Jett and I decided we would interview the last two people separately. I would interview Giampi and he would interview Sebastian. 

It was Thursday, January 24th. Jett was interviewing Sebastian the next day. The teachers and principals finally announced Mason’s disappearance the day before and told us if we knew anything about it to contact the police.  Later that day, everyone sat down with me and we talked about any leads, but nothing came up. We ended up going home with nothing more to tell us where Mason could have been.

I decided to text Giampi the next day. It was early in the morning.

“Hey, I was wondering if we could talk alone.”

“Sure, what about?”

“About Mason’s disappearance.”

“Do you suspect me?”

“No, man. I know you went out for food, but I’m interviewing everyone.”

I couldn’t let Giampi know that Jett and I were working together. I didn’t want the rest of the group to pair up and work against us.

“You’re working with Jett, right?” he texted.

 I didn’t know what to say. After a minute of not answering he texted and said:

“Don’t worry, your secret's safe with me. I won’t tell the rest of the squad.”

“Thanks, Giampi.”

“You can come over today after school. I’ll tell the squad to come over later.”

“Alright, see you then.”

I got up from my bed and put on my uniform. I walked downstairs and ate breakfast. I then walked the lonely path to school. It wasn’t as chilly. The weather was actually nice. I sat down at the bench near the halfway point and rested. Five minutes passed by and I got up from the bench.

“I’ll save you, Mason, no matter what,” I said, clenching my fists.

My day went by normally. I went to classes, I ate lunch with my friends, I did all the usual things. The end of the day came and I waited for Giampi at the entrance. He came out of the building, strolling casually.

“So, you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

I walked with him towards his house. The afternoon sun was strong but we found shade on the sidewalk and stayed in it.

“Do you have any suspects?” Giampi asked.

“No, so far we have no leads. I’ve interviewed Jett and Fernando and nothing,” I replied.

“Did any of them say anything interesting?”

“Well, I’d rather not get into that.”

“I get that.”

We walked in silence and got to his house. He opened the door. The lights were turned off. I guessed that his mom was away again. I entered the house and took off my shoes. I then walked up the stairs into the library. We sat down.

“I’ll start off simple. Just pretend that I’m a police officer and we don’t know each other,” I said.

“Go ahead,” Giampi said.

“Where were you on the evening of Sunday January 21th?”

“I was with my friends. I went out about 9:10 to get some food for everyone at Little Caesars.”

“Do you have anything to back up that story?” I asked.

Giampi took out his wallet from his pocket and pulled out a receipt. He handed it to me. It read:

1 Large cheese Pizza

2 Pepsi 1lt

1 Crazy bread

It was exactly what we had gotten that day. I put the receipt in my pocket.

“Do you mind if I take it with me?” I asked.

“Man, it’s just a receipt. Take it.”

“Well, I guess this interview is over. What should we do while we wait for everyone to come?”

“Want to watch some Daredevil?”

“I haven’t seen the last season.”

“Let’s do it.”

Giampi and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Daredevil season three until the rest of the squad arrived.

…………………………………

“Hey bro, sorry I’m late,” Jett said as he hurried inside the Starbucks I was in.

It was Saturday, January 26th. It had been two days since I’d interviewed Giampi and one day since Jett had interviewed Sebastian.

“So, did you get anything good?” I asked.

Jett’s eyes lit up.

“I got something incredible. A new lead!” he said.

“Alright, tell me!”

And tell me he did. Jett walked to school on Thursday and went to his regular classes. He finally finished them and, while he was going into the lunchroom, he stumbled into Sebastian.

“Hey bro, can we talk after school?” Jett asked.

“W-what about?” Sebastian said nervously, his face growing pale.

“Why are you so nervous?”

“N-no reason.”

“Well, I want to talk about comics. I want to know which series you’ve been reading and which ones you would recommend,” Jett said, lying.

Sebastian’s eyes lit up. “Oh, if that’s what you want to talk about, then that’s okay!”

“Does tomorrow sound good to you?”

“Sure!”

“How about at your house?”

“Sounds good!”

Jett ate lunch, went to the rest of his classes and went home. The next day he headed into school and on the way inside he bumped into Sebastian again.

“I’m really excited for this, you know. No one in the squad is really interested in what I read.”

“Well, I’m interested!” 

Jett went through his day and met up with Sebastian. They walked to his place. Turned out he lived in an apartment complex. They walked to an elevator and went up to the fifth floor, which is where Sebastian lived. They walked up to his door and opened it. They were met with a large open area. 

The walls were painted brown and there were plants next to the them. To the right of the small opening there was a small kitchen. If you continued in that direction you would arrive in a small hallway that led to three doors. One of them was Sebastin’s room. Another one was his parents’ room and the final door was the bathroom. 

If you went left of the small opening you would find yourself in a living room type area with a small bathroom in the room.

Jett walked inside and admired the beautiful apartment.

“This is very nice!” Jett said.

“Thanks, my family and I work to keep it clean,” he replied.

“Let’s go to your room to talk,” Jett said.

They walked to Sebastian’s room and opened the door. His room had a queen size bed in the middle, on each side of the bed there were two night stands. There was a bookshelf at the head of the room filled with comics. Next to the bookshelf there was a large window that allowed you to see the beautiful view. There was a desk in the corner of the room with a laptop sitting on it.  

“Nice room, bro!” Jett said.

“Thank you!” Sebastian replied, flattered by his compliment.

Jett sat down on Sebastian’s bed. He was about to speak again but Sebastian interrupted him.

“Now let’s get down to business. I’ve been reading the original Batman series,” Sebastian said, smiling as he walked towards his book shelf and pulled out his collection of Batman comics. 

“I like both DC and Marvel so I’ve also been reading Deadpool. Now, I really recommend reading from the start-”

Jett interrupted him.

“Sorry Sebastian, I’m not here to talk about comics with you. I lied.”

Sebastian’s smile faded. “So what are you here to talk about?”

“I’m here to ask you questions about Mason’s disappearance.”

Sebastian became pale and looked like he was about to start hyperventilating.

“Calm down. Breathe, okay?” Jett said calmly

“Alright, alright.” Sebastian replied.

“So, you clearly know something. Please tell me.”

“Okay, I will.”

Sebastian told an interesting story which was indeed a huge lead for us. He told the story of how he was going to walk home but three quarters of the way to his house he decided he really wanted to talk to Mason. He wanted to apologize for not siding with him from the start. He was neutral at first but knew that Mason needed as many allies as he could get.

He ran. He ran a long way to get to his house. He stopped at the halfway point to rest. He sat for a while, staring at his feet. He looked up for a second and saw a man in a purple cloak walking out of the forest. 

Sebastian was confused on why someone would be in a forest late at night. He watched the guy walk into the distance. Sebastian then stood up and walked into the forest. He walked past a pentagram which was the same one we had seen. He stood there and looked at it. He was a little freaked out but almost out of his mind with curiosity. 

He started walking again and headed deeper into the forest. It was so dark and he couldn’t see, so he put on his phone’s light. He went farther than we had gone until he got to a lake. The lake had many trees on the side and was quite deep. There was a small cabin that looked abandoned on the far right of the lake, where it looked like there could have been hundreds of trees surrounding it.

Its roof had caved in and there was a small door to the side. Sebastian walked over to the lake house and peaked through one of the broken windows. He couldn’t see much so he put his light through the window. He fell back in horror at what he saw. He got hit with a sudden wave of nausea and had to put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from vomiting. He quickly got up and sprinted out of the forest. He stumbled and fell many times but got back up quickly. He then ran all the way home. 

What he had seen inside was disturbing. There were six figures chanting in the run down cabin. Four of them were a variety of heights and two were almost the exact same height, very short, indicating they were probably children. There was a blood splatter on the wall. One of the short figures had turned and looked at him. He couldn’t see their faces, but what he did see were unnatural, red eyes. He had never seen anything like it before.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jett asked Sebastian.

“Well, I don’t really think we should be investigating. We’re kids and also we shouldn’t mess with them. They are very dangerous people. Please promise me you won’t mess with them.”

Jett stood up from the bed. “Sorry Sebastian, but no matter how dangerous these people are I’m going to catch the traitor in our group. He’s the kidnapper and the person who set me up. I will serve them my own justice.”

Jett got up and left the apartment.

…………………………………

“So this lake house is our lead?” I asked.

“Exactly. That’s where we’re going to find these bastards.”

“When should we go and investigate?”

“How about next Sunday?”

“Alright, I’ll tell everyone-”

“You idiot! Remember? One of them is part of the cult!”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s call it a day and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

We got up and left. I headed home. I was happy. We might be able to find Mason if things kept going like this. I arrived home and opened the door. My family all sat at the table, waiting for me.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“You need to see this. I’m sorry this happened but you just need to.” my mom said, tears falling from her eyes.

“What is it mom?”

She brought out her ipad and played a video. The video showed a lake in the woods. That was the area Jett was talking about? A reporter appeared on the screen. He was wearing a black suit. He had blue eyes and short light brown hair. He started speaking.

“I have some sad news today. The missing boy named Mason Woods has been found. His body was discovered in the Lake and was just positively identified. It seems as though he’s been dead since late at night Sunday. January 21th. We advise teenagers and kids not to go out alone at night. Parents, keep an eye on your kids.”

My eyes widened. I fell out of my chair onto the floor. I began to hyperventilate. No. no. no. no! He couldn’t be dead. It’s a mistake. It has to be, I thought to myself as I clutched the sides of my head. 

This has to be a mistake. Yeah, it’s not him. It’s someone else's body. I laughed out of shock.

“Are you okay?” my sister said, out of concern.

I rocked back and forth on the ground. Trying to regain my composure. I was overwhelmed. How could he die? Who did this? 

You did this, you idiot. He died because he got separated from you. He died because you didn’t defend him. You took the wrong side and there’s nothing you can do about it. Absolutely nothing. The only thing you can do is live your life full of guilt because of what you did.

I ran upstairs and got on my PC. I started a Discord call with my friends and invited them. They all joined.

“Hey what’s up, Christopher?” Fernando said.

Tears couldn’t stop falling. I slammed my head against my desk.

“Whoa, calm down bro!” Jett said.

“Guys. Mason is dead,” I said as I sniffled.

“What?” Giampi asked.

“Look at the news.”

Everyone stopped talking and looked at the news.

“This can’t be real,” Sebastian said, tears forming in his eyes.

“It’s my fault!” I yelled.

“No! It’s my fault!” Fernando said.

We were all crying.

“I should have taken his side. This would have never happened if I had taken his side!”

“This would have never happened if I had not started a fight with him. I should’ve been there for him!” Fernando yelled.

“I shouldn’t have allowed him to leave!” Giampi cried.

“I should have told you guys what I knew!” Sebastian said.

“When I find out who the traitor was. I’ll kill them!” I yelled.

“Traitor, reveal yourself!” Jett yelled angrily.

No one said anything.

“Christopher and I are going to find out who did this and we’re going to make them pay. We have some leads.” Jett said.
“Can we hear them?” Sebastian asked.

“No. One of you is the killer. I can’t risk anything,” Jett replied coolly.

“Hold on. What if you’re the killer?” Sebastian said.

“I’m not.”
“How do you know?”
“You know what?! Enough of this bullshit! Christopher and I will find the killer. You can count on us. Everyone here is a suspect, even me. I will gather proof that I’m not the killer.”

I was very upset so I hung up the call and went to sleep.