| “I don’t know what to say. Tell everyone I said thank you.” Piper explained. “One of the notebooks is so you can write Hannah and I letters like you always do when you’re on a field trip without us.” Erin explained. “I wouldn’t exactly call this a field trip.” Piper laughed. “Well, the other notebook is so you can start a brand new story.” Hannah explained. She looked up at a wall clock that hung above Piper’s bed and sighed. “Well, we have to get going to the drama production.” Erin stood up to leave. She walked to the door and opened it. Hannah walked outside, but Erin hung back. “Oh, and one more surprise.” She said. She left the room and kept the door open. Piper was unsure of what she was doing, but she was excited. Mulder appeared in the doorway and smiled. Piper laughed out loud as a sweep of happiness washed over her. Scully followed Mulder into the room. They both took a seat on plastic chairs and positioned them next to Pipers bed. “You guys came back.” Piper said. “Of course.” Mulder said. “We wanted to let you know what’s happened since you’ve be in here. We think we found out why Mr. Almond couldn’t take the rest of your blood. At the time, you had the beginning of what we think would have turned into the flu if you hadn’t had gone to the hospital. Mr. Almond can’t take sick blood, and when he does, he dies.” Scully explained. “That would tell us why he killed his students. He could tell if they were sick on a daily bases, but your sickness hadn’t been detected yet.” Mulder said. “And a court is actually believing that story?” Piper asked in disbelief. “We didn’t have to take it to court. Neither of the three families of the murdered victims are pressing charges so a murderer doesn’t have to come forward. In our own minds, we know who killed him.” Scully explained. “How about the next case we go on, it doesn’t involve my friends.” Piper suggested. Scully managed a smile. “How about you recover before we go on the next case.” She said. Piper nodded and agreement and the three of them began to laugh. * * * * In the local police department, an officer placed the bag that had the melted clothes of Mr. Almond on a shelf. He locked the compartment and walked away. As soon as he was gone, the bag began to smoke. The clothes were sizzling and turning different shades of color. A hand emerged from the clothes and poked a hole in the bag. An entire body slowly emerged. He had glasses and brown hair, and he licked his lips awaiting the sweet flavor of red blood. Well, that's it thank goodness. This is definitely my longest story, 17 pages! Who would have thought?! Oye, well this was only the third story that I've written in this series, so I'm still getting used to the actual writing style. Anyway, thank you Heather for all those nights that we did get to play manhunt. All the times that we froze our butts off, had the police called on us, and just laughed our heads off. Some of those nights were probably the best nights of my life. I'd like to say thank you to my two best friends, Meghan and Ashley. Ashley, you've been there for eleven years and I've never forgotten a day of it. Girl Scouts has been great and I can't wait until we go camping again. Meghan, I know I didn't like you when we first met but over the past three years or so, you've become my best friend. This last year has been difficult for all of us and you helped me see the light at the end of the forest. Breanne, it's been eleven years and even though we make fun of each other and "fight" somewhat often, I couldn't do it without you. Kristin, it's only been a few years but I had the best time in Florida! Would have died with just my parents without you . Sara, did you ever realize that we have obsessions with our science teachers? Well, we won't get into that right now but it has been some pretty interesting years. Anyway, I think I'm done. Thank you to everyone and hope you enjoyed the story. |