Cal's Cabin

XII

"Cal, this is dangerous as f*ck! Why did you let us continue on with this stupid tradition?!?" Jaime was berating Cal while the others freaked out, but some were actually calm.

"Cal." Bastry gathered everyone's attention with the tone of voice they used. "What happened?" They looked into the very soul of Cal through his eyes, making Cal a little uncomfortable.

"I.. don't know. That's the thing. I can't remember anything extreme happening before my grandmother's death."

"Maybe they're talking about how your Nana died?" Geoff looked over the shoulder of Bastry, examining the paper once more. A flash of lightning lit up the sky and a thunderous boom soon followed after. Things were definitely kicking up now.

"I thought so too. I still think that, but I just.. I just don't know." Bastry walked over to Cal and placed their hands on his shoulders.

"Cal. This is seriously a horrifying story. You've got all of mine beat." A few groans were cast from the friend group and a couple laughs here and there. Bastry attempted at lightening the mood and somehow accomplished it. "But seriously, you f*cking have to call the government or something."

"With what? I stole those papers. They're invalid evidence now. Besides, your ex-dad still works for them. He's the one that covered this shit up." Cal went over to the book and flipped a couple pages from the front, showing an authorized signature stating that she died naturally, then he flipped to another page stating text records of Bastry's ex-father saying that the evidence happened after she died as an accident and she died naturally. Then, Cal flipped a couple more pages to bank information. It showed over 500 grand being transferred from the ex-dad's account.

"He would just cover it up and I'll probably end up dead." A flash of lightning caused everyone's hair to stand up.

"You know what? This can all wait until a later date. I'm going to sleep early."

"It's only three." Minx paused and just sunk into the couch.

"It seems like ten at night." She grumbled as a faint beeping began in the kitchen.

"I'll get it." Andrew and Jaime both stood up and walked into the kitchen, taking the appetizer items out of the oven.

"Okay, let's just think for a second. For the three years your Nana has passed, you've been collecting evidence?" Antoinette interrogated Cal, shifting through some of the binder and reading a couple news articles and information blurbs.

"Not for the entire three years. I've been grieving too, ya know." The group nodded, adding in some reminded condolences and giving sympathetic looks in Cal's direction.

"Wait- what's this?" Alexander hip bumped Antoinette to get a closer look at the binder. It was open to a letter, but a different one from before. This was from Cal's mother.

"That was a letter my mama wrote to my Nana when she was in rehab. It has a description of a hallucination she had, and it has some details on what I'm allergic to, but Nana knew most of it already.

"Cal, what the f*ck do they mean by 'See you there.'?" All heads swiveled to Bastry's words.

"I didn't see that! Where does it say that??" The friend group huddled close to Bastry- who hated being squished- and dramatically broke out into a panic of worry.

"Honestly, I wish I knew. But I didn't want to cancel on you guys again.. For the third year in a row.." Andrew and Jaime returned with the food and some more alcoholic beverages for the group. They even thought to bring some waters; how thoughtful.

"So now we have to worry about some *sswipe crashing the party?"

"Woah! Since when did you have such a dirty mouth?" Jaime laughed, but was still in the same boat as Andrew.

"Since someone threatened my best friend and I ditched my boyfriend in order to come party with my best friends and I miss my dog and cat!" Andrew huffed as he placed down the food, slouching on the couch for a bit before realizing what he said.

"Alright, well. We don't have enough time to unpack that, but we will definitely do it later. After we figure out who the hell sent that letter." Geoff shot finger guns at Andrew and looked back at the letter.

"Okay. I think we all need to clear our heads right now. This is a hell of a lot to take in all at once, don't you think?" Monroe sat back down at her spot, looking the the ten inch binder on the table. It was like a damn encyclopedia on Nana's death.

Mostly everyone agreed- even Cal- and everyone sat down to take a breather. The music in the background had stopped awhile ago, so Antoinette turned it on again. For the next hour or so, each and every one of the persons in the group steeped in their thoughts. Each thought similar, each emotional reaction the same, but no one dared to speak and break the thick silence that fogged the minds of everyone there.

Then, a loud noise outside startled everyone.

And it was not lightning.