"Who knows?"
"Hold on..." she muttered, taking a few steps back, positioning her fingers in the shape of a rectangle.
"Huh?" I gave a perplexed look. 'What the fuck is she doing?'
"Move over," she gestured, trying to shoo me away.
I had no fucking clue what the girl was doing, but by the looks of her actions and movements, it seemed that she was trying to create an image in her head, using the rectangle outline. She squinted a couple times, at something across the street that caught my attention as well. A child care centre sat directly across from the window, with two icons; a blue boy and a pink girl, which for some reason seemed so familiar to me. Both images had no detail on the faces, and they were technically colourful gingerbread people. The cliche triangular dress of the pink girl triggered a wire in the back of my mind, then I knew what it was.
"Restroom." We both muttered at the same time, turning around to make a dash to the end of the hallway, with bathrooms on both sides.
What Alicia had been trying to do was focus the rectangular outline around one of the two gender icons. It all made sense when I thought about it. Of course The Nightmare would use a unique clue to reveal her whereabouts. The only problem was: which bathroom held the next clue? I made a sharp turn into the men's room, hastily glancing around the enclosed area, in a search of any possible clue, even if it was a piece of garbage on the floor. It may have been ridiculous to check the toilets and urinals, but we were in pursuit of a serial killer worse than Ted Bundy and the Zodiac combined.
'Come on...' my hand frustratedly pushed open the second stall of the three, disappointment rushing all over when nothing turned up. I quickly exited the middle stall, heading into the final one, praying that I would find something. Nothing. A groan of pure frustration ran from my lips as I punched the stall door, clenching my fists- hard. I depressingly came out from the tight area, slumping against the wall to think what I should do next. 'Should I...' my eyes trailed off...hitting the trash can that neatly sat beside the sink, seemingly clean to my view. 'I'll do it.' I stood up straight from the wall, nervously striding over to the garbage can and standing over it, glaring down at the black lid. My hand trembled as it pushed in the opening, worried for what kind of trash awaited inside.
"CHARLIE!!!" the men's door slammed open, causing me to release my hand from the garbage can. "Wait...what the fuck are you doing?"
"Uhh...erm...looking for clues?" I stuttered.
"You don't have to, I found it," she smiled.
"Show me," I requested.
"Gladly," she turned around, opening the bathroom door and holding it open for me to walk through before trailing out after me.
"Can you just bring it out?" I mumbled as the coroner opened the women's room door wide open for me to enter.
"I can't," she mumbled. "I might smudge it."
'Smudge?' I tilted my head, utterly confused what my friend meant.
"Follow me," she rolled her eyes.
The teenage girl dragged me into the restroom of the opposite gender, not bothering to care whether it was against my will. 'So this is what a women's room looks like on the inside,' I curiously gazed around the much cleaner bathroom, immediately envying the sanitation in here. It was slightly smaller in here, but there were six stalls which made sense, since women didn't use urinals like us men. However, the interior design of the restroom was the least to be concerned about, and Alicia stomped on my foot to refocus my attention back to her again. I let out a small screech, turning around and wincing at the throbbing pain that this girl managed to produce.
"What am I looking at?" I gave an unimpressed look at her, leaning one arm against the wall to let my right leg stand on its own, and to allow some relief rush into my left foot.
"You'll see," she smirked, taking one step towards the hand dryer. "All I have to do is do this..." her hand shifted the position of the opening, facing it towards the paper towel that hung from the dispenser. "And all you have to do is watch it."
"Huh? Why?" I raised my eyebrow again at her remark, cautiously watching as she punched the button that activated the high speed dryer.
"Because this happens."
The dryer blew out a wave of hot air, close enough to the paper towel dispenser to blow wind into the loose towel that hung from the black container. A corner lifted, then another, and soon the whole paper towel flipped upwards. Shock acquainted with my eyes as a flash of red flickered on the other side of the sheet, revealing a note.
To Dan,
Though the bears won't bleed yet, I'll fly over to C and do my job. However, since this is Idaho, here's the next clue.
What's brown and can be held in your hand, eaten out of like a pan, or used for fast food and lazy weekends? They have eyes like us humans, but many more than two, and are born underground in huge bunches too? Once you find out what it is, expect death to welcome a friend.
"What the fuck is this?" I pinned the top corner to the dispenser to have a thorough observation.
"A riddle," Alicia muttered disappointedly. "Dan's gonna be so thrilled, once he gets here."
"Psh, yeah, of course he will."
(You guys can comment your answers to the riddle I made up, but I doubt you will since the answer is easy as pie 😂😂😂)
YOU ARE READING
Blame: Book 2- Tick Tock (The Sequel to Book 1)
Mystery / Thriller(READ "BLAME: BOOK 1" TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS SEQUEL.) It's been a year since the Nightmare Murders, and Woody is still bedridden, trapped within the grasp of a coma. Meanwhile, Dan's leg had healed, and he was getting his career back on track aft...
