Janet and Jane: The Case of the Amnesiacs: Part Six

      I should've seen it. Even with my amnesia, I should've seen that Dee was Jackie. She was pretending to have amnesia. She responded to the name Jackie. She had a better grip of what was going on than I did. I should've known something was up with her. It was too obvious.

      Jane, Natia, and James were out. They might meet up with Jackie. If they did, there was no doubt that Jackie would try to attack them. Instead of wondering what to do like I was doing for the last couple days, I knew just what to do. I needed to let them know. If I ran into Jackie first, I needed to arrest her.

      I wasted no time. I ran down the hall to where I remembered my bag being and retrieved it. I made sure everything was still in there. Maps, handcuffs, dagger for protection, yep, everything that I needed. I stuffed the file of the case in my bag and got out of the building.

      It didn't take much time to get to Neopia Central. J²'s base was in the woods by Neopia Central, but it wasn't that deep. Besides, I was pretty fast. It was around sundown when I began to walk the now empty streets of the Plaza. It was going to be dark pretty soon. I was alright with the dark, since I wouldn't be spotted as easily (my favorite part of being painted shadow), but it would be harder to find everyone.

      The air was still and quiet. I couldn't hear anything besides my footsteps and breathing. At least I knew I was alone. The last thing I needed was someone to join in on my job (especially Jackie). If she did run into me, what would I do? Maybe I could pretend that I still had amnesia? That could work, right? Right?

      The streets were empty. I was literally the only Neopet on them. Some Petpets lying around, yes, but they wouldn't do anything to me. At least navigating the streets weren't that much trouble. Whenever I had to walk the streets of Neopia Central, they were often crowded. However, when I was chasing a robber, Neopets tended to get out of the way pretty quickly.

      Now if I was Jane, where would I be? Jane often liked checking scenes of where crimes happened first, but that couldn't happen because she didn't know where that was (I didn't even know where that was). If she didn't know where that was, then she usually went to the National Neopian Bank. A lot of stuff could be seen from there (especially since they had security cameras). Alright, I'll head over in that direction.

      “Janet!”

      I turned around to see Dee, or should I say Jackie, running up to me. She seemed desperate to talk to me. I wondered why. The pastel Xweetok caught up to me when I stopped to see what she wanted. She was holding something behind her back.

      “Janet, what are you doing out at this time of night?” Jackie asked.

      “I'm just taking a stroll...” I replied, pretending that I forgot her name.

      “Dee.” Jackie ran her fingers through her hair with the hand that wasn't behind her back. “So what's in the bag?”

      “Just some water, some money, the usual.”

      “I see. So do you know if Jane's out? I want to talk to her about something.”

      I looked at Jackie carefully. There was the slightest sign that she had malevolent intent behind those eyes. I said, “I don't know. I think she said something about going to the Wishing Well, but I'm not sure.”

      Jackie tilted her head to the left. “Why is she going there?”

      I shrugged my shoulders. “How should I know?”

      “Alright, thank you. I'll be seeing you.”

      Jackie ran off in the direction she came in. I caught a glimpse of a Ghostkerchief Hammer in the hand behind her back before she held it in front of her. I had the chance to arrest her on the spot, but I didn't take it. I wanted to find Jane first. I could always arrest her later.

      I went back to walking to the National Neopian Bank. It didn't take all that long (at least compared to some of my other walks). I was cautious, even though I had no reason to be. Maybe it was because I ran into Jackie. Then again, she didn't suspect that I had my memory back, so maybe I could keep playing off of that.

      “This is boring! Can we go somewhere else?”

      Ah, Natia. Impatient as always. I almost ran to where I heard her. I hid behind a tree before I went out to greet them. Jane was looking around the building while James and Natia were talking.

      “Yes, it is boring, but we have to do this,” Jane said while picking something off of the ground. “I told you this a hundred times, already.”

      “If you're bored, do something productive,” James added.

      Alright, the coast seemed clear. I walked out from behind the tree and over to them. I said while walking, “Hey, guys!”

      Natia looked over at me. “Janet, you're here! Thank goodness. It was so boring without you.”

      “Janet, what are you doing out?” Jane asked. The Korbat looked at me. “I thought you were going to stay at our base.”

      “Jane, trust me, what I'm going to tell you is more important than me staying at our base,” I replied.

      “I highly doubt-” Jane looked at me. I think she got where I was going with this. “Janet, you remembered my name.”

      “That's not all I remember.”

      Natia's eyes grew. She said with much hope, “You got your memory back?”

      I nodded my head and smiled. “Indeed I did.”

      Natia began to jump up and down out of excitement. “Oh my goodness, this is wonderful! I'm so happy for you! I can't believe it!”

      “Calm down, Natia. I just got my memory back. I didn't win a Neopie.”

      “But this is still cause for celebration,” Jane informed. “Janet, do you remember what happened that caused you to get amnesia?”

      I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Not exactly, but I do remember that it wasn't an accident.”

      “It wasn't?” James asked. “Then what happened?”

      “Why are you guys asking Janet so many questions? She has amnesia, remember?”

      Oh, it was Jackie. I turned around. The pastel Xweetok was walking up to us. She had on a fake smile and a deceptive look in her eyes. Her left hand was still behind her. I had no doubt that she was going to attack the moment she got the chance. And I was not going to let that happen.

      I stood in front of my friends and sneered at Jackie. Jackie stepped back. I didn't even need to look behind me to see that Jane was looking at me with her, “What on Neopia are you doing?” look.

      “Janet, what's wrong?” Jackie asked.

      “You. You did it,” I growled.

      “What on Neopia did I do?”

      I stepped closer to her. She stepped back as a response. “You attacked me. You made me lose my memory. Does any of that ring a bell, Jackie?”

      Jackie was shocked at what I said (I didn't blame her). I looked behind me to see that everybody else was, too. Well, Jane and James were. Natia was making her confused face. I felt like she was confused.

      “Dee, is that true?” James asked.

      “Her name is Jackie,” I informed. “And yes. I remember seeing her.”

      Finally, Jackie spoke. What she said was, “I didn't do anything!”

      I crossed my arms. “Oh, and I guess the Ghostkerchief Hammer behind your back is for building something?”

      That was all I could remember of that night.

      I woke up on the same table I woke up on a couple days ago. My head was hurting. At least this time I had my memory. Yikes, did Jackie knock me out again? I felt my head. Now I had two bumps. One was smaller than the other (that was the one I got a couple days ago was the smaller of the two. Nice to see that it was going down). Alright, either Jackie knocked me out again or I hit my head in some freak accident.

      Alright, might as well get going. I hopped off the table and left the room I was in. I effortlessly navigated the halls in search for Jane. Did she know that I was up yet? Maybe she did know. It was possible.

      “Guys, Janet's missing again!”

      Well, I did say it was possible. I never said it wascertain.

      I was positive Natia said that. She had to be talking to somebody – either James or Jane, though I was fine with either one of them. I just followed Natia's voice (which wasn't very hard). Soon enough, I saw her freaking out with Jane and James trying to calm her down.

      “Natia, relax,” Jane said calmly. “She's probably awake. She was last time this happened.” I walked closer to the three. “Ah, see? Here she is.” The Korbat walked closer to me. “How are you feeling, Janet?”

      I rubbed the back of my head and said, “I'm fine. I have one question, though.”

      “And what is that?”

      “Who's Janet?”

      Natia began to whine, “Oh no, not again!”

      I couldn't keep a straight face any longer. I began to laugh. The concern on everybody's faces went away and turned into confusion. I didn't blame them.

      “Guys, I'm just kidding,” I said once my laugh died down. “I'm fine. Really.”

      “Janet, you scared us!” Jane scolded. “We thought you had amnesia again!”

      “Don't be mad because I was joking around. Just be glad that I have my memory this time.” I laughed a little bit more. This time, Jane joined in. Then Natia. Then James.

      I never did fully remember what happened that night I lost my memory, nor did I really try to. Maybe that was for the best. To be honest, I didn't want to know. It didn't matter, though. I was just glad that I had my memory back now.

      The End.