KNOCK!
Kent threw his blanket away from him, rubbed his eyes and got up from bed. "Open the door!" said the voice outside. He sauntered towards the door and opened it.
A slim teenager of the age seventeen stood before his eyes. His dull brown curtain bangs hung attractively beside his eyes with pupils as black as coal.
"Aunt Kinker phoned me, she found a box in Marco's room that seemed to belong to the three of us. We're going to get it now." explained Cevil. Kent dressed himself and headed to Marco, their best friend's house.
"Good morning Cevil! That's rather early but, anyways," Mrs. Kinker said, with a slight smile, "Here is the box." and she handed the box to Cevil. They carried the box to Kent's house, which was just at the next street. In a rush, Cevil opened the door with the spare key and entered.
They began running through the items after spreading everything on the table. They first saw a photo of the two of them with Marco. Cevil sighed, and his vision became blurry, he was recalling the good memories of them and Marco. Then, they saw the VR and a birthday card that they gave Marco as his birthday present. After that, they saw a plushie, two trophies and an old laptop. They were interested in the old laptop, and they opened and switched it on.
"Password required," Kent said, turning around, looking at Cevil. "Let me try," Cevil said. He took the laptop and began typing the password: 8-3-2004. "This is Marco's birthday. Hopefully it's right," Cevil said. It didn't work. Kent said, "Maybe the password is yours or my birthday? Cevil frowned, "Let's try mine's first," which he typed: 3-11-2004. It indeed worked, the laptop screen turned rainbow, and it was at home screen the next second. There was a file in the home screen, and Cevil clicked into it. "Woah, seven documents?" Kent exclaimed. They clicked into the first document which displayed:
Hi Cevil, I have a little game for you.
I just discovered a secret. It's just a secret, but it changed my life, my destiny. Do you want to know?
"Was it written by Marco? What did he mean?"
Cevil shrugged, "Let's just continue reading." He opened the next document.
Did you know that the other documents are empty?
Cevil closed the document, they didn't trust it, and they started opening the third to sixth document. It was true, all of them were empty, but until the seventh document, there was a paragraph of words inside:
Wow, you didn't trust me, I told you that other documents are blank. But never mind. So, if you really want to know about the secret, I can give you some clues. I kept a USB somewhere. It'll explain everything. Want to know where the USB is? You must find more clues, the next clue will be with some creature I love, and I always meet. Cevil, you've met it before, and you know what I'm talking about. Good luck.
Cevil closed the laptop and stuffed it into Kent's satchel, "It's Berry," he said as they left the house. Berry was a little puppy that was owned by a neighbor of Marco whose name Jorn. Marco played with Berry when he was younger. But when Berry grew older, he always escaped from Jorn's house and only came back during midnight, so it was hard for Marco to play with him. They cycled to Jorn's house with their bike, and they stopped in front of the gate. Berry wasn't on the car porch, nor the backyard. They sat outside the house under a big tree the whole afternoon, eating some buns and biscuits from Kent's satchel.
Kent, wiping his sweat away from his forehead, protested, "Let's just return when its midnight. It's boring." "You go, I'm staying," said Cevil, determined. "It's scorching hot, I'm afraid we might get sunstroke," Kent gripped Cevil's arm to get him to his feet. "No," Cevil pushed Kent's hand away and closed his eyes, as if he's going to sleep now. Kent sighed, he didn't want to leave Cevil alone waiting there, hence he sat down again and began playing with his phone.
Seven hours passed; it was already 10 at night. Berry still hadn't come home, and Cevil was still sleeping, Kent was eating biscuits, for he didn't have any battery left in his phone.
WOOF! WOOF! Cevil woke up instantly as he heard the barking. He jumped up and looked around. There, he saw a small shadow running towards them. It came nearer and nearer, and he saw it was Berry! Cevil slightly squatted down and said, "Here, here, Berry, come to Cevil!" he ordered. Kent was glad, for he didn't need to stay under this tree anymore, as it was so boring. Berry pounced onto Cevil, licking his face, wagging his tail. Cevil laughed, then he carried Berry into his arms. "Help me check where the clue is," Cevil told Kent. Kent nodded and began examining Berry. There was nothing, then he saw the pet collar. He touched around the pet collar, then he felt something. He untied the pet collar, and something dropped down. He bent down and picked it up, it was a folded piece of paper. He unfolded the paper and read it out:
My favorite place. WITH DIRT.
"Wait, just one sentence?" Cevil asked. "Yea," Kent said, turning the paper around to check if there was anything else behind the paper. "Marco's favorite place?" Cevil thought for a while. "Is it McDonalds?" Cevil asked. "No? He rarely goes to McDonalds, plus, that isn't even his favorite place. I think it's the High Ox." Kent and Cevil had their own opinion. "Fine, then I'll go to McDonalds, and you'll go to High Ox." "But there's so many McDonalds..." Kent said. "I'll just find the ones we usually go to," Cevil said, and he went away, leaving Berry with Kent. Kent carried Berry up and was about to put him back into Uncle Jorn's garden when he realized he accidentally touched Berry's wound, which made Berry bite his hand hard.
"YOW!" Kent squealed, pulling his hand out of Berry's mouth and running away. Kent looked at his hand, there were two deep and small holes with blood flowing out and other smaller holes with lesser blood flowing out made by Berry. "Damn, it hurts," Kent mumbled to himself, running to his house, wanting to quickly stop the blood and bandage it and escape from the dog at the same time. Kent turned and looked behind as he ran, he saw that Berry was chasing him, barking at the same time. Kent ran for his life.
When he finally reached his house, he pulled the door open until it swung so hard that it almost broke. When he entered, he slammed the door closed, leaning against the door. "Hey son," Kent's father said, walking out of the kitchen. "Yea..." Kent said, hiding his hand behind his back. "What are you doing?" Kent's father asked, as he placed the plate of food on the table. "Nothing... I just finished exercising and I want to rest now," Kent said. Kent's father noticed that there was blood dripping on the floor from Kent's back, "Turn around," Kent's father ordered Kent. Kent refused to, his injured hand slowly putting into his warm and cozy pocket, and the other hand slowly moving towards the doorknob. Kent's father marched forwards and pulled Kent around, and he saw Kent's bloody hand. "What have you been doing?" Kent's father bellowed. Just then, Kent's mother came out from the kitchen, "Oh my god, Kent! What happened?!" She asked, panicked, running to Kent, "My poor boy," and she went into the storeroom to get some bandages. "What did you do?" Kent's father repeated, but he didn't sound as angry as before. "Berry bit me," Kent replied softly. "Who's-" Kent quickly went out of the house before his father asked or said any more. "High Ox," he told himself, and he got onto his bicycle and began to cycle.