"Another case? Again?"

Pɾσραɠαɳԃα

Cesar was still on the phone with his mother when Mark had left the house. It wasn't until Cesar had gotten off the phone that he noticed Mark had left. He checked around the whole house, including the basement. He hated his basement, maybe because of that simple prank Mark had did when the two of them were 7 and 8. He didn't even not to think of it, he wanted to get in and out. When Cesar didn't find Mark, he began to be angry.

"How could you let him leave? How pathetic.." Cesar growled, and sat down on the couch with frustration and anger inside him. He started to think of a plan to get Mark back into his caring hands before the world took him away from him once more. Changing him slowly.

Cesar started to draw out a pretty good route in his head, and he started to think of where Mark could've gone.

"Possibly his house, Dave's, or to the old diner...huh, should at least check around and see where his tracks lead." Cesar thought, as he snickered and headed for the front door, opening it as it creaked. He looked around the house, and found footprints.

"Great, gotta find where he went." The direction was towards Marks house, but also Mandela. He followed the footprints, trying his best to match with Marks walking distance, which was a little bit larger than Cesar's. I mean, how couldn't it be? Mark was at least 5'10 or something, and he had pretty large footsteps anyways.

Cesar made it to Marks house soon, and started walking around. Sarah's body was still there, but it smelt awful in the household. Cesar had to hold his nose in order to get the stench out of his smell, and he headed upstairs. He didn't really know why he was heading upstairs, but he didn't even bother anymore. He snooped around, and found nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cesar had fond Marks footprints again, and started following them. "Headed to town, eh?" Cesar chuckled, as he stared at the prints and the pretty woods. He smiled, he wished that the town was like this more often, mainly at night also. But he should be focused on Mark. He went back to staring ahead and following the prints in the powdery snow, knowing he would catch up to Mark sooner or later.

Cesar kicked some of the snow up, and it fluttered down like birds. He smiled even more. But he began to focus back on Mark, but continued to kick up the snow every few minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark was around the edge of town, not far, but not close either. Mark looked around, saw a yellow house, but continued walking.

"Who'd want a house THAT color?" Mark thought, as he looked back over at the house shrouded by trees. He shrugged, and continued walking towards town. He looked behind him also, just to make sure no one was following him. And from what he could tell, no one was. But poor Mark didn't know. Mark didn't know that Cesar, the friend whom killed his sister, WAS following him. And Mark was anxious about that. But he moved forward, and picked up pace.

He heard a few trees lose branches, and jumped each singular time. Frowning, he started to run. He hated winter, and Christmas too. He didn't get why he hated Christmas, it was just never his favorite holiday. Halloween was more his kind of thing, and Cesar and him often went trick-or-treating together. But Mark couldn't go back t those times no more, he knew Cesar was... what's the word.. different?

"Something else." Mark thought, as he made it to the shop at the end of Main St.

"Finally, I made it. Maybe the tech shops open, gonna have to look. Dave always has it open during weird times.." Mark has slowed down, into a regular walk as he made it on the sidewalk, walking. The snow had stopped, it had finally made the sidewalk white enough.

Few cars drove by Mark, and their high speeds down the road made winds crash into Mark, and he often had to shield himself from the cold crisp wind. He arrived at the tech place.

"MandelaTech? Couldn't be anymore tacky.." Mark chuckled, and entered without looking at the time that the place was open or closed. The doorbell rang, and Mark was met with the scent of old books.

"Oh, hi Mark! How ya doin?" Dave called from the cashiers desk, and he started to walk out from behind.

"Oh, i'm fine. I just sort of um.. wanted to ask a question.." Mark scratched the back of his neck, and he waited for Dave to get out of the cashiers desk. "Oh? What is it then, Mark?" Dave asked, as he walked over and gave Mark a hug.

"C-can I stay at your place for awhile?" Mark hugged Dave back, his stomach hurting from asking the question so dryly.

"Oh, course you can! You know you can come down anytime ya like." Dave let go  and so did Mark. Mark tugged on his strings to his hoodie, and frowned.

"Yea, I know it's just.. I can't leave.. Sarah.. alone you know?" Dave seemed to notice that he stopped at Sarah's name, and his face turned from a smile to a line.

"What's wrong with Sarah?" Dave asked, his tone wasn't serious, it still had that kind of energy you can always find him in. "She's... umm.. d-dead.." Mark looked away, and his eyes started to burn like matches just being lit.

The room was filled with silence, besides Marks pitiful sniffles.

"She's.. what?" Dave finally asked, his face showed that he was in utter shock at the sudden news. "I don't want to talk about it, can I just stay here..?" Mark looked over at Dave, and saw the shock in his eyes.

"S-sure, just don't go back to your house.." Dave hugged Mark again, and Mark started to sob. The two of them continued hugging until Mark let go, and asked for a little bit of water. A few minutes later, Dave came back with a glass of iced water.

"Thanks.." Mark took a few sips, sat down, and drank the rest.

"Is there anything I can do to.. help?" Dave asked, as he sat next to his nephew. "Don't think so.." Mark rubbed his fingers around the edge of the glass, watching it go round and round. It reminded him of when the class sang "The wheels on the bus" all the time, it made him often feel happy. He smiled slightly, but it turned back to a sad expression when he stopped.

The door rang, and Mark looked over. Dave did also, as he wasn't always a person to get customers often.

"So, I see where you were off to." Cesar said, smiling ear to ear.

                  "Why are you here?"

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