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WHEN KAELYN CAME HOME THE NEXT AFTERNOON, her brother was nowhere to be found. Normally, she assumed he was at work like he always seemed to be these days. However, his phone and keys were sitting on the kitchen counter, where he always left them despite the fact they had a rack for all the keys they needed right next to the door. It was a pet peeve of hers, so she grunted and grabbed them, hanging them up before beginning to get curious. The apartment was dead silent, but he had to be home.
Right away, she began to check for signs of forced entry or forced removal from the apartment, but there were none. The door had been safely closed and locked when she entered, no piece of furniture was out of place. Everything was clean, which was a miracle in and of itself. If Caden was home, he must have been stressed about something, he only cleaned when he was stressed and Kaelyn knew for damn sure she hadn't been the one to tidy up.
Quietly and carefully, she began to investigate the apartment. The living room, kitchen, and bathroom were all empty, so she began to creep down the hallway. Her brother's door was ajar, something synonymous with him being absent from the apartment. If she wasn't concerned before, she was now. She had a rough day at school and she didn't really need another family member to go missing and/or turn up dead. That had happened enough for her lifetime.
Finally, she reached her own room. She distinctly remembered closing her door before she left for school that morning and yet, she found the door partially open. She had a feeling she was going to find something inside her room, whether it was her sibling or not.
It turned out the be the former, but once she realized what her brother was doing, she couldn't say she was happy about that. What she found when she entered her bedroom was her brother staring down, papers and pictures in his hands, going through them. She recognized them as the pictures, articles, and other things from her "murder board" in her closet.
"What are you doing with those?" She asked carefully, her voice quiet and calm, trying her hardest not to explode at the giant invasion of privacy occurring.
Caden looked up, betrayal and hurt in his eyes, "I feel like I should be asking you that very question. What do you think you're doing investigating this? It was years ago, the cops gave up, why didn't you?"
"I'm not answering any questions until you tell me why the fuck you thought it was okay to go through my stuff. Legal guardian or not, you don't have that right," the redhead shook her head, her arms crossed and her back straight. She knew her brother could tower over her, but she was determined to have the stance of someone taller and stronger than him.
"You left your jacket on the back of the couch like always, so I went to put it away for you since I was cleaning anyway and lo and behold, I find a whole conspiracy theory," he explained, but she didn't budge. "Now you answer my questions."
"I didn't give up because I deserve to know what happened to them, I deserve closure, and I absolutely deserve to find out who ruined my life," was the only answer she was willing to give. There was bitterness on her tongue and no remorse in her eyes. "You can take away my "conspiracy theory" as you called it, but you'll never be able to stop me searching for the truth so put my shit back where you found it and leave me the hell alone."
