Guest UnfortuNATE

Chapter 10: An Old Acquaintance

"Ace, your phone..."
They all turned to look at the vibrating device on the table that was about to fall off the edge. Spade luckily caught it on time, passing it to her friend.
Ace thanked her before opening it to see her new message.
"Who was that?"
"An old friend of yours." Her reply earned curious glances from her friends.
"Mine?" Spade asked, pointing at herself. "But I didn't have friends besides you guys, you know that."
"Oh sorry, should I say, a rival?"
Heart, frustrated with the suspense, scooted herself towards Ace and took her friend's phone to check the message herself.
"Riley."
Her friends were taken aback by the unexpected mention of an old acquaintance.
Riley.
Nate's best friend. Spade's rival in the music field.

"Did you ask him about Nate? Maybe he knows what happened that night," Heart asked as she reads Ace's conversation with Riley.
"Riley. I hope this is still your number and that this gets to you because we need to talk. It's about Nate." It was sent the night their supposed guest failed to show up.
"Nate? What do you mean?" Riley's reply came the next day.
Ace sent him the screenshots of her conversation with Nate instead.
"I'm coming over. We do really need to talk." It was his latest reply.
"Seems like he doesn't know either. Should we be concerned? Should we report it to the police?"
"If only this isn't as complicated as it should," Ace was quick to avoid their curious gazes.
Heart was about to ask her a question when her phone begins to ring, Riley's name flashing on the screen. Ace stood up to take the call.
"Riley. What is it?"
"Okay, see you soon."
"Please be careful."
She turned to look at her friends. "He'll be arriving soon."
"That fast?"
"He's just an hour's drive from here."
"Didn't knew he's back from London."
"Come to think of it, we never really knew anything about the other's lives except ours," Spade remarked.

"You guys remember Rosa?"
They all nodded at Riley who just arrived an hour ago and is now sitting with them in the living room. "The high school bully. But what's she has to do with why you're here?" Spade asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I'm getting there. With how complex this is, you might get lost when I don't start from where it all began, darling." He threw her a wink. "Have you heard anything about her after she was banished from our high school?" He asked again.
"Not really."
"I heard she went to Indonesia with her father." It was Ace who answered.
"That's right. She went home."
"Home?" Spade thought she heard it wrong.
"Well back then, I didn't know too that she was actually half-Javanese. Her father had been adopted when his parents, the Wilsons went on a mission to Indonesia. His biological parents begged them to take him away from there because their family had been constantly tormented by evil spirits. He was still a child, maybe around 4 or 5."
"How did you know all this?"
"Nate."
"Nate?"
"Maybe you don't even know that his mother is an Indonesian. And if the world ain't small enough, Rosa's biological grandparents were the loyal servants of his family."
A pause.
"Nate also told me that they descended from devil worshippers."
Surprise gasps and unbelieving mutters were heard from his listeners. As expected.
"However, her great-grandparents converted to Christianity through a mission that the Wilsons are a part of. But, it seems like their ancestors aren't too happy about that so they kept harrassing the family. It was said that they managed to ward them off but the Wilsons took Rosa's father with them anyway when they left."
He paused to take a sip of his soda.
"You know, you really can't escape from the devil especially when you made a deal with it. Even when his grandparents and parents had chosen the righteous path and strayed away from their roots, the devil is just waiting for the right chance to get back what it was promised by their ancestors."
Another sip.
"On his adoptive father's deathbed, he finally told him the truth. He went back to Indonesia after resigning as our school principal in hopes that his daughter will turn over a new leaf. But, he never imagined that she had been the perfect candidate the devil had been waiting for as she had harbored such great hatred. So when she learned of her family's dark secret, she sought to bring it back into practice in exchange for her vengeance."
And another sip.
"When Nate went back to Indonesia after our college graduation and they learned that he was somehow acquainted with their granddaughter, they told him everything about Rosa. They couldn't do anything. They were too late. She willingly offered herself to the devil to be his priestess."
"Oh my heavens."
"He told me all these over a phone call before he said that he'll be meeting with Rosa. I told him it was such a bad idea but he never listens. That was the last I heard of him. The next morning, I received an email with an attachment. It was a letter addressed to me that said and I quote, if something happens to me, never ever talk about what I just told you. Do not even tell anybody I ever told you anything. Pretend that we cut it off after college. When the time is right, you will hear from me again. Even from the grave. I will bring you to the other truth seekers. But until then, do not ever talk about me. Ever. I'm so sorry for dragging you into this mess but someone will be needing my help, your help. One more thing, do not come to Indonesia whatever happens. It's too dangerous for you here, I need you alive."
"Even from the grave..."
"That's the last thing I ever got from him before I learned of his disappearance. It was torture when I couldn't do anything to help during the investigation. I have to pretend that I didn't even talk to him. It's fucked up when I knew Rosa might've something to do about it but I have to trust him. Besides, I ain't have strong evidences againts her. For two years, I struggled to keep this secret. I was itching to know what really happened to him. And then I received your message."
"Nate mentioned to us through the call that you gave him my number which is supposed to be Heart's,"
Ace stated.
"Yeah, I remember, but that was two years ago. He asked for them that night we had the last call. All of yours, actually. Not just Heart's."
"All of ours?"
"Two years ago..." Ace seemed to be pondering upon something. "Wait. For the last two years, I was the only one who hasn't changed her phone number yet."
"But he had mistaken you as Heart," Diamond said, looking at Ace.
"Could be that there's a mix up back then or..." Ace trailed off. This is not the right time, she scolded herself as she took a glance at Riley who has his head on his hands. Someone's not ready to hear it.
"Or?" She gave Spade a knowing look as she shakes her head.
"So, what do we do?" Ace asked instead.
"Tell me everything from when Nate called you. We could pick something from it to start upon. I'm at a loss, too." He pleaded.
Ace nodded as she started to tell him everything, from Nate calling and even Dia's dream of him.
"He has the same old number," he noted. "That's what he used to call me one last time."
"What if he's really back here?" Heart asked, but even she was doubting it.
"No." Riley's tone was firm. "He's dead."
They were all taken aback.
"Did they found his body?"
"No body ever turned up."
"I'm sorry but how are you so sure that he's...you know," Diamond struggles to finish her question but Riley understood.
"He was like my other half. I just knew it. I believe you understand me," he turned to look at Ace. "When a loved one dies, something in you also dies. I don't need a body to confirm his death. My life had been hollow ever since that day I received the letter. Besides, he would've called me first, not you guys. I was told that a spirit with an unfinished business will go back to that one thing that still ties him with his untimely death."
"That could explain why he had mistaken me as Heart in the first place. Among us four, he was attached to Heart the most," Ace explained. He had known all along.
"But why did it took two years?" Spade asked.
"I believe his spirit was only able to escape when Rosa's defenses weakened. I heard she lost her only child, maybe she let her guard down and he took the chance."
"So you were still monitoring Rosa?"
Riley looked Ace straight in the eyes. "Nate didn't tell me I can't. I can't sit still when my bestfriend was dead, the least I could do for the meantime was to know who I am going against. To know my enemy better."
He's still mourning his bestfriend and he's oozing of bloodlust, Ace noted.