Phantom Keys: by Vernon Scott (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📕

Chambers. “In this realm it’s hard to believe that I’m over five thousand years old. I’ve been around for some time now. But I must ask, have your mother asked you what you plan on doing in your near future.”
“No she hasn’t,” said Gigi.
“Well what is it that you two plan on doing,” she asked.
Gigi was the first to respond, “I plan on following in my father’s foot steps and continue running my music shop.”
“And I plan on running my flower shop and marrying my fiancé who is still in his coma,” I said.
Mrs. Chambers chuckled and said, “Well Giovanni, that’s nice to hear, but remember this: When your sister needs you most, make sure you are there to back her up.”
“Why would I need his help,” I asked.
“I was getting to that,” said Meredith. “I need you to guard this realm. There are many horrible beasts that try their best to conquer these lands. This realm is between the light and the dark. The portal here appears everywhere. When ever a dark place becomes light or vice versa, that instant of change can open a portal. Most people are unaware of the things that are really out there. Gwendolyn, are you willing to follow in your mother’s foot steps.” I nodded my head in appreciation. “Good. Well your mother shall become your trainer beginning on your twenty-first birthday.” After Meredith said those words, I awoke to see Marcus staring at me.

Chapter 8
The Good Ole Days

I woke up and saw Gwen fast asleep. She had changed her clothes so I knew she was fine. Even as she sat there she looked just as beautiful as the first time I’d seen her. Her head slowly raised and she looked up to me with a smile.
“Hello Marcus, how you feeling,” she asked.
“I feel refreshed, now that I can see your beautiful face again,” I said. “When did you change your clothes?”
She looked down and said, “I don’t really know. I probably did it when my brother came up here.”
“Oh,” I responded. “He might have been the other voice I heard when I was out of it.”
“Did you dream while you were in your coma?”
“I did,” I said as the nurse came in to check up on me. After the nurse left Gwen asked, “What was it about?”
“Something that I had to go through a long time ago…”

…

“I was on my way to investigate a murder case when I got a call. I answered it and it was my mother telling me that my sister was missing. Since I was on duty I had no choice but to go to the crime scene. When I got there, I saw many cars. Many were police cars, and some were random cruising cars.
“When I walked into the house the smell of death rushed into my face and I almost puked. Holding my nose, I brushed forward and talked to one of the officers that were located at the scene. ‘What happened here,’ I asked. ‘A young lady, about twenty-five was murdered. It seems as if she has been here for sometime. Rigor mortis has set in and our scientist predict that she has been here for at least three days,’ he replied. I walked forward near the kitchen where the body was found. As I got closer to the body, my surroundings started to become clearer to me.
“I reached the kitchen and there she was, she had blood flowing from her back, her fingertips were absent of any prints, a large knife sticking into her skull, and all the teeth on her lower jaw was missing. Her face was so tremendously beaten there was no way of telling who she was.
“I started to feel depressed because the victim could have been my sister. I turned away and saw one of the people from the lab. ‘I need your assistance. Tell me why the victim seems to not have any finger prints,’ I asked. ‘They were burned off,’ he replied, ‘well burned isn’t the right way to put it. Someone had stuck them in a batch of hydrochloric acid.’ I turned towards the body then turned towards the lab worker. ‘Can I have permission to examine the body,’ I asked and the tech nodded his head in acceptance.
“I put a pair of gloves on and opened the victim’s mouth. There was only one way to be sure that she was not my sister. I examined her back teeth and there it was the proof that I needed.
“When I was born, my mother and father placed a chip inside my mouth on my back teeth. There were four different chips. The chips were very peculiar because instead of coming out of my mouth every time I lost a tooth, it stayed. It was as if they really placed the chip on my gums.
“But when I looked inside the girl’s mouth, I saw two chips on her bottom jaw. I knew at that moment that the female that was so badly tortured was my sister. I burst out in tears and had a nervous break down. It took five men to hold me down. The only thing I kept saying was, ‘that was my sister…I will kill the bastard who has done this to her.’
“After they calmed me down, I told them of my findings and I called my parents to let them know the bad news. My parents were very distraught that they weren’t capable of forming words. The only thing I could think about was how I could find the person responsible and what I was going to do to them when I found them.
“The search went on for days, and still we had no evidence. I couldn’t take the emotional pain so I quit my job as a police officer. Since I was so determined to find out the murderer, I decided to start my very own detective agency.
“Two days after I opened my agency, I ventured back to the crime scene to see if I could find any evidence that we had missed. I looked everywhere. I went through every room, every cupboard, and every hamper. When I reached the guess-room I started to get a hunch. I opened a drawer and found a diary.
“I turned the page to the dates around my sister death and read. Apparently she was expecting someone to come to her house. I read the next page and it was more detailed. I still remember those words that she had written.
“‘Dear Diary,
‘August 15, 2003.
‘Today I’m going to meet with a stranger from my past. He and my father might have had there differences, but I can see the goodness in everyone. Ever since he had contacted me I thought of him as being quite considerate of others. I don’t know why father never talked about him as much. Every time I mention him to my father, he’ll get completely defensive, as if he was the spawn of Satan. I believe if my father actually talked to him now, he might have some appreciation for him. They practically grew up together.
‘After today I’m going to try my best to rekindle their relationship. I pray that father doesn’t continue to disown him. We’re all family and you cannot pick and choose who can stay in your family and who has to go. Maybe one day father may come to an understanding. But I guess I might just have to try my best to encourage them to relinquish there petty argumentative ties and convince them to strive to better themselves.
‘There goes the door bell. Part 1 of my plan commences today.
‘Signed, Julia Rivera.’
“I placed her diary back into her drawer and began contemplating. I tried my best to compare the facts. The killer could have been the guy she was going to see that day but who could it have been. I thought of all the possibilities. That person was someone that my father disowned and the person was a relative of some sort. Who could it have been?
“I left the room and walked into the kitchen. I visualized the way my sister was murdered. She bled from behind; therefore the killer had to have been in her house. Since the front door and back door were in clear view of the kitchen that made my earlier evaluation correct. The killer had to have been her guest.
“I looked under the kitchen cabinet and found nothing that could help me with this case. I then ventured outside to see if I could find anymore clues. I looked in the trash and found nothing there. I looked on the ground near the trash can and found an empty bottle. I examined it and it had some prints on them.
“I enter the kitchen again and noticed something that many of the officers missed. It was as plain as day. Julia was washing dishes before she died. That could have easily been dismissed as any sign of evidence.
“I thought back to the day we found the body. I remembered that all her prints were burned off by hydrochloric acid. I decided to test a new theory that I had. I found a glass cup in one of her cabinets and scooped up some of the water. I poured some on the ground. Some of the liquid splashed on my legs and I was sure that my hypothesis was correct.
“I called my father and asked him about what I found in Julia’s diary. He gave me a list of names. There was at least five. Two of the names I was sure were not the criminal because I’ve seen my father talk to them at times. But the other three were of people I have not heard of for some time. The three were: my aunt Rebecca and her husband Jacob; and my uncle Pearson.
“I went to Julia’s room and searched her computer to see if I could find any information. I looked through her history and saw that she did a search on our family. Each page talked about my father. It listed all relatives of my father. And then I found my answer. There was a link at the bottom of the page that was a different color than the rest which meant she had to have clicked on it. The link was entitled ‘Complete family tree’. I clicked on it and a window came up. I looked at the names, row to row, column to column. I found a name that was on my list that was in black which meant they had no information about that person.
“I went back to her history and saw that she also searched for a private detective. I found the number that she called to see if they could be of service. To my luck, it was the right number. The good thing is that the detective knew the number and answer by saying, ‘Detective Roberts speaking, how may I help you Ms. Rivera?’ I told him about the situation and he gave me the name of the person