I walked to school again. It was Tuesday, January 22nd. I got to the halfway point. I stood there for a moment thinking. I blinked for a moment and suddenly I could see Mason there. He was sitting on the bench. I blinked again and he was gone.

I sighed. I really hoped he was all right. I hoped we could get to him quickly or that the police would. I arrived at school and walked to my first class. I was ready to sit down when the door suddenly swung open. Jett walked through. He sat next to me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised.

“I want to meet up with you after school. I have to ask you some questions,” he said.

“That’s funny. I have some questions for you myself!”

“Well, you can ask them after school.”

“Where do you want to meet?”

“Let’s meet at what you call ‘the halfway point’. How about it?”

“Sure.”
Jett stormed out of the classroom like he was mad. I didn’t really understand why at the time. Later I found out things were much darker than I expected. I finished my morning classes and headed to lunch. I got there and sat down at our table.

“Heyo!” Fernando said, taking a seat next to me.

“Hey guys,” Giampi said, sitting in front of me.

“Time for lunch,” Sebastian exclaimed, as he sat down next to Giampi.

“I’m here,” Jett said, as he took a seat next to Fernando.

“So guys, let’s talk about how we’re going to launch this investigation. What do you all want to do first?” I asked.

“I say we start at the police station,” Fernando suggested.

“Would the police really tell us anything though?” Giampi asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Fernando replied.

“Have the police come to talk to you guys yet?” I asked.

“Yeah, they asked me a couple questions. I tried bringing up the cult but they told me that there was no evidence that they existed. They shot me down so quickly that it seems suspicious.” Sebastian remarked.

“They also interviewed me. I don’t know anything though,” Fernando said. He gave me a look that seemed to be telling me that he didn’t mention anything about what happened between Mason and him.

“They asked to meet with me but I don’t know much, so I wasn’t very useful to them,” Giampi mentioned.

We all looked at Jett, all wondering if he knew anything.

“Let’s cut the crap,” Jett said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“One of us is part of that cult and took Mason. Whoever is this mystery man needs to speak up. Now!”

Everyone looked down. I lifted my head to look around. Fernando looked pretty nervous, which was expected. I looked at Sebastian. He looked awfully pale. I would have to talk to him later. It seemed like he was hiding something. Giampi was picking at his food. I could see he looked a little nervous but I was positive it wasn’t him. He had an alibi. He went to buy food. But just in case, I would need to question him as well.

“No one’s going to admit they did it? Fine,” Jett said, getting up from his seat and walking away as he did.

“I don’t think we should be fighting each other! Like I said before, we need to work as a team!” I called after him.

I sighed. I would need to convince him to be on our team. We couldn’t get anywhere without him or the others. I thought I convinced him back then along with everyone else, but it looked like I was wrong. The closer we got to finding Mason, the closer we got to finding out who was the true villain in the group. 

I went back to class, and at the end of the day I headed to the front of the school to wait for Jett. I saw other students coming outside. Finally I saw Jett. I waved him over.

“Alright, let’s get to the spot so we can talk. I really want to get this over with,” he said.

I nodded and walked with him to the halfway point. We reached the point and I sat down on the bench.

“So, what are we going to talk about?” I asked.

“I’m scared someone will hear us. Let’s go into the forest.”

I got a little nervous when I heard this. It wasn’t because I was worried Jett might hurt me. I was worried that we would find the men in the cloaks somewhere. We walked into the forest. Jett was ahead. He seemed to get angrier and angrier by the second. He kept kicking things on the ground.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

He stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“Alright, let’s cut to the chase. I’m suspicious of you. You’re the most suspicious out of the whole group. I’m going to question everyone in the group but you’re first. I’m going to find the person that took him and framed me,” he said with a serious face.

“Why would you be suspicious of me? I am his best friend!” I said, a little annoyed that he was suspicious of me.

“It isn’t personal,” he said as he began to pace. “Let’s start with the facts. You automatically knew somehow that I was innocent. You took MY side. You could have taken Mason while he was walking home. Fernando told me they took a detour and split off. It was 10 PM around that time. I was told by Sebastian that that’s when you left. You also somehow knew that Mr. Willis is in the cult. Sure, you could’ve found out the way you said, but what are the chances of that happening?”

“Hey man, listen-” I stopped mid sentence when I saw what was in his hand. He was holding a box cutter.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked, worried.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just an intimidation factor.”

“I don’t think you need a knife in this conversation. We’re just two guys talking! Put the box cutter away!”

“Fine,” he said.

I watched him put it away. He kept pacing as he did.

“Listen. I am not part of the cult. I found out about Mr. Willis the way I said. I’m not lying.” I paused for a second. He wouldn’t believe I was innocent unless I revealed Fernando’s secret. It was the only choice but I needed him to stay quiet about it. “Let’s work together to find out who the kidnapper and betrayer in our friend group is. Does that sound good?”

“If I can trust you, fine.”

“Well, I have to trust you too. Where were you after you left the house?”

“I’m innocent! I took an Uber home.”

“Any evidence to back that up?”

He pulled out his phone and showed me his recent payments. It showed a ride around 9 PM.

“Alright, looks like you’re good.”

“Tell me now.”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“Alright, I won’t.”

“Okay, here it goes. Fernando lied to you. He and Mason had a confrontation. When I got to the halfway point around that time Mason was already gone, probably kidnapped.” 

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, remember what I said. Don’t bring it up to anyone. Understand?”

“Man okay. I just can’t believe he lied to me. He probably lied to the police too. Damn. He’s kind of a bad ass.”

“So we’re working together right?” I asked, stretching out my hand.

“I guess we are,” he said, shaking my hand.

From that moment on Jett and I would work to solve the case. We walked towards the entrance of the woods but stopped midway. I stared at the ground. My eyes widened. 

“Oh no,” I said.

“What is it?” he asked, confused.

“Look at the ground.”

He looked down. It was at that moment that I realized that the pentagram on the back of their cloaks had an extra detail. It had a skull on it. That’s what I found on the ground: a giant pentagram with a skull in the center.

“Wh-what?” Jett said, shocked.

“This must be from the first time I saw them,” I said.

“You’ve seen this before?”

“No. I was far away when I saw them. They were performing a ritual. Mason and I were both there.”

“No way.”

I knelt on the ground and placed my fingers on the pentagram. I quickly retracted my arm. It burned. Somehow, the red paint that was used on the ground burned. I didn’t think it was possible. The ritual was held a long time ago. I decided I was going to touch it one more time.

I placed my hand onto the ground. It burnt like crazy but I didn’t stop pressing down. Suddenly I heard a weird noise. The pentagram had suddenly started glowing.I took off my hand and looked at it. There was a small word on the palm of my hand. I stared at it. It read: Rebirth.

“Rebirth? What does that mean?” Jett asked.

“No idea” I said through gritted teeth, my hand throbbing.

I stared down at it. Slowly, the mark began to fade away along with the pain.

“Let’s get out of here, bro,” he said, nervously.

“Wait. Put your hand on the pentagram.”

“What!? Are you crazy?! It looked like it hurt for you!”

“Just do it! Remember? We’re working together! We can’t catch the kidnapper if we’re not going to take risks!”
“Fine.”

Jett reached down, closed his eyes and touched the pentagram. Nothing happened. He didn’t feel a burn and the pentagram didn’t light up.

“Why didn't it light up for you?” I was confused.

“I have no idea…” he replied. “Can we get out of here now?” 

“Sure.”
We hurried out of the forest. We were heavily creeped out. As we left the forest, I couldn’t help but feel we were being watched. I could tell Jett was feeling it too because he was very pale. I could’ve sworn that out of the corner of my eye I could see a man hiding behind a tree with a purple cloak, but I didn’t stop to check. 

At that point I didn’t know what the hell Rebirth meant. I would later find out that it was the special ability I was given when I was watching the ritual with Mason. We decided to not tell the squad anything that happened there because we didn’t trust them all yet. One of them was part of that cult. Who would’ve known that someone else knew of the place, someone else had seen the men in cloaks walk into the forest.