Sam arrived at the police station within ten minutes, a mask of happiness on his face. The reason I say this is because some of his features were strained, as if he were trying to act happy, but not actually achieving it at all. I tried to act like I didn't notice this as he walked over to me, but even Sam could tell that I was trying to pretend I didn't notice. I guess we were good at understanding people's feeling by just looking at them.
It was something we had in common. Whether we both had this talent because we spent a lot of time with each other or because we just happened to have it, I didn't know. But, what I do know is that it might have been the reason Sam and I became friends. I mean, we were both alike in more ways than one, so...maybe that was all there was to friendship. You made friends with people who were similar to you.
My analyzation of him and also his analyzation of me soon turned into an awkward moment that took a while to get through. It was almost like whenever my friends and I were around each other it was awkward. Weird, huh? Well, with all the stuff that had gone on recently, it might not be that weird. But, the awkwardness between my friends and I – that just seemed to always pop up – was something we needed to sort out...as soon as possible.
The awkwardness always seemed to lift eventually, though. Almost as if it only wanted to last for an extended period of time, but not forever. This wasn't any different this time around, because after Sam asked me the following, harrowing question, it seemed to lift. "So, where's Gwen?" he asked, as if he suddenly wanted to know.
"Oh, she went to get some coffee a few blocks down the street," I answered quickly, so that the awkwardness didn't fall upon us again and so that I didn't raise suspicion.
"Oh, did she get coffee for all of us or just you guys?" Sam questioned, almost as if he knew I was lying, which I was, so he wasn't far off with his investigation – which is what I'm calling it, since it felt that way.
"Oh, I didn't ask for any, so I don't know," I replied, keeping my voice calm and steady, so that it would be more easy for me to lie and so that Sam couldn't tell I was lying in the first place. That was the most important thing here, because Gwen was not getting coffee down the street.
She was still at home, and I just hoped that she would get here soon, because Sam was dangerously close to getting the answers that he really wanted out of me. I mean, Sam wasn't trying to question me in the way he was, but the more you lied to someone, the more they tried to get the truth out of you. That was exactly what was happening here.
Sam eventually gave up, though, nodding at my last reply and sitting down in a chair on the other side of the room. Then, he pulled out his phone and started rapidly texting someone. I had my bets placed on Astrid, but I asked anyway.
"Who you texting?" I asked casually, holding back the tension and fire in my voice, so that it didn't seem like I was the doing the same thing he was. If I could get to the point where I knew something of his that he didn't want me to know, then Sam couldn't ask me anymore questions. It was a plan made to use for your enemies, but it was different in this case.
"Astrid," Sam replied in a quiet voice, as if there was more there that I could get out of him. "We had a little bit of a fight this morning." And just like that, my "best friend" instincts kicked in.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. If you don't want to tell me about it in detail, that's fine. But, can you at least tell me what it was about?" I comforted him, hoping that he would take this as the best friends' act it was and not something else.
"Uhh...you see," Sam said, obviously at a loss for words. Whether it was because he didn't want to talk about it or whether it was just hard for him to explain it, that was something I didn't know. But, I did know that if he wasn't going to be able to talk about it right now, I couldn't budge him.
"You know what," I eventually said, catching Sam's attention as he still fought for words to say," it's fine. If you don't want to talk about it right now, that's fine. You can talk when you're ready."
"Thanks. It means a lot to me right now, especially with everything else going on," Sam replied, looking around the police station as if to convey his point. I mean, Sam was definitely right. We all had stress coming to us because of the mystery we had taken on, but there were other stress-causers in our lives. Our personal lives. Our personal problems.
"Yeah, I get what you mean," I said, keeping my eyes rooted on the ground to hide the emotion in my eyes from Sam. I knew that if he could see what was in my eyes, he would be able to connect two and two and eventually come up with five.
Just as Sam was about to ask me something, his mouth opening to speak, the glass doors to the police station flung open. I didn't move my eyes to see who it was, but I could tell who they were as they walked over. I guess the echo of high heels was enough.
"Hey, Tanner," Astrid greeted me, and then she more solemnly said, "Hey, Sam."
"Hey," Sam and I said in unison. I hoped that would make his reply less awkward.
"Where's Gwen? I thought she came with you, Tanner?" Astrid asked, a hole opening in my stomach as she spoke. It was as if every time someone asked about where Gwen was, it opened up and I became nervous. Then, when they stopped asking, it would close and I would feel relaxed again.
"Oh," I said shakily, "she went to get coffee down the street. She'll be here in a few minutes."
Astrid nodded at that – a slight nod, as if she knew I was lying – and sat down a chair away from Sam. I guess we all have our problems today, I think to myself.
After a few minutes of no conversation whatsoever between us, I sat down...right in-between Astrid and Sam. As the silence dredged on, I could feel the awkwardness between the two sink and bite into me, as if it could affect everyone around them. We would definitely have to deal with that later.
Just as I was about to sit somewhere else because of the awkwardness between Sam and Astrid, Gwen walked in. My heart stopped when she walked in. You see, the thing is...Gwen never stopped for coffee. She was at home the whole time. Something had happened between us last night at her house and I still couldn't come to think about it. I guess I didn't want to deal with it at the moment.
My heart skipped a beat as she walked over. What would my friends do when they saw she didn't have a cup of coffee in her hands? But, as I lifted my eyes to take a glance at her, she nevertheless had a cup of coffee in her hand. That's when I remembered that earlier that morning we had discussed about her pretending to get coffee, so no one would get suspicious.
Sam and Astrid stood up to greet Gwen, and even though I knew that Gwen didn't exactly want to speak to me at the moment...I stood up with them to greet her.
"What took you so long?" Astrid asked, embracing Gwen in a hug. Gwen hugged her back, except she did it in more of an awkward fashion. Although, this was not noticeable to everyone else as it was to me.
Sam then greeted her and I did too, without the hug, though. Eventually, Gwen replied to Astrid's question, "Oh, the line was extremely long. It took me just half an hour to get my coffee and then it took me ten minutes to get back to the police station. Sorry for taking so long. Wait, did you guys check in yet?"
"No, I wanted to wait for everyone to get here beforehand, so that we could all talk to them together," I answered, not directly meeting Gwen's eyes as I spoke.
"Oh, so should we check in now?" Gwen asked, and the answer to her question was just a bunch of nods by her friends.
With that, we headed over to the front desk, and I just hoped we wouldn't have to wait a long while before talking to the police, because I figured the waiting process would just make us all a bit more nervous than we already were. When the receptionist sitting behind the desk asked us why we were here, everyone looked at Astrid. Astrid sighed but spoke to the receptionist anyway, "We'd like to report a missing person."
The receptionist's eyes lit up in a bad way – probably not a good sign – and typed a few things into her computer. She looked up at us eventually and told us to have a seat. "Someone will be here to see you in a few moments," the receptionist also said.
Hopefully no one would bail at this point, I thought.
Two, long, dreadful minutes passed before someone came to see us. A tall, dark-skinned woman with a crow's smile came walked up to us from the hallway leading past the secretary's desk. "Hi, I'm Detective Gracen. Nice to meet you," she said to us, lending her hand out to Sam, then me, then Astrid, and then finally shook hands with Gwen.
"Nice to meet you too," all of us replied to her. We also told her our names, but a small part of me knew that the police in the Dark Falls Town probably already knew exactly who we were.
"Here, walk with me," Detective Gracen said as she gestured for us to walk down that same hall past the secretary's desk. The secretary and I locked eyes for a second, but I quickly turned away. No need to make enemies, I thought.
The hall the detective took us down had doors on either side of it – some of them connected to offices, others leading to interrogation rooms, and a few of them lead to common areas with cubicles in them. We turned right once, then went straight for a little while, took a few lefts, and finally took a right to end up at another one of those interrogation rooms I had seen earlier. Although, I didn't think we were interrogated. The police just wanted to talk to us in a private place, that's all.
"So, here we are," Detective Gracen said, opening the metal door leading to the interrogation room, and gesturing for us to come in.
We didn't hesitate. I guess that was the best way of not seeming suspicious. I mean, we were about to lie to the police. There were some things we couldn't tell them and we had to keep those things secret – which was technically lying to them.
There were five chairs set around a medium-sized metal table; enough chairs for the whole Team Of Mystery to sit in and one more chair left over for the detective. Almost as if they knew we were coming. This thought sent chills riding down my spine and I stared blankly at the chairs for a moment, eventually grabbing one in between Astrid and Sam. Gwen sat next to Sam at the other end of the metal table. And Detective Gracen sat across from us, her crow's smile bearing down on us. I mean, I guess you had to be like that nowadays to even think of being a detective.
It wasn't all brains...it was also intimidation.
Detective Gracen stared at us for a few moments, as if urging for one of us to speak up or just for the fun of intimidating us. Though, eventually, Gracen pulled a manila folder out of a briefcase she just happened to have been holding all this time. She set the manila folder on the table and slid it over to us.
None of us reached for the folder. All of my friends seemed to be scared to even come into contact with it, as if they didn't want their fingerprints being associated with it. But, we couldn't just stay here forever. I quickly moved my hands towards the folder and brought it towards me...before any of my friends could stop me.
I shared glances with all of them and we silently agreed to open it. I laid it on the table, taking in huge breaths to push my nerves away. I mouthed the words "you sure" to my friends on either side of the table. A few moments lasted between us like this, but eventually everyone nodded.
Here I go, I thought to myself, sweat beading slightly on my forehead.
And then I opened the folder. I gasped. Inside the folder, a report had been written up about someone – everything from age to birthdate to appearance. I didn't look directly at the name, but a picture of this person had been paper-clipped onto the front page in the top-left corner.
It was a picture of David.
"Why do you have this? How do you have a report of David?" I asked incredulously. This whole thing was blowing my mind. Almost to the point where I couldn't think anymore. My friends were the same way; Astrid more so than Sam and Gwen, but that was expected with what had happened the night David was murdered.
But, as I looked up at Detective Gracen, she looked almost as incredulous as I did. The next thing that came out of her mouth made everything more confusing, though.
"Who's David?" she asked, as if she didn't have a report of him in her possession.
"What do you mean 'who's David'? That's the person we came to talk about. David's the one who's missing," Sam shot in, his face distorted in puzzlement.
"Wait, you don't know yet, do you? Oh, this is going to be fun," Gracen beamed, her face now a mix of eagerness and suspense.803Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXl1aV5kswd
* * *
A heavy suspense was now upon us in the "interrogation room". At some points, Detective Gracen merely stared at us – her hands folded under her chin. I didn't know whether she was going to tell us anything at this point or if this whole performance of hers was just a tactic to get us to talk. I mean, she most likely knew that we were keeping something from her and she desperately wanted to know.
I guess interrogating teens was the new normal in this town. Wow, what a long way we've come, I thought to myself.
"Well, are you going to tell us something or are we just going to sit here for entirety?" Astrid asked Detective Gracen, her eyes and facial expression now conveying a twisted emotion. Not just towards Detective Gracen, but her face was generally contorted, a sickly gaze present in her expression.
"Okay, well...I can either tell you what you want to know first and then you can tell me what I want to know afterwards, or we can do it the other way around," Detective Gracen answered, her precise, calculating self and professional calm all too intimidating.
"Well, considering that either way you're going to get what you want...I'd rather know what I'm getting into before I speak," Astrid replied back, a snicker appearing on her face. The rest of us were completely silent at this point. I guess we were way too nervous and out of it to speak at the moment.
"Fair enough," she said, closing the manila folder in front of us and stashing it back in her briefcase.
"Well, once upon a time there were four friends. They were the best of friends and they did everything together –" Detective Gracen began to say, a cheerful and a matter-of-fact tone evident in her voice, but was cut off by Gwen.
"Okay, cut the "I'm Mrs. Nice" crap. Just tell us already," Gwen said, her voice brave and fiery. My heart began to flutter at that thought, but I pushed it away and focused on the situation at hand.
"Fine," she said, making a smirk to the side of her face, barely noticeable to the rest of us, but I was sure that I saw this.
After a few moments of probably second-guessing whether she should tell us or not, Detective Gracen cleared her throat and started to speak yet again, "Well, about fifteen years ago, there was a group of four friends very similar to you four: they loved to solve mysteries, they had their own mystery-solving gang, and they were quite perceptive of their surroundings. I mean, they truly loved to solve mysteries, beyond anything really...which meant not giving the police a chance to do their job when it came to things like missing person investigations and unfortunately murders. It actually sort of became annoying after a while.
"But, to move on – and this next part is going to be really surprising – the name of their gang was also the Team Of Mystery," Detective Gracen started to explain, implementing shock in all of us.
"Wait, what? How can that even be?" Astrid questioned, exclamation evident in her voice.
"Actually, I know how. I picked the name after I came across it in a police report I found on my dad's desk. I never knew it could be connected to something else, though," Sam answered for all of us, Astrid reaching for Sam's hand and holding it as Detective Gracen began to explain further.
"Well, without further ado, I'll start from the beginning of the story. The story of the original Team Of Mystery. Well, to start out the story, I'll tell you their names: Diana Hudrove, Brady Stevenson, Caine Alray, and Melanie Brodison. Now, to continue the story, no one really knows what happened to the original Team Of Mystery –" Detective Gracen told us, but was cut off by Astrid's inquisitive questions.
"Wait a minute...what happened to them? Did they die or something? Did they get thrown in jail for messing with police-confidential evidence?" Astrid zoomed through her questions, actually scaring me a little bit because I knew she had many more questions bouncing in the inside of her brain.
"Calm down, Astrid. We'll get there," Detective Gracen said, continuing on, "So, throughout the Team Of Mystery's sophomore year they seemed to encounter something they weren't supposed to know about. We know this because about a few months before it all happened, the Team Of Mystery began to act very weird and very suspicious. Their parents soon began to think that someone was bullying them because whenever they received a text they would jump. The Team Of Mystery dismissed it when their parents asked them, but they always suspected something had been going on.
"Even now, the police still suspect it. But, to get on with the story, the Team Of Mystery began to act really weird about a week before it all went down. Their parents asked them what was wrong with them, but as you can probably guess, they didn't say anything, which makes what I'm about to say next really sad. That whole week, the Team Of Mystery skipped their classes...missing their final exams entirely. Their parents didn't figure this out until that very day, and all of them were grounded by their parents. At least, that's what the media said.
"But, even now the Team Of Mystery was grounded, they still managed to escape their homes that night. Their parents reported them missing, but weren't able to get a lead until one of the Team Of Mystery's members, Diana Hudrove, called 9-11. The police tracked her phone to a set of woods in the Dark Falls Town. All they found at the scene when they arrived was a purse, belonging to Diana Hudrove, obviously.
"And to finish the story, they've been missing ever since," Detective Gracen finished, obviously proud of herself for telling us the whole story.
"Okay, that is an interesting story to say the least...but what does it have to do with David?" Gwen asked, the rest of us nodding in agreement to her inquisition.
"You mean Caine?" Detective Gracen shot back at us as her way of reply. With this rhetorical question, I wasn't sure of anything anymore. If she was serious, then that meant...oh.
"Wait...David – the one we came to report missing – is actually Caine, one of the members of the original Team Of Mystery?" Astrid put together out loud.
"Well, there you go. You finally figured it out...but now, we have to get into more official business, like how Caine Alray can even be alive. But, you did say that he went missing again, right?" Detective Gracen asked, reaching into her briefcase for a pad of paper and a pen to write with.
We all nodded. But, it was never as simple as saying yes or no to the police. They usually wanted to know the what, when, where, why, and how of things. In detail, of course.
"Yes, that's what we came to tell the police about," Sam said, taking the heat off Astrid for a second.
"Well, the question is then...how can Caine be alive? And why did he make an alias for himself? Is he hiding something? Would you happen to know?" the detective asked.
"No, I mean we didn't even know until today that he wasn't who he said he was. But, maybe he was trying to hide who he really was from other people...so he could still live on the Dark Falls Island. Or maybe –" Astrid began to speculate, but was cut off by the detective, the one with cunning eyes.
"Or maybe he didn't want anyone knowing he was alive. That's what you were going to say, wasn't it?" the detective said, finishing Astrid's statement for her. I was now beginning to understand how the detective rolled and so were my friends.
"Yeah, that is what I was going to say," Astrid said, crossing her legs – a very key hint for Detective Gracen that we weren't letting on that we knew as much as we did. I almost looked at her, as if to recognize the fact as to how much she was letting on by her posture.
But, I didn't. I had to keep it cool. I just needed to remember the three C's.
Calm, cool, collected. Calm, cool, collected. Calm. Cool. Collected. Just follow the three C's and you'll be fine, I thought.
"Well, if you have nothing else to tell me about your fun, I'll escort you back to the entrance," Detective Gracen said after a moment, gesturing for us to follow her. And we did.
Once we were at the entrance, Detective Gracen entered a door and told us to leave. But, none of us could just yet. A moment later, Detective Gracen reappeared behind the reception desk and began to speak with her fellow officers – probably about the fact that someone who had been missing for fifteen years was suddenly alive.
Well, they didn't know that he was actually dead – for real this time – but there was no use telling them at this point.
"Well, we better leave before we're seen here by someone we know," Gwen pointed out, beginning to open the double doors that served as an exit and an entry to the police station. The rest of us followed her out.
We walked around the downtown area of the Dark Falls Town for what felt like an hour as we neared our neighborhood. But, just as the stores and brick sidewalks turned into homes and cement sidewalks, all of our phones buzzed.
Not a good thing to hear anymore.
My friends and I turned on our phones to reveal the demon text displayed. We all read the text, knowing that whatever it was about would be hard to read.
From: Anonymous
To: Sam, Astrid, Tanner, & Gwen
Well, it looks like you uncovered a new mystery. But, if you solve this one, it won't end pretty. I guess you'll end up just like the original Team Of Mystery did.
"Oh my God," was all any of said, as we walked the rest of the way to our houses, most likely in for a treat when our parents learned we were at the police station today.
That was for sure.
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