Eccedentesiast (Brandon Darrow)

#Stinger

[#Stinger]
That's the problem with being the strong one. No one offers you a hand.
–m.t.
*****

When I got to school Rowan told me to meet them at the concrete wall outside of school. We all sat apart and I grabbed the scope to show Elisia. "I went through Trevor's bag and found this. It looks hunterish right?" I asked handing it to Rowan.
      "Yeah it's a rifle scope, my uncles used to take me shooting," Elisia nodded, Rowan then handed me the scope back and I put it in my bag.
      "Hunting season," Rowan said referring to the text message she got, "Could be him, it's clear he hates Aspen."
     "I don't know why?" I mumbled as Hailey approached us.
     "A note in my locker? Really?" She asked holding up the piece of paper.
    "You're not answering your phone, so, welcome to the nineties," Rowan bit out shrugging her shoulders. Hailey said something but I couldn't hear.
    "Elisia got a message okay? She basically got attacked," Rowan spit out.
    "Oh my god are you okay?" I asked Elisia.
     She nodded and said, "Somebody in a bunny mask shot at me with a paintball gun." She stood and lifted her shirt showing the dark bruise on her back.
    "Jeez," I muttered and reached over taking her hand. She smiled and squeezed my hand back.
     "A bunny mask? I saw someone in a pig mask, and a monkey mask," hailey said. I shivered thinking about the mask lying next to Dunbars dead body.
   "When?" I asked looking up at her.
     "At my audition. They drove off in a blue truck. I didn't want to say anything," Hailey answered.
     "Yeah ignore, ignore, ignore, we get it," Rowan scoffed and said, " But Trevor's a hunter, so he probably has a paintball gun."
     "Should we leave town?" Hailey asked. She was still clearly very shaken by everything that happened and I didn't blame her.
    "Is that your solution for everything. Just leave? Why don't we take a bunch of pills? We could do that," Elisia replied voice rising with anger.
    "Is that why your mad?" Hailey asked her and I sighed.
    "Hailey, when this happened, did you get a message?" Rowan asked trying to avoid another argument.
   "Yeah, something about we like a moving target or something," she said.
     "Did it have the hashtag thezoo?" Elisia asked.
     "Yeah," she answered.
      "Like the one at Nicki's party, what does that mean?" I asked remembering the message and shivering.
     "That's what I was wondering," Elisia said turning toward us. "I found a website, called the Hilland zoo. It's a basic message board, like Reddit or something. It's for Hilland High school students. It's a place for kids to post revenge fantasies about their bullies, vent about random shit... there's thousands of comments. Everyone has animal names and profile pics. They throw these massive anonymous parties where everyone wears animal masks."
       "Sounds horrible," I muttered looking down.
      Elisia handed me her phone,"Look familiar? The whole point is that no one knows who you are. I found some random posts by rabidrabbit, but there's nothing relevant. We need someone who can search through thousands of comments fast, for MonkeyMan or rabidrabbit."
     "Or pigmania," Hailey said, "I miss Brie," she said. I didn't know Brie but Rowan told me she was her sister and that she had gotten arrested.
     "She actually gave me the name of someone, just in case we needed anything while she was gone. Stinger," she said pulling out her phone.
    "Stinger? Okay," I said.
     "I'll get in touch and see what I can do, until then we lay low, okay?" She nodded.
    "Yeah sounds great to me," I replied. After school Rowan said we were going to Stingers. When we got there we were in front of an abandoned church. We walked inside and stood in front.
     "Dude Brie has some weird ass friends," Hailey said looking around.
    "I heard that," a voice said and we looked up seeing a dark haired guy on the balcony. He disappeared and then appeared at the bottom. "Brie's baby sister, I'd recognize you from anywhere," he smiled.
     "Thanks for agreeing to meet," Rowan said.
     "I really went down the rabbit hole for this whole zoo thing, pun intended," stinger said and I let out a laugh. "First off kids these days are mean, y'all are assholes. Everyone on this site is pissed at someone. It's like a virus;viral. One person says something and it spreads like mold," we followed him up to the stage, "Like a disease. It's gnarly," he said.
     "Great," I muttered playing with my sleeve.
      "You told me to look up the username MonkeyMan. I pulled up some of his earliest posts. Says something about how he's gotta punish these girls for always disrespecting him," he said looking at his screen.
     "All five of them," Elisia pointed out looking at us.
"A year and a half ago," Hailey said reading it.
"MonkeyMans dead, so what we need to figure out is who wants revenge now," Rowan stated.
"Someone started using his account after he died, but now there's this bigger group coming after us. All different animals," Hailey told Stinger.
"How are they communicating?" Rowan asked, "How are they even coordinating? Can you figure that out?"
"I signed up, you have to pick an animal name. I picked BeeSting. I like it. Sounds menacing, right? Floating around, making friends, asking questions. If there's a leader, I'll find him," Stinger commented.
"Hey can you track a phone that's off? Even dead?" Rowan asked.
"That depends," Stinger answered.
"The police said they never found Dunbar's phone. I'm wondering if someone picked it up from the party and logged in as MonkeyMan," Rowan explained.
"And decided to pick up where he left off," I stated thinking back to that one message. I hadn't received anything from MonkeyMan since.
"And punish us," Elisia added. No not punish, they want us dead.
"Well, I don't know how easy it'll be, but I'll try my hardest, and I'll call if I get anything," Stinger said.
"Do you want our numbers?" Elisia asked pointing to herself, Hailey, and I.
"Yeah let me see your phones," he said holding his hand out. I hesitated for a moment, I didn't know if I could trust this guy or not but the girls seemed to. I sighed handing him my phone and he sent us all a quick text.
"Alright I have to go, come on," I told the others turning and leaving the old church. They followed after and then we went our separate ways as I walked home. It felt like someone was watching me the whole time so when I got home I slammed the door and locked it. The house was completely empty and I sighed walking to my room.

—•—•—