the final mission

07

The four boys' jaws dropped when they saw the ashes.

Even Kai's.

"You still think he's innocent, Brody?" Cale didn't mean for his question to come out as condescending but it did anyway. This shook all of them up at least a little bit.

"This can't be a coincidence." Diego muttered this, but the other boys found themselves nodding their heads in agreement. They were most likely the cause for the burning of this man's establishment. None of them really knew if he was dead, so they asked a police officer nearby. He unfortunately did not speak English.

Diego found a reporter nearby who spoke enough English to communicate. Mr. Tuymavsky's ashes were identified in the rubble. No one else was injured, but everything in the shop had been destroyed. The town mourned for the sweet man.

★★★

"So, that didn't do anything." Brody said, the three boys gathered in Kai's office.

"Kai, had you seen anything suspicious that night?" Cale knew that Kai had been asked that question a thousand times before, but they had to start somewhere.

Kai went on to describe the girl that he had seen. He didn't know much about her. Scratch that. He didn't know anything about her. All he had remembered was her raven black hair, dark eyes, and blood red dress. He didn't recall anyone even talking to her. Kai had also mentioned the fact that he had seen her motionless body on the ground.

"Let's check your mom's guest list for that night. I'm assuming she organized it by table?" Kai nodded to Cale. The four boys ventured into the east wing of the large home, a place where Kai tended to steer clear of. He entered his mom's office and found the drawer in her file cabinet with information of every party they had ever hosted.

"She had been sitting at table five, near the corner of the room." At least Kai could remember that. He reminisced on the times his mother made him help with the preparations. He had hated it before, but now he was grateful for the memories with the beautiful lady.

"Uh, Kai?" Diego looked through the stack of paper. He scratched his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "That table info isn't in here. All the others are, but that one isn't." Kai snatched the papers and groaned, starting to become aggravated at the second dead end of the week.

"How about the camera system? It had wifi capabilities and your mom probably backed it up." Kai entered the password to her forgotten iMac and allowed Diego to look for the camera footage.

"Gone. It's all gone. The camera backs up every 20 minutes, so there should be something on here. Nothing. There is this, though." Diego tilted the computer around for them to see the only video left from that night.

It was the camera in the corner of the room, focused on table five. Kai tried to read the placecard, but this time it was facing away from the camera, meaning it was facing towards him. When he had looked that night, it had been empty. The woman in the red dress turned around and faced the camera, smiling broadly. No one around her even acknowledged her.

She held up her fingers in a countdown from three. When her index finger went down, the room erupted in flames. Screams could be heard and people began running around. The footage cut off from there.

Diego clicked the right arrow key and started the next video.

It was in a separate corner of the room this time, near one of the back exits. Kai was lying on the floor, seemingly lifeless. A man in a gas mask came out of nowhere and picked him up. The man turned around, stared right at the camera and walked away. The empty lipstick container was still on the ground. The footage again shut off and the boys shivered.

Those videos left an unsettling feeling in their stomachs. Kai had always had a sneaking suspicion that the ordeal had been premeditated, but that was nothing short of terrifying. Yet again, the boys were back to square one.

★★★

"Gone. It's all gone. The camera backs up every 20 minutes, so there should be something on here. Nothing. There is this, though."

The group of friends were watching Kai and his friends through the monitor. The camera was discreetly places on a minuscule eraser on Mrs. Flores' desk.

It was one camera of the thousand in the house.

"Is it time?"

"Not quite. Has the lipstick been planted?" Nods were given around the room. "The letter has, too."

Their team had been prepping for this moment for four years and it had finally come.

"And so it shall begin."