Status: Critique greatly appreciated, nitpickers welcome! Don't be a silent reader!

The Key Chased the Blade

Noose

I screamed. I couldn't help it; the freaking bird was right there with its beak open and its eyes milky white and intestines hanging out of it, and I booked it out the door and collided straight into Rico. He grabbed onto me and I thrashed and tried to hit him and screamed some more. My screams were more angry this time though.

"JOHN, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" I wailed. "THIS IS NOT A FUNNY JOKE!"

Rico put me into a wrestlers hold and I couldn't get out, no matter how hard I flailed. I was crying by now, and God, I was definitely not a crier. These were tears of anger and frustration. At that time Rico literally picked me up and threw me on the couch in the living room. I was too startled and pissed to get up and beat the crap out of John.

"Noah, what happened?" Rico demanded.

I had tears and snot all over my face so I just buried my head in a pillow. "There's a - there's a dead bird outside my window." I didn't even mean to stutter like that. I was crying so hard I was hiccuping, Jesus, I was glad nobody but Rico saw me like this.

"What, a dead bird?"

"A dead bird!" I chucked the pillow at him and buried my head into the couch cushion. He just caught and set it down next to me.

"Alright, I'll go check it out," he said softly, and then I heard him leave. I unburied my head and wiped all the snot and crap off my face and waited for him to come back. When he did come back, his expression was pensive and disgusted. "Noah, I don't think John would do something like that," he said. "I'm going to go dispose of it."

He left out the door and I waited, grabbed the pillow Rico had set by me, and held it against my chest. I was going to kill John anyway, wherever he was, even if he didn't put that bird up.

Rico came back and I asked where our brother was. "John? He's with his girlfriend, I think."

I frowned. "No he's not, I saw her with her friends when I got ice cream with Simon."

"Oh boy." Rico sighed. I knew what he was thinking, John was probably stirring up trouble somewhere. But then he turned serious. "Look, that dead bird, no matter how you put it, was vandalism. Someone purposely hung it up there. I have a feeling somebody didn't like you going to the police about those other dead birds."

I felt my blood run cold. "Do you think they're mad?"

"I don't know. But I'm spooked. I'm going to call the police about it." Rico started toward the home phone and picked it up. "Let's just be on alert for more of these things, okay?"

I swallowed and hugged the pillow. "Okay."

I made sure to keep pepper spray on me for the next week.
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Ahhhh... band camp... why...