The Cursed Carol ( Season - 1 & 2 )

Season 1 Episode 8 : End Of A Beginning

Everything with a beginning has an end. In the end you will see who is fake, who is true. But it is not necessary that the end you face is the real end. 

We lived in a town full of happiness and rejoicing. We had a population of about 200 people if we counted the dogs and cats too. We were living our life downright proper until that night. When the way we lived was completely changed. Our streets were full of suspicion of death and murder. It was after the death of Ben Mathews. He was our friend. Indeed, a family. 

In the morning, I was having my daily tea and trying to focus, ruminating if we were missing anything out.

Then something just popped in my mind. It stopped all the other thoughts. Then, I got it. The whole connection. Whatever had happened. I rushed to Freddy and told him everything. Then eventually we rushed to chief to tell him everything.

But when we reached the police station, there was a dim half light inside and with it was Mrs. Mathews sitting near the chief's table waiting for him. Maybe he had gone somewhere. 

"What you guys are doing here?" She asked us. 

"We know everything about you. It is over Mrs. Mathews," Freddy replied. 

"You should think before you speak anything to anyone. Because you know nothing."

She went outside, sat in her car and drove away. 

The Chief didn't come so we decided to chase Mrs. Matthews. The Chief saw us going behind her with our bicycles. So maybe, he then started following us. Otherwise how would he know that we saw Mrs. Mathews with a man that night?

Yes, we were chasing her when we reached the riverside. She stopped the car. After she came out from her car, she called someone and was talking with that person on phone. As we waited, another car came. A man stepped out from the car. They both hugged. The hug clearly exhibited their relationship. Mrs. Mathews started crying. Maybe because of the guilt and the fear that we were going to let the cat out of the bag. We saw another car coming behind us. Because of it we ran to my house. Conceivably, it had been the chief. 

We came back to my house. The phone rang. Mom answered the phone. She was talking to someone. She was looking very serious.

Neither Lucy, Kate nor Charlie were picking up our phone. Charlie came banging the door and shouted, "Dustin, it is...it's Lucy and Kate!"

"What happened to Lucy and Kate!?"

"Dustin, I don't know. I searched everywhere."

Mom put down the receiver and came to us.

"Charlie, don't say anything in front of mom," I warned.

"You went to the police station? For what, Dustin? What is happening? Tell me."

"Who was there on the phone?"

"It was the chief. Mrs. Mathews is gone. She died in a car accident today in the main city. You saw her, right? Few hours ago. You saw her with a man?"

Then another phone call came. It was again, the chief. It was news that broke us from inside. He said that Mrs. Mathews was not alone when her car met with an accident. Along with her the police found 2 more bodies. They were those of Lucy and Kate. 

 Somewhere, I was blaming myself for whatever happened. Somewhere, I was thinking, questioning that was it real?

We were in the hospital where mom was completing the formalities to send all the bodies for autopsy, when the chief arrived there. 

"Tell me, Dustin. I am here to listen to the truth. Your truth. Who killed Ben Mathews? What happened that night?" He said. 

I was broken from inside about what had happened. I had just lost my sister and my best friend. Yet, they all needed justice. 

Putting forward all the courage I had within me, I replied, "I will tell you everything about the night."

I continued, "One day before that night, a man came to Ben's house. That man was the same man who was with Mrs. Mathews tonight at the riverside. That man was involved in an affair with Mrs. Mathews since long. So they planned to kidnap Ben and blackmail Ben's father to give them money. They observed us and Ben for long and completely copied Ben. The real Ben gave his mother medicines and let her sleep at 8:15. He went back to his room where the man was already there, who tied him. Ben's mother was worried as Ben's father got to know about all this planning. He also warned Ben about it by texting him.  Unreal Ben came to the HQ. He went with Kate to the park. Real Ben untied himself.  He knew the man wanted him alive as his father told him. So he picked up the blade and put it on his hand blackmailing the man to kill himself which the man didn't want. That was the scene the photo captured.

"At the same time Unreal Ben was with Kate.  But the real Ben killed himself. And the unreal Ben went back. We know this because the autopsy says that Ben's leg was injured at that time but Kate said that Ben's leg was fine. So the Ben who was with Kate was unreal and the real Ben who killed himself because the man was standing in front of him had his leg injured. Maybe in the struggle of untying himself. That is why your experts say it was a suicide. Yes, Ben killed himself but it was not a suicide. By that time Kate came back to the HQ.  We went back to our homes. By that time Ben's father came to protect Ben but the man killed even him and  hung his body in the garage so it would look like a suicide. They cleared all the evidences to show us that both the deaths were suicides. The unreal Ben or whoever it was went back with that man somewhere and that man came back tonight when Mrs. Mathews was hugging him and crying on his shoulders.  They took Ben's body. Burnt his fingers so that Kate thought it was him. And left it at the riverside for us to find. Blah Blah Blah, game over."

We showed the chief and the police all the evidences we had found by that time. And so, our story was proved. So this was how we came to an end to our beginning. The night now had a story. But still we had missed a lot of things. We had ignored them and thought that we were just overthinking about it. And so it ended. 

Today, when I am writing all this, today is the 1st of December. Exactly the date one year after that night. I am still sorry to Kate, to Lucy and to Ben for not saving them,their lives as I could have. 

But I learnt. I learnt that not always can truth be seen. Not always what you see is true. And this is not my age to poke my nose in such matters of life and death.

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Dustin wrote his dairy about my death and came downstairs and went to his backyard where he sat on his chair.  I rang the bell of his house. He was alone. He came to open the door and his heart throbbed after seeing me. Very much alive. Standing in front of him alive after 1 year of my death. 

Let me start from the beginning. Because I am about to tell you a tale that changed our lives forever. We are never going to be what we were earlier. So get ready. Grab some coffee, buns and beans and be prepared because I am about to tell you the story of my life and more particularly why it was what it was, hell. But I forgot to introduce myself. 

I am a boy of  15 years. I wear a blue-black Casio wrist watch on my right hand , a boy who wears branded Adidas red boots, a boy with burnt left hand fingers. A boy with a dog named George who wears a band, written on it 'The Dog Days'. 

So get ready to hear it from me. To know what really happened that night. The night when I mysteriously disappeared. Get ready to hear it again from my perspective, to see it again from my eyes and to feel it again but in my way. And so it is the Season 2. 

Yes, you got me right. I am very much yours...

I am Ben Mathews. 

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