Secrets...Everybody has them.

Secrets

Everybody has them…

I needed to get out. I needed to escape for here. But, how? Where was I going to go? There was no one around. There was nothing around. It was just an abandoned house, boarded windows and doors. There was no way out of here, and if there was, there was no where to go.

~3 Days Earlier~

The sun leaked under my curtains. The light dripping across my face. My eyes fluttered open. I looked up and saw my dad standing next to my bed.

“Good morning,” he said sweetly.

“Good morning.” I yawned, stretching out my arms.

“Breakfast is on the table. I have to go to work. See you when I get home, Charlie.”

“Bye, Dad.” I smiled. Once he had left the room, I willed myself to sit up. The sun out shined the string of tiny bulbs stretched across the border of my ceiling. I looked into my closet. No. I told myself before falling back onto my pillow.

*Ding*

My phone vibrated beside me. I opened the opened the missed calls I had received. They were from my, Lucy, my best friend. She had called me twice. I don’t know why my phone waited for this long to tell me. I tried to call her back but, she didn’t answer. I called her again. Nothing.

I shrugged and set my phone back down. I peeled my blankets back and sank my feet into the plush carpet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw red and blue lights. They were flashing into my window from the house across the street. I opened the curtain and saw someone being taken out of the house. I closed my window and made my way down the crooked, creaky steps. I passed the food waiting for me on the table and, instead, went outside.  

The entire neighborhood was standing on their porches. Everyone watched in awe, as they drove off. The flashing lights faded into the distance, along with the loud sirens. After they were gone, everyone went back into their homes. The street fell silent. Not like it had before. Today was different. There was an eerie feeling following the soundless streets. A chill crawled up my spine. I slowly stepped back inside and closed the door.

The thought ran through my mind. It swirled into confusion. Who just got arrested? No one had ever lived in the house next to ours. Why was everybody so secluded? I skipped breakfast and walked back up to me room. I saw that I had missed another call from Lucy. I called her back one last time and, finally, got an answer.

“Hello?” I said. Silence. “Hello?” all I heard was heavy breathing and some shuffling in the background. I slowly put down the phone ending the call. For a second I thought it was just Lucy playing a prank on me, but, wait, Lucy doesn’t sound like a guy when she breathes.

I brushed the thoughts out of my head and turned on the T.V. A news alert flashed on the screen.

“34-year-old, Eric Tarnwintz, was arrested this morning. He was charged with, kidnap and attempt at murder. Tarnwintz is faced with 27-35 years behind bars.”  A picture of the house he was arrested from appeared on the screen. I was shocked to see that it was the house next to mine.

He was using the abandoned house next to mine to kill people?! I thought to myself.

“Tarnwintz had an apprentice who has yet to be located. The police department says when he is found he will be arrested without trial. During interrogation, Tarnwintz admitted to his companion's possession of sixteen-year-old, Lucy Jomeston.”

A picture of Lucy was shown on the screen. A tear formed in my eye, but I quickly wiped it away. Replacing the sadness with anger. I grabbed my backpack off the floor and filled it with the proper, friend hunting, supplies: food, something to drink, an extra pair of clothes, and my charger (not that I would use it).

I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do. Find my friend and the person who took her. Acknowledging the dangers.

I took a deep breath before stepping out the front door. People peaked out their curtains. I turned for a second, to look back, when I noticed someone walking behind me. Everyone vanished back behind their blinds. I quickly turned back around. I glanced back one more time and saw the person had gotten closer. He was wearing a dark jacket, and he had his hood hanging over his face.

I began to walk faster. Scared that he was coming after me. I took one more look back and he was gone. I stopped for a second and looked around. Nothing. I slowly started to turn back my head.

“Hi.” I almost jumped out of my skin. It was the person from behind me. I took a step back. “Sorry if I scared ya’. I just moved here and was lookin’ for someone to show me around. My name’s Kevin, and yours?” Held out his hand.

“Charlie.” I replied hesitantly. Shaking his hand.

“So, where ya’ goin’?”

“To my friends house.” I lied. I tried to avoid him by walking faster, but he only caught back up to me.

“What’s your friend’s name?” I paused before answering.

“Lacey.” I lied again. I looked around to see if anybody else was around. Of course, like it had been all day, it was silent.

“That’s a pretty name. You know, it almost sounds just like,” he paused, “Lucy.” My eyes widened as I looked at the ground.

“Yep.” My voice got shaky.

“Hmmmm, Lucy. That sounds like the name of that girl who was kidnapped.” I walked a little faster.

“You watch the news a lot?”

“Nope. I never watch the news. I’m never in one place long enough to get a T.V.”  I looked up for a second to see a smirk stretch across his face.

“How do you know about Lucy, if you don’t have a T.V. ?” I avoided eye contact with him.

“Let’s just say word gets around in a quiet neighborhood.” He let out a slight chuckle. My heart began to race. “So, where is your friend’s house?” I took a sharp turn left, trying to lose him.

“Her parents don’t like strangers. You should go.” I tried to shake him best I could. Nothing I did to get him away worked.

“Oh, comman, it’s impolite to let new friends walk alone in a new town.”

“Really, I have to go.” I started to walk faster.

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent

Most people knew Zhao Rong as a small town karate instructor for Karate’s Finest in Wisconsin but what they didn’t know was that he was actually an undercover secret agent. He was sent to Wisconsin, US to look for Erik Duggman. Erik Duggman was the leader for one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States. If they got to Erik, they could shut down the gang altogether.

Zhao had been working on this case for about four months all he has so far is where he lives and what he does when he is not with the gang. He lives in the Adell, Wisconsin with his wife Janet and his only kid Marko. His kid, Marko, goes to Karate’s finest for lessons. He is a very well mannered kid, which was hard to believe because his dad was not a nice or kind person. Marko was only seven years old and didn’t know his dad was in a gang.

I have talked to Marko’s mom and Erik’s wife Janet and she is a very nice lady, which leads me to think she doesn’t have any idea that her husband is in a gang. She worked at Restoration Health in Adell. She is the breadwinner of the family. She makes 100,000 dollars to 150,000 dollars a year. Erik only makes 50,000 dollars to 60,000 a year. He works as a mechanic for a Bob’s Mechanic Shop.

What we don’t know is what he is doing with the money he has earned from the gang. He has definitely not informing his wife of the money. When I went to the agency we talked about what he may be doing with the money. We went through most of his and his wife’s records on their credit cards and there was nothing there. All there was, was grocery trips, fast food places, and clothes shopping.

The next thing they chose to look at was how many hours he worked a day. What they found was he only worked 5 hours a day, 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. That would mean he would have around seven hours before he would return home. The secret agents tried to think where they would go if they had the money.

“Would he go to a club or their hiding place?” asked Joan one of the secret agents. Tyson said,

“I don’t think he would spend that much time at the hideout unless they had something big planned.”

“Lets talk to his boss to see if he has been getting off early,” Said Zhao. The chief, Jason Elliot, liked the idea and sent Zhao and Kelly, another secret agent, to Bob’s Mechanic Shop to talk to the owner. When they got to the shop, Kelly and Zhao went strait to the head office.

When they got to the office Erik was sitting in the office with the owner. Erik was yelling,

“You can’t fire me I have a wife and kid to take care of!” The owner just said,

“I can’t keep you here if you take off more work than you work. I have given you more chances than I should have.” Erik just yanked opened the door and yelled back,

“And to think of all the things I have done for you!”

“That is why I gave you all those chances but you just kept blowing off work,” The owner tried to tell Erik but he was out of the building. The owner didn’t notice us until Zhao said,

“Sir, could we ask you a few questions?” The owner didn’t look at us just said,

“Yeah, come on in,” The owner went strait to his desk.   Kelly and Zhao went to the two chairs right in front of the desk. The owner finally looked up and said,

“ My name is Bob. How may I help you?” Zhao said,

“This is Kelly and I’m Zhao. We are from the secret service and need to ask you a few questions about Erik Duggman.” Bob asked,

“What would you like to know about him?” Kelly said,

“We would just like to know when he started to work with you and how many breaks or days he took off. Did he ever do something and was caught for it?” Bob just looked at them for a while then said,

“Erik started about eight years ago. When he just started he would only take one day off in maybe two months but as the years went on he took more and more days off. Just in the last week he took four out of the five days. He never did anything bad here that I know of.” Kelly and Zhao just looked at each other and Zhao said,

“Thank you, that is all the questions we need to know.” All Bob could say was,

“Okay.” Kelly and Zhao just walked out of Bob’s office and Kelly said,

“He must be planning something big if he took four out of five days off.” Zhao just said,

“I just think he needed to spend more time with his gang since he is the leader.” All Kelly said was,
            “That could be true but we talk to the rest of the agents about what we just found out.” Once they got in the car, they headed back to their office to talk to the other agents. When they got there, they told the agents everything and decided to talk to Erik’s wife Janet tomorrow. The next day Jason sent Kelly and Zhao again to talk to Erik’s wife. When they got there they introduced themselves and Zhao said,

“Ma’am, we have been keeping tabs on your husband and think he might be the King’s leader.” She just stared at us in shock and yelled,

“What! No! My husband wouldn’t do that! He is a good dad. How could he be a gang leader?” Kelly said,

“This has nothing to do with your husband being a bad father. Has he been home late often or lost his job lately?” Janet let out a sigh and said to them,

“He has been home late and it started maybe a month ago. He would come home late and intoxicated, we would get into fights about where he had been. That is why Marko and I are living in a different apartment right now. Yes, he just got fired yesterday and when he came home he was intoxicated. That is why we moved to the apartment.” Zhao then answered,

“Has he contacted you or tried to contact you in the last twenty-four hours?” Janet answered,

“Yes, he has. He called me about seven times last night and text me about twenty times. All the messages were about coming home and how much he missed Marko and I.” Kelly asked,

“Are you getting a divorce?” Janet answered,

“Actually the papers are right here. I was just about to fill them out, but you guys came in.” Zhao then asked,

“Do you know where we could find your husband?” Janet said,

“Yes, he is either at our house or at the Shark Bar.” Kelly and Zhao thanked Janet and went to check the house and the bar for Erik. They checked the house and he was there intoxicated throwing stuff at the wall. Zhao then said,

“Put your hands up. You are under arrest for leading a gang through murders and fights. You have the right to remain silent. If you say anything, it can be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to a lawyer present during any questioning. If you can not afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you if you desire.”

They took him to prison after he confessed and gave up his gang’s hiding place. Over seventy-five people were found in the gang house and were brought into custody for questioning. Janet filed the divorce and got her house back. She also got a restraining order against him. Zhao returned back home and everything returned normal for now. 

Tiffany Michelle Garcia

Tiffany Michelle Garcia

Tiffany Michelle Garcia was born on March 19, 1988. Tiffany has an older brother named Anthony that is two years older than her. Her father worked as a pressman and her mother was a full time mom. Since her dad worked at nights, she had to be quiet during the day. She was really loud, so that was a problem because her dad would sleep in the daytime. Her parents would call her Baboom because of her loud personality.

Her mom kept her active by having her do modeling. She liked all of the lights and shoots that she did, but she would miss school trips because of her hobby. She wanted to be with her friends and have fun with them. She decided to quit modeling.

To replace her hobby, she decided to do a lot of sports like figure skating, ballet, swimming, soccer, and softball. She really liked to stay active. She also looked forward to the Mini Olympics at her school. She got to do a lot of running there because she was very fast.

She ended up going to a private school. She wanted to be nice to everyone and help them if there was something wrong, but the people at her new school thought it would be easy to pick on her because she was new. She tried her best to ignore them, so she just kept a smile on her face and brushed off the rude comments said to her. She was still nice to them even though their words really hurt her.

Her brother was a great influence to Tiffany’s future. He would play videogames and she would watch, but not play. She didn’t want to mess up in front of him. He also skateboarded, so she tried that out too. Once she started to play video games, she loved it. Shortly after she began to love drawing. She did both throughout high school and made a lot of friends.

During her junior year in high school she met a boy on MySpace. His name was Mario. They had a lot in common and started dating. They were together throughout her high school year and into college.

She got a part-time job as a lifeguard to earn some money. She thought it was a really boring job and did not like it that much. Most of the time she sat and didn’t do anything. Out of the six years she worked there, she only had to save two people. She decided to quit that job and get an internship instead.

She interned at Cartoon Network for one semester, but an office job wasn’t for her. She got introduced to YouTube by one of Mario’s friends. She was asked to work for a company’s youtube channel called MachinimaRealm. She didn’t know what they did, but she tried it anyway. She didn’t think that people would watch her, but was surprised with the outcome. Thousands of people watched her videos. She was flooded with good feedback from her viewers and learned from everyone she heard from. She continued to gain subscribers throughout her videos.

She graduated college with a bachelor degree in fine arts. After college, she decided to continue her YouTube career. She loves to make videos and is now working with Mario on their YouTube channel together. She wants to continue doing YouTube for a long time and is hoping to improve along the way.

Tiffany Michelle Garcia’s YouTube Channels

Tiffany’s YouTube name is iHasCupquake. Mario’s YouTube name is Redb15. Together they have six channels that they are running. Each channel has a specific topic. The topics can range from gaming to DIYs and even pets.

The iHasCupquake channel has gaming based activities, so whatever they do it is almost always for a game. The activities mostly involve gaming, cooking, crafting, drawing, and some clothing stuff. She plays games with and without Mario. The games can range from cute and cuddly to goary and deadly.

The TiffyQuake channel is about fashion, crafts, and other girly things. This channel is really fun to watch, if you are wanting to make something. Almost none of the crafty things on this channel are based off of games. There are a lot of look books, crafts, and also just talking about certain events. There are also speed arts and other drawing things.

The ToyBox Collectibles channel is about toys. They collect toys on this channel. The videos are of them unboxing and evaluating the toys. Sometimes, they get two of one toy and they give viewers the option to buy them. Throughout this channel, you will find mystery box toys, collectibles, and first look toys. Some of these toys can’t be bought in stores, if so, they get them from people who watch or know this channel. Some toys are sent from around the world.

The ToyBox Collectibles Pets is also about toys. This channel however, shows toys for pets. They unbox the toy and let their pets play with them. After they are done playing, then they will figure out if the toy does what it says it will. Most of the toys that the pets play with are really cool like pet puzzles or automatic lasers. Most of the time the pets like them, but they might not do what they are supposed to.

There is another pet channel called WeAreMishMish. This channel is about their cats, one of the video playthroughs are how to care for your cat. It has really silly videos like how much to feed your cat and they do it wrong on purpose. They usually have their cats in the videos to show their reactions. They have two cats, one is Link and the other is Navi.

Tiffany and Mario play many co-op games together as well. One of the games is Surgeon Simulator. They play most co-op games on their Husband versus Wife series. Since these playthroughs are game related, they are on the iHasCupQuake channel. Overall, they enjoy the games they play and love to make videos.

The One Who Could See

The One Who Could See

            There she was. Standing there. Rain pouring down on her face as the soft orange lights hit her skin in the dark night. She was alone, or so she thought. Everybody was dead. They were gone because of her because she didn’t warn them. She was loitering in the streets as her thoughts drove her into oblivion.

            It all started 48 hours ago.  Brinley was lying on her bed when she heard a terrifying scream from outside. She looked out her window, and they were everywhere.  She rushed downstairs, grabbed her coat, and ran outside. She swung the door open with a big force of motion. She looked around, and they were gone. The wolf-like creatures that she had just seen a minute ago had left no trace of ever being there.

She was puzzled. She knew she saw them. She knew she wasn’t imagining it. How could she forget the way the creature looked at her through it’s vicious, blood shot eyes. She ran back upstairs to see if she could see them out of her window again, and she couldn’t. Brinley sat looking out her window as if she could make them come back.

She sat shaking, terrified of what she saw. Brinley had no clue what to do. Her mother was not home yet; she had left about an hour ago to go to the store, and her father had passed away before she was even three. She was traumatized. Looking out the window waiting for her mother, she kept hearing something.

There were strange noises echoing throughout her mind, and it felt like there were voices screaming at her from every direction. Brinley jumped onto her bed and covered her ears with her pillows to drown out the sound, but it wouldn’t go away. The screeching sound was deafening her. There was absolutely nothing she could do, except let them linger in her mind.

At last, her mother was home! Brinley released the pillows and jumped out of bed. She ran to her mother and gave her a hug. Her mom asked, “Why did you just give me a hug? I was only gone for and hour or so.” Brinley told her mother all that had happened while she was gone, and her mother thought she was crazy. Her mother backed away from her thinking that her daughter had gone completely insane. Brinley looked at her mom wide-eyed, and about to cry.

            “Just go to bed, Brin” she said, “it will be all better in the morning.”

            “But it’s only seven.” Brinley called.

            “Just go to bed!” her mother shouted.

            So off she went. Brinley tried to sleep, but the images of the horrid monsters just kept coming back to her. And the screeching noises would not stop. She started freaking out. She was flailing her arms and rolling around in her bed.. A huge scream was let out as Brinley’s mother ran upstairs to see what had happened.

            “Mom, watch out! Its behind you!”

Her mother turned around briskly, just to see that there was nothing behind her.

            “Mom,” Brinley shouted, “Move!”

            Her mother confused about what her daughter was talking about, said, “There is nothing behind me, just go to bed Brinley. We are going to see a therapist tomorrow.”

            “I don’t need a therapist,” screamed Brinley, “I am perfectly fine!”

            “We are going, whether you like it, or not!”

            Brinley felt alone. She felt as if her mother had not understood that what she was seeing was real, and it was not just some imaginary thing.

 Her mother stormed out of her room angrily, and slammed the door shut. She walked to her room and sat down by the door. She wondered what was going to happen to Brinley if she kept seeing those strange things. She wanted to help her daughter, but she didn’t know how.

After Brinley finally fell asleep, she kept having dreams about the creatures. She finally got to see them again after the incident that happened earlier that day. She couldn’t really tell what was happening because she was waking up, and the dreams were fading. But while she was still asleep, she saw a giant pack of the wolf-like creatures attacking a group of people on the street.  Brinley thought they were just majorly hurt, but after a few seconds, she realized they were dead.

She woke up in a pile of her own tears. Those people did absolutely nothing! They didn’t deserve that, Brinley thought. She heard her mothers’ footsteps pounding on the ground. As her mother walked to her room, she thought about what she was going to say to her.

The door swung open as Brinley’s mom walked into the room.

“Brinley, are you okay? I heard you crying from down the hall.” She asked.

“They are going to hurt people.” said Brinley to her mother with a quiet sniffle.

“Who is going to hurt people?” questioned her mom.

“They, the creatures!” Brinley announced.

“Brinley! They are not real! You are seeing things, and that’s why we are going to the therapist today!”

“But, mom, they were real. It felt so real. It couldn’t have been just a dream. I am not seeing things, and I am not insane!” Shouted Brinley.

“I don’t care, Brinley! We are going and that’s final! Grab your bag and let’s go.” Screamed her mother.

The two of them hopped into their car, and drove to the therapist. They didn’t talk until Brinley herd something on the radio. She turned up the volume, and they both listened closely.

“There has been a report that a group of homeless teens were killed last night.” Said the man on the radio.

Brinley looked at her mother with a frightened look on her face.

“C’mon Brin, it’s just a coincident.” Said her mother firmly.

“Shhh.” Said Brinley as she turned up the volume.

“It looked like they were killed by some sort of animal. Scientists have been trying to figure out what it was, but they have not yet come up with anything.” Said the man.

“I knew it!” Brinley shouted, “I knew it was real!”

“I already told you, Brinley, it was just a coincident.”

They arrived at the therapists’ office, and got out of the car. Brinley sat down in the waiting room as her mother checked her in. They had a 15-minute wait before they could go into Dr. Smiths’ office.

“Brinley. Come with me” said the nurse lady, overjoyed.

She looked at her mom with a frown on her face, and walked back to Dr. Smiths’ office. All he asked her was why she had come to see him, and she told him about all the things she saw and dreamed about. Dr. Smith asked her a couple more questions, but they were unimportant.

They both walked out to the lobby, and the doctor announced that she had Schizophrenia. Brinley’s heart dropped. She knew that wasn’t true.

“She will have to be put in the Seattle Psychiatric Hospital.”

Her mother hesitated for a second, and then finally spoke. “Okay, I will get her in there by next week”

“Actually, I can get her in, in an hour” The doctor said.

“That would be great!” Her mother said.

All Brinley could think about was why her mother would make such a decision so quickly, and why she didn’t care if her one and only daughter were put into some crazy hospital!

“Just drive her over whenever.” Said the Doctor.

The two of them walked back out to the car and they started their drive to the other hospital. As they arrived, one of the nurses came out and assisted Brinley inside. The nurse told her mom that she was not aloud to come inside. So her mother waved, and walked away. They walked into Brinley’s new room, and to her surprise, it was really big. The nurse handed her the bright white clothes that she had to wear. She went into the bathroom to put them on.

“Can I just go to sleep?” she questioned. She didn’t want them asking a bunch of questions, or getting all up in her business.

“Sure you can. If you need anything you can just press this button.” Said the nurse.

So Brinley actually fell asleep. She awoke to the screaming voices she had heard before, but they were not trapped in her head. They were actually coming from outside her room. She looked down to her side and there were claw marks in her bed spread, and blood gushing out of her thigh. She tore a piece of her robe off and tied it around her thigh to stop the bleeding.

All the sudden the lights shut off, and it went completely silent. Brinley jumped up and ran out of her room. She paused. All she saw was blood. She couldn’t do anything about it, so she kept running. She saw one of the creatures behind her. It was sprinting right at her. She got to one of the big metal doors; she needed a key to open it. She was breathing so hard; her adrenaline was really high. She had to think.

There was a nurse on the ground, dead. Her eyes were still open, and just the thought of her having to pry the key out of the nurses hand, scared her. But she had to do it; otherwise she would be trapped there forever, or killed by the creature. She quickly grabbed the key ran right out of the hospital. When she got outside she looked around and it was raining, and there were no moving cars. Everybody was dead. The streetlights were dim, and everything was still. All she could hear was her heartbeat. Brinley started to run. She ran and ran as tears dripped down her face. She ran until her lungs couldn’t take anymore, and she collapsed.

Maybe it was all just a dream, or maybe it was reality, that’s your decision.