Death Approaches

Death Approaches is the eighth chapter of Season One.

Read
Still a bit tired, Ezra decided to sleep a few hours more. To his surprise he didn't see Muhammad in his dream this time, but instead himself wandering into his dad's room and getting a gun from the upper drawer of his desk. It was a Smith & Wesson 686 revolver, a handgun that not only had a nice design but was easy to hold and shoot with. Ezra put the gun in his pocket and walked out of the room.

Moments after seeing that, he woke up. It was now 7 AM and he felt less tired, although he wouldn't have minded a warm cup of some good coffee. Hoping that breakfast was ready, Ezra got dressed and went downstairs. Going to the kitchen, he went past the livingroom where his parents were watching TV together.

“Good morning!” said Ezra with a weird smirk on his face since they were watching some kind of a silly reality show.

“Good morning, sweetie!” her mother said, “How are you?”

“I'm fine.” said Ezra as he put the coffee machine to work. “What are you watching?”

“It's some kind of a silly show called “The Littlest Groom”,” his father said, “I don't even know why I'm watching this.”

“Well, quality TV isn't always that available.” Ezra said, as he poured the coffee from the machine into a big white cup and thought of his most favorite TV Show Sherlock which rarely appeared in the TV, especially in the America. He himself had watched the episodes for about thousand times and knew pretty much each and every line by heart. His favorite TV shows had always had something to do with solving crimes. He had wanted to be a detective since he was a little child, and still dreamt of it now. He liked solving different mysteries, but now that he had a chance to investigate a real crime it wasn't as much fun as he thought it would be.

Although he was more than sure that Muhammad was guilty of shooting Ashton Butch, he had no evidence to prove that he was telling the truth. At least Sherlock had had proof against his archenemy Jim Moriarty. He had nothing.

“I think I will eat my breakfast upstairs,” Ezra said when he had finished making himself some sandwiches.

“Okay, sweetie, just make sure you don't spill anything.” her mom said, “Your room is already messy enough.”

“A mess is always more fun than order!” said Ezra and headed upstairs to his room.

As he was eating the sandwiches and drinking the coffee, he turned on his big black Dell laptop to check his e-mail. There was one letter from Dane which said:

Hey there, Ezra!

''I tried calling you a couple of times yesterday, but you didn't answer your phone. I just wanted to remind you that the graveyard party is taking place tonight and you better be there! Actually, I think I will drive you there myself just to make sure that you show up. You need a break from this Muhammad business. I'll be there at about 6 PM. And for goodness sake, turn your phone on!! ''

Dane

As he read the letter, a faint smile crossed Ezra's face. Although he wasn't looking forward to the party as much as he had in the beginning of this week, he was glad Dane was making an effort to cheer him up and take his mind off his creepy new enemy. Ezra had had many friends throughout his short life, but Dane was the only one who had been by his side since he was little. There weren't any other people besides him who understood him that well. Dane knew him much better than even his own parents, and Ezra could see them being good friends for a long time. If Dane would eventually decide to go to Paris, he was sure that he would follow him, as Gimli eventually followed his best friend Legolas when he left Middle Earth. They were like a sock and a shoe, or like a pot and a pan – best friends for life. Ezra couldn't really imagine his life without Dane.

For the rest of the day, he watched some movies and listened to some good music, trying to get his mind off Muhammad and his dreams that had gotten creepier with every passing day.

At least he now knew for sure that he some of his dreams had something to do with reality, since the sports bag with the guns had been in Muhammad’s locker both in the dream and in reality. Even though he knew he couldn't get such a big amount of guns as Muhammad had, he had to have at least one weapon to protect him against his newfound enemy. And the only gun in his reach was his father's Smith & Wesson.

Although stealing the gun could've gotten him into a lot of trouble, he knew that he would rather spend a year in detention, than know that he didn't have the guts to stand up to his enemy and do his best to protect the people around him.

Since his parents were still watching TV together, Ezra had a good chance to sneak into his father's room. He walked as quietly as he possibly could, and went into the other side of the hallway where was the room that his father liked to call his personal office.

The door was unlocked, and as he had entered the room and quietly closed the door behind him, he immediately went to the big black desk that he had seen in his dream. As he opened the upper drawer, he found the same gun he had dreamed about: the Smith & Wesson 686 handgun with a black handle. When he took the gun out of the drawer, he felt that holding the gun in his arm made him feel a little better.

He hid the gun in his pocket and closed the drawer he had taken it from, and went back into his room. Since it was already 5:30 PM, Ezra decided that he would start to get ready for the party. He put on a pair of white jeans and a plain blue v-neck sweater. He took his leather shoulderbag from the table and put the gun and his sharpened knife in there. He had decided that from now on he would always keep a weapon with him, because Muhammad wasn't an enemy you could defeat unarmed. He also found a pepper spray and threw it into the bag as well. At 6 PM Ezra was already waiting in front of the house for Dane. A few minutes later, a nice blue sedan stopped in front of the house. It was the car of Dane's father which Dane was sometimes allowed to drive. Ezra went into the car and sat next to Dane in the front seat.

“Are you as excited about this party as I am?” Dane asked, looking at Ezra who was fastening his seatbelt.

“I don't really know anymore.” said Ezra.

“Well,” said Dane, “some of the events you don't want to go to at first can turn out to be really fun. Just wait: murder mystery is definitely the most exciting game you'll ever play. Especially if it is played in the graveyard.”

Since Dane was driving quite fast, they made it to the forest cemetery in half an hour. This was an old graveyard which some had called the scariest place in all of Seattle. The land was covered with many tombstones, some short and some tall, all of them at least a hundred years old. No one was being buried here any more, and the cemetery itself was now more of a place for sightseeing. Amongst the young people it was a very popular place to come to, and for that reason, various parties and other gatherings happened here. Ezra and Dane had also been here numerous times, exploring the site already when they were very young.

What made that graveyard creepy were the tall trees which towered over all the tombstones. In the summer and especially in the autumn when the trees had a lot of leaves, it got very dark here soon after the sun had set. So dark in fact, that it was absolutely impossible to see anything without a flashlight or any other lightsource.

“Dang it!” Ezra said as they got out of the car and looked into his bag, “I forgot to bring my flashlight!”

“You always forget to bring the important things!” Dane said, “Well, stay close to me when it gets dark because I've only got one flashlight!”

Near the place where they had parked their car, a large group of people had already gathered for the party. All of them dressed in casual clothes like Dane and Ezra, they were waiting for the game to begin. Ezra knew none of them, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable since he wasn't really that good at interacting with new people. At least Dane was there.

As they approached the group of people, they were greeted by a young man with curly brown hair who was wearing a black trenchcoat.

“Greetings!” he said with a big smile on his face, “I'm Adrien. I'm glad you could make it, Dane! And you must be Ezra, right?”

“Yes, I am.” Ezra responded.

“Well, it's great to see you both!” Adrian said, and handed them both some papers. “Here are your character descriptions and other necessary information for the game. Don't show them to anyone!”

As Ezra read his character description, he discovered that he was Danny Elmore, a literary agent and a control freak, and the third one to die in that game.

Since Ezra wasn't at all good at acting, he wasn't exactly sure how he would act that scene. But he doubted that any of those people here were actors, so just silently falling to the ground would probably be enough.

In about half an hour, some more people came to play the game. When they had gotten the needed information for the game, Adrien stepped on a big stone in the middle of the graveyard and started speaking.

“I'm very glad to see you all here!” he said, “Now that you've all read the information I gave you, it is time to start!”

The game started with the funeral of Fred Fletcher. This particular funeral, although suitable for a place such as this, was a bit weird in many ways. Ezra was not used to seeing people dressed so colorfully at an event such as this, and there wasn't even a coffin that would've made the whole event a bit more realistic. As it was getting dark, many candles had been placed on tombstones to help the players see better.

Adrien, who was playing the pastor, made a speech in honour of the departed mr. Fletcher. After the speech, which had lasted about five minutes, each of the players threw a handful of dirt to the ground. After a few minutes, the guests started to communicate with each other. Ezra looked at the page which talked about the goals of his character, and found out that his first task was to talk to Joyce, the wife of the departed mr. Fletcher, and find out how her husband really died.

After some asking, he found that the character of Joyce was played by a tall girl with long blonde hair. He went to her and started a conversation.

“My name is Danny Elmore,” he said, “I was a friend of your husband. I'm really sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” the girl responded in a light voice. It was a bit weird a young girl like this, barely seventeen or eighteen, was playing a middle aged woman.

“How did your husband exactly die?” Ezra asked after a few moments of silence.

“He was shot while he was on his way home.” the girl said. “The police don't know who killed him yet.”

“Do you have any idea who killed him?” Ezra asked.

“Well,” the girl responded, “He had many employees who hated him. It could've been anyone.”

“Thank you for the information!” Ezra said and walked away from her.

His next task was to talk to Peaches Fletcher, the daughter of Fred and Joyce, and ask from her what she knew about his father's murder. But before he could find her, he heard a gunshot from the distance and a body falling down on the ground.

Suddenly, everything in the graveyard was as silent as death. The people were not exactly sure what had happened. The shooter was nowhere in sight and after a few moments of silence many ran towards the body that had just been shot. Since toy guns that could make noise were sometimes used in this game, no one seemed to be panicking.

But as Ezra walked towards the body, he felt that something wasn't quite all right. He was one of the first who found the body. It was a tall man wearing a black leather jacket and a pair of dark jeans. Near his hands were the character instruction papers which were mostly covered with a dark red liquid. Ezra reached his hand, touched the paper and licked his finger clean. It was blood.

As other people gathered around the body, many started to scream when they realised that this man wasn't only dead in the game but also in real life. After that, the players all ran in different directions, afraid that they would be the next ones to die.

Since it was getting darker by the minute, Ezra found it hard to see what was really happening. But he knew he had to do one thing: find his friend Dane and then get as far from this place as possible. “DANE!” he yelled as loudly as he could. “DANE! WHERE ARE YOU?”

No one answered. He could only hear people screaming in the distance, as they were all getting further from him, and left him alone amongst the tombstones.

Ezra ran after them, and called out for Dane once again. Still, no one answered him, and he couldn't hear his friend calling for him either.

As minutes passed, he got more scared. Somewhere here was a shooter who had just killed a man, and since he couldn't see anything and didn't know where to go, it would've been really easy for the killer to find him.

After a few moments, he heard another gunshot in the distance. Ezra's heart started pounding louder and faster, as panic swept over him like a big wave over the shore. This was really happening, people were really dying and he was the next one scheduled to go to the other side. The panic was so great that it was hard for him to move. Then he suddenly felt someone grasp his wrist. He screamed loudly, but realised a few moments later that it was Dane.

“Let's run!” he said quietly. He turned on his flashlight and they started running towards the place where the blue sedan was parked. But both of them didn't see that someone was running after them, a tall man with a white trenchcoat and a rifle, getting closer by the minute...

Characters

 * Ezra White


 * Dane Young


 * Ursula White


 * Damon White


 * Adrien Finley


 * Muhammad Praveen (indirect)


 * Ashton Butch (indirect)

Trivia

 * This is the first episode where someone dies in real life.
 * We find out more about Ezra: what likes to do in his spare time (watch his favorite TV show Sherlock) and that he has wanted to be a detective since he was a child.
 * This is also the first episode where miss Tanen isn't mentioned.
 * "The Littlest Groom" which Ezra's parents were watching is an actual reality show.