Who Did It? {Interactive Story}

28. ◼ Epilogue (Ending 2)

Beca is exhausted from the previous day's activities. She's relieved it's all over, but she can't help but feel uneasy about it. Even though she acted on duty, she still feels like a traitor. What kind of person can send their friend to suffer and sleep well at night? Certainly not Beca. But another part of her feels like she cleared the streets of a criminal. Maybe it was for the best...

She's lost in her thoughts when she feels a presence nearing her. She looks up when someone sits beside her on the front porch steps.

"Hey," Benjy greets, with a tone that makes it almost seem like he was gonna sigh.

"Hey," Beca tries to give a small smile but it looks sad, "all good in there?" she checks, uncertainly.

"Good enough, she's off to dreamland," the boy replies with a nod.

"Good. That's good," the girl figures she should stop repeating that word.

"It's temporary, you know?" Benjy says after a long pause, "she will feel better over time,"

"I can't help but feel responsible," Beca blurts out, surprising the boy. She's not one to wear her heart on her sleeve, so something must really be bothering her, he understands.

"How so?" his voice is completely free of judgement, which the DJ fully appreciates.

"If I was there... I don't know. Maybe I could have prevented this," she shrugs, "it's my job to protect Emily, and I couldn't do that. I couldn't keep her safe. Now she's gonna have trust issues for her entire stay in this house..."

"Hey, it's not your fault at all," Benjy reassures, "Em can take care of herself, this was just an unfortunate circumstances that no one could have interjected. Okay?" Beca isn't convinced.

"As for her not feeling safe, I don't know... maybe you could install some security cameras? We have those on our Treble porch,"

"Technically wr have them installed too. They don't really work though, so they're useless," the girl huffs, looking down at her feet.

"Can I see?" he stands up, dusting off his khaki pants with his hands. Beca doesn't bother mirroring him and just mumbles a "sure".

Benji spots another Treble and calls him over to help him reach the camera. He climbs over the other guy's shoulders and checks the device. He stays there for a few minutes, until the other Treble doesn't sheepishly whisper the weight is taking a toll on him.

Benji hops off and thanks the boy, who goes back to what he was doing with just a polite nod to the oblivious girl.

"Uhm, Beca..."

"What's wrong?" she asks tiredly.

"The camera was recording," he states firmly. Beca's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. She thinks she heard him wrong.

"What?" she calmly asks.

"The camera, it was rolling. It's functioning," Beca shoots up in a frenzy.

"Are you sure?"

"Dixie Chicks sure," Benji replies, earning a confused frown from the girl, "sorry, I heard Aubrey say something along those lines once and... I'm not sure I get it, actually,"

"Forget it," Beca dismisses, "do you, uh, know how to check the footage?"

"Back in high school I was the head of the audio/video club, I was like a rockstar among geeks," Beca states at him blankly, "...yeah, I do,"

"Great! Come with me!" before the boy can say anything, Beca grabs him by the wrist and drags him to her own room, where her trusty laptop is.

.....

"So it's been on the whole time?" Beca asks, nervously and excitedly at the same time.

"Yep, since... the start of the month. I guess they came and fix it before the semester started,"

"The dean could have given me a call," Beca whines with a huff.

"Maybe he told Chloe and she forgot," Benji takes a wild guess. Beca thinks it over and her teeth sink in her bottom lip. That's sounds plausible enough.

"Ah, there it is, D-Day," the boy finally calls, leaning towards Beca's laptop screen to see better, hand grasping the mouse firmly, "Wednesday 16th, 2015,"

"Scoot over," the DJ waves her hands a bit, hovering over him to see.

On cue, he presses play and the video starts. It's boring for the most part so she asks him to fast forward it.

She doesn't speak as her eyes scan over the images. She doesn't think there will be anything interesting to begin with but if she doesn't check, she knows the what ifs will keep eating at her.

"Hold on," she startles him suddenly when something catches her eyes "Pause it. Pause it!"

Benji does as he's told, eyebrows furrowing as he follows the girl's gaze.

"Rewind it," she orders. Once again, he obliges, and she watches it again. This time, she presses on the mouse to pause it again.

She leans forward as if to catch the smallest detail, eyes gradually widening before the footage.

"Oh my God," she breathes in utter shock, hands trembling at the sudden realization.

"Are you okay?" the Treble asks politely, offering a concerned look. Beca doesn't meet his eyes, but rather keeps them glued to the screen.

"I was wrong," is all she says, slowly, as she's frozen in place.

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The end.

Oops! Seems like you accused the wrong person.

But here's a bonus choice for you:

Do you wish to try again or would you rather move on to the secret ending?

- Try again (go back to Chapter 1)
- Move on to the secret ending (go to Chapter 29)