Aliyah, Neil, and, Leon ran from Leon's house—at the edge of town–with no rest. They arrived at Cal's house barely feeling the distance they just closed as fast as they could. They knocked on his door gently.
"Cal?" Aliyah called, her voice cracking and shivering.
"Cal, are you there?"
"Please answer."
No answer from inside. The windows were shut and covered from the inside. Aliyah decided to sit on Cal's terrace, she curled her legs up to her chest. Leon and Neil decided to join her.
Then they heard a loud engine rev. A car speeding. The car became noticeable from afar that it was Cal's dad's car. He drove slowed down at the front of his house. The engines turned off and he got out of the car, and ran to the door.
He saw the three just sitting there. He didn't say anything. He knocked on the door.
"Cal, you in there?"
No answer.
He dived his hand into his pocket and grabbed a ring of keys. He unlocked the door to his house and went inside immediately. He had his hand signaling the three to come inside.
The four went in at the same time.
"Cal?"
And there he was, on the couch. Soaked in his own tears, staring at the television, hearing and watching the same news. He was stiff and in shock. The sound of his own heartbeat deafened him.
His dad sat next to him and puts his hand over Cal's shoulders. His other hand, on the back of Cal's head and gently pushes Cal close to his chest.
His dad didn't know what to say nor did the rest. The four came over to Cal and sat around him. Aliyah starts gently patting Cal's back.
"Cal, everything is going to be okay."
"We're here for you."
"Everything will be okay."
Hearing those words made Cal feel devastated. His ears started ringing, his breathing became erratic, and he couldn't bring himself to think straight. He suddenly stood up and slowly released himself from his father's grip. He started walking towards the door. His stepping was unsteady, he was losing balance. His knees shaking. As he try to take a step, he collapsed.
His forehead on the floor, hands trying to push himself off the floor. He never felt this weak in his life. Leon, Neil, and his dad rushed to help Cal. They put him and an upright sitting position.
"Are you okay?"
"I- I- I ah..."
"It's okay, you don't need to say anything."
"C- c- can you guys leave me alone?"
His dad was shocked at Cal's request.
"He might need to get himself together before he's ready to talk."
"Okay, we'll help you to your room."
Leon and Neil helped Cal's dad support Cal to walk to his room. Cal was limping and shaking. Aliyah went upstairs first to prepare Cal's room, while the others helped him up the stairs.
They placed Cal on his bed and laid him down. His dad turned on the air conditioner and set it to 69 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius).
"If you need anything we'll be downstairs. We're here for you."
They left and shut his door behind them. They walked downstairs feeling defeated.
They sat on the couch in silence for a solid ten minutes. Cal's dad stood up and left the living room and went to his study room. There he sat on his office chair, his elbows on his large rectangle wooden desk, he cupped his hands, and covers his face.
"What the hell am I gonna do?"
In the living room, Aliyah spoke first.
"May.. Maybe if I was a better... Friend... He wouldn't have..."
"Fuck man. I should've paid more attention to him. He was such a nice guy."
"Guys.. I know I've been selfish too, but we can't."
"Can't what? He did it because of us! Because we were shit friends! If we can even call ourselves that!"
"Neil calm down."
Neil stood up angrily. "No, I can't calm down! Not after I know I've been a shit friend. Which made him... Made him..."
"What the hell are we gonna do?"
"I don't know..."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"We just need to be here for each other. Especially for Cal."
Cal's dad sitting in his study room, anxiously tapping his finger on his desk. He stared at his computer that he left on since last night. He turned on his computer and opened google. He typed it Jason □□□□□ (the man found dead and Terrance was accused of killing).
He found an article about the man. According to the article Jason was missing for 3 months. He was a traveler from a different state. He then disappeared and he was last seen at the park. He felt strange. He felt like the article was true based on what he believed of Terrance. Terrance's mother shared with him what Terrance's condition was.
"This man was found dead three months after disappearing. They came looking for him but never found him. For three whole months... This is a pretty small town, though it is very crowded."
"Terrance had residual schizophrenia since he was born. If his condition got worse it's not out of the picture that he would kill someone. But he's still a sixteen-year-old kid."
"Fuck me. What would his mom think?"
"She'd be devastated. A kid with a condition like that and died of suicide, then accusing him of murder."
He then grabbed his phone and dialed the local sheriff who was in the same military squad as him back when they were in service. The phone rang for a solid ten seconds before it was picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, James."
"Oh, Moore. How nice to hear your voice again."
"Yeah, you too. Sorry, can I just cut to the chase?"
"Uh... Yeah, sure."
"Why was Terrance accused of Jason □□□□□'s murder?"
"You mean Terrance Harrol?
"Yeah, him."
"A pair of scissors was found on the scene, it had dried up blood stain. Forensics ran a check on the two matching fingerprints. One was the former owner of the lodge who died long ago—five years ago."
"The other match was Terrance's fingerprints?"
"Yeah. But since he had a condition that can alter his personality and forces him to do things he didn't want to, they don't wish to hold his mother responsible for his crimes."
"How was Jason killed?"
"Stabbed in the chest. Thirteen stab wounds were found in his chest."
"Jesus."
"Yeah, he's one messed up kid. But it was Ms. Harrol's decision to not put him in a psych ward."
"Let's not talk about that."
"Okay. But isn't this kid a friend of your son's?"
"Terrance was closest to Cal than anyone else. I think even his own mother."
"Wow. Must be hard for him. Suicide, you know? Something that no one should ever deal with. We knew how it felt too didn't we?"
"Yeah... I wish we didn't."
"It's been nice catching up with you, Moore. But I gotta go. Call me if you need anything, and good luck."
"Yeah sure, thanks James."
"Anytime."
James ended the call. Moore began to wonder. "Was it a mistake to not look into all of Cal's friends? Especially Terrance?"
Moore didn't want to because he wanted to trust Cal in choosing his own group of friends. He genuinely cared for him.
He then stood up and left his study room. Aliyah, Neil, and Leon were still sitting next to each other without a say. Moore came over to them and knocked on the wooden table in front of the couch.
"I'm going out for a bit. If you need or want anything, call me, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can."
They nodded in silence.
Moore got in his car and started the engine. He drove at a pretty fast pace. He drove to the park. It was empty. Quiet. Like a cemetary. Usually the park is packed up until sundown. He saw the police lines bordering the woods. He went under the police lines and walked all the way to the lodge.
The lodge was also covered in police lines, but no cops. Guess they already finished the investigation last night. He went in the lodge, through the doorway. A single thread of rope tied to a small, sturdy, log that went from the entrance all the way to the back. The end of the rope seemed like it was cut. It wasn't untied.
Moore noticed the dried up blood pool on the floor and kneeled down. He ran his right index through it. The blood was dark red, almost black.
"Jason may've been dead for two months or longer. Seems like he died shortly after he went missing."
"Wonder what his family thinks of it."
Moore then went out to the back door and back out to the woods. To the left of the back door were two metal doors going under the house. He opened on of the doors with ease. There was a stairway down. He grabbed his phone and turned on the flashlight.
He walked down the stairs slowly. Step by step. The basement looked as big as the lodge upstairs, only darker. It stinked of blood, dust, and dirt. At the end of the room was a pipe connected upwards and plumbing to wherever the hell. There were cuffs, police cuffs. He walked closer to the cuffs and inspects it. One cuffed the pipe one wasn't cuffing anything. The right cuff (not cuffing anything) was slightly disfigured. As if it been hit by something, over and over. And also stained by blood.
Moore made a chronological hypothesis.
"Jason found his way to the lodge then met Terrance. And what happened next is either:
A. Which is unlikely. Terrance was the one cuffed.
B. Terrance cuffed Jason. Somehow.
"If it's A, then Terrance killed Jason to escape."
"If it's B, then Jason got killed trying to escape."
"Somehow B is more likely because Terrance was out and about all the time. If it's three months, then it'd be around May Jason went miising. He was still in school, hanging out with Cal, etcetra."
"Cal was hanging out with Terrance the night he died. He got home around 11 PM but it was close to midnight. Maybe Cal knows more, but I don't want to push him."
"I don't know if he should attend the funeral. I hope he gets better soon. I should go."