Ding, Ding, Ding, Clack, a woman was awoken by an alarm before she turned it off. The woman got out of bed and looked around. "Haaaa, still no sign of Markus, I wonder where he might be" (Said the woman with a sigh). The woman looked like a 20-year-old woman with black hair and a slim figure.
After thinking for a while, she started to have some negative thoughts. What if he was kidnapped? What if he was in danger? Markus's girlfriend started to hyperventilate for a few seconds until she eventually calmed down.
"There's no benefit to thinking like this, he's probably fine. I'll go look around the house for him" (The woman reassured herself).
The kids were in school at this time, so Markus's girlfriend had all the time to look for his boyfriend. She searched for all over the house but couldn't find him, she even tried calling him, but it was all in vain, and after some time a sudden realization came to her. Markus had told her yesterday that he was going to Leo's house for a visit again even though he visited him just two days ago, so she concluded that he probably stayed at Leo's house to sleep. Nevertheless, the fact that he didn't consult her about it and that he still hasn't come back was still weird for her, so she got in her car and drove towards Leo's house to know what was going on.
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Now, Leo was in a dilemma; he didn't know what to do in this situation. All the evidence that he had in his mansion pointed out that Leo killed Markus. If he were to talk about what happened with the guardians, he would surely be sent to Doomtown. "Markus, I'm very sorry for what I'm just about to do" Leo made up his mind, he picked the corpse of Markus and buried it on his backyard.
Leo got some cleaning utensils and cleaned the whole house. Leo also found Markus's legs; they were on his basement. He picked up the legs, buried them, and then cleaned the evidence. Now Leo only had one problem, he didn't know how to deal with Markus's girlfriend. She would surely ask him questions about Markus's whereabouts.
Leo was thinking about what to do when suddenly he heard his doorbell ringing, "Ding, Dong" Leo walked to his door and saw through the peephole. When Leo saw who it was, he started sweating buckets, it was Markus's girlfriend. Leo opened the door and greeted the girlfriend with a polite smile. "Hello Marisa, why are you here this early? Shouldn't you be with Markus?"
"Hello Leo, well... that's exactly why I came here. Do you know where Markus is? He hasn't come back after he told me that he was going to your house for a visit again, and he doesn't answer my calls" (asked Marisa with a worried expression on her face).
"I haven't seen him; I was at the bar yesterday until very late."
"Well, that's a shame, if you find out anything about him, please let me know where he is" (said Marisa with a worried look on her face).
"Don't worry about him, I will let you know if I see him. Also, don't get too nervous, I'm sure he's fine and will appear soon; but just in case I'll keep calling him to see if he answers me" (Leo said with a forced smile).
Marisa seemed to be doubting that her boyfriend was okay, but she left aside those thoughts and convinced herself that nothing bad had happened to him.
"Alright then, thank you for your time Leo, see you around" (Said Marisa with a smile).
After Marisa left, Leo thought about what he would do next. He didn't have work today and he had all the free time that he needed but, he still didn't know how to properly hide all the evidence and deal with the guardians.
"It's only a matter of time before Markus's girlfriend notifies his disappearance to the guardians, and they will surely question me. When that time comes... I-I don't know what's going to happen" (Leo said to himself with fear and stress).
Leo sat on the couch and tried thinking of something that would calm his mind. He started thinking of all his good memories with Markus. The time where they met, up until the point that he died, Leo closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
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After Marisa left Leo's house, she got her phone and called the guardians while going to her house. The guardians responded almost instantly and started asking questions.
"This is the guardian's emergency line, identify yourself and say the purpose of your call." (A womanly voice demanded.)
"Hello, this is Marisa James, the purpose of this phone call is to inform the disappearance of Markus West."
"When was the last time that you saw the individual and what's your relationship with him?"
"He's my boyfriend and I last saw him two days ago when he went to his friend's house."
"What's the name of the individual's friend?"
"His name is Leo Bright."
"Any other information that could help us with the case? Don't keep things to yourself as it could save a lot of time and trouble for the guardians."
"Nothing more" (Marisa said with an angry expression before hanging up).
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Ding-Dong, Leo woke up to the sound of a doorbell. Leo groggily got up and went towards his door with slow footsteps. When he arrived at the door, he heard someone say "This are the guardians, if nobody opens the door in the next two minutes it will be opened by force" Leo then proceeded to open the door with shaky hands and greeted the guardians.
"What can I do for you?" (Leo said with nervousness).
"We came here to investigate the disappearance of Markus, a respectable member of Hope City. We are going to investigate your mansion because you are the prime suspect of his disappearance."
The guardians were dressed in a heavy suit of armor with guns on their hands and they all wore a mask that had the letters "H.C.G." imprinted on the forehead.
"No problem, search all you want" (Leo said while appearing to be calmed).
The guardians ignored Leo and searched all the corners of his house, all but two rooms, the camera room and his bedroom. Leo then remembered that there was evidence that incriminated him for "killing" Markus. Leo suddenly broke out in cold sweat, he then walked quietly to the camera room with the purpose of getting rid of the evidence. The guardians were searching his room, and they could be out in any second, so he had to be fast.
Leo entered the room without making that much noise and quickly got on the computers, he found the footage of what happened and tried to erase it, but to his bad luck... it couldn't be deleted.
"Dammit!" (Leo shouted as quietly as possible in a sudden outburst). "I forgot that the footages in all cameras of Hope City can't be deleted because of its stupid strict laws! What am I going to do now?!" (Leo thought in desperation).
After a couple of seconds had passed, Leo came up with a quick "solution". With no better option he just transferred the footage to a memory card that was on his computer, and after the process was done, he took it out of the computer and quickly put the card in his pocket. Leo then proceeded to put a footage of one month ago to replace the empty space. He exited the room and waited there for the guardians. Leo looked out the window and saw guardians stationed outside his house.
"Of course that there are guardians outside, I'm a suspect after all. They wouldn't want me to escape while they search the place."
The guardians got out of the room in about 30 seconds after Leo exited the camera room. The guardians went inside the room, they looked at the footages and everything looked in order, so, they started to ask questions about Leo's location last night.
"Everything looks in order, but we will have to question you, it's just protocol. Where were you last night and what was the last time that you saw Markus?"
"Last night I was at the bar drinking from about 6 pm to 8 pm, and I last saw Markus two days ago" Leo gave out a shallow answer to the guardians while making a rough guess about the time.
"Okay, that's all we need to know" The guardians said before leaving the mansion and going out in their vehicles. The guardians didn't suspect Leo for now because his description of events matched the footage, successfully making the guardians accept Leo's shallow answer; however, that didn't mean that they would stop investigating him.
After some time, Leo received a phone call from Marisa. "Ring, Ring, Ring, click" (Leo answered the phone with a stiff face.) "Hey Leo, come to my house, I need to talk to you."
"I can't right now Marisa, I was just searched by the guardians and need some time to get my stuff together."
"Well then, but try to hurry up, and come to my house when you are done. I have something very important to talk with you about."
Leo went silent for some time making up scenarios in his head about what could be so important to make Marisa want to urgently talk with him but left aside those thoughts and kept talking with her.
"Alright then, I will try to finish quickly." (Said a nervous Leo before hanging up).
After hanging up Leo sat down on the couch and started thinking of how to get out of the situation. He had his best friend's dead body buried in his backyard and was a suspect for his disappearance, and he was sure that Marisa also suspected him for something.
Leo recollected his thoughts, got out of his home and drove towards Markus's house. He arrived in about an hour and immediately got out of the car before knocking on the door. "Knock, knock, Marisa, it's me, Leo".
As the seconds passed, Leo became more and more nervous as Marisa was taking her time to answer him, and after a while, Marisa opened the door.
"Come in, sit down on the couch and make yourself comfortable" (Marisa said with a straight face).
Leo didn't say anything to her while he went inside her house and headed towards the couch. After Leo went inside, Marisa closed the door, followed him, and they both sat on the couch. The ambient was beginning to feel awkward for Leo as he got more and more nervous, so he started a conversation.
"So... how are the kids? They must be worried about what's happening."
"The kids are fine; they went to sleep before you arrived."
"That's good to hear, and... how's work?" (Leo asked immediately after Marisa responded him while he played with his hands and avoided eye contact)
"Work's good" (Marisa blandly said).
"Oh, I see..."
Leo ran out of conversation topics and now he didn't know what to say. Even though Marisa was Markus's girlfriend and he had known her for a long time, they weren't so close, so Leo was having a hard time in trying to engage in a conversation with her, especially when he "killed" her boyfriend just a day ago according to the footage of the cameras; just as he was about to say something, Marisa started speaking all of a sudden.
"Leo, I need you to be honest. I need to know where Markus was before his disappearance."
Just as Leo suspected, now, he was in trouble, he didn't know what to say. He wanted to erase all evidence that incriminated him and also wanted to find the hacker that changed the footage and killed Markus. Leo was silent for a while before he started talking.
"I didn't want to tell you this but... Markus and I agreed to meet each other at the bar at 6 pm, however... he never showed up. I didn't talk about this with you before because Markus told me to not mention you anything about him going to the bar since he didn't want to get in trouble with you. Although now that he's been missing for a long time, I feel the need to tell you this... I'm sorry for keeping it from you." Leo had a guilty conscience for lying to Marisa, but he just couldn't help it, he was scared. He didn't want to be sent to Doomtown; he knew that if he was sent there, it would be his end.
Marisa seemed to believe what Leo was saying but that didn't solve the main problem, she had no idea where Markus was. Marisa just wanted to find her boyfriend, she was worried and scared for his safety. After Marisa got Leo to confess "everything" that he knew about Markus, she sent him out. "Thanks for telling me this Leo, but please leave, I need some time alone."
"It's okay, I understand" (Said Leo before standing up from the couch).
Leo got out of the house and headed straight for his mansion. Marisa was having a bad time, her boyfriend was lost, and she had to take care of the kids all by herself; she was devastated. Marisa looked at the couch that Leo was sitting on and saw something unfamiliar, it looked like a chip. Marisa grabbed it and realized that it was a memory card. It seemed to have fallen out of Leo's pocket, and she wondered what might be in it.
Her curiosity caused her to feel the need of checking the contents of it, so she went to her camera room and put the memory card by her computer's side. She was shocked, what she saw made her sad, confused, speechless and angry at Leo, she couldn't understand how Leo could kill Markus. They were friends since they were kids and their relationship was strong, or that's what she believed until now. Marisa kept crying as she watched every second of her boyfriend getting tortured and killed in a horrible way by Leo, his own and best friend. The only thing she wanted to do at the moment was to get back at Leo for what he did to Markus, and she knew exactly how to do that.
Marisa spent the last ten minutes looking at the footage over and over again with teary eyes. She was in denial, Marisa had enough of the footage and took the memory card out while she looked at it with a horrible expression on her face and swore to herself, "Leo, I will ruin your life" (Marisa said with a hateful expression with tears still streaming down her face).