G.U.A.R.D. Book #1: Clandestine

-12-

    We walked to my house. The front door creaked open when I unlocked it. The familiar scents of home wafted towards me. We left the door open, since it would only be a short while, and I went to my bedroom. I searched everywhere for the sketchpad. Finally, I came back out to Winter.

"Fine it?" she asked, drinking a soda.

"No," I answered, seating myself on the counter. "Hey, where did you get that?"

She shrugged. "Found it in your cabinet. Why?"
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Nothing."

"So did you miss it at our house?"

"Maybe... I'll check the parents' bedroom."

Making my way up the stairs and down the hall, I entered the parents' very white living space and began a complete sweep of their stuff, starting from the back. When I came to the wooden chest in front of their bed, I found it locked. But then it always was. They never told us what they kept in there, but I guess it never occurred to me.

Flinging open their wardrobe doors, I moved the clothes from side to side. Nothing. Then I grabbed the stool from the vanity and jumped on top of it. The top part of the wardrobe was covered in two shelves, where the parents rarely looked. In fact, I had never seen them cast even a small glance in them. I didn't know what was up there...

It was a little darker in the shelves, and musty, too. Both were lined with dirty dust, as if no one had been up there in a while. After looking around for a second, I moved a small box out of the way and smiled when I saw my sketchpad. But what was it doing up here?

Grabbing the thin book, I skimmed through its pages. Everything seemed in order. All normal. Drawings, no color. Probably a prank from Conner.

Wait a minute.

What was that?

I quickly flipped the pages back to the one of the girl standing on a snowy hill. The one I had drawn back in December. And the one Mom said reminded her of something she did when she was younger. Ah! There is was. I stared at it in shock. There was a dry, brown smudge right on the head of the girl. It looked like... blood. Confused and uneasy, I looked back in the wardrobe and spotted a few more boxes that had hidden my sketchpad. Could there be something behind those as well...?

I threw my sketchpad to the ground, moved the boxes, and stared around curiously. There wasn't anything there besides a ballpoint pen. I picked it up suspiciously, rubbing my thumb over its silver surface. It had a black grip. I clicked the button, and the point came out.

"Hm," I mused. It seemed completely ordinary.

Quickly moving all the boxes back in place, I jumped down from the stool and picked up my sketchbook. I felt a chill upon seeing the brown smudge, and I closed the book. What could it mean? Did Mom and Dad spills something on the drawing and decide to hide it? But they wouldn't do that. We were a Christian family; we didn't lie, even if they did keep their business trips secret.

With a sigh, I held the sketchbook to my chest and looked at the pen. I frowned, noticing a little bump under the clip. A button. Reaching under the clip with my thumbnail, I pressed it, and a red light shone from a small, black square in the middle of the pen. Stupidly, I turned the object at my face, and ended up with a throbbing eye. Ouch. turning the pen away, I shone the on the white wall, and after rubbing my eyes, I was able to see what it was.

It was a letter. Or it looked like a letter. The red beam glistened with a square frame, and a line of words inside of it. It read: Bwq ubdi ewpyews. Ewoie ri Vlaw 0 unnwsulrwkr.