Best Served Cold (Duskwood Fanfiction)

Water Under The Bridge

Jessy and I finally arrived to the cabin. This place turned out to be trickier to get to than I thought.

"Phew, for a second there, I was convinced we'd get lost and never find it." I told Jessy. She nodded in agreement.

"Come on, Matthew. It's not over yet. You still have to carry my stuff into the cabin." Jessy sassed at me.

I playfully scoffed. "You're lucky I'm such a nice person."

So Jessy and I helped each other with carrying her stuff. Again, I'm so glad she's not overloaded so we don't have to go back to the car.

When we walked into the cabin and as we set the things down, we were met with Cleo coming up to us.

"Hey Matthew. It's so weird to see you in person for the first time." Cleo remarked.

"That makes two of us for now. I'm sure the others feel the same way."

"Yeah. So I guess you'll see them after finishing with Jessy. I'll gather them around." Just as Cleo finished saying that, we heard the sound of a wheelchair nearing us.

"So the sub hacker finally made it. Welcome to the shitshow that is Duskwood." Dan's familiar sarcastic words came out as he stopped rolling and stared at me with a deadpan look.

"I was expecting a bigger welcome committee." I replied wittily and Dan seemed surprisingly amused.

"Are you ready to face your archenemy turned ally?" Dan asked me. Knowing exactly what he was talking about, I simply nodded.

The front door then swung open and Thomas came in. "Hey guys."

"Tommy boy, how nice of you to join us." Dan remarked.

"Dan, will you please behave?" Cleo pleaded with him. Jessy looked like she wanted to say the same thing.

"Don't worry about it, guys. He's just being himself and we should respect that." Dan squinted at me after I said that, like he was trying to find out whether I was being sincere or not.

And soon enough, we heard other footsteps coming from inside then a meek voice spoke up. "Hey guys..."

We turned around.

"...And Matthew."

Lilly.
Time to handle the situation like a big boy.

I waved amicably at her and greeted her back. "Hey Lilly. It's finally good to see you in person." Lilly almost looked dumbfounded at those words but she chose to accept them anyway and nodded with a smile.

"Okay so, I'm gonna help Jessy put away the last of her stuff then I'll show you what me and Jake have discovered so far."
Everyone agreed and went to take a seat. I went with Jessy to another room where we put her stuff down.

"I'm proud of you, Matty."

"What for?"

"For putting aside your grudge for Lilly and doing this for Hannah. You're the best person."

"I'm not one for grudges." I faintly smiled to myself. Then I noticed a pile of files I didn't recognize.

Jessy read my confusion. "The files from the garage. Remember I told you I was looking through them to find out the owner of the car that ran Jennifer over. Bringing them here will make it easier because the garage reminds me of Richy too much."

"Oh. Right." I felt silly for forgetting. "Well, you know what to do when you find anything. Adios." Jessy nodded and I left the room.

Back to where everyone gathered, I sat down with them and brought out my phone.

Hey Jake. I'm at the cabin with the guys. It's time to catch them up to speed

Hello Matthew.
Okay, add me to your group chat then.

After I did that, we started sharing all the progress we made so far.

But then, something unexpected happened.

My phone started ringing.
Phil.

None of us said anything so I answered.

Hey...it's Phil. Listen, I have to tell you something... I've been arrested because they suspect I had something to do with Hannah disappearing... Because they linked me to Michael Hanson... Please... You gotta prove my innocence... You gotta-

The phone call ended. We were left flabbergasted until...

"Hey guys, I've heard some noise. Did you find something?" Jessy walked into the room.

Me and the gang shared glances and turned back to her.

"Jessy. Your brother just called Matthew." Cleo told her.

"What? He called you from prison? What did he say?!"

"He said that they suspect him in Hannah's case because they linked him to Michael Hanson, and that we gotta prove his innocence."

While Cleo explained the call to Jessy, I texted Jake.

Hey, you heard that too, right?

I did.
Phil mentioned a Michael Hanson. That's definitely a relative of Jennifer. Perhaps her father.

Yeah, could be.

I've told you before that I don't believe in legends but I remember what you told me about The Man Without A Face legend. It lines up with what we have.

Yes, I did notice that

Suddenly, I was brought out of the chat by Jessy calling my name.I looked up and saw her handing me a file. She started explaining. "I came across a Michael Hanson in the files. There's an address on it."

I looked at the file, then at my phone.

Jake.
We have the location of Michael Hanson.