The Murder Mystery

The night is young and so are we.  We have never met our match.  The minions live on.  That is the intro.  Thank you. 

THE MURDER MYSTERY
On our walk today, when it was dark and windy, Trenten, Max, and Ben disappeared.  No suspicion arose at first as we began our traverse across the neighborhood and across the street into the other development.  Suddenly two shadows shot across our peripheral vision as someone passed under a nearby light.  Our fears quickly escalated as we discussed our shared wonders and curiosities.  One or more of these may or may not have included an image of Max and Trenten's dead bodies lying in wait for us on our return trip with a note to force our hand.  As we again set our minds on the task of our short journey across the subdivisions.  Little movements continued to capture or attention without a moments notice and excite our heart rates.  Whether by imagination or some sixth sense, we began noticing at certain intervals a small group of shirtless followers.  As we neared the far side of our walk through the night, we noticed a light that was glowing slightly less brightly than any of the others we had already passed.  More than before, we could hardly see any of the happenings going on around us beyond a very close range of just more than 20 or 30 feet.  Nobody would have noticed until it was too late if someone had been carefully stalking us and sprung some sort of attack.  We all wondered aloud at the oddity of the light, as it slowly faded to complete darkness.  Around that time, someone mentioned there was hardly any moon, and therefore almost no source of help for our vision.  The light shot back into full power for a couple seconds and then danced around in the middle ranges, giving an image of lightning to even the weakest imagination.  Imagination was hardly necessary in the next minute.  Lightning soon began actually creasing the western side of the sky, far off, but creeping closer by the second.  The necessity of returning back to Tony's house crossed a few of our minds, and after revealing the idea to the others, we began the return.  We made our way nearer and nearer to a large trailer parked just outside of one of the last houses in the row on the side of the street we currently traversed.  After this trailer we would be covering ground for about 200 meters with absolutely no cover.  Then we would cross the street, and curve around the street west and then south around the long line of dark houses before finally reaching our final destination.  Noises in the night began to take on new and more unique identities as our normal views of the world we live in faded into the night.  Darkness was completely settled and so many opportunities had been wide open for any unknown forces to act beyond our knowledge of the present situation.  Our quiet unfounded fears quickly turned into very real problems.
"Who is that behind the trailer", someone cried out from the back of the small group.  Our size and power was analyzed immediately by a sweeping look back through the group.   We didn't have much going for us.   A small percentage of us were among the elite few that can sustain high speed runs longer than 95% of the surrounding population, but in dire circumstances would stand little chance against a larger foe.  The rest were hopelessly below fighting capacity if jumped in the middle of the night by a gang of ill-intending fiends.  Our hope was that a small animal would show itself for a split second and then flee quickly leaving us an open path back home.  The entire group moved in an arcing path to the far side of the street and inched forward craning their necks searching for any human shaped forms in the shadows.  Carefully our search progressed until we concluded happily that there had been no real reason to cower.  We again resumed our original path, and a loose chatter spread through the group.  We moved on to the street and then across.  A small toad moving in the grass to the left caught Zak's (that's me!) attention, and he quickly bent and picked up the toad bringing him back to the rest of the group.  A few in the group shrieked in their fear of the dreaded toad, bringing death doom and torture with it wherever it went.  The rest happily looked on as it was allowed to return its mission of hippity-hopping carelessly along the wet grass carpet layed out before it.  This simple diversion completely halted the party, and conversion had already begun.  Tony tried in vain to begin walking again, but he was granted little to no attention by the vast majority of those present.  In disgust he resigned himself to stand to the side with Zak and converse in wonder as to what may be going on outside of their immediate and limited known area of the wide world.  In specific, they wondered what happenings went on in the gloomy and shadowed surrounding countryside.  Tension and suspense built as the two continued their earlier wonderings: what were Max, Trenten, and Ben doing?  Why did Justin walk like a penguin?  What would they find on their eventual arrival back at Tony's house?  Observations and suggestions ranged from completely illogical and odd musings to the most mind-numbing stories, many of which fit the situation perfectly. Upon looking back to where they had recently come from, the immediately saw someone step back into the shadows behind the trailer in the street.  The shadows contained a small number of barely visible human shapes moving to conceal themselves more perfectly.  Were the other guys following behind us trying to pull a prank?  Or was it someone else, either for sinister reasons following the group, or just out of curiosity?  Their newfound serious view of the current setting pressed them to call attention in the group, and press on.  Small stones were scattered all over the road and dug into the bottoms of their bare feet.  Complaints broke out with this new discomfort.  The pace quickened.  A question was raised: what was the small object fluttering in the night breeze just beyond clear sight on the road ahead?  We continued without halting, deciding it was not something to worry about.  We were correct, it turned out to be only a small piece of corn from the nearby field.  We were almost back!  We scampered up the driveway toward the front door.  Max, Trenten, and Ben came down from a concealed position to the right of the garage, and quickly asked where we had been for such a long period of time?  We also had questions: had the hidden strangers been just their idea of fun, or had they truly been here the entire time?  Tony's dad showed up from down the street at the Witte residence, and the bottled up questions and ideas all fell out of our minds.  The problems and worries we had so prominently in the foreground of our concentration just a little earlier hardly seemed to matter at all anymore.  It had been a nice walk, and the small flashes of lightning were still along the horizon.  Everyone settled down, and talked for a little longer, then we went back inside.  The crowd drove off, and the minions moved down into their cave of secret happenings.   Societal curtesies were not completely necessary among the few, the proud, the runners... and Ben.  Chocolate Milk/Water spoons almost resumed practice, but was cancelled due to a high approval rating for general rough-housing.  And the rest is History.