MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

HIDDEN SECRETS

It's Mathéo and Laura's first day back in school since the horrendous incident that almost caused their deaths and got them both hospitalized and they are now mini-celebrities. With the rumors of their assault being school-wide knowledge, they are currently the most talked about gossip in every student's mouth. The gazes on them at lunch is almost palpable as they both go to sit with Aaron and Sara.

"Is she the girl you were with the night you were attacked?" Sara politely asks Mathéo in a whisper, a bit surprised to see the pretty girl take a seat beside him.

"Yes. Her name's Laura," Mathéo maintains the quiet tone while responding. "She's new here and she hasn't really adjusted, so I'm kind of like her guide."

"Guys! I need you to focus on what's actually important at the moment," Aaron cuts off the two's conversation before placing the card the stalker gave him on the center of the table. Not wanting to come off as rude, Laura just sits there silently and watches the exchange. "This is the main problem at hand."

"They're GPS coordinates, aren't they?" Mathéo asks as he picks up the piece of paper and closely examines it. "Can't we just look it up on Google Maps or something?"

"Of course we know that, but it doesn't change the fact it could be a trap. He's tricked us before after all," Sara points out. "For all we know, the stalker could be waiting to ambush us wherever that thing leads to. I don't exactly plan on willingly sacrificing myself for some sort of cult ritual."

"'The stalker', what a cool name. Is it you that thought of it, Aaron?" Mathéo jokes, but his amusement with the matter just annoys Sara and her boyfriend.

"Can't you take anything seriously for once, Mathéo? You should just leave if that's so hard for you," Aaron reprimands him.

"Sorry since you want to be sour about it. What I think we should do is simply act now and worry about the risks later. I'll even do it myself 'cause you two are clearly too scared to." Mathéo pulls out his phone and begins inputting the code into it, and the result he gets baffles him. "Well, if that's not ominous, I don't know what is."

"What is it? What did you find?" Sara asks her latino friend in anticipation.

"This," he says as he turns his phone around to show the others his screen. "It was able to generate the directions to the location, but the address itself doesn't seem to be registered in Google's database. It's like a map to Wonderland."

Mathéo is right. The box where the destination's address should be displayed is just blank, which isn't normally the case for Google. What sort of mysterious place would exist in such a developed country without being formally registered? Things are starting to get even creepier.

"Are you guys really planning on going there?" Laura finally breaks her silence with that question. "It sounds like it'll be risky."

"Of course, we are. The curiosity is too much at this point to just stop halfway," Mathéo answers. "But it'll have to be during the weekend 'cause my parents won't let me out of the house in the evening anymore."

"Are you sure you want to come?" Aaron is a tad concerned by his best friend's rash decision making. "After what happened to you two, I wouldn't blame you if you felt like sitting it out. No one's forcing you to do anything."

"Don't worry about that. I don't feel forced to do anything, I just want to know the mystery that was worth shooting me for."

* * * *

It's midday on Saturday when Laura's front door bell rings as a visitor arrives at her home. It's Mathéo and he has come to pick up his dear friend. As expected, Nathaniel is utterly bemused when he opens the door and sees the teenager standing there, and even more so when the boy tells him that he wants to take his sister somewhere.