areas that could seat up to two hundred guests.

I finally reached the end of the path and the trees cleared away to reveal the magnificent Kleizmick mansion. A large fountain sat on a circular island in front of the main doors. Another road branched off the main one and led to the side to the 25-car garage.

I parked my bicycle on the side of the circular road, out of the way and almost inside the bushes. Almost. I didn't want to put extra work on the ground's keeper. He was too nice for that.

I walked to the set of grand double French doors. I didn't dare look up and try to find the top of the doors. I would get neck problems.

Of course, no sane human being could open the doors with sheer force (except maybe Dwayne Johnson, but he's not a human being). I simply placed my hand on the knob. Within a split second, it scanned my fingerprints and started to open automatically. I released it and walked in. As soon as I was a good twenty feet away, the doors started to close again.

I looked around the familiar foyer. The wide circular room was spacious with a couple fancy sofas and some doors on the side leading to closets, coat racks, and a couple to the side of the house. I looked up, staring at the beautiful sparkling chandelier that hung from the domed ceiling that must've been at least three stories tall. The chandelier's sparkles fell upon the golden walls producing an eye shattering amount of light.

What normally would've given you a feeling of inferiority, magnificence, and beauty did nothing to me. As I looked around the foyer, I had never felt more empty. And alone.

I should've at least felt nervous about what I was about to do, but nothing came. Perhaps that was the effect of my anxiety medication. I had forgotten all about them the past week after Jason's death. It's funny, how when I needed them the most, I didn't have them with me.

I walked through the double doors on the other side and into the main hall. Another chandelier hung down from the third story but the walls weren't the same sparkly gold from the previous room, so it was easier on the eyes. Another door on the other side was surrounded by a twisting double staircase.

I climbed up the stairs, knowing that David Kleizmick's office was probably the best place to start. I weaved my way through the second floor of the house until I reached the heart of the house. Literally and figuratively.

Right in the middle of the mansion was a long, wide hallway. It was probably one of the most important, and my favorite, section of the house.

The Kleizmick's called it "The Family Hallway".

The family hallway was a long hallway filled with memories and pictures of their family. As you walked further down the hallways, family pictures from each year extended down. Around the big family picture for that specific year were pictures of significant moments. Underneath them were cabinets and shelves that contained more specific memories.

I made my way to the end of the hall where David Kleizmick's office was located. I twisted the door knob to find it locked. A memory flashed through my mind, one of Jason trying to teach me how to pick a lock. Alyssa aced it with flying colors, even managing to do it faster than Jason. Tyler learned after a little while. I never got it.

I sighed and made my way back down the hall, looking around hallway. I smiled a little as I looked at the pictures, faces smiling back at me. I saw the birth of the three siblings, all happening in about a year's gap. I saw David and Elizabeth Hargrove's wedding. I saw the first time that Julia won a spelling bee, and Jordan's 1st place medal at the elementary school science fair, and Jason's first Tae Kwon Do belt at the age of four and his black belt by the age of nine. I saw some of the other martial art's expertise. 

I saw him holding his first Oscar from just earlier standing next to his mother who was holding one as well. Jason's arm was around her shoulders, her arm on his waist. They looked so alike, blonde hair glowing, green eyes shining. Jason's smile was wide and full, showing just the right amount of teeth. It was apparent in the photo what had won him the Oscar. Staring at the award in his hand, I couldn't help but wonder, would he have won more if he lived longer?

Shaking my head, I directed my eyes downwards, unable to handle anymore thoughts of Jason and the life he had ahead of him. I settled on the shelves below the pictures.

That would be a great place to find information.

Almost instinctively, I carried myself to the shelf below the year that Jason was born. Rifling through the documents, I had managed to find Jason's birth certificate. I looked at it, only for a moment, before rifling through the neatly organized shelf. Nothing seemed particularly interesting until I spotted a yellow piece of paper. 

It was one of those lined notebook pages that you might rip out to write a grocery list. It looked out of place among the more official looking documents. As if that wasn't enough, it was shoved at the very back, behind all of the tabs. There wasn't even anything labeling it's existence.

Careful, not to tear it, I pulled it out. Looking over it, it took a moment to figure out what it was as there was no header.

It was a list of names.

Well, baby names.

I looked down the list. Many were crossed off, although a couple were circled. These must've been all names that David and Liz had considered. I read through the circled ones.

Jason, Jordan, Julia

I smiled. Curious as to see some of the other options, I read further down the list. My eyebrows furrowed as I came across a name that was circled then scribbled over harshly.

I squinted to read the name through the lines, failing. It was literally a dark, black circle. That's when I realized that it was scribbled over in marker, not pen. Hope crawled up in my chest as I flipped the paper over. The marker had bled through, but the original indent of the name caused by the original pressure the pen had in the paper, was still on the back.

I ran my fingers over the indentations, trying to piece together the name that had been scribbled out.

Justin.

I rummaged through my memory, the name sounding familiar...

That's when I heard a door slamming and a male voice getting closer.

My heart started to race. David Kleizmick usually only came home after 7:30 pm. That was two hours away. Why the hell did he come home early?

The end of year conference!

I had completely forgotten about it. He must've come home to get ready for it later this evening.

The voices got closer. He was definitely headed towards his office.

Crap!

I shoved the paper back into the back of the cabinet and pushed it closed, as quickly and quietly as possible. I stood up, trying to figure out what to do.

I couldn't let him see me. He was a fairly paranoid and cautious man. I was certain that every time he knew that one of us was over, he would check the cameras and our door fingerprint logs just in case. If he saw me, he would check his cameras and find me trying to enter his office earlier. That would be bad.

I needed to get out of this hallway. There was no place to hide. But judging by his voice, he was right around the corner. If I tried to leave through the only exit, he would spot me immediately.

His voice was nearing and I did the next best thing.

I sprinted across the hall to the entrance, where there was a small ledge that separated the other hallway and this one. I compressed my stomach, trying to make myself as skinny as possible. David Kleizmick's voice echoed through the hallways.

"I thought I told you to take care of it, Anton!" he paused for a moment. "I don't care what they say! I want it, so you get it! I'm the richest man in the world. It shouldn't be that hard!"

David passed by me, too busy shouting through his phone to his assistant to notice the teenage girl standing right next to him.

"Buy the house! I don't care if the owners are requesting 4.5 million when it's worth 20k! I want the house, so I will get the damn house!"

As he continued down the hallway, I slipped out and around the corner, his shouts receding. My heart was beating too fast and my brain barely realized that David Kleizmick had just made a horrible irrational decision. He never does that. In fact, he wasn't even in the real estate business. Not that I know of.

I made my way through the house and to the front. I sprinted down the stairs and sighed in relief as the front doors came into view. I needed to get out of this place.

"Vera?"

I stopped, body going rigid as I slowly turned in response to the voice that had called my name. I looked up at the boy standing at the top of the double stairs and awkwardly waved my hand, "Hi."

I internally cursed. Awkward is not acting normal, Vera. Get it together.

Jordan gave a small smile and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Hi. What are you doing here?"

His unreadable but all-knowing green eyes were locked onto hers as she tried to figure out what to say. There was something about them, a certain sadness...

I shook my head. Focus.

I stuttered, trying to think of something, "Oh, well- um- I was going to talk to Julia since she just came back home, you know?"

"Oh," he said.

"Yeah," I quickly turned again, "I'll see you later."

"Wait!" He shouted and I stopped. "Why are you leaving without talking to her?"

I closed my eyes and cursed myself before turning back around. Why didn't I find a better excuse?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I turned around and spoke, hands fidgeting with the hem of my shirt, as I tried to cover my lie, "Well, after I got here I thought that maybe I should give her some time to process before we bomb her with questions, you know?"

It wasn't a complete lie. That was the only reason I haven't talked to Julia yet. I would have to soon though. I need to figure out why she confessed to a murder that I committed.

Jordan's eyes held mine for a moment longer, thinking over my reasoning. Finally, he broke eye contact, sighing.

"Well, I'll see you at school then."

"You too," I called and turned to the door. My last image of mansion was him standing on the staircase, staring in the direction of the Family Hall.

I rushed out of the house, the door closing automatically behind me. I had taken my anxiety medicine, but it was still too much to handle. Almost getting caught by David Kleizmick and then lying to Jordan again was starting to bring up the guilt in my stomach. My walls were becoming weaker, nearly at their breaking point, and I knew it. But I would have to deal with that later. First, I needed to get out of here.

I pedaled as fast as I could, back down the road to the gate.

I hate the Kleizmick Mansion.

Vera: Vote if you know how to pick a lock!