After finishing their detention with Mrs Badcock, the four girls were even more determined to discover the mystery of who it was that was sending them strange messages.

And they decided to do that the only way they knew how: by breaking into someone's house.

Detective Ikbal's house to be precise.

The four friends stood in front of his house, staring at the door apprehensively.

"How exactly is this going to help us?" Abir asks in annoyance.

"I'm not quite sure, but it'll be fun anyway!" Alice exclaims whilst eating a bag of sugar.

"Where did you get that?" Mahnoor says, pointing to the overflowing bag.

"I always carry it with me, just in case I need a sugar boost." Alice's grins erratically.

"Okay then. Anyway, how are we going to get inside?" Abir turns back to the door.

"Let's kick it open!" Oliwia screams as she charges head first at the door.

Surprisingly, the door snaps open and Oliwia falls through, landing with a splat on the welcome mat.

"Well done Oliwia! You're finally useful." Abir says as Oliwia stands up and looks around.

"What now?" Alice giggles, pouring the last of the sugar into her mouth.

"Let's split up and look for clues!" Mahnoor exclaims before grabbing Oliwia and dragging her upstairs.

Abir and Alice wander into the kitchen, searching for food.

"I'm going to make a sandwich!" Alice says happily. She grabs a large knife from a drawer and begins chopping up the bread.

"Ew. That knife had blood on it." Abir mutters, then yells at her phone as she dies in her game.

"It adds flavour. Do you think Ikbals the killer?" Alice asks, her mouth full of blood-stained bread.

"Yeah. Let's go see what Mahnoor and Oliver have found." Abir throws Alice into the hallway along with some bread.

Alice quickly eats the bread then turns around as Manhood and Olive come downstairs.

"Quick! Come and see what we found!" Manhoor yells.

Abir holds up the knife, "We think Ikbal is the killer." She exclaims as the blood from the knife drips onto Alice.

"So do we! Look at this!" Olivia says, leading the girls into a room upstairs.

The girls stare in awe at the walls of the room. Thousands of their faces stare back at them. Pictures of them have been plastered onto every corner of the room.

"It's beautiful." Alice whispers happily and Abir nods in agreement.

"It reminds me of Maddie's bedroom." Mahnoor says thoughtfully.

Suddenly, before anyone could say anything more, the door slams open to reveal a shadowy figure.

"IKBAL! What're you doing here?" The girls exclaim.

"This is my house. And you've seen somethings you shouldn't have." He whispers angrily.

"So you were the killer all along?" Alice sobs dramatically.

"Yes." He nods.

"But why ikbal? Why?"

"Gather round children and let me explain."

"It all started about a year ago, before Fiona's death. You see, I secretly have a daughter, someone you might know." He pauses for effect.

"Maddie Cooper."

The girls gasped in surprise.

"Yes that's right, Maddie is my daughter. And Maddie fell in love with you!" He exclaims as he raises his hand and points it firmly at Mahnoro.

"Me? Well, I am pretty irresistible."

"Exactly. But Maddie soon became jealous of your best friend Fiona Filipowski and of how close the two of you were. She spread some lies that led to you two hating each other but then you started hating Maddie as well! So, she had no choice but to kill Fiona.
I helped, of course, by hiding all evidence of Maddie being he killer and then planted clues that pointed to you four. I framed you and you never even saw it coming."

Iqbal paused to smile devilishly, then continued.

"But you still didn't notice her, in fact, you seemed to hate her even more! She slowly went mad, covering her bedroom wall in pictures of you, (this is her room when she comes to stay with me so she put these pictures up as well) and sending messages disguised as Fiona in order to make you love her."

Abir shifted slightly, unbeknownst to Ikbal, gripping something in her hand.

"Eventually she decided it would be best to talk to you face to face. So, I'm the dawn of a new year, she prepared to confess her love. But, for some stupid reason, you four and always together! Maddie couldn't confess in front of all of you and then you managed to kill her!"

Ikbal yelled in sorrowful disbelief.

"I made sure that it was seen as suicide. I couldn't let you go to jail, that would be too nice of a punishment for someone who killed my daughter. I was determined to make you suffer.

And you will."

Ikbal stopped speaking and slowly locked the door behind him, dropping the key into his pocket. He turned back around to stare at the girls.

"I think I'll start with... you." He grinned as his eyes landed on Manhunt.
"You were the one who caused all of this after all."

He then walked further into the room, moving closer to Manor.

Ikbal reaches over, gripping Mannor's wrist tightly in his shaking hand. Then, with his other hand, turns to-

He stops moving, his eyes bulging in their sockets, his hand frozen in midair, Mahnoro staring up at him in  shock and fear.

Abir stood, directly behind Ikbal, the blood-stained knife grasped firmly in her hand, shoved deep into Ikbal's back.

"H-how? Wh...what have you done?" Ikbal wheezed agonisingly.

"You forgot one crucial piece of evidence, Mr Ikbal." Abir muttered, twisting the knife back out as Ikbal yells out in pain.

Mahnoor pushed him away and moves back to stand with a shocked Oliwia and Alice.

Abir held something in the air, still gripping the dripping knife in her right hand.

"And now I've got your confession on tape. We'll go free. This was simply an act of self-defence." She explained, holding her tape record in front of Ikbal's pained face mockingly.

"And... and I could've gotten away with it if it wasn't for you four meddling kids..." Ikbal utters, his final breath slipping through his clenched teeth before his eyes glass over and he falls forward, blood soaking into the carpet.

"Abir! My hero!" Alice leaps over to Abir and hugs her tightly.

"That was amazing! How did you think to bring that tape recorder? Though... you could've just used your phone, you know?" Oliwia asks, stepping over Ikbal's body to grab his key and open the door.

"It's important to always be prepared." Abir says simply, "I brought you a sandwich by the way." She turns to Alice and passes it to her.

"Yay! I'm even more hungry now!" Alice says as she bites into her meal.

"Well done Abir, I guess you're the hero of this story. I always thought that would be me..." Mahnoro says with mock sadness.

"Hero. Or villain?" Abir whispers, a smile appearing on her lips.

"What're you talking about? Ikbal and Maddie are the villains, and they're dead!" Oliwia says slowly.

Abir stays silent, simply reaching over to her ever-present back-pack and bringing out a sleek, black object.

Four sleek, black objects, to be precise. Four guns.

Abir drops her knife beside Ikbal's body and looks into her three friends eyes.

She presses the guns into their hands, keeping one for herself.

"How can we continue after this? After what we've been through. After what we've seen." Abir shakes her head sadly. "No, the only solution is to end it. End it in the place it first began."

"Wh-what are you talking about Abir? You're scaring us! Stop this!" Alice exclaims anxiously.

"The forest. That's what I'm talking about. Where Fiona was killed. That's where it should end. We'll join her, and all the others: Maddie, Ikbal and more."

The others mutely looked at each other, then at Abir's hand, holding her loaded gun, knowing they were in no position to argue.

They followed her, leaving Ikbal's body along with the recording of his confession. All loose ends would be tied, the police would know the full story.

Into the woods, dark and deep, they walked, making their way closer to eternal sleep.

They soon reached the spot, a simple plaque marked the place she had died, and they stood, in a square, looking at each other, the friends they had known since childhood.

Without talking, that would ruin the somber mood, they simply raised their hands, the gun gripped tightly, at the person beside them.

The square was formed, they would end it all together.

There was no hesitation.

There was only the pull of the trigger and the gunpowder-laden howl that rang out into the night.

It was over.

————————————————————
A/N

Wow! What an end! What a journey!

Together we've made it through 22 chapters over the span of nearly a year. It would be nice to end on the same day as we started, May 13th, but we just couldn't wait that long!

Thank you so much for sticking by us all throughout this amazing journey, without you loyal readers, we would never have had the motivation to continue.

This is it for now. We will of course write more stories, but this is it for our first book, this is it for Midweek Murder.

Thanks for everything, and now for one last time:

You know you love us,

Pigeon, Potato, Glitter