Undercover

Chapter 40 - Tessa

"...and that's how you solve the simultaneous equation," Tessa explained. Tessa had the whole afternoon planned out. She was going to spend the first few hours doing schoolwork to quote-unquote, gain their trust, reduce all sceptics they might have about her intention. After that, she was going to strike. She was not going to leave the place unless she had the answers she needed.

It was a quiet afternoon. Everyone stayed at their side of the table and just worked on their week's assignments. Everyone was all so laser-focus. Except for Wayne of course. He groans from time to time.

The skies were clear. There wasn't even a hint of rain in sight. Wayne whined. "I could've been out with the boys."

"Ignore him," Beth rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, thunder roared, lightning flashed a blinding light through the windows of the room. Beth yelped and Tessa assured her that thunders aren't something that you should be afraid of while she worked on an essay. Then, there was another boom of thunder and all the power went out.

"Wayne," Tessa asked looking up from her essay, "do you happen to have any battery-operated lamps or candl..." but they had disappeared. "Beth? Wayne?" her voice echoed, bouncing off the walls of the house. "Guys? This isn't funny," she hollered but nobody answered. She fished her phone out of her pocket and dialled their numbers. A faint ring could be heard across the hallway. "Gotcha," she thought. "Not so sneaky right? Forgetting to silence your phones," she laughed to herself as she approaches the noise. She turned on her phone's flashlight. The hallway illuminated with a faint yellow glow casting harsh shadows on all objects in its way.

She got ready to pounce, "I got you!" she wanted to say. Just like finding someone when playing hide-and-seek but just as she rounded the corner, nobody was there. She saw the ringing phone in the middle of the living room. She felt shivers running down her spine. She swore that she felt the presence of someone else in the room.

She could feel her heart pound. She could hear the sound of someone breathing, or maybe that was coming from herself. Just then, the power returned. All the lights turned on at the same time and the sound of an old radio began to play.

"That's right, Martha. There seem to be signs of vigilante activity going on near the Coronado Bridge," the grainy sound of the radio plays.

"They swing around like Spiderman," the woman said.

Tessa walked toward the old radio cautiously. She bent forward to check its channel.

"Oh what?" the man said. "We've just got news that helicopters are circling the area. There seem to be three people in black suits swinging around what seems to be a wildfire."

"We recommend that everyone evacuate the premises immediately," Martha interjected.

Tessa immediately fumbled for her phone and searched up their local news channel. There, plays a live feed of the vigilantes swinging about but something seemed awfully familiar. She stared at the screen for a couple of minutes trying to connect the dots. Suddenly, it felt like all the stars aligned, her eyes went wide, and her heart began to race as she bolted for the door, and got herself a cab.

"To Coronado Bridge," she ordered the cab driver and paid him extra to get her there faster.

During the ride, she yanked out her notebook and flipped to her pages of theories. "I knew it!" she muttered. "I knew there was something about the 'Aussie Boys' but strange enough there seems to be three of them. Still, I can't be too sure." She kept the live feed playing on her phone not wanting to miss a second of it.

She screamed in frustration when she noticed the masks obscuring their faces but tuffs of back hair could still be seen. She squinted hard as if to make a conclusion but decided to reel back instead, "No, it can't be."