Detective

Chapter 1

A young boy cautiously crept through the dark alleyway. He had dark brown hair, slim body shape, and curious ocean blue eyes.

He's just an ordinary teenager.

Well, that's what everyone thinks.

You see, Tim is a very curious boy. He loves crime shows and detective work. When he was little, he would play detective with his older brother, Jason. They would play it all day. The game goes like this: one of Tim's stuffed bears would be murdered. Jason knows who the murderer is, and has to leave clues that lead to the murderer. Tim would always start with the crime scene. Jason would usually leave a picture of where the murderer might live, and might have a photo of the murderer, too.

Tim always loved playing with his older brother, but when Jason turned 12, things in the house started to change.

He and mum would argue all the time about the most random things. They would fight and fight until dad came. Dad would always make sure that Jason gets punished for the slightest thing. When dad would walk into the room, and see his son fighting with his mother, dad would usually hit him. Dad always hits him hard, so hard that once he broke Jason's nose.

Tim remembers Jason's scream as he fell to the ground crying. He clenched his nose to try to stop the blood flow, but it would pour all over the cracked wooden ground. Dad didn't take Jason to the hospital, not just because he didn't want to, but because they didn't have the money.

As dad would walk away from Jason with mum, he would always turn at the door, and say, "You're my biggest disappointment yet, Jason."

As he would walk down the dark hallway, Tim would duck behind one of the old, dusty, wooden tables, and hide. Every time dad would walk past, he would see Tim there, but he never did anything. He just kept on walking, the wooden floorboards would creak under his weight, making him seem even scarier as he disappeared into the shadows.

The scared 10-year-old boy ran into the kitchen, finding his brother still lying on the ground. He had blood all over his white shirt, and down his face. Tim grabbed a dirty cloth from the kitchen bench and put it under Jason's hands. He took the dirty blue cloth and pressed it to his nose. Not long after, the cloth was soaked.

Jason turned pale, and started getting a really bad migraine. Tim held him close as he cried in pain, and soon to sleep.

Tim was too young and didn't understand why these things were happening, but he was sure he was going to find out.

* * * *

As time went on, Tim grew older and turned 13.

On the night of his thirteenth birthday, Tim heard his father whispering numbers into the phone, while he was huddled in his small room. He would write down an address, and would say that he'll meet them (the person on the other side of the line) there.

The moment dad left the room, Tim would sneak in, and snatch the address from his father's desk. He gave it a glance, and then ran to his room. He and his brother share a room, so there was no hiding the note from Jason.

"Are you out of your mind!?" he exclaimed as he took it from Tim, "Dad will kill you if he found out you took this."

"He's not going to find out," Tim assured, becoming nervous at the sound of his brother's panicked voice.

Jason sat on their squeaky bed that they share, and looked up at Tim. He wore a dirty white singlet, and a look of pity on his face. He has a few freckles spread across the surface of his cheeks and nose and had cloudy blue eyes. His nose has a small scar from the time dad broke it, and has a small lump at the top that happened when Jason tried to fix it.