Now here I am where this story began. All I knew was a sword was coming at me. I couldn't even see who was on the other end. The next thing I knew, I felt something slide under my bottom.
I let out a loud noise as I fell out of the chair.
"Who's there!?" I asked.
"Shh…" said a familiar voice, "they might hear us."
"Jason?" I responded, "What's going on?"
"I escaped from Jeff after he killed Lilith and Jon," he whispered, "Oh, and Iris is here too."
"Hi." she said.
"Ack!" I exclaimed.
"Not so loud, Ron." he said, "Quick. This way!"
He grabbed onto my arm and I felt myself getting dragged somewhere. Suddenly, it stopped and a door opened. On the other side was a room that was a bit brighter. Inside that room was some stairs, which the three of us ran up. I tripped and fell at the halfway point, but I just got up and dusted myself off.
"Are you okay?" asked Iris.
"I'm fine." I replied, "This isn't the stairway to heaven, after all."
We continued until we reached a door. On the other side was familiar room- the lobby. We walked in and seated ourselves on the couch that I sat on with Charles earlier.
"How did you find me?" I asked.
"We kind of got lost." answered Jason, scratching the back of his head, "So we just explored a bit."
"Okay, then." I said, "Now I have some stuff to ask Iris."
"What?" responded Iris.
"You came where with Charles," I said, "why is that?"
"Well, I…" she started.
"Come on." I said, "You can tell me."
"Well, his daughter was my best friend when she was alive." answered Iris.
"Yes, Charles has told us that." I replied.
"He lost his wife too," responded Iris, "You know why?"
"It has to do with Jeff, doesn't it?" asked Jason.
"Yes." answered Iris, looking down at the floor, "He was investigating and got in too deep. Twice, they punished him for it."
"Who's 'they'?" asked Jason.
"What do you mean by twice?" I asked.
"I'm referring to Jeff and the two he was working for at the time: Greg and Amy Hicks. The first time, which was many years ago, was shortly after his daughter was born." said Iris, "They killed his wife then. He wouldn't tell me anything else about back then. However, I know a bit more about what happened more recently. Not too long ago, they killed his daughter and sent the demon butler, Sebastian."
"Interesting." I said.
"They don't really want to kill him." continued Iris, "They just want him to remain miserable."
"You still haven't answered-" I started.
"I have, actually… in a way." interrupted Iris, "I need to keep an eye on him so he won't end up killing himself or something like that. Unfortunately, I've lost him."
"Well," I said, "thank you for the information. However, I believe that there's more to this. However, I'm going to have to ask Charles."
"Well, what now?" asked Jason.
"Let's go look for Charles." I suggested, "He's been investigating Jeff and we need to know why he's here."
"Did he not tell Iris?" asked Jason.
"He did not tell me his exact reasons or how he found out about this place." answered Iris, "I only knew it was related to Jeff."
I stood up and scanned the room to see if I could find anything suspicious. However, nothing caught my attention. This place was weird. Then, we heard footsteps coming from the stairs.
"Please don't be Jeff." I whispered to myself.
Then I saw Charles and Lucas.
"Ron?" said Lucas, "Where have you been?"
"I could ask you the same question." I answered, "Anyways, I need to talk to Charles."
"What is it?" asked Charles.
"First," I said, "Lucas, could I borrow your gem?"
"I don't know what you're doing, but why not?" said Lucas, handing me his magic gem.
"I have something important to ask." I said, "Why did you bring Iris with you?"
"I planned to go alone." answered Charles, "However, I couldn't talk her out of it."
"And?" I responded.
"I didn't want her getting hurt." he said, "Her best friend is gone now, after all."
"Is that all?" I asked.
"Yes." he answered, "That's it."
At the moment, I could feel the magic gem twitching. I stared at his face, starting to realize what it meant.
"You're lying." I said.
"What do you mean?" asked Charles.
"This item I have here," I said, rubbing the gem, "is sort of a magic lie detector."
"You can't be serious." commented Charles.
"Yeah, well, I'm not here to explain how this works." I said, "It wasn't triggered until you said what you told me was everything I wanted to know."
"W-what's going on here?" asked Iris, nervously.
"It seems that Ron knew that Charles was going to lie." said Jason.
"Shouldn't we just shut up so that he can focus?" asked Lucas.
"A-anyways," I said, "how long have you known Iris?"
"Since she was a baby." answered Charles, "What does this have to do with anything, though?"
"Lots." I said, "Did you live nearby?"
"Yes." responded Charles.
"I'll say it now." I said, "There was a reason you had to live nearby."
I could feel the gem shake in my hand after I spoke. At the same time, it started to feel warmer. It must have meant I was on the right track.
"But what was that reason?" I said, "I'm going to soon find out."
"Why do you look so angry-?" asked Charles.
"Where were you on the fifth of September-!?"
I said, "Oh, wait. Wrong case."
"What are you doing, Ron?" asked Charles.
"You didn't want her to come with you," I said, "I'm going to assume that it's because you're an enemy of Jeff's – he would rather make your life a living hell than kill you."
The gem wiggled around more it my hand as it got even warmer.
"If you had brought her along, which you did," I said, "Jeff might hurt her. That's what you were thinking, wasn't it?"
"Yes, that's right." answered Charles.
The gem grew colder and stopped moving.
"It's not reacting." I said, "You're still hiding something."
"What are you suggesting?" asked Charles.
"There's more to it is what I'm saying," I answered, "Something about Iris that I'm sure she doesn't even know!"
"I-is that true, Charles?" asked Iris.
"Please don't jump to any conclusions." said Charles, "You're probably just overthinking it."
"What I'm suggesting is that you had more than one child," I said, "You know where this is going, don't you?"
"Are you saying what I think you're saying!?" exclaimed Iris.
"Don't try to deny this." I said, "One of your daughters is no longer alive. The other, is Iris."
"How the heck did you even come to that conclusion!?" responded Lucas.
"Well?" I said.
Then, it happened. The gem was shaking again and got even warmer. After that, there was a flash and it cooled down entirely.
"Guess that means I'm done..." I said.
"Ron," said Jason, "How come you're not this smart in school?"
"W-what's that supposed to mean!?" I exclaimed.
"I'll talk." said Charles, nervously, "You were right."
"Why am I finding out about this just now of all times?" asked Iris, feeling concerned.
"Many years ago they killed my wife and my reputation had gone to trash," said Charles, "To make things worse, I didn't think I could raise our daughter on my own either. Because of how depressed I was feeling at the time, I ended up getting really drunk… and I ended up with some woman, who was also drunk that night… that woman was your mother, Iris."
"Why did both of you hide this from me?" asked Iris.
"I know your mother didn't want you to know," answered Charles, "and if anyone found out… about that night… it would make my reputation even worse."
"Okay," I said, "but one thing I don't understand is the demon butler."
"More recently, I tried investigating again," answered Charles, "so Greg and Amy sent that butler to me after killing my oldest. That demon knows lots of things. He knew about Iris already and he more than once threatened to make that information public."
"Oh." I said.
"He's only here to cause me misery." said Charles, "They originally found out about my involvement many years ago when they saw me work with Evan Courtney. Kinda recently, they got to him too. At least his children… well, at least one of them is alright right now."
"Sorry to force all that out of you," I said, "However, I believe this information will be useful."
"So, what now?" asked Jason.
"We must find Jeff before he finishes-" started Charles.
"It's too late, Charles." said a familiar male voice, "All the other dimensions have been erased from existence!"