Janet and Jane: The Case of the Targeted Heiress: Part Three

      What on Neopia should we do? We couldn't just leave him here! He could be the one targeting Mae for all we knew! If he was the Neopet who we were after, we could be in major danger when he woke up. If not, we really needed to ask some questions.

      I wasn't sure if this was just me or not, but I think I heard something from down the hall. It sounded like a dark chuckle followed by some footsteps going away from us. Were Jane and Mae back?

      "Natia, can you keep an eye on him while I investigate something?" I asked.

      "I can. Why, what do you have to investigate?" Natia responded.

      "Nothing you should concern yourself about," I sighed. After that, I walked off.

      You know, I really should have asked Mae for a map of this place. I still didn't know my way around here -- even after she showed me around a good bit of it. Oh, how could I ever find my way around here? My answer actually walked up to me. Mae's white Meowclops walked up to me. She mewed and rubbed its head on my leg.

      "Aw, hi there," I said to her as I scratched behind her ear. She purred. "Why are you here?"

      The Meowclops mewed again and began to walk away from me. She looked at me and meowed.

      "You want me to follow you?" I asked the Petpet. She meowed once again and began to walk again. I followed her. I guessed she knew where to go. Well, the Meowclops did live here. If anyone in the house would know, it'd be her (along with Mae and Xavier, of course).

      While I was following the Meowclops, deep in thought, I heard those footsteps again. I picked up the Meowclops (to which she detested), and began to follow the footsteps. They seemed to be getting quicker. Whoever they belonged to seemed to be running away. I was sure not to let that happen.

      As I ran faster, the one I was after ran faster. He must really not have wanted to get caught. What if I lost him? Oh, I really hoped that luck was not on his side.

      Believe it or not, it actually wasn't.

      He ran into a dead end. I got a good look at him. He was a stealthy Blumaroo. It looked like he had some sort of weapon, most likely a dagger, in his hand. This was definitely the one who was messing around with Mae. I grinned wryly at him. I got him now.

      Well... Not exactly.

      He quickly lunged at me and knocked me to the ground. I looked up at him. He was barely above me and had his dagger at the ready. I was thoroughly scared. Was he going to do me in?

      The Meowclops hopped onto the Blumaroo. The Blumaroo got up and threw her off of him. Once the Moewclops landed, she ran away. I followed her. Through my pulse in my ears and my heavy breathing, I could hear the stealthy Neopet persuing us.

      After about ten minutes and me almost passing out from running as fast as my little legs could carry me, I finally lost the Blumaroo. The Meowclops led me to Natia. She was running, so I had to practically chase her. Once I get to the alien Aisha and the still unconsious Neopet, I collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily.

      "Whoa, Janet, what happened to you?" Natia asked.

      "Chasing... Spotted... Stealthy Blumaroo..." I managed to say.

      "What?! Are you alright?! What did he do?!"

      I managed to sit up. "Can I please explain it when Jane and Mae come back?"

      "We're back!"

      What do you know, perfect timing. I pulled out a pencil and the sketchbook I used to draw pictures of possible suspects and began to draw the Blumaroo. Now I didn't get a good look at his face -- he had a cloth over it -- but other than that, I got all of his other features.

      Mae and Jane ran up to us. They noticed the unconsious Vandagyre. Both were obviously concerned, but Mae seemed terrified at the sight.

      "Oh my goodness, what happened to Xavier!?!" she shouted. The Usul shoved me away and kneeled in front of him.

      This Vandagyre was Xavier? No wonder she was like this. I would be concerned if someone I cared about was found like this.

      "Natia and I found him in the closet," I explained.

      "What were you doing in my closet?" Mae asked accusingly.

      "It was Natia's idea. I tried to stop her."

      "I was looking for clues," Natia pointed out. I rolled my eyes as she said this. She turned to Mae and asked, "Hey, so did you find any information about the Blumaroo that targeted you last time?"

      The white Neopet shook her head. "No. Not a single thing."

      I showed her the sketch of the Blumaroo that attacked me. "Is this the Blumaroo that targeted you before?" Mae's face gained a shot of terror from just one second of the drawing. All she could do was nod.

      "How do you find out what he looks like?" Jane asked.

      Alright. Here I go. I really didn't want to see how Mae would react. She nearly passed out from the two things we showed her earlier. Oh well. I said, "He attacked me."

      Not only Mae, but Jane and Natia looked terror-stricken. Mae was the most terrified, though. Her pupils dialated and she began to tremor. Her hands were glowing a bright blue.

      "Mae, you need to relax. I think your powers run on adrenaline," I said calmly, hoping it'd rub off on her.

      The glow got less intense, but I could still see a slight light blue light pulsing from her clenched fists. "I know they do. I'm trying to relax, but it isn't that easy when the Blumaroo that targeted us last time is after us again!" Then the glow became more prominent.

      "Just relax. We can handle it," Natia comforted. For some odd reason, I only felt even more apprehensive after she said that.

      Just as we continued to argue, we heard something else. All of us froze in fear. I was especially freaked out. What if it was the Blumaroo that attacked me (and most likely Xavier)? If it was, what were we supposed to do?

      Turned out that it was Xavier. He was groaning and his fingers are beginning to twitch. Was he... Was he waking up? I guess he was, since more than his fingers was beginning to move. It wasn't long before the Vandagyre pressed his hands onto the floor and pushed himself up onto his feet.

      Mae's fice lit up with delight. She almost tackled Xavier back to the floor with a hug. With relief smothered all over her voice, she sighed, "Oh, Xavier. Thank Fyora you're okay! You have no idea how worried I was!"

      "I think I have the basic idea," Xavier said. He hugged his sister gently. I could see a little bit of strain in his face. I thought it was from his injuries. "Do you mind letting me go? You're starting to hurt me."

      Mae immediately let go of the bruised Vandagyre. "Oh, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you anymore than you were already."

      From what I can tell, Mae really cared about Xavier. I was sure the feelings were intimate. Wait, if they were, wouldn't he be acting the same? I mean... I thought that he would be just as, if not more, concerned than Mae. Here, he just showed little compassion. I kept a mental note of that.

      "Who are these Neopets?" Xavier asked, meaning us.

      "Oh, that's Jane," Mae answered as she pointed at the shadow Korbat. "That's Natia." Now the Usul pointed at the alien Aisha. "And this is Janet." Now at me. I waved at Xavier, who uneasily waved back.

      "Why are they here?"

      "They're detectives. They're going to solve the issue with the one who's after us."

      Xavier then leaned into Mae and whispered something in her ear. I thought he said, "Are you sure that they're not the ones after us?"

      "They're not," Mae whispered back. "Besides, they found out who is. It's the Blumaroo from last time."

      Xavier gained a concerned look, but to me, he didn't look surprised. If this was the first time he heard of it, he would show at least a little bit of shock, right? A little bit of worry? Concern? Did he have any of those emotions in him?

      "How did you get hurt?" I asked as I pulled out my noteook and a pen.

      Xavier rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't remember," he answered.

      I wrote that down. "Wait, Mae." I turned to the Usul. "Didn't you say that he went missing a week ago?" She nodded. If that was true, why would he suddenly show up in the closet now?

      "The last week is a little hazy to me," Xavier sighed. "I'm going to need a little while before I can answer any of your questions."

      "That's understandable," Jane informed. "This isn't the first time we saw something like this."

      "It's the first time a Neopet fell out of a closet for us, though," I added.

      Jane glared at me. I guess she didn't want me to mention that. She knew I was right, though. "Anyway, after a traumatic experience, many victims recieve memory loss," the Korbat explained. "It's only temporary."

      "We'll talk to you tomorrow and see if you remember anything," I finished.

      "Don't worry!" Natia chirped. She trotted up to the blue Vandagyre and put her arm around his shoulders like they were buddies. "Everything will be back to normal for you soon!"

      Xavier uneasily side stepped away from her. "I-it's getting late. I should be getting to bed." He was right. It was a long day. We came here in the morning and now it was almost midnight. I was resisting the urge to yawn for about an hour now.

      "Yeah, I guess you're right," Mae agreed. She faced Natia, Jane, and I. "I showed you where you're staying, right?"

      "You showed us," Jane replied. She began to walk away from us. "G'night."

      "Well I'm not tired," Natia argued.

      "Of course not," I muttered. "You have more energy than a baby on a sugar rush."

      She looked at me unapprovingly. I glared at her (she always hated when I did that). "I'll just go in my room."

      "You go do that." I began to walk to my room. "See you two in the morning."

      Well today was about as far out of the ordinary as I could expect it to be. Our client was magic (her brother was magic, too), I saw the one who was after her (who he was still was a mystery (that we were going to solve)), and Natia and I were scared out of our skins. I had a feeling from the beginning that this wouldn't be just an ordinary case -- and I was right.

      Xavier seemed nice, too, but I thought he was acting strange. Then again, anyone would act a little out of their head if they had a traumatic experience. Otherwise, he looked nice, polite, and a nice Neopet to talk to.

      I didn't trust him.

      To be continued…