Longest Novel: Fall of The Republic

by morgan kingsley

In 2020, a middle-aged author, living too deeply in the past, decides to write the story of what really happened to him and his friends when he was younger, and as it unfolds, a giant conspiracy starts to show itself. An AU of seasons 1-4 that take place in the United States. Crossover with several other series for one overall universe.

1. The Skating Life

Prelude

On February 10, 2020, there was a forty six year old author who had been just sitting in his living room. Staring at the computer screen, honestly and deeply debating what the hell was going on here. He was honestly unsure of where he was going to be taking his career next, and that was the thing that had scared him the most. The fact that he truly had no idea how he was going to be getting people to really understand his deep and fearing ambitions on what was going on here.

The man had been deeply unsure of what he was even going to do to get people to see that he was not really even totally scared of the idea of writing, as much as just scared on where he was going to be taking this story for the most part. There was that huge part of him that he was feeling like he needed to find a way just get through with the fears that he was having, and that he was going to need to finally let the story that he had went through be told, and then everybody could finally understand his side of the deal for once in everybodys lives.

The strange thing was that he did not even blame those who did not believe in him. Unless if he had gone through the story himself, well the events that would lead to this story of his life, then he was going to be able to try and deny that it ever happened as well. He knew that he had to pretend like he was able to see where they were coming from. They were probably just being practical people, and not really knowing what he was actually having as personal demons so to say behind him. But then again, there was that part of him that feared that if he did tell the true story he went through, people would be accusing him of lying, and just trying to turn the story to be fitting in his own personal perspective.

Then he was thinking that maybe he could go on and try to just tell the truth. If people listened to him, and took him seriously, that would be great, and then progress could be made. But if not, then he was just going to have to find a way to be getting them to see that he was not messing around. But then again, even if they did not believe in him, they would still be reading his story. Reading his life. Understanding what he had went through. Part of him was feeling like that was already a start to have.

As he was sort of thinking about that, thinking about what he was going to have to say to people to understand what he was feeling, then he was thinking that this was just going to be the best challenge of his life. To truly relive the truth once and for once, and this time do it in a way that he was going to feel like he was going to be proud of it all.

Then with that, he had finally felt like he had made the choice on how he was going to be able to continue this whole thing. He was going to be calling his friend named Joe, and he was going to try and see what this slightly older man would try and expand his mind on this whole thing. When you would consider the fact that the man was twelve years old when this whole set of events happened, the fact that Joe was even seventeen was already a giant step up in the idea of having great memories that really made him understand what was going on here.

That, plus the fact that he had always seemed to be the easiest to contact with, due to their relatively close radius of two hours driving made them much easier to get in contact with. Even the next closest, who he had stronger communication with when it came to these events, was still another three hours away from Joe. The whole thing was going to be a bit hard for him to really understand. That was something that he always placed into perspective when considering where to go here.

He was placing the number in his phone, just trying to brace himself for the verbal ass whooping he had silently been dreading from the second that this plan was coming to mind. He knew from the moment that he had started his plan that no matter who he would reach to first, they were going to just tell him that he was fucking insane, and that he had really gone off the deep end, and that he needed to at least try and consider what he was getting himself into.

But the thing was that he was not a kid anymore. He was not even a young man. He was not a new author trying to get into the swing of things of writing. He was a forty six year old man, who had been married, had a kid who was already going to be starting school soon, and was now well into his writing career and teaching at the local community college career. The whole point to this thing was that he was he was not needing to have people tell him off.

So with that, he placed the phone to his ear, and then he was thinking about what to be feeling here. He was just truly unsure of what the heck he was even going to tell Joe to get him to understand that this idea was not suicide. That this idea was finally actually onto something. But then again, he was feeling like almost none of what he could even say was going to make much of a difference. But he had felt like no matter what, there was something he would have to do. The phone answered on the third ring, and then Joe jumped straight to the point.

"Look T.K., I am rather busy right now with my own thing, and I can't spend too much time here. So if you need some help, I would be more than willing to give it to you. But I think we need to see what is actually going on here." He was saying, and T.K. was feeling like this was going to be a suicide attempt. But in a way, this whole thing was just going to be a bit rough to really tell him. That he was going to be coming back to terrible events that should have been left behind, all because he just wanted some fucking idea of putting some terrible memory at peace in the end.

"I was wanting to help with making me write the story of what we went through when I was younger. Well, I had made the choice on doing this. But to be honest, I feel like I just need to finally put this aside in a way that I feel like I can be having some peace with. But I can't do them alone. I need some help. I need your help here." T.K. had said, and then he was feeling like Joe was not going to be brushing this whole thing off as some silly ambition a person would have, and actually take him seriously, with hindsight, time and age all being a perspective to play here.

"Why would you be thinking that something like this is a good idea? I mean, you have been going on and talking about how we should never be going through and doing now, and now you are here, suddenly acting like this is the right choice." After Joe had told T.K. this, that was when he was really wanting to see what the heck was going on with T.K., to make this seem like a good idea in the first place.

"Listen, I think that you are probably going to try and tell me a thousand reasons as to why I should not be doing something like this. You are going to be telling me that I should have thought about my position much better. But to be honest, I don't really care. I am going to be feeling like this is the one thing that would be making me feel like I can finally have some peace." T.K. said, and then he was wondering if Joe was going to want to have something to say now.

"But T.K., are you thinking that you will really be finding peace with telling yourself to go through all of this. I think you need to actually think about the fact that whatever you are saying is fucking insane. Whatever you are going to try and accomplish by doing this is not really going to be helping you here. I think you know this much more than you want to actually admit." Joe said, and then T.K. shook his head, not really wanting to argue with Joe here.

"No, I am quite frankly not in the mood to debate with you right now. I know that you are will try to find a million excuses to try and make me feel like this was a terrible idea. But I don't really care. I have a goal in my mind, and the only thing that you can do to make a difference is if you either stay or go. Regardless of what you are doing, I will not be making an argument here. I will just accept what you are feeling, no matter what. But I really need your help, to help put some peace with this." T.K. said, just wondering what Joe was going to be saying here.

"I don't like this. I think that this is going to be a terrible idea. But I guess that maybe you are already going to be making your mind up on this. I just wish that I knew that you really did think this out. That you cared about what we were dealing with, and not just fighting for yourself." After Joe said that, that was when T.K. was feeling like he needed to just jump right to the defending himself here, since he did not want to deal with Joe just acting like he was a piece of shit now.

"Listen, I know that you are not going to understand me. Please, just understand that I have nothing but the best intentions in mind here. I think that this is the best that I can do though. I need to know what the hell I can do to finally know what is happening here. And I am going to just make people understand that this story did happen. Even if they brush this off as fiction, they will at least have the option to be going around and making their mind." T.K. said, and then he was wondering what Joe would want to say at this comment now.

"If you don't want to help, then please don't force yourself to come. But on the other hand, please do not try and get me to stop what I am doing here. I think that you are going to have to just accept the fact that I am going to be on my own right now. Like it or not, this is the way that I am going to be working with my career now. So please, just make up your mind." T.K. said, and he was not caring how blunt and rude he was going to be coming off here.

There was a clear silence for another couple of seconds, before Joe was finally feeling like he needed to answer what was going on here. He was feeling like there was just no real reason to be trying to deny T.K. the idea of getting some help. "I know that you are going to be doing this anyways. That is the main reason I am saying yes. Besides, I know that I have been having some things going on here that I need to make peace with as well. This is my best and maybe only chance."

Several seconds passed that felt like a couple of minutes before T.K. was able to finally come to terms with the answer that Joe had given him. In a way, now that he had been given an answer, part of him was feeling like he was not really sure what he had wished for Joe to say. To be keeping him out of the pain of the memories, or to be giving T.K. extra clarity. Both versions of the answer would have given him genuine clarity there.

"Are you sure that this is going to be what you want to do? I mean, if you want to just place this whole thing behind me, I would try to understand where you are going to be coming from. I just think that maybe we need to try and consider everything out a bit more." T.K. said, now feeling like he was going to try and get a heart at this.

After T.K. was saying this, there was another two seconds or so of silence before Joe was giving him the next answer. "I am going to be doing what I can. I mean, I don't think that something like this will work. But I don't care. I think that as long as I at least try and make it better for us. Or for myself. I think that this is the best that I can do." Joe said to T.K., and then he was feeling like this was the worst comment he could be making here. The one thing that he was just wishing to never discuss any further.

"When do you think that you are going to be coming by?" T.K. asked, thinking that this was his first and only chance to turn back, and that if Joe did not do this, then that was going to be his fault. T.K. was thinking that maybe he was just going to need to get Joe to finally see that this was not a bad idea. But in a way, all of this stuff was making him feel like there was no real certainty that he was having to any of this.

"Probably in about three hours or something. Maybe four. I doubt that it will take any longer, even in a bad night. But seriously, I just think that I am going to be needing this entire drive to really think on what the hell we are going to be doing. To be getting any form of a start on this stuff." Joe was telling T.K., and as this was happening, both Joe and T.K. had felt like there was no real need to come up with any further discussion to this now.

"I think that maybe this is fair. I mean, after all, I am dragging this whole thing onto you, and I am very sorry for something like this. I mean, you probably did think that this whole thing was just going to be gone forever, and then like a total asshole, I just could not keep it alone." T.K. said, and he was feeling like what he had said was going to be making Joe feel better. Make him feel like maybe T.K. was not really making a big mistake by any of this.

"I think that you doing something like this, opening up about something like this, is showing that you are not a bad person. I think that the worst that you are being right now is just slightly misguided. I think that I need to give you a chance though. I doubt that you would be doing anything to purposely make things even worse for those around you. I think you need to just think about what is going on here is all." After he had said that to T.K. there was some level of uncertainty here.

"I guess that something like this might be fair. I mean, I am not really doing anything wrong. I mean, I would say something like this at least. You know, I just think that the worst thing that I am doing is just digging up some bad memories here. But I really need to start to consider every single possible idea here." T.K. said, and then he was feeling like he was going to fall into some form of loss here. No matter how he was going at this.

"No matter what is going to be happening, I think that you should be given credit for at least trying to do something that you feel like is right. That is something that I think is very easy to appreciate." After Joe had said that to T.K., there was something at the back of his mind, just tired of the pain and the misery of never talking to somebody about this. This thing with T.K. was going to at least be a start. It was going to be something to keep him going on here. Having a talk with T.K. was going to be making him feel like he at least was going to make a difference.

"I need to be heading out now. You know, to sort of get on the road. Do not get too far without me. I think you should get as far as you can before I get there, but don't do anything that you feel like you can't really accomplish. That is the main reason you called me over in the first place." After Joe was saying that to T.K., that was when T.K. was rolling his eyes, feeling like he was needing to not be lectured by Joe over this, and then T.K. was just telling himself that he was doing what he had felt like was right, and that maybe he needed to consider that a bit more.

After the call was done, that was when T.K. was feeling like he was just needing to find something to do to make him feel like he was not going to be totally lost on everything that was happening. To be making him feel like he was going to have at least some form fo a starting point to be keeping this whole thing together. He was looking at the pictures of his family, thinking of the life he was now going to have to start to be going through.

The pictures consisted of stuff like his wife, and various pictures of her, such as dates they had gone on, their wedding, and some other things that he often times would be forgetting about, and those were some other things about what he was going to just need to really fully consider about what was actually going on. There was one memory of his with her that he was able to always be proud of, and just feel like he was going to keep at the back of his mind for the rest of his life.

That was when he had first met her. A moment and a memory that he had felt like was going to be keeping him going every single time he had felt like he was wanting to give up. He had known there were many moments when he was just wanting to go on and give up on everything. Well, give up on everything relating to his career. That one single moment of discussing with her had finally made him feel like he could go on and actually make a difference.

He had known that this whole thing was just too much to really comprehend. The fact that he had laid his entire life in a way on one single moment that had happened ten years ago, and was nothing more than a simple discussion in the grand scheme of all things to discuss.

But the longer that he had always looked at this picture, and he was doing all of this, the more that T.K. was just thinking that to help give him some stupid motivation on this whole thing, he would just one a time where he could be able to reflect on what he had done that day. As a way to be making him know that he was going to just have some form of an idea on what he was doing and some form of an idea of thinking that what he had done was right.

T.K. was smiling as he was placing his legs on a table, trying to think about how this was going to keep him knowing that life was not totally out of mind. He was just feeling like everything was going to be coming together. T.K. had felt like one of these days, he was just going to have to find a way to not be forcing himself to think on these things every time he had wanted to have some form of a happy moment in his life, or happy motivation.

There was almost some form of obsession he had over this. Even he had been willing to admit something like this. He might not have any desire to go on and admit something like this, but there was no way that he was going to be lying over something like this either. There was no way that he was going to just try and fully find a way to pretend like what he was doing actually had some form of justifiable way to bring this mindset of his together.

Maybe in a year or two, when this whole thing was done, then he was going to finally know that what he was doing was going to be fine. He would be able to have some memories that could help him be happy. But until something like this was going to work, there was just no way in hell that he knew what could be able to replace the feeling he was having here.

T.K. decided that one more time to go through this was healthy enough, and as a result, he was just trying to go back and remember the thing he had seen. As he was going back to those memories, he was thinking more and more on what was going on at that conversation. A decade ago, when he had walked down the street, and simply saw her looking simply a bit sad over what was going on, for some random reason:

...

The memory started when T.K. was walking down a side walk with some boxes that he was carrying. He was just minding his own business, getting his stuff ready before his first day of teaching at the school he was hired at for Creative Writing. After about five minutes of walking with the box, there was a point in time when he had felt like he needed to place the box down to take a bit of a break to just let give his arms a rest.

He placed the box down, and then he was just letting his arms have the moment, and he looked to his side just for a moment, not really thinking too deeply into it. As he was looking, he had seen that there was a girl sitting on her front steps. She was looking like she was about nineteen or something like that. She was looking right up at him, and she was getting a look of mild confusion on her face. Because she did not know what he was doing, and felt like she needed to know.

"Hey, what is going on? Why do you have those boxes with you?" She was asking T.K., and then he was looking down at the box, and then he was smiling for a split second that this girl was showing a mild amount of interest in what he was doing. Then he was shrugging as if thinking that his answer was going to be a bit anticlimatic for all intents and purposes.

"Well, I am going to be getting this stuff to my car. I brought them from my storage house, and I will be using them to start my first day of my new job." T.K. answered, scratching his head, as if unsure of what he was even going to say now. He had felt like there was no real need to find anything else to say here. He was just thinking that maybe she was already going to lose interest, and since she got her answer, he would pick up and head out again.

Right as he was about to get ready to head on out, that was when the girl was calling out to him once again. "What is your new job anyways? Or are you too scared to admit it?" After she had asked him this question, T.K. thought about it a bit more. Just wanting to get out of here. Then again, he was thinking that since she was being nice enough, there was literally no need to be rude to her on anything that was going on here.

"I am getting into a teaching career at the community college and use that as extra revenue for the main career that I have. You know, which is pretty much just me writing for a living." T.K. said, and he was just wondering what he would even want to be saying now. He was feeling like maybe as long as he was going to keep himself together, he would find himself almost enjoying this conversation, and she might be feeling the exact same way as well.

"That sounds exciting. What types of works do you publish?" After she had asked him this, T.K. actually had thought about it for a moment. In a way, he was thinking so much because he really had no idea what the heck the main focus in his career were. That was something that he had felt like was kind of embarrassing to admit. But he was thinking that he had just needed to try and find an honest answer that could be able to appease the truth.

"Well, I mainly just write whatever is exciting to me at the moment. I have done a little bit of every genre, just trying my best to be branching out and placing my feet in the water. You know, it is just the best that I can do here. I never really have a consistent style that I stick with. Don't want people calling me sell outs." T.K. said, and then he was just thinking that he needed to be done with this statement.

"What types of works would you suggest if I were to read your stuff?" After she asked T.K. this, that was when T.K. had actually was kind of shocked at the way she was approaching him a bit, and then he was sighing a bit, as if feeling like he just needed to come up with a good answer. Considering the fact that he had no idea what would be a good first one for somebody of her age.

"Probably some of my early works. Not really all that good, but they are easy and you can probably read them in a week or something. I think that if you really wanted to get a good start on this, you should just try that." T.K. had said, and then he was wondering if she was still interested in any of this, but he was just telling himself to be ready for any answers she would want.

"Oh alright. I was just a bit curious. What made you decide that you needed to go into a college career in the first place?" After she asked him that, T.K. thought about it a bit longer. There was no real good answer to that. Nothing like selfish or anything. It just was not really anything he thought deeply about.

"To be totally honest, I am not too sure. I think that I just wanted to try and get some extra money because I don't make a ton. As well as the fact that I feel like everybody else has an imagination that they should be willing to try and go to express. I think that expressing something like this is the best that we can really do." T.K. had said, and then after he was done, he was wondering what to even say now.

"I plan on taking some classes there soon. You know, since my parents wanted me to go out and get some form of education. I just don't really know what I would be taking though. I mean, I don't really even though what they actually offer there." After the girl was telling T.K. this, that was when T.K. had felt like he needed to try and help her out. Considering the fact that she was seeming to really need some help here, and that maybe this can be his first moment.

"Well, I think that maybe you should find out what you are really interested in right now. Do you have any specific interests that you have?" T.K. asked, and then the girl was smiling, as if finally having an answer to that question. She was looking like she was almost glad that somebody she was talking with had even a mild amount of interest in learning what she was doing.

"I was planning on going on and maybe trying to become an officer or something. I always had an interest in working in that field. You know, going out and trying to make a difference in the world by protecting those who needed it the most out of anybody." After she had said that to T.K., there was a look of interest in his eyes. As if he was feeling like he wanted to see where this could be going towards now.

"Well, that is a really noble goal of you. I mean, I never really wanted to go on and become an officer. I feel like the police here are just a bit hard to trust. I don't really know if I could ever be able to fully trust anybody after all that I went through when I was even younger than you." T.K. answered, and she was clearly looking very interested in what he was talking about here. Wondering what he was even scared to speak of.

"What happened when you were younger than me? I heard about some bad stories of officers and stuff... But for you to lose your entire faith in the force... That just seems a bit much." She said, and then T.K. was forced to think about it for a bit. He really had no good answer to that question. That was the one thing he was really hating to even think about. The fact that he was having to talk about the way that he had whatever little respect he had for them in such a swift motion.

"Trust me, if you really wanted to know the truth of what happened, that would be a story too long to make it worth it. We would be here for so many hours that you would be bored. Plus, you would not even believe in me." T.K. was saying, and as they were looking at the girl, he was wondering what she would be saying now. If she was going to try and find a way to be fighting him on this whole thing.

"Well, I wouldn't know if you don't give me a chance to listen to your story." After she had said that to T.K., he was wondering how else he was going to be able to get himself out of this whole thing. He was just going to be thinking about how cute it really was that she was thinking that she would be able to be ready for such a heavy load of bullshit. It was something he was almost able to respect about her. The fact that she was clearly looking like she would be ready for whatever was going to come up next.

"How about this... If you want to know what I went through so badly, I might be tempted to write a book about it, and one of these days, if the book is made, then we can be able to see if you would believe in me now." T.K. said, and then he was looking right at her expression, trying to decide what she was feeling to this whole thing. She was almost looking like she was kind of enjoying the challenge that T.K. had presented to herself.

"I would love to do that. And I might be able to see what is bothering you so much." After she had said that to T.K., she was wondering what was even going to be happening now. She was clearly looking like she had felt like the talk was over, and that she had wished to maybe see if she would be able to get to know what this man was like just a little bit more.

"What is your name anyways? I mean, how can I be able to know if I have one of your classes or that I can read your stories unless if I know who you are?" She asked the man, and then T.K. was just sort of feeling like he had wished she was not being so serious about this whole thing. Knowing that she was actually wanting to know this a bit more, he had felt like he just needed to get it over with.

"T.K. Shioda. I have been sort of just writing all of these stories to kind of get away from the stories that I have been dealing with in my own personal life. I think that maybe I am just too scared to even comprehend the idea of going forward on all of this." T.K. had admitted, she then he was looking at the girl, wondering what she was going to be saying to him now. She was just thinking that he was being ridiculous. And maybe she was right.

"So I guess it would be kind of ironic what it would be like if I desire to keep this story away from me, but then I finally write it out for the people to see. Then nobody would be able to escape what I have been going through. I don't know if anybody would be able to deserve something like that." T.K. said, and then he was hearing the girl ask him a question that he had actually felt like was a genuinely good point.

"But if you put the story out there, and just let the people read it, and they can make their own opinions of it, then I think you would be able to finally put this whole thing together. I think that maybe your way of getting out of this is just to be starting to put everybody else through it. Even if you might not want to do that." She said, and then she was looking right at T.K., wondering what he was going to try and tell her now.

"I guess that maybe I will consider this a bit. I mean, I think that there is a good point that you have." T.K. said, and then he was thinking about the fact that if he had wanted to speak more, he was going to have to be thinking harder on what to be saying. Since she was clearly making him have to think on everything much more than he had wanted to admit. That was something that he was thinking he was going to just have to really be ready for.

"Hey T.K., do you think that I will be able to see you across the campus throughout the year? If we do, then would you be fine with going out and maybe having a coffee or something?" After she had asked T.K. this, that was when he was shocked at the fact that he was probably being asked on a date at that moment. There was nothing wrong with that, and he probably would have asked her eventually, if they continued to talk, but he did not expect it to be that low key.

"Yeah, I would not mind doing something like that." T.K. said, and then he was wondering if this was actually going to go somewhere, or if it was just a possible idea that they were bringing up. Sort of unsure of what to be going through with. The girl smiled, and she was thinking that maybe she was going to slowly learn the truth of his life bit by bit this way.

"My name is Catherine. I hope to see you around sometime." After she had told him that, T.K. nodded, actually agreeing with her on this. Actually thinking that if she was really wanting to do this, then perhaps the two of them were going to be able to get something that would be really great for both of them. Then with that, he was picking up the box, and was ready to be heading out now, after he would get the last word in.

"Well, I hope you have a great day, and that you have a good school year. You know, if we never see each other again." T.K. said, and then after he had said that, he was gone, and he was off doing his own thing. Then he was just sort of wondering what it was going to be like. He was just thinking that whatever was about to happen next was going to be making him feel like life was going to finally come together for him.

...

After T.K. was done thinking about the one thing in his life that he had really enjoyed, T.K. was just standing up, thinking about what he was really going to be doing. He had felt like no matter what he was going to do, he was going to be needing to find that perfect starting point. That perfect point to be able to get his readers to actually want to listen to him, and to want to actually be able to take what he says into a form of valid consideration.

After he was just trying to find a good place to start his story, and as he was thinking about all of the options in his mind on where to start, he had been feeling like he was going to have a good starting point on where to be going here. He was thinking about the fact that he was going to try and actually get to have a good starting point with the story that he felt like he had needed to start to spread around to those who would be willing to listen to him.

He was thinking that the story of how one of the major people in this series even learned about this so called digital world would have been a good starting point to go off of here. There was not much that he was feeling like he was going to be able to get out of this, but he was feeling like he needed to at least consider what he was going to be setting himself up for. There was just something about this story that he was feeling like he needed to really get to know.

The more he was thinking deeply about this, the more that he was thinking that this was going to be the best starting point to go off of. So with that, he was just standing up, and he was pulling out a cigarette in his pack that he had been currently working on. As he was grabbing the cigarette, he was placing the cigarette right in his mouth, feeling like he had just needed to take in the moment, and just be pondering what was happening there.

He was smoking it a while longer, to start to really give himself a small level of clarity in mind. Knowing that the longer that he had thought about it, the better he was going to be having a good position to work off of here. The more that he was thinking about the best way to be telling the story, the more that he was starting to think of something else. Something that he had known he would need to accept, even if most people around him were not going to not get it.

When he was done with smoking his cigarette, he was feeling like he had a good idea on where he was going to start. The narrative that he was going to be getting himself to would have been a bit much. It would have been a lot of stuff for him to be taking in. But at the same time, there was just something that T.K. knew was going to be a huge road to go down.

T.K. went to his room, and once he was inside of his room, he was just thinking about some of the stuff that he had kept throughout all of the years that he usually used to get some form of a memory on the stuff he had gone through. Something that would be able to give him a head start on proving with people what he had gone through was not a lie. Or a starting point in making the story he had wanted to tell be able to finally come on through.

T.K. knew that he had needed to get something in this room to be helping him out here. He was seeing that there was something on his book shelf that he had not looked on in a really long time. Something that he had truly hated to go on and look for. But at the same time, it was the truly best place to start the story that he was going to be telling. It was the only way that he had felt like he would be able to truly get right to the point. To truly make people see that he was not really on a wrong path. But to be honest, there was just something that he had felt like he needed to look into a bit more.

He had grabbed the black book that he had never really looked into. He read it one time from start to finish, when he had first gotten it, and he had been trying to finally have some peace with everything that happened around him, but the whole thing did not really work out that way. If anything, it had been getting much worse. It had started off well enough, but then went down hill fast. Then after he had read it, he had placed the notebook down, and never touched it again out of fear of what was going to be happening next.

As he had looked at it for a bit, he was shaking his head for a bit. He had known that he had just needed to read it one final time, to really get a good starting point for how he was going to make the universe around him try to feel a bit more alive. He was feeling like as long as he was going to tell the story in a decent fashion, and almost brought some genuine integrity to this, then people would be able to really see that he was actually going to keep it all safe and together.

He was walking back to his room, and then he was just slowly rubbing the black journal, and the entire time that he was doing this, there was a small part of him that had wondered if his wife had read it after all. As he was thinking about that, and if she had done this, there would be two parts of the thing that would really be going on in his mind. And both of which, he had felt like was a valid question to be having at his mind.

The first reaction he would have was betrayal. The fact that she would have read something that was not hers, and that he had kept to himself as well as possible. The fact that she would have gone around, and read something that was given to him, and therefore was his personal property. He had felt like if something like this were to happen, he would be kind of fucking pissed.

But the second reaction, and the one that he was also thinking would be a valid one, was one of him just feeling like maybe he had deserved something like this. The fact that he had felt like he should have gone on and talked with her better, and that he should have just tried to be more open with her, and not be brushing her off for the way that she had been feeling here. On one hand, he would have wished for her to leave his stuff alone. On the other hand, she would have been valid for wanting him to just tell her the fucking truth here.

Then he was sitting down on his chair where he was having his desk. The entire time that he was looking at the cover, there was something that he needed to tell himself. Something that he had felt like he needed to be ready for, no matter what else was going to be going on. He was just telling himself that if he was going to have to deal with all of this, then he would have to find a way to find the story to be told in a decent fashion.

There was going to be a bit to tell going from this journal alone. As he was thinking about the journal, he was thinking that he was never really going to have a good answer. T.K. had known that he needed to be taking this easily, and that nothing else even mattered anymore. But then again, T.K. was just trying to find a way to make the man who had wrote this journal to feel like he was not only doing it well, but telling it in a fashion that would be seeming to be mostly genuine. He had no idea how something like this was going to go, but he did not think that there was any way that he could be able to play around with it.

He had felt like the only way he was able to accomplish something like this was just to be writing the journal the exact way that he had been reading it on the notebook. He did not know what the hell he was going to do to really accomplish the idea of making the journal seem truly exciting. But he had felt like there was no need to do that. As long as he was being honest, and was not messing around, and just told people the story the way that it was meant to be told, then everything would be just fine. That was the one thing that he had needed to do.

In a way, he was thinking that being honest was more important than being exciting. Sure some people might be bored of what he was doing, and might be bored of the story pretty quickly. But those who would read it, and just actually go on and give it a chance, would finally know that what he was saying was true. That was the best thing that he had felt like he would have been able to get out of this. Just being honest, and not be making any bullshit up to sort of make the story just more fun. After all, the experiences that were detailed in this notebook were not relaly fun either, and pretending like they were fun was just insane.

T.K. was placing the journal down on the desk, and he was opening it up to the first page, feeling like he had just needed to focus on what was happening here. He was feeling like no matter what was going to happen, he had just needed to be taking this whole thing calmly. Then he was turning on the computer, thinking that Joe was right.

Joe was right in the way that he was not going to be there for a while, so there was no need to be hiding the story to just himself for the time being. He would just get as far as he can, and as he was doing that, he would start to feel like he was going to be able to make some peace with what was going on. He was just going to see what he would do before Joe showed up. Besides, even if Joe could be spared a good couple dozen pages or so, then that was a couple dozen pages that he would not be forced to live through again, which would be his way of sort of taking some amount of the pain away.

As he was thinking about that, there was almost a small part of him that was feeling like he had actually done something right. It was small and silly, and did not really have any real weight on the grand scheme of things, but he had felt like he just needed to try and make the story work out. He was wondering how Jow would be feeling if he had seen that T.K. really did get a good part of the story done. Although granted when the whole thing was done, T.K. was feeling like they were be dealing with several thousand pages, which would be a nightmare.

But despite what was going on here, T.K. was just wondering if maybe the story was going to be something that Joe would just be sort of sad over. After all, they both went through this whole thing together, and that the nightmare was in a way shared across both of them. Neither one of them were able to truly escape what had happened. And that was just something that was both scary and almost kind of exciting.

The fact that both of them had gone through this stuff, and that there were millions of people who were never going to have a chance to learn the truth. In a way, T.K. had felt like there was something almost special to all of that. The one thing that he had felt like would have kept him going was just the fact that he was going to be sort of finding a way to capture how special the whole nightmare could have been. Or in a strange way, how special the nightmare actually was in its own messed up way. As much as T.K. hated to admit such a thing.

When the computer had been loaded up, and he was able to get right to the point of things, he had started up the new blank document. There was just a few more moments. A couple of seconds where he was able to still brush this whole thing off. Brush this off as if this was a terrible idea. In a way, T.K. was strongly considering one final time to be getting out of this. To just pretend like he had never even considered this whole idea that he would just be able to turn back here.

And if it weren't for the call that he had given Joe, and the agreement they had made, he would have done this. As he was thinking about that for a bit longer, there was something about what was going on that was almost a little bit funny. But then after he was thinking about that for a moment, to just get out of this, he was shaking his head. He had talked to Joe, he had contacted the man, and people were now aware of what he was going to be doing.

After he had remembered the situation he had for better or for worse gotten himself into, he has shook his head. Then he was thinking about what he was getting himself into. Then he was just starting to place in the title of the work. A title that would seem confusing to the average person, but virtually anybody who was there, who had witnessed what had happened, would get it. And not only just get it, but get it much too well.

As T.K. had thought about what he was going to be talking about, he had nodded, feeling like this was the best starting title. "Fall of the Republic." After he had wrote that, he was smiling, thinking that at least he had now gotten a start here, and that the longer he would work on this, the better that it would have been. Then he was just thinking that there was no better way, and no better idea on how to spend his time, than just to be getting right to the story.

After he had thought about that for a while, he had started to basically write the authors notes at the start, to sort of be able to make his peace with some of the things without getting into the details too much. So he was just telling himself that at least he was giving a lot of people the respect that they had deserved, after all of the decades of having nothing being given to them. Almost like they had lost out on what had truly mattered in the first place. The story was the one thing that he had felt like would be able to bring everybody on all sides and perspectives together finally.

---

March 28, 2021

Once T.K. made the decision to finally tell the story of his past, he sent a email to all of the members of his older friend group. The ones who had actually gone through everything that he had dealt with in the past. Even the ones who he knew did not like him nearly as much anymore. He felt that there was no other way though.

When he finally sent his emails to Joe, Mimi, Tai, Izzy, and even his brother Matt, he was standing up and taking a cigarette out. As he was smoking it, he was staring up at the top of the giant mountain. Or at least the direction in which it was. And he was remembering how much pain he was in every time he heard it, and wondered how those who were there their whole lives were able to handle it.

He still remembered the discussion he had with Ocho about going down, and he was wondering if it was even possible to be heading there, and actually being able to help him. In a way, he was feeling that something like this was only going to be making things worse for those around him, and that he needed to just try and let Ocho take care of it on his own.

He went to his car, and packed some stuff, and went to the drivers seat. As he was heading away, he was hearing Catherine call out to him. He looked up at her, and he was wondering what she was planning on telling him at this moment. "T.K., where are you going?" After she was asking him this, T.K. sighed for a second.

"I have a promise that I made to a great friend, and I feel like I need to follow through. And I am going to be checking something out in my home town for a bit. I will be back as fast as possible." After T.K. told his wife this, she was taking several steps towards him.

"Is this about the book that you are working on?" She asked T.K., and then with that, T.K. was slowly nodding. He was feeling like there was no point in lying to her at all. He was hoping beyond all fucking hope that she would actually listen to him here, and see why he was doing what he was doing.

"Yeah, it is about that. I don't even know if I want to work on it yet. I am just sort of taking a leap of faith when I do this. But what I do know is that I am willing to try at least. I feel like that will have to be good enough for those around me." T.K. said, and then he was looking right at her, wondering if she would appreciate that.

"Just don't play detective while I am gone. I don't want to imagine what will happen to you if something happens." After this, T.K. was getting in the car, and then he was starting to drive away, heading on towards Wayside, and he was taking a long and deep breath, wondering if such a thing was even going be for the best as he was leaving her alone again.

Even if she did not get it, T.K. was saving her life by keeping her out of this, and she was going to see that this was true soon enough. She was going to see that there was no way in hell that telling her everything was going to actually be a good idea at all.

The entire time that he was driving to Wayside, he was wondering if heading over there was actually something he should have done. After all, Wayside was the home to every single nightmare he had ever had, and the home to all the mistakes that had been going on in this town, and there was simply no better way to put it.

And he was wondering if any of his friends were even going to return any contacts with him at all. In all honesty, given his relationship with most of them, he was mostly convinced that they were not going to want to hear it. They were probably going to be telling him that he was pushing the fucking line beyond everything else. And if this was the way he would be treated, then he was hoping that one day, he would not be forgiven.

When he parked his car at a hotel for the first night, he got out of the car, and then decided to look up a google search bar that he was hoping would have had more results than before: Missing Girls in Wayside, Minnesota. When he finished, he was hitting enter, and saw that there were only a handful of answers.

One of which was a reddit post, and he clicked on it, and checked it out. As he was looking at it, he had realized that it had been posted November, 23, 2020. So about four months prior. Feeling unsure of what to say here, he decided to read the post.

I know that making this post is almost certainly going to be putting me in danger. But I am a eighteen year old resident from Wayside, Minnesota. The second oldest child of a large family, and I want to tell people some thing that is going on in the town that I am growing up in.

Ever since 1938, every several months, there is this strange grinding noise that goes on around the town, and after the deafening sound finishes up, a girl in the town will go missing within a week. The average age of the girls going missing is roughly fifteen years old. Just barely starting high school, and these women are losing their lives.

Normally I would try to just move this whole thing behind me, and accept the fact that maybe something like this is none of my damn business. But the reason why I am pursuing this right now is because my younger brother had a friend of his go missing in the most recent incident of this.

On November 10, it had gone off again. While most people in the country are going around, complaining about the results of the election, my brother is dealing with the grief that one of his best friends is gone, and will almost certainly never fucking come back.

The most famous girl to go missing in this is one of the very few that I am sure actually has made it on state news. The fifteen year old daughter of a famous business man. Rachel Wilson. This was back in 1986, so I didn't know about it until recently. But I heard that it was huge back then.

1986 was also around the time that the new president of the biggest company in Wayside took over. I will not tell you his name, due to the fact that I feel like I am already posting a bit too much about this town to be able to have any realistic chance of safety.

I want to be able to put this all behind us. I have a brother who was born this last August, and I want to be able to actually create a new town, and a new hope for him. Something he can be able to live with. Even if it is too late for many people, it should not be too late for him or those in his age.

If you know anything about this town at all, I would need the information. I feel like the reason that nobody has been able to do anything is because a lack of true evidence to be able to bring this conspiracy forward. And I just simply do not have all the details of the story to make sense out of this.

I know that nobody is going to believe a eighteen year old who is going off his own stories. But if they listen to a eighteen year old who has the stories of everybody around him, maybe there is a small chance that somebody out there will finally listen to what I say, and not treat it like a joke.

I have a bunch of small details, but nothing that adds up: a old tall school that has become the grounds for a business building recently. I want to know why that is the case, but I feel like there is nothing that will help me figure this out. And that is the thing that is hurting me. Knowing that I will truly never make a difference.

When T.K. was finished reading the post, he was wondering what in the world this guy was doing. Actually having the balls to post something like this, and actually admit to the biggest conspiracy probably in the entire United States. But despite this, this was the best he was probably going to get with somebody helping expose the truth of the town, so he went to their profile to message.

T.K. Posted a message that said: Hey, I read your post that you made last November about the girls. In all honesty, I feel like making that post might have been a mistake for your safety. But you seem aware of that, and I am not going to try and stop you from doing what you feel is right. What I want to tell you is that I am a famous writer named T.K. Shioda, and I plan on making a book uncovering this.

When he was done making that message, he was sighing, and took out another cigarette. In all honesty, he was having a feeling that he was probably never going to get the answer he wanted back. He was feeling like there was a good chance that this was a set up to track down all those who knew this. But he rested on his bed for a bit, feeling that he would catch a bit of a nap while sleeping.

He woke up eighty minutes later, and opened up his shitty laptop that he has had for several years, and was well aware was on the way of breaking down forever. When he opened it up, he was suddenly remembering many of the details that he has lost out on in the past, and knew how he was going to be able to write it. So with that, he started to begin writing his story, while feeling that maybe he would write a bit about the story before leaving.

---

Episode 1: The Skating Life (T.K.'s POV) - June 1986

Scene 1: First Day of Summer

It was the first day of summer vacation, when I was hanging out with my friends Davis and Yolei. I was just trying my best to be finding something that we could all agree on for the day that we would actually want to do. "Guys, we have all this time ahead of us, and yet we have nothing to work with here." I said, and I was thinking about what they were doing.

I was looking over, and I was watching some of the guys who were at the park, skating along with each other, just trying to mind their own business. I was always jealous watching those people skate along, already well accustomed to what they were doing, almost like they felt that they were better than everybody else.

Davis and Yolei seemed to be looking at each other, both thinking of something that they were wanting to say, and I was not really wanting to hear what this statement would have been, as I feared it was going to be directed right at me.

"Do you have any plans to maybe go on and get into skating? I mean, you are always seeming to be rather interested in this whole thing." After he had told me this, I looked at him, and I was feeling that this was the worst thing that he could go on and suggest to me.

"What the hell are you thinking? There is no way in hell I can go on and do this?" I asked, and I was just feeling that I needed to calm the hell down for a moment, and I was seeing Yolei looking like she was wanting to laugh her ass off here. As if I was having way too much of a dramatic reaction.

"It's not that big of a deal. Just go on and give it a try. I don't think that there s going to be anything that you are going to be losing out of this." After she told me this, I was then considering this, and I was feeling that she was not going to be letting the situation go, and I was tired of having this debate with people anyways.

Once we were done talking about this, I seemed to consider what she was saying, and I was thinking that there was a good chance that nobody was going to know, or even care what was happening at all.

"Maybe giving it a try would not kill me. But honestly, I just do not really want to go through this. It is going to be the worst thing ever if I fail this." I said, and I was making it sound like this was the worst thing that could have ever happened at all.

Davis was rubbing his hair a bit, and he was looking like he was considering what was happening. "Honestly, if you are willing to go on and give this a try, then I guess that I need to go on and give it a shot." After he had said that to me, I was sighing, totally unsure of what I was getting into.

"Let's just go and do this, and be done with it." I said, feeling the desire to just move this all behind me, and with that, I was walking towards the skating shop, where I would use some of the money that was given to me from helping Davis around his place.

As we were walking to the skating shop, I was feeling that there was one question that I could ask, that I was not going to get totally rejected on. "Honestly, why do you care so much what I might want to do?" I asked, feeling the need to liven up the conversation a little bit more, just to see what their perspective on this could have been anyways.

"Well, we just figured tht seeing you try and make this whole thing work out might be something that we could all watch and be a part of." Yolei was saying, as if feeling that what she was telling me was innocent enough, and I guessed, that at least on the surface, that there was nothing too awful about what she was telling me

Eventually, we were getting at the skating shop, and then we ended up going right inside, and I was mainly convincing myself that there was nothing too awful about what they were doing, and that I just needed to go along with it now.

Once inside of the skating shop, I was looking around the options, just mainly trying to find something that we could find here that might be of interest to us. "So, my friend over here has been interested in the subject of going around, and skating for a bit. Do you have any ideas on things that he might be interested in?" After she had asked the employee this, the man looked at her, excited to have somebody actually coming in and asking a question.

"Well, have you gone on and tried anything at all?" He asked me, and I was looking at him, and I was feeling that there was something with the way he was asking that just made me feel really let down by it.

"Not really. I watched people try it out, and I tried to imagine myself doing it, but I never got into it." I said, and then after I had told him this, I was seeing him looking like he was considering this, and almost looked like this was something he was willing to work on now.

"I guess that if this is the case, then we got a lot that we need to work on. But I think that a good starting point would be this one." He said, and walked on over to the wall in front of me, and checked around, eventually finding a blue one.

"I doubt that you would be using this one too incredibly long term if you were to get into skating, but as I said earlier, it's a starting point..." He said, and I grabbed it, considering everything, and the more that I was looking, the more and more that I was interested in where this was heading.

"I mean, there is no reason for me to doubt you." I said, and I was feeling that if this was really the board that he was thinking that I needed to have, then I would just go with it, and see what I could accomplish with it.

"Since this is your first one, I will let you have it for half off. See if you even enjoy these in the first place." He said, and I was looking at him, thinking that if for nothing else, at least he was a pretty tame and cool guy, so I was feeling that I needed to just give him what he wished for.

I had twenty bucks in my pocket, which happened to be just enough, and I put it down on the counter, and he looked at me, with a slight smile on his face. "Enjoy it. I remember when I went out, and had my first round on the town." After he told me this, I considered trying to get to know what it was like, but I decided that he could not care to tell me.

Once I was heading out of the skating shop, I looked at Davis and Yolei. "Maybe you guys should go and grab one to if he is so laxed on this whole thing." I said, and then I was wondering if they were going to be taking up the offer.

"Woah, we would be terrible at this. I think that this is something you should just do yourself." After he had told me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling that these two did not need to be setting me up for everything, if this was going to be the way that it would happen.

"Okay, I see how this all is." After I said that to him, I was seeing Davis looking like he was finally having a good attitude on this whole thing, and I was then thinking about what we were going to be doing at this point in time anyways.

"I guess that all that there is to do now is just to go back to the skate park. I mean, you never become a pro if you do not try." After I had said that to them, I was starting to feel a little bit more comfortable about everything that was happening, and I was feeling like this could actually be a bit of fun.

We were walking along, and for a moment, it was like there was nothing at all that was worrying about me. Nothing that was worrying aybody about the fact that we only had three months of summer. Nothing that worried us about the fact that it had seemed like there were a lot of disturbing rumors about the town, and how only a few weeks prior, somebody in our class had to suffer.

Once at the skate park, I was looking around at the group that were all around, and I was feeling overwhelmed once again, and I was feeling that something like this was a terrible idea, and I just wanted to do anything possible to get the hell out of this, but I calmed down, and told myself that it was probably not so bad.

I wanted to walk back, but the looks on Davis and Yolei's face made it very clear to me that they were not going to be letting that happen if they could help it, and I decided that it was no real issue, and that I just needed to go with this.

I placed the board on the ground, and then I started to give it the best try that I could. I mean, as long as I ignored all the guys who were looking around, and the way that they were probably going to judge me if I messed up, I started to feel like I was able to enjoy it just a bit more.

Eventually, I was starting to feel like I was a bit more in the zone of it all, and I was thinking that it was not going to be all that big of a deal if people were going to be making fun of me at all. So when I was taking this into perspective, I kept going.

All in all, I went on for roughly three minutes or so of doing really well, and doing it the way that I felt that it needed to be, before I fell down, and rolled down really bad, and started to feel a whole lot of pain coming right in.

I was taking a long time to breath, and I was just taking a moment to really recollect myself, as I ran to my board, and then I grabbed it, and then I was holding it up, thinking that as long as I at least pretended that it did not bother me, then the guys were not going to be making fun of me too much.

After I was done with this, I walked up the stairs to the park,and then I was looking around, trying to see what everybody around me was thinking, and then I was seeing Davis and Yolei, wondering what to be saying right now.

As I reached Davis and Yolei though, there was one thing that they were doing that made me a whole lot more worried than I wanted to admit. Something that I was feeling was much more of a wake up call that I had wanted to admit.

I was seeing that they were both talking with Tobias Wilson, and I was really wishing that they did not do this. Mainly because I knew that talking to him was going to be forcing us to get involved with this entire case and I was not ready for this.

"Hey, how is he doing?" I asked, and I was feeling like a minor asshole for asking the question in a way that was making it seem like I had no interest in speaking to him. But the whole idea of speaking to Tobias was a bit strange to me, since I hardly ever knew the guy, and i did not know if he was wanting to even get to know me at all, or Davis and Yolei.

"I'm doing alright. They were mainly just trying to see if I had been holding up well due to what happened a few weeks ago." He said, and I knew instantly what he had meant, the missing case with his cousin.

I felt terrible to be reminded of this, and I was looking at him, trying to find something to discuss to make him be feeling at least somewhat better. "Do you want to talk about it a bit more?" I asked, feeling that it was the only way to be going at this in a way that was seeming at least relatively positive.

"I don't know. I mean, I don't want to talk about it, but I don't want to be like Rachel and surpress it for my entire life. I mean, I just wish that none of this had ever happened. You know, I feel like I deserve something better than what happened to me..." Tobias said, and did not mention anything further than this.

"That being said, I am glad that people are mentioning this, to make it feel like I am not alone in this whole thing. That does make me feel slightly better here." Tobias admitted, and left it at this, and shook his head. "I mean, I knew there was something going on in town all the time, but for fucks sake, nobody ever thinks anything will happen to them."

I tried my best to help him, and I was feeling that he deserved it given everything happening, but it was going to be a lot for me to handle, and I was feeling that I had a lot of work that I needed to do to make him feel different here.

"Well, if you ever want anybody to help you, and try and maybe see if we can find her, then go ahead and tell me." Yolei said, and Tobias just looked at her, considering the offer, and thinking it over, as if thinking that maybe it was a good idea, but was scared of what it might entail if this happened.

"I appreciate you asking, but I would never force anybody, no matter how desperate I am, to be going through with this. I feel like this is my battle I have to face on my own." After he had said that to us, I was sighing, and I was thinking about how stubborn that was, but I knew that he needed to do this his way when it came to her.

"Shit guys, I remember that I have to watch Cody in less than a hour." After Yolei had said that suddenly. Davis looked a bit saddened, as if wanting to hang with her for a bit longer, but seemed to accept that there was no choice on the matter

"We can meet up tomorrow. I don't have to go in until Friday." After she had said that, she smiled, and she looked at Tobias, as if still feeling that she needed to be doing something to change his perspective on this all, but did not feel like she had any way of helping out on this whole thing.

"I can hold up. I already have been the last three weeks." Tobias said, and I was seeing that even from the way he was saying this, that he was kind of feeling sorry for saying it like this, but I was thinking he just wanted to make it clear that he did not want people to baby him in any way.

"If she is going, I guess we might as well head home as well." Davis said, in a clearly defeated tone, as if he hated the idea of going home alone, but he did not really care at all, and I was feeling that I might as well join along, and get some extra minutes with hanging out with the guy, just to watch up for a while longer

As we walked along, Davis and I were thinking of something to talk about, as Davis looked at me, and I was feeling like from the way he was looking at me, that I was not goingto really enjoy the question he wanted to ask. "Do you want to tell me the things that happened on Onett now? Since we're alone, and we've known each other for nearly a year now." He said, and I sighed, considering it.

Scene Two: The Boy And The Meteor

"Are you really sure that you would want to hear about that? I mean, it is not all that interesting, and I doubt that you would actually care to know more once I actually start to tell you?" I asked, and I was mainly just asking this as a way to get out of the situation, but I knew deep down that this was impossible for me to do.

"I feel like I need to know the truth. I mean, you seemed to be scared out of your fucking mind every single time somebody even brings up something that happened last year, and you seem like you never want to even so much as speak of these events." After he had said that to me, I was sighing, and I knew that his heart was in the right place.

"Alright, I will be willing to make a compromise with you." I said, and I saw him officially looking much more interested in this, and was seeing that he was clearly willing to give this a go, and just see what we might be able to come up with.

"I will tell you everything that I can remember, and help you understand what is going on, but in return, you are never to tell anybody what happened to anybody else. This stuff is just for you, and that is it." I said, feeling that this was the best way that I could have been able to get through this whole thing.

"Alright, you win. I will never tell a single person this story." After he had said that to me I was then feeling like there was no real point in delaying this whole thing any longer. In a way, I figured that just getting this over with was for the best.

...

It started last year, a few weeks before my parents decided to move us up to Wayside, when I was trying to go to bed that night, trying to pretend like everything was all what I had wanted it have been. I was staring out the window, wondering what exactly what was going on here.

I used to do that every night before bed, just watching out ahead of me, pretending like I was actually witnessing something better for myself, but in all honesty, I was just wanting to actually see if there was any level of truth to outside life.

I have no idea why I was always letting the watching turn into those questions, but I guess that I was just trying to do something to pass my time. But I was glad that I had done it that night, since it was the one thing in my life that made me understand the idea of having a thrilling adventure.

I was watching as above me, there was a meteor flying down upon the sky, coming to the town, and I was so shocked to be seeing one of these in person, that in all honesty, I had no real better way of describing it and stuff.

After I was seeing it close to landing, I ended up growing another idea in my mind, that I knew deep down was a fucking terrible idea. But at the same time, I could not have cared less. I wanted to see what it was, and I wanted to actually touch it.

There was a giant noise that landed on the ground, and I was super excited, and at this rate, there was almost nothing else in my mind. I just wanted to go and check it out. I mean, there was nothing wrong in theory with wanting to see a meteor that was landing on the ground.

As I was getting out of my room, I was seeing that the lights in mom and dads room was bright, and that they had clearly heard what was happening. So with that, not wanting to have anybody know what I was doing, and not wanting anybody to tell me to fuck off, I just sneaked out as fast as I could.

After I finally walked out of the house, I was really hoping that if they did know what I had been doing, that they would at least be relatively lax on the punishment. I mean, I was just trying to have a adventure and all. There was nothing wrong with that, right? But despite that thought deep down, I did not want to do anything at all that could make them feel like I was just being a dumb ass or whatever they might want to call me.

I started to walk down for a while, and I was calming down, remembering the fact that I needed to always take risks if I wanted to make things work out in my entire life. I was aware that what I was doing was probably going to be a terrible idea, but in all honesty, what was so terrible about checking a meteor out?

Before too long, I had gotten to the other side of the streets, and I was looking at the police cars that were driving by, and I was feeling like I only really had one chance if I was going to be going and seeing what was there. So with that, I started to head on towards there, ready for whatever I could have seen.

Eventually, I was right at the meteor, staring down at it, and just trying to find out what I was feeling about it, I was holding out my hand towards it, and for some reason, despite not knowing why, and how to put it, a small part of me was feeling that this was a dangerous idea, and that I needed to stop doing it. So I pulled away, but not before I saw something else that caught me of interest.

I was seeing that there was a green crystal on the ground, and I was really interested in what was happening, and if it was related to the meteor, I decided to grab it, and put it in my pocket, feeling that since I found it, this was mine to be keeping.

Eventually, I was looking around, and I was seeing, that to literally nobodies surprise, that people were already heading down to the crash site, and I was feeling that I really had no more time to be messing around with the area at all, so with that, I started to just walk away.

I was seeing that one of my classmates, who was a year older than me, Ness, had been looking at the meteor, and it was really obvious that he had the same plan that I did, and I was feeling that I might as well talk to him about it the next day, and see what he might want to say to me.

Once I was walking around, I was feeling that it might be best to just go home, and pretend like nothing was happening, and I was thinking that if mom and dad had known that I had sneaked out, that I was going to get in so much trouble, and I was feeling that it was going to be best to just get it over with.

Eventually, I was just telling myself that my parents were not really going to be caring all that much, and that they were just going to be making sure that I did not do anything else, and that I at least sort of knew what I had been doing.

After a while, I had reached the house, and I was going inside of my house, and I was sneaking right to my room, not at all wanting to be making a single risk, and I was blown away that my mom and dad were not waiting in the living room, about to tear me a new one. I smiled at myself, feeling that I got away with it all.

That said, as I was in my room, and I was placing the green crystal on the table, and just pretending like nothing else came of it, that was when I was seeing Matt walking by, and I knew that the moment I saw him, he was not going to be letting the situation go at all.

"Hey T.K., what were you doing out there? I mean, I didn't tell mom and dad, since I did not want to get you in trouble, but it does worry me a bit." After he had told me this, I was looking at him, and I was feeling that he was wasting my time right now.

"I just wanted to see what the meteor crash was. Honestly, that was all that I wanted to do. Nothing really came of it." I said, really fucking hoping that he was not going to be noticing the green crystal that was on the table. Despite not wanting to admit it, I wanted to keep that for myself, as if I earned it.

"I guess that you just could not keep your excitement to yourself?" Matt asked, and he was sounding like he was just having a bit of a excited reaction to this. I really had no idea what was even happening.

"Can we please just not bring this whole thing up? I don't want mom and dad getting all up in my business about it." I said, and i was aware of the fact that I was sounding selfish as I was saying this, but at the same time, I did not care, and I was just wanting to make this my story.

"Fine, if you really feel like it will make you feel better. Not that it would have really mattered to me what was going on anyways. But if it makes you feel better." After he had told me this, I was seeing him looking like he was slightly more calm about this. Then he looked at me, and I was seeing him looking like he had another question in mind.

"How many people were there when you checked the area out?" After Matt asked me this, I was shaking my head, and I was feeling like there was no real reason to be going through this any further, and I was kind of scared.

"I just wanted to know. You know, since in all honesty, it was just kind of exciting to know that something like this was coming to Wayside." After Matt told me this, I was seeing him looking like he was willing to drop out the subject a bit.

After this, Matt seemed to give up on the subject, and walked off, and after this, I felt better, and I was so fucking happy that he did not press me to tell him what the green crystal was. I was wondering if he even noticed what the crystal was, but I did not mention anything.

I went to bed that night, and I decided to just drop the whole subject, and not be making a whole deal about this in general. In fact, I was just feeling like this was a big deal, because I was feeling like Matt would want to learn more later.

The next day, when I was at school, I was hanging around the classroom, and I was feeling that for some reason, I needed to go on and see what Ness wanted to say. For some reason, I was feeling like he was the one who would tell me what was happening, and I wanted that so fucking badly. I wanted him to be the one who would give me some sanity on the issue.

After school that day, I was looking around, I ended up looking around, and I was trying really hard to go on and find him. But my attempts to find him were put to a rest when I was hearing a voice calling out to me, and I turned around to see Ness. I was sighing in relief, knowing that I was able to actually see him for the time being.

"Hey, what did you find at the meteor earlier?" Ness asked, not even giving me a chance to be the one who would ask him what was going on, and I sighed, feeling that I deserved a chance to make sure that he was not going to be going around, and spreading what I told around to others. I was almost scared that he was going to be just taking advantage of this.

"I ended up just looking around at it. I picked up a tiny rock piece. Nothing that would be too exciting. I was wanting to talk to you, and see if there was anything that you might know about it." I said, as if feeling that talking to him like this, and making it clear that I respected his opinion, would make him feel a bit different.

"I was hearing that there were going to be some people coming by later today to go on and investigate what the meteor was. I heard that last night about three minutes about you had left the area. I was worried about hearing that, and I have no idea what the hell was even going on here." After he had told me this, I was seeing Ness looking like he was a bit scared of what was happening at the moment.

"I guess that maybe you might want to see what the piece of rock that I found was." I said, and I did not know why I was making the offer. But at the same time, I was feeling that I just needed to go on and show him everything. In a way, I was feeling that letting him check it out was the only thing that really fucking mattered.

I saw Ness looking like he was considering all that I suggested, and I was seeing that despite feeling like this was going to be a bit pointless, that this could have been worth a chance. "I guess that it might be worth seeing. I mean, for all I know, that company will never let us see it anymore."

We walked out of the school, and I was seeing Ness looking at the other classmates at school, and I was seeing that he was clearly a bit worried about what everybody was going to be saying to this. I was wondering if he was just scared about hanging out with me, and if he really was, then I wondered what the reason to this would have been. It would actually have reall let me down if he had been.

As we had been walking by, Ness was slowly startng to feel like he was calming down. "Do you know anything about what your dad does?" After Ness asked me this, I was confused as hell what the point to this question even was in the first place. But I decided to not be making a deal out of it.

"I don't know. I mean, that seems to be a bit random." I said, not thinking much of it beyond this, but despite what I was feeling, I knew deep down why he was asking about my dad. I knew what the stories about his job were.

"I mean, I heard a lot of stories about what was going on, and I was feeling like it was something worth knowing. I mean, I heard that he was doing a lot of stuff in New York like 50 years ago." After he had told me this, he was shrugging, and seemed to be mostly willing to ignore it from this point forward, as if feeling like he was being silly to himself as well

Eventually, we were reaching the house, and I was just mildly wondering what I was going to be getting out of showing him this in the first place. I mean, he was just trying to get to know about my parents more than he was wanting to now me.

Once inside of my house, I decided not to think about it any longer, and I was showing Ness the green crystal in my room, and I was seeing Ness looking at it, and he was looking at least somewhat interested in what he had been seeing. "So T.K., do you have any idea what it could possibly mean?" After he had asked me this, I was shrugging, and I had no idea what I was going to say. In all honesty, I had no idea what it was and I really did not care.

"I mean, I have no idea. All that I knew was that this was the only thing in the meteor that looked somewhat strange, and that it was broken off. I do not know what it means beyond that though. So I guess that I will just not really be thinking too much about it." I said, and then I was shrugging, having nothing else to be saying now.

"Well, I feel like there is somebody in town who might know what it means." After he had said that to me, I was thinking that he was probably right. But at the same time, I had no idea why I was feeling like it was just wrong to be doing this.

"I feel like if we were to try and show somebody what is happening here, then they will try and use it, and then I will lose what I would consider to be a pretty cool momento." After I had said that to him, I saw him looking like he was having no real wish to be having this debate with me at all. I was seeing that for whatever reason, he was really firm with this idea of going on and showing people what we ended up having.

"I feel like if you want to see what is there better, then we might need to be going down soon, before those people show up." After I had said that, I was sighing, and to be honest, I had no idea why the hell we were doing this in the first place. I saw that Ness was looking like he was considering this idea a bit.

"Honestly, I guess that there is nothing wrong with going on and checking what it is." Ness said, finally conceding, and I was seeing that he was wanting to just see what it was so badly that he almost did not even care anymore, if this whole thing was feeling a bit forced and stuff.

"To be honest, I was just wanting to see it again anyways, so I guess that we are both winning here." I said, and then after I had told him this, we were both leaving the house, and I put the crystal in my pocket, feeling that I would rather have it on my person than have somebody possibly take it from my room.

As we were walking along, I was seeing Ness looking like he had another idea in his mind. "Want to drop by my house for a moment? I want to grab something." After he had said that to me, I was nodding, and for some reason, I was thinking that whatever he wanted to do was a good idea, and that I had no real reason to argue with him.

We eventually reach his house, and I was seeing that whatever was going on, Ness was looking super excited to be doing this. Almost like it was the only thing he cared for at all. I was wondering if he was wanting to show me something that would prove me wrong on all my ideas of the town.

Once I was waiting around, I was just thinking about all that was ahead of us. i was feeling like whatever was to come now, I just needed tomake sure that Ness felt like we were actually going to be having a decent connection. I did not want to be making hm feel like I was not even listening to what he was saying.

After waiting around a bit longer, that was when Ness showed up, and he was carrying a baseball bat. As I was seeing this, to be honest, I was finding it hilarios that he was trying to go arond like this, since i was feeling like there was nothing that was going to be getting us suspected faster than this.

"Do you have any plans with that?" I asked, feeling like I might as well just try and have some idle banter here. You know, make him feel like he was able to not think that I was pushing him around or anything. As he looked at me though, I was seeing him looking like he was actually having a serious look at all of this.

"Well, in case if we are going to get into a fight, I would rather have this at my side than to need to fight, and then there is nothing at all." After Ness had said that to me, I was trying to think about it all. I was trying to think about what it would be like to support his crazy mindset. But at the same time, I just needed to be realistic here.

"Alright, we should be heading out though." I said, not wanting to waste any time on this, and feeling that we were just kind of going to be wasting our one chance to make this work if we were going to keep talking about this all, and never put our words into any form of action.

With that, Ness and I left the house, and I was wondering what Matt was going to be saying if he saw that ness and I were heading here a second time. I was having a feeling that if he had seen us do this a second time, then he was not really going to be having a whole lot of patience with acting like nothing was a big deal. I would just wish that he would be minding his own business for once in his life.

We eventually got to the meteor, and there were people around it, and they all had a bunch of helmets on, and were holding onto a scanning device, and they were looking near the meteor, trying to find something out about it. "Do you think that maybe we should just leave this whole thing alone? I think this might not be very smart."

After I tried to suggest this, and I was letting my fear coming to me a bit more, and then Ness was looking like he clearly did not want to hear it, as if thinking that what I was suggesting was just really god damn stupid. "Come on, there is nothing wrong with us just checking it out for a moment." After Ness had told me this, I nodded, and we decided to go along.

As we were near the meteor, that was when there was a guy who had been working there looking right at me. I saw him looking like he was tired of two guys who were in middle school coming by here. "This is a dangerous place. Stay off of these grounds, if you want to be safe." After he had told me, I was seeing Ness looking like he was wanting to ask something.

"Do you know what is so important about this meteor?" Ness asked, putting the bat on his shoulder, trying to at least be polite about it all, thinking that there was no real reason to be so worried about this all.

"That is not something that I am allowed to tell people. We are supposed to just keep this for the company. ow if you would please, we need to continue our job." After the man said that to us, I was feeling really annoyed with how rude the guy had been. I was seeing Ness looking like he was considering all that was happening, and if he wanted to say something here.

After we were finished looking around, and we were walking back to my house, I was scared, along with ness as well, to be seeing that there was a car from "Lazarus Coporation", a company I barely understood at the time, at the front of my house, and I was wondering what was going to be happening at all.

"What the hell are they doing in my house? Thank god the crystal is not in my room, if that is what they are looking for." I said, and I was feeling like I just needed to be quiet about this, since I was not sure if they were really looking for this.

"Take it. Just in case if they might be trying to get it from me. Just keep it with you, and I will come by tonight." I said, and then handed Ness the crystal, and after being quiet for a second, he decided to just go along with this, and nodded, as he was walking off, and then I decided to walk to the house, ready for the punishment

...

Once I was starting to get on a role, something happened that made Davis and I both stop what we were doing. Something that we were all too familiar with at this rate, as much as we had hated to admit.

It was the grinding noise that goes off every once in a while in town, and as I had been hearing it go on for a bit longer, I was just wondering what the purpose to this even was in the first place, and why the grinder always went off.

"The last one was just last fucking month. That has never happened before. My god, what the hell is even happening?" After Davis had asked me this, I was sighing, and I was just sighing, wondering what he was even wanting to be doing now.

"Alright, well I think that it might be best to just ignore it, and pretend like it is no real big deal." After I had said that to him, I was aware that what I was saying was totally bullshit, but I decided that there was just something that we could have gotten if we just ignored this whole thing for a while longer.

"Yeah, I guess that maybe it might be right if we do ignore it. I mean, we are not really having any issues with it." Davis said, and then I was sighing, and remembered the other thing that got to my mind, and I was thinking that this was more important than anything else.

"Tobias. I mean, maybe we can see how he is doing with his cousin. You know, I think that there is more to this than we want to admit." I said, clearly just thinking about the fact that this was the only thing that really even mattered.

"We can go and see how Tobias is doing. I mean, I think that it is the least that he might deserve. I can't believe that Yolei decided to try and talk to him, and now I am just worried shitless about the guy." After he had said that to me, I was then getting close to Davis's house, wondering what to get out of this now.

"Maybe before I go on and see how he is doing, we can make a set of questions that we can ask him, to make it seem like the question is not totally random and stuff. You know, not want him to just brush the dea off entirely." I said, feeling that what I said was just not really going to make a huge deal out of it all.

"Davis, do you feel that helping Tobias might actually be the best thing we could be able to do." After I asked him this, I was wondering what he would be able to say to this. But at the same time, I was just feeling that there was nothing else to it here.

"I think that it might be wise to see if he would want the help in the first place. If he refuses, and makes it clear that he wants to do this on his own, there is no real reason to force this." After he had told me this, I was shurgging, and I felt like what he might have been sayng was the truth.

"See you tomorrow." I said, and I was really not wanting to deal with more of this at all. I was just kind of feelong scred of all that could have been happening in the first place. As I was sarting to walk in the direction of my house, I was skating around a little bit, just trying to get a hold of what I was doing, and seeing what I might accomplish with this.

Eventually, I was at my house, and I was feeling like slowly over time, I was kind of getting a head of the whole skating thing, which was making me feel a bit better. And then I was walking inside of the house, feeling that I needed to do whatever I could in order to keep my end of the bargain that I was going to help Davis and Yolei with giving Tobias some hope on the missing case of the cousin.

Scene 3: The President of Lazarus

I got in my living room, and placed the skateboard next to the couch, and I was just thinking about what to do now, since I was officially going to be helping Tobias out the next day. Or I was going to at least be trying to see what I could do to make it work. I was just feeling that this was a terrible idea, but I was not wanting to really make a deal out of it all.

Eventually, I was turning on the television, thinking that this would be a good idea to go along with, and I was just hoping that whatever I found would not be able to get out of this whole thing. I was honestly getting a bit scared out of what it would be like to help Tobias with this, since I had no idea of what Tobias was wanting to do now.

After I turned the screen on, I was seeing that it was the president of the Lazarus Coporation, Shaun Reichenbach. As I was looking at him, and I was seeing him ready to give off a speech, I was feeling that whatever he wanted to say was just a load of bullshit. I did not buy a single word of what he was saying. But in all honesty, the way he was saying it was interesting to me.

"As you all may know, that grinding noise has gone off once again, and as you may know, this has happened much too soon for anybody to feel any comfort." The president said, and I was not thinking much of it. The grinding noise was not the thing that was getting to me, it was the missing people.

"We know that many of you are worried about your daughters, and that many of you want to have them safe and sound. We assure you that we will be working as hard as we could in order to make sure that you will know that your daughters will be safe. And for that reason, we will be opening up a new operation at this town." After he had said that to me, I was really unsure of where this was going to go.

"This new sub sector of the business will be dedicated to the idea of helping you all remain safe and remain together. Thank you for all of this. And remember that at the end, we are all at the same team?" After he had said that in his presentation, I turned off the television, and I was not really giving a shit anymore.

I really did not care anymore. I was certain that the man was lying to me, and I was certain that he was going to do a damn thing to be helping these people in town. I was feeling like this whole thing was a ploy to be getting people to be feeling like they could be safe around him, and I was not really in the mood to be buying any of it.

After I was thinking about this however, it did remind me of Yolei, and I was feeling that we needed to go on and see each other, and just see if there was anything that she needed my help for. So with that, I was standing up, and I was thinking that after I checked on her, and saw that she was alright, everything would have been fine.

As I was walking along, I was seeing that my brother Matt was doing his own thing, and I was wondering what Matt was wanting to really do. "Hey, are you heading out on another date?" I asked, trying to see if that was going to be able to get him to be a bit more open with me as well.

"Yeah, Sora and I are going out again. She is a wonderful woman." After Matt had told me this, I was feeling a bit better hearing this. I was thinking that if Matt was able to find somebody who could make him feel better about life, and could make him feel like he was finally making a difference, then that was all that mattered.

"Well, I hope that you really enjoy your time here." After I had told him this, I was seeing Matt a bit unsure of what he was able to believe or disbelieve here. Almost as if he was thinking that we were making a giant mistake here.

"I will. I just think that whatever we talk about, it will not be related to that grinding noise. I just have a strange feeling about it." After he had told me this, I was shrugging, just a bit unsure of what the heck I even felt about this whole thing. I was just thinking that none of this even really mattered anymore.

"See you later. I have something that I am going to be checking up on." After I told him this, I was seeing him a bit unsure of what he was going to be saying here. I was seeing Matt looking like he almost did not even care what was going on anymore either.

Matt headed off, and I was shaking my head, totally unsure of what to be feeling here. I was thinking that whatever Matt was doing was going to be much more fulfilling and exciting than anything that I was ever doing. And when I was considering the idea that maybe Yolei did not need to be checked up on, I was shaking my head, and I felt that I needed this.

I then decided to walk out, and started to head to her house, telling myself to be calm and collected, and I was wondering if Yolei was even going to be wanting to speak at all. I was thinking that whatever Yolei wanted to do, it was going to be something that could at least give me a bit more of a peace of mind.

As I was skating down the way to her place, trying to give myself a bit more of a peaceful feeling, and then I was feeling as if there was nothing that I needed to have been so worried about in the first place. Almost like it was stupid how much I cared about what other people around me were feeling, and that I just needed to be focusing on other things.

Despite not wanting to admit it, I was actually kind of proud of the fact that my brother Matt had been having a good time with Sora, and I was thinking that the time that he would have with her would keep him more tamed, and a bit more of a happy guy. I was just thinking that if he was going to be like this a bit more, then perhaps the two of us could get along a bit better

As I was getting closer to the house, I was starting to get a bit too comfortable with this, and then I ended up falling down on the ground, and over my board, and then I ended up landing on the ground, and then I ended up screaming at the top of my lungs, trying to be calm about it all.

After I was getting up, I was looking at my arm, wincing in a minor amount of pain, and then I was just sighing, and I felt like I would just go along with this, and see what I would get out of it. After I walked up to my board again, I picked it up, and then I was just telling myself to go along with it better.

Eventually, I walked up to the door, since it was only about sixty seconds away, and then I knocked on the door, trying to find something to tell Yolei, in order to make her feel at least a little bit better though.

Once I eventually waited for a while longer, that was when Yolei answered the door, and stared right at me, and I was just seeing her kind of shocked to be seeing me here in the first place, and that I was just wondering if she was going to be kicking me out. I was feeling that if she was going to be making fun of me here, then there was nothing else that I could say here.

"So Yolei, I was wanting to just make sure that you were fine. You know, after the whole grinding noise went off. I did not anything to happen to you." After I said that to her, I was seeing Yolei looking like she was feeling a bit better, and that she was actually feeling glad to be knowing that I was still caring about how she had been feeling here.

"Thank you. Thankfully I have been doing fine. After I watched Cody, due to the noise, his mom did drive me back home though, in order to make sure that nothing would happen to me. I guess that I could thank her here." After she had said that to me, I was seeing her looking like she was then getting back to the general point here.

"I was wondering if perhaps you would be willing to help Davis and I find Tobia's cousin tomorrow. We were thinking, you know, after the noise, that he might be wanting the help. And we were both feeling that Tobias might not be doing so well." After I told Yolei this, I saw her looking a bit better here. I was seeing her looking like she could have never believed that I was willing to do this in the first place.

"I guess that maybe I can see what I would do. I mean, I never thought that you would have wanted to do this. Well, what do you plan on doing to go about it?" After she had asked me this, I was shrugging, and I was thinking about my plan a bit, and I was wondering if Davis would even want this.

"We were probably going to be walking to his house, and just see how he is feeling tomorrow. I think that this is the best that we can really do though." After I told her this, I was seeing Yolei looking like she had no real idea what to think here. Almost like she was sure that Tobias would not in any way be receptive of what was happening.

Scene Four: Friendly Bonds

We go inside of her house, and it was at this rate, when she had finally figured out what was happening with my arm. I was seeing he rlooking a bit scared for me, and I was seeing her looking like she wanted to be helping me out here. "T.K. what the hell happened?" After she had asked me this, I was looking at her, and i was clearly feeling no desire to be telling her this.

"I fell on my way here, because I was trying to skate here to get here as fast as fucking possible." I said, and then I looked at her, and then I was seeing that she was trying to find something else to say to this. Almost as if she was just feeling so guilty at this whole thing.

We went to the kitchen, where she was putting on a arm cast for me, and I was seeing her looking like she was wanting to find something to say to me, in order to just make me feel at least a little bit better. "Well, I guess that I do appreciate the effort here. I guess that we just need to focus on Tobias."

"Do you think that Tobias even wants to be hanging out with us? I mean, he might just reject literally any fucking advances that we would be having to him." I said, and I was having no real idea on what the heck to be saying here. But at the same time, I think she knew what I was feeling deep down.

As we were talking, I was hearing the main door to the house opening. "Davis always has a feeling that he has to do whatever he can in order to make things right. Almost as if he feels like this is some great war that he is supposed to be fighting or whatever." After Yolei told me this, I was seeing her roll her eyes, as if feeling that she would never be able to fully understand what the whole point of Davis's obsession to this whole thing was in the first place.

I was seeing a man who looked to be in his mid sixties, although a well kept man in his mid sixties, coming in the house."Maybe we should just walk up stairs, and talk about it there." I said, and then we went up the stairs, unsure of what to do.

Once inside of the room, I was sighing, and getting ready to talk about something else. "Do you know anything that could be able to help give us some clues on what the hell is happening?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to see what the hell Yolei might be able to tell me. I was wondering if there was anything she had that could have helped anyways.

"Honestly, I don't pay all that much attention to it. I mean, I pay a little bit of attention to it. But the fact of the matter is that I try to pretend like it will never happen to me. You know, just to give myself some form of a safe feeling." After she had told me this, I was sighing, thinking that as much as I was sort of able to see where she was coming from, that this might be a giant mistake later on in her life.

"That being said, Cody''s dad seems to know a bit. I mean, I would want to talk to him, but he always seems to be totally scared shitless. Plus he works all the damn time. So even when he is not working, I would never want to do omething that could make him worried." After Yolei was telling me this, I was shrugging, and I was really unsure of what we were doing.

"I wonder what got him so busy, and so worried about everything. I mean, I feel like he is just trying to pay attention to something else." I said, and I was feeling like there was nothing else to be talking about at all, and I was thinking that there was nothing else to be getting out of it.

We were both silent for a bit, and I was seeing that in the end of it all, that she was clearly wanting to find something else to be talking about, but the conversation that we were hearing down stairs was clearly interesting us much more than anything else that was happening.

"Are they seriously talking about this?" Yolei asked, as if feeling like she was starting to get tired of hearing this debate once again, almost as if she was just trying to find something to keep her feeling just a little bit more safe.

"We have been thinking about it lately, and we decided that we will go through with your sales pitch. We feel like there is really no choice on the matter." After Yolei's father told the guy this, the guy who came in was clearly feeling much better here.

"Thank youf or your kind acceptance. The transaction will be completed before summer is over. You will be the next in line. As stated earlier, you will get ten percent of all profits made from each sale." After the man said this, he sounded like there was nothing else to be saying on the matter, and he was starting to walk off. As I was looking right at Yolei, I saw her looking both scared and confused at what was happening.

"What did they buy? I heard them talk about this a couple of times. But I know that there is nothing that I can do that would get them to talk." She said, and then I was looking at her, clearly just having no idea what I was going to say now.

The conversation seemed to devolve after that, and then I was just getting up, and i looked at Yolei, trying to find something to say. "Davis and I will probably meet up at ten, and head to Tobia's house then. Whenever you want to do that, you can join us. But if you have no desire to do it, then that will be up to you." I said and then we were both walking down the stairs, and then we eventually saw the man looking at us, looking happier than hell to be seeing me.

Once I was looking down at the guy, and he was looking a bit surprised with me being there. Almost like he was never expecting another person to be here at all. Almost as if the very sight of me was the one thing that ruined everything he had been working on.

"Sorry, I was about to head on out." I said, and then I was shrugging, and then I was starting to leave the house, and the guy was looking like he was wanting to speak to me about something, and I was starting to feel like there was nothing that I could do, but just hear what he was wanting to tell me, and get it all over with.

"Are you T.K.?" He asked, and the way he was asking me this made me extremely uncomfortable, and I was feeling like the way that he was wanting to get me to answer this was the one way that made me feel a little bit different. "I was wanting to actually talk to you about something." After he had asked me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling there was nothing else I could do about it.

"Yeah. How do you know who I am?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to get right to the main point of this. He was smiling, and I was seeing that Yolei was now looking visibly disturbed by this whole thing, and that she was clearly never wanting to be talking about this whole thing at all.

"I know who you are because I was friends with your father back in the day. I mean, I think that it would be a good way for me to work with you." He said, and then he was pulling a card out of his pocket, and at this rate, I was seeing Yolei looking like she was just wanting to get her out of this whole thing.

I read the name real quick as "Kenta." And then after he was done with this, he was sighing for a bit, and was clearly looking like he was considering a way to be getting this into a more interesting subject. "I want to hire you for a internship, if you are willing to go with it." After he had said that to me, I was sighing, and I was thinking that there was nothing I could do besides give him some form of a answer.

"I will think about it for a bit. I will see if I will find any interest with this." I said, and then after I told him this, I was feeling like this was the best thing that I could get out of this, and that was all that I was really thinking about it, and I was refusing to think more on it there.

"Thank you." After he had said that to me, I was nodding, and then I walked out of the house, and then I started to skate away from the area, and then I was feeling like there was nothing else that I really even wanted out of it all. I just had hoped that Kenta was never going to be asking me any questions on the matter ever again.

I eventually got home that day, and then I woke up the next morning at 8:30, and I was walking out of the room, and as I was walking out of my room, I was seeing that my father was looking really shocked to be seeing me here at all. Almost like he was kind of scared of this in the first place.

"You're up rather early for summer." After he had said that to me, I was sighing, and I was just refusing to be saying anything beyond a super vague ass reply, as that was all that I could have said to make it seem like I was not doing something really fucking dangerous here.

"Yeah, I am going to be hanging out with my friend, and we are going to be meeting a new guy today." I said, and then I was thinking that I could just leave it right at that. I was thinking that there was almost nothing that I could have said that could be making my father leave the subject alone, so I ended up just grabbing the skateboard, and then I was walking out of the house.

I skated on my way to where Davis had lived, and I was sighing, thinking about what it was like to have a broken arm, and to be honest, I was just feeling that whatever Davis was going to be saying when he was going to be seeing this was going to make me just want to tell him to not really be messing with me at all.

When I eventually knocked on the door, and I was waiting for a bit, I was just thinking about what we were going to do. Eventually, I was just telling myself that no matter what Davis was going to be telling me, and no matter what he was feeling, he was going to find something to do to just make it seem like I was being a bit worried about it all.

"Yo, are you ready to talk to Tobias, and see what he might be able to tell us?" After he had told me this, I was thinking about it a bit, and I was just thinking that the way he was going at this was a way to be making things at least seem to just be a little bit better. "I wonder if Yolei is going to be coming along for the ride this time?"

"I have no idea if she is coming. But yeah, I am ready to be going. I feel like it would be best to just get this over with." I said, and I was feeling bad for speaking to him like this, and almost giving off the impression that Yolei was not really even caring about the situation. As we walked along, I was seeing Davis looking like there was a huge fear in his mind, and that he was not messing around with any of this now.

"I just feel really sorry for that guy. I wish that he never had to deal with this. I mean, it is a fucking tragedy that he had to deal with people who just brushed this all off. I guess that it took me until somebody in my class having the issue for me to finally understand how awful it must have felt." After he said that to me, I was shocked to see him take this so seriously.

"I never thought that you were going to be saying this." I said, and then I was sighing, and I was feeling like there was almost nothing else to say on it. "Anyways, I just think that he will probably be happy to be seeing anybody willing to talk to him at all." I said, and then I was thinking that maybe saying this was the only way that I was going to be lightening up the mood at all.

As we were eventually getting close to where Tobias had lived, that was when I was feeling like everything was going to be sorted out decently enough. I was just felt like I was needing to be making sure that no matter what was to come, this would be a fair conversation, and maybe just making sure he had a friend was all that I had needed.

"I guess that no matter what is to come out of this, I can feel better knowing that Tobias will be aware that he will be able to have a friend at his side, and that is all that he will really be needing." After I told Davis this, I was just trying my best to be looking at things from a glass half full perspective.

After I was saying that to Davis, I saw him looking like he was trying his best to be making things a bit different here. But despite everything that I was thinking, I decided to not be making a huge issue out of all that was coming out of this shit.

Eventually, we got to where Tobias lived, and then after I knocked on the door, I was just rubbing my eyes, and the longer that I had been doing this, the less and less certain that I was getting that this was actually a good idea. What I was once sure was going to be a wonderful idea to make it all, I was starting to take this whole thing back.

Once Tobias answered the door, for a brief second, I was seeing a minor amount of venom in his eyes. He was probably feeling like this was just a hoax, and that we never really were at his side at all. But at the same time, I was just trying to make things a bit better. "Tobias, we were wanting to see if you were going to be needing some more help here."

After I had told him this, I was seeing Tobias looking more and more like he was just trying to find the best way to be fighting with me. I was seeing that there was only one thing that was running in his mind. "Look, nobody wants to actually help me at all. I know this. I mean, why the hell would you even want to help me in the first place?" After he asked me this, I was sighing, feeling like this was going to be a rough road here.

"We were just hoping that you would be willing to tell us what happened. We felt guilty for everything that was happening, and we were feeling that it would be terrible if you never got to have your cousin return home." I said, and I was feeling like this was the best thing that I could have told him, since that would make him believe in what we were saying for now.

"Nobody wants to have her come home. If people wanted her to come home, they would have been working so hard to see this through." After he had told me this, I was then looking at Davis, and then I was seeing that at this rate, he was just looking of getting tired of this whole debate.

"Tobias, would you be willing to give us a chance? I mean, there is no reason to not let us at least try." After he had said that to Tobias, I was seeing the guy looking like he was kind of pissed at what Davis was saying here. But then he was calming down a bit, trying his best to see it from his perspective.

"If you really believe that this is the best thing that you can do, then I guess that there is no way that you are going to let it go." After he had said that to us, I was shrugging, and I was feeling like there was just nothing that even mattered anymore. I was feeling that I just needed to say something that can keep it all together.

"Anyways, thanks for seeming to have a bit of a interest in this. I mean, if this is something that you are honestly wanting to do, I guess that maybe I can see what we can work together on." After Tobias said that to me, I was seeing him walking inside of the house, and then he was letting Davis and I inside. At this rate, I was feeling a bit better about everything.

"Do you know what the last thing that she did before she was missing had been?" I asked, and then I was seeing him looking a bit unsure, and I was seeing that he was sincerely trying to be finding something that could be making some sense out of it all.

"Honestly, I don't know if there is any last thing that she was doing. I know about some friends that she was making though, and that she was going around and dating a guy." After Tobias was saying this, I was seeing him looking like he was a bit unsure of where to be going with this. I was seeing that even if he was not wanting to outwardly state it, he was actually kind of scared to admit the people that she had known.

"Who is the person that she was dating?" I asked, feeling that this could at least somewhat make him feel better about talking with him, and then Tobias seemed to be thinking about it, before clearly feeling that there was nothing to lose by just telling us right then and there.

"His name is Ocho if I remember correctly. A bit older than her, and seemed to be a relatively recluse guy from what I was able to tell, before she came along, and started to meet up and hang out with him." After Tobias told me this, Iw as seeing him looking like he was a bit unsure of where to be going with this.

"I think my brother has hung out with that guy a few times before." I said, slowly remembering his name, and feeling that there was a good chance that I might be able to see what I could get to gather from the guy. I just hoped that Matt was more willing to speak with me about this stuff, and not just brush me off.

"Well, either way, if this is true, then we need to go on and see him, and get to make him talk. I think that this could at least give us something to go off of." After Davis said that, we were eventually looking at Tobias, who seemed to be finding this whole idea a bit strange, and I was feeling like there was something he had wanted to discuss first.

"Guys, if you do not really think that this is for you guys, that is fine. I mean, I have no reason to try and make you get into this though. But if you really do want to do this, then I think that maybe we should try and talk to my sister Rachel first. She was rather close with our cousin, and I think that would be a better starting point than trying to be a dick to Ocho." Tobias said, and I was seeing that he was just trying his best to not force his family tragedy on everybody else. Almost as if feeling like he was annoying everybody with this.

"Alright, if she is here, then let's just do that." Davis said, feeling like this could be something that we were able to accomplish much better, and much easier than going to Ocho, and just forcing his way with us. With that, Tobias started to lead us to where Rachel's room was, as if feeling a bit better about everything that was going on now.

Once he knocked on her door for a bit, Davis was looking like he was considering making at leasts ome idle conversation in Tobias. To see if there was a small chance that this could break the ice just a little bit. "So Tobias, were you and your cousin ever close?" He did not feel tht this would have been too bad of a question, as it was just technically trying to get to know Tobias a bit better.

"Honestly, I think I liked her more than she liked me. She never really spent all that time and I don't know if she was a huge fan of me even when she did. But I honestly looked up to her. I thoght she was the type of person that I could be able to model." Tobias said, and I was seeing that he was feeling a bit sad at the prospect that maybe she did not like him all that much.

After saying this, Rachel opened up the door, and at first, she was clearly looking really fucking pissed that we were here in the first place, but after a moment, I was seeing her getting a bit more soft, and I was feeling like she was almost kind of just glad that somebody was there, to talk with her at all. Despite what she might want to say.

"Sorry if you were busy." I said, trying my best to at least be polite about it, and I was thinking that if she was going to be angry at us, I would rather have her just be open about not wanting to have anything to do with us or whatever. But she was slowly looking like she actually did want something to talk to us about.

"So, what are you guys up to anyways?" She asked, and I was seeing her now looking like she was slightly opening up. As if feeling like there was just no real reason to be questioning if we were being sincere or not. "It's just a bit of a hard road to go through is all."

"We were wondering if you were able to be willing to talk to us about your cousin." I said, feeling like I might as well just see what that would be able to do for her. Seeing that look on her face, she was looking like she was considering where to go with this. That I was just a strange guy, with no better way to put it.

"I mean, I guess I would tell you. But what are your personal interests in the discussion?" She said, and then I looked at Tobias, and I was seeing him looking like he had regretted ever bringing this whole discussion up in the first place, as if we were just wasting valuable time now.

"We simply wanted to know if there was anything you were aware of in her case." Davis said in a rather blunt, but still honest, point, and after saying that to her, I was seeing Rachel look like she was being a bit overwhelmed by this. But then she was calming down, and looked like there was no reason to argue with this at all.

Scene 5: The Investigation Begins

Once we were in Rachels room, I was now more worried about how we were going to be able to present ourselves, and make her understand our sincerity. I was feeling that something like this was the main thing that was going to be a challenge between her and I. I looked at Tobias, wondering what to say at the moment.

"So Rachel, did you know of all of her friends, or just the ones that Tobias told us about?" I asked, and figured that in order for her to not be annoyed with me, I needed to try and ellobrate further. "He already told us about Ocho. And it seemed like they were in a pretty good relationship for the most part." I said, feeling like the longer that I talked, the better of a chance that I had.

"Yeah, they were getting along really well. She really got along with him, and it was clear to anybody who had any amount of attention to her that he meant a whole lot to her. But there were obviously other people thatshe had known. After all, she was pretty popular among her class." She said, and Tobias looked at us, as if unsure of where to go with this.

"Do you know who they were?" I asked, and I was feeling like that was on par with the worst question I could ask her. Of course she knew who they were, if she was the one tellig me about them. I didn't think much of it though, and was just much more focused at the general moment than on the minor details of my questions.

"A couple of them named Rob and Julian. If you want to know more about it, there is a whole lot of information that is about it. I think that it would be pretty good to look at it." She said, and she was showing us a shoe box, and I was wondering if she had taken the advice that she was giving us, or if she was just trying to avoid knowing anything else that was going on.

"Are you sure that you would want them to look at this? I mean, it contained all of her favorite things?" After Tobias asked Rachel this, she was looking at him, and I was seeing that she was not really in the mood to argue with him on this choice, considering it was in her room after all.

"If they want to help, and they are being sincere about their wishes, then I have no reason to deny their request." After she had said that to Tobias, I was seeing him slowly nodding, and I was feeling like they were going through this many times before. Then with this, Davis started to perk up as well, as if feeling like he had gotten words back in his mind.

"Wait so Rachel, what did you personally think of these people? You already told us what your cousin thought of Ocho. But surely you had your own thoughts. And was there anybody else involved with this?" Davis asked, not letting the questions die off, and I was wondering how she was going to be feeling about this, since he was a bit abrasive.

"I mean, I would never want to tell it to him, as it makes me feel silly to admit, but I think that Rob is kind of handsome. But he could be a bit rough on the edges and rude at times. Julian, I barely spoken to him at all, and I feel like anybody has a long way to go to make him even remotely like you. For Ocho he seems like a okay guy. Kind of a dick at first, but he defnitely improved over time." Rachel said, and I was thinking about all that she was saying, and considering the new contexts here.

I grabbed the box, and I was looking at Rachel, and I was wondering what it was going to be taking for her to understand that we were never going to be doing anything that would make her feel like we did not care. I just was not really sure about if she was really even wanting to help at all.

"Would you want to come along, and try to help us out figure this stuff? I mean, you seem to be rather close with her, and I think that it could be good for all of us to try and work together." I said, and then I looked at her, and I was just seeing that there was a look on her face that was considering all of what I was saying, but did not have a clear answer at all.

"I think that it would be best for me to sit this one out. Focus on bettering the bonds that I do have. I think that this is what she would have wanted from me." She said, and then I was feeling like there was a small chance that what she was telling me could have been the truth, and I was thinking that it was really not in my place to even try and argue these claims at all.

"But what would everybody else want?" Davis asked, feeling like he was just having a hard time seeing it from this perspective. "What would you be wanting? I mean, you are the one who is handling everything on your own. You got to decide what you want for yourself, right."

I knew that she was going to be having a hard time to be looking at things this way, so I just ended up looking at the box, and looking at all the details that were in there for a bit. "It seemed that you really cared for her." I said, and then I looked at her, trying to find a way to be making the situation at least a little bit less awful. I was just trying to make it feel like Davis was not overwhelming her with everything that was going on. At least give her a small chance to express.

"I really do not know what I would be feeling. I mean, I did love her a whole lot. She was there for me the entire time, and the same can be said with me. We supported each other the entire way, and I always felt like we were going to be the only people who could truly make the difference we needed for each other." After she had said that to me, I was then feeling like we were going to be moving somewhere with this.

"Sorry for getting in your business." Tobias said, and I was seeing him looking a bit more calm and relaxed, as if he was almost feeling like there was nothing else to be proving here. "So Rachel, you were mentioning that you liked Rob a bit... Do you think that there is a small chance that you might want to go on and talk to him about it?" After he had asked Rachel this, she looked at him, and she was looking a bit more uncertain of what to be saying here.

"I think that when I try to talk to him, he might be finding the whole thing to be a bit silly. He might be telling me to not worry about it too much. And he might be right. I just wish that I was able to just see if it was all going to truly be worth it. If I was able to really know the answer to that question, and I knew what I was going to know if he ever liked me back or not, then I would be able to focus on the things that I guess could matter more." Rachel had no idea what she was meaning by this, I had a feeling.

"Plus, as much as I do not like to admit it, I think that he might have liked my cousin a bit, and was a bit broken when she went missing. I have a feeling that he wanted to ask her out, but since she went missing, obviously any plan of that went out of the fucking window. As if they had never mattered to begin with." Rachel said, and then she was startingto look like she was feeling bad for him.

"Guys, I think that we need to be leaving her alone here. She is clearly not wanting to talk about this." Davis said, and I was seeing the logic behind this. I was seeing that even if what we were asking was a valid enough, and decent enough question, the way that she was more focused on other things, and more focused on what she was probably just considering to be a lot of mental demons that she had been facing, I knew that we really had no spot in trying to force this on her.

As we were leaving her room, I was seeing Tobias, and I was seeing from the look on his face that whatever was on his mind was something that he was genuinely ashamed to admit out loud. "I never really thought of things in her perspective. I thought that she would never care or want that. Almost like she would have brushed it off if I even tried. But looking at her, and just hearing what she has to say, I feel like I am making a huge mistake by doing that." After Tobias said that, I was wondering if there was a way that he could explain how he had felt.

"Tobias, do you think that if you tried to talk to her now, with what you are feeling in mind, that she would now be willing to give it a go?" Davis asked, feeling like even if he never liked Davis too much, the guy wanted to be there for Tobias as much as possible, to be able to try and be a friend for a man who clearly needed it more than anything else in the world.

"I think that if I tried to do it now, and if I tried to make her see that I was being honest, she would find a way to be thinking that I was just lying. That I had no real idea what I was saying, or what I had meant for myself. She might be right. And that is the thing that makes me worried. That I am going to be out there, thinking about what I want to tell her and what I could try and say to show that we are a team, but then fail." He said, and then we were all sitting down on a table for a little bit.

"Would you want to look at all of the things in here? I mean, if you ever feel like this is not a good idea, and that you just want to bail out, then I can understand. I mean, we did try and force this whole thing on you after all." I said, and then I looked at him, and he was shaking his head, and I was aware that he was going to do only what he knew was best.

"At first, when you guys came to the door, I did not want this. I wanted you guys to get out of here, and I was feeling like you were being rather rude at this. But I understand that if I do not know what was going on, and what was happening, then maybe that was going to be the thing that would eat me up the most." He said, and then he shook his head, as if not wanting to consider what the issues his cousin had truly were.

"I think that it might be best to just go and look at what we might beable to find." After he said this, and I was seeing the more determined look on his face, I was smiling, and I opened up the box, and I was feeling that no matter what was happening, we were going to be doing things the right way this time, for the right reasons.

As we looked inside, I was seeing that it was a bunch of photos of a girl, who I assumed was the cousin, and a really fucking unbelieveably happy seventeen year old emo boy. Trust me, I get that the description seemed like a oxy moron, but you did not see those pictures.

After seeing the pictures, Tobias was smiling bit. "She loved him more than she loved anybody, even herself. They only dated about a year, but in that year, he was her entire world." Tobias told us, and I was feeling that this Ocho guy must have been a real stealer if he was able to change how somebody felt that much and that quickly.

"Is that her journal, or his?" Davis asked, and then I was looking at what he was pointing at. It was a red notebook that looked like it had seen its fair share of writing, and that it was not going to be given a rest any time soon. Tobias looked like he was sincerely unsure of how to answer that one, like he was actually trying to remember himself.

"I think that this was hers. But I think that it might be wise to go on and see what it might have to say. For all we know, we might be able to get some more details from it." After he had said that, I was thinking this was a good idea, and then with that, I was starting to open it up, and saw that the person who had been writing it had pretty solid hand writing in all honesty.

"It's not like they were trying to present this to anybody." I said, mostly trying to be funny, but at the same time, I was feeling like this was probably not really the time to be doing this. I was looking at the first couple of sentences, and I was starting to think that this was going to be nothing more than just some ramblings that some random person was making.

"Or maybe that person was just bored out of their fucking mind, and we would be wasting our time with this." I said, and then I was just telling myself not to be feeling this way, and I was seeing that both Davis and Tobias were looking like their patient had been kind of running out here.

"It looks like it might be Ocho's." I said, and then I was seeing Tobias nodding, and he affirmed that the night she went missing, he came in the house with a back pack, and that he probably put the journal in there, and that he just wanted to keep it some place safe, where he did not need to remind himself on a daily basis. With that in mind, I started to read it to them.

Scene 6: Ocho's Journal (some of it anyway)

Entry 1: So I guess that people still do these things? I mean, I fnd it to be a bit counter productive, but I know that people were going to keep getting on my business until I started to do it. Well regardless, I guess that I might use this as a chance to help describe my feelings towards a very speal girl. Or at least I am thinking she is very special, from the limited time that we have gone on to know each other.

Anyways, my name is Ocho, and I am a seventeen year old junior at high school, and on my first day of the year, I can just feel that this was not going to be the type of school year that I was really wanting. I mean, I never really had a whole lot of friends to begin with, so it was not really like I had people who were going to be there for me.

That was always the part to me that was the worst. The fact that I was here, and I was supposed to at least pretend like I was going to be getting along with all of these people, when they never once showed interest in doing the same for me. Because they were all so much more worried about keeping friendships with people they knew since first grade.

So as I was saying, on the first day, I was listening to my teacher tell us about some of the class rules, getting to let us know what the school year was like. I always kind of enjoyed the start of the school year, because the first week, maybe even two depending on the class, was a easy ride that you got to just enjoy yourself with

About five or six minutes into class, a girl showed up to class, and she was having a tardy slip. She apologized for taking so long, and then went down to the closest chair in class, which was my own. I was almost wanting to laugh for a second, considering the fact that she was the only one in class who showed up late.

But I saw from her binder, and her schedule on it, that she was only a freshman, and after I saw that, I was feeling like I needed to cut her some slack, due to the fact that she was probably needing some time to get used to her surroundings, so I decided to stop being a bit of a dick, and just let it all slide.

After about twenty minutes of class, the guy forced us to do all of these stupid "get to know the person sitting next to you" introductions, that I felt like was their way of at least wanting us to pretend like we were not completely miserable at this fucking place. As he had said that, I looked at the girl.

"First day here? I know how rough it can be." I said, and then I was holding my hands out to her, and she was shocked to see me actually trying to be gettingto know her. She was nodding along, and shook it as well.

"This place can be kind of scary when you come in here for the first time to be honest. I thought that I was ready for it all, but I guess that I didn't quite cut it yet. My name is Andrea, how about you?" She asked, and I was taking a moment to think that this was a nice name, but I did not think much on it, and I decided to get the humiliation over with.

"Ocho Tootmorsel. I don't know if the first one or the last one is worse. Whatever, not like it really matters." I said, and then I looked down at the table, and I was feeling kind of annoyed that I was so bothered over something that I really knew was not even all that important in the scheme of things.

"It's alright. I would not worry yourself too much on something so small." After she had said that to me, I was looking at her, and the sincerity of her statement seemed to be real enough. "Regardless, I am sure that you still have a couple of close friends who you get to hang out with often, right?" She asked, and I looked down at the table, unsure of what to tell her there.

"No, I don't. In fact, hardly anybody in my grade wants anything to do with me. Always find me to be that strange guy who could always freak out if people are not really polite to him. I mean, that statement is only partially true." I said, and then I was sighing, and I was wondering how people would have made me the bad guy here.

"If that is the case, do you want to make some friends this year, with people I hang out with?" She asked, and then I looked at her, and I was unsure of what to be feeling here. I was feeling that if she was beng honest here, and she wanted to be helping me get to know people better, then maybe I just needed to go along, and give it a chance.

"Yeah, I guess that I might as well. I mean, I really have nothing to lose if I give it a go." I said, and then I was shrugging, and I was thinking that if this worked out, and if these people were not total assholes to me, then maybe I could get to have a somewhat easy year at the very least. Which I fucking needed in my life for once.

"Cool, I will show you to them after school. I think everything will work out fine." She said, and I was feeling like I needed to at least give her credit for trying, and wanting to make things work out here. If this was how things were, and if she was going to be the one leading it all, then I might have a chance here.

Entry 2: I had ended up hanging out with the people that Andrea had intended to show me. I was feeling that at the very least, it was going to be worth the chance, and if it turned out to be a giant waste of time, then that was when going to be fine. But when I met them, it turned out to not be all that bad of a ordeal. Even if it didn't happen until the next day.

It was after school, and we were hanging out for a while, and I was seeing Andrea coming up to me. "Hey Ocho, you did not go along and meet my friends yesterday. Was something wrong?" She asked, and I was amazed at how forgiving she seemed to be. I was seeing that if for nothing else, she was probably just trying to find a way to help me out, and I was slowly nodding.

"I guess that I just get scared of this stuff. I mean, you have a clear friend group, and people who care about you. But I don't have that. I guess that I am just trying to focus on not looking like a fucking idiot." I said, and then she was putting her hands on my shoulder, and I was seeing her looking like she was trying her best to make me feel better.

"Come on, you won't know until you try it. Please, just once, for me?" She asked, and then I was seeing her clearly looking like she was just wanting to make this all work, and then I was sighing, and I was feeling like it was only fair to give it a chance. She gave me a chance, and I needed to do the same.

"Alright, you win." I said, and then after that, we were walking along, and then I was walking by her side, and I was seeing that for some reason, getting to see her looking like she was having the time of her life was the one thing that I needed in my life. I was thinking that this was the one thing that I should have been working on here.

Eventually, as we were walking, we saw two guys, one of which was looking like a guy who was smoking a cigarette or something, and the other guy was looking like he had been wearing clothes that had been worn out for far too long, and just needed to finally find some way to replace them.

"Hey, sorry that he did not come here yesterday. But this is the guy I was talking to you about yesterday. A really nice guy who helped me feel better in class." Andrea said, and then I sighed, and figured that I would let them introduce themselves, and I was going to see where this was heading.

"My name is Rob." The guy with the bad clothes said, and I was seeing him looking like he was relatively easy to win the trust of. I was feeling like whatever the hell the other guy was going to say, I was just thinking that it was going to be a tough cookie to finally make a real cookie.

"This guy over here is Julian. He is a bit hard to impress." Rob said, and then I was smiling, and I felt glad to be knowing that this was something that even these people were willing to admit, and when I was thinking this out, I was thinking that it was just best to be seeing where the hell this was going to head.

"I just feel like there are a lot of people out here who do not give a shit about me." He said, and then I was shrugging, and I was feeling like he was kind of sounding like the guy I would have been a couple of years ago, and I was feeling like I just needed to see where this could have been.

"I mean, that is a way of looking at it." After I had said that to them, I was feeling like I needed to stop being hard on him, and I was thinking that whatever the heck he was wanting to feel, I just would let him be feeling this way. "Anyways, so how long have you guys all been hanging out?" I asked, feeling like the least I could do was just work this out a bit.

"Rob and I have known each other since fourth grade. Julian and I have been friends since like sixth or seventh." Andrea told me, and then Julian was taking out another cigarette, and starting to smoke it a bit, and I was not really thinking a whole lot of about it. I was seeing Julian looking like he was considering something for a short moment.

"Want one?" He asked, and then I was thinking for a short moment about it. I did not really want it at all, but I wanted to be friends with this group of three, and I was willing to do whatever it took to make them like me a little bit better. So with that, I nodded, and decided to go along with it.

I grabbed the one he offered, and then he lit it up and then I was smoking for a bit longer, just trying to think a bit harder on this, and then I was wondering what I was going to be saying to make it a bit better for all of us. "So if you guys want to have some help with getting used to school, I will see what I could get here."

After I told them this, I smiled, and then I was shrugging, and I really had no clue on what I was going to be saying here. "To be totally honest with you all, this is not as bad as you guys might think it is. Just focus on what is ahead of you here." I said, and then I was shrugging, wishing that there was a better way of putting it.

Entry 3: After I got to at least be introduced to Rob and Julian, I started to feel like things were probably not as bad as I was thinking that they were going to be. I was feeling like maybe if I just worked really fucking hard, and if I tried to make them see that I was here for them, then this was going to be a better than nothing at all.

Andrea and I met up that day after school, and we were walking along, passing by the skating park that had been worked on over the last few weeks. I was never into it, but the middle schoolers, and some of the fellow high school boys were clearly loving every moment of it.

"Rob really wants to go on and give it a go. I mean, he is already talking about what he will be showing off some moves, and making a name for himself." After Andrea told me this, I was looking right at her, and I was starting to wonder why him being excited for this was such a terrible idea.

"What is so bad about him wanting to go out and try the whole skating thing a bit?" I asked, and I was genuinely not understanding what the point of this really was. I saw her looking like she was wanting to laugh at this, but since we had never had this discussion before, she seemed to be cutting me a smaller bit of slack.

"I mean, he always claims that he is interested in things, and that he wants to give it a go, but then he always turns around, and goes and takes it all back." After she had told me this, I saw her looking like she had wanted to describe it differently, but just decided to not be really worrying all that much on it.

"Well, I guess that there will come a day where eventually he will be finding something that he will enjoy. Give him a chance. Even if this is not the thing that does it for him, something else might come up." I said, and then I was seeing Andrea looking like she was honestly considering everything that I had been.

"I guess that maybe this is going to be fine. I will see where this going to be heading. But thanks for talking to me, and trying to be putting a different look on it all. I guess that I need that sometimes." After she was telling me this, I was eventually seeing that we were getting close to a house, and I was wondering what the house was going to be.

Eventually, we made it all the way up to the house, and then I was looking right at her, and I was wondering why she was thinking that it would be a good idea for me to be meeting her family. "Trust me Ocho, they will not be judging you. Just give them a fucking chance, and you will see that they will like you enough." After she had told me this, I was feeling like whatever she was saying was not going to be making it feel any different at all.

"Alright, I guess that I will see what might be coming out of this." I said, and then we went up to the door, where she opened the door, and then I was looking around, and I was seeing that there was a twelve year old boy hanging around the living room, watching some television. I saw him looking up, and being a bit unsure of what to say when he was saying here.

"Tobias, this is my new friend." After she had said that to the boy, in all honesty, hearing her call me a friend felt like the greatest thing in the entire world, and I was feeling like whatever I could have said was going to be a bit embarassing, and that I was going to look like a fucking fool.

"Andrea told me a bit about you. I was wondering if we were going to meet." After Tobias told me this, I was sighing, and I had no real clue what I was going to tell her. All that I knew was that I just needed to be finding something that could make it seem like I was not a asshole or whatever.

"How are you enjoying middle school?" I asked, feeling like that was a fair middle ground question, as it was nothing that made it seem like I was taking too seriously, but it was also showing that I was at least trying to be making a bit of a better connection, and Tobias was looking like that was a question he wished I never had asked him.

"It fucking sucks honestly. I mean, I don't even really get the whole point of it. I just try not to think too much about the fact that I have to spend three years in it." He said, and then I was actually putting that into consideration. If he had been talking this much smack about something like this with only three days done, then he must have really hated it.

"Well, at least you will be getting closer to the end of it all soon. I mean, just one day at a time." I said, trying my best to be putting at least a somewhat positive spin on this whole thing. Perhaps trying this into a perspective with him was going to not really going to be making things easier. I mean, I got to remember how it was like when I was in middle school, feeling that it was never going to be ending. I felt like there was certainly something that I could say to him to make him feel better.

Scene 7: A Group of Four

After I was done looking at Ocho's journal, and trying to decide what I was feeling about it, and wondering if there was perhaps a small chance that I could meet up with him, and see what was to come out of this, I shook my head, and I was feeling he would have no intention of even trying to speak to me here.

"Damn, I guess that it was not really a lie when people were saying that she was able to help change him up a bit. He seemed to be a whole lot more dignified with his responses on a lot of things." I said, and then I was just thinking that even if Ocho had no interest in speaking to me, then there was always going to at least be Julian and Rob that I could meet up with.

"Well, I think that Ocho would not be a bad choice in all honesty. We just need to get him to see that we are having no real issues with him. Maybe if we work together with him, and hear him out, then he will be willing to give us a chance." Tobias said, and then I looked right at him, trying to decide if what he was saying could have been true.

"What do you think Davis? Do you think that we should go on and try and approach Ocho for a bit, and see what he might have to say on the issue?" After I asked him this, Davis looked like he was totally out of his league to even come up with a answer to this question. I wished that he was not feeling this way though, since it was going to be making things a bit hard to handle now.

"I mean, I can go on and talk to him. But the fact of the matter is that he is probably rather busy wth his own things, and I doubt that he will want us to be going around, and trying to force things up that he would rather not be looking at." After he had told me this, I slowly nodded, and I was trying to be a bit better about how we were not really in the best spot.

"Sorry, but Andrea was my cousin. I think that the idea of him being a bit uncomfortable is not really all that important. I am the one who has to deal with the idea of her not being home every single day. I am the one who has to realize that every day I come in, and she is not home, that I did not do enough. I think that even if she loved him, he was just simply a boyfriend, and that is not as big of a deal as what I am going through." Tobias said, and I was looking at him, trying to decide what to be feeling here.

"I guess that he might be having a point here. I mean, everything that is going on is just sort of secondary to what the actual family is feeling here. So with that in mind, I think that we just need to be looking at what can perserve this family." I said, thinking of what to be doing for the time being as well.

"Alright, so I believe that you might be right. But what do you think we should even be doing anyways? I mean, we have so much to be looking at, and for the time being, we really have nothing to be going off of here." Davis said, just looking at the show box, and looking like he had nothing else to be saying here.

"I mean, I guess that there is the journal. But that is really about all that there fucking is to it. Without the journal, we really have nothing else to be looking at." Davis said, and then I was getting up, and to be honest, just talking about all of this, and not really going out there, and not fucking doing anything, was slowly going to be driving me insane here.

"Well, before we do anything, I think that maybe we should go on and see what Yolei has to say on the issue. think that she might have something to say here." After I said that to them, Tobias and Davis both looked like there was nothing else to say here, so they just decided to go along with it.

"Sorry to tell you, but I had completely forgot that she was even going to be in the discussion. So yeah, I think that maybe just seeing what she might hav eto say will be a good starting rate." After Tobias was saying this, I was seeing Davis looking like he was slightly pained to hear Ocho admit that he had not really considered Yolei in this too much, but decided not to say anything.

"Alright, well I think that if she is going to be involved with the discussion, we need to just see what she might have to say about it all. You know, we are going to be a real team here for the time being." I said, and then I was really fucking hoping that what I said about us being a team was not going to be a statement that I was going to be taking back soon enough.

With that, I put everything back in the shoe box, and decided to hold it, for some reason feeling like I wanted nobody and nothing else to be grabbing it, since I was having a horrible feeling that people were going to just find a way to tie it back to Ocho or whatever. You know, somehow blame him for the case.

"I will lead the way to her house." Davis said, feeling excited to be having a minor amount of a leadership role here, and I was laughing at this on the inside, wondering if Davis being the leader of our four person group was going to be a good idea or a utterly terrible one.

As Tobias was heading along, I was seeing him super excited. I was wondering if maybe he as a bit of a crush on her, and in which case, I was feeling that maybe him being open about it would be for the best, to try and see if she might have wanted to give it a chance. I would have at least try and see what I could have done with it. But I was just hoping that Davis was not going to be finding some way to be offended by it or whatever.

"So how long have you three been hanging out?" Tobias asked, feeling like he might as well try and find a bit more to break the mold on the subject, and I was unsure of how long Davis and her knew each other. But it was not going to be too hard for me.

"I met Davis and Yolei in the start of the school year. I met Yolei like the third day of the year, and then started to hang out with Davis about three or four weeks after." I said, and it was strange to be thinking about how I had been around with Yolei for far longer than I had been with Davis, but I hung around him much more.

"Yeah, I was just kind of curious, since you guys seem to be really weel connected, and to be honest, I was just wondering if it was the actual truth, or just a misconception that I had been making." Tobias said, and I was feeling like the idea of it being a misconception was going to be a really bad idea. I was thinking that there was no reason for him to be so worried over something like this.

"I would not worry about it being like that at all. I mean, I am having a great time when I meet up with them." I said, and then Davis was looking like he was just trying to focus on something, and I was wondering what the issue was. I was wondering if he was thinking about Andrea still, or just trying to think about a way to be making Tobias not have much of a chance with Yolei.

I mean, it did not take a genius to figure out that he liked her a little bit, and that he had wanted to ask her out for a while. I think that he was just scared that he was going to be looking like a bit of a idiot if he had done that. But I was thinking about how much of a idiot I was looking like, being around them all the time.

As we were getting close to Yolei's house, I was thinking that I might as well at least try and give a friendly warning to both guys, to make it seem like they might be ready for this. "Yolei might not be in the best mood here. She has something going on with a family business, and I think that she is just not super sure what to be feeling here.

"Well, it is probably not all that big of a deal to be totally honestly. I mean, it is probably nothing that we need to be getting ourselves worried over." After Tobias said that to me, I was thinking about it for a bit, and I was feeling like there was no real ned to be saying anything here. I mean, he was probably just thinking that it was not that important.

We knocked at the door, and I was thinking about it for a moment longer, unsure of what I was going to be telling him. "Maybe you're right. I guess that we will never know unless if we talk to her about it one day." After I said this, Iw as feeling a bit more unsure of what to tell him, and I was thinking that in the context of his missing cousin, it really was not that big of a deal.

After waiting for a bit, Yolei answered the door, and looked like she was just feeling a bit better that Tobias was willing to give this a chance after all. As if thinking that if he was willing to give this a go, if for nothing else, then we were going to be getting some real progress taken care of here.

"Well, how have you been?" She asked, trying to be as polite about this as humanly possible. I was just seeing that at this rate, she was just clearly looking like she was kind of feeling a bit scared to be going through this all in the first place. And to be honest, I was feeling like whatever was going to happen, we all needed to find some form of a agreement here.

"I have been doing fine enough. I mean, I was shocked to be seeing T.K. and Davis so willing to talk to me, and help me out. But it really is a pleasant surprise." After Tobias was saying that to us, i was nodding, and I was feeling like there was no other choice that we were going to be having here.

"Well, how much have you guys talked about everything?" Yolei asked, and sat down with us all on her front steps, and I was feeling like I just needed to try and find a way to be getting her to be looking at things slightly differently here. We had a big goal to be looking at, and I was thinking that she was just not focused on the minor things.

"We read a couple of things from Ocho's journal. And it was just mainly him meeting up with people, and trying to be friends with them all. He was her boyfriend, by the way, but most of the stuff in there was probably not going to be all that important to our search." I said, and then I decided not to really say anything else to it.

"Well, I think that we are not going to be getting a whole lot of progress done here while we are on a empty stomach, so we might as well just start to head on out, and see where this is going." Yolei said, and then I was looking at her, and I was aware that she was mainly just using this as a excuse to not be around the house any longer.

"Where would we even go?" Tobias asked, only slightly entertaining the idea of this, and mainly just trying to see what Yolei was planning to be getting out of this. She was shrugging, as if thinking that Tobias needed to just lay back a bit, and she would take care of it for now.

"I don't know, probably just something quick and cheap like Joyful Burger. I mean, it's better than nothing." She said, and Tobias was sighing, and he looked like there was nothing wrong with this idea. "Unless if you do not want to go along to that." After she had said that, Tobia was not saying anything.

"I mean, I have no real opinion on the subject. But now that you do mention it, I am indeed kind of hungry, so I might as well go along with this, and see what I might find here." After Tobia was saying that to her, he started to smile, and he was wondering if there was a way that this was going to be actually accomplishing anything of actual meaning.

As we had been walking along, Davis was thinking of something to be saying in order to get involved with the conversation. "So have you been to Joyful Burger lately? It seems like there is something about it that is making you not seem super excited about it." Davis said, and Tobias looked like there was no real comment he wished to be making.

"I mean, perhaps I could go on and see what Larry is like now. But that is the main thing that I am worried about right now. I barely even know the guy, but for some reason, Andrea and Ocho went there a few times, and were big fans of him." After Tobias said that, I was slightly aware of who he was talking about. He was talking about Larry Needlemeyer, the guy who had been working there longer than we had been alive.

"Well, I would not let something that silly be getting in the way of you enjoying your time there." Yolei said, and then I was feeling that Tobias was going to be making some excuse about how it was not going to be that easy, but then he was sighing, and looked like he was willing to stop saying whatever it was he had wanted to.

"I guess that you are probably right." After Tobias was saying this, he had been looking like he was feeling a bit differently now. Almost feeling like the relative insistence on these people was something that he would almost be glad to look on.

We were eventually getting closer to Joyful Burger, and I was not thinking as much about all that was happening, and I was just feeling that Tobias was just being overly paranoid, which I was able to somewhat understand, given the context. But at the same time, I was just thinking that he needed to be giving himself a bit more patience.

"Thanks for being out here for me though. I mean, despite the way that I am acting right now, it is nothing personal. I am just tyring to decide what I am supposed to be feeling here. I just wish that I had a better way of being there for you guys." After Tobias had said that to me, I was shrugging, and I was feeling like I just was only going to be able to do what I could to make Tobias understand that it was just the least that I could have done.

"Well, it would be terrble if people would not show you a basic form of kindness, and if people would not let you understand that we are just trying our best to be there for you." I said, and then I shrugged, and I was getting kind of annoyed at everything that was happening, mainly because it was reminding me of what I was feeling like I had been sort of missing out on.

We eventually made it to Joyful Burger, where we went right inside, and we were seeing that the Larry guy was working, and he looked like he was just minding his own business, as if he was just trying to get the last few minutes of his job over with so he could go home or something like that.

As I was looking at this, I was looking right at the other three. With that, Tobias was looking almost as if he was not even caring what it might have sounded like if he was going to be taken for a asshole. He was having a game mission on his mind, and he was going to do whatever it took to make sure that Larry was not going to just wanting to kick us out due to being rude.

"Hey, I was wanting to place an order." Yolei said, before Tobias could be given a chance, and we all placed in some things to help us have some lunch. To be honest, those were such a long time ago that I did not remember everything that we ordered. And to be honest, it would not matter anyways.

After we were done placing our order, Larry was calling out to Tobias, in an attempt to be making things at least slightly better, as I was scared that Larry was just wanting to make it seem like we were not going to be in a really bad relationship. "Sorry for everything that happened. It was really sad when I heard what happened to your cousin." After he said that, Tobias was actually now kind of interested in the last sentence.

"Who told you what happened?" Tobias asked, clearly unsure of what he was feeling here, and Larry looked at him, and I was seeing Larry looking like he was not really expecting the comment to get to Tobias as much as it did. He shrugged, and decided not to be thinking about it too much though.

"Just something that Ocho told me a couple of days ago. He comes by here once every week or two. And when he was here last, he told me everything that he knew. I tried to provide a mental support for him. But he seemed really set on what he was planning on doing." He said, and then after he had said that, he rubbed the back of his head, and looked like there was no real reason to be going through this anymore.

"Thank you. Do you know anything about what he is currently doing right now?" After Tobias asked this, Larry was now clearly looking like he was scared of telling Tobias more, as if feeling like whatever Tobias was going to do was going to be something clearly out of his league.

"Well, I think that he was just talking about going around, and meeting with somebody about a recording or whatever. I barely understood what he was saying. All that I knew was that he was happy about something, and I was not going to be making him feel angry with this." After he told Tobias this we all sat down on a table, and I was seeing Tobias looking like he was clearly unsure of what to be saying here.

"I feel like he is lying. I feel like there is a bit more to this than he wants to admit." Tobias said, and I had hoped to find a way to be making him feel like there was no real issues to what Larry had said, and I was considering telling him such a thing.

"I don't think he would be getting a whole lot out of lying to you. So I would be willing to give him a benefit of a doubt. Besides, there is no real reason to be thinking about anything like this anyways." I was trying to say, in order to give him a bit of a better treatment here. I was also looking at the box, and I was thinking we needed to go on and look at that again.

"Want to just see what else we might be able to find in this?" I asked, and I was looking at Ocho's journal once again, and despite the fact that I was feeling like maybe there were more important things to be going on here, I was feeling like I just wanted to see what Ocho was saying on a daily basis, and what he was considering. As I was starting to read it again, the food was coming down, and I was now suddenly feeling my hunger coming in.

Scene 8: The Game Plan

Ocho's Journal (continued)

Entry Four: After I met Tobias, trying my best to not think too much about Tobias, and not be thinking about the guys obsession with hating high school, since the whole thing was honestly just sounding kind of silly in my mind. But at the same time, I was feeling like it was even more silly that I had been thinking so much over something that did not even matter.

I was seeing Andrea during the weekend, and we were out at the school track, and she and I were talking for a bit about random things. "I would not be too worried about the guy. Tobias likes to blow everything over the top. I would just ignore it all, and focus on yourself for your own sake." After she had told me this, I was looking at her, and I was feeling a bit embarassed that we were talking about a twelve year old to this extent.

"Honestly, I just thought that he was going to be bursting a fucking blood vessel with the way that he was talking. He had been taking this whole thing way too seriously for his own good." I said, and I was trying to be feeling a bit better about the way that I was saying this to Andrea, but I did not want her to be feeling like I was putting down her cousin.

"Yeah, I mean, he is not the most popular kid at school, and it clearly gets to him a whole lot more than he wants to admit. But the truth is that he is not that bad of a guy. But I guess that maybe there is not all that much that I needed to be worried over. I would just mainly focus on trying to get through the school year." Andrea and I dropped the subject, and I was not wanting to drag something out too much.

"Anyways, are there any places that you like to go to during the weekend?" I asked, feeling like maybe if I was dropping the subject a bit, then she might be feeling like I was listening to her at least a little bit better. After I asked her this question, I was feeling like the way she was looking at me was just such a guilty expression.

"I like this one place. It is a rather strange area to go to, but it feels peaceful. The church a couple of miles away. I just like to go there since it is one of the few areas with flowers in town, and I just really like them." After Andrea had told me this, I was unsure of what the flower beds were, or what the church was, but I was feeling like there was something to see there and I genuinely wanted to go on and give it a try.

"Sure, I guess that we can go there. I mean, I don't exactly know what the spot is, but if you want to go on and see it, then I would be more than happy to give it a go." I said, and then I was just hoping that whatever this place was, there was going to be a minor amount of peace this place could help give me.

"Thank you. I mean, I know that it is not the most interesting area to go to, and that you would probably much rather be doing other things, but it means a whole lot to me." After she had said that to me, I looked at her, and I was slowly nodding, and I was thinking about what I could accomplish by going with this.

"Do your friends ever go there?" I asked, and then Andrea laughed at this, as if thinking that the question was rather cute. But then she was shaking her head, now that her disappointment was going away a bit more.

"They would be finding the whole idea silly and stupid, and I know that they are not interested in it. I wish that they were. But I know that they have other things that they would want to be doing with their time." She said, shaking her head, and I was wanting to try and make her feel a bit better, but I could not make think on it any further.

"My god, give yourself more credit. Don't be so worried over something like this." I said, and then I was looking at her, and I was feeling myself growing a small amount of feelings for her. I was actually thinking that she was one of the nicest people that I could have ever met.

"I will go there with you the next time you head there." I said, and then I was looking at her, and I was seeing her looking like she had no real idea how to be thanking me for this. But then after she had started to look a bit better, I was seeing her nodding, and then looking like she was better than ever after this.

"Thank you so much. I would love something like this. Trust me, I will be making the most of it that I can." After she was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was not wanting to admit it, but I was super happy about going through with this, since I mainly just wanted to really see her again.

"How about tomorrow?" After she had asked me this, I nodded, and I was just happy that I had a real excuse to be seeing Andrea again so soon, and I was feeling that when I tell my parents about my feelings for her, they would be really proud of me, and I feel like they would be supportive of this whole thing.

Entry Five: So Andrea showed me the church that she was talking about, and while I was not super into it, and I was not really seeing the whole appeal to it, although the flowers were kind of nice, just seeing her in that mood, and seeing her so happy over this, I knew that I could not try and do anything that would make her feel any different about it.

"See Ocho, there is nothing like this in Wayside now. I just wish that I could see the day where there was not so much of a idea on changing the way the city looks, to make it seem like a beaming metropolis, or whatever those higher ups want it to look like." She said, and I was clearly hearing the minor amount of anger in her voice, so I knew it was a real subject that she cared about in her eyes, and I was willing to hear her side of the stories.

"What about it bothers you so much?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to see what the idea here was, and I was feeling that maybe seeing what she had felt on the subject would be able to give me a actual emotion to all of this here. Which was something I was wishing for.

"The planet is slowly dying. Not because of Wayside, mind you, that has nothing to do with it, but the fact that there are always things going on out here and other cities, where it becomes clear that nobody really cares about anything but their own personal ambition." Andrea said, and I was considering all she had said.

"I thought you would be the type of woman that would see the good in everything and everyone." I said, not trying to antagonize her under any means, but I was just wanting to see where she was coming from here. I felt like I needed to, as a way of being able to understand a woman that I was slowly falling for in the back of my mind.

"If it were that easy, then I would be a really gullible person. I do see the good in people, I will grant you that half. But things, the actual actions of some people, I do not see it, no matter how hard I try on many ideals." After she had said that to me, I was trying to see where she was coming from. I figured I would try and ask her a relative trick question.

"So what is it about me that you see?" I asked, and I was sincerely wondering where this was coming from. After she had heard me ask her this, I was seeing the look on her face, and she was clearly happy to hear me asking her this. It was like a burden was lifted off of her shoulders to be hearing me say such a thing. But I was just wondering why it was such a big deal.

"I sense a level of determination in you. As if you have a certain level of grit, I suppose you can say. I mean, I know that I do not do a good job explaining this, but I believe that you are somebody who knows and believes that he can handle every single moment of what is in front of him." Andrea said, and I was feeling the fact that she was just starting to crush on the first older man who was nice to her in school.

I was not even afraid to be saying so, since I felt like there was something that was really missing out here. "Look Andrea, I really appreciate what you are saying, and I truly want to live up to this idea you are putting me by. But the truth is that I have no idea if I could be able to live up to this." I said, and then I was shrugging, and I was feeling so much better suddenly now that I was putting a level of realism here.

"I don't know Ocho. I feel like there is something that you are missing out on here." After she had told me this, I was sighing, and I was doing my best to understand it all. I was trying to make it feel like I was not honored by every word of what she was saying, when deep down, I truly was.

"Well, I think there is one thing I can agree on." I said, and I was looking at the sky from the broken roof above, and I was trying to find something to say here. "I do honestly think that watching the sun set here is a really great way to pass your day." I said, and then she was looking at me, as if relieved to be hearing this coming from me.

"Thank you for saying that. It makes me feel so much better to know that you agree with me." After she had told me this, I was seeing her looking at me, and I did not know what overcame the two of us at that moment, but at that second, I did not care. She came in to me, and then we ended up kissing, and I felt like for once, the two of us were freeing ourselves of this fear.

We held on for about ten seconds before we let go, and then sat on the bench, and stared at the sunset together, just for a moment forgetting all about the things that were happening around town, and for the only time in my entire life, not caring about the grinding sound that happened. As in that moment, I was doing something much more important to me.

...

After I was done with doing a little bit extra of reading, I looked at the other guys, and I was mainly just trying to decide what I was feeling like they were feeling at the moment. "Honestly, I think we need to be a bit more careful on who we end up hanging out with. But I think it is absolutely vital for us to go on and meet Ocho, Rob, and Julian. I think that meeting them can at least give us a minor amount of context here.

"So I think that I should be the one who tries to meet up with Ocho. You know, try and see if he was going to try and pull something on this." Tobias said, and he was looking like he was just trying his best to be fully adopting a serious persona on this whole thing. "I think that maybeT.K. and I can go on and take care of this. Since he seems to be the most mutually interested in going on to know Ocho a bit." After he had said that, I was sighing, and I was slowly nodding, feeling I needed to just go along with it.

"What will Davis and I do?" Yolei asked, trying to be finding a way for her to be fully brought into the conversation, and I was feeling that her interest in the subject was only fair. Tobias looked at her, and I was seeing that he was kind of feeling bad that he had not considered this earlier, and that they wer ein on this too.

"I think it would be best if you and Davis try and find Rob and Julian. You know, just see what you guys might be able to find by speaking to them." Tobias said, and I was seeing that there was a small part of him that was clearly just not wanting to be speaking to these people all that much.

"I guess that we can always use this box as a reference point. I wonder what this place is." Yolei said, and I was seeing her looking at a picture of a girl hanging around near a flower bed, and I was seeing Tobias looking like he was kind of a bit more interested in this piece, now that he was having a chance to look at it.

"Shit, I remember her going there once. I think it is the destroyed church or something." After Tobias was saying this, I wondered what ths church was, but I decided that maybe he was not having any intention of speaking any further on this. "I totally forgot about that. Maybe we can go there at some point."

I was seeing that there was another guy in there, a guy with a bandage on his eyes, and I was finding the appearance of the guy a bit odd, when Davis mentioned something that was sort of bringing me back down to a relative amount of speed. "That is Rob I believe. I think I saw him a couple of times before. I wonder what she was doing with him to go on to the flower bed."

"Alright, so I guess that we now have a mission statement, and it will just be a matter of seeing it all work out." I said, and then I was feeling so much better, feeling that we were now finally onto something here. I was just thinking that as long as we had something to go with now, and as long as we were able to stay united at least on this one issue, the better it was going to be for all of us. I believed we could bring Andrea back.

"Want to meet up at noon tomorrow?" Tobias asked me, referring to meeting Ocho. After hearing him ask this, and having it feel so much more official, I was nodding, and I was thinking that we would just see what the issues were going to be if we did not keep something else going here.

"Yeah, let's do that. Davis and Yolei can do whatever the hell they want." I said, winking at them, as if to show that I was having trust in them, and I was just thinking that now that we were having a real ass goal here, then there was nothing else that could stop us, no matter what the context could have been.

"I mean, as horrifying as this all is, I will not lie when I say that there is a small part of me that is kind of excited to see where this is going to head. I mean, I always did want to know what the hell was going on in this town, and I feel like maybe that this will give me a chance that I never thought I would get." Yolei said, and I was seeing that it was something of actual fear that was in her voice as she was saying this.

As I was looking at her, and I was seeing that this was not something that she was able to hide well, or even try to, I was sighing, and I was thinking about how scary this must have all been for her, and the fact that we were going around, and relatively making light out of it all, and trying to make a fucking story here, I was feeling slightly bad for that deep down inside.

"Sorry. I did not mean to be worrying you, or upsetting you." I said, and then I was sighing, trying to figure out what the hell I was even accomplishing half the time when I was around her and Davis. We were all eating our food after this, and despite the fact that everything seemed a bit unsure right now, and despite the fact that none of us had a clear motivation here, I knew we all needed to have a good time tomorrow.

"How about after this tomorrow, we will all go to the pizza place, and we can find something there that we can equally be into? You know, just for tomorrow night, have a few hours of doing whatever the fucking hell we want." I said, and then raised both my arms into the air, unaware that these were going to be some of the last few normal and happy days of my life. Truly normal and happy.

Scene 9: Dead Ends

Tobias and I were getting ready to be heading on out that next day, since it was pretty clear that both of us just wanted to see what we were going to be able to accomplish by trying to speak to Ocho as fast as fucking possible. And I was thinking that for different reasons, we were both just kind of wanting to get this whole thing over with as fast as possible now.

"I hope that Davis and Yolei do not flake out on their side of the deal. I would really hate it if you were the only one who did it." After Tobias said this, I was feeling a bit shocked to be seeing that he was actually taking this whole thing so seriously now. I was wondering if he was just no longer really interested in the excuses now.

"Well, I think that they are probably just a bit busy with what they are doing. I mean, I would not be too worried about it. They are trying to meet up with two different people after all." I said, trying my best to make him feel a bit better about the whole situation. I really did not want him to be going against Davis and Yolei all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I guess that you're right. I guess I just am so confused on so many things, and most of all, I am just wondering what the hell it was that my cousin saw in Ocho. I mean, he was a decent bloke the first few times I talked with him, and he was not a bad guy, but I think that she could have tried to do better than him." Tobias said, not being too scared of just simple expressing that feeling.

"Just let him for his own thing I guess. I mean, I read it in his journal that she was able to appreciate all the hard work that he did, being a man of his own accord, and she had felt like he was somebody who would be very determined to do the right thing, if the need ever came up." After I told Tobias this, I was seeing him at least trying to put what I said into consideration, to do his best to be seeing where she was coming from.

"I mean, I guess that I can sort of see what she is saying. But I mean, I feel like none of that stuff will mean a damn thing if we end up coming to his house, and learning that he had never even tried to be finding something. If he was just too busy being angry at the world for all of this. Almost like he was just giving up on her." Tobias said, and I was having nothing to say to this now.

"I guess that we will just see how it all turns out." I said, and then I was feeling like this was the best way that I was going to keep him on a lease, and keep him on a level where he was not going to be ripping into the guy the second he saw him.

We were eventually getting close to the front door, and I was feeling that I needed to make sure that Tobias did not do anything too rash, that he might regret. So I placed my hand on his shoulder, and looked right at him in the eyes. "Look, I understand that you want to make sure that he has been doing everything he could to keep your cousin safe. But if we get on his bad side, then there will be no point."

After I was saying this to Tobias, I saw him looking like he did not fully agree with everything that I was saying. Almost as if the idea that Ocho was the only one who could fix this all was a bit of a misguided preconception in the first place. But then he was finding himself sighing, considering the options. "Yeah, truth be told, if we get him angry at us, and hating us, then there is no real way that we will have all the answers we need. I guess that being on his good side will be good for now."

Despite the fact that he was saying this, it was clear that he was going to be busting some heads if it ever got to that point where he was feeling like there was no choice, and that he was not going to be taking no for an answer. As I was seeing this in his eyes, I sighed, and choose not to argue with it at all.

We knocked on Ocho's door, and then I was waiting for a bit, and as I was waiting, I will admit I was starting to get impatient, and I was feeling like I just needed to get the answers right away. I was not wanting to be playing the whole slow burner thing.

Eventually, Ocho's mom answered the door, and she was looking at us, as if shocked to be seeing us here. "Hey, I am assuming you wanted to talk to my son?" She asked, and then Tobias was taking a second to think about this for a bit. She was clearly making this whole thing a lot harder on Tobias than he was wanting to admit. Then he gulped for a bit, as if to recompose.

"Yeah, I need to speak to Ocho. He was the one who was dating my cousin before she went missing." After Tobias said this, he was feeling a bit more sure that she was going to find something to say that was going to somehow make Andrea the bad guy, and he was not wanting to hear the excuses at all.

"Yeah, that whole thing has been eating him alive for gods sake. He acts like everything that is happening is all his fault, and I want to help him see that nothing he ever did led to him needing to look at himself this way." After she had said that to Tobias and I, I was seeing her sighing, and looked like she was more willing to get at the main topic at hand.

"He is too busy looking around for it. He is scared, and he wants her to return home. That is all he ever cares about right now. He is unable to think about anything else, and he is looking for ever every single day, for hours on it, and he is keeping himself as busy as possible, just trying to find the fucking truth here." After she had said that, Tobias was nodding, as if feeling happy at this statement at least.

"It does make me feel better to know that he is looking for her right now." Tobias admits, and then after saying this, he was sighing once again. "My friends and I are trying to bring her home. We want her to return really badly. It has been killing me."

I was able to see that as he was going along longer, he was seeming to be more and more sincere with what he was saying, and I was thinking about what I was getting myself into by just being there around him, and not really actually helping out too much. I was thinking that in a way, I was only making things much worse for him.

"If you want to look around his room for a bit, and see if he might find something, and you want to use it, go ahead." Ocho's mother said, and I was seeing that the idea of Ocho doing this so much, wasting his entire life away in a sense, was just the worst thing she was dealing with.

"You know, I have no idea how to feel. On one hand, I am so proud of him for falling in love with somebody, and I am happy that he experienced this. But at the same time, I feel like the fact that this whole thing happened, and he became this way, almost makes it not worth it in my eyes." After she had said this, I was seeing her looking like she was clearly regretting this statement.

"I suppose I do see where you are coming from." After Tobias said this, I was seeing him looking like he was wishing to say something else, and I was seeing that he had wanted to try and argue the fact that she had brushed off Andrea in a way, but at the same time, he was letting it all sink in.

"We will help Ocho, for your sons sake. We want to help him. Thank you for giving us a chance." I said, and I was loving her, and I was walking inside, and Tobias was walking inside, and we were walking to the bedroom, just ready to get the investigation going. Once inside, we saw a picture of Ocho and Anrea together, at the bowling alley.

"To be totally honest, I had no idea that Andrea was even into bowling at all. It just seems like something that she was going to totally brush off the idea of." After Tobias said that, he was shrugging, and then he was looking like he was having nothing else to say on the matter.

"I mean, if for nothing else, it does give off a good solid location on where he might have gone. I think that if for nothing else, we can go down to that alley, and see what discussions we could have with the man who works there." I said, and I was really hoping that Tobias was going to be going with this idea. I mean, if he was going to turn down this idea, then at this rate, I was just feeling like he was never going to be taking the time to really fucking listen.

"Yeah, maybe that can work. Thanks for bringing the idea up. I was honestly just willing to totally move on, and just think that nithing was going to be coming out of it." After Tobias said this, I saw him looking like there was another thing he wanted to possibly address as well.

"Do you think that maybe when we talk to the guy, he might be thinking that we would be onto something, and that he would just tell us a lie, to get us to not think more on it?" He asked, and this time, I was the one who considered what he was saying instead. I mean, I doubted that this was true. I really did not think the guys there would have any reason to lie, but there was that part of me that just could not be fully sure.

"I think that he would be really just kind of be a shitty person if he was going around and spreading lies like this for no real fucking reason." I said, and I was just thinking about what the one thing that Tobias needed more than anything was, and that this guy not helping was only going to make it worse.

"But whatever. I mean, we will never know the truth if we do not just simply go down there, and see what this man is hiding." After he was saying this, I was seeing Tobias looking more determined than ever before. And I was seeing that he was straightening up his resolve more.

"I think there might be other things that we could find here, if we just decided to look around for a bit." I said, and I was just hoping that there was something in here that we had not been missing out on. Tobias looked at me, and I was seeing that he was just not even really caring anymore. Like he was just wanting me to be getting with the program or something.

"If there is, we can talk to Ocho about it when we find him. I am sure that we are going to be seeing him at some point." He said, and I was sighing, just not fully sure of this. I felt like this was going to be a mistake. But I was really not wanting to be pissing off Tobias at all, so I just simply nodded.

'Alright, if you say so." I said, and I was feeling a bit unsure of what to say about this. I did not know why, and I did not really know if I was just being a bit unsafe and unreasonable here, but I was feeling deep down inside that something was about to be going down.

We spent another couple of mnutes in there, just looking around to be one hundred percent sure, since i was basically pleading Tobias to just not be passing up on the chance here, and then we were leaving soon after.

One thing that I did not tell Tobias, that I did find, because I was kind of scared of how he was going to react if he did know of it, was a box that was locked under the bed. I was considering going and grabbing it, and looking around, but I did not want to be doing anything that would make our pressence too obvious here.

Besides, in all honesty, I was feeling that whatever Ocho was wanting to hide in there was probably some clues that he ended up finding on his own, and if we started to follow along those leads, before we even fully earned his trust, then I think that we were going to be in for a really fucking rough ride.

"So Tobias, are you one hundred percent sure that we are going to ever end up finding Andrea? I mean, I do not want to sound like the type of guy who is full of just doom and gloom, but I have a bad feeling that we are never going to be seeing her again." I said, and I was just really hoping that Tobias was not going to be finding anything too offensive here.

"I sure as hell hope we do find her. I want her home more than anything. But even if we never do, then I will already feel so much better for one main reason." After he had said that, I looked at him, and I was sincerely curious what the main reason behind him feeling better would be.

Before I could even ask, he ended up telling me what it was anyways. "I feel like whatever we do here, even if it fails, I can at least tell myself, sincerely, that I did try my best. I can always be taking that with me. The fact that nobodyreally put in as much effort as I did, and that I made it all work out." After Tobias said that to me, I was nodding along, feeling like that was all tha I really needed. It was a reason, and that was all I wanted.

Eventually, as we were getting to the bowling alley, I considered all that Tobias had sad, and that even if we failed to find Andrea, which deep down I was feeling was pretty fucking likely, I was feeling that we just needed to go on and give this a chance. I was feeling that as long as we tried, then at least something came out of it.

Inside the alley was nothing special, and I was just seeing a couple of people looking like they were getting ready for a game of their own, which meant that either they did not know, or care, all that much about what we were going to be in here. Which I was feeling better about.

"Hey dude," Tobias asked the guy behind the counter, and the man looked kind of confused to be hearing Tobias trying to talk to him in such a relatively upfront way. "I was wanting to talk to you about something related to my cousin."

The guy looked at Tobias, as if thinking that Tobias was insane or something, and I was not really able to blame him on this one. I mean, if I saw anybody talking to me like this, I would probably also be wondering what the hell was going on here.

"His cousin went missing a bit ago, and her boyfriend was down here with her one time a bit before that. We saw a picture of it." I said, and I was really wishing that we had taken that photo, or at least taken a photo of it, so we could have just shown him. So I just did my best to describe their appearance to him, hoping that would have been enough.

"Now that you do mention it, that does kind of ring a bell. Yeah, she was here a bit ago. But her boyfriend and her were just having a really good time, and I was just minding my own fucking business. You know, I just did not want to be getting them too angry at me here." After he said that, I was confused for abit, and then he decided to give a more simple reply here.

"The point is that they were on such a apex game that I was feeling that I could just let them be doing their own thing. Besides, in all honesty, I was thinking about something else that day anyways. Something that had bee crossing my mind." He said, and then Tobias was placing his arms on the counter, staring at the man.

"Would you mind telling me what the issue was here?" After Tobias asked this, I saw the man just rubbing the back of his neck, and I was feeling like maybe we were getting something with this, and that I just getting one step closer to finding a satisfying answer.

"I doubt that anybody would want me to go around and tell you guys what was even happening anyways. I feel like that is stuff that I just need to be keeping for myself." He said, and then I was seeing him lookng like he was feeling so much better as he was saying this, like a relief was coming over him, and I was seeing Tobias looking utterly defeated.

"I think that he will not be telling us anything Tobias. I think it would be best to just drop the subject." I said, and I was feeling kind of let down that I was saying this since I knew that Tobias was probably wanting to talk to this man really fucking badly. But at the same time, I was just feeling that I needed to try and keep a small leash on the whole thing.

"Fine, have it your way." Tobias said, and then the guy was sighing, as if feeling like there was just a unbearable amount of drama that was going on here. The man was looking at us, and I was seeing that there was something in his mind that was clearly just wanting the subject to end, but he was growing to get used to it a bit better.

"Sorry guys. But the truth is that I really have no idea what was going on with them. All that I do know is that they were talking abot having pizza with their friends after this. I think their names were Rob and Julian, and I think there was one other person in there. But that is really all I can tell you about this case." After he had said that, he was sighing, wishing for the subject to be relatively calmed by

I just left and was mainly doing this so that way Tobias would not get anotehr chance to make the subject worse. I was feeling that no matter what his personal feelings on the subject were going to be, the last thing that I was needing was for his anger over this to be dragging into what other people had been feeling here.

As we were finally getting out of the bowling alley, I was looking at Tobias, and I was feeling like this was almost a totally lost cause at this rate. I was feeling that whatever I would try to say was not going to really be sticking, and I was wondering if maybe this was just his way of coping, and I needed to fucking just accept this.

"It will be alright. I think that he was not going to tell us even if he did know. We can just brush this whole thing off. The truth is that we need to be seeing Davis and Yolei again anyways. They might have gotten something that we can use." I said, thinking about how this would calm him.

"Yeah, I guess that we can see how they are doing. You know, I am pretty excited to just hang out with you three tonight, and not have to deal with the responsibilities of this all." After Tobias said this, I was thinking about it, and I was slowly nodding in agreement with that. I think that would have easily been for the best here.

Scene 10: Giving Up

We eventually all back up at Yolei's house, and she was looking like there was something she was thinking about that was kind of making her feel a bit more uncertain of what she was wanting to be doing. I looked at Davis and I was wondering what to say.

"So how is the progress?" I asked, feeling that we needed to still keep a relatively focused mind on all that was happening, and I was seeing Davis looking like he was getting back at point. I was seeing him looking like even with the context of the subject just being about that, the news was still not all that fucking great

"Honestly? We barely found anything at all. In a way, I feel like we just kind of tried so hard to do something, and then it all ended up being a giant fucking waste of time." Davis said, not even hiding how annoyed the whole lack of anything substaintial was getting to him.

"Well, in all honesty, I doubt that we should have been expecting anything else. I think that people just either do not know about the subject, or just do not care. Why is this even remotely shocking?" I asked, as Tobias was looking like he had been thinking about this a bit further.

"Look, I just felt like there would have been something in this fucking investigation that would have been worth the time. You know, something that would show that we didn't do all of this, and then get nothing in return." Tobias said, and then he looked at Davis and Yolei, and I was seeing there was something that was making him feel a bit better.

"If there is a minor amount of good news here, it is that Ocho has not given up on this at all. He is actually looking, and he is doing his best. I guess that when I hear that, and put it all into consideration, I can't be too angry about what is happening." Tobias said, and I was hearing him sounding like he was just trying so damn had not to be almost cheering at this last part

"So I guess that maybe we can see what he will have to tell us if we can eventually fucking find him." Davis said, and then he was starting to look like he was getting a bit more of a better mood. As if he was just trying to put together some form of a good turn out here.

"I bet that we will find him sooner or later. It is not like Wayside is such a huge fucking place that nothing can be done here. I mean, it's big, but not New York City big." Yolei said, and I was seeing her looking like she was considering what to say here, as if thinking a bit better on what our new chances were going to be.

"Yeah, I guess that Yolei is right on this one. I mean, if we just stick to it, some answers will be coming up eventually." I said, and then after that, I was looking at Tobias, and Davis, and I was wondering what to be doing now.

"So do you just want to drop the whole investigation thing for tonight, and just hang out for a bit? We can pick up on it later, when we are not nearly as beaten down, and feeling like we just lost everything that we could have gotten." I said, and I was mainly doing this as a way to just try and somewhat boost moral.

"That might be for the best." Tobias agreed, and after he had said that, I was seeing him instantly getting in a much better mood, and I was seeing him clearly looking like a fucking huge as burden was being lifted off of his shoulders. And as soon as I was seeing this, I was wondering what to be doing.

"So T.K., you were trying to talk to be about that story from Onett earlier. Would you mind at least continuing that story now?" Davis asked, and then I was sighing, and I was wondering what he was really wanting out of this so badly. And to be honest, I had no intention of hiding my feelings either.

"I really have no idea why you care so much about this. I mean, for fucks sake, it is not that interesting of a story." I said, and then after I had said that to him, I was seeing Davis, and I was seeing him looking like he was just wanting to still know anyways.

"I personally find it interesting, and I just felt like you were starting to get something good with it, and I was feeling like I just needed to see where this was going to go." After Davis said that to me, I was sighing, and I was wondering what the point of even arguing with him could have been.

"I will tell you if Tobias and Yolei are also interested in this." I said, feeling that this was a fair trade, and then after I had said that, I looked at both of them, and I was kind of hoping that they were going to be shooting this down as fast as humanly possible.

"Yeah, come on, give it a chance T.K. I mean, surely it will not be all that awful." After Yolei said this, I was seeing Tobias slowly nodding, as if he was feeling like he can finally just get to know what was going on in my mind a bit better.

"Alright, you guys win, I will tell you about a bit more of what was going on with Onett. But I am only going through this once." I said, looking at Davis, feeling like he more than either Tobias or Yolei needed to really hear that, to make my point empthatically clear.

"Okay, fair deal." Davis said, and I was sighing, and I was just glad to be getting that over with, and now that we were agreeing to that, I could now focus on telling the story a bit better. I was remembering where we were leaving off, and then once I did, I started to nod, and I felt like I was now ready for what was to come.

...

I did about a two minute recap of what had happened that first day, and then when I was done doing the super simple gist, I was getting right back to it. After I was done, I was picking up right where I had left off, where Ness and I were looking at the truck near the house, and I had given Ness the crystal.

Ness put it in his pocket, as if it was the most valuable treasure in the entire world, and to be honest, given the way that they were treating the fucking thing, and coming to my house like this, I was thinking that it might as well have been.

"If they try and talk to you about it, deny knowing anything on it. No matter what you do, deny it all." I said, and I was feeling like this was the only thing that could be able to save us a bit further. As I was telling Ness this, I was seeing him nod along, and looking like he was just wondering what was going to be happening now.

"T.K., what do you even think he would be wanting with this anyways?" Ness asked, as if feeling like there was nothing else he could even say if he had wanted to. We just ended up walking instead to the truck, and I was looking at the group of people who were at the house.

The first one who saw me smiled when he was looking at me, as if low key telling me that he knew that I knew something, and that I needed to just fork it all over right then and there. "We heard that you were by the meteor last night. Some eye witnesses said so." After the man said that to me, I sighed, and I was thinking that I just needed to be straight forward about it all, for everybodys sake. But as I was looking at Ness, I was seeing that he was making it clear that we should never be doing something like this at all.

"I did go there last night. But all that I was doing was just want to see what was going on. I did not really do anything besides stare at it. I never really meant to be getting anybody worried about this either." After I said that, the man was looking at me, as if feeling like he knew that I was lying, and was just mainly trying to decide if it was going to be worth trying to push the subject any futher or not.

"We take this job very seriously, and we will really appreciate it if you would give us a clue when something does come up." After he had said that to me, he was also looking at Ness, looking like there was something else he had wanted to say, but had no real idea

"I saw him go there. I saw him looking around. I can verify that he did not do anything." Ness said, and I was shocked to be able to pull off a good enough performance where he was able to have a certain level of firm ness to it all. I was wondering if he had been practicing something like this for a while, in case if something were to indeed come along.

The man was looking like he was getting less and less tense, and looked like he was just more in a spot where he was just wanting to focus on other parts of his job. "Alright, I will leave you alone. We did not find anything at the house anyways. So I guess that there is no real need to be pressing this any further." He said, and got into the driver seat of the company truck.

After he was inside the car, and the other employees got in as well, and the car went off, I looked at Ness, and I was feeling much more scared than I wanted to admit. I did not really have a way to describe it, but I was sincerely feeling that these men were up to something, and that was just their way of trying to get closer to getting us to break.

"Well either way, I am just amazed that neither one of us really broke down. I was feeling like we were going to if the subject kept up any longer." Ness admitted, and then I was slowly nodding, and now that the worst of it was looking to be a bit more over, I was wondering what we were going to be doing now.

"I guess that there is no need to be lying to my parents too much about it though. Since I am sure that the man talked with them about it all anyways. Fucking bastard." I said, and then I was sighing, thinking about how much I did not want them to be involved, and now that they were going to be, I was just a bit angry here.

"Whatever, I mean, as long as they do not try and stop you from going any further, then I think everything will be fine, right?" Ness asked, and then I considered what he had asked for a moment, and tried to decide if what I was hearing him say might have been true.

"I guess that you might be right. I mean, they are probably going to be a bit worried for a bit, but as long as it stayed at that, and nothing else, then I suppose that it will be fine." I said, ad then I was feeling like the subject could have been closed for all I knew.

"Besides, Matt was already kind of on my case about it earlier, so it is not like I was being mister sneaky or anything." I said, recalling my older brother and the night before, and I was feeling that whatever was to come out of ths, there was always going to be him watching over me that I needed to be worried over.

"Well, I bet he will try and find some excuse about it being to protect you or something. Since he would be super worried about what was going on. Probably is just jealous that he is not the one going on a epic adventure." Ness said, and I was trying to be seeing it where he was coming from. I really was. But at the same time, I was totally unsure.

"I have no idea what goes on in the guys mind all the time." I said, feeling like that was a safe answer, which would have meant that whatever Matt was planning, and whatever Matt was feeling, I really had no fucking stake on, and I was just really hoping that there was something that was making the whole thing sincere.

"Well, I guess that maybe I brought this fucking bat for no real good reason." Ness said, just trying to find a way to make it seem like he was not too bothered by the fact that he was having no idea what was about to be happening around him.

"All that I do fucking know though is that I really just want to see that meteor again. I mean, what the hell has gotten those people so worried about it is what is more interesting to me." Ness said, and I was nodding at that one. I really had no way to disagree with him on that. There was something that those men were hiding, and there was something of a real fucking mystery, and I wanted in as well.

"So, what do you think would actually happen if we did try and go back and grab something else from it? I mean, the idea of grabbing another crystal there does seem pretty tempting." I said, thinking about how with it being done that way, we would both be able to have one, and there would never be that feeling to share, or that feeling of jealousy.

"I guess that if we tried to grab something from there, we would be on super high alert, and that we would be totally fucked in every way possible." After Ness said that, I was sighing, since I knew deep down inside that what he was saying was totally true. But at the same time, that did not stop me from wanting to know more about it, and from seeing it once again.

"I guess that maybe one is all we are getting. Which totally sucks. But what can you really do with it?" I asked, and then I was sighing, and I had no real way of saying it other than that. But then once I was done thinking about it all, I was just thinking about what the heck people were going to do if they knew what was going on there anyways.

We were walking by, just trying to find something else to talk about, and I was mainly just trying to delay when I was going to have to go back home, and try and talk to my parents about everything. To be totally honest, I really did not want to be going back there, and try to justify everything that I had been doing, to make it seem like I was not some total piece of crap or whatever.

It had seemed like we were kind of moving on from the whole meteor thing, at least a little bit, when we were talking about school and our classes, and where this whole thing was going, when we were seeing something totally fucking strange to us. The thing that just had to bring up the subject once again.

"Why is there a tent there? Are they trying to fucking cover something?" Ness asked, and at this point, I was seeing his mind running on auto pilot, and I was seeing that there was no way in hell that he was going to drop it now.

"I really have no idea what is going on. I mean, I know they will almost certainly tell us to be going here, but I really can't fucking help it." I said, and then I was looking around, feeling like a tiny bit of searching was not going to be the end of the world.

As we were looking around for a bit, I was seeing that there was a sign saying "radio active material" and then I was looking at Ness, and I was thinking that we were both kind of on the same page, but I was really fucking confused. It just seemed like this was a total fucking lie, and I was thinking Ness felt the exact same way.

"That is not true at all. I mean, clearly with the fact that we have been able to hold it just fine shows that it is not." Ness said, and then rolled his eyes, and I was feeling him on this one, and then we were going inside of his house, and I was seeing that he clearly had no more wishes to even be giving this fucking meteor a second thought.

Once we were inside of the house, I was looking at Ness, and I was seeing that he was clearly looking tired, and I was seeing that there was something about this that just made him feel over it all. "I mean, if the town wants their dirty secrets, then I guess that I will let them have them. There is really no real reason for us to be so invested in this whole thing anyways." After Ness said this, I was thinking about it a bit more, and then nodded along, and decided that I would agree with him.

We ended up hanging out at his place for most of the day, and even going into early evening, before Ness felt like there was no real choice on the matter, and that he needed me to be heading on home.

"Sorry, I really do not want to do this to you, but I have a feeling that my parents are going to not be very happy if they see you here still this late." After Ness said this, I was sighing, and thought about my parents, and how ticked they would have been, and after I thought about that, I slowly nodded, and felt like there was no real need to be arguing with this at all.

"It's alright. I have to keep my parents in mind as well, and i need to rememember what they would be like if they were seeing me doing this." I said, and then I rolled my eyes, thinking that I really should not be caring that much what they would be feeling here.

As I was ready to leave, Ness decided then and there that he was coming along. "My parents are fine with me being out at night, as long as it's within a mile. And you live closer than that." After Ness said that, I was nodding, and figured that a few extra minutes of hang out, and establishing some form of a friendship with Ness, was going to be a welcome sight in all honesty.

"God, it is just so strange to think about the fact that we are already almost done with the year." Ness said, and then I nodded. We had less then four weeks to go, and I was just counting down the days until I got out of here, and I would have three months of not thinking about how unpopular and strange I was in front of everybody.

"Yeah, I mean, we just really need to focus on that finish line. I know that I am in that mindset right now. I don't really care about anything else at all." I said, and then I was feeling like whatever else was coming along, it was all going to be relatively secondary here. I was just mainly wanting to get this whole thing finished up with at the end.

"Do you know why everybody makes fun of me anyways?" I asked, and I was feeling like I might as well hear the honest take from it, considering the fact that Ness and I hardly knew each other anyways before this.

"I mean, many of them just think that you have a bit of a quirk to you. I have no real better way of describing it other than that. Sorry." After Ness said this, I was sighing, and I was feeling that did not really help me at all, and I was feeling like I just needed to know more. I wanted to know more, so that way I could get some idea of what I could do in order to combat these statements against me and my name.

After I was saying this to Ness, making my wishes more and more heard, that was when we were hearing a strange noise, and we turned around to see that it was a guy who was wearing some form of stupid robe to cover himself. It was purple or something like that.

At first, Ness and I thought he was doing a retarded cosplay or something like that, and did not think furtheron it, until the guy literally started to shoot some fucking fire balls at us. As we were seeing these bring thrown in our direction, Ness and I hid behind a lamp post

"Okay, we are officially fucked." I said, and then I was seeing Ness nodding, as if agreeing on this, and then he was still holding onto his baseball bat. "It is a fucking stroke of god damn luck that you ended up bringing that with you today." I said, sighing at this idea, wondering what this man even wanted with us anyways.

"Maybe you can fucking bash that asshole in." I said, and I was wondering if this man was really going to be fucking going for it. I was seeing him shooting out another one, which hit the lamp post, and it started to fall down to the ground.

"What does this fucking thing have against us?" I asked, and I was feeling like whatever this thing was doing was just so beyond any realm of insanity that inane could not fathom to describe the way that this all was.

After this, the man was getting close to us, and Ness went up to it, and started to beat the thing in really hard, bringing it down further and further, and bringing it to a level where it was at least on the ground. "Split up. That way it can only track one of us down." Ness said, and then I was nodding.

Eventually, we were running like crazy, and I knew that the first thing Ness and I were going to be doing once we met up that day was discuss what the fucking hell happened. And I was also telling myself to fuck off with the statements of Matt being stupid and wrong. Clearly he knew what he was talking about when he was here. And I just needed to be quiet for once.

Eventually, I get inside of the house, and then I was sighing a long ass sigh of relief, and I was just telling myself that I would apologize to Matt first thing in the morning, and that hopefully this would get the point across, and I was just thinking about nothing else besides sleep at that moment as well.

But what the fucking hell happened? I mean, I was just confused, and I was unaware at the time, that this was going to be leading to the giant adventure that I would be going on with my friends, that was going to basically determine where everything would go.

Scene 11: The Church

After I was taking a deep breath, I was holding up my hands, this time in a relative begging manner. "Guys, for real, I can't keep this up. My voice is starting to give out. I really need a break." I said, and I was feeling the raspiness of it come through a bit further.

Thank fucking god that they were willing to respect my wishes on this one, and not be pressing me any further on it, and then that was when Yolei was looking like she was kind of wanting to talk about something as well. "I guess that if T.K. needs to rest a bit, then I can tell you some of the stuff that I was dealing with today." After Yolei said this, Davis nodded, slowly getting it.

"I wonder what even happened. You seemed like you were really on edge about something earlier." Tobias said, now showing genuine concern, and I was feeling that maybe I should be trying to help as well, since in all honesty, this was my fucking friend we were talking about here, and I would be a fucking asshole if I did not do the same.

"Well, do you guys know a man named Brad Carbunkle?" She asked, and I was officially seeing a slight blush coming on her face. I knew that Davis was not going to be super excited to be seeing this, since in all honesty, this was the girl he had a fucking crush on after all.

"I think I have heard of him one time." I said, feeling like I could at least somewhat defuse the situation a bit, when I was talking to them, and I was just really fucking hoping that saying this was going to be turning the subject away from the blush a small amount.

"Well, we went to the church, since that was where that one picture was, and we figured that since there was some solid proof that he had been there, that we might as well check the thing out, and see what we might find." After Yolei said this, I was nodding along, feeling like this was making a bit of sense now.

"Anyways, so as we were going inside, we found that he was there. And that he was clearly upset about something. I have no idea what it was though." Yolei said, and I was now offically worried about where this was going to go, since I had a feeling that if we were not careful, we could have a situation in our hands.

"That is strange. I never took him to possibly be religious from the small amount that I have heard of him." Tobias said, and then he was shrugging, as if feeling like there was nothing else to say on the matter, and that he had already finished what he neded to say there.

(Tempomary Yolei's POV)

So Davis and I go inside of the church, and as we were going inside, I honestly had a strange feeling when I was inside, and I was feeling that whatever was coming along, I just needed to be a bit more careful.

Once we were getting closer to what the alter would have been, I was seeing the flower bed that was in the pictures, and that was described in Ocho's journal, and once I was looking down, I was looking back up, and I was seeing a man with red hair praying for a bit.

"People still use this chruch for religious purposes?" Davis asked, sincerely shocked by this, and to be totally honest, I was with Davis on this one. I was just feeling like whatever this guy was doing was far beyond anything else that was considered normal. The man turned up, and was looking at us.

"There is just something that I have to do for my job. I just don't know if I can really do it. You know, I feel weak inside, and I hate it." The red haired guy said, and then I was nodding, trying to understand what he was meaning, but at the same time, I was feeling this was beyond my understanding.

"What are you needing to do?" Davis asked, and I was glad that he was the one who was asking instead of me. I was feeling that whatever he was doing, I did not want anything to do with it. He was sighing, and placed his hands in his pockets, and as I was looking at him, I realized that he was kind of attractive.

"It is all about my job. I mean, my boss is getting more and more into my business about the standards being met. He is focused on numbers, and nothing else, and honestly really nobody else. I feel like he just only cares about the money for the town." After he said that, I was thinking about it.

"Well, caring about the money of the town doesn't seem so bad actually. I mean, at least he seems like he had something that he is actually strifing towards." I said, and I was unsure if it was me being naive, or the red head guy just being unsure if he wanted to be in this job at all.

"You do not know my boss like I do. But I understand that deep down inside, he is the only one who is out here, and will actually try and make a fucking difference. But I am sorry for boring you with these details." After he had said that, he was walking off, and then Davis was calling out to him for a bit.

"What is your name?" Davis asked, and then the red head was turning around, and he was looking right at Davis, shocked at this question, and then he was thinking that there was no real reason to not answer this question. It was just some random seventh grade student after all.

"Brad Carbunkle. Thanks for talking to me." He said, and then he took another three or four steps before he stopped again, as if considering something for a bit. He turned around once again, and looked at us.

"What about you guys?" He asked, and after he asked us, I was getting pretty excited, and I was wondering if Davis was having a issue or something right now, because the way he was looking after he heard Brad Carbunkle was really fucking odd, and I was just having no idea what the issue was anyways.

"He's Davis. My name is Yolei." I said, and then I was just thinking about how rude I was finding Davis at this whole affair. After I had said that to Brad, I saw him looking down on the ground, and I was clearly feeling like I must have said something that offended him here. But I could not for the life of me figure out what the issue was.

"You're out here, and you aren't worried about the grinding noise that went off a couple of days ago?" That is really brave, I have to admit." After Brad said that to me, I was feeling like there was no real reason for him to be so worried about that. After all, it was just a fucking noise.

"I mean, it is a grinding noise. I mean, I know that I should be careful around it, and hope that it never happens to me. But until that ever becomes a worry, then I believe that I will be fine." I said, trying to explain where I was coming from with this. I was seeing Brad looking like he had no real clue what to be saying here.

"Trust me when I say that it is not that simple. But I guess that you have a different mindset than I do. But when you get to be as old as I am, then you will see that it is really not as simple as one claims it to be." After Brad said that, this was when Davis looked like he was actually wanting to object to what Brad had said a little bit.

"How old are you anyways? You do not look like you are that old at all." Davis said, and then Brad looked at Davis, and he was laughing, as if he was able to respect what Davis had meant here at the very least.

"Thirty six. Yeah, you are right, I'm nit that old. But I have experienced a lot of things here, and I know how bad it can be to just brush this whole thing off, and pretend like it is no big deal. Just don't be making any second guesses on it is all that I am trying to say." He said, and then he sighed, as if thinking that there was really nothing else that he needed to tell us now.

"What has been happening around here?" I asked, and then I was seeing Brad looking at me, and I was just seeing that he had wanted to tell me something so bad. I could see it in his eyes, and then he shrugged, as if thinking that he needed to just stop before he made it any worse.

"Just pay attention to the news. Actually listen to every word that is being said, and really ponder the meaning behind them all. If you do that, then you will figure it out." After Brad had told me this, I was feeling like I could have wished for a better answer, but I knew I would never get it.

"You mean with the speech that Shaun made to let people know that he was going to be putting more resources into funding a search team for the girls? I mean, that is a good thing right?" I asked, and I was feeling like when I talked with him this this, there was no need to fear. I mean, Shaun was giving us all hope, and there was nothing else to say about it.

"Yeah, he did make that. I totally forgot about that. Well, if you feel like he is telling the truth, then good for you, and I hope that your assumptions will be proven to be correct." He said, and he was sounding a bit more sincere about what he had been saying here.

"But I really do need to go now. My boss is going to be waiting for me, and I have a feeling that he is not going to be super happy about waiting for so long." After he had said that, I was slowly nodding, and Brad took out a cigarette and started to light it up, as he finally took the final steps out of the church, and I looked at Davis for a second.

"I can't help but feel like there is something off about that guy. I know it is probably nothing. But I seriously can't fucking help it." After he kept saying this, I sighed, and it was obvious the guy knew something. Anybody could figure that that. It was more of a matter of why he was hiding it from us.

"Well, I would just let him do what he is doing. I mean, he is probably really busy. And like he keeps saying, he had a busy schedule, and I think that it might be best to be respecting his wishes, and not be super in his face about it all." After I had said that to him, I was sighing, and I was thinking about something else, that I knew that Davis was not going to enjoy me saying.

"I got to admit though, for a old guy like him, he is pretty attractive. I wonder if I would have a chance with him if I was a bit older." I said, and then I looked at Davis, and I was seeing him just rubbing his hair, and I was wondering if he was just trying to hide something, but then I decided to say nothing. I was thinking that he was just wanting to get out of here. And for that reason, I decided to respect his wishes, and we walked off. Despite not finding anything for Tobias, which I did feel slightly awful about.

...

(Return to T.K.'s POV)

Once Yolei and I finished telling some of our stories, that was when we were getting ready to head out to get our pizza. I mean, I was honestly feeling like the pizza was the main thing to truly be looking forward to, and I was really hoping that once we were there, that sense of doom about the town would be at least somewhat gone.

"What is your favorite flavor?" Davis asked, hoping to distract us all from the main things enough to where the biggest controversy would be something like fucking pizza toppings. I think we all knew what his intentions were, but none of us were realy caring.

"I like pepproni, black olive, and jalapenos." Tobias said, and I was thinking that this was a rather simple conversatuon, and I was wondering if maybe we could be going on and getting something like this there.

We then spent the next few minutes arguing over something like this, and then I was just laughing along with it, thinking of what these guys were all saying. "How is it that the one fucking thing that like nobody can agree on is fucking pizza toppings?" Davis asked, just trying to be funny, and while I knew full well he was just trying to spread a bit of humor at the situation, I could not help but unironically agree with him.

"I think that is just the fact that everybody seems to be hating one specific thing. And then when you order a pizza for each person to fit that persons wishes, everybody goes for the plain pepperoni one anyways. It makes no sense." Yolei said, and we were all going inside of the pizza shop, where we decided to get two pizzas, each split in half, so we would all get a half pizza.

"I bet the guy behind the counter like totally fucking hates us right now." Tobias said, and then I laughed at this, and then I was just considering what he had said. I kind of felt bad for the guy who had to make them, since he looked like he was only like seventeen or eighteen, and was clearly only doing this just to have a paying job to shut his parents up.

"Well, it will all be fine. I bet when he gets off he will be going back to screwing his girlfriend and smoking cigarettes." I said, and I was laughing at this, thinking that it was a really good one. I did not really think it was that funny looking back. But for the standards of a thirteen year old, it wasn't bad.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Tobias said, and I was seeing him looking like he was trying to find more of a joke to be going with here, but decided that he was not really that funny, even when he had wanted to be, so he did not worry about it.

"We should have a sleep over soon." I suggested to Davis, and I was seeing him looking right at me, and I was seeing that he was not quite sure what to be feeling about this idea. Almost like he was worried about this question for some reason. I had no fucking idea what was getting him like that.

"I will see how my parents fare with the idea. They might not be really free or anything. But I can always ask." After he had said that to me, I sighed, and I was feeling like that was going to be a relatively let down answer. But I knew that I just needed to be happy with the fact that at least he was not just flat out saying no.

"Well, if that does not work, then I guess we can always have one." Tobias suggested and I really had no idea if he was really wanting to go through with this whole friend thing, since we hardly knew each other, and to be honest, I was still no one hundred pecent sure if he even liked me in the first place.

"Oh come on, give it a chance T.K." Yolei said, and then I started to sigh a little bit, and I was thinking that maybe I just needed to go on and give it a go. After all, Tobias needed the moment more than he needed anything else out there, and if I did not agree with this, I might be seen as the asshole.

"Yeah, maybe it would not be so bad. I guess that I just was not too sure if you would really even want to be doing something like this." I said, and then after I had told him this, I felt like I did not feel as bad anymore. All I did was just express that I was not one hundred percent sure if something would work. It was not like I was basically telling the fucking guy to go and kill himself or something like that.

"Do you think that Rachel might be a bit worried that you would be spending so much time with us?" I asked, as if feeling that if I did not address that elephant in the room, then there was going to be a good chance that Tobias was never going to be going forward with it at all.

"Rachel would be the least of my worries. I mean, she is probably just hanging out with her friends all the time. She probably would either not know, or just simply not care, if the information was brought up to her in the first place." After Tobias said that, I slowly nodded, and figure that he must have been right as he had said that to me.

We eventually got our pizza, and then I was thinking about something else. "What types of movies do you guys even like anyways?" I asked, and then I was looking at Tobias mainly, since I had known nothing about the guy, and he was shrugging, as if he had not really put a whole lot of time into thinking about it.

"I mean, I just watch whatever is in teathers. Those Indiana Jones movies are kind of cool though. I also liked E.T." Tobias said, and I was shocked to hear him say that he liked E.T. I mean Indidana Jones did not shock me too much though. But as I was thinking about this, I was looking at Tobias, and I was thinking about it a bit more when I grabbed some slices.

"Have you seen Star Wars before?" I asked, thinking that if we did meet up, I would at least show him the first one, and see what he would have felt about it. I mean, I knew it was not for everybody, but that shouldn't mean that you should never even give it a fucking chance at all.

"I think I saw a little bit of Return of the Jedi. That's the movie where the villain is the heroes dad, right?" Tobias asked, and then I was thinking about how that was the general gist, so I might as well not go too deep into it all. As I was seeing Tobias answer this though, I was seeing Davis looking like this entire situation was just fucking hilarious to him. Almost like he was just wanting to say more, but just kept it inside.

"Long story short, yeah that is the case." I said, and I was thinking that if he had already known that, then I was not going to be watsing my time wondering what his reaction to the reveal was going to be. And in all honesty, looking back at it, when you see certain hints in the second one the reveal was kind of obvious.

"Don't worry too much about it. I only seen the first one myself. It's honestly pretty good. But not really anything that I am too interested in. So I doubt I will watch the others. But you should give it a chance." Yolei said, and then Tobias was sighing in annoyance, as if telling us in his brain to just shut the fuck up about Star Wars, and let him go back to eating pizza.

"Okay guys, I get it. I should watch Star Wars. Do you have any other suggestions for me?" He said, and then we all laughed at this, and I was laughing at this, and I was starting to almost totally forget about the whole discussion of people going missing, and despite the fact I only really knew him because of his cousin, I was not really thinking too much about that any longer. I was just thinking of making the most of what we had. And starting tomorrow, we can fucking look again.

...

As this was happening, and the sun was starting to sink lower and lower into the depths, Brad was meeting up with Shaun, as per the request that Shaun had made. "How have you been holding up lately?" Shaun asked, doing his best to ease Brad into the dscussion better.

"Fine enough sir. What were you wishing to discuss?" Brad asked, not letting there be the illusion of a polite discussion. Shaun seemed to consider this idea, and almost seemed a bit let down by this, but decided not to say anything.

"Well, I was wanting to talk to you about the state of Wayside, and where I plan to head with it in the future. I feel like we have made a huge amount of progress lately, but there always seems to be something lacking in here. Something that I feel like we are missing." Shaun said, and Brad walks next to him, so they could both watch the sun set.

"What do you mean?" Brad asked, feeling that this was the strangest conversation he had ever had with this man, and had felt that there was something that this man was clearly hiding at the moment.

"I read a report about material being uncovered from the area around the camp grounds. I wish to build a factory there, in order to extract the material, so we will be able to use it for our own jobs." After the man said this, Brad was unsure of how to react.

"How do you plan to do this, and not expect some form of a protest?" Brad asked, feeling like this was the best thing he could divert the subject too, and would be something he actually could be able to work on, if he needed to.

"Many people here are too focused on their own personal ordeals that they would never care for such a thing. It would be the perfect time to do this, and you know it." After Shaun said that to Brad, this was when Brad was considering what Shaun had said. He did not like what Shaun was saying a lot, and he felt that there was a lot that could go wrong with this, but deep down, he knew the man was right.

"I just feel that those kids are going to be upset when something ruins their camp." Brad said, recalling the conversation he had with Yolei, and recalling how much she had loved these simple little things. Shaun turned at Brad, and seemed totally un-moved by these comments.

"Some times when you look at war fare, and what is best for Wayside, you have to understand that sometimes you need to be putting aside those types of things, and understand the bigger picture. One day, they will be glad that we are doing this. I assure you of this much." After Shaun said this, Brad knew the argument was lost, and gave up even trying.