Scratch

I was just looking through my Word documents, saving them to my USB stick in case of computer explosion, and I found fairly recent story of mine. I'll probably continue it, as it was quite fun and also educational to write. It was also a lot of fun to read just a few minutes ago, as I find it quite amusing. All four characters have their own unique skill/s.

Caleb: the genius "human lie detector."
Kyle: the incredibly genius teenage Sherlock/Captain America.
William: the genius manipulator and gadget maker.
Jacob: the genius pyrotechnic and con-artist.

Here's all I've written of it so far:

“I didn’t do it! Seriously, it wasn’t me!”

William and Jacob turned to Caleb, who shrugged.

“He shows no signs of lying, so he’s probably telling the truth,” Caleb commented.

He then leant a little closer to William.

“It’s that guy over there you should talk to,” he whispered, nodding his head in the direction of the person he meant.
“Ok,” replied William.

He walked over to them, with Caleb following. Kyle slowly drifted in their direction too, still keeping an eye on the two other suspects. They were standing on a patch of grass just outside some flats, next to some uncivilised-looking walls.

“So what do you know about this?” William questioned.
“Me? I don’t know anything about this.”

William glanced over at Caleb again. After thinking for a second, Caleb subtly gestured for William to keep going.

“You sure about that?” he pressured.
“Yeah... of course. I was at my friend’s house all day yesterday, so it can’t have been me.”
“And I suppose your friend would be able to confirm that for us, would he?”
“Sure.”
“Phone number?”
“Yeah, just give me a second.”
“No, forget that,” Caleb interrupted.
“Oh... ok,” the suspect said. “So is that it?”
“No, of course not. So you’re innocent, fine. But do you know anything about this robbery?”
“No. I told you, I don’t know anything about it.”

Caleb smiled, and turned to William.

“He’s lying.”
“What?!” exclaimed the suspect. “No I’m not! I’m telling you the truth, honestly.”
“No you’re not,” Caleb said firmly. “You do know something about this, but you’re not telling us. What is it?”
“I do not know anything about this stupid robbery, ok?!” he yelled angrily, pointing his finger to emphasise his anger.
“Oh, thank you,” said Caleb, smiling.
“What?”
“Everything you’re doing so far has been telling me you’re lying, so please, keep going.”
“Stop saying that!”

Caleb turned away slightly, and looking at William, he nodded towards the suspect. William stepped forward towards the person and grabbed them by the collar.

“Alright, alright! I’ll tell you!”
“Good,” said William, with a firm look on his face, and let go of him, stepping back to Caleb’s side.
“Well, there was talk around the streets that someone was going to rob some old man’s place, but no one ever said who it was.”
“Thank you,” William said, before looking to his partner for confirmation.

Caleb nodded.

“Anything else you know?” asked William.
“Err... no, that’s all I know.”
“You and I both know that’s not true,” Caleb said over his shoulder, looking around at the other two suspects.
“Fine! One of my other mates said that he knew who it was, but he wouldn’t tell me.”
“Nope, that’s not it. In fact,” continued Caleb, “I think you do know exactly who did it.”

The suspect sighed.

“I can’t tell you.”
“Oh, can’t you?” William replied slightly sarcastically.
“He’ll kill me if I do.”
“Not if he’s locked up in a cell.”

He considered this for a moment, wondering whether or not he should say.

“Sorry, but even then... it’s just principle, you know? I can’t just rat out a friend like that.”
“You seem to be forgetting the part where he kills you,” William pointed out. “Great, principle, eh?”

After a moment, the suspect gave in.

“Alright, I’ll tell you,” he began, speaking rather quietly. “But get ready for a fight.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s here, now.”
“Oh...”

The two other suspects weren’t in ear shot, fortunately. Kyle and Jacob were watching them, making sure they didn’t make a run for it. They were standing in between the outside stairs of the flats and some sheds on the other side of the path. Leaving William to talk to the other suspect, Caleb wondered over to Kyle and Jacob, and all three of them surrounded the other two suspects. But they didn’t do it in an overly obvious way, so as not to threaten them. They stood a good distance away from them, but positioned so that they hopefully wouldn’t be able to get past if they tried to run away.

William beckoned for Kyle to come to him. After he did, he whispered something in Kyle’s ear. One of the suspects being watched by Caleb and Jacob noticed Kyle and William both glance at him a few times. This, combined with them walking towards him, was all the incentive he needed to get out of there. He darted away down a path between some houses leading to a playground, managing to get past Caleb. Kyle instantly ran after him, while Caleb and Jacob ran down another path, planning to cut him off.

The suspect they were pursuing was 17; one year older than Kyle. But Kyle was faster, so he was catching quite quickly. Past the houses, there was a field on one side of the path and a playground on the other, just past a small hill. Further along the path, on the right side of it, there was a basketball court. Just as the suspect reached that, Kyle had reached him. He grabbed his shoulders and pushed him into the metal fence of the basketball court, and slowed to a halt as the suspect collapsed onto the ground. Kyle calmed down a bit, thinking that the hard part was over, before the accused got up and took out a knife from his pocket! But Kyle wasn’t easily intimidated. He held up his watch to his mouth and spoke into it.

“He’s here by the basketball court,” he calmly stated, backing away slightly.

The person in question quickly moved towards Kyle, ready to attack with his knife.

“But he’s got a knife, so get your gun ready, Jacob.”

At this, the suspect froze. He’d almost reached Kyle, with his knife held up in striking position, but the shock of hearing that one of them had a gun had stopped him dead in his tracks. He was so shocked, he had almost let go of the knife. Kyle took this brilliant opportunity to attack the attacker. With a quick sweep of the hand, he’d taken the knife out of his grasp and then pushed him to the ground. Behind the suspect, William came strolling towards him.

“Nice,” he said.
“Thanks,” replied Kyle.

A few seconds later, Caleb and Jacob came running across the field to help, with a Nerf Gun in Jacob’s hand. After seeing that the threat was dealt with, they slowed to a jogging pace.

“Excellence,” beamed Caleb, pleased with the capture of the suspect.
“Verily,” William replied, grinning.

They both chuckled, before being interrupted by the unruly 17 year old.

“What do you want?!” he yelled.
“A confession,” answered William.
“A confession to what?”
“The robber of the house two days ago, obviously,” explained William, impatiently.

The person thought for a moment, before begrudgingly confessing to the crime.

“Fine! It was me! I did it!”

The four teenage detectives were startled! None of them for a second thought that he was really going to confess so easily. They were so surprised by this that they could hardly think of what to say.

“Err...” began William. “Good. Thank you. I suppose you can go now,” he said slowly. “Seeing that we’ve got your confession.”
“Good!” the robber yelled angrily. “Now leave me alone!”
“We will, but expect a call from the police very soon,” remarked William.

Caleb glared at him. He, unlike William, was not a fan of irritating the enemy. At least, not the intimidating enemies. William and Kyle, on the other hand, were both perfectly fine with insulting the people they were trying to catch.

The 16 year old stood up and walked away, glaring at Kyle as he passed him. Once he was out of earshot, the four amateur detectives turned to one another and began discussing what just happened.

“Why did he confess so quickly?” Caleb asked the others, very puzzled.
“I have no idea,” replied William, also confused.
“Maybe he was lying,” suggested Jacob.

They all turned to Caleb.

“I didn’t notice him lying,” he said. “But even if he was, why would he confess? I mean if he didn’t do it, then why would he say he did?”
“I don’t know,” replied William, ponderingly. “What if you were wrong earlier, and that person was actually telling the truth one of those times you said he wasn’t.”
“But still, why would the other person take the blame?”
“I don’t know,” William repeated.
“This is puzzling,” Caleb commented.
“Yeah, Captain Obvious.”
“No, I’m Cable Guy,” Caleb said, successfully managing to keep a straight face.

William laughed. Cable Guy was the nickname that William had come up with for Caleb, as Cable was an anagram of Caleb.

“Fine, Cable Guy.”

The four of them began walking cross the field, towards Caleb and Kyle’s house. Caleb and Kyle were brothers, and William and Jacob were brothers. The latter two lived with their family only a few roads from where human lie detector and the genius Captain America lived.

“Caleb,” began Jacob.
“Yes?”
“How did you know that person was lying? Actually, how did you know we needed to talk to him, and not the first person?”

Caleb smiled. He enjoyed explaining that sort of thing, except for when he was being asked just because the person didn’t believe that he could know, like William often did.

“Well, to start with, I noticed that the other person had their finger over their mouth, like this.”

He demonstrated, placing his forefinger in front of his mouth, while lightly holding onto that hand with his other hand.

“So what does that mean?” Jacob asked.
“It means they’re hiding something,” explained Caleb. “Well actually it means that they’re hushing themselves, but it’s the same thing. It’s called a gestural emblem.”
“Ok,” replied Jacob, fascinated.
“In fact,” Caleb continued, “I once saw Jeremy Clarkson do it on Top Gear.”
“Really?!” Jacob exclaimed, slightly shocked and rather amused.

William laughed; amused at both the fact that Caleb still looked out for people lying on TV, and his confidence in his abilities.

“Yes,” Caleb replied, smiling. “It was during that 100 pound car challenge, when Jeremy had actually bought his car for a pound.”
“Oh, I remember that,” said Jacob.
“Yeah, me too,” commented William.

Kyle had already been told this hundreds of times by Caleb, and he had a habit of pointing it out again whenever the episode was on TV.

“Since of course, he bought his car for one pound, and he’s hiding that. You can see him do the finger thing.”

By this time, they had almost reached the other side of the field. There was a path running parallel to it, on both sides of it in fact, with a street of houses on the other side of the path. There were several gaps between the houses along the path, allowing people to walk through to the other side.

The houses weren’t exactly luxurious, to say the least. In fact, on the other side of the houses, there were some garages for the people living in that street. The funny thing about that was that several consecutive garages had been smashed with something. Kyle had guessed that it was a car crash, which did seem most likely. Though of course in Kyle’s mind, he knew it was a car crash.

“So how did you know he was lying?” Jacob asked, ever more fascinated by the subject.
“Um...” began Caleb, trying to remember. “Well the first time, I think, he kind of repeated what William said. ‘Cause William said ‘What do you know about this?” and then he “I don’t know anything about this.” Notice the repetition?”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. So that means he’s lying?”
“Probably. None of this is 100% certain, the repetition thing more so, but it means he’s probably lying.”

Last edited by calebxy (2012-03-22 12:06:41)