(( Warning! Death and Past Abuse!
(( Also, I felt like I should've mentioned this earlier, but in this AU no one knows each other and Connor and Zoe are not related.
Evan and Jared exchanged a look before trampling back through the house, desperately trying to find the staircase as the screaming continued.
Finally, the two managed to locate it and climbed the stairs, then following the sound of screaming down the hall to a room.
Jared flung the door open to find Ms. Peacock shrieking at the top of her lungs, Mustard trying to comfort her, and a dead body in the corner of the bedroom.
"Get away from me!" Ms. Peacock backed away from Mustard. "It was you, it had to be you!"
Mustard scrunched up her face, "What! How on earth could it have been me!"
"You went one way, I went another! While I was searching another room, you killed him!" Ms. Peacock said frantically.
"And you think you wouldn't have heard me!" Mustard crossed her arms, how do I know you didn't do it!"
"Do you think I'm dumb enough to have strangled him then called for help-"
"Enough!" Connor entered the room. "Before we go around making crazy accusations, why don't we look at the body, hm?"
Jared was both comforted and frightened by Connor's presence. Even though he knew Connor would never hurt him, could he have hurt someone else?
Evan slowly made his way over to the body and leaned down, before lightly prodding the body. "Well, rigor mortis has set in, so he'd definitely been dead for a while."
"Great, so crazy Mr. Boddy there had a dead body in his house before we got here, go figure." Mustard huffed.
"Is it Mr. Green?" Jared asked.
"No, he's too old to be Mr. Green, he couldn't possibly be a student." Ms. Peacock objected.
That was definitely true, the man had slightly graying hair. If Jared had to guess, he would've said the man looked to be in his late 40's.
"Well here, let me see." Evan awkwardly began to dig through the man's green waistcoat, until he pulled out a green envelope.
Everyone in the room went silent as Evan began to read the letter out loud,
"Dear Larry Murphy,"
"How nice." Jared snorted, before he was shushed by Ms. Peacock.
"I am pleased to invite you to a special dinner party on the evening of October 30th. Now, I know you're a busy man, but I do think I have something that might pique your interest. You see, I have stumbled across some information regarding your company, specifically the financial stability of it. I do wish for you to come, as I'm you don't want this information out in the public eye anymore than I do."
"That's outrageous!" Mustard slammed her hand on the wall.
"Sincerely, Mr. Boddy." Evan finished.
Jared felt an uneasiness in his stomach, his letter had sounded eerily similar to Mr. Green's, er, Larry Murphy's.
He just hoped that the group wouldn't be reading his letter over his dead body.
"How did he die?" Connor asked, staring at the cold figure before them.
"Uh, I don't know," Evan searched the man a bit more. "Poison maybe? He doesn't have any sort of marks. It could've been natural?"
"I highly doubt it." Ms. Peacock objected.
"But poison takes a long time to take effect sometimes, right?" Connor asked. "Who would've had the time?"
"Well, it's very possible Mr. Boddy killed him." Evan suggested.
"Bullshit!" Mustard argued, pacing now. "Why not skip the formalities then? Why invite him to the dinner party if he wouldn't be able to participate?"
"Maybe he planned to kill all of us?" Peacock muttered, sinking down onto the bed.
"Enough, this is unproductive." Connor decided, tapping his foot on the floor. "We need to continue our search for the phone, then the police can figure everything out." Connor glanced over at Jared, and stood up a little straighter, puffing his chest out.
As Jared stared into Connor's eyes, he noticed something. The earlier calmness in Connor's face had been replaced with... fear?
No, it couldn't be, Connor had been so confident earlier.
"Jared, maybe you should come with me-" Connor began to reach a hand out to wipe the hair from Jared's face when he was interrupted by Ms. Peacock.
"You can't leave me with her, she's probably the murderer!"
"I'm not, but I don't want to be with crazy here." Mustard leaned up against the wall.
"It's fine." Jared smiled at Connor. "I'll just go with Mustard and Mr. White can go with Ms. Peacock." Connor frowned but nodded.
Evan looked relieved to not be with Mustard or Connor.
"Alright then, let's get back to work." Connor nodded, pulling Jared into the hall for a quick kiss before he left. "Stay safe."
"You too." Jared called after him. Everyone else shuffled out of the room.
"Ready?" Mustard stood with her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, let's not split up though, better to stay together after someone else just died." Jared walked down the hallway, Mustard following him.
"Fair enough." Mustard shrugged, letting Jared lead.
"So, what's your name, if you're comfortable of course." Jared asked, peeking into another bedroom. "I'm Jared."
"Zoe." She replied, following him into the room.
"Pretty name." He commented, opening the closet door.
She smiled, "What, did you pair up with me so you could flirt with me?" Zoe raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Oh god no." Jared chuckled. "That Professor Plum is my boyfriend."
"I see." Zoe smirked. "You trying to hide a secret from him?"
"Aren't you trying to hide a secret from someone?" Jared asked, digging through Victorian style clothing out of curiosity.
"Of course, but you see I don't have a single thing to hide from anybody here." She tilted her head. "He's hiding something from you too."
Jared threw what was probably a dress worth more than his house to the floor in anger. "Trust me, mine's worse than whatever his is! I love him no matter what." He said firmly.
"That's very bold of you to say." Zoe plucked the dress off the floor and smoothed it out. "Or as some would say, naive."
"Yeah whatever." Jared huffed.
Zoe thought for a second, "How about this, I tell you what my secret is, and you tell me yours. And I swear, I won't say a word of it to Plum, if I do you can reveal my secret to the whole world."
Jared mulled it over in his head, "Alright, that makes sense."
Zoe smiled, "Perfect, it all started about four years ago, but it's hard to keep track now-"
~~~
It started with a keychain. It was bright pink, sparkly, and it had her name on it. She had just slipped it absentmindedly into her pocket while shopping and hadn't even realized it have there until several days later while doing laundry.
But there was something about it that just made it so... exciting.
It happened a couple more times, small items, like chapstick and gum. An easy slip into her pocket and no one would notice it missing.
Then, it became more frequent, and the items got larger and more expensive. Jeans were her favorite to steal, easy and lightweight but useful. She stole anything she could fit into her body without suspicion. Movies, jewelry, digital cameras, picture frames. Nothing was off limits. She even managed to smuggle an IPhone out of the store once.
It wasn't even as if she couldn't afford these items, her parents had plenty of money to do so. It wasn't about the items at all, it was about the rush. She had never felt such a rush of adrenaline as when she stole something expensive.
~~~
"-I'm a klepto." Zoe finished, hanging her head. "I just got addicted, and I couldn't stop. No, I didn't want to stop." She stared off into space. "I was still doing it up until I got that letter."
Jared slowly sat down on the bed next to her. "It's okay, that's something you can fix. It's an addiction, just like with cigarettes or drugs."
"Cigarette addictions don't give you a felony." She laughed. "Alright now, you're up my dude."
Jared nervously chuckled, "Okay, I guess, but it goes back a long time, even before I was born actually-"
~~~
"You're not doing it right."
A six-year old Jared sat up a little straighter, fingers gracefully moving across the piano keys.
"No! You'll never do it like him at this rate!"
Jared bit his lip, small hands trembling as he replayed the same melody.
"Forget it, go to your room!" The woman's voice was sharp, and Jared knew later on he would really get it from her, but for now, he simply obeyed her instructions.
Jared knew why he wasn't playing piano right, it was because of him.
His brother. Long before Jared had been born, his parents had had another child, Jeff.
Jeff had been perfect. Or, at least, that's what his parents told him. Jeff had played football, Jeff had played piano, Jeff had won the spelling bee, Jeff had all the friends.
Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Jeff.
Then, Jeff had gotten sick at age thirteen, and was bedridden for two years until died. A year later, Jared had been born.
Jared had been born to replace his brother.
"Jared, you'll never be able to play football like Jeff if you don't get big and strong."
"No Jared, you can't study ventriloquism, don't you want to be a doctor like Jeff?"
"Jared, if you don't study your vocabulary words you'll never get as far in the spelling bee as Jeff."
Jeff was Jared's life.
Years later, at age thirteen, Jared's parents really began to push him. He wasn't living up to their expectations, and he knew it. He was benched at every single football game, his small stature was not built for a game like football. His piano skills definitely lacked quality, but he did discover an interest in the trumpet, which he was not allowed to pursue. At the spelling bee he got out on the word bisque, his mother cried and locked herself in her room that night. But most importantly, Jared didn't have any friends.
That lead to a lot of time locked in his room, telling his parents he was studying while he was actually reading comedy books he had smuggled from the school library.
One particular time at the library, in the very back, Jared had discovered a magazine. A special magazine, filled with pictures of half-naked boys.
Jared's parents had always encouraged him to get a girlfriend, as Jeff had had several before he died. However, seeing these pictures made him way more excited than seeing a girls picture.
So, he brought it home and hid it under his mattress.
And life continued like usual, Jared kept doing exactly what his parents wanted him to do, and his parents kept telling him how Jeff did things.
Then, one night, Jared's mother had been cleaning around his room when she happened to check under the mattress, discovering Jared's magazine.
That night had been chaos. His father had beat him senseless while his mother cried, asking why he couldn't just be good, to do what they say. Eventually, Jared was just left on the floor, tears, sweat, mucus, and blood all mixed together on his face.
After that night, Jared decided to never let anyone in again. He was to just be Jeff, he would not feel anything original ever again. He would be obedient and someday his parents would love him.
And he lived like that, for two years, until he was put into Connor Murphy's science class.
Jared by then had mastered the art of getting superficial friends, fake ones he could use to advance himself up the social ladder.
The moment he had spoke to Connor, he knew there was something different about him. He didn't care about fake talk.
Later that night, while Jared was laying in bed, a piece of Jared that had been missing for two years thawed out.
Ever since that day, Jared spent his time around Connor, trying to impress the boy, to woo him.
And miraculously, Jared succeeded.
~~~
"-My parents still don't know we're dating, even though I told Connor they do. He doesn't know any of this, and you can't tell him." Jared stared at Zoe.
"He'd understand-" Zoe insisted, her voice and eyes softening.
Jared's eyes glossed over, "I don't want him to look at me like I'm broken, just like everyone else who learns about it does."