An Easy Resolution

Edward stared intently at the phone, his mind racing as he tried to figure out where the mysterious caller was hiding.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a dark shape wriggling behind the sofa in the side room.

Looking closer, he saw a butt wiggling back and forth, as if someone were hiding there.

Edward immediately shouted, "You're behind the sofa in the side room!"

The voice on the other end paused, seemingly surprised, before asking, "How did you know?"

Edward frowned and snapped, "Your butt is sticking out!"

"Hehehe, you guessed wrong!" the mysterious person cackled.

At that instant, Edward sharply sensed a fierce presence behind him, as though a deadly blade were slicing through the air toward him at incredible speed.

He instinctively rolled forward, then quickly spun around and finally saw what his attacker looked like.

The figure before him was tightly wrapped from head to toe in a black robe, as if he had emerged from the depths of darkness. On his face was a ghost mask with its mouth stretched open in a scream.

"Huh...?" Edward nearly laughed. "Isn't that the guy from Scream?"

The mask was too iconic. Even people who had never watched the original movie had probably seen it somewhere.

Edward remembered it especially well because he had watched Scary Movie, and the parody's portrayal had stuck vividly in his mind.

In the brief moment Edward paused after recognizing his attacker, the sneak attacker seized the opportunity and violently hurled the kitchen knife in his hand.

A flash of cold light streaked through the air as the knife shot toward Edward with terrifying force.

Edward reacted instantly, tilting his head aside on instinct. The sharp kitchen knife whistled past his cheek.

Almost at the same moment he dodged the knife, Edward swiftly raised the White Ivory Pistol and aimed it toward the attacker.

However, when he looked again, the guy in the ghost mask had already vanished around the corner, moving as swiftly as a phantom.

Edward grumbled inwardly, This guy's fighting skills really aren't worth praising, but his speed at running away is honestly incredible.

"Didn't you just say that if I found you, you'd let me hehehe? I found you already! Come out and let me hehehe!" Edward shouted into the empty room.

But only dead silence answered him. This Ghostface clearly had no sense of honor.

Edward furrowed his brows. After thinking for a moment, he picked up the landline on the table and quickly called the mysterious number back.

In an instant, a crisp telephone ring suddenly sounded from the second floor of the house.

"Found you!" Edward's gaze sharpened, and he immediately strode toward the second floor.

The moment he stepped upstairs, he heard a muffled bang. Ghostface had been pinned tightly against the wall by Carrie's telekinesis, unable to move.

Carrie's face was flushed, veins bulging on her forehead. She was clearly using every ounce of her strength, and Ghostface looked as though he was about to be crushed even further.

"Carrie, it's all right. I'm here," Edward hurriedly reassured her.

Upon hearing Edward's voice, Carrie seemed like a taut string that had suddenly snapped. Her entire body relaxed, then her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

Edward quickly turned to Lily and said, "Lily, help me take care of Carrie." Lily nodded and hurried over to Carrie's side.

Edward, meanwhile, walked over to Ghostface, who was pinned to the wall. After some effort, he got him down, found some rope, tied him up tightly, and dragged him downstairs.

Then he picked up the phone and called 911. After finishing the call, Edward looked at Ghostface on the floor and reached out to remove his mask.

After examining him closely, Edward thought for a moment. This man seemed to be named Stu Macher.

Before long, the piercing wail of sirens faintly rose in the distance, growing nearer and tearing through the suffocating silence.

Soon, a police car screeched to a halt outside. The door opened, and Officer Dewey Riley stepped out with a grave expression.

He quickly scanned the surroundings, his gaze settling on Edward and Stu Macher lying on the ground.

After asking a few simple questions, he took them both back to the police station.

At the station, Edward sat in the interrogation room and gave the officers a detailed account of what had happened. After finishing his statement, he finally walked out of the interrogation room.

Stu Macher was charged with the murders of Casey Becker and Steve, as well as the attempted murder of Edward. Prison awaited him.

However, outside the police station, a crowd of reporters who had caught wind of the news had already packed the place solid.

Among the crowd, the reporter Gale stood out particularly. Holding a microphone, her eyes gleaming with professional sharpness and urgency, she squeezed right in front of Edward, thrust the microphone toward his mouth, and began firing questions impatiently.

Edward answered only briefly before spotting his anxious parents hurrying over through the crowd.

He quickly pushed through the crowd and got into his parents' car. As the car slowly drove away, he finally escaped that irritating clamor.

John sat in the driver's seat, looking anxiously at Edward in the back through the rearview mirror. He could not help turning around and asking urgently, "Son, are you really all right? When we heard what happened, we were scared out of our minds!" Sarah tightly held Edward's hand, her eyes red and her tears not yet dry, her gaze filled with lingering fear.

Edward gently patted Sarah's hand and said casually, "Dad, I'm really fine. You should focus on the road ahead. I barely escaped a murderer—I don't want to end up in the hospital because something happens in our own car."

After a pause, he deliberately put on a smug expression and continued, "Besides, Mom and Dad, it's not like you don't know how awesome I am!"

Edward's goofy words and expression broke the tense, oppressive atmosphere in the car.

Sarah's tightly wound nerves eased at once. She could not hold back a snort of laughter, but she used too much force and blew a bubble of snot.

The ridiculous sight immediately made the atmosphere in the car somewhat comical, and the fear they had just experienced seemed to fade a little in that instant.

At the dining table in Maria's house, warm light spilled down, but the atmosphere was somewhat subtle.

Amy looked excited as she watched Maria eat and said, "Honey, guess who I met today? Sue, George's mother. You remember George, right? The boy who went to science summer camp with you."

Maria frowned slightly, a trace of confusion in her eyes. "I don't remember."