In The Woods

Chapter 16

22 bags of fertilizer. The clues all fit. This is Cripson's Instagram. I continue down the page. Towards his first posts, he actually seems normal. He has multiple selfies with the same person. The person is tagged: Igor Simon. "Go to that guy's Instagram," Julia says. I click on his name and am brought to his page. Scrolling through his pictures, I see that every Wednesday-Friday he hangs out at Hangers. Hangers is a super old bar where you're most likely to find a criminal. Because it's summer, I don't really keep track of the date. But today is Thursday, which means that Igor Simon will be at Hangers! "Guys, we have to go to Hangers today! Not only will Igor Simon be there, but you never know. What if Cripson will be there too?" I ask. Their faces light up. "Good idea! But what time?" Ashley says. I look through Igor's "Hangers" pictures. All of them are posted at 10:00 or later. "10:00," I state.
I hear my home phone ringing. We run downstairs and I pick up. "Don't worry Ash it's not your mom," I whisper. A lot of the time, Ashley will just come over and her parents will make her come home. I don't know the number but I put it on speaker. "Hello?" I say.
We are all frightened to hear a dark, raspy voice speaking. This is definitely a grown man. And just by his voice, a scary one too.
"Josie, Julia, Ashley. I know what you're doing. It's not going to work. I have a lot of money and land coming into my hands soon. I can't have you ruining that." I'm completely startled. I keep listening, but I feel like hanging up. I'm positive that this is Gary Cripson. He continues. "Anyways, no matter what you do to stop me, you won't. I think you should give up now or one of your loved ones will be hurt. And soon. You know who this is." Then: static. He's hung up. I'm too awed to speak. I look at the others and can tell they too are petrified. That conversation was disturbing, but the part that worries me the most is that our family and friends could be in danger. His words "your loved ones will be hurt", plays over in my mind. But I still have so many questions. How did he get my phone number? Does he know who I care about? Will he really hurt them? Does he know my address too? And the most important one: How does he know what we're up to?
I'm grateful when Julia finally breaks the silence. "So, what are we gonna do? I don't want......." She trails off again but we all know what she's thinking. I don't want anyone to get hurt either. "It's obvious right? We have to continue doing what we're doing. That message was to scare us. Tonight we are going to Hangers and finding Cripson's friend. We need to get answers and we can start by asking Igor Simon. He won't really hurt any of us," I reply. Or would he?

Okay everyone! Tomorrow's Easter! Hope u have a good one! I will be updating a lot over break because I'll be driving nonstop. Please vomment (I didn't make that up btw) and FOLLOW ME! Thanks guys😘! I apologize again for the short chapter....