The Last Carol

Emily dreamed of being a detective her whole life. The crime, the evidence, the clues, all of it. Although her family ruthlessly tried to persuade her otherwise, 22-year-old Detective Emily Bowle emerged in 2015 with her bachelors degree in hand. But one year before that, Emily met the love of her life: Michael Matthews.

From the first glance, Emily saw a future with Mr. Matthews. Michael was a 23-year-old high school AP US History teacher. The two met at Emily's first bachelorette party, but she withheld mixed emotions surrounding the marriage. After all that drama, Michael and Emily married in 2016.

Now to the present . . .

24-year-old Emily Bowle approached the door with Michael's hand in hers. The door opened dramatically and Emily's mother gasped at the couple.

"Emily? Y-You . . . Came?!"

"Don't make a scene about it . . ." Emily sighed, hugging her mother loosely.

"And Michael," her mother released Emily "Still a home-wrecker?"

"Mother!" I spat "I love Michael and you need to do the same!"

"Nice to see you, Mrs. Bowle." Michael looked down.

"The party just started and with everyone here, we can go ahead with our traditional Christmas Carol!"

Emily pulled past her mother with Michael and entered the house's large and majestic ballroom.

"It still shocked me that your family has a full-blown ballroom!" Michael smiled.

"And speaking of shocked, look!" Emily pointed at her astounded family.

Her family consisted of the following people:
• Heather Bowle - Mother
• Todd Bowle - Father
• Ester Banks - Older Sister (27)
• Jesse Banks - Rich Brother-in-Law
• Ebony Bowle - Youngest Sister (16)
• Oliver Bowle - Uncle
• Viv Bowle - Aunt (Unrelated)
• Viveronicolah - Hobo who only speaks Polish

Suddenly, Emily's mother rushed to the center of the ballroom "Time for our Carol!"

The 9 of us gathered in a circle, surrounding Emily's mother whom began singing the Polish tune.

Eventually, the entire family began singing and in the final note of gone song, the lights went off and moments later, six gunshots were fired. Screams echoed through the ballroom.

"Someone get the lights!" Ester begged.

The lights came back on, thanks to Todd, revealing the newly dead Heather Bowle.

"Mother!" Ebony screamed.

"Holy —" Oliver began.

"Is anyone else injured?" I yelped, standing tall.

"No, everyone else is fine . . . Except for your mother . . ." Michael sighed.

"Whoever did this is going to pay! I'll see to it myself!" Todd growled.

"Whoever did it has a gun!" Viv pointed out "Someone needs to check the armory!"

"No one is going anywhere until we learn who the killer is! If we send the wrong person, we could all be next!" Jesse exclaimed.

"So who'll go?" Ebony asked.

"The one who can solve this case. Emily!" Michael urged.

"Hell, she probably killed Heather!" Jesse spat.

"Why on earth would I do that?" Emily argued.

"Resentment? Her constantly picking at Michael? The fact that she kicked you out?"