The Next Week

It was 6:30 AM and Maxis Johnson was awake. It was somewhat unusual for her to be awake before her alarm went off, however for the past few days, that's how it's been for her.

Reaching over to the bedside table, she pulled her phone close and turned off the alarm before it could go off. After doing that, she remained laying in the bed, staring at the walls of Shannon's guest bedroom that she was staying in because neither Maxis or Kyle could go to their house, since it was still closed off for police investigation. Not like they'd want to be in that house at the moment anyway, since their older brother had been murdered in it, last week.

Taking a few minutes to wake up, Maxis got out of the bed and made her way to the kitchen. It was there that she'd see Shannon standing by the stovetop, cooking some eggs for everyone.

"You're up early again." Shannon said, smiling softly at the other female, after noticing that they came into the kitchen.

Maxis nodded, "Yeah, I guess." She said and shrugged before taking a seat at the table.

There was a few moments of silence as Shannon began to set plates of food down on the table for herself and Maxis. The two of them looked at one of the empty seats, knowing that they were still missing someone.

That caused Maxis to speak, "How is he?" She asked, referring to her brother, Kyle.

Shannon shrugged, "He really hasn't said much." She said, trying to hide her sadness. 

With Tyler's death, Maxis and Kyle grieved but they seemed to have different ways of going about it. Maxis tried to bury herself in work at the station, whereas Kyle pretty much isolated himself away from everyone else.

In fact, the last time Maxis even saw or verbally spoke to Kyle was the night of Tyler's murder, when they had to go to the station to be questioned, since Kyle was the first on the scene.

Maxis sighed but nodded before taking a bite of her food. She and Shannon both understood that people grieved differently, but they still had wished that Kyle would at least leave the bedroom he was in.

After finishing her breakfast, Maxis got up and set her plate in the sink. She said goodbye to Shannon, since she had to get ready to go to the station for work.

As Maxis left the kitchen and headed towards the guest bedroom to grab her things, she stopped at Shannon's (and Kyle's) bedroom. For a split second, she debated on going into the room and checking on him, but decided against it, as she didn't have a whole lot of time to be messing around before work.

When she had all of her belongings, Maxis left the house and got into her car, before starting it and driving off, towards the station.

***

Having arrived at the station, Maxis parked her car and turned it off, however she didn't get out just yet. Instead, Maxis opted to stay seated in the car and try to mentally prepare herself for the day ahead.

After a few moments, Maxis finally got out of her car and made her way into the station. Once inside, Maxis set her stuff down at her desk and went into the break room, where she'd pour herself a cup of coffee.

When she was done pouring her cup, Maxis headed back to her desk, where she'd grab some of the paperwork she was supposed to be working on.

As she does that, John walked over to her desk, "Good morning, Maxis."  He said, watching her just nod but not look up at him, "I think I have some somewhat good news." He added.

Having heard that, Maxis set her paperwork aside for a moment and finally looked up at John. She listened as he explained that he pulled some strings with the chief and managed to get Maxis assigned to the investigation around Tyler's murder.

Maxis was surprised by this news, which was evident by her wide eyes. However, she managed to mutter out a "Thank you" to John.

John nodded, "You're welcome to come work in my office, since you've been assigned to that case." He offered.

Maxis nodded back, "Right now?" She asked.

John nodded and the two of them made their way back to his office. When they got there, John shut the door and began to go through one of his filing cabinets.

After searching through the cabinet, John pulled out three separate folders. He sat the first one down on his desk and slid it over to Maxis, who had taken a seat in his chair.

Maxis looked at the name on the folder and saw that it was Tyler's name. This was the file relating to the most recent murder.

"Everything should be in there." John said, "notes, pictures, crime scene sketches and all that." He added.

Maxis nodded and hesitated for a moment. She braced herself as she began to open the file. She felt her stomach drop as she saw pictures of Tyler's dead body and the crime scene.

Quickly blinking back any tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, Maxis watched as John sat the other two manila folders on the desk. She raised a brow as she looked from the two files and John.

"These are from the other two recent deaths. Fong and Jones." John explained.

"Yeah?" Maxis asked, "why'd you get them out?" She added.

John shrugged, "Just in case you wanted to look at them." He said, "since all of these murders took place within a short timeframe." He added.

Maxis nodded and began to look through the other two files as well. As she did that, Maxis remained rather suspicious, due to the fact that Evan's case was closed, so she assumed that John wouldn't have any of the files still in his cabinet.

***

Later That Day

Somewhere Else...

It was now the evening. Everyone was at their homes for the night. Well, not everyone. Shannon's cousin, Brian and his friend, Brock, weren't.

At the moment, Brian and Brock were inside the parking garage that belonged to Blackwood's hotel. The hotel was where they were staying, ever since the night of Tyler's death. Some were more upset about it than others...

"I still can't fucking believe it." Brian said, "my own cousin, kicking me out of her house!"

Brock groaned and shook his head, "You're so dramatic, you know?" He said, "She simply asked us if we could stay here because of what happened to Kyle and Maxis' older brother."

Brian grumbled, "still, why couldn't they stay at the hotel instead of us."

Brock sighed, "Kyle is Shannon's boyfriend, probably going to be her husband someday, and Maxis will be her sister-in-law whenever that happens." He said, "So they should get first priority."

"I thought you'd have my back on this." Brian said, sounding somewhat genuinely offended.

"Not when you've been complaining about it all week, nonstop." Brock said.

Brian gasped, "It has not been all week! Ye fucking liar!" His Irish accent coming out a bit.

Brock chuckled and just shook his head, "come on, let's hurry back to the room and watch a movie." He said, changing the subject to distract Brian's mind from nonstop complaining.

It worked because Brian went silent and the two of them went back to their hotel room. Upon making it to their rented room, Brian took his shoes off, while Brock placed his car keys on the counter.

As Brian went it sit down, Brock furrowed his brows and fished through his pockets. Brian noticed the look on Brock's face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I think I left my phone out in the car." Brock explained before grabbing his keys, "pick a movie for us to watch, I'll be right back." He said, before leaving the hotel room.

***

It had been about thirty minutes since Brock left the hotel room and went to his car. His somewhat lengthy absence went mostly unnoticed by Brian, at last until now.

Brian was passing the time by scrolling through his phone. He just happened to have look up at the corner of his phone and saw the time. He opened up his texts and sent Brock a quick message, asking if he was soon done outside.

After sending his text, Brian heard a buzzing noise and a ding, which sounded awfully familiar to him. He looked over and saw Brock's phone sitting nearby. Brian groaned and rubbed his face for a moment. He eventually decided that he was going to go check on Brock, since he left his phone there.

***

Once he got outside, Brian headed straight for the parking garage. As he got closer, he looked up at the multistory parking garage and groaned, remembering that Brock always parks his car on one of the upper tiers. It was going to be a long walk for him.

Having walked up multiple flights of steps, Brian finally reached the level that Brock parks on. As soon as he got out of the stairway, he heard a crunching sound under his feet.

Looking down, Brian couldn't see anything, so he turned on his phone's flashlight and his eyes widened. It was Brock's keys and they seemed to be covered in blood.

"What the fuck?" Brian muttered to himself.

Bending over to pick them up, Brian noticed that there was a little trail of blood from where the keys were sitting. Going against his better judgement, Brian began to follow the blood spots.

The trail of blood had lead Brian to Brock's car. Brock was no where to be seen, either.

"Brock?! Where are you?! And are you okay?!" Brian called out.

Obviously, there was no answer. As Brian stood by the car, he noticed that the trunk wasn't shut right and that there was something sticking out of it.

With his curiosity peaking, Brian opened the rear trunk of the car. Once the trunk was open, Brian was horrified at what he saw. It was Brock and he was dead! His body was covered in blood and stab wounds and had been shoved in the trunk of the car.

Brian backed away from the car, feeling sick, disgusted and horrified. He didn't get many steps back because he bumped into someone.

Slowly turning around, Brian was face to face with Ghostface. Brian shouted a few profanities and began to take off running for his life.

Brian didn't get to far as Ghostface quickly caught up to him, and when they did, they wrapped a gloved hand over Brian's mouth and proceeded to stab him in his back.

The knife pierced the right spot because Brian sank to the ground while crying out in pain. Ghostface now towered over Brian and began to stab him repeatedly, over and over again.

The stabbing continued for quite sometime and just as Ghostface was about to deliver the final stab, they noticed that Brian was looking off in a different direction.

Ghostface whipped their head over to the direction that Brian was looking in and in the distance, they could see a car driving onto their level of the parking garage.

Taking that as their cue to leave, Ghostface sprinted away from the scene, leaving Brian laying on the ground to bleed out.

~~~

Oh my what a cliffhanger! Poor Brian! We hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and see you in the next one!