Sadly, school started not long after the beach day. It started a week from then on January 15th, on a chilly Monday. I walked to school, but I had forgotten my jacket at home and I was shivering a lot. I wanted to get into school as soon as possible so I could get warm.

I was somewhat excited for school since it would give me a chance to show my teacher my writing. I had been working on a book during the winter break and my mentor, Mr. Willis, was the best person to share it with.

I had emailed him asking if he could meet up early before school started. He said he could do it.

I finally arrived at the school. I ran inside and up the stairs around 7 AM. School started at 8 so nobody was there yet. I walked inside and past the empty classrooms in the empty hallways. It was very weird to see the school so quiet. I could hear my own footsteps as I walked down the hallways. I got to the English classroom and opened the door.

My eyes widened as I saw a figure in the cult’s cloak standing near the window. I stumbled back and fell back.The figure turned and looked at me. They quickly opened the window and jumped outside of it. I watched as they ran away into the forest nearby. My heart was pounding. 

Why were they here? Were they targeting me? Were they a student at the school? All those thoughts raged in my mind. 

“Christopher?”

Mr. Willis walked in, breaking my thought bubble.

“What are you doing on the ground, boy?” he asked, confused.

I adjusted my glasses. Mr. Willis held out a hand and lifted me up.

“I’m glad you’ve been writing, Christopher,” he said as he approached his desk and sat down.

“I’m glad too,” I said, shakily.

Mr. Willis frowned. “Did something happen, Christopher?”

I remembered what Mason had told me: “Do you want more people involved?”

“It’s nothing,” I said, sitting at my desk. “I’m a little chilly, that’s all.”

“Well, I’m glad you're fine. Let’s start this meeting, shall we?”

We talked until about 7:30. Mr. Willis and I stood up at the same time. As he got up something fell out of his pocket. I didn’t really think about it until later, but what I saw come out of his pocket that day was a piece of purple fabric.

…………………………………

 Six days had passed since the last time I’d seen the figure in the cloak at school. The date was Sunday, January 21st. I told Mason about it and he asked me to be careful. He said that he would spend as much time as he could with me and that he would do what he said that day: protect me. It was also my duty to protect him. I walked with him everywhere and he walked with me everywhere and we truly believed they wouldn’t attack us together.

So far they didn’t seem hostile but there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t attack us. I became very paranoid and would always sleep with a night light. I had begun to fear the dark again. I woke up that morning with a couple text messages from the group chat with everyone in it.

“First Sunday with everyone back, who’s down to meet up at the base!” Fernando messaged.

“Shouldn’t you ask permission before inviting people to my house, Fernando?” Giampi said.

Fernando replied with a: smh which stood for “shake my head”.

“I’m down to go,” Jett texted.

“Guys! I didn’t even say if you guys could come over!” Giampi messaged, clearly annoyed.

I let out a laugh as I read that message. It almost seemed like, at this point, Giampi’s house was now ours. It almost seemed like his library was ours as well. Why? Well, probably because we were there every other day.

I continued to read the rest of the messages.

“I’ll go too,” Sebastian said.

“Oi!” Giampi texted.

“What will you do, Christopher?” Mason asked.

That was the end of the messages. I started typing and said: “I’m coming too.”

I checked who had seen it and it appeared as though Mason had. That was fast. Mason said nothing though and I waited for a little bit before saying:

“Mason, are you coming?”

“Yes,” he replied.

I got out of bed and got dressed. I put on some jeans, a black shirt and a black jacket. I walked downstairs and sat at the table. My mother was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

“Mom-”
“I know, I know. You’re going to the “base” right? At least have breakfast first.”

“You always say that to me,” I said, laughing.

I sat down and ate. When I finished, I walked out of the door.

“Be safe!” my mom called out.

“I will!” I called back.

I walked towards the half point. It was chilly, again. I felt a slight breeze blow in my face. It was nice. I stopped at the halfway point. I couldn’t see Mason.

“Boo!” someone said from behind me.

I jumped back. It was Mason.

“You scared me!” I said, breathing heavily.

“Sorry, sorry. I just had to do it. Don’t lie to me. It was pretty funny wasn’t it?” he said, laughing.

I rolled my eyes at him.

We walked to Giampi’s house and when we got there I knocked on the door. It was locked for once. I heard footsteps approaching the door. It swung open and a lady peaked her head through.

She had dark blonde hair, brown eyes and a small mouth. She wore a pink dress and high heels.

“Erm. Hello ma’am. My name is Christopher. I am looking for Giampaolo, is he here?” I said.

“Yes, of course! Giampi is my son. Come on, come in!” she said, motioning us to enter.

This time the house wasn’t pitch black. All of the lights were on. Giampi sat on the couch downstairs watching TV.

“So that’s why you didn’t want us to come over,” Mason said, standing behind Giampi.

Giampi jumped.

“I’ve scared two people today!” Mason said, smiling.

“I told you guys not to come,” he grumbled.

“I’ve never actually met your mom before,” I said.

“Well, that’s because I’m usually out on trips,” his mom commented from the kitchen.

“The house has never been so bright,” Mason said.

“Giampi! Did you keep the lights off when I was gone? What would have happened if someone had broken in?!”

Giampi bowed his head. “Sorry, mom.”

He gave both of us an evil glare. The doorbell rang. Giampi got up to open the door. I could hear Fernando’s Jett’s and Sebastian’s voice.

“Whoa! It’s never been so bright in here, bro!” Fernando said.

“Welcome, Giampi’s friends! Make yourselves at home!” Giampi’s mom said.

“Should we go to the base?” Giampi asked.

“Sure,” I said.

We went upstairs and entered the base. We talked for a while and time flew by quickly. We ended up reading books like we always did. Nobody said anything for about two hours. When it was getting late Mason broke the silence.

“I brought something to show you guys,” he said, pulling out a backpack from behind him.

I hadn’t noticed he was carrying anything at all until that very moment.

“What’s in there?” we all asked.

“I have a Batman figure, signed by Christian Bale who played Batman in the Dark Knight series!”

“Bro! How much is that shit worth?” Jett asked, his eyes wide.

“I’d say about a thousand dollars,” Mason said, clearly enjoying the chance to show off such a valuable possession.

He unzipped the backpack and looked inside.

“What?” he said.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It-It’s gone!”

I gave him a weird look. It’s probably in there somewhere, let me look,”
I picked up his backpack and looked inside. Nothing. I turned the bag upside down and shook it. A couple pencils and candy wrappers fell out, but no Batman figurine.

“I-I don’t understand! The backpack was closed so it couldn’t have fallen out! Which means...someone stole it!”

We all stared at him in confusion. 

“Somebody stole it? Are you sure you didn’t just leave it at home?” Sebastian said.

“No! I took a picture of it at the door and put it in my backpack, see?”

Mason showed us a picture of the Batman figure at his door. “Alright, which one of you has it?” he said, a bit more aggressively.

“Guys let’s calm down-” Giampi started saying but was interrupted by Mason.

“Come on guys, we’re friends. Are we really going to steal from each other?”

No one answered, we all just stared at him with blank faces.

“Guys, please. You don’t want to see me angry,” he said threateningly.

“I wouldn’t threaten if I were you,” Jett said.

Mason turned to Jett. “You’re a huge DC fan aren’t you? Did you take it? You’re the only one that knows I own this!”

“I don’t have it! Calm down bro!”

Mason marched towards Jett and grabbed his backpack from him. He opened it and saw something which darkened his face even further. His figurine was there.

“So you did steal it!” Mason said angrily.

“What?! No! I was set up!” Jett said, confused.

“Who set you up, then?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know!”

At that moment I had a feeling, a hunch. I somehow knew that Jett was innocent. I stood up from my chair and stood in between Mason and Jett.

“Listen Mason, Jett is innocent, he was obviously set up!” I said.

Mason’s anger only intensified. “So you’re on his side, huh? And I thought you were my best friend!”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but he’s innocent! Trust me!”

“Screw you and Jett!” Mason stormed out of the room. 

I tried following but Fernando stopped me. “He’s not ready to talk to you now. I’ll go with him.”

Fernando followed Mason and Sebastian, Giampi and I stayed. I didn’t know it then but I was right. Jett was innocent. Someone else had done it, with the intention to destroy our friendships and make us fight against each other. Their goal was to separate Mason from me.

“Now what do we do?” I asked.

“Well, I’ll tell you what I’m doing! I’m leaving! One of you guys set me up and I am not happy about it!” Jett stood up from his seat and stormed out.

Giampi stood up from his seat. “Let’s go get a bite to eat,” he suggested.

“I am pretty hungry,” I said.

“Well, let’s do it,” Sebastian said.

“On second thought, I don’t know if we should though. We’re all friends. Shouldn’t we eat with everyone?” I said.

“I don’t think we’ll be together anytime soon.”
I sighed.

“How about one of us brings food over here?” Sebastian suggested.

“Who should do it though?” I asked.

“No one here but Giampi can drive,” Sebastian pointed out.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” Giampi said.

“That would be great, thanks!” I said.

“What kind of food do you want?”  Giampi asked.

“I’ll take a pizza,” I said.

“Me too,” Sebastian said.

“Then it’s decided. What place shall we get this wonderful pizza from?”

“Domino’s?” I said.

“Yeah, let’s do that!”

We spent the rest of the night eating the pizza and watching Rick and Morty. We finished the last season without Mason, Fernando or Jett. Who would’ve known that was the last night I would see Mason alive.