Duskwood: And Beyond

24. Unmasked

ORYN

The journey to the Grimrock was mainly uneventful. We both remained silent for the most part.

"Here is what we are going to do. We will see how this night goes. Tomorrow morning, I am picking you up and we are going to the station." Alan broke the silence. I guess I was still a suspect then. I nodded. Hannah was at the Grimrock and Alan would see I am not responsible.

"How did you get involved anyway?" he asked. I considered lying to him but it would only make me look more suspicious.

"Hannah texted my number to Thomas. I couldn't walk away after that."

He nodded. I could tell he wanted to ask more.

"And the hacker? It is surprising that someone like him would get involved in something like this." At least now I knew the police didn't know anything.

"I am not telling you anything about him," I responded rather fast.
"Listen Oryn, I did my research. You look like a decent person on paper so I am going to assume you have nothing to do with this. But you know people like him only bring trouble. Maybe he is not the one who kidnapped Miss Donfort. But that doesn't mean he is no trouble."

"You know, before all this, I would agree with you," I confessed.

"Why do you trust him anyway?" He was not the only one who was wondering that. Everyone kept asking me that.

"Sometimes, unfortunate things happen to good people. It doesn't mean they are bad. It just means they are going through something. I had my doubts and fears. But eventually, he became important to me." It was true. I didn't enjoy him stalking me at first. And if there wasn't a murderer out to get me, I would never be okay with that. But difficult times called for different measures.

Alan told me about Michael and Phil. It was obvious that he felt guilty about what happened. He tried his hardest to tell as little as possible. I felt sorry for him. He was trying his best but that was not enough.

We were now in the middle of nowhere. We reached a roadblock. We had to walk the rest of the way. Alan led the way. It took us a while to get to the Grimrock. Meanwhile, I learned so much about Michael Hanson and Phil. Part of me believed Michael was dead. The other part wanted him to be the culprit. If he was indeed dead, then I had no idea who the Man Without a Face was. After some walking and talking, we arrived at the Grimrock. At first, it looked empty. So we decided to search the area. There had to be something here. I also called Jake. 

"There is nothing here" Alan sounded disappointed. I was running around like a maniac, trying to find something, anything. 

"There has to be!" It was no use. He was gone. Hannah was gone. It was another dead end. Alan started to return back. I looked even more guilty now. He didn't say it but I could see it in his eyes.

On the way back I texted the group. Everyone was disappointed but on the bright side, Thomas was behaving. We arrived at Alan's house. He told me to come down to the station but still let me go. I got into my car and drove away. Jake was still in the car but he waited for us to put some distance between us and Alan.

"The sound was the same." that was the first thing I noticed. He nodded. We all believed we would find Hannah and now there was this uncomfortable feeling in the air.

We arrived home, Jake rushed to his bedroom while I took a quick shower.

After an hour or so, Jake joined me in the living room. He informed me that he looked around Alan's computer. We listened to the recording regarding Amy's house. Something was off about Amy's death, even Alan was not sure about it. I decided to review our findings. Just then, the culprit sent me a link. There was a video of Hannah and Richy. They appeared to be sleeping. I immediately shared it with the others.