As soon as I heard the screams, I knew something was wrong. First of all, I hadn't even really trusted Anonymous to come at 11:00 and meet Gwen. That's one of the reasons that I hadn't wanted her to come in the first place. Second of all, it looked like someone had been living in the cabin Tanner and I were scouting out. If Anonymous was the one living here, then he could have seen us coming and could have waited for Gwen to be alone, so he could kidnap her. Well, that's where I'm guessing the screams were coming from anyway.
Tanner began to hear the screams, too, and before I could put down the magnifying glass I was using to investigate the cabin, Tanner was already sprinting to the door. He raced across the living room, scuffing his shoe on the oriental carpeting and almost tripping as he did so. He wrenched open the door with one hand, such brutal force piled into his grip that the door almost flew off its hinges in the process. I watched, amazed, as Tanner bolted out of the cabin and ran in the direction of the woods. This moment of mine was short-lived, though, because I knew I had to help Tanner find Gwen and hopefully save her from Anonymous.
By the time I made it outside and began darting across the choppy grass, Tanner was already making his way through the edge of the woods. I desperately tried to catch up to him, so that he wouldn't have to face whatever was out there alone, but he was literally running with super-human speed and I probably wouldn't catch up to him. I didn't stop, though. Even if Tanner reached Gwen before I did, I still needed to eventually get there.
As I pulled back thorn bushes and prickly weeds, I saw Astrid making her way through the woods just twenty-five feet across from me. I shouted out to her and we ran through the woods alongside each other. I tried to keep thorn bushes from whipping her legs and she helped me move through the woods faster. We were a team again. A team. I savored that single thought in my head as I continued to move through the woods.
The trees were in close proximity to each other at this point, and this just made it harder to run in-between them. Although, it did make for good hiding spots. You could easily hide in the midst of the trees, especially when it was dark outside. Maybe that was why Anonymous had been living in that cabin. I mean, he probably knew that we were going to set up that trap in the woods, so he could have been spying on us that night without us even knowing. Then, he would've seen that David hadn't been with us and...how could we have not known? We were so ignorant to think that Anonymous hadn't been one step ahead of us. But, that was why it was called being one step ahead of someone. They're not supposed to know.
As the woods turned into a forest trail, it became a hell of a lot easier to cover ground faster. I picked up some speed, but then I noticed that Astrid wasn't running alongside me anymore, but someone unexpected was standing in front of me just twenty feet across the trail. The moon's light reflected off the woman's hair deeming it a light-gray color when it was actually pitch-black in color. Based on her body posture and her build, I could see it was Gwen. But, that made no sense. Where was Anonymous?
Before I could get a chance to finish my thoughts, she started into a sprint. I didn't suspect this to happen, so it took me a moment to start running as well...except I was running after her this time.
Since I was currently a player on the Dark Falls High football team, running was like a third nature to me. Winning football games was second nature...or was it something else? Well, I didn't really know. I quickly caught up to Gwen, but it wasn't quite enough to catch her.
It seemed Gwen had super-human speed and it never wavered, where mine definitely did. Eventually, I ran out of breath and had to stop, even though by doing so I wouldn't ever be able to catch up to Gwen. I held onto a tree trunk for support, my chest heaving and my heart hammering against it.
Just as I was about to give another go at running, I felt someone touch my shoulder, which sent chills down my spine. A gasp caught in my throat and as I slowly turned around, the gasp stuck in my throat was finally let free. It was Gwen, wearing a red coat that covered her head. The hood of the coat threw shadows across her face and I'm even going to go as far as to say that she looked lethal.
This definitely wasn't the Gwen I knew.
"Stop looking for me," she said, a cunning smile stretching across her lips, "because you'll never find me. Not now. Not ever."
Before I could reply – or even think of a response – Gwen was already running in the opposite direction, towards the cabin. For some reason, I knew I couldn't let "Gwen" reach there. So, I pushed off with my feet and flung out my hands, almost catching Gwen in the process if not for her disappearing into thin air.
I couldn't think of anything else at this point but to run back to the cabin, so that's what I did. When I reached the cabin, though, Astrid and Tanner were already there, as if they were awaiting me.
"Where did you go, Astrid?" I asked insistently as I finally reached the cabin. It had been really weird for her to just disappear like that...and it was even weirder that she ended up back here with Tanner.
The emotions that were immediately expressed on her face were not the emotions I expected her to express: confusion and accusation...probably towards me if I was right. But, that made no sense. Astrid had disappeared from my side – not the other way around! But, as I looked up at the moon, green and emitting stark lines of light across the sky, I knew that nothing was as it ever seemed in these woods.
There was something off about these woods. Look, I wasn't much for the supernatural...but these very woods were definitely classified into that category of illogical things that happened on the Dark Falls Island.
"I didn't go anywhere. Well, I mean I did...but you left me. And things started to get weird after that, so I ran back here," Astrid said, mumbling some parts under her breath.
Not like here's much safer, I thought to myself.
"Okay, I think...I think we just uncovered another mystery," Tanner cut in, a wide film of awe spread across his face, but there another emotion twisted in with it.
Horror.
But that...that might have been the right thing to express at a time like this.
* * *
Okay, so this is the full story of what happened in the woods, a complicated entanglement of events that made no sense whatsoever. Well, actually with everything that had happened tonight, maybe sense wasn't what we needed to worry about right now.
The story is that it's not logical. According to Astrid, I disappeared from her side and she went running after Gwen too, except I wasn't with her, which didn't make any sense at all. But, Tanner said he saw Gwen and that contradicted what we saw because Gwen couldn't be in three places all at once. It simply couldn't be done...by Gwen that is. With everything that seemed to be possible within the woods next to the cabin, I bet that could be possible, also.
"So, if what we saw tonight was real, then who we thought was Gwen...was actually someone else?" Tanner asked, not sure of anything at this point. I couldn't exactly blame him, though, because even Astrid was confused.
"Yeah, well we can't exactly be sure, so maybe it's not healthy to speculate at this point," Astrid stated, nervously picking at her nails with her teeth. I guess it was just part of "boyfriend instinct", but I lifted my hand to her face and caressed my thumb across the side of her cheek. Absent-mindedly, of course.
I wasn't really sure what Astrid and I were right now. But, either way...I still cared for her. With everything that had happened today – gosh, I keep saying that – I expected her to push my hand away, but she didn't.
Weird, I know.
"So, what are we supposed to do? Let Anonymous do what he wants with Gwen? You know what, I can't just stay here...I have to go look for her," Tanner shouted, red-hot rage seeping from his unusual anti-composure.
"Tanner! You can't let Anonymous take over you like this. You don't have to go out looking for Gwen," Astrid reasoned with him, a welcoming and sympathetic grin on her face.
"And why is that?" Tanner asked.
"Wait, I think I know why..." I cut in to their argument, continuing my unexpected explanation. "Anonymous isn't going to hurt Gwen, because he can't. He's her last form of leverage and he's not going to waste an opportunity to torture us with her."
The look Tanner spat our way after my explanation showed that he was mad at us for not letting him go out, but that he also understood.
"So, what do we do, then?" Tanner asked, almost at a loss for words, I could see.
"Search the cabin for clues," Astrid ordered.
* * *
After thoroughly searching the cabin for an hour, Astrid, Tanner, and I had found pretty much nothing vital to the mystery. It was like Anonymous had hidden everything from us before we arrived, because he had known we would search it. Well, I probably shouldn't refer to Anonymous as a "he" due to the fact that we still had no idea who Anonymous was.
Think about how frustrating that could be.
"Well, we found his library," Astrid pointed out, picking up a chest heavily filled with books, "maybe it could be of use to us."
"Yeah, and how is that going to help us?" Tanner spat out, still angry that we wouldn't allow him to go search for Gwen outside in the woods. I could see how angry he was, but I was getting kind of irritated by him lately. By lately, I mean the last hour.
"Well, we won't know unless we look at them," I said, backing Astrid up and grabbing the chest from her, setting it lightly on the ground for us search through it.
Astrid grabbed a handful of books in her hand, and Tanner and I took our share, too. You know, to help her out. Most of the books I picked up were poems, plays, and other books by Shakespeare, but a few were biographies of people. As I flipped through the books, a chill ran down my spine: the biographies told the life stories of famous spies. I guess that was how Anonymous learned all his tricks.
"Wait, I found something!" Astrid shouted, her hands shaking excitedly as she handed the book to Tanner for him to look at. I looked over his shoulders.
I didn't really know what to look at, but Astrid pointed to the title of the book: The History Of The Dark Falls Island. It also seemed that Anonymous was obsessed with the history of the island in particular – which included the mystery of the Death Disc. No wonder he wanted our piece of the Death Disc so badly. This book made me think of the Disc and all it did was send a shaky feeling throughout my body.
"Astrid, you hid our piece of the Death Disc, right?" I asked, thinking that maybe Anonymous could steal it while we were here searching the cabin.
"Yeah, no one will ever find it...but us of course," Astrid replied, thinking the same thing as me and indicating it in her response.
"Good, so hopefully that'll be the case if Anonymous goes looking for it," I said, my voice shallow and shaky – shocking, I know. I was supposed to be the leader of our gang and I was the fearful one in all this...how pathetic.
"Well, if we can't find anything else in here, I'd say we should go," Tanner interrupted unexpectedly, leaning against the book shelf on the wall beside us. But, the real unexpected part was that a shifting noise was produced behind the wall when Tanner leaned against it and then the whole wall slid to the left, revealing a narrow passageway.
"Did I just do that?" Tanner asked apologetically, as if there was something to be sorry for. But, in reality, there was nothing to be sorry for. Tanner had just opened up a new path in the mystery – literally! This could be groundbreaking, for all we knew.
"Yes, and I think we just uncovered Anonymous' lair," Astrid breathed, almost mumbling under her breath as he absent-mindedly pushed Tanner out of her way and entered the dimly-lit passageway...built right into the wall. She gestured for us to follow her. We didn't hesitate as we entered the tiny expanse behind the wall.
As we entered through the rectangular "hole" in the wall, Tanner and I could now see what looked like a narrow corridor, dimly lit with lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. But, it was still pretty dark because the lightbulbs were hung at intervals...about ten feet apart from each other it seemed.
The tunnel behind the wall mesmerized me. How could Anonymous hide something like this in a cabin, let alone a small section of it? It made totally no sense to me at the moment. Maybe we would find something useful down here, though. Maybe...we would finally figure out who Anonymous was tonight. And, maybe get Gwen back in the process.
Maybe, maybe not, I thought darkly.
But, one thing was for sure: we were going to find something to get us closer to discovering who Anonymous was. Think about it. All we needed was one piece of evidence to as who rented this cabin and then we would be a step closer to solving this gods-damned mystery. That was all it was going to take...just one piece of evidence.
Just one. The thought kept roaming around my mind as my friends and I traveled farther into the tunnel. The thought – at first – made me feel determined, like I could actually do this...do this for Gwen. But, it became a very overwhelming thing to have rooting through my brain as the tunnel dropped in temperature. The surrounding air became icier and pricklier the farther we went. Which meant...this tunnel went underground.
Also, the lights on the cracked-filled ceiling seemed to decrease in productivity the farther we traveled down the tunnel. The darkness that collected in the tunnel seemed to seep into me, as if beckoning me to join it in some way. None of this was surprising to me, though. I mean, this did lead to Anonymous' lair, so I guess this was exactly what I was expecting.
The moss and mold traveling through the cracks in the walls also added to the creepiness of the tunnel.
After about two minutes of walking through the tunnel – now more cold and dark than ever before – we came upon a dusty, wooden door etched into the wall right in front of us. "What do you think it leads to?" Tanner asked, which was the most idiotic question any of us could have asked, since the answer was so obvious.
Astrid and I knew he was just trying to push some of the awkward silence out of our way, so we didn't reply. Instead, Astrid helped him pull the door open, jammed permanently after the inside of the door had rusted. Eventually, I had to force the door open for them, kicking with my foot to bust it. At first, it didn't work. All it did was send dust and possible remnants of mold and rust into the air. But, with a few more tries, it finally came loose, the tumbler snapping and the door creaking open. It only pushed open a tiny smidge, so Astrid pushed it forward and inched past it, as if not wanting to come into contact with it.
Tanner and I entered the room after her, also inching past the door. Though, I was only able to go three feet before I bumped into Tanner and Astrid, both stopped and stationary. When I discovered what they were looking at, I was hit with awe. I was completely mesmerized.
* * *
It took me a moment to regain my composure, and altogether my sense of thought, but eventually I edged past Astrid and Tanner to get a better look at what I was looking at. It seemed to be a gargantuan, black monitor – seven feet by seven feet – set in the middle of the room with file drawers on either side of it, a desk built into it, and two rolly-chairs positioned in front of it. As I walked around the monitor, Astrid's face suddenly lit up and she stepped forward to push a button on the monitor, which in turn lit the whole thing up.
The screen was now split into many small squares, each one broadcasting live footage from various places in the Dark Falls Town – all common places that my friends and I hung out at with each other. But, a few of the places caught my eye and as I looked closer I saw why – my room was on here and so was my dad's room...my sister's room. And I bet my friends' rooms were on here also.
After I had pinpointed the location of each and every place, I began to look at the monitor in general, which led me to a button at the top-right corner of the screen. I used a mouse on the desk to click and it brought up a list of files on it, each one titled with a particular date.
I was so utterly confused at this point that I guess I was just waiting for Astrid to make a breakthrough. Tanner was still motionless behind us and it didn't look like he would come out of it any time soon. I guess he wouldn't be able to figure out what this all meant anyway. Maybe it was too much to ask of him at the moment, especially with Gwen getting kidnapped by Anonymous.
"What does this all mean, Astrid?" I asked, impatient and tired after waiting for Astrid to bring some sense to all this for the past ten minutes. Yeah, that's how long I've been waiting. Ten minutes for crying out loud! I know I should be grateful that we have someone like Astrid to explain things to us when things are confusing, but I really think this mystery has given Astrid a run for her money.
"I think...I think Anonymous put cameras up all around the town and in our homes to keep an eye on us. Maybe this is how he's always watching us," Astrid finally explained. I loosed a sigh of relief and went over to hug her.
I clasped my hands around her back and she did the same to mine. I burrowed my face into her neck, telling her that I loved her, that we would get through this...and eventually find Gwen. But, I don't think she had faith that we would at the moment. Neither did I...I guess.
I could hear Astrid's sobs at one point as I continued to hold her in an embrace. Her sobs were getting louder by the minute, it seemed. And Tanner still stood by the doorway, awe placed perfectly into his features. We were in so much gods-damned trouble because of all this, now. Anonymous was taking things way too seriously. I almost didn't think we would get out of this alive anymore. But, I had to put on a brave face for Astrid. It was part of my "boyfriend-instincts" to protect her and that meant acting like a brave guy, to reassure her that things would be okay.
When things obviously weren't okay.
As Astrid began to calm down, her tears letting up, I let go of her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. This single moment reminded me of that nice, breezy summer day just a few weeks ago when Astrid and I had slept with each other on the beach. Things had been so simple at the time. We had all been so careless, since it had been summer and we were teens, but now...there was no opportunity of getting that back any time soon.
"You okay?" I asked Astrid, looking into her eyes, hoping that she would do the same and know that I was here for her, that I wouldn't let any danger come into her path, that I still loved her, despite the argument we had the other day.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Astrid said after a few moments, drying stray tears with her shirt sleeve.
"Good. Well, if you're okay then we should look around for anything that could give away the identity of the person who rented this cabin," I said to Astrid, rubbing her hands with my thumb to comfort her. Eventually, I let go, so that we could actually search the place. Just as I stepped away from Astrid, Tanner came out of his trance behind me and began to search as well, as if he hadn't wanted to be the first one to do something.
Astrid and I checked the drawers, while Tanner checked the walls for any other trap doors that couldn't be seen with the naked eye.
I pulled open the first drawer I came to, but was instantly hit with a horrible, rotting smell – most likely mold that had lived inside the drawer for God knows how long – and had to cover my nose as I searched through it. The smell was so intoxicating that it burned the inside of my nose. Nonetheless, I worked through it and rifled through the bin. Inside, the bin was filled only with files. Each one was labeled with one of these names: Astrid, Sam, Tanner, Gwen, Diana, Melanie, and Caine.
I pulled out my own file first and started roaming through it. As I did so, my heart began to hammer against my chest and my breathing turned shallow because...because Anonymous knew everything about me. All of my medical and school records were in there. Even my birth certificate was in there! As I flipped through the various documents, I came to a sub-folder named 'Relatives'. I flipped through it and noticed that Anonymous also had all of parents' and sister's records as well. I didn't dare rifle through any of the other files, because I knew they had the same things in them, too. But, I did take a closer look at mine.
I pulled out my birth certificate to take a look at it. I needed to confirm a suspicion I'd had about my dad for a long time. And as I read the document, I knew I was right. My father's name – the mayor's name – wasn't listed on my certificate and it made sense with what I had found in the subfolder named 'Relatives'. The adoption papers looked as good as new, despite being fifteen years old.
My breath caught in my throat as I discovered what all this meant. It meant...It meant that I was adopted. It meant my dad – the mayor – wasn't my real father.
"Are you okay?" Astrid asked, putting a hand on my shoulder to steady me. Apparently, my hands were shaking terribly.
"Yeah, it's just...it's just creepy what I found in there."
Astrid nodded and went back to searching the bins on her side of the monitor. I went back to searching mine. In the second drawer, I found nothing but a secret stash of liquor, which could identify the age of Anonymous. I mean, only old men liked to drink hard alcohol, right? Well, that is...if this cabin was rented by Anonymous. We still didn't know that part yet, but we were working on it.
In the third and final bin, I was confused to as what I was seeing. It appeared to be a locket, like the one that had activated the journal. I picked it up and green light began sputtering from the drawer, and revealed a section of space at the back of the bin that hadn't been visible before. I reached into it and felt something leathery. I pulled it out fast and gasped when I saw what it was.
It was a burgundy, leather journal and it looked just like the one we had found in the library, except it had the Roman numeral for two on the cover. This meant...I had just found the second journal. It could uncover more secrets about the Dark Falls Town for us, maybe more than the first one had, since it hadn't been very helpful.
When I looked up, Tanner and Astrid were down-right staring at me, which meant they knew what I had found. To rid the room of awkwardness, I asked, "So, what did you guys find?"
Astrid opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. I guess she was as speechless as I was. Well, I guess that was an overstatement with what I had found in my file. But, it did seem sort of weird that we could just find all this stuff. Maybe Anonymous had planted all of this here because he knew we would come down here. For all I knew, I wasn't adopted. But, the worst feeling nagging on my heart at the moment was that there was a chance...a chance that my dad wasn't actually my dad.
"I, uhh...found a few things, but the last drawer is locked. I need all of your help to bust it," Astrid finally spoke, ridding me of my bad thoughts.
"Sure," Tanner said, heading over to the drawer and assisting Astrid in busting the lock. Tanner pulled on the handle, trying to thrust it open, but it was evident that wasn't going to work. After he realized this, his eyes glanced over at me.
It was sort of a stare-off between Tanner and me at this point. I didn't really feel like helping, but Tanner wanted me to. But, you can only stare at someone for so long without having to blink.
"Oh, fine! I'll help, but you owe me one, Tanner," I shot back, a breathy chuckle escaping my throat as I sat down on the dusty floor beside him. I made my body posture similar to his and grabbed onto the handle. Tanner counted us off and then we both yanked on it. We used all of our might in opening the drawer, but just as the drawer was about to give way, we heard the door creak open from behind us.
Tanner and I sat up as quickly as possible and whirled around. Astrid's face was already set in astonishment when I was finally able to get a glimpse of who it was.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded.
* * *
As soon as I'd heard the intruder, my heart rate had quickened – a small bobbing against my chest – but when I saw who it was, my disbelief caused it to sky-rocket. My heart was literally threatening to burst through my chest and breathing was now an effort. I guess confusion had something to do with it, too.
"Kate?" I asked in shock, as she proceeded from the shadows by the doorway.
"Yep, it's me...big brother," Kate almost seemed to spat at me, the phrase she used to describe me anything but kind.
"Wh-what are you doing here? Did you follow us?" Tanner asked, utter confusion evident in the tone of the voice he used. I was utterly confused, too, but I guess it was different since Kate was my sister. My sister, for God's sake, I thought to myself in incredulity.
"As a matter of fact, I did. I thought you guys might be about to do something stupid, so I followed you. And, it looks like I did the right thing coming here. Isn't that right, big –" Kate fought back, annoying and ignorant as ever.
"Cut the shit, Kate," I said. I had clearly had enough of Kate, it seemed. Well, actually I had. She acted like this all the time and it had really ruined our relationship over the past year or two. We were totally different people – she was a brat and I was enjoyable to hang around with – and I know how they say opposites attract and all that, but we really didn't get along. I mean, it was almost like a rivalry between us now.
"Well, until you tell me what you guys are doing here, I don't think I will," Kate replied back, her eyes stern and dark, even though they were light blue in color. Her blonde hair only made her seem like more of a witch to me. You know, sometimes I even worried about her. Like, sometimes I wondered why she was like this: could it be a mental illness or was she really just this unfriendly?
And, now that I knew she might not be my real sister, it only made me feel less close to her. I wonder if she knew, that I was adopted, I mean. Maybe she was, too, and both of us hadn't been told.
As I came out of my thoughts, I could sense another hint of awkwardness in the room. Astrid and Tanner shared glances with each other and then stared at me, as if asking for permission to tell her why we were really here. A huge part of me really didn't want her to know, since it would mean dragging her into the mess we were in, but with the realization that she might not even be my sister and that she very well could know about the adoption, I nodded at them. They averted their eyes back at Kate, and Astrid eventually spoke, "So, you really want to know?"
* * *
After Astrid told the whole sequence of events from the day Howard had been murdered all the way up to today, she was anything but convinced. Well, I guess from another person's point of view, this could all seem silly to them. But, to us...it was a reality.
"Are you sure I'm hearing this right? So, some anonymous person killed Howard and then started blackmailing you? And, now he or she has kidnapped Gwen? You really expect me to believe that? Is that what you're going to tell the police?" Kate asked incredulously. You see, we left the parts out that contained the Death Disc and any other "supernatural stuff", so it might not have made sense to her. But, if Kate thought it was silly, maybe she would help us find Gwen, so she could find out what "really happened" for herself.
Though, we were telling the truth. She just didn't believe us...which I could understand. But I couldn't help but think that we shouldn't have told her, as Kate repeatedly giggled at our "story". She obviously hadn't taken us seriously, as we had hoped. We were stupid to even have thought of telling her in the first place. We could have just told her a fake story, but no – we had to tell her.
Eventually, I became irritated enough that I blurted out, "Look, you don't have to believe us. But, at least just help us find Gwen. Well, after you help us open this jammed drawer." I looked down to where the drawer was and Kate began to catch my drift. With a sigh, she reached into her pocket for a knife – which at first creeped me out, but I guess she carried it around for the same reason Astrid carried around pepper spray – and kneeled down towards the drawer.
She jabbed the knife into the open space at the edges of the drawer and slid it through, beginning the process of popping it open. I watched carefully as she did away with her "work", evidently frightened because of the weapon she carried in her slender hands.
As she worked the knife all the way around to the top where the locks would be, she thrusted it through and before the rest of us even heard the clang of the lock opening, the drawer flew out, startling Kate enough that she scooted back, the knife slipping out of her grasp and cutting her pant leg open. Luckily, it didn't split open her knee, but now her jeans would be unfit to wear; at least, for Kate they would.
"Are you okay?" Astrid asked Kate a few seconds later, obviously trying to place her words carefully enough, as if not to offend Kate. I couldn't help but notice how often she used that phrase.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Kate asked, a slight grin on her face, but all of us could see that it wasn't genuine. There was obviously something bugging her. I guess she felt clumsy after dropping the knife or something, or maybe...I wasn't sure, but it looked like there was a glint of terror in her eyes. Even though I pretty much hated my sister, I couldn't help but pity her. Not after seeing that look in her eyes.
Weird, I know.
"Well, it looks like the drawer is open. Let's see what's inside," Tanner interrupted the awkwardness, elbowing past Astrid and I and then gesturing for Kate to give him some room. She obeyed, a mask of shock and something else planted on her face. She almost looked like a ghost at this point, her face pale as paper.
Tanner began to sift through whatever was in the drawer and an almost-silent gasp left his throat. He then pulled something out of it, standing up and turning around, so we could see whatever it was he wanted to show to us. Astrid and Kate didn't really look like they were in the mood to do much else tonight then just stand there, watching, so Tanner handed the object over to me.
It was a picture...of two young teenagers. I wasn't really sure who they were, but they were evidently identical twins because you couldn't tell them apart from each other. But, a nagging feeling bit at my mind as I searched the picture for any other details that could suggest their identity. The two boys were hanging out in the woods, yellow-and-orange trees visible in the background. An ashen sky was also visible in the photo, making it obvious that it was autumn when the picture was taken.
My breath caught in my throat, though, when I noticed something else in the background. It was a cabin...just like the one we were in. It even looked the same.
"Uhh, guys...I think you might want to see this," I announced, showing the picture to Astrid, while Tanner looked at it on the opposite side. Kate stood in front of us, inspecting her nails in the far corner of the room, not fascinated by this at all. Maybe that was a good thing, though. We didn't need to involve her in the mystery – our mess – and frankly, it probably wasn't right to do so. It would just put her in danger.
"Who are these kids? Wait, are they standing in front of the cabin we're in right now?" Astrid asked, astonished by the picture she was holding in her hands. Tanner and I nodded, and this was enough to take the breath away from her.
The room was in utter silence as Tanner, Astrid, and I inspected the picture, looking specifically for details about the picture we may have missed. After handing the picture back and forth between the three of us for who knows how long, Kate eventually came out of her "ghostly" state and interrupted our peace and quiet.
"Are you guys ready to leave yet? Because if we don't, I'm going to have to tell someone about this," Kate said, her lips pursed in a wry smile, nothing but evil and disgust on her face.
"Just shut up for a little while longer," I shouted, which resulted in gasps from everyone. Kate even winced at the remark.
Astrid glanced over at me, a sensitive and horrified glare in her eyes. "You shouldn't have said that, Sam. She's your sister for crying out loud," Astrid literally spat at me.
I was surprised that this was even such a big deal. Kate said stuff like to me like this all the time, and I even gave retorts back, very similar to the one I just said. But, maybe Kate wasn't trying to be malicious tonight. Maybe she really was looking out for us, I thought to myself, dark thoughts of guilt and sorrow roaming my mind.
"Look, I'm sorry Kate," I eventually said, everyone's eyes then darting over to me, "and I guess I was just getting frustrated with you. I really didn't mean to say that. You know that, right?"
For a second, I could glimpse something in her eyes. Something peaceful and very unusual for her: sympathy and forgiveness. But, then it was replaced with a stone-hard glare with a scowl to go with it. Then, she said, "If you really think that's going to be enough for me to forgive you, then you have to be –"
Kate's voice was cut off by a sound echoing from upstairs...beyond the tunnel and this room. The cabin.
Tanner, who had been near silent throughout all of this, was the first to move. He immediately walked over to the door in a hurried fashion, saying to the rest of us, "Aren't you all coming?" No one hesitated and we all ran after him, right through the door and into the dimly-lit tunnel.
It took us about a minute and a half to reach the top of the tunnel and Kate, Astrid, and I could hear Tanner's shouts from above before we even reached it. Astrid was in front of me, so I edged past the door that led into the cabin after her, not looking behind to see if Kate even got out.
But, I almost fell into Astrid, due to the fact that she was completely frozen in place.
And I couldn't blame her...for someone familiar was lying on the couch in front of us, gasping for air. She was a girl, with black, ebony hair...smooth as silk. I wouldn't have recognized her in my shocked state if it weren't for the fact that Tanner helped her up, showing us her face. And, then I gasped.
It was Gwen.
ns 15.158.7.113da2
