Darkness Finds You [Andley]

Chapter Fifteen

Andy stared at the ceiling. The text mentioned cotton candy; out of all the sweets and sugary foods in the world, it mentioned cotton candy.

So now he had both Matt's pin, and the reference to the pure fluff of sugar Matt had the night of the carnival as somewhat evidence. Only somewhat.

It still didn't add up. Why would Matt do all of this? What did he have to gain from killing people? What did he have to gain from stalking Andy? They were best friends, what would drive him to do something like this...
Andy had gone through old case files a few days ago to read over the case Ashley had told him about; the one that got his dad killed. It was hard for him to read over, knowing how heartbroken it made Ashley and all, but it only increased the level of confusion. Especially now that Andy was looking for connections with Matt in the equation. None of it made sense. Matt didn't move to town until a few years after that case had closed, so there's no way Matt would have known about it. Andy never mentioned it, either.

This was all giving Andy one massive headache... Should he confront Matt?

No... No, he should wait. Wait and see what was going to happen next.

So that's what Andy decided he'd do; he'd wait as patiently as he could and go about his daily life.

Andy got out of bed and went to go take a shower, but was promptly interrupted by the doorbell. He rolled his eyes, glancing at the time. To be fair, it was nearly past 11 am. He hadn't been very good about waking up early lately. He opened the door, hair messy and tangled and he had pulled on a plain tee shirt before answering.
"Hello?" He sighed, and his gaze traveled downwards, meeting the gaze of a quite intimidated young girl. "Oh. Can I help you with something?" Andy observed her. She was wearing a long sleeved, powder pink shirt that was cutely decorated with colorful butterflies. Her blue jeans were worn and had a few grass stains, as well as her Sketcher's sneakers. On top of it all, she wore a mossy green colored sash, and her red hair was neatly braided. A girl scout. His eyes then moved to look at the wagon she had pulled up behind her and saw it was still pretty full with the variety of cookie boxes.
"Do- Do you want to buy some cookies?" She stammered. The poor girl couldn't even make eye contact for more than two seconds, she was clearly not comfortable with this. "Pl.. Please?"
Andy furrowed his brow. "Um, look, I'm not-"
"Hurry up, ginger, he's not gonna buy them!" Andy looked up and saw three other girl scouts, who were clearly older than the girl at the door, giggling quietly to themselves. Contrary to the state of the redhead girl's wagon, the other girls had hardly anything left to sell. He noticed the small girl grimace and he knelt down to be at eye-level.

"Do you like to be called that? Ginger?" Andy asked softly. The girl, still avoiding eye contact, shook her head quickly, braids moving with the movement. "What's your name?"
"Hannah.." She kept her gaze on the sidewalk. Andy smiled a little.
"Well, Hannah. How much a box?"
She held up four fingers shyly. Damn. Four bucks a box?
"I'll go get my wallet.." He stood up again and left momentarily, returning as he fingered through a wad of bills that was shoved in the pocket of his wallet. "Here." Andy extended his hand and offered her a 20 and a 5. Her green eyes widened, lighting up with excitement.

"Really?!" She beamed. Andy nodded.
"Yep. Now I'll take..." He looked at the wagon again. "Actually, wait here." He left again to get a bag for the boxes of cookies and grabbed something from his office. Andy came back and stepped outside to the wagon of cookies. He picked out 7 boxes and gave her a faint smile as he brought the bag of boxes inside. Andy  knelt down again, grabbing the other item he'd gotten from his office. "Do you want to know something?"
Hannah nodded.
"Did you know I'm a detective?" He smiled.
The small girl's eyes bulged once again, face lighting up. "No way! That's so cool, mister!"
"Uh huh. And I think you're doing a great job, so I think you deserve your own badge." Andy revealed the small plastic police badge and attached it to her sash. The department sometimes handed out fake badges to kids that would come visit or something, and Andy from time to time took some to give out to neighbor kids.

"Oh my gosh!" She gasped, gaping at it. "Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome." He laughed and stood up. "Now go on, you've got more cookies to sell."
Hannah nodded, a new confidence to her as she tugged her wagon back to the main side walk. Just as Andy turned to go back inside, the girl called out to him again.

"Hey, mister! You have a package in your mail box!" She called out as she walked away. Andy nodded, waving to her as he made his way to the mail box placed in the corner of his front lawn. He looked at the box that was shoved into the mouth of the mail box and sighed, pulling it out and going back inside with it.

No return address, no receiving address, just Andy's name. With a shaky exhale, Andy opened it, stomach dropping as he observed the item so delicately attached to a piece of paper. A note, no doubt.

'Wear this to work, sweetie.

xo 27' 

And 'this' was a powdery pink satin collar, with black lace edging and black ribbon on the front. Hanging from the ribbon was a small heart charm with the word Kitten delicately engraved in a fancy cursive. Andy let out another shaky breath and lifted it slowly. He went to the mirror hung up in the hallway and tilted his head down to hook it on with the clasp that was attached at the ends of the satin. Andy looked back in the mirror and chewed his lip. It didn't look that bad... The pink and black combination blended really nicely, and it seemed to compliment his porcelain-like complexion. It made him feel... cute. Andy left it on, blushing darkly as he went to dress for work.
He pulled on a turtle neck, one his mom had gotten him because it was 'cold in Missouri.' He hadn't worn it until now. Andy pulled some pants on and his trench coat, buttoning it up as far as it would go. He wanted to hide the collar, no matter how cute it was. 

"Oh, Biersack got lucky last night." Was the first thing he heard as he got to his desk. They thought he was hiding hickeys... Great.

He pulled his phone out to distract himself and saw the message notification.

Mini golf course at 11 pm. See you there.

xo 27

So now he had to worry about finally coming face to face with this freak? This was going to be a long day....

A/N: attached is the photo of the collar ;3