Duskwood: the man behind the mask

8. Day one

The house was half-hidden in the woods. It looked pretty run down from the outside, a bit creepy even, although we were pleasantly surprised at how cozy it was inside. I wondered how Jake had managed to get it. It had three bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a common bathroom, perfect for the three of us.

Jessy ran in and started checking all the rooms. After a while, she came running to me and pulled me by the arm towards one of the bedrooms:

Jessy: This will be yours, MC, it's the one with the most comfortable bed. It has its own bathroom too, you have to take care of those kidneys.

She winked at me and I thanked her with a smile. Gabe helped us get settled in, and after carrying our bags to our respective rooms, he told us that he had to get out.

Jessy: Are you going to Duskwood? Can we go with you?

Gabe: It's better if you two stay here for now. I'll go take a look to make sure it's safe. Also, I have to pick something up. Do you need me to bring you something?

Jessy: Well, I guess we have to accept it for now... Can you stop by Roger's Garage and pick up some files? We need to go through some records I left there.

She handed him the keys and explained how he could get in without being seen, telling him where to find the files we needed. I was dying to visit the town and see everything for myself, but like Jessy, I understood that it was better to wait.

When Gabe left, I proposed to Jessy to continue reviewing the records that we still had on the laptop, the night before we hadn't had time to review all of them. There weren't many left and we managed to check them out in no time, but we weren't successful. There weren't any AMC Gremlins there, so we would definitely need the ones left in Roger's Garage.

Jessy: I was thinking... If what we're looking for had been here, we'd have no way of telling Gabe. Do you realize we don't even have his phone number?

She was right in a way, and I understood her concern. We were in the middle of the woods, if anything happened to us while Gabe was out, we'd be on our own.

MC: We have Jake's number, we can call him.

Jessy: Jake's not here.

She looked me in the eyes and I realized that she was struggling with what she wanted to tell me:

Jessy: MC, I know you like Jake... are you sure your trust in him isn't influenced by that?

Her words took me by surprise.

Jessy: I've never wanted to comment on that matter, because it's your life and I respect that, but now it's different. I'm here only because I trust you, and I wonder if we're doing the right thing by blindly following the lead of someone we've never met.

MC: Jake has shown me many times that I can trust him.

Jessy: Yeah... he cares about you, we all know that. The question is: does he care about the rest of us? Sometimes I feel like he sees us as puppets, as means to an end.

I knew that feeling very well, having experienced it myself several times. Jake was capable of taking everything coldly, which could often be misconstrued as a complete lack of empathy. It was to be expected that others would mistake his analytical personality for coldness or, at worst, contempt. It hurt me so much that they saw him like this...

Jessy: This situation is beyond me, MC. I am very afraid. I'm in the middle of the forest, all my friends except you have been kidnapped and I can't even be sure they're alive. I've been attacked, threatened, and...