I chuckle and took a sip of the lemon juice he ordered me. "I'll just crack it myself."

Leon throws his phone on the table. He has a habit of accidentally breaking things when he's angry. "I know you're smart but you know it's really hard to decode such messages in real life."

I smirk. Decoding is a specialty of mine; I never got the chance to test it in real life though."One of the only things I felt comfortable googling was coding. I mean if you checked my google history you'd really think I'm a serial killer."

He laughs and swirls his straw around in his pineapple juice, his usual drink. "Aren't all writers like that?" He stabs a little pineapple piece at the bottom of the cup. "I mean that kinda proves you aren't a psycho at least because psychos don't need google to plan a murder."

"So you're saying I'm a murderer but not a psycho?" I joke but he didn't laugh. Either I have a terrible sense of humour or it's on another level that Leon just doesn't understand. He says terrible jokes all the time but I always laugh so as to not make him feel bad. Why can't he reciprocate? It's making me upset.

"You know that's not what I meant." I frowned and rolled my eyes. He's so inconsiderate. If anyone has the right to laugh about this situation I'm in then it's me and I have him a chance to laugh with me but he decides to only laugh at me.

I pick up the pen and twirled it around my thumb. I need help cracking this code if I want to crack it in the shortest amount time possible. We need to find out what this code is pointing towards. "You got time? Two is better than one when cracking codes." I asked.

He rests his back on the chair and nods, "Sure let's do it. When I get some more experience with the police, I'm planning on retiring soon and becoming a private investigator. Some practice on decoding would help."

I laugh, he's a detective so he should know that this doesn't happen normally. "I doubt normal criminals throw in codes every now and then when committing crime."

I heard private investigators are either extremely rich or quite literally the opposite. Leon loves taking risks and gambles but I don't think dropping his job for something he hasn't thought through is a good idea. I would try to advise him against it but knowing him and his hard head he might take it up as a challenge and insist on doing it further.

"This guy for sure isn't your normal criminal. Criminals aren't normal anyways" he picks up the code.

I mean all criminals are abnormal but it's rare to see a criminal plan so much like this. It's not just the plan I'm of the crime itself, but also the codes.

"What do we do now?" Leon asked.

I rip out a page from my note book and hand it to him. "Write the alphabet in order. Then right below align the first letter with the next letter."

"I don't understand. So you mean that B is A and B is C?"

"Exactly, but I doubt he'd use the first two slidding digits so you start with A is C and do the next seven slidding digits."

"This is some complicated stuff couldn't he just send this without coding it?"

I pull my chair to the side so I can look at the code with him."He probably wants us to play around or to waste time."

"Way to put pressure on me. On both of us."

Three hours passed and we have yet to decode it. I started from the ninth sliding digit and I'm on the sixteenth one.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"How's it going for you? I'm reviewing the fifth one now." Leon asks.

"Why are you so slow?"

He frowns with a pout."Hey it takes a lot of concentration."

I look back at the whole code. Trying to find out if something in the middle could give out the answer instead of trying to solve it based on the first word. "Now when I think about it the O is most likely an I. Right? I can't think of any other one letter word. If we were even close about the type of code he's using anyway."

Leon grabs the code and inspects it intently. "Wait, that makes a lot of sense. Right now I is M and so if I slide it two letters forwards I is O."

I sigh,"So it was the seventh sliding digit this whole time? I wrote until the sixteenth for nothing."

He glares at me, "It's not my fault you decide to use logic from the beginning."

"I can't believe we're this dumb." Is shake me head the grabbed the pen again. "Whatever lets first make sure it's right before we get too happy."

Leon takes a sip from his drink then grabs his pen as well, "Fine you decode the first two lines and I'll decode the rest."

"Sticks and stones may break your bones but words pierce your heart. Who's to blame when victims take their own lives? I shall take justice into my own hands. 2019,09, 11."

Leon throws the pen on the table and it bounces near the lady sitting next to us. "Oh come on he didn't just make us crack a code to a code." He fumed. The lady turns around and glared daggers at us. She looked like she was about to eat us alive. I apologized and picked up the pen.

"This date is probably the most significant part." I explained handing him back his pen. "And Leon please stop doing this what if you poke someone in the eye." I warned.

"Oh shut up."

My mistake again. It's so hard dealing with people that can't handle being called out. Leon's a perfectionist and loves to take on challenges. He'll never stop until he beats others but it isn't out of trying to be the best strangely enough. He just likes to keep challenges going.

"So someone used hurtful words? Victims take their own lives?" He pondered the meaning of these words.

"I think it's a bully and his victims committed suicide."

Leon looks to the side then nods, "Makes sense but what about it then. What's with this date?"

"No clue." I said, scratching my temple.

Leon taps on the table and points at the paper,"I'm thinking it's either the day the victims committed suicide if they died together but I think it's more likely got to do with the bully himself."

"Like his birthday or something?" I asked.

"Maybe." Leon suddenly snaps his fingers, "Oh wait. I remember a few years ago two teens hung themselves in their dormitories. Someone has been harassing them both online. I was shadowing detective Cain at the time so I remember. Someone who was being blackmailed by the man who drove the teens into suicide decided to get rid of him but the man killed him in alleged self defence. He got arrested and charged with manslaughter because they couldn't find evidence that suggested self defence. I think he got four years with the possibility of parole after two."

"Makes sense." I nod with my index finger and thumb around my chin.

"Do you know if he being released in the coming week?" Leon asks.

"Aren't you supposed to be the detective here?" I laugh.

Leon scratches the top of his head, "He's probably going to be murdered the day he's released."He points at me, "Wasn't a victim in your book hung using the wire of his keyboard?"

I nod,"Yes and he was also a malicious online bully and blackmailer."

"This guy is literally searching for the real manifestation of the stories characters and turning your story into reality."

"I think he wants a detective figure on him too. I didn't use codes in the story but I think he's using them so someone has a chance to stop him." I inferred. "Now Cain has to listen. He should put that guy in witness protection or something."

Leon shook his head, "He'll refuse again."

"Why?"

"He said even if he wanted to he can't really do something right now because he can only put witnesses under witness protection."

"I mean I know there's other ways to protect people in his situation."

Leon sighs in frustration, "Well I don't really care what happens to him because the guys are a piece of garbage anyways but I just wanna catch the culprit."

I close my note book and placed my elbows on it,"What do we do then? If they're not willing to help then this guys as good as dead." I asked.

"Let's try to find him ourselves."