text: To everyone at the bakeries, the man wrote, I am hosting a cookie exchange at my house at six o'clock, on December 3rd. It will be a holiday party. Bring your best cookies! There will be judging and tasting, so make sure to bring about two or three. He paused for a moment and thought. Please come on time, or up to ten minutes early. He went down a few lines and wrote down the address, the time once again, and the number for RSVP-ing. He looked at the clock above him on the red wall. One o'clock. He then walked over to his special printer and made about seventy copies. It was a lot, but he needed as much people there as possible. You see, the cookie exchange was just a hoax, a cover-up for the truly nasty thing he was planning. He needed as many victims as possible, especially Gary, the man who knew a little about who he really was. He walked through his dimly-lit, spacious house. He headed for the red front door, and then walked through it. It was cold outside, but only cold enough to require a sweater. He walked out onto his driveway and got into his blue Toyota Sienna. When he arrived at the post office, he gave the letters and addresses to the lady at the oak desk. When he came back to his house, he immediately sat down on his black leather couch and started to think. His plan was to pick the "guests" off one by one, so he needed to be strategic. He had a special remote that turned off all the lights for secrecy. He also put tunnels in between certain parts of his house, able to be accessed by moving the large paintings. His plan almost reminded him of a video game... whatever. The only point was to kill. He didn't have a certain reason, it just seemed fun. Especially killing Gary. He'd need to go for him first since he might catch on to other murders. Then came the hard part. If all these killings happened and he, we'll just call the killer man X, wasn't there with the others and is the host, people will start suspecting. He thought of ways to be with the people while still killing others. The idea came to X. His light remote! He could stand along with the others, and then secretly turn off the lights, kill the person, and then pop back into his place! Easy! DECEMBER 3rd, 5:00. X proudly stepped back and dusted off his hands. The last cover was finished. Now it was nearly impossible to tell that there was an intricate series of passageways through his one-story house. People would soon be arriving at his brownish, peaceful-looking house on the end of Pearl Street. An innocent-sounding street for a not-so-innocent house. He checked the clock. 5:45. He'd better get prepared. He had already made some cookies so it would actually look like a cookie exchange. If people showed up to a cookie exchange and he had nothing, people would at the very least be confused. Gary, however, would immediately be suspicious. But no matter. Nobody would suspect a thing. As X was finishing going over the whole system in his mind, the first knock came. He opened the door, a big, and, as you probably suspected, fake smile. He jovially greeted the baker and invited him inside. "You are the first one here," X said. "Go ahead and set up your area wherever you want. I'm sure the others will be arriving soon, and then we can start! I regret to say that the poor baker wasn't aware of exactly what they were going to start. And, I'll let you know, it is advised not to get too attached to any of the bakers, because... well, you probably know. More people that X had invited were trickling in. You might be thinking, "Wait. How is he going to fit all seventy people in his house for a cookie exchange?" Well, the first reason is that a cookie exchange doesn't require that much space for each person. Also, his house was pretty big. Although one-story, it was massive. It literally looks like a giant pancake. Okay, back to the story. So, the last person had just entered the house when X asked for everyone's attention. "Okay, people. We will now start the cookie exchange!" The guests immediately pulled out their cookies and started walking around the vast room. X, however, broke away. He was a bit nervous, as anyone would if their planning mass murder. The hard part was seeming as if he wasn't anywhere near the killing happened. I'm going to interrupt here. Another question you might have is, "Even if he manages to kill one person, how will the others just go back to the cookie exchange? I mean, wouldn't they just run in terror?" Well, yes, that makes sense, but this man, X, was a strange and clever person. He is capable of more than plotting murders like this. This is going to seem unbelievable, but then again, this is a story. So X had managed to take the rules of a game and input it, making it so when someone was killed, everyone just reverted back to normality after a bit. It's weird, I know, but it makes the story exciting. Of course, most of the villains in movies or shows were pretty stupid in their planning, giving the hero a big chance to save the day. But X was smart. It was clear to him to go for Gary first, since killing someone else would seriously alert him. So that's just what X did. He walked back into the main room. People were still moving about, talking and laughing and eating the cookies. X immediately spotted Gary. He headed in the opposite direction of him, but not too far. He then grabbed a big knife from the table, and gingerly held it like he was simply going over to cut a cookie. But what people didn't see was his other hand in his back pocket. Click. The lights immediately shut off. And since it was late, no sunlight was coming through, either. I suppose I should tell you now that he had taken the liberty of buying some night vision goggles. This guy was prepared. He scanned the room, still grasping the knife. He had to act quick before people pulled out their phones and used the flashlights on them. He spotted Gary. Cackling evilly, he clamped a hand over Gary's mouth and plunged the knife through his back. Mission accomplished. Now, you might be pretty shocked right now, but let me say that the knife, even though it killed him, did Gary no actual harm. If it did, how could X have fun with it? It would be hard to keep killing people if they didn't know who you were. Disposing of the knife into a special spot so no one could see the blood, he slipped back into his spot, put his goggles into his pocket, and commenced to act scared and surprised by the blackout. After turning the lights back on, he immediately looked over at Gary's lifeless body and mimicked shock. I'm going to skip some details here, since if I kept it going, it might get long and repetitive. Wait. Something's wrong. You see, I've retold this story many times, but something isn't right. I'm looking at the scene, and there's a strange ticking. There was never ticking. Do you hear it? Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Ooh, apprehensive. Whatever. Anyways, we're focusing on the dead Gary. So everyone is looking around. Josh, Blake, Hannah, Riley, Gunner, Gary, Abbi... Waaaaiiit. Gary?! He's not supposed to be alive! This is bad, really really bad! Somehow he came back in and probably knows everything about X's plan! He could ruin it! Wait a second. Gary... possible revenge...ticking? Time bomb?! No, no, no. Gary would never. He's the victim. Even though he's somehow back in the scene, there's no way he could cheat the system. Figuratively speaking. Oh, well. If Gary knows how to do whatever he did, he should know that he can't interfere without creating a rip in the time stream. I mean, it's obvious. Hold on, what's that remote?