nightimeowl

[nightimeowl]

NOTICE

I’m realizing how inconsistent I’ve been with my mini story I’ve got going on here. I’m so sorry about the inconvenience.

I’m definitely not dropping “The Murder Board”, but I am putting it on hiatus for a bit until I finish some of the other unfinished works that have been piling up for a while.

[nightimeowl]

4. Coffee Conversations

It was unusually windy when Amy stepped outside, pushing open the glass door and walking away with a bag of snacks. Amy sighed, exasperated. She eyed the local business shops as she made her way home, reading and taking in the sights from the sidewalks.

Anything to distract herself from the frustration and headache.

She’d been working at the studio for nearly three days now, Lawrence found her phone and gave it back to her, much to her relief. Amy had found nothing in the papers from the desk, nothing significant. Just scribbles and scripts, with the occasional reminder or note jotted around the edges of the papers.

Amy had been putting off the idea for a while as the police and the forensics team had already done a thorough sweep of the crime scene, so what use would going there really do?

"Amy?"

She stepped back after righting herself when she walked straight into someone. She was already apologizing before she even gave herself the chance to take in just who she ran into.

“Lawrence?”

Of all the people she’d been praying not to run into outside of “work”, Lawrence wasn’t high on the list. Didn’t mean she’d be pleased to see him.

She stumbled over her words a bit, wordlessly mouthing a few of the responses in her head before finally croaking out a response. “You-hi, hey!”

Lawrence found her expression amusing, hiding a smirk behind a closed fist before clearing his throat to continue talking to her.

“Hey.” His teasing smirk settled into a kinder smile. One Amy had grown familiar with over the recent days during her time at the studio. “Are you okay?”

Amy shook her head a bit and blinked, realizing she’d been staring off. “Yeah! Sorry. I’m good.”

There was a moment of silence between them before Amy looked at the ground, noticing her missing friend. “Where’s Ollie?”

Lawrence laughed. “At home. With my grandmother. She came to visit and Ollie absolutely loves her cause she spoils him.”

Amy laughed. “That’s cute.”

As they talked, the air settled. Amy felt more at ease and the two ended up walking down towards a cafe that recently re-opened it’s doors and Lawrence offered to buy her coffee.

The conversation never ceased, from simple topics such as Ollie and his grandmother to how they got their job at the studio. Lawrence had been working at a music shop before someone from the studio hired him on to help with the music and audio behind the scenes of the show Welcome Home.

He’d been working as an assistant with the sound director for a few years. A couple months ago, the studio been struggling to find a dog to replace the one that had retired a year ago that was well trained and would work alongside puppets.

Cue, Ollie.

Lawrence offered to bring in his dog as he’d been training Ollie since he was a puppy. Everything seemed to fall into place and the studio practically jumped at the opportunity.

“How about you?”

“Hm?” Amy blinked.

“How’d you end up at the studio?” He repeated.

“We’ll,” They finally reached the cafe, Amy held the door open for Lawrence before walking in behind him. “It’s not a long story. I just needed the job and I’m pretty good at fixing stuff. So, I figured it’d be a good fit.”

He nodded. “Makes sense.”

Lawrence was glancing over the menu overhead the tired employee standing behind the counter. He knew what he wanted, he’d been here before and they kept his favourite drink even after the re-opening. He did wonder what Amy would like though.

“What do you want?”

“I can pay-“

“I invited you.” Lawrence was already pulling his wallet out from his back pocket and pulled out a $20 bill.

Amy didn’t argue. Instead, she looked over the menu for the third time before gesturing to one of the pictures. “That one.”

Lawrence nodded and spoke to the lady behind the counter and slid over the bill when she gave him the price and gave him a round, plastic disk painted black with the number 07 on both sides.

They took their number and found a table that had been recently wiped, taking their seats before Amy placed her bag on the empty chair next to her.

It was silent between them.

Amy kept picking and fidgeting with her sleeve and Lawrence stared back and fourth between the numbered tag and Amy.

“You know, I’m actually glad I caught you today.” Lawrence broke the silence. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

This caught Amy’s interest. She picked up her head and stared at Lawrence with a smile before it faded once she noticed his expression. “Yeah?”

An employee walked over and handed the two their coffee. Amy picked it it up eagerly, anything to distract herself from the serious tone she heard coming from Lawrence, a usually playful and chill guy.

Lawrence noticed her nerves and sighed inwardly. “Amy?”

She glanced up.

“Remember, the other day, when you lost your phone?”

Amy nodded. Of course she remembered, she’d been panic for a while before Howdy calmed her down and Lawrence found it later.

What happened was after Ollie had jumped at her, he’d knocked her over hard enough that her phone slipped out her shallow pocket. And with the chaos of the bold introduction and greeting people who were clearly in a rush, she must have not noticed how her pocket suddenly felt lighter than it did when she entered the building.

“I was just wondering…” Lawrence gingerly scratched the side of his cup as he mentally picked at what his next words should be.

“Why were you taking pictures in the office?”

> Chapter 3: Little Jitter Bug <

> Chapter 5: Coffee Confessions <

[nightimeowl]

Delay?

So, I just had my wisdom teeth removed, sorry if the next chapter of “Murder Board” is a little wonky or short or things don’t make sense. I might publish it a bit late or earlier depending on how I’m feeling. Thank you so much and I hope you all have a good day or night:)

[nightimeowl]

3. Little Jitterbug

Amy had expected very little to come of this little arrangement she made for herself. She’d spotted a handful of potentially harmful, if not dangerous, equipment and stage props on her way to the security office that could injure the cast.

How this place managed to keep so little maintenance was almost impressive if not irritating.

Amy sighed and just brought her hand up to knock on the semi-open door that had the words “security office” painted in a rusty golden color. When there was no response, she cautiously pushed the door open and peered inside. “Hello?”

Amy walked inside and glanced around curiously.

“Who are you?”

Amy turned around when she heard someone step in the room. “I’m Amy, just got here.”

The uniformed man stood there, staring at her before nodding. “Ah, you must be the new hire.”

He readjusted his cap before extending his hand out to greet her. Amy shifted the papers in her hand to the other and took his hand. “Welcome to the team. I’m Sean, one of the security guards here.”

“Figured.” Amy chuckled. “You don’t look like a ‘Maria’.”

Sean laughed. “Nope, she’s out getting our coffee orders right now, but if that’s for her I can take it. I’ll just give it to her when she gets back.”

Amy handed him the paper and he glossed over it before putting it in front of one of the two empty seats that she assumed was Maria’s. “Oh and before I forget.”

Sean walked past her to one of the drawers behind her and pulled it open. “Amanda, right? Last name?”

“Yeah, it’s Amanda Brecks.”

“Perfect.” Sean exclaimed before pulling something out that made a faint jingling sound before he shut the drawer and made his way back to her. “This is yours now,”

He pushed a colorful lanyard, her picture set up next to her name and employee status written in a smaller font at the bottom. “Oh, great. Thanks.”

“No problem. Here is the lock to your locker, if you need help changing the passcode, just let one of us know and we’ll show you how. Your locker number is 094.” Sean handed her a dial lock. Amy tucked it away in her back pocket.

“Thanks Sean.”

Amy and Sean chatted for a bit before Amy left the security office and headed towards the break room. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to find and Amy found a transparent cover with a folded black shirt on the inside, her name was scrawled over the top so she knew it was hers. She picked it up and pulled out the shirt, unfolding it with a flap. Amy looked over before throwing out the covering. She contemplated changing her shirt there but decided against it and made her way to the locker room instead.

When she finally made it, she followed the decreasing numbers on the locker plates before reaching 094. Amy pulled it open and placed her lock and lanyard inside. She pulled her shirt off, folding it and putting it on the single shelf of her small locker before pulling the shirt given to her over her head and pulling it down. After adjusting it, she grabbed the lanyard and lock before shutting the door. She fidgeted with the dial lock for a bit before checking if her new passcode worked. Once she was satisfied, she hooked her lock around the looker door and clicked it shut, tugging it a few times to make sure it was secure.

She walked out the locker room with her lanyard hanging off her neck. Amy wandered around aimlessly, just trying to memorize a basic layout of the place to make her job easier. Besides, her shift didn’t actually start until half an hour, John later explained that he figured it would do her some good to get familiar with the place as it was a pretty fast-paced environment.

“…caf fucking coffee!”

Amy stopped and looked to her left to see a woman storm out of a separate room and power walked right into her before Amy could sidestep her.

“Woah, watch out.” Amy’s shoulder was roughly pushed back, forcing her and the brunette woman to turn. “What’s up?”

The woman opened her mouth to retort before glancing down at her employee badge and a sudden wave of recognition washed over her face.

“You’re that new maintenance worker.”

Amy recovered with a confused frown. She had managed to catch a glimpse of the name on the brunette’s badge before looking back to respond. “Yeah?”

“Good luck with that.”

“Uh…thank you?”

This was an interesting way to meet someone. Amy extended her hand out to introduce herself. “I’m Amy.”

“Janet.” They shook hands.

The two chatted for a bit before Amy excused herself to go to the bathroom. She only had a few moments before she clocked in for work. She’d already looked around the majority of the first floor layout. From what she’d seen, there were around three floors and she’d already familiarized herself with the first two.

Amy walked past the bathroom and made her way to the elevator, waiting for the doors to open once she hit the button. Once she was in, she hit the bottom and the elevator took her to the top floor.

One short ride later, Amy found herself walking down the corridors, her gut twisted when she noticed this floor was primarily of the storyboard artists, writers, and editors. This was her stop.

Amy took in a deep breath and continued walking until she was eventually able to pinpoint where most of the writers worked.

There was a larger room with a long foldable table with cushioned chairs surrounding it, papers scattered about. It was mostly empty and Amy briefly wondered where the employees were before remembering that the ones that made it to work were probably on break. The news of Alysa’s death must’ve affected some of her friends from work at the very least.

Amy walked into the room and looked around, more cautious than the previous rooms she’d been looking through.

With all the papers shuffled around on the larger table, Amy immediately started there. Amy wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just something that would let her know it was Alysa’s work or belongings.

In any other situation, She’d feel guilty for looking through things that weren’t hers. But after Alex mentioned that the case was quickly growing cold with no leads and the studio not cooperating, her desperation overshadowed her basic morality.

It was interesting to peek into the work of the writers. It gave her a bit of an insight into what kind of person they are.

Amy looked through, what she assumed, four employee’s documents before finding Alysa’s. Her handwriting was the first thing that jumped out at her when she saw them. She’d seen them in the file before handing it off to Charlie.

Amy paused and picked up the paper, her other hand reaching for her phone—

Amy’s stomach dropped, freezing in place as she felt her pockets were empty.

“Fuck!” She hissed quietly, frantically checking her other pockets before accepting that it was on her person. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out where her phone may have dropped or if she maybe put it down somewhere and not remembered it.

Amy quickly put the paper down on the table and swiftly made her way out of the room, rushing towards the elevator. Her shift was about to start and she already got enough to know where to go when she had any free time.

Amy rushed towards the elevator, repetitively smacking the button to take her down, ignoring the feeling of being watched. Honestly, she was just doing something she wasn’t supposed to, why else would she be this jumpy? It was probably the security cameras anyway.

She slipped the crack between the heavy metal doors as soon as there was room, slapping the main floor level destination as soon as she was inside.

─ ·𖥸· ─

“Woah there.” The tall, green caterpillar stepped in her way, stopping her from chaotically searching for her lost mobile device. “What’s got you in a buzz, busy bee?”

Amy barely registered that he’d spoken to her until a pair of his hands came down on her shoulders, forcing her to slow down. Amy reluctantly forced herself to take a deep breath and she slumped her shoulders. “Sorry Howdy, I just— I can’t find my phone anywhere!”

“Must be from all the excitement from today.” Howdy nodded in understanding. “First day jitters?”

Amy sighed, letting herself take in a moment to relax. “Yeah, it must be.”

“Don’t worry, jitterbug, I’m sure it’ll show up soon.”

Amy smiled at the sudden name drop. “Thanks.”

“Of course!”

“How’s the episode coming along?”

Howdy smiled. “Wonderful! I just wish they would take care of the loose nails soon, Eddie got a nasty tear.”

Amy winced. “Ouch, is he okay?”

“Don’t worry! A few stitches and he’ll be good as new.” Howdy reassured.

Amy nodded. “Okay, I'll make sure that’s the first thing I take care of.”

“Thank you, my dear.”

“Speaking of, I better get going. I’m sure it’ll show up eventually.” Amy pulled up her watch and saw how she was already a few minutes late. “Gotta go, thanks Howdy.”

The tall green man waved her goodbye as she rushed to clock in.

When Amy finally clocked in, it was a relief. She hated being late to anything, Fallon would always tease her about it, intentionally taking his time or going unnecessarily slow to irk her.

“Ollie!“

Amy didn’t fall when the lovable furry dog jumped on her. This time around, she was prepared. Amy instead laughed, and had the trouble of trying to hold him steady while he frantically kept jumping up to try licking her face. “I love you too but I have to clock into work.”

“OLLIE!”

The dog, surprisingly, immediately responded with a high pitched whine boarding on a bark before reluctantly backing off and sitting down, ears twitching back apologetically as soon as the source of the voice ran up to the pair. “Ollie, no jumping.”

Amy looked up at the puppet she assumed was the owner of the dog. He was a head taller than her, but the detail that caught her attention was a patch of fabric that was a few hues lighter than his original dark skinned tone. His blue eyes were stunning though.

“I’m so sorry about that, I thought he already learned not to do that.” Amy froze, thinking of a response before chuckling.

“It’s fine, as long as it’s him, I really don’t mind.” She reached down to scratch Ollie’s chin, of which was audibly appreciated with happy groans from the dog in question.

The puppet rolled his blue eyes. “You're spoiling him.”

“He deserves it.”

There was a peaceful silence that came after. Neither talked for the moment as Amy gently scratched Ollie’s head before the man coughed. “As much as I’d hate to interrupt your reunion, he’s needed on set.”

“Oh, of course.” Amy stopped petting the dog before standing up straight, her mind almost immediately remembering the missing phone.

“It was a pleasure meeting you…”

“Amy.” extended her hand. “Well, it’s Amanda but I prefer to be referred to as Amy.”

“Ah, I get that.” The puppet accepted her hand before introducing himself. “I’m Lawrence.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Lawrence.”

They shook hands and both smiled. Ollie, ever the happy dog, simply wagging his tail at the sight of his owner forgetting his previous sin as he introduced himself to his new friend.

> Chapter 2: An Open File <

> Chapter 4: Mutual Friends <

[nightimeowl]

2. An Open File

Amy’s grip tightened on the yellow pole right as the bus came to a slow strong halt that had her and a few others standing jerk to the side before catching themselves. She was holding onto the pole, her thumb hovering over the red bottom as she waited for the bus to open it’s doors. Once it did, she shouted a quick thanks towards the driver before jumping off onto the sidewalk.

She pulled out her phone and opened her email, finding the email she was looking for quickly as she had saved it the moment she received it. Amy was met with childish handwriting welcoming her to the team, a few doodles scrawled here and there. Underneath the banner was a computer generated message telling her when her first day was and where to get her employee lanyard.

Amy looked up her phone and glanced over the large building she’d be working at for the next couple of weeks. She walked through the vast parking lot, a few trailers and trucks holding props and costumes. She saw the other side of the lot was filled with cars, one in particular caught her attention more than the others.

She had to stop walking towards the entrance of the building to take a small detour towards the comically small car that she’d expect a toddler to ride in. It was a bright pink with darker hues of the same color lined across parts of the vehicle.

This…this had to be a joke. Right?

Amy couldn’t help the small laugh that bubbled past her lips and took a picture before power-walking her way over to the entrance side door per her emailed instructions. She didn’t even take a few steps in the building before being tackled by an unknown force. “Woah!”

Her phone fell on the ground with a loud clack as she dropped to the ground, unable to catch her footing on time. Amy laughed when she registered the thing that knocked her down was a large, hairy dog, curiously sniffing around her coat’s chest pockets and licking her hands.

“Aww, hey big guy! What’s your name?” She sat up and held the dog’s head in both hands, ruffling his shaggy fur. The sound of the dog’s metal tags clicking against each other as she pet him caught her attention and she glanced down to read his name.

“Ollie.” She read out loud. “Good boy, Ollie.” Ollie barked and started to climb onto her lap to lick her face.

“Ollie!”

The dog pulled away from her hands to look behind him, tail still wagging happily. Amy looked up too, hearing someone calling for the dog and a pair of footsteps growing louder in their direction.

“Ollie, get over here.” A man with a red shirt and a blue lanyard hanging off his neck made his way towards them. The dog didn’t listen, instead it had just looked back at her before slowly dipping his head to the ground and rolling onto his back, exposing his underbelly for more pets.

“Young lady, you’re not supposed to be back here.” The man turned his attention to Amy, ignoring the happy dog receiving belly runs from his new best friend.

“Actually, I am.” She didn’t even realize that she’d walked right into the middle of a scene. A bit embarrassed, she pulled away from the dog to get herself off the ground. The man reached down to help her get back up on her feet. “I’m new here.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I graduated early.” Was Amy’s immediate response.

Before the man could retort, a woman approached them. “Oh, you must be Amanda.”

“Amy–”

“Right, Amy.” The woman interrupted dismissively. “Come with me, I’ll take you to Johnathan, he’s the film director.”

Amy nodded. She brushed off as much stray dog fur as she could before following the older woman, dog in tow.

The silence was a bit uncomfortable at first as they walked further into the building. Amy caught a glimpse of the set where there was a bright colorful background with a few familiar puppets talking amongst themselves off to the side.

“He’ll be here in a bit, just wait here.” The woman patted her shoulder and walked away in a hurry. Amy just nodded and stood there, waiting for the director.

She looked around the set, taking in her surroundings. There was a crew of makeup artists, camera men, and technicians walking around either walking around or waiting on standby. Amy never realized just how much went into make these types of shows, being here would definitely change the way she looked at movies for a while.

Amy looked at her watch. 9:18, it read.

The seventeen year old really hoped that her new routine wouldn’t be found out by anyone from school, home, or work at the station. Thankfully, she managed to find a way to stay with the program while also going to work here. Her dad and Fallon think she’s in school and she usually takes public transportation so she doesn’t need to worry about them finding out she’s skipping class. Speaking of classes, she called in sick and asked one of her friends to pretend to be her dad so she’ll be set for at least a week.

Hopefully, that’s all the time she’ll need.

Now, all she has to do is pray that no one from school runs into her and Amy would be set. She’d been preparing for this since the moment she got into work the next day after the murder of the woman.

─ ·𖥸· ─

Amy was out of breath and feeling hot when she’d thrown herself into the elevator, smashing the button that brought her up to homicide. The elevator dinged and the metal doors parted, allowing Amy to step out and rush over to Alex’ desk before she’d run into a most familiar face amidst all the uniformed officers rushing and pushing about. Her heart jumped when she saw who it was.

“Kareem! You’re not- but how?- are you okay? What happened?” She tried to ask the woman. Kareem shook her head.

“I’m fine. Just go see Alex, you have a lot of paperwork to file through.” Detective Kareem dismissed before pulling her aside to continue walking.

“Amy! There you are.” The girl in question jerked a bit when a hand grabbed her shoulder, trying to get her attention. She looked up at Alex and saw him holding up a file in his other hand. “I need you to drop this off in assorted evidence. Can you handle it?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Amy immediately responded. Anything to get out of the suffocating environment of the homicide department.

“Thanks.” Amy nodded and they both walked off in separate directions, she made her way towards the elevator. She clicked the single bottom with an arrow pointing to the ground and waited until the doors opened for her to step inside.

The moment the doors began to close, she pulled open the file. Amy read over the information, quickly realizing that this was the evidence of the murder of the woman she saw in the article the other day. For the most part, the media was starting to catch wind of this and the news was starting to spread like rapid fire.

Amy scanned over the file as quickly as she could, learning that the woman who was murdered was an English Major and had her foot in the door at a studio after she graduated with honors as a screenwriter. Amy frowned. She’d read several closed cases and always hated it when it was good people who were murdered.

From the statements of family and friends, this woman, Alysa Caregs, was considered a role model student throughout her school years. She spent a large amount of her time at work and with family. If she wasn’t with either, she was helping her neighbor with babysitting the kids so she could take a break because the dad wasn’t in the picture. By all accounts, Alysa was someone who seemed to have their life in check. Healthy relationships, a well paid job, and was quite a rare gem in the sense that she was part of the older generation but was openly an activist for puppet rights.

Amy sighed, she should’ve lived a long life. From the looks of things, it seems like she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Random murders were hard to solve because of the lack of connections to the victim.

Why did it always have to be the good ones?

Amy took a few pictures of the file and closed it back up. She found herself thinking about Alysa as she exited the elevator and walked down the halls until she reached her destination.

“Hey Charlie!” She opened the door to greet the friendly blond that was usually here. “Charlie?”

Amy glanced up at the clock and sighed. Since she got here, she made it a habit to remember schedules, it was convenient to know where the person she was looking for is most likely to be.

With that said, Charlie was on his lunch break.

While she waited for the man to return, she looked over Alysa’s description with more determined focus.

After the man returned, Amy made sure the file went through processing before going back upstairs to do her job and go home. Once the clock struck four, Amy was already getting up and bidding everyone farewell before running to the front.

It took a while for her brother to get there, which agitated her a bit, but they eventually arrived home. Amy all by threw herself out the vehicle before making her way upstairs and shutting the door.

First thing she did was find the studio that Alysa worked at before her death and hovered her screen mouse over the bright red button that read “APPLY NOW”.

Amy hesitated. Was she really about to do this? All she needed to do was stay long enough to get what she needed to confirm her suspicions and get out.

She stared at the idiom for a minute longer before forcing herself to just submit her application as a handyman in the studio and close the tab so she could walk out of her room to kick herself over her decision later.

It bothered Amy for days after that. Eventually, after a week with no response, she figured she wasn’t accepted. A part of her was glad she was denied so she wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of lying about it. But she also caught something in the file she read that day that made her gut twist in suspicion.

It surprised her to have actually gotten an email with childish scribble written on the poster.

WELCOME…

TO THE TEAM!

Hello Amanda, we’ve looked over your resume and we’re pleased to let you know that you’ve been accepted in this position.

Please come to the studio for your first shift starting Monday at 9. There is an entrance to the studio right beside the parking lot. If you do not already have a uniform, one will be provided to you.

For security purposes, please keep this code to yourself. This code will expire in 15 minutes…

─ ·𖥸· ─

Amy sighed as she tried to push her racing thoughts out of her mind, swiping a hand down her face as she stood there, waiting for the director to introduce himself and hopefully guide her to the locker room–

“Oh good, you got Ollie.”

Amy jumped in surprise, turning around to look at the person who got her attention. “Christ on a stick, you scared me.”

She immediately recognized him as one of the infamous actors from the show this studio ran. Much like the rest of the characters, he was hard to forget. Cartoonishly tall, four arms and legs, two antennas atop his head, and of course, bright green.

“Hah, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to make you jump like that.” The puppet let out a small chuckle. “You alright there?”

“I’m perfectly fine, just caught me off guard, that’s all.” Amy smiled, turning to face him completely. She extended her hand. “I’m Amy, by the way.”

The caterpillar puppets smiled brightly and took her hand in two of his. “Name’s Howdy, great to meet you.”

They shook hands and pulled apart. Howdy reached down to scratch Ollie’s head. “So, you Ollie’s handler?”

“I wish. He's such a sweetheart.” Amy chuckled. “But no, I’m the new maintenance worker.”

The puppet chuckled. “First day?”

“Yeah, first day.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” He reassured her with a smile.

“Thanks.”

They two chatted a bit more before the dog's ear perked up and he looked behind him, ale art and searching. Ollie ran off towards someone who already had their arms outstretched for the dog. That must be the owner.

“Well, that’s my cue!” Howdy looked over at his friends who were gesturing for him to come over. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Amy.”

Amy smiled, seeing someone she assumed was the director headed her way. “It was a pleasure to meet you too.”

By the time the director had reached Amy, Howdy had joined his friends and Ollie was already there waiting for the scene to begin.

“You must be Amy, I’m Johnathan. I’m the director here.” He extended his hand to greet her, Amy copying his gesture as they shook hands.

“Yup, that’s me.” Amy pulled her hand back to her sides as Johnathan gestured for her to follow. “John works fine though.”

He didn’t look back at her when he spoke. They stopped a few meters directly in front of the set before he picked up some papers from a foldable chair that she assumed was his. “On your way to the break room, do you think you can drop this off with Maria? She’s one of the security guards. The surveillance room is right around the corner, if you keep going straight and take a left, the second door on your left is the break room, hard to miss.”

John held out the papers for her to take it off his hands. “Think you got it?”

Amy ran through his directions in her head, taking the papers, before nodding. “I got it.”

“Amazing.” John moved to sit in his seat. The camera man came up behind her and began setting up. Amy took this as her cue to leave.

Amy quickly bid farewell and took off, papers tucked under her arm. Walking around the corner and out of sight, she made her way to the security office.

> Chapter 1: The Program <

> Chapter 3: Little Jitter Bug <

[nightimeowl]

1. The Program

Amy leaned over her chair’s armrest to cough into her elbow, immediately catching the attention of the uniformed officer sitting across from her. He merely glanced up and let out an amused huff before turning back to his paperwork.

When the girl finally caught her breath again, she sat upright and grimaced at the sight of her lukewarm cup of coffee. “Why does it taste like that?”

The officer didn’t look up from his screen but did find himself letting out a small laugh. “You’ll get used to it.”

Amy shook her head profusely and got up to dump the coffee in the trash. “I don’t think I want to.” She tossed her drink into the trash and walked back to her seat. “It’s disgusting.”

She slid back into her seat with a sigh. The officer reached to the other side of his desk and pulled out a water bottle before handing it to her. Amy looked up from organizing some papers into a folder and smiled, accepting the water and twisting the cap. “Thanks Al.”

The man nodded in acknowledgement before looking back at his computer. Amy took a couple more sips of the water before screwing the cap back on and putting the plastic bottle on the floor next to one of the chair legs.

She flipped through file after file, opening and sorting any loose, lost, or paper that should be in a different file, and piling the completed files onto the side. Not as exciting as she imagined her job would be when she was one of the students selected for the FACE, Future Adolescent Career Experience, program. When she got to the police station, they had her sit through an orientation video and then had her sort some old files and paperwork.

Boring? A little. But this program would look good on her resume, plus, it was a little fun reading through some of the old case files. She learned a lot about how people were robbed, hijacked, kidnapped, and knew what not to do in case of a situation where she was being threatened by someone who was a threat.

Although, this job isn't without its cons.

After reading a case where a girl would’ve been kidnapped had she not sprayed a small can of hairspray with her that day, Fallon bought her a mace, one she carried around with her everywhere and could be easily disguised as lipstick.

And some cases were hard to read. A few statements came from puppets complaining about work harassment, criminally low pay, assault, theft, just about anything that would get someone arrested had it happened to a human. Some were very clearly waved off, nearly none of these statements were taken seriously or looked into.

Blatant racism.

It made Amy’s blood boil. Her own dad wasn’t in the picture so her mom had raised her on her own up until she was old enough to be left with a sitter. The sitter was a puppet and young Amy adored her.

She closed the file and tossed it on top of the pile before sitting back with her head in her hands. As much as she wanted to work with the police, some of these files were hard for her to stomach.

“Need a break?” Officer Alexander asked, sounding more like a statement then a question.

“Yeah.” Amy rubbed her eyes before pulling herself off her seat. “I’m going for a walk to get a drink. Want anything?”

Al stopped typing on his computer to listen before going right back at it. “No, I’m good.”

Amy nodded and walked away from his desk. The station wasn’t all that crowded today which was nice. She turned the corner and decided that she wanted to take the long way to the vending machine.

She walked down this hall multiple times, she knew where to go without looking around for directions like her first day there.

Finally, she made it to the vending machine. Amy reached into her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill to pay for a bottle of apple juice and a water bottle. The department was particularly hot that day since there was an issue with the air conditioning so she figured that Al wouldn’t reject a cold bottle of water right now.

As she approached the vending machine, she noticed a yellow file sitting on the bench next to the machine. Curious, Amy reached out and grabbed the file, flipping it open. Her face fell from anticipation to a disappointed frown.

Ah, this was the overlooked case of The Puppeteer serial killer.

A few months ago, before she applied to FACE, there was a puppet found dead in the middle of the highway, shot through the head with their stitches cut clean through. Their horns left on top of a bridge where they might have been tossed over.

The next two victims were killed in similar fashion; shot through the back of their head, cuts throughout their body with their extra set of arms and their spikes lairs neatly in front of where the body dump was.

Unfortunately, this case hardly had any attention brought to it. Or people just chose to ignore it.

Puppets have been on edge since the killer was never caught–

“Hey!” Amy protested when the file was snatched out of her hands from another officer that she was familiar with.

“What are you doing?” The woman pulled the file away, shutting it before tucking it under her arm.

Officer Kareem, she was as by the books as they come and was highly respected amongst her peers. Her and Amy had a handful of differences when it came to opinions. This, of course, happened to be the reason why the two butted heads so often.

“Sorry,” Amy apologized reflexively. “It was just laying there and I thought–”

Kareem cut Amy off before she could finish. “Then don’t think. Just do your job.”

Amy watched as officer Kareem stomped down the hall before turning heading towards the elevators. The teen muttered a comment under her breath before collecting her drinks and storming back to her desk.

Alexander glanced up from his desk when he noticed the girl approaching. “What got you so fired up?”

“Ask Karen.”

“It’s Kareem, Amy. Don’t be sour.” He corrected her. “And just give her some time to get used to you.”

“I already tried that.” she groaned, growing increasingly exasperated. “I think she hates me.”

Alex didn’t really know what else to say to her so he deviated from the topic to get her mind off it. “And I think Fallon will be here soon. You should start packing up.”

Amy looked at the clock hanging off the wall nearby and sighed. “You got a point.”

She pulled herself back up and placed the bottle of water she got from the vending machine on his desk before yawning. “See you next week, Al.”

“Get home safe.”

Amy nodded, picking up her school bag as she walked towards the elevator. After being brought to the lobby, she walked out the glass doors and looked around for a blue pickup.

Amy pulled out her phone to call Fallon before he pulled up a couple meters in front of her. She smiled and tucked her phone away before stepping closer to the truck, climbing inside and pulling the door shut before Fallon started driving off.

It was a relatively quiet ride home. Amy’s body was turned facing the window as she glared out at whatever passed her sight and Fallon kept eyeing her before looking back at the road. Eventually he sighed, shoulders slumping.

“Okay, what happened?”

“It’s nothing. Just an old case I was filing through that got under my skin.” Amy leaned back into her seat, crossing her arms and looking up at her brother.

Fallon hummed and nodded, immediately recognizing the reason behind her behavior. Amy had been aware about the heavy discrimination against puppets since she was much younger and could get very defensive about him and his dad being singled out.

“Don’t worry, we’re fine.”

He reached over and harshly ruffled her hair before lightly shoving her away and putting his hand back on the wheel with a laugh as Amy immediately protested and slapped his arm away, cursing him out as she did so.

“I’m telling dad that you’re bullying me.”

“No you won’t.”

“…no I won’t.”

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Tat-tat-tat-tat.

Amy excessively tapped her foot against the ground, knee hitting the bottom to the table repeatedly creating a quick and quiet noise that sounded throughout the library.

It was just her and a few other kids that she knew were in the same program as her. Being in FACE ment you could pick what weekdays you’re available to go to your career path of choice, on the days you chose not to go, being at school was mandatory. The program had a few advantages, one of which was that it took up 2-4 credits depending on what job you picked.

Amy’s choice gave her three credits so all she had to do was just attend one history class in the morning before going to the station for the rest of the day until either Michael or Fallon picked her up at two.

Amy had her chin in the palm of her hand as she scrolled through the internet, leaving her phone alone to charge.

She kept scrolling through website after website and playing a few old computer games, solitaire was enough to keep her busy the first couple rounds before she just kept going, motivated by sheer boredom. Eventually growing tired of what the computers had to offer, she pushed herself away from the computer to roll to the nearest outlet where her phone had been charging and picked it up.

87%

Close enough. Amy pulled the plug from both ends before wrapping it loosely around her fingers and pushing it down her pocket with the intent to put it in her bag later.

Putting in her passcode, her phone unlocked and she scrolled through some news articles before she all but fell out of her seat when she shot upright after coming across one of the most recent news clippings.

“Woman found dead behind at gas station”

"A Hispanic woman was found dead this morning behind the convenience store of a gas station. She was found by an employee who was taking out the trash when his coworker heard him scream before contacting emergency services. Now, as you can see behind me, investigators just arrived and are currently trying to assess this unfortunate situation.

Please be advised that the images we are about to show are not younger audiences and may be triggering for some viewers—"

Amy’s stomach dropped when she saw the image of the woman and what she looked like when she was alive, she nearly fell out of her seat.

“…Kareem?”

> Summary <

> Chapter 2: An Open File <

[nightimeowl]

Murder Board

In a biased world, there lurks an overlooked serial killer that targets puppets at random. Three murders have been left unsolved and the case grows cold.

Amy Brecks. A seventeen year old with only one ambition in sight; work as a homicide detective.

After getting stuck with an office job at the police station, her routine shifted when a case of a random killing victim falls into her lap.

Goal; get a job, find a clue, catch a killer, and most importantly, don’t get caught.

Updates every Friday (until completion)

Actor!Welcome Home au: @frillsand

> Chapter 1: The Program <