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.

24. Awful Sound

Chapter 2 Episode 6: Awful Sound

June 15, 2022

T.K. finished the episode that he had finished up, and he was feeling like he needed to try and reach out to Matt for a bit. Feeling that after all this time, he had brushing off any connection with his brother for far too long. He pulled out his phone, and stared at the number for a second. After a second, he decided to go along with it, and then he called Matt. Feeling it would be worth a fucking try.

After a while, the phone had answered, and T.K. decided that he just needed to get right to the point. "Hey Matt, I was wanting to talk for a bit. I know that we have not talked for a while, and I feel like maybe it is time to really just let things go." T.K. said, and then Matt was sighing for a bit, clearly not wanting to do this at all.

"T.K., I heard that you were working on that book of yours. I never thought that you were finally going to step up, and get to work. I was worried that you were just saying that to get me to like you a bit better. But maybe I just need to give you more credit." After Matt was telling T.K. this, there was nothing that Matt would say that would make T.K. feel any better at all.

"I mean, I felt like there was no choice but to do this after all. I mean, I didn't like it. But I felt like with the fact that I don't know how much time I have left, I just needed to take advantage of my work, and get as much of this story out in the world as I possibly could." T.K. said, and then Matt remained silent for a second.

"Did something happen? You talking about not knowing how much time you have? I mean, it was one thing when we were teenagers and early twenties, given the fact that we were fighting monsters. But I think you need to stop saying that stuff." Matt said, sounding genuinely concerned for once in his life, and T.K. was finding that concern mildly amusing.

"Matt, I just feel like I need to finally get my job done. No matter how hard it might be, and I feel like I need to make every fucking god damn day count as much as possible. It is not the way that I want things to be, but that is just simply what I need to accept." T.K. was telling his brother, hoping that his brother would finally feel some sympathy for once.

"I feel like it is time to finally mend the fences. I was thinking that maybe I would come by, and see you guys during the summer. I mean, the boys might be able to like it." T.K. said, and he was wondering if Matt would be willing to look at it for that sake if for nothing else.

"That is a good point. In all honesty, they have been wanting to see you guys again. And besides, they never knew about our issues. So maybe it might be best for them at least. Okay, yeah, I see your case. Hopefully we can be able to get along for the time being if this is the case." After Matt was telling T.K. this, he had a very aggravated tone in his voice, not in the mood to be hearing this any more.

"I mean, I am sorry for everything that happened earlier. I should have been there for you guys more, and I should have never put my pride before anything else. I just sort of felt like I was better than you guys. You know, too damn proud. Never really took the time to see how you all were. Maybe I should have been happy to see what I had for once." T.K. said, feeling that the apology was enough to make him feel better.

"Yeah, see you then. I think that perhaps we can make some things work out then. But until then, I need to get to work right now." After he was telling T.K. this, the call ended, and then T.K. was sighing, feeling like he just needed to be glad that they were willing to give him this in the first place.

He looked up, and he was seeing Catherine looking at him for a bit. "So you are planning on leaving again. I want to be surprised, but to be honest, this is not at all surprising. I guess that at this point in time, I just sort of expect when you are going to be leaving, and having to have me do everything." After she was telling T.K. this, T.K. was just kind of annoyed with the way she was speaking to him.

"I have to do this. I mean, I know you might not like it. But I feel like when this is presented to me, I have no choice but to make this work. I feel like since you know the truth now, you really have no choice in getting angry at me for what I am doing." T.K. said to her, and he was seeing her wanting to argue with him really badly. But then she decided to just simply leave it.

"T.K., I do know what you are having to do. I seen the entire thing. But be honest, if this going to be what Trent wants you to be doing? Would he really approve of this in the first place?" After she was asking T.K. this, this was when T.K. was wondering what she was even trying to accomplish by telling him this in the first place.

"What are you trying to accomplish with this? If you know what I have to do, and you know why I have to lie, then I feel like you need to just accept that I really am the good guy here. Stop fucking trying to make me feel like a piece of crap for what I am doing." T.K. said, and then he was walking to the front door, before she called him again.

"Well, maybe while you are going off, trying to pretend like you are the big shot, who can save the world, maybe you need to see what you are doing with your family. I mean, everybody here is wondering what they can do to help you. But I guess that you hardly fucking care at all. You only just want to do what is best for your projects." After she was telling T.K. this, this was when T.K. was feeling that everything she was telling him was just to make him furious.

"I have no idea what I can fucking tell you. I mean, I want to help you out as much as possible. But I guess that at the end of the day, you just want to see me in pain here. I mean, I was the one who witnessed all those people dying. I was the one who witnessed people having hope in me, and then suddenly realizing that their hope in me was wildly misplaced. I guess that just simply reading these will not be enough for you to see the bigger picture." T.K. said, and then he was sitting down on the chair, thinking about the next episode of the story he would be writing.

"What is going on in your mind?" After she asked T.K. this, he was looking at her, and he was closing his eyes, wondering why in the world he was even having this conversation with her in the first place. He felt like whatever he told her, she would simply never understand.

"I am going to just try and get this book done. This is my redemption. And if you do not understand that, then I am really fucking sorry for you. But this is something that needs to be done. Please forgive me, and I hope that we can make up on this in due time.

Catherine was then thinking about what else to be saying now. "T.K., are you seriously going to be trying to fix things with your brother before you fix things with your own children? I mean, in all honesty, I feel like Trent needs to know that you are going to be there for him, no matter what. And I think that he might be kind of worried that you are not really in this for him." After she was telling T.K. this, this was when T.K. was just kind of unsure of what to tell her.

"I have to. I grew up with that man. And I broken everything with him. He deserves to know that I haven't fucking given up on him. I never asked you to agree with me, or to understand what I am doing. All that I do ask for you is to make sure that you just do not try and stop what I am doing." T.K. said, and he was wondering if Catherine was going to actually listen to what he had been saying in the first place.

"I guess that at this point in time, I need to realize that it is not really worth the fight. I know that you are going to be doing whatever you want, and I feel like the faster that I see that, the better that things are going to be." After she was telling T.K. this, he was slowly nodding. He hated the fact that he was hearing her acting like this. But he was feeling like the faster she saw the truth, the better things would be.

As T.K. was starting to get ready to go to his car, in order to work things out with his brother, this is when Catherine was placing her hand on his shoulder. He looked at him, and he was wondering what she was going to be able tell him. Something to make him see that she was still not giving up hope on him, for the time being at least.

"T.K. tell me something else. Is that stuff with labyrinth, and everything that Sheldon had gone through… Is that fucking true? Did all that stuff actually fucking happen? I mean, I read this whole thing, and it all just sounds like a fucking lot. I just want to know what to believe here." After she was telling T.K. this, this was when T.K. was considering what to tell her.

"It is all true. I mean, I have held back a lot. But now that you have read everything that I have made until this point in time, I will confirm that it is all true. I just hope that perhaps, we can be able to work together." T.K. told her, and he was feeling that telling her this was only going to be making her just sort of back down for the time being.

"I should listen to you for once. I mean, it might be hard to see the bigger picture. But I know that you are having good intentions. I mean, I know that if even half the stuff you wrote is true, then I feel like the way that your brother had been reacting is something that makes more than enough sense." After she was telling him this, that was when T.K. started to nod a bit.

"But hopefully you are starting to see the reasoning of why I am acting this way with Trent. Why I know for a fact that what I am doing is for the best for our own fucking son. I never want you to say that you agree. I know for a fucking fact that you do not. All that I need from you is a willingness to work with me. Can you give me that at least?" T.K. asked, and then after he was asking her this, he was seeing her kind of opening up a bit more.

With that, he was opening up the car, and then he was getting inside. "I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, I feel like having you just work with Trent on your own might be for the best. I am not a good father. I never have been, and I never will be." T.K. said, and then after he was telling her this, he finally felt so much better finally being able to tell he the truth.

"He needs a father figure. You are his father. I think you just need to start to take accountability for that sooner or later. I mean, I will be able to buy him as much time as I can with the book. But sooner or later, your story will not be enough to make him willing to listen. And when that happens, you need to just hope beyond god that he will be willing to listen to you." After she was telling him this, this was when T.K. was feeling that anything she would tell him was a big fucking failure.

"Shit. I was hoping that once you knew the truth, then things would be better. But I guess that maybe I am just giving myself too much hope, and that it will only be worse. I just thought that after everything that I had been doing, you would see that I was not wanting to hurt you. I will never want to hurt you." After he was saying that, he was starting up the engine, and then he was leaving her again.

He was glad that he had his laptop in the car, and he was going to head on towards Matt's house in Washington, and he was hoping that by seeing Matt once again, even if it was just for a moment, then perhaps the conversation can turn into something remotely resembling them getting along. And once the plans were made official, then perhaps that was what they needed for their family.

Scene 1: October 15, 1986, Start

Sheldon sits down, and then he was seeming to be much more at peace than he ever had been when having these discussions with his therapist.

Therapist: So Sheldon, you seem to be holding up a whole lot better than you had been earlier. Would you be willing to tell me what is making you feel so much better.

Sheldon: Honestly, I have been feeling so much happier, knowing that every time I talk with you, that feeling of anger, and that feeling of personal hatred, is going away, and the fact that talking about this is able to give me some closure.

Therapist: Sheldon, I knew that most of the time, you were kind of too hard on yourself, and that you just needed to open up a bit more for once. But I guess that seeing you this way is making me feel so much better.

Sheldon: I just felt like I needed to get somebody to know the truth. And I feel like every time I hear the awful sound, I just need to remind myself that at least it was not the one that happened the one that had just happened earlier.

Therapist: Is it because you have this ridiculous feeling of not knowing the truth? I think that you need to give yourself a break. Did you see anybody else going around and investigating this at all?

Sheldon: I mean, I feel like people started to finally take this a bit more serious. For once, when I was telling people what was going on here, they finally started to listen to me, and I had people like Dakota take me much more serious.

Therapist: Must have been really bad if he was willing to actually talk with you about this right now. I mean, I know you are going to be telling me what happened, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't super curious to know what happened right away.

Sheldon: I can see that you are probably much more invested in this story than you want to admit. For better or for worse. Maybe you can start to see why I feel a certain way the more that you are hearing all that I say.

Therapist: Sheldon, do you feel like when your family knows the truth as well, that they will be as into learning the truth, and why you had been doing this, as I have been? I mean, I would want to know what your opinion on the matter is

Sheldon: I have no idea. I feel like when I ty and talk with Cody, he still blames me for everything, and his sister is only a few months old. So what is the fucking point? But regardless, I think we need to get to the story.

Sheldon takes a deep breath, thinking about how out of all of the grinding noises, this one might have been the worst one, as strange as it was, even worse than the one that happened with Riley and Christen

Scene 2: The Fourth Of July

On the fourth of July. The one day that my boss decided to close down the gas station, and because I had the extra day off, I decided to just hang out with my friends. In order to just try and have a good night, and not be super scared of what everybody was doing.

I was sitting down on the hood of my car, and I was smoking a cigarette for a second, and I was starting to feel like for once, I was not needing to hate myself for what was happening. I then closed my eyes, and I felt like maybe I just needed to try and see what Emily was doing. After all, it had been way too long since I had seen her, and I felt like I had kind of been pushing things too far away from her.

I drove on over to her place, and I was having a feeling that maybe Todd and his friends might have been a little bit let down at the fact that I hadn't just gone right to them right away. But I feel like I did kind of made a mistake by just focusing more on the investigation, and borderline basically leaving my friends, the ones that I just hang out with normally, behind once more.

When I was at her front door, I knocked on it right away. I had a feeling that she was probably going to drop me, and just tell me that it was time for us to hang out with other people. But I was feeling like as long as I tried at least, I can settle on that notion to make me feel slightly better.

Before too long, she answered the door, and she was having a very mixed reaction to mine being here. I was feeling like I just needed to try and own up to the fact that I had been making a bunch of mistakes and I needed to just fucking relax once more.

"So Emily, I know that you might be kind of upset with me right now. Not being there for you earlier, and I feel like I should have tried to make things a bit better… But I am so fucking sorry about that. And I hope that maybe the two of us can be able to make up a bit more." I said, and then I was seeing Emily looking like she was at least wanting to consider what I had been telling her.

"Sheldon, I want to believe you, and I want to feel like we can perhaps work this whole thing out. But you just basically left me for a super long time, and hardly gave me a fucking word on what you were doing, and now suddenly you expect me to think that the two of us can make things better. I think we just need to consider if this is going to be worth it." After she said that, I sighed for a second, knowing that what she was saying was true.

"Look, I know that what you are saying is true. And I wish that I could make things right. I mean, I wasn't sure if you even liked me enough to want to see you more. So in a strange way, I was thinking that maybe I might have been doing you a favor." I said, and she was closing her eyes, clearly annoyed with the fact that I had said that.

"That was not how it was. But I guess that maybe I wonder if you are going to be able to commit more. I just have no idea knowing if the two of us can really make things work. After all, if you care more about your friends, and this investigation that you are doing, then I guess that there is nothing else that I could say." She said, and I was hearing the level of resentment grow in her voice.

"Well, Emily, would you maybe want to go and see the fourth of July fire works? Just a night where it can be us, and our friends, and no fucking labyrinth or monsters. You know, things can wait one fucking day." I said, and then I was seeing Emily looking like she was really wanting to believe what I was saying, but had a hard time doing so.

"Do you think you would actually be able to hold to that, if you say this? I want to know that this is something that you can actually fucking do…" She said, and then I was sighing as she was saying this. I knew that she was right in what she was saying, and I was wanting to tell her this. But I had a hard time really saying it.

"I mean, I certainly can fucking try. The only thing that can ruin my desire to do this is if my friends decide to bring it up. But I will try and tell them to hold off on it for the time being. Honestly, I think that this is the least that I can fucking do." I said, and then I was seeing that Emily just remained a bit silent here.

"Alright, I am willing to give it a chance. You do seem to be genuinely sorry, and I feel like perhaps we can make this whole thing work out. I hope that you are not going to be making me regret my choice." After she was telling me this, I started to feel better here.

"Thank you. I know that I am a bad boyfriend. But I think that perhaps I can try and make things right, and see what I can fucking do." After I was telling her this, I saw her looking like she was not really sure what the hell to tell me. But then she just decided to not say much at all.

I started to drive on down to the down town area, where everything had been set up for the fire works display. During this day, I was feeling more and more calm, and I was thinking about how much of a mess I had made things, and that it might have been better if I just started to relax a bit more.

"Sheldon, I know that you were doing what you thought was for the best. So I guess that I can't be too upset with you right now. I mean, what can I expect from you? Being a person who would just throw your entire life away, hanging out with people who you know and just not thinking about anything else." After she was telling me this, I was then thinking about what she was telling me now.

"I know some of my friends want me to be doing this. Just focus on the shit that I have right in front of me. I wish that I could be able to do that. You know, just pretend like nothing fucking happened. But I think that if I did that, then I would only just be giving the problem to other people." I said, hoping that telling her this would make her see what I was saying.

"Sheldon, would it perhaps be better if you did that? Just give things to other people, so they could probably be able to focus on things a bit better than you can? I mean, you have been doing this for so long, and you haven't fucking found anything. In all the years you have been doing this, have you ever really found anything at all?" After she was asking me this, the pain of what she was asking me was kind of hurting me here.

"Wow, you know how to really make me feel bad about the shit that I am doing. Do you have to be so fucking harsh about the way that I am doing this? I guess that maybe something like this does make some sense." I said, and then I was wondering what in the world I had done to get Emily and other people just not trust me at all.

"I am just being honest, and you have already seemed like you are just trying to get more honest. But if you are trying to be honest with us, then why aren't you fucking telling me what you found? I mean, you could just show me what you found, and I would see what I can do to help you out." After she was telling me this, I decided to just remain silent for a few seconds.

"I don't know if I want you to get involved in things that are beyond my control, or your control either. I understand if you are going to be pissed here. But I am a man trying to make things right, and if just throwing away what we had, even for something as nice as getting to know you, then I feel like I have no fucking choice." I said, and then I was seeing her looking like there was nothing else to tell me.

"What if I do want to get involved? What if I feel like doing this is the only way for you to see that what you are doing is fucking unacceptable, and you are only making things much worse for us by just remaining silent?" She asked as I parked my car. I was taking a cigarette out, and I hoped that I could be able to tell her anything at all that would get her to calm down.

"I don't know Emily. I just really don't fucking know. Can we just fucking agree to focus on what we can do to help our friends out? I mean, they might not really be your friends and stuff, but that is something that I already know." After I was telling her this, I saw her looking like she wanted to fight me, but then just decided to keep it to herself.

As we were walking to the center, I was seeing Emily looking like there was something else that was bothering her. "Oh god, I didn't even take the time to get a dress ready. Everybody here is going to be making fun of me, and acting like I am a slob or something." After she was telling me this, I looked at her, and I wondered why she would even give a fuck about this.

"Emily, you only have to worry about one person who might like you, and that is me. And if I say that you look great, then that is enough for you, right?" I asked, and then she was looking like she wanted to find something else to say. But then decided to remain silent at this.

"I hope you do know that saying stuff that way doesn't really make things better. It only makes me feel like you are just saying this to make me feel better here. Make me feel like I am not really like a slut or whatever." She said, and then I rolled my eyes, and I knew that I shouldn't be doing that in response. But the way that she said this was ridiculous.

"I hate how you say stuff like that. Or when anybody says stuff like that. Always makes me feel like I have no right to be having these thoughts. But a lot of people seem like they don't fucking care, and only just want to be making things better for me." After she was telling me this, I was then remaining silent for a second, and I decided to just stop talking for her sake.

"I was just trying to make you feel better. But I guess that sometimes there is nothing that I can do to make you feel better. And I wonder if sometimes, it is even worth fucking trying." After I was telling her this, I saw her looking like she was just feeling more ashamed with what she had said, and what I said.

This was when a bunch of people were showing up, and had a few fire works ready to go. As I was seeing this, I started to smile uncontrollably. "My favorite holiday of the year. One of the few times of the year that I always just take for myself. Thankfully my job closed for the day. Or else I would have already had to take a day off when I had only bene there for a few weeks." I said, and then I looked right at her, and I was wondering if she was going to hear what I had been saying.

"Honestly Sheldon, I really enjoy when I see that you are actually having some fun here. Not just always turning things into the investigation. But I guess that there is nothing that I can say that would be making you feel any different." After she was telling me this, I was really having no idea what I could have been able to say.

"Yeah, I mean, I just always remember that there are some times when I need to take a deep breath. I know how hard it can be to be right about everything. I know that it can just hurt me when I get too deep into this." After she was telling me this, I was really wondering what in the world I was even able to tell her at all.

There was a couple of fire works going up into the sky, and when they were going off, I instantly starting to smile greatly. I knew that this was what life was really meant to be for, and that every year, this was a day that I just need to go back to my inner child once more.

I wasn't even tempted to smoke a cigarette at that moment. Didn't even fucking pass my mind. I mean, I was just wanting to make sure that no matter what was happening, I would be able to redeem myself to Emily for once. And perhaps one of these days, I would be finding my of saying this to be annoying as shit.

"I do see why you like this holiday so much. To be fair though, I am more of a Christmas girl. You know, the trees, and the snow. The presents are pretty good as well. Knowing that people show how much they care for you." After Emily was telling me this, I was looking right at her, and I was wondering what she was trying to tell me.

"I am sorry if the way that I was talking about earlier was making it seem like I wasn't wanting you to hang out with your friends anymore. I mean, I know that I might have been sounding selfish when I was saying this stuff. Perhaps I should have just thought about what you wanted more than anything." After she had said that to me, I smiled at her, wondering why she was bringing my friends into this, when she clearly wanted nothing to do with them.

"I got what you are trying to say. I mean, it did kind of hurt me when I was hearing you say that. But I mean, I understand that you are probably upset, and that is something that I need to change. I have ruined everything that we could have had with us, and I guess that perhaps that is something I need to be more accepting off." I said, and then I looked at her, kind of wondering if I was even going to be saying much else to make her better.

"But I feel like things should all be about communication. And I feel like perhaps I was being a hypocrite about what I was saying a lot, since nothing that I had been doing was really showing any signs of good communication." She was telling me, and then I was wondering what else I could say to make her feel a bit better here.

"Communication. What a fucking joke. I wished that I could be able to accomplish something like that. But I feel like something like this is just not going to turn out well." I said, and then I was feeling like whatever she wanted to say, I just needed to let her say it.

"I mean, I know you might not want me to be saying this, but I am being honest. But I just want to make sure that the person who made me lose my virginity is a good person that is making me not regret what I had done." After she was telling me this, I was sighing, and I knew that what she was saying was a way to really make me feel terrible about what was happening.

"Oh shit. I was not expecting that. I hope that you will feel like I am going to be that person that you fucking need." After I was telling her this, I was feeling like nothing else that I would say would make things any different at all. And I was just going back to watching the fire works, just not thinking of how she was throwing me under the bus.

Before long, Emily and I kissed each other, and then the moment was just taking me forward, thinking about what I had lost out on at this point in time. Knowing that no matter what I could do, I would just simply bring myself back to the day when I finally felt like I could be happier once more.

When I was done, I was wondering how in the world I would be able to make her feel better about what was going on. "I will do whatever I can to help you guys feel safer. To make you guys see that nothing I will do will be putting you guys in danger willingly. And if something happens, I'm not even blaming you. I just feel like I need to make my point clear." I said, and then I was wondering if she was even wanting to hear this at all.

The next hour or so, I was then feeling so much better, and there was nothing else to be making me feel any better at all. I was just kind of wanting to see what in the world would even get Emily think any different.

Once I was in my car, I was then seeing that Emily was looking like there was something else that she was wanting to consider right now. "I know that I basically rudely told you that I want nothing to do with your friends Dakota and Ashley. I think you probably know that I am probably never backing down on things, but I was hoping that perhaps I could see Sam and Kevin." She said, and then I was seeing the last of the main fire works going off, and I was wondering what to say.

"What makes you interested in seeing Sam and Kevin in the first place? I mean, I am not saying no. But it just sounds strange. No offense." I said, hoping to see what she was trying to accomplish here. As I was saying this to her, I wondered what she would be saying now.

"I mean, they seem like good guys, and I feel like they deserve a chance to be with somebody who I know is a good friend. They deserve your time…" She said, as if trying to basically say that Dakota and Ashley didn't. I didn't want anything to do with this for now.

"Let's just get to work." I said, and then I was starting to drive off, towards their place, and I was hoping that my annoyance with the way she was talking about my friends wasn't going to be creating a massive divide between the two of us.

"So Sheldon, how have you been enjoying your job so far? When I heard that you had one, and that you were doing your best to make it work, I was honestly proud of you. As strange as that might sound." After she was telling me this, I wasn't too sure what in the world she was wanting to accomplish by telling me this in the first place.

"I mean, I have no idea if I should be saying that I enjoy it as much as I feel like I am just being important with it. I feel like nobody is really judging me as much anymore, as they now know that I am working my ass off, and planning on making my plans come through." I said, and then I was wondering if Emily was going to want to even hear something like this.

Eventually, this was when I was getting close to Sam and Kevin's house. "I mean, I have no idea what we can do by talking about the other world issues anymore. And I know that when I am on the job, I shouldn't be talking about these things. But that is only four hours a day, five days a week, taking my mind off of these things." I said, and then I was wondering if this was even nearly enough to make it worth it anymore.

"I mean, one thing that I can say in my favor is that I show up to all my shifts so far, and I have been taking things seriously enough when I am on the clock than anything else." I said, pulling up on the house, feeling like as long as I complement myself a bit, then the rest of the negative talk wouldn't bother her too much.

I got out of the car, and then I went to Kevin and Sam's house, and I was kind of hoping that they would not be there. Partly to just focus more on Emily. Partly to just to see that this mean that Kevin and Sam are having their own fucking time, and enjoying the summer vacation that they are having.

I knocked on the door, and then before too long, Sam answered the door, and he was looking like he was kind of blazed out. As funny as it was at that moment, I was feeling like I just needed to get right back to the task at hand. I was looking at Emily, and I was wondering if she was still wanting to be here anymore.

"So Sheldon, it seems like you and Emily are kind of making up right now." After Sam was telling me this, I was feeling like there was no fucking point in having this discussion right now. "That guy likes you a whole lot, even if he has a hard time stating this."

"I kind of figured that out. Considering how much he tries to make me convinced that he is the guy to make things better for me. I mean, I am wanting to believe this. But I guess that I am just going to have to keep these thoughts to myself right now." After she was telling Sam this, I was wondering if being thrown under the bus was going to be the best thing for me right now.

"Regardless, I do have to wonder what you guys are planning on doing here. I mean, I want to hang out with you guys. But seriously, I feel like I just need to know why you even think I could help you out." After he was telling us this, I saw him looking like he was kind of lost at this whole thing.

"Emily was wanting to see if you and Kevin would be willing to just hang out for a while. If you guys can't, then I feel like that is going to be fine. But we both felt like it was worth checking you out first." I said, hoping that I wouldn't get Emily too upset with how I was wording it, and the way that I interpreted what I was saying.

"I guess that I can. I think Kevin might be hanging out with one of his friends, like Todd or something. Honestly, I am kind of shocked to be seeing that you are not hanging out with him for the time being." Sam said, and then I was wondering if he even cared at all what Kevin was actually doing.

I wondered if Todd was going to be upset at what I was doing, or if he was hardly even noticing. I was kind of hoping that he was enjoying his time with other friends enough to not be making me sound like the bad guy. But I guess that deep down, I was kind of sad over what I had been getting into this all.

"I am surprised that you didn't go on and watch the fire works." After I was telling him this, I was seeing that Sam looked like he was not all that interested in hearing the banter right now. I was feeling like he needed to just see that I was just trying to be making some casual conversation, and that he was needing to be more relaxed.

"I mean, I wanted to a little bit. But the whole thing just seemed kind of wrong to me. Especially knowing that there was a good chance that Shaun usually just does this to be getting people to hang out with people and not make things worse for everybody." After he was telling me this, I was feeling that it might be best to just not be getting in his business here.

"I was just curious. If you do not want to talk about it, then I guess that I will just leave things alone." I said, hoping that he wouldn't be upset with the way that I was trying to tell him all of this right now. Sam was walking down the stairs, and Emily and I started to just follow him, wondering what he was going to be doing now.

"I am going to be going down, and maybe try to find a girlfriend or something. I mean, I know you guys would not care about something like this. But I feel like that would be something really fun." Sam was telling us, and both Emily and I were kind of wondering if there was any point in getting involved here.

"I mean, we have nothing else to do, so I guess that we can see what we can do to help you out." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Sam looking like he was just so happy to hear that I was willing to even give him a chance to entertain this idea at all.

I was also feeling that in all honesty, at least this would be getting my mind off of what was going on. I was thinking that whatever we were going to be doing, at least this wasn't all a part of some giant fucking investigation to go into labyrinth. Which like I was saying earlier, was kind of the one thing that I was not really all that interested in for today at least.

"Who are you even interested in going to meet?" I asked, and then Sam was shrugging, clearly not that interested in having some form of a giant plan. I was wondering why he was pretending to just not care all that much in the first place.

"I can't fucking be picky here. I want to just see if there is somebody that I genuinely like. Judging on something like looks is only going to be getting me so much help." Sam said, and then I was sighing, not really in the mood to be hearing him trying to be so deep here.

…

When the night was done, I was sitting down on my car hood again, and then before too long, Joy and Todd were showing up once again. I was then wondering what they were going to accomplish by doing this. "So Sheldon, I know you probably are not really in the mood to be dealing with this right now. Considering the fact that you were hanging out with your friends…" Todd was telling me, and then I was looking at him, and I was kind of annoyed that he had been bringing this up. I was not really in the mood to be hearing anything like this now.

"It's fine. I got what I wanted, and that is what I needed. Now that things are done, I guess that I will be able to fucking relax for a bit." After I was telling him this, I was seeing that Todd was kind of shocked to be hearing me say something like this in the first place.

"So what were you guys wanting to do? I mean, I know that you guys are clearly having some fucking plans here, so I feel like you just need to tell me what is on your mind." I told them this, and I was seeing that both Todd and Joy looked like they were scared of what I was acting like right now.

"Well, I just need a person to talk to. Just to think about what is going on right now. I know that you might not be all that interested in this right now. But I am scared out of my fucking mind." After Joy was telling me this, I was sighing, and I wondered what I was even going to tell her at all.

"Joy, I think you need to know that I am not going to be the friend you expect from me. But that is something that I feel like you just need to understand. But I guess that in all honesty, I will see what I can do to make you feel better." I said, hoping that by telling her this, she would just slowly calm down at least a bit.

"I just have no idea what to feel about with my parents. Every time I think about them, I want to find a way to tell myself that they are still good people. That I am looking too deeply into this. But then I think about the things you guys are telling me, and I feel like saying this might be a fucking mistake." After she was telling me this, I wondered why I was even just pretending to be at my game here.

"I do find myself sometimes wondering other various things. Such as how my mother would react if she was here. Or even alive in the first place. I mean, when it comes to things like your parents, you never realize how much you need them, or are glad to have them, until they are fucking gone." I said, and I hated talking about my dead mother. I fucking hated it.

"I mean, she died seven years ago. Nearly half my fucking life, and I am still heart broken over it, and thinking about what I could have done to change things on a daily basis. I mean, I know her death is not my fault. But it still breaks me to fucking hell." I said, wondering how many years it would take for the thought of her to not break me.

"I mean, did you ever have a great relationship with her, or is this something that you are only feeling when you start to realize how much you are losing out on? I mean, I am not trying to be a asshole here. I am genuinely fucking curious here." She said, and then I was looking at her, wondering what I would even be able to say in the first place.

"In all honesty, I have no idea if I fucking know. That is the thing that scares me. Not being fully sure what I am doing, and wondering how much my sister might love or hate me if we were still here. I just feel like perhaps if I saw her even one more time, I would apologize to her for being an annoying shitty brother who always got in the way." Joy laughed as I was telling her this, probably just trying to find a way to be making me feel slightly less bad, but having no idea how to do this.

"Wow, it seems like no matter how much you try to fucking hide it, you are not able to really have a whole lot of actual confidence. I wonder why you beat yourself up with your family and stuff. I mean, for gods sake, you just need to calm down a bit." After she said that to me, I was looking at her, wondering why she was even fucking caring at all.

"Well, I mean, it is always clear that my father loved Riley more, and even though I am trying to be making him proud as much as I can, I feel like there is a good chance that something like this will never fucking happen. But I guess that maybe this is something you will never fucking get." After I was telling them this, I looked at Todd, and I wondered what to tell him now.

"What are your plans currently? I mean, to be honest, you are much more organized at this shit than I ever will be. So I feel like perhaps you need to just take over this entire operation." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Todd looking scared of what I was suddenly throwing at him. And then I was just staring at the sky.

As other fire works were going off, I was then wondering to do. "Maybe you should see your parents Joy. I mean, they might be upset at what you are doing here. Just hanging out with friends, and not being with them for the time being." I said, hoping to make her see that maybe just being a good daughter was all that she needed.

"I don't fucking care what they need. If they liked working with me, then they would have tried to tell me what they were doing. So fucking spare me the fucking shit going on right now." After she was telling me this, I was feeling like there was nothing that I could have fucking said to make her feel any different at all.

"Jesus, this is going to be making things much worse." After I was telling her this, I was wondering what in the world I could be able to tell her. "Just at least consider what I am saying is all that I want to say. But I guess that I am not going to be making any difference with telling you this."

"Why do you fucking give a damn what I fucking feel? I mean, if I do not want to be speaking to them, and I feel like doing so might be a waste of time, then I feel like that needs to be a choice that I need to make." After she was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling like there was nothing else that I could have told to make her any different.

"You said you wanted to be having a moment to relax. If you wanted something like this, then you would have kept your parents totally alone. But I guess that maybe relaxing is literally fucking impossible, given what happened. Although we need to remember, that for now, we do not know for sure that she is involved." After I was telling her this, I was feeling like there was nothing else to say. I was just needed to shut the fucking hell up for her own sake.

"I mean, sure nothing is confirmed yet, but I think we both know that there is a really good chance that there is nothing that they can say that will change what happens. So I feel like whatever you want to tell me is just simply not going to be making things any different." She was saying, and then I was feeling like nothing I could possibly be any different at all.

"Todd, do you think that your parents would be proud of you if they knew what you had been doing? I mean, I know that this is none of my business, but I am just a bit curious." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was simply not really in the mood to be having this discussion right now.

"If they are, then I guess that they are. If they are not, then they are not. I mean, I am not going to be like Joy. But I feel like if I want to know, I will never able to know either way, due to the fact that they have never fucking spoken to me lately. I wouldn't be surprised if they just simply forgotten that I even existed." Todd said, and then he was thinking about what he had wanted to say, but wasn't sure if he wanted to commit.

"I would honestly go as far as to say that Kevin's parents feel more like parents to me ever since this whole thing happened, and that I want to try and make them feel better about what I am doing than I care for my parents." After he was telling me this, I was thinking that there was no need to even try and say more.

"Wow. And I thought that my relations were broken." I said, and then I felt like I would ask Todd what he knew. Considering the fact that Sam's assumptions were wrong, as far as I was aware, and I just wanted to know what we were getting ourselves into.

"Do you know where Kevin is anyways? Sam thought that he was hanging out with you guys. But we are both aware that this isn't fucking true." I said, and I was seeing Todd looking like he was hardly fucking caring at all. Probably just finding the change to subject to be even more annoying than anything else.

"I don't fucking know. I mean, we talked for a little bit, but then he told me that he needed to do something, and then he told me to not look too deep into this." After he was telling me this, I was thinking that Kevin's comments were deeply disturbing. Since I instantly was worried about the man in the purple jacket.

"Oh god. I wonder if he is talking to the man in the purple jacket right now. I have a fear that sooner or later, he might just want to give in and see this person. If that is the case, then I think the only thing that matters is just his fucking survival." I said, and then I was having nothing else to say to make it any different.

"Oh shit. God damn it. Why did that have to be brought up tonight of all days? And the worst part is that I am not even all that shocked if this is the case." After Todd was telling me this, I was then seeing him starting to head off, and I was wondering what his plan was right now.

"I didn't mean to be making you upset. I was just rambling. But I mean, you have to admit that it is slightly possible. Do you feel like we need to try and find him?" I asked, and then Todd was looking right at me, and I was seeing that he was wanting to yell at me. Wanting to fight this, but then he just stopped thinking of what he wanted to do, and just what he needed to do.

"I never denied that it was possible. That is the main reason that I hate this. But if he is gone, and he might be talking to that guy, then we just need to get right to work. And if he is gone, then I guess that we just need to fucking find him." Todd said, walking another few steps out, as Joy started to take a few steps behind him.

"Todd, we need to be making a fucking plan here. If you want to look for him, then you need to be making a fucking plan here." After Joy was telling Todd this, I was wondering what Todd was going to be telling her at this point. There was something in his eyes that was showing nothing but pure reluctance.

"What plan could we possibly make here? That man has us in a strangle hold, and he will be getting exactly what he wants? He wants to get us under his own wraps, and nothing that I can say will be changing this." After he was telling me this, there was a simple dark emotion there. Probably both Joy and Todd wanting to say something new, but then knowing that this was impossible.

"I mean, you never liked me at all, and now suddenly when I am throwing my life on the line, and I am doing something that matters, all of a sudden, you are wanting to make sure that I am alive? After everything that I done, accusing your parents of being involved." After he was telling her this, I had no idea what the issue was now.

"I mean, you always came off as pompous, and trying to be acting like you were so much better than everybody else. But now that you are actually doing something here, and I can't stop you, I wonder what I can do to make things different." After she was trying to tell Todd this, she was wondering if he would finally grow up, and stop associating everything with their prior issues.

"Where would this man even be in the first place? I mean, the Lazarus main company hall is going to give us nothing. We need to be making a fucking smart plan here. Can you guys fucking promise me this at least?" I asked, and then I was seeing that neither Todd or Joy were interested in hearing something like this.

"Sam said he knows something about that guy. I mean, you can try and reach out to him, and see what he might know." After Todd was telling me this, I was seeing him looking like he wanted to see if I would actually take this into consideration.

Scene 3: Documents of Joy's Parents

When I woke up the next day, I was looking around the time, and swore to myself for sleeping over an entire hour longer than I was supposed to. I was shaking my head, feeling like I just wanted to get this whole thing over with. So with that, I was standing up, and walking on towards my car.

I was seeing that my father was not in the house, so I was just kind of glad to know that I didn't have to confront him all that much. I went right towards the car, and then started to drive on to Dakota's house. I was feeling like maybe despite everything going on, and the fact that he and I were not really all that friendly with each other anymore, I just needed to give it a fucking chance.

I mean, even if Dakota wanted to just not talk with me, I felt like giving it a chance was all that I really needed. Perhaps he was willing to help me out with this whole Jenny thing, since despite how much he might not agree with what I was doing, we would just perhaps make things work out better here.

Eventually, I was at his house, and I got out of the car, and I was wondering if I was going to have to find some stuff to explain to Todd, to make him feel much better about what in the world I was even doing at all.

I knocked on his door, and when Dakota answered the door, and he was looking like he was kind of annoyed with the fact that I was trying to speak to him in the first place. "Sheldon, what are you trying to accomplish right now with this?" After he asked me this, I was sighing, and I felt like nothing I could tell him would be able to make him feel any better at all.

"I mean, I just wanted to see if you were really worried about all the things that were going on. I mean, I wish that I could have consulted with many people before I started to move on with Todd." I said, and then I was wondering if Dakota would even fucking forgive me.

"You keep saying this shit, and every time, I wanted to believe you, but then it seems like that is just not fucking true." After he was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was wondering if Dakota ever wanted to talk to me about anything else.

"Honestly, I want to make things work between the two of us again. But I feel like maybe something like this is just not going to work out." After he was telling me this, I really had no idea what in the world I was even going to accomplish here. I sat down, and I really had no idea what in the world I could even accomplish at all.

"I mean, just tell me what you want me to do, and I will start doing the fucking best that I can to make this work." I said, and I was wondering what in the world he would even say to this. I knew that I couldn't make it work. But I was willing to just try as hard as I can.

"I want you to just try and see that there is more to this world than this fucking investigation. You do not need to constantly put this investigation ahead of what you are doing. It just seems like that is all you even care about." After Dakota was telling me this, I wondered why he was even thinking that there was a remote chance I would listen to this.

"Do you seriously believe for a moment that I am actually going to find myself to agree to this idea? I think that we both know that I can't really completely give up with this. But if you want me to try and find something else to do, that can interest both of us, then I suppose that maybe I can make this work." I said, and I was wondering if he was wanting to do this in the first place.

"What would you even be able to do that can interest both of us? I mean, we both know that we have barely even done anything that both of us enjoyed in several fucking years. I feel like even suggesting something like this might be kind of a waste of time." After Dakota was telling me this, I knew that deep down, our friendship was never going to work.

"I mean, the only thing that I think we both know about that even remotely interests us is the fucking tree house." I said, and then I was looking at him, and I was wondering if he was going to go through with this idea at all.

"Oh god, has it seriously been that long since we have done something that we both enjoyed? And even that was related to the grinding noise in some way. But I guess that if this is the case, then maybe that might have to be the start we have." After he was telling me this, I was seeing that he was just relatively frustrated at this whole thing.

"I mean, we can see what it is like if we go there." I said, and then I was looking at him, wondering if he would agree with this idea. "I mean, just this once. I want to see if the two of us can connect with each other for a bit. If not, then I guess that maybe the idea of not bringing the investigation into this is just simply never going to work." I said, feeling there was nothing else to accomplish.

Eventually, Dakota and I were heading on towards the tree house, and in all honesty, I was scared. I was scared of how Dakota would actually react to what I was doing. He probably knew that deep down, I was not going to be the friend that he needed, and that we both knew that him hanging out with me was only going to be making things much worse.

"Dakota, I am sorry that I have not been there for you and Ashley all that much. I mean, I know that you are not going to accept my apologies and stuff. But I feel like it is worth mentioning that deep down, I just feel fucking horrible." I said, and I was aware that Dakota would not accept my apologies for what I was telling him.

"Sheldon, I think we both know that you are just trying to make me feel better about everything. I mean, you are always working on your friends with Todd's group and all that. I think we both know that you want to make things work with them much more." After he was telling me this, I was wondering why he was even saying this in the first place.

"Dakota, it is because Todd needs a brother like figure for him. Somebody who is going to be there that will help him through this whole issue. I think you need to understand that his issues are more important than anything else." I said, and then I was wondering what in the world he would have said to my response.

"Are you sure that you are not the one who needs the brother figure? You probably need the help just as much as he does, so try and think about that a bit more." After he was saying this to me, I was wondering what I was even going to tell him in the first place.

"Why are you even bothering asking me something like this in the first place? I mean, you already know that I have a hard time answering these types of questions here." After I was telling him this, I was feeling that Dakota was just never going to even listen to what I was doing.

"I just felt like you needed to hear what you would say. I do feel like there is some truth to this. I mean, your family got torn apart, and obviously you are going to need somebody there to make you feel better after losing your mom and sister within eight months of each other." Dakota said, and I was shocked to see that he did listen to me all these times.

When we were at the tree house before long, and I was staring up at it. I was taking a cigarette out, and I was really feeling like there was nothing that I could accomplish by this at all. "Dakota, I know that you will never accept what I say, but I know that deep down inside, our friendship was really good." I said, and decided to just remain silent after this.

Once in the tree house, I sat down, and then Dakota started to take out a bit of weed. "I have wanted to smoke this for such a long time. In all honesty, after I started to date Ashley, I started to feel like I really had no fucking choice but to at least tone it down. I mean, I love her, but sometimes it can be a bit hard to deal with." After he was telling me this, I was having no idea what to tell him.

"Wow, I never thought that you still were smoking weed quite a bit. You seemed like you always hated it when I even merely suggested the idea of smoking some weed or whatever. But I guess that maybe you just can't quit things that you are too deep into." I said, and I was feeling that there was no point in saying anything else.

"I don't even remember the last time when I had some weed. I guess that I was just worried about how my father would easily find the smell. I mean, with cigarettes, who gives a fuck? Everybody is allowed to fucking have it." I said, and I wondered how much I was so worried about what my father was always saying about me.

"Honestly, I think that your dad seems to be decently proud of you for all the work that you have been doing." Dakota said, and hearing him say this was honestly something that would be making me feel better. I mean, it was one thing to hear my dad say something, just to make me feel better. But when other people can say that it isn't a fucking lie, makes me feel better.

"I am sorry that last summer, I started to spend so much more time with Jamie than I spent with you. It seemed like you were rather upset at the fact that I barely even acknowledged your existence most of the time. I guess that maybe I should just try and see what you want to tell me more." I said, knowing that he did not really enjoy how much I just kind of gave up on him and Ashley for Jamie.

"I mean, I should have known that something like this was going to happen. But I feel like maybe when I saw that, I just started to realize that we were never going to be hanging out forever. I guess that maybe that knowledge just made me feel so much worse. I got jealous, and I wished that I could express what I was saying more." Dakota said, and I felt there was nothing else to say now about that.

I was just looking at the weed he was starting to smoke, and I was wondering why I cared so much what he was thinking about me. We were not nearly as much on good terms as before, and nothing I would ever do would be able to change that, no matter how much I wanted things to change.

"Hey Sheldon, can I be honest with you?" Dakota asked, and then I was looking at him, and I was feeling like I just needed to let him have his moment. "When I was younger, in the six months or so before Riley went missing after you moved here, I actually did have a small crush on her."

I was laughing at that. "I honestly did not know that. I mean, I was probably so obvious with the whole Christen thing that anybody who was being at least slightly less open about it than I was, probably was going to get away with what they were feeling here." I said, feeling like the whole Christen thing was always hard for me to talk about.

"Did you ever think that you and Christen would have had much of a chance if she lived? I mean, I think that if you got several years older, then maybe. But I think that she was already getting closer with Riley as well." Dakota was telling me, and I was wondering if he was admitting that he was thinking that Christen was queer like Riley.

I figured that I would tell him the truth, since it was years later. "So I found out when Riley had gone missing, from a thing she wrote here, and then some journal entries later on, that Riley was gay. She had a crush on Christen, and some other girls as well. The journal revealed that she had revealed it to dad a week or two after mom died. Mom's death, his promotion, and his fear of Riley being lesbian in the south, all added up to the move." After I said this, feeling that by this point, nobody would care if they knew that she was gay.

"Yeah, I guess that makes some sense. I mean, she was always jealous every time Christen was talking with you, and she didn't really seem like she was all that close with Benjamin to be honest. So I feel like she was wanting to maybe have people just not get too close to her." After Dakota was telling me this, I was wondering if he was actually really believing this or not.

"I will be honest, but the truth is that I do understand why you care so much about learning the truth about Riley. I have been so scared of what would possibly happen to Ashley, that I start to just think about all the revenge that I would want to get." He said, and I was wondering if Ashley was even going to be a likely target anyways.

"I think that I am just a fucking coward. And that is why I am scared of working with you at all. Because I know that deep down, I want to know as much as you do, but I feel like unless if it affects me, then there is no reason to get too deep into this." After Dakota was telling me this, I was wondering why he was finally feeling like it was time to open up with me here.

"Do you have any thoughts and theories about the fucking grinding noise this time? In all honesty, I kind of want to know more. And since you are going into this whole thing anyways, I figured that it could be worth a look." Dakota said, and I was feeling like this was just not really worth the look.

"Well, Todd has a theory on who it is. He has a theory that it will be his teacher, Mrs. Jewels. I feel like perhaps we need to at least give this a fucking chance." I said, and then after I was telling him this, I was wondering if Dakota had any thoughts on this idea at all.

"Oh, why in the world would they go after a older woman anyways? I mean, not to be rude, but they always seem to be going after teenagers and shit. I think the oldest one that I have ever seen go missing was like twenty two." Dakota said, and then I was shrugging, not sure what I could even tell him in the first place.

"I don't know. I mean, Mrs. Jewels could be like twenty four or something. You know, which is not that much older than the age you said. Just a fucking idea." I said, and then I looked over at Dakota, feeling like what I was saying had a possibility to this. "Honestly though, I feel one of Todd's friends might be the next victim here. After all, she has been looking rather deeply into this, and it seems like she would be the best target."

"Who?" Dakota asked, and I was feeling like if I needed to get Dakota to like me more, and feel like I was working with him, then I just needed to be honest with him. "Sheldon, if you know something about this, I want to know, and see if I can fucking help." After he was telling me this, I was shocked at hearing what I was saying.

"Joy. Her parents are involved in something, I can't remember what she told me. Might have been something with construction. But don't take my word for it. Regardless, I think she will probably be the next victim. Although if that body found a couple of days ago was Shari, then I guess this means that not everybody is sold." I said, and I was feeling like there was nothing else to tell him.

I saw Dakota looking shocked at this. "Are you planning on doing much to try and fucking change this from happening? I mean, she might be needing a fucking miracle right now." Dakota said, and then I was wondering why he was suddenly acting so interested in this. I was feeling utterly terrible at what he was saying, since I felt like he was going to be expecting me to do something that I literally can't fucking change at all.

"I have no fucking idea what I am going to do. After all, Joy probably doesn't really like Todd or I that much. So in all honesty, it might be kind of a waste of fucking time." After I was telling him this, I was feeing there was virtually nothing at all that I could possibly do to make this whole thing better.

"Sheldon, I mean, you have always gone on and told me that you felt like the right choice is the hardest one to make. And I feel like you know that what you are saying is fucking true. I think that in some cases, you just need to own up to what you fucking say." Dakota said, and I wondered what he was even trying to accomplish here.

"I know what I fucking said. But seriously, there is a fucking difference between actually fucking saying this shit, and actually getting there. I mean, what if I only make things much worse by doing all this? I think that sometimes, we just need to be thinking about what we are doing here." I said, and then there was nothing else that I could have said here.

"Sheldon, many people believe that you are the best person for this job. I think you need to show them that they have their faith in the right place. Hiding the way you are thinking is only going to be making things much worse." Dakota said, and then I was seeing that there was nothing else he could have told me to make things any different.

"Why does everybody even think that I could be the best person for this job? I mean, for gods sake, all that I fucking do is just fucking scream around, and then tell people that I want to do something. But I never fucking get anything done. I am a fucking scam, and everybody fucking knows this." After I was telling him this, I felt like there was nothing else that I could have told him.

"I think that if you wanted people to give you a break, you shouldn't have been giving them ammunition to think that you are good here. That is something that I feel like you need to own up to." After he was telling me this, I was just thinking there was nothing else to say.

"I mean, I just look at how everybody acts around me, and see that they want me to be the one that saves the day. But I am not a hero. I never have been a hero, and I will never fucking be a hero." I said, and I was thinking that there was nothing else to say. Being honest was all that I can fucking do here.

"Well, I think it might be best for us to head out for the day. Thanks for giving me a chance to talk to you again. I feel like we need to maybe meet up again. Maybe we can work something out here." After Dakota was telling me this, he took another couple of puffs of his weed.

"Hey Dakota, if something ever happens to Ashley, come running to me, and I will drop everything that I am doing to help you out." I said, and then after I was telling him this, I was seeing him looking kind of happy to be seeing that I was willing to not just throw everything away for no fucking reason.

"I will tell you. You better remember what you just said. I have a feeling that one of these days, something will eventually happen. And when it does, we need to work together, and just our brains to the fucking test." After he was telling me this, I was laughing at the fact that he was telling me this.

He was heading out of the tree house, and I was feeling glad to see that we were at least on starting terms again. Knowing that he was at least willing to talk to me still, was something that made me feel a million times better about everything. I did respect him greatly as a friend, and I hoped that he knew this for once.

I took out another cigarette, and started to smoke it. I had hoped that when this was done, I would love my friends again. I was hoping that the friendship would be back iron solid one of these days. Maybe one of these days, it would. But for now, I just needed to make this work out for the best.

Eventually, I stomped my cigarette out, and was ready to be heading on to Todd's place, and we could get to work with Joy, and I was hoping he was not going to be too upset with what I was doing at this point in time.

When I was done with this, I met up with Todd, and I was feeling it was time for us to just go on and see what in the world Joy was wanting to tell us. I had a feeling that whatever Joy was wanting to accomplish here, she would want us to try and just give her a bunch of bullshit support, that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to give her.

"Do you feel like Joy is going to be able to handle this all really well? I mean, she might like working with us, but if we can't fucking find anything, then I feel like I might just be making things worse for her, and she will find a way to blame us." I said, and then I was just so upset at the mere idea of this happening.

"I mean, the fact that she already doesn't like me all that much doesn't really have much of a impact with me here. I just hope that she is willing to not fucking blame you for all this shit." After Todd was telling me this, I was feeling like what he was saying was just a way to try and make me feel better.

"I don't fucking know what her fucking feelings on this matter are. All that I fucking know is that she hates working with us. She hates the fact that I had lied to her all this time. She probably thinks that I don't care nearly enough about what happened with Jewels." Todd said, and then I was feeling like I just needed to try and find something to tell her.

"Do you feel like you are going to try and find out about what happened with her? I mean, Joy seemed really into that idea, and I feel like if you want to win her trust, then you are going to have to do this. Even if you have no desire to do so." After I was telling Todd this, I saw that he was clearly looking like he was not really in the mood to hear this at all.

"I mean, I feel like if I do not do that, then she will probably just throw away any amount of social connection that the two of us have. And I guess that by that point, there is no point. So I guess that as much as I hate it, we both really have no choice but to go with it." Todd said, and I was pulling up at her house, and I felt there was nothing else to say.

"So Todd, I just feel like when she sees you, the main thing she is upset at is the fact that you haven't been able to provide her the answers she wanted on a silver platter. I feel like that is something that you are going to have to be ready for." After I was telling him this, I was feeling like there was no reason to say anything else.

I eventually knocked on her door, and I was wondering what I was going to be telling Todd. I had a feeling that in all honesty, that girl probably liked Todd a lot. Which might have been why she was always getting in his case about what was happening.

"I know that you probably do not want to hear this idea, but I feel like I will just let you know anyways. But I feel like maybe Joy kind of likes you, and that is why she is so hard on making sure that you fucking find out what is happening here." I said, and then I was wondering if he was going to actually hear what I was telling him.

"Look, if she liked me, then she wouldn't be so hard on me all the time. Then again, we are talking about a town where Maurecia exists to, where she constantly punches me for no fucking reason." Todd said, and then he was shaking his head in annoyance.

Eventually, Joy answered the door, and she was looking at the two of us. Probably wondering why in the world we had taken so long. As I was thinking about the way she was acting, I was feeling kind of annoyed at the whole situation.

"So what are you planning on doing now? Are you actually planning on getting right to work?" She asked us, and I was shocked at the tone of voice she was using. I mean, I wasn't doing anything to make things any worse. But she was acting like I was only making things so much worse for her as well.

"We were wanting to get to work. I just slept in a bit, and forgot to pick Todd up. Please forgive me." I said, hoping that by saying that, she would be willing to give Todd a bit more of a break. I was seeing Joy looking like she was not willing to really buy it at all.

"Whatever. I guess that it is not worth getting so upset over this right now." Joy said, and looked like she was just too annoyed to even want to argue with us. So with this, she was letting us inside the house, which was really clean and well organized.

Nothing like the room that I was living in at all. My room was just filled up with empty cigarette packs, empty lighters, a weed, dirty clothes, and all that. The floor itself was fine enough. I just flopped it all in the trash can, and the tables and stuff around it.

"Since they are gone, we will be able to potentially go into my parents office. I have no idea what you are going to expect to find there. But I feel like if they have anything to do with Jenny's mother, or anything, then it will be there." After she was telling us this, I was sort of nodding at this. Ready to put that as a priority.

"Are you sure that he would even have the door unlocked? I mean, for gods sake, I know for a fact that if my dad was ever leaving for a period of time, he would fucking lock that shit up here.' I said, and then I was seeing Joy looking like she was kind of thinking about what I was saying.

"It is worth a fucking try. Why are you asking this?" After Joy was asking me this, I was feeling that there was nothing else that I could fucking said at all. I was feeling that she was just going to be upset with everything that I could have ever fucking said here.

"Regardless, I think that he might have a key in his bedroom. I remember he was telling me that he had two just in case if he was needing to replace the main one in the first place." Joy said, and I was feeling like we just needed to try and find that key.

We were heading on towards her bedroom, and I was seeing that Todd was just clearly looking like he was a bit annoyed here. I was feeling that whatever in the world I would get out of this, Todd was going to be laughing at us and telling us that everything we saw was something we should have expected.

Right when we were at the door, I was then feeling like I just needed to try one final time to be making her feel better. Or at least make her see that I was willing to comfort her a bit more. "Joy, you can turn around and put this behind us. You don't need to do this. Todd and I will find a way around this. If you feel like this is going to hurt you, then you are more than able to just fucking leave this alone." After I was telling her this, I was seeing her looking like she had hardly fucking cared.

"How many times are you going to be telling me this before you get it in your head that I am going to be looking into this either way." After she was telling me this, I was sighing, and I knew that there was nothing I can say that would make her change her mind. And I was feeling like maybe that was for the best here.

She looked like she was just really annoyed with this whole thing. So with that, she opened the door, and she was walking around, and I was seeing Todd looking like he wanted to talk further to her. But I decided to just go inside, and not think about it any more.

I was seeing Joy looking around, and I was checking around on a rather casual level as well. As I was seeing Todd just trying to make sure we were safe for some reason, as if scared somebody would find us. Even though there was no evidence to think somebody would find out what we were doing.

She pulled out a key from her fathers drawer. As she was looking at the drawer, I was seeing that she was considering what I was telling her for once in our hang out. As I was looking at her, and seeing that she clearly wanted nothing to do with this, I felt that I needed to tell her to fucking stop this shit.

But I knew that she was annoyed with me telling her that she didn't need to be doing this. She probably didn't even fucking believe what I was saying, so I was feeling that perhaps it was best to just leave this alone.

As she was walking out of the room, I was seeing Todd looking like he was finally wanting to try and say something to her to make her calm down, and see where this was coming from. "Joy, once you see what your father is doing, I can talk to you. I might not get it. But I will fucking do whatever I can to help you." He was telling her, and he felt like there was nothing else for him to say.

"I just know that if he was up to something horrible, then no fucking conversation is going to be making things better. I know that I am going to resent what he is doing no matter what." After she was telling Todd this, I was seeing that Todd was just looking like he was wanting to say anything to her, to make her feel better. But just fucking couldn't.

We started to head to her fathers office, and I was feeling that perhaps there was nothing that I could ever fucking say to maker her feel any different. "I mean, I don't even know what he could possibly even be in this situation for. I mean, he probably is just fucking forced into something that he wanted nothing to do with anyways." After she was telling us this, I saw her looking kind of unsure of what to even say.

She unlocked the door, and I was feeling that no matter what I could tell her, she would be fucking upset. I was feeling that her father was going to reveal himself to just not be the man that she wanted him to be. And that was something that I felt so fucking bad for.

She sat down, and went right to her fathers files, and I was seeing Todd looking at the paintings in the room. Probably just wanting to see what her fathers taste in art was. I was starting to think that we needed to be super careful in here, in case if there were security cameras. But I decided to not say anything at all, for our own sake.

Eventually, Joy was taking out a file, and she was reading it. It was labelled as "Bill of Sale" which was kind of confusing to read, but I decided to not say something, in order to not be hurting her feelings right now. After all, she was going to be in a lot of pain, and I needed to just try and respect her spaces.

"Nora Wakeman, age thirty nine, has been causing a lot of trouble, and has threatened to reveal all the information that has been gathered up since 1938, when Sherman opened up the business. It has been instructed that she be placed on watch for the next two weeks, and see how her behaviors have changed." After Joy said this, I was seeing her starting to form a tear down her face a little bit.

"What did my father fucking do with this woman? She was innocent, and now my father is involved in doing something with her? What the hell am I supposed to even fucking tell Jenny?" Joy said, and I was feeling like I just needed to remain silent for a couple of seconds longer, for her sake.

"After two weeks of watching her, it has been seen that she started to write a letter for her daughter Jenny. If this letter is revealed, then everything that we have been doing is going to be revealed. That letter must be burned, or at least kept away from her. And then after this, we must find a way to get rid of Nora." After Joy read this, I was seeing Todd just trying to keep his cool reading this.

"I approached Jimmy, and he said that despite her age, there could still be another year or two of service, as long as a older and more experienced person is behind the sale. But by this point next year, she will have to be disposed of. Either by the shiny gentleman, or Mr. Wilson can have another person to give Steven Small for his snuff projects." When Joy finished this, that was when Joy was having several tears roll down her face.

"The sale has been officiated. She is sent down to the production area. Jimmy said he would personally take care of this one, as he has to leave the mayor ship in a few months due to the term limit. Due to her age, the sale will have to be much higher for the transaction. Nearly a hundred and fifty thousand. He is giving me twenty percent of the equity due to my work." The statement continued, and then there was one more statement read.

"As a part of the transaction, the hardest clause is one that I just had to find myself agreeing to. If information about Mrs. Wakeman is revealed in any way, then I am obligated to kill my daughter Joy and my wife Virginia, and then I am required to go to the production site every Saturday for ten years. Failure to follow through will result in my death, Joy and Virginia being sold off to the mining site, and then all our files leaked to the public, destroying my family name." Joy finished reading, and Joy realized what this meant. She wasn't allowed to tell Jenny, or anybody this, or else she and her mother would be murdered by her own father.

Scene 4: Hiding The Pain

The next day, I was seeing Todd, and I was wondering what in the world I was going to tell him. In all honesty, after what we were reading, I was seeing that Todd was clearly upset, and had nothing to do. In all honesty, I could not blame him at all. After all, he had found out his friend Joy was basically going to be a liability, and was on the line to die if her father failed his job at all. I just felt like with how serious this thing was, we needed to be careful for her.

"I feel like I need to try and find out what I can do to help Joy feel better. She deserves better than to know that her father is planning on killing her. But I feel like everything that I could possibly say is a bunch of bullshit." After Todd said this, I was slowly nodding, knowing exactly what he was meaning.

"I feel like the best thing you can do for her is to just make sure that nothing is revealed. I mean, yeah, it might hurt Jenny and all that stuff. But I think she might be able to realize that her thirty nine year old mother is a lesser trade than a eighth grade student." I said, and I was feeling utterly horrible for even saying this out loud. I just felt like I just needed to be honest with him here.

"That is not going to be helping anybody out at all. I mean, Joy needs a person she can trust, and I feel like if I am unable to give that to her, then what can I even fucking do here?" After Todd was asking me this, I was feeling like there was nothing that I could have possibly said in the first place. "I mean, and I find myself thinking about what things are going to be like if she dies. I don't think that I could possibly ever forgive myself."

"I feel like we both need to just talk with Joy for a bit, and then find a way to maybe get the information out there, without tying it to Joy and what we found, so that maybe she would not have to be targeted." After I was telling him this, I was seeing that Todd clearly was not buying what I was saying at all.

"What are you fucking talking about? I mean, for fuck sake, she has been terrible to you this whole time, and you are acting like whatever is going to happen to her is the most heart breaking thing in the entire world." I said, and I was aware of how selfish how I was sounding. Todd was giving me a death glare, and rubbed his eyes.

"It doesn't fucking matter if she was terrible to me. At the end of the day, she is still a person, and she needs a person to help her out. And I feel like over time, we are both sort of making up with each other. So this goes beyond any past feud that we could have ever had." After Todd was saying this to me, I was feeling like there was nothing else I could have said to get him to listen.

"Okay. You make a good point. I just sometimes get that feeling that if somebody is terrible to me, then it doesn't matter. But I guess that maybe I am just being a bit of a cry baby here." I said, and then I was wondering if Todd was planning on asking me something else here. He shook his head, and clearly decided against it, and we started to head on towards where Joy was, to try and tell her about how to make things better for her.

Eventually, we were at Joy's house, and I knocked on her door, and I was wondering what in the world I was even going to be telling her. She opened the door, and I was seeing that she clearly did not have any desire to be forcing anything else on us anymore.

"What are you wanting to do? I have been thinking about what I am going to do now. In all honesty, I was planning on perhaps telling Jenny anyways." Joy said, and then I was looking horrified at her, and I was wondering why she would even fucking plan on something like this at all.

"Joy, are you sure? You are going to be getting yourself killed if you do this. I feel like perhaps we can make a plan around this." I asked, and then I was seeing Joy looking like she had hardly fucking cared at all what I was saying to her.

"That is fine. I mean, if that is the way to make up for my fathers mistakes, then I have to. I mean, I feel like there has to be another way around it. I feel like if I try to talk to my parents about this though, they might be upset with me bringing it up. Wondering why I even went through his stuff in the first place." Joy said, and I was having nothing else to tell her at all.

"I think we can make another plan around this. I think it is great that you feel like you need to own up to these things. But I think you need to just realize that you need to have a fucking plan here." I said, and then I was looking right at Todd, and I really had no idea what in the world I could even be able to tell her here.

"Plan? What a great fucking joke. There is no fucking plan around anything that is happening here. My friends are getting in danger, and there is nothing that is being done about it." Joy said, and then she was starting to walk along. As she was walking past Todd and I, Todd closed the door, and the cars driving by were the only reason why she wasn't able to just build a ton of distance between the two of us.

"I mean, have you seen the way Jenny was this school year? How utterly broken she was? How much she clearly loved her mother. I mean, my parents clearly do not love me nearly as much as they might state. If they did, then they wouldn't be getting involved in some random sale." She said, and there was nothing else that I could have done to change this.

On our way to where Joy lived, when Todd and I talked about ways to make her feel better, I had been thinking about Jamie once again, and this time I was thinking about the time when I was hanging out with Natalie with her.

We were at the high school track, and I was just trying to impress them, while still having a small hint to my own personal character, to not make it seem like I was trying way too hard to make her feel better. "So Sheldon, Jamie was telling me about when you introduced her to that Sam guy. Is it true that he likes to go to the forest?" She asked me, and then I was shrugging, feeling no need to challenge what Sam had said earlier.

"Honestly, I kind of knew that he had been considering this. But in all honesty, he was always scared of what people would say to him doing this. Probably feeling like people were going to just constantly judging him." I said, and then I was having no idea why Sam would even fucking care about something like this.

"You should meet him. He is a really nice guy, and he has a bubbly personality." I said, and then I was smiling, hoping that if I tried hard enough, I would have been able to get her and Sam to at least give each other a try. I mean, I was being kind of cringy when I say this, but I feel like they could have been nice with each other.

"Oh really? I mean, I thought that he looked kind of cool. But he always seemed to be rather to himself. Do you really think that the two of us could actually hold a conversation?" Natalie asked, and then I was laughing at this, and pointed at her, trying to adopt some silly mannerisms.

"Once you accept the fact that you guys don't really have any common interests, then that will be fine. Honestly, that is a part of his charm, is his strange and newer personality." After I was telling her this, I was taking out a cigarette, and then this was when Jamie and Natalie were wondering what to tell me now.

"So Jamie, you were telling me about how you were getting work with your dad at the car shop. What about you Natalie? Do you have any plan? Or are you going to be like me, wasting all summer just hanging out with friends?" As I asked this, I was seeing that Natalie did not really know what to be telling me. She probably felt like I was trying to attack her in some way. Even though that was not really what I had been intending at all.

"I mean, I don't need to have something to do. Having good times with our friends is really what we are supposed to be doing when going to school." She said, and then I was feeling like I just needed to try and tell her how to feel better, and not make things any worse.

"Joy, you should show everybody your car when the school year starts, driving around with it." I said, and then I was seeing her looking like she was kind of shocked to even hear me mention something like this in the first place. Probably thinking that I was just trying to make fun of here.

"People are going to be making fun of me if I do something like this. Everybody is going to be talking about how silly I am being." After Jamie said this, I was feeling like her lack of confidence on the matter was kind of a shame, and I wondered what in the world I could have been able to tell her to make her feel any better at all.

"Okay, I guess that I might as well give it a chance, and see what everybody is going to say about this." Jamie was telling me this, and I was feeling increasingly glad to hear her own up to what she was doing. I was super excited to know that she was going to be showing people what she had worked on, and not be scared of what was going on.

"See. I knew that deep down, you knew that I was telling the truth. Just don't fucking let what anybody tells you otherwise. And if people make fun of your car, then tell them at least you actually made it. And perhaps you might be able to get them to shut up right then and there." After I was telling Jamie this, I was seeing that Natalie was thinking about something else to say on the matter.

"So Natalie, I really do think that talking to Sam could be a fun idea for you. Just go on and give it a chance." After I was telling her this, I was seeing her looking like she was kind of thinking about what in the world I was even going to say. "And besides, maybe you can help Sam see that his monster hunting ways is not really going to be worth it."

"Monster hunting? That is a new turn on the fucking story. Honestly, I wonder what in the world he would even be doing with his monster hunting in the first place." After she was telling me this, I was feeling like the more that I was going to speak about this, the worse that I was going to be making things.

"Well, I mean, his younger brother Kevin loves that shit. Always wants his big brother to be the coolest guy in the entire fucking world. So I feel like you need to speak to Kevin if you are in any way curious." After I was telling Natalie this, I saw her growing a smile, and she was clearly looking like she was wanting to finally pull this off. I was wondering if she had actually wanted to really get to know how this one guy was like. Maybe I finally did something right.

Scene 5: Fake Confidence

That night, when Todd and I were done hanging out with Joy, I was having a new idea to think about that can help us both out. "So Todd, I think that maybe we should try and talk to Dana for a bit. Maybe she has something that we can use to help us both out." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was kind of annoyed at this suggestion, but decided against it.

"Why would you feel like talking to Dana will get us anything? I mean, she probably doesn't really want anything to do with us at all. But I guess that maybe this might be worth a check. After all, talking to Joy was seeming to not really get us anything at all." Todd said, clearly just sounding like he was not really all that supportive of this idea at all.

"I don't fucking know what I expect to get from this. But you know, I want to know something. She will probably know something that we can work with. Let's just give it a chance." I said, and I was seeing that Todd was just kind of annoyed at this whole thing.

"Okay fine. I mean, maybe I guess that I don't fucking understand, but I might as well give it a chance." After Todd was telling me this, he just seemed like he was really upset here. Knowing that I was at least getting him to give her a chance was all that I had really fucking needed at all.

"I mean, I feel like we should be keeping our friends out of this, unless if we absolutely have to. I mean, what if everything we have been doing is just purely dangerous, and just only making things worse for everybody." Todd said, and I was feeling like what he was suggesting wouldn't work at all.

As we were walking towards Dana's house, I was wondering if getting Todd to even hear what I was saying was going to be helping me out at all. But I guess that after everything that we learned with Joy, he was just trying to be super fucking careful to make sure that none of our friends got even further in danger. After all, what would we get out of throwing them all into this.

"Look Todd, I wouldn't throw Dana into this unless if I felt like she was the best person for the job, in at least one matter." I said, and then Todd shook his head, clearly not wanting to hear this at all. So I decided to just keep my fucking mouth shut.

Once we were at Dana's house, I knocked on her door for a bit, and she answered the door, and looked right at us, and looked like she was just trying to hide the fact that she was slightly annoyed with the fact that I was at her house so late at a Sunday night.

"Look, what are you doing at like nine in the evening? You do realize that you can just fucking wait until later to tell me what you were wanting to know." She said, and then I was looking at Todd, and I was feeling like knowing that this was how Dana reacted to this, showed that I was treading water.

"We were just wanting to know what other progress that you have found out about the monsters so far?" I asked, and then I was seeing Dana looking like she was just trying to think of something to say. "I mean, it is impossible to look into monsters at all, without at least consulting you first. Knowing that you know everything so far."

"Just trying to work out some flattery here. I guess that this can fucking work…" She said, closing her eyes, and she was clearly looking like she had regretted this entire situation. "I feel like it would have been best for both of us to just drop this whole subject. But I guess that nothing I can say will matter." She said, and then closed the door.

"Dana, do you feel like anybody in this town has a deeper knowledge of the monsters that have been seen? I mean, no offense, but there is no way that a eighth grade student is the smartest person with the monsters in the entire town. There has to be more." I said, and then I was seeing Dana looking like she was kind of triggered at what I was saying so far. But then she decided to just remain silent, and not argue with me.

"I mean, everything that I have known is compiled sights of what everybody says. So I mean, I feel like the best thing to do is find out if somebody had had repeated viewings of these things." After she was telling me this, I wanted to know what she was going on about, since I felt like we needed more to work with in the first place.

"Dana, this is all of our friends at stake here. If you literally even know anything at all, then just tell us what you have found. I mean, neither one of us are going to judge you for what you are doing." After Todd was telling her this, I was seeing that Dana looked like she was kind of annoyed with the way that she had been targeted by this. She closed her eyes, just hoping that this would just eventually subside in due time.

"Look, I don't really know. But I feel like if you want to know, then perhaps we can go on and talk to the Carbunkle's again. I mean, I know that you said you already tried to talk to her, and failed… But what if you try to talk to that boy. Brad, I think you said his name was? If you try and talk to him, then perhaps he might be willing to talk to somebody his own age. Aside from that, I think that you might need to just go to various teachers. I mean, I know that they are probably not the smartest people with monsters. But they are a lead, which is better than nothing." Dana said, finally giving up on trying to not give us anything at all.

"Oh god, talking to Brad Carbunkle. That is going to be a fucking really heavy situation for both of us. I feel like there is nothing left for me to be talking to him about. He will probably just laugh at everything we are doing." After Todd was saying this, he seemed like he wanted to say more, but then decided to just not say much more.

"What is your issue with him anymore? I mean, in all honesty, aside from the fact that his mother kind of seems like a bit of a asshole to you guys, but Brad seems like he is a decently innocent guy." After Dana was telling Todd this, he was looking at her, pissed at the fact that she was throwing his feelings away so casually as she had been right now.

"If he tells his mother what is going on here, then she will be coming towards me, and act like I am the worst human being alive." After Todd was telling her this, I was seeing Dana looking like she was hoping that Todd wouldn't just totally brush off everything she had been suggesting, making her feel like she was being thrown away.

"I don't feel like he would be going on and telling her anything else. I feel like he would be wanting to know more like you do as well. So I feel like perhaps we just need to give it a chance." After Dana was telling us this, I was wondering what in the world I could have even responded, to make anything change for the better.

"I mean, he is our age, so I feel like it would be kind of hard to get any information out of him, even if he was our fucking ally. So I feel like this is a waste of time. Probably just going to be acting like we are getting in his life too much without giving him any context on what to do." Todd was saying, and then I was seeing Dana looking like she had no idea what to suggest here.

"That is just my idea that I have. You can take it or leave it. If you want to do this, then go ahead, and if you don't want to do this, then just throw my suggestion away. But you asked me for any fuckin leads, and that is the best one that I can give you." After Dana was telling me this, I saw that Todd was feeling terrible for the way he talked.

"Fine. You are right. I mean, perhaps there is something worth looking into this at least once. I will see what Todd would even be willing to tell me. Or if I can talk to him at all." Todd said, but then I was wondering if it might be best for me to take over, since he was a target on the moms back.

"Maybe you can talk with Maureica or something, maybe get some leads on her, while I go on and talk to Carbunkle. After all, if you go there, then that woman will be screaming at you and acting like you are her biggest target ever." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was wanting to fight, but then decided against it.

"I mean, I feel like I need to reach out to Maurecia more." Todd said, and then he was slightly flushing a little bit more, but then he was getting back to me. "But I feel like no matter how much she hates me, I need to just do things myself. If she hates me for what my father or mother did, then I feel like I just need to be my own person." Todd said, and he was starting to show a minor form of confidence in what he was saying.

"Tell me what you find. I mean, that would be kind of cool to learn." After she was telling us this, I was nodding at Dana, hoping that I could actually follow through with this. But I hardly fucking cared at all. This was important for both of us.

Scene 6: Closing the Bridge

The next day, Todd and I were at Brad's house before my shift started, and I knocked on the door once again. I had hoped that perhaps doing this was going to be making Brad feel a bit better about the fact that Todd and I were going to be busting our asses off looking for the truth here.

When the door was answered, we were seeing that his mother was just standing there, and she was looking like she was rather fucking annoyed with the fact that the two of us were here in the first place. "What are you trying to accomplish? You already got what you wanted out of me. It would be best for you to just leave us alone." After she was telling me this, I was looking at Todd, and I was feeling that I needed to just get serious here.

"Look, Todd and I were wanting to talk to your son. He was in Todd's grade level, so the two of us were kind of hoping that perhaps the two of us get some information with him." After I was telling her this, I was seeing her looking like she was just kind of annoyed with this whole thing.

"Why do you think Todd is even going to be able to give you guys here? Do you not realize that getting in our business all the time is only going to be hurting him even more?" She asked me, and then I was sighing, and I was feeling like she hated us way too much here.

"Please, just give us ten fucking minutes." I said, and then I was seeing her looking like she was utterly furious at the way that I was talking to her. Probably wanting to just strangle me right then and there. But then she decided against it.

"Alright, ten minutes. But I hope you know that I am going to be hearing what you guys are saying this whole time, and if at any point in time, I feel like you are pushing him too far, I will be coming right in, and I will force you to be leaving here." After she was telling us this, I was sighing, and I was feeling like there was nothing else to fucking say at this point.

Then with that, Todd and I walked inside of the house, and we were walking on towards Brad's room, and we were both wondering if she was actually telling the fucking truth about listening to what we were going to be telling Brad. If this was the case, then we just needed to be much more careful with the general point of what we were making.

I knocked on the door, and then with that, this was when Brad opened the door. I was looking at the fact that he was wearing a red shirt, counter part to Todd's blue one, and the fact that both he and Todd were wearing brown pants. Which was making me start to make even more theories here.

"I never thought that you guys were going to be coming back. What are you even trying to do here?" Brad asked, clearly annoyed at what we were doing. I was smiling, hoping that Brad was not going to get too annoyed with what we were doing.

Todd and I were going in the room, and closing it. Doing this was clearly making Brad much more uncomfortable here. I was feeling like nothing else we could do would make any difference. "Brad, we were wanting to ask you about some of our classmates, and we were just wondering if you had known anything at all." After Todd was telling Brad this, I was seeing Brad looking kind of annoyed here.

"I know nothing about them. I had virtually no fucking credibility in school. I mean, I would want to be able to help you. But I feel like there is nothing that I can fucking do to change it." Brad said, and he was sounding kind of disappointed in what he was saying.

"I understand your annoyance here, and I understand that you probably feel like there is nothing that you can do to help. But we are not going to be judging you no matter what. We just want to let you know that no matter what, we are here to help here." I said, hoping to make him feel at least slightly better about this shit.

"I know that you are just pretending to be supportive of me because of the fact that I am not giving you what you want. I guess that maybe at the end of the day, I am just kind of making a bunch of giant fucking mistakes. If I wasn't messing up all the time, people would be willing to speak to me." After Brad was telling us this, I was feeling like there was nothing to tell him to make him feel any different.

"Brad, this is not the point of this. If you need some friends, we will be able to help you. But for now, we are just trying to find out what the hell we can do to help Dana and her other friends." I said, and then Brad was looking like he was kind of just upset at what we were telling him.

"The truth is that I can't be able to help you. I barely had any friends our age, and the fact of the matter is that everybody who is older than me, that does know the truth, probably just thinks that if I go around and tell people what I know, then they are just never going to fucking forgive me." After Brad was telling me this, I was then feeling like there was nothing else that I could even tell him at all.

"Who are you talking about anyways?" I asked, and I was seeing that Brad was just looking like he was kind of regretting what he had been saying. I wondered if I was going to just make a enemy out of this guy just because I couldn't shut the fucking hell up.

"I mean, I remember one of them was a man in a purple jacket. I don't really know what you would even be interested in knowing with that guy. He is kind of a asshole, and I can feel something strange written all over him." After Brad was saying this, I was taking a long and deep breath, aware that this man was now in Brad's life.

"Brad, I feel like you need to just tell us everything that you fucking know. We will help you out, no matter how much you might be feeling that we have no interest in the subject." After I was telling him this, I was seeing that Brad just had nothing else to be saying here.

"I mean, I know that he was talking to a guy named Kevin or something like that. I have no idea who this Kevin guy is, or why he is so interested in him anyways. But I know that he had a plan with him. Like a giant internship." After Brad was telling me this, I was having no idea what in the world I would have told him. He seemed like he was just kind of having no real interest in speaking to us any further with this in the first place.

"I guess that just kind of confirms everything that we know. I mean I guess that this is something that we can work with for now." I said, and then I was shaking my head, wondering what else I was even going to be able to tell him.

"Can you tell me what you guys are able to fucking find out?" Brad asked, and then I was shocked to be hearing him tell me this in the first place. "I mean, I want to know why everybody is so fucking scared about what is going on in Wayside right now." After Brad was saying this, I was sighing, and I really had no idea what I could even remotely say to make things any different.

"I guess that we can. But I feel like your mother would not want that at all. And besides, I feel like there is a level of respect that I fucking need to follow." I said, and then after I was telling him this, I was wondering what in the world I could have been able to tell him in the first place.

"I am thirteen years old. I mean, everybody is creating rumors. And acting like there are these horrible things going on here. I just want to know if there is a level of truth to any of them." After he was telling us this, I was wondering what in the world I was even going to be able to say at all.

"I think that your mom might be right to some degree. She wants to make sure that you do not do anything too fucking stupid. And I feel like she might be perfectly fucking right." I said, and I was wondering why in the world I was even saying this.

"But my mom said that more than anything else, she wants me to have some friends. And I feel like perhaps this can help me make some fucking friends." After Brad was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling like there was nothing that I could have said in order to defend his mother at all.

"Look, what do you think she would be thinking if this was the way that you were taking what she was saying? I mean, she would probably be upset at the fact that you are thinking this way." I said, and then I was seeing Brad looking like he could not have cared less at all.

"So basically you fucking know nothing at all. Wonderful. We are at step fucking one." I said, and then after I was leaving, I was starting to head out. But before Todd and I were able to leave, Brad called out to us one final time.

"Do you know why we look so similar? Can you tell me that?" Brad asked Todd, and I was seeing that Todd clearly looked like he was wanting to have this be the last question that he would be asked. But then there was nothing for him to lie about.

"Honestly, I wished that I would be able to tell you the truth to that. But I am just as much in the dark as you are." After Todd was saying this, he was closing his eyes, and I was seeing that he was having nothing else to say here. I looked at the ground, wondering what to even say now.

"I heard a lot of rumors, and I was just wondering if you had any idea about them. If you are willing, would you be able to meet up tomorrow?" After she asked me this, I was taking a long and deep breath. I was so fucking annoyed with this right now.

"What would you want to be doing if we meet up?" After I was asking him this, I was seeing that Brad was looking like he really did not have much to tell me. Probably was aware that deep down, he would not be able to actually help out too much here.

"I don't really know. I would just want to see what you guys are doing. Seeing how you operate. I think it would be rather cool to just see how you guys handle this all." After he was telling Todd this, I felt like he was going to be asking for too much, and for something that we would not be able to actually give him.

"I don't really know if this is a good idea honestly. I mean, people just go around, and say their own things and stuff. I think that if you want to be finding stuff, you need to be doing things on your own. After all, neither one of us have really found anything at all." Todd said, and I was shocked to be hearing him be so honest with the guy about this.

"So you are basically telling me that you want nothing to do with me? That is wonderful. I want to know what is going on here, and I feel like you are the best bet. I know that my mom would not want me to help you guys. But you have friends you want to help. And I want some answers. Either way, we are both going to be benefitting each other here." After Brad said this, I was hearing the growing desperation coming in to his tone of voice. And as I was seeing this, I was feeling like I just needed to give him what he had needed.

"Your mother is going to hate us both for this. God, I can't believe that I am even contemplating this idea at all." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Brad looking like he was just glad to know that I was contemplating this. "I mean, if I do this, I feel like I will have to create some boundaries here."

Todd and I were heading off, and then as we were at the door, this was when Brad started to follow us, and I was seeing that his mother was fucking furious at what he was doing. She clearly wanted him to stop what he was doing, but decided against it. I was feeling like she was just wanting to let him make his own choices, no matter how much she hated the choices that he was making here.

"Just give me a chance." After Brad was saying this, I was feeling like there was nothing else to be saying. I knew that deep down, no matter what else I could have told him, he would not want to fucking hear it. So I was feeling like I just needed to let it all go.

Brad closed the door when Todd and I were outside, and then it was just the three of us. "Okay, I guess that we can do that. But in all honesty, I feel like you are going to be wasting your time here. I will be the first to admit that neither one of us have found a damn thing here. It is incredibly frustrating, but I guess that this is something to be expected."

"I don't care. I need some friends with people my fucking age anyways. I mean, I feel like sooner or later, my mother will be supporting what I am doing. She will just come around and see that I am having a lot of friends here." Brad was saying, and then there was nothing else to even be discussing at all.

"Jesus, this is going to be one fucking big failure. I thought that we were supposed to be helping Joy here. I feel like are kind of losing track of that once again." Todd said, and I was feeling like the way he was describing this, was just him trying to be sounding all cool, and like he was keeping focused on his main job as well.

"I think Joy would be willing to let it slide if she was aware that we were looking into other things. I mean, we already know what her parents are doing in the first place." I said, and then Todd was looking like he was just wanting me to stop talking about this right now, before Brad was getting too involved in this discussion.

"Sheldon, you know what will happen if too much of this information gets revealed. I think that you need to be careful around everybody here." After Todd was telling me this, I was looking at Brad, and I was seeing that he had wanted to clearly say something to get our attention.

"Forget what we are talking about dude. We are not really going to be getting much of this right now." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Brad looking like he was not really falling for this one at all. To be fair, we kind of walked into this one.

"You mentioned Joy? You mean that one girl who you really hated this year? I mean, I heard so much about that. What was going on with her?" Brad asked, and I was seeing Todd looking like he was really regretting the idea of even trying to talk to Todd at all.

"She had some theories about certain things, and I decided that I would try and help her figure some things out. But it had turned out that most of these things were just not true. In all honesty, I feel like in all honesty, trying to look any further into it would only be making things worse." Todd was telling him, hoping that he would just get out of this conversation.

"But what made you start hanging out with her in the first place? If you guys hated each other so fucking much, then there would really be no point in this at all." After he was telling Todd this, I was feeling like it would just be best to have Todd just come up with some excuse.

"I mean, maybe I was just kind of hoping that we could have made something work out. I wanted to help her. I mean, I thought she would be able to respect me much more if I did this. So I guess that there is a small chance that I was doing this for myself." Todd told Brad, and then he was shrugging, and felt like there was no need to be lying about what was on his head.

"That is kind of strange. I would like to know if that even worked out in the first place." After he was telling Todd this, this was when Todd looking like he was just not really fucking caring at all anymore.

"Okay. Do you think she would be willing to talk with me?" Brad asked, and I was feeling deep down inside, there was no way in hell Brad would be able to get her to actually agree to speak with him. She was really closed in, and I felt like Brad was just kind of all over the place now.

"I really highly doubt she would be willing to do that. I mean, I feel like if you want to get her to talk, then you are really going to have to really show her that she is not wasting her time here." I said, and then I was really having no idea what in the world I could have said to change this.

"Then why in the world would she be willing to talk to a guy that she really fucking hated this whole time? I mean, I feel like you can maybe get me to have a chance." Brad said, and I was seeing that he was just desperate to maybe see if this woman would be able to like him at all. But I felt like this whole thing would just be a waste of time.

"My god, if you want to talk to her, then I can just show you to her, and you can see what you would get out of this." Todd said, and he was just sounding like he was kind of annoyed at this conversation. I was wondering if he was going to be making things much worse with his growing sense of not hiding his annoyance.

As we were walking to Joy's house, Todd was looking like he was trying to grow some patience here. "Honestly Brad, I hardly even know anything about you, and that is the main issue that I have here. I mean, I will admit, when I came here, I just wanted to get to know what you had with the missing people. But since that wasn't helpful, I just kind of felt no real need to talk to you about these things."

"I think you should have known that I would not have any answers. I feel like perhaps there was some extra motives to this, that you do not really want to admit." Brad said, and then I was seeing from the look on Todd's face that there was a little bit of truth here, as much as he was not wanting to admit this.

"I mean, I guess that I will admit, that I want to know why you are so much alike me. I mean, as much as I hate to admit, I am starting to make some theories, that I will have to kind of keep to myself." After Todd said this, I was seeing Brad looking like he was starting to get a little bit more uncomfortable with what was happening.

"I remember the time you guys showed up the first time, and my mom was super upset when you guys left. That night, I remember that she cried for like nearly an hour. I tried to ask her what was happening, and she told me that she didn't want to get too deep into this whole thing. But that it was something that was really important to me." Brad said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was just kind of really let down by this.

"Oh yeah, she was accusing me of so much shit, and she was acting like I was the worst thing to have ever happened. I tried to talk to her for a while about it, but she just fucking brushed me off, she really seemed like I made things worse." After Todd said this, I saw him looking like he was kind of saddened by this.

We were eventually at Joy's house, and I was seeing that Todd looked like he was kind of wishing that this was never going to happen. "I am only doing this because I am hoping that maybe there is something you can be able to tell her here. She needs all the help that she can fucking get at all." Todd said, feeling like he needed to be extra firm with it.

When Joy answered the door, she closed it right away, and looked right at Brad, confused as hell what Brad was even doing here in the first place. "Hey Mr. Carbunkle, are you here to try and make my life miserable like everybody else has?" She asked him, and then I was seeing Brad looking kind of shocked at her abrasiveness to her statement.

"Look, I was wanting to just see if I could be able to help you out. I heard that you were dealing with some issues, and just wanted to see what I could have been able to tell you." Brad said, and he was exerting a newer level of confidence, and I was seeing that she was coming around to what he was saying a little bit.

"Really? Brad Carbunkle, not basically just following everything his mother says, and just coming along to help? I mean, I get that sometimes people always follow what their parents do, but I feel like you need to try and find out what your mom is doing." She was saying, and Brad was wondering what she was even saying to this.

"My parents are going to be out again tonight. Visiting the Wilson casino. They said that they were planning on getting some sales here." She said, and I was seeing both her and Todd getting a level of utter discomfort to what she was saying. Both aware of what she was meaning.

"My mom goes there every Friday. I have tried to ask her what she was doing those nights, but she never gave me anything. I could try and see what she would be able to tell us." After Brad was telling her this, I was seeing Joy looking like of shocked to hear him actually say this in the first place.

"Why would she be working with Mr. Wilson? I mean, she probably has everything she had ever wanted. I mean, she practically worships you from what people have said." Joy said, with a minor form of jealousy with the statement that she had admitted.

"I think I remember her mentioning about two months ago that she was talking with your parents. Something about what they were planning on doing during the summer. And that her father was going to be getting a work contract at the forest." Brad said, with his sudden memories coming back once more. I was seeing Joy looking like she was shocked to finally hear him say something new.

"Oh shit? A project there? Okay. That is something new. Maybe you do have something with you after all. I will try and see what he knows. That could actually be really fucking helpful." After she was telling us this, I was seeing the chance to pulling something off actually working much better. "Thank you I guess. I want to know what that project is for now."

When I was done with my shift, I was seeing that Todd and Maurecia were hanging out, and they were just going to probably want to see me. As I was seeing them, I was kind of having a really bad feeling of what in the world I was going to be getting myself into.

"Hey, did your conversation turn out well?" I asked, hoping that I would be able to get them to tell me what their intentions were here. I was seeing that both Todd and Maurecia were looking like my concern, and my asking them so many questions was just fucking hilarious.

"We are doing great. We were just wanting to make sure that you were wanting to potentially meet up and stuff. But if you don't want to, then I guess that we could just leave you alone, and go on our own devices." After Todd was telling me this, I was shaking my head, feeling like he needed to stop acting like this right now.

"No, it is nothing like that? I am just unsure of what I am going to be doing right now. I had no idea if you were wanting to hang out with me. Especially if you two were doing great right now. You know, not getting involved in anything that isn't your business." I said, and then I was shrugging, having no idea what to even say after this.

"Wow, he seems to be rather stern all the time. Do you feel like maybe he needs to relax a bit more?" After she was asking Todd this, this was when Todd started to laugh a little bit, as if finding her commentary of me to be rather amusing.

"If you think that way, I am the one who is working with him all the time. I think if you think that, you need to actually work with him a couple of times, and you will see real quick that he is much worse at it than you might think." Todd said, and then he was shrugging, and felt like he needed to just stop, as a way to not trigger me too much.

"Yeah, I bet. Regardless, I was told by Todd that you were a rather cool guy. Was there something you had been helping him out on all the time?" She asked, and then I was laughing, as if feeling like she was just trying to make fun of me here with the way that she was saying this. I had been doing most of the work here.

"I am the one who is working here constantly, and having to deal with what he is doing here." I said, and I was really having no idea why I was taking so much offense to this. "Todd and I have tried and to talk to some important people, but they seem to want nothing to do with me here."

"Who are these important people?" After Maurecia asked me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling that there was no need to be arguing with her for what she was asking me. "Can you tell me what you guys were doing? Todd has not wanted to tell me anything."

I was looking at Todd, and I was feeling like I just needed to tell her whatever she needed to know. But in all honesty, I had no idea what in the world she would have said if she had even known the fucking truth. "Well, the two of us were trying to talk to the Carbunkle family. But there was nothing we were able to get out of them at all. The son, Brad, seems like he would be interested in growing to help us out." I said, and then I was sighing, feeling there was nothing to say.

"Oh Brad? I feel like I have seen him around before. What were you trying to get out of talking to him." Maurecia asked, and then I was seeing that Todd wanted to say something else, but decided against anything, and felt there was no reason to even try and argue with us here.

"Well, we were wanting to see if he had known anything about what was going on in this town? But he didn't give us anything. It was a complete and total fucking waste of time." I said, and I was aware that the way that I was talking was kind of being a throwing under the bus type of speaking.

"I guess that this doesn't surprise me that much. After all, he seems to always be scared when anybody tries to talk to him. Besides, I feel like if you try and get to talk to him about things like his family, he always gets scared. Like he wants his family to just not fucking hate him for what he is doing." Maurecia said, and then I was shaking my head, feeling that this was still annoying to be dealing with.

"But why did you ever even think that he would have something to work with in the first place? I mean, if you knew that he wasn't too knowledgeable about these things, then what would really be the fucking point here?" After she was asking me this, I was seeing that both Todd and I were kind of unsure of what in the world we were even going to tell her now.

"I don't know. I just assumed that his mother might have had some idea what was going on here. I thought that if for nothing else, he might have over heard her speaking to somebody about this, so I figured that it was worth a fucking chance." I said, and smoked a cigarette for a second.

"Great. So you were trying to work with anecdotal knowledge more than anything else. I guess that makes sense with how much of a mess all the shit you guys are doing is." After she said this, I was wondering why she was even trying to get this information from us in the first place. It was getting a bit rough to deal with this shit to be honest.

"Well, Maurecia, please don't try and judge Todd for this. He was doing the best that he could. I was the one that tried to force him into all of these investigations, helping me with this all. If you want to be getting upset at anybody, you should be going on and attacking me here." After I was saying this to Maurecia, I was having nothing else to say in order to defend him at all.

"I can't find myself judging Todd. I am honestly just happy to be seeing that he was willing to talk with me about anything at all. For all I know, he could have been just focusing on working with you, and nothing else." Maurecia said, and then with this, we finally left the gas station, feeling like there was no fucking reason to stay here in the first place.

As we were heading off, I was wondering how much my boss was hating the fact that we had been talking so openly with each other in front of his station, considering the fact that he had always been super fucking open about how much he hated it when I was talking about these things in his area. I just hoped that since I was off the clock, there was nothing else for him to judge me off of here.

"Guys, I have noticed that many of our friends have been much worse for wear, and I wanted to see if there was perhaps a way to help you guys out. I mean, I know that Todd is probably going to try and find some excuse to be saying no, but that is why I am reaching out to you Sheldon." After she was telling me this, I had no idea what in the world I would have been able to tell her at all.

I looked at Todd and I felt like I just needed to tell him something else. "Look Todd, I feel like she is going to be learning all of these things sooner or later anyways. So I feel like perhaps we just need to get it over with. And that way, if she knows something, she might be able to help us straight away." I said, and then I was seeing him looking kind of upset at all of this.

Todd clearly was dreading the very idea of this the whole time. And there was no way in hell that I could have been able to say anything else. "God damn it, I guess that you do have a point. I guess telling her some of the stuff this summer is not going to be the worst thing in the world. But not right here. And not right now." After Todd said this, we were heading to the pizza shop, where we would have our discussion for the time being.

Scene 7: Catching Her Up

The next day, before the shift started, I was hanging out with Todd and Maurecia, and we were at a pizza shop, and the entire time that we were catching up with her, she was shocked to be hearing what we were talking about. But I was seeing that she had wanted to ask me a couple of questions here.

"So guys, you are thinking that Joy's parents are behind what happened with Jenny's mom, and that she might be the next person tracked? And that Harold's father is their boss, and making them do all this work?" She asked, trying to understand what was going on. I was slowly nodding, able to appreciate the fact that she was able to keep on this so far.

"Well, we have no real choice but to believe that they are working with him. I mean, we already know that about Brad's mom, and she said that she had worked with Joy's parents. So it just makes sense to be assuming that this is happening." I said, hoping that she would be able to get all this stuff really figured out here.

"So you feel like you are going to be investigating that family, and going in the casino again? I mean, how are you going to get everything without Harold? I mean, doing it once was probably all you were ever going to be getting here." After she was telling me this, I was having no idea what in the world I could have said at all.

"I mean, I think that perhaps I can try and talk to him when I am done with my day, and see if I could get him something." I said, and then I was thinking about the favors that I was going to have to start building up over time. I was worried that if this was going to continue, I might be starting to follow down the path of corruption that I was wanting to avoid.

"So basically, you are just slowly selling yourself to this person who you are probably not even all that big of a fan of, but you feel like you are having no fucking choice." Todd said, and then I was shaking my head, not really in the mood to be hearing what he was asking me at all. He was just trying to make me angry for no reason, and I felt like I could just not fucking understand here.

"I am not selling myself to this guy. In all honesty, he just probably is able to help me out much more. I mean, for gods sake, his father is one of the biggest businesspeople in Wayside. And I know that my own father is just not going to fucking help me out at all. So in all honesty, Harold is probably the best bet that I fucking have right now." I said, and I was hoping that standing my ground for him would be able to get him to just shut up.

"Whatever you fucking say. I just hope that you doing this doesn't get you to throw everybody under the bus because you are getting too fucking caught up in what the town is doing. I just hope that what Harold is doing is actually going to help us out." After Harold was saying this to me, I really had no idea what the point to this even was.

"Maurecia, do you have any plans right now? I know you probably have nothing to help us with, but I would rather ask and be one hundred percent sure than nothing else." I said, wondering if Maurecia even had considered this at all.

"No, I have no idea. You seem to forget that I have no fucking academic ability, and that I literally haven't been paying attention to these things at all." After Maurecia was saying this to me, I was slowly nodding, knowing that I shouldn't have bothered, considering the fact that Maurecia hasn't even so much as passed a single class in seven years of school.

"Damn it. Well, if you want to help us out, then go ahead and join us. I mean, Todd will probably be willing to take your help if you can give it to us." I said, and then I felt there was no reason to be telling her anything at all. I was wondering if Maurecia was ever going to fucking forgive me over various things all around me.

"Well, I want to help Todd, and if helping Todd means that I have to help you with this investigation, then I guess that I will have to do." Maurecia said, and I was feeling like this obsession that she was having with me would really not even fucking matter at all.

Todd and I looked at each other, and I would tell that both of us were just finding this comment to be a bit strange. Probably showing that neither one of us were really wanting to deal with her at all. I was taking out a cigarette, wondering what I was going to do with Maurecia at this rate.

We finished up the pizza that we had. I was tired of this shit, and I was feeling that dealing with a girl with a really random crush on Todd was going to be only making things much worse. But I was not really in the mood to be fighting with her at all.

The three of us left the shop, gave a good tip, and then once we were out of the shop. I was just kind of tired, and did not really know how in the world Maurecia was even going to be helping us out. I mean, I was always willing to give her a chance, but I was feeling like at the end of the day, even Myron was going to be able to help me much more, and I was willing to fucking admit it.

After I was done with my shift, I was meeting up with Harold, since I was feeling like I just needed to fucking see what he had known about Joy's parents, and I was wanting to see if they had worked with his father, and Mrs. Carbunkle, on various things. I just needed to get a good idea on what I was doing.

I was at his house, and he clearly looked like he was not all that happy to be seeing me here. Probably because he knew full well what I was going to be doing. "So Sheldon, you are believing that my father was working with these parents?" He asked, and he didn't even seem like he was all that shocked here.

"I mean, no offense, but I feel like maybe you might be trying a bit too hard against my father. I mean, it seems like every time you meet up with me, you are saying something against my father, and trying to throw him under the bus in some degree." After he was asking me this, I was sort of seeing where he was coming from, but I had not wanted to admit it.

"Because your father is the employer of several people in town. Either he is the one behind most of the things behind that town's casino and jobs, or at least he knows about them to some degree." After I was telling Harold this, I hoped that he would at least consider what I was telling him.

"I mean, I will concede with the Carbunkle woman, and I am sorry about that. And I helped you find that body in the sewers, and gave you that necklace. But in all honesty, I feel like you are kind of pushing at straws when it comes to this whole thing related to Joy's parents." After Harold was saying this, it was becoming so fucking clear to me that he had no interest in having this discussion.

"I know that you are not able to see things too well with what is going on, and you are right to be unsure on what I am talking about here. But the truth is Brad mentioned that his mother had talked with Joy's parents before. They clearly have worked with each other a bit, and as horrible as it all is, I feel like they might know some things about this town that you might not want to admit." I said, and I was seeing that Harold was not at all wanting to consider this.

"Jacqueline thinks that you are kind of a bad influence. I am not sure if I want to believe that too well, since I do believe that you are trying your best. But in all honesty, I do sort of see what she was trying to tell me. Most of the shit you are doing is kind of ridiculous. But you have proven to be right every single time so much. So either you are the luckiest man alive, or I am the most deeply in denial person ever." Harold said, shaking his head at this whole thing.

"Look, deep down inside, I know you are probably right. That doesn't mean that I have to fucking like it at all. But that being said, do you think that maybe I can try and talk to Joy or Brad about this?" After he asked me this, I was thinking a bit about what he was saying.

"No, I feel like if I even try and suggest Brad talking to you, then his mother is going to be at my fucking throat, and hate me even more. And to be honest, Joy probably hates you and everybody related to your family. After all, I guess that is to be expected when your father is one of the biggest business leaders in this town." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Brad looking like he was kind of upset at the way that I was telling him this.

"I am just trying to help, but I am unable to help if you do not give me a chance to have some fucking clues on what I am going to be doing." Harold said, and then I was starting to wonder why in the world I was even so fucking worried about what he was going to believe now. He was always wanting to support his father, no matter how much it was clearly indicating that he was not the person that we all thought he was.

"I know that you are right. Maybe there is a small part of me, deep down inside, that doesn't want to force you into this. I mean, you have already been thrown down a shit show with how much you are seeing what your father is doing." After I was telling him this, I was really having nothing else that I could have been able to work out.

"What a fucking joke for you to say that. 'Don't want to force me into this' my fucking ass." Harold said, and then he was laughing as he was saying this, but not in the sense that he was actually thinking that this was funny. He was just saying this as a way to sort of hide his discomfort at everything that was happening.

"Sheldon, I think that we both know that deep down inside, even if you want to make me have a better time, you brought me into this, and I might as well just see how much I can be able to help him out." After Harold was telling me this, I was wondering what in the world I would have been able to tell him here.

"What do you want to do now? Maybe go back and talk with Jacqueline for a bit?" I asked, and then Harold was shaking his head a bit as he was hearing this. Clearly not having much of a desire to be dealing with what I was doing.

"I am not going to bother. I feel like the two of you are probably not going to be hanging out and get along all that well." Harold said, and then he was standing up, and then wondered what in the world his plan was going to be.

"I am going to try and get you a permanent membership at my fathers casino. I feel like my father might not like it. But I don't fucking care what he is going to be telling me." Harold said, and I was shocked to be telling me this. But if this was something he wanted to do, he needed to let me know how he was going to work this whole thing out.

We were getting in Harold's car, and then I was wondering what else he was going to be saying now. "Harold, is there other places I should go to? I mean, I know that there are other casinos in the town? I am sure that your father only owns one of them, so I feel like maybe I should go on and check them out." I said, and then I was wondering if Harold was even going to want to entertain my ideas at all.

"I don't really fucking know. I mean, I feel like you probably could go to those places if you really wanted to. But the truth is that if you go there, you are going to have to run the risk of those people not wanting to work with you at all. I feel like you are probably only going to barely be able to get my area to work out at all." After Harold was telling me this, I was seeing him looking like he was kind of feeling bad for whatever he was saying now.

"I know that people don't want to work with me. I mean, I know that you giving me a permanent membership at that casino is probably something you already really do not want to be doing at all." I said, and I was wondering what I was even going to tell him at all.

"Well, I mean, it doesn't really matter what I fucking want. And I think that whatever you are going to do is just going to be making things twenty times harder for us all." After Harold was telling me this, I was feeling like I just needed to shut up. Eventually, we were at the casino, and I was seeing Harold looking utterly horrified at what we were going to be getting ourselves into right now.

Once we were out of the car, I was seeing that Harold was then wondering what he was going to do. "If my father finds out about this, just tell him that I was having something that I needed you to do, and that you were wanting to work on this when you had some free time. That way he will just talk to me about it, and you can give yourself a bit of a break. I don't really want to be throwing you under the bus for something that I am doing." After Harold was telling me this, I was shocked as hell at what he was saying.

"Think of it this way: The worst that he will do to me is ground me, and basically say that he never wants me to be hanging out with people at all. But if something happens to you, and he thinks that this was your idea, he will at least try and fucking kill you. And then we will have had nothing at all." After Harold was telling me this, I felt like his idea was only going to be making things worse.

When I heard his argument though, and I knew what he was saying was true deep down inside, I decided that I would listen to him, and let it go. We went inside of the casino, and then Harold and I went to the front counter guy, who clearly looked like he was having no interest in doing this right now.

"Guys, what are you planning on doing today?" He asked, trying to have a playful presentation to this, but clearly was scared out of his mind what Harold was planning on doing. Harold was getting a fake smile on his face, trying to at least make it seem like this was all casual and fun.

"I was wanting to have my friend help me out with something really important. And I wanted to give him a permanent card here, so that way he can just easily come in and out. It will be really fucking easy for all of us to be doing this." After Harold was telling him this, I was seeing the guy clearly looking like he was not really wanting to fight this too much.

"I guess that as the owners son, whatever you are planning on doing is something that is none of my fucking business." After he was saying this, he looked at me, and I was seeing that he was clearly trying to remember something. "I feel like I saw you here a few days ago. What were you doing here anyways?" He asked, and I wondered what his point was here.

"He was getting a basic run down of our project, and that was something that really could not fucking wait at all. But now that he knows the project that we are working on, I feel like we can get right to work." Harold said, and then after he was telling him this, he was slowly nodding.

Then with that, he handed me a platinum card. "No duplicates. Lose it and you are going to have get a gold card at best, or pay a lot of money for a renewal. That is the monthly visit rate. Silver is weekly, and bronze is for one day." He said, and then I was slowly nodding, feeling like there was no reason to even hear this at all, as I looked at Harold for a bit.

As Todd and I were looking around the casino, I was feeling like everything that we were doing was going to be a rather fucking big mistake. "Now that you have access to go in here, you can look around when you feel like you need to. I feel like you need to tell me everything that you find here, just in case if I will be able to clear some things up with you." Harold said, and then I was looking down, unsure of what to even fucking tell him at all.

"But what do you think I should do if I see people coming towards me, and trying to interrogate me for what I am doing here?" I asked, and then I was seeing that Harold was looking like he was not really in the mood to be having this discussion for the time being.

"Just tell them that you are working with me, and that I wasn't available that day. That might be able to buy you some time. It might not be the bets bet in the world, but it will buy us some fucking time." After he was telling me this, I felt like nothing he could say would even remotely make me feel any different in the slightest.

"Honestly, I would suggest that you do not go to the Carbunkle office. I heard my father talking about how somebody broke into there earlier, and I was a bit scared. I really had to try hard to get you and Todd out of this, knowing that you guys were the biggest suspects. That was the worst thing to be doing right now." He said, and then and I wondered what Harold was even going to try and argue with me about.

"Harold, I am sorry if I got you in a lot of trouble with your father. If you do not want to be working with me anymore, then I would not really blame you at all." I said, and then I was seeing him looking like he was just wanting to find something to discuss with us, but then decided to just remain silent, and not be in my face at all.

"I mean, my father is going to be getting rather rough with you sooner or later. I mean, I feel like it is only a matter of time before he comes over and forces your father to be talking with you. And when that happens, there is no way in hell that I will be able to fucking help you out. I will just have to hope that you do not bring Todd into this at all." After Harold said this, I was feeling like he was telling the truth, and that was the worst part here.

"I am going to be finding Mrs. Wakeman. You know that she is involved in this place, and that her case is going to be brought back to this. If you want to help me, then that is great. If not, then I have no idea what in the world I can do to make things any different for you." I said, and then I was feeling like whatever I could tell Harold, he would never really want to hear.

"So you are doing this for that one girl? I mean, I know that you want to do what is best for her, but do you seriously believe that looking for her like this is actually going to be fucking helping at all?" I wondered why Harold was even asking me this in the first place. Why he thought that Jenny was going to be a really fucking bad bet this whole time.

"Yeah, I am doing this for her, because I know that this is what she needs. I mean, I have everything that I need, and here I am, being a fucking idiot, and throwing things down the window, because I am too fucking scared to finally own up to the fact that I need to make the risks and stuff." After I was telling him this, I saw that Harold just seemed to be kind of unsure of what I could accomplish in this.

"Are you saying this because of Carbunkle, or something else?" Harold asked me, and I was hearing him just sounding utterly scared here. I was feeling like whatever I could tell Harold, he would just tell me that I was being a fucking stupid idiot this entire time, and needed to be more open here.

"Todd and I found something in Joy's house that exactly confirms what we know. I feel like if you want to not believe me, that is fine, but I found something in there that makes everything all fucking tie together. I said, and I was hoping that saying this would just get him to be leaving me alone for once in his life.

"What did you find, exactly? How am I able to trust you if you are not going to tell me what you know?" He asked me, and then I was sighing, not really sure how much he was going to be hating what I told him. He would probably just think that I was trying my best to fucking throw everything he was doing away, like a bastard.

"Look, I am not supposed to tell you. Doing so would literally be life or death for somebody here. And that is something that I can't in clear mind do here. That is something that I am not really in the mood to ever take a single fucking risk on doing." I said, and then I was seeing Harold looking like he was actually kind of pissed at what I was telling him. But he knew better than to be fighting it, this time at the least.

"If you are not supposed to tell me, then I am going to be sort of out of the loop, and that is only going to be making things much worse. But I guess that deep down, you already know this all." After Harold was telling me this, I was feeling like what he was telling me was just a way to hide his annoyance here.

As we were talking, we were seeing a couple of those men in black talking with each other for a bit. As I was seeing them talking for a bit, I was feeling like I just needed to find something to say now. "I feel like I will need to see how they are all working, and just try and fucking get to know everything about them."

As I was telling him this, I was seeing Harold looking utterly shocked to be hearing me admit that I was wanting to do something like this. But then he sighed, and decided that there was no reason to be fighting with what I had been telling him.

"If you do that, even if it is just a way to get into their group, then you are going to be making everybody hate you. You will be selling your entire fucking reputation for this." After Harold was telling me this, I was feeling like the way he said this was going to give me something to think about.

"Bro, I know that you are trying to be making me feel like I have a level of weight to what I am doing. But I feel like there is no fucking choice. I think deep down inside, you are aware of what I am saying." After I was telling him this, I was seeing that Harold looked like he was just kind of scared of what my plans were going to be now.

"Sheldon, I want to be able to help you out. I really do. But what do you think you are even going to be able to do if you start working with them? Just be honest. What will they actually give you?" He asked me, and then I was feeling like there was nothing that I could have told him to change his mind on the matter at all.

"We can learn if we know the basic location of where they are looking." I said, and we were looking up, and seeing the men walking to the down stairs area, and I was seeing that Harold was looking like he genuinely hated the act that he was actually considering what I had been saying.

As we were walking to the stairs, we were about to go inside, as there was a door that said "Off Limits". Harold and I tried to go inside anyways, but it failed, since the door was locked. I looked right at Harold, and I was trying to find something to tell him, but he was clearly looking like he didn't want to hear it.

"Are you planning on trying this again? If you are, then do you feel like you are going to need a really fucking good alibi in order to justify going down there?" Harold asked me, and I was feeling like he was asking a good question right now.

"Yeah, I am going to do that. I might have to get your father to give me a chance. I feel like they might be either on his pay roll, or Shaun. The latter might be a bit harder to actually convince." I said, and then I was seeing that Harold was at least considering what I was saying.

"I want to yell at you with what I am saying about my father. But I think that deep down inside, I know that you do have a good point here. I mean, my father is the one who owns this place, and they are coming down there on a top secret mission. I feel like every single time I want to argue with you, I have to admit that I am fucking losing any validity to what I was saying.

"Even if he is not the one who is buying them all out, he probably at least has some idea what is going on here." After Harold was telling me this, the two of us were thinking for a while. "But yeah, I feel like maybe we should really go down there, and just see what we would even be able to learn in the fucking first place."

"I mean, I really don't fucking know. What I do know is that maybe after my shift tomorrow, I will try and talk to Shaun, and I will see if he will be willing to give me a chance to adopt that black suit, and I can go on down there, and just really see what these guys are doing." I said, and I was starting to really convince myself that this was actually going to be totally fucking worth it.

"Just let me know where you are planning on taking this. I will try and talk to my own father about what those men in black are doing. If he tries to get in my business about why, I will just simply tell him that I want to understand what his work is like, and I will perhaps be able to get him to actually open up that way a bit better." After Harold said this, I was slowly feeling much better about what I was doing now.

Now, I was having a new plan on what to do. To expose the corruption of this place. I knew that Harold would not like it. But I knew that this was going to be the best bet that we were going to have. And I knew that deep down inside, we were going to be making this whole thing work out much better.

Scene 8: Natalie's Crush

I was seeing Natalie the next day, when I was at the gas station, and when she saw me there, I was seeing that she was utterly fucking shocked to be seeing me here in the first place. "I forgot that you were working here? Are you enjoying working here right now?" After she was asking me this, I was sighing, and I had no idea what I was going to say.

"Yeah, I was just needing to do something that can give me a quick wage every week day in case something is to ever fucking happen." I said, thinking about the fact that I was earning forty dollars a week, and after a while, since I have barely used any of it, I had a couple of hundred dollars.

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Natalie said, and she sat down on the chair that was next to the vending machine. "How has your summer been so far? I have heard a lot about you hanging out with various people." After she was saying this to me, I was slowly nodding, as if to confirm that this was indeed true to a degree.

"So Sheldon, I was thinking about trying to hang out with Sam again. I mean, I really like him, and I want to see if there is a chance that the two of us could become a good couple or something." After she was telling me this, I was shocked to hear her say something like this in the first place.

"I remember the first time that you hung out with him, and it was pretty obvious that he immediately was able to get you to have a great time here." I said, hoping that she would be willing to just tell me more of the things that she had been genuinely feeling about Sam.

"He has a great sense of humor, and I feel like perhaps you just need to see that he is not a terrible person at all." After she was telling me this, I was looking at her, and I was shocked that she was telling me this, since I was the one who was hanging out with him all the time.

"Is he seeing somebody currently?" She asked me, and I had no idea what I would even want to tell her at all. In all honesty, I felt like there was nothing that I could tell her that would be making her feel any better at all.

"I mean, he might be. But he has never fucking told me anything at all about this. He might need to just kind of hide what he is doing with her and stuff." I said, and I felt that I just needed to not say anything else, in order to make her not feel super fucking down about what I was fucking doing here.

"I have tried to speak to him again a couple of times, but his younger brother Kevin always seems to hate me when I do this for some reason. So I guess that I might as well just have to try and make it all work when he is not really around or something." She said, and then I was having nothing to tell him at all.

"Don't worry about what Kevin is doing. He just kind of seems to have a lot of resentment for the fact that Sam just kind of has been doing his own things without even talking to Kevin about these things anymore. He just wants to have a good relationship with his older brother again. And I have been trying to help accomplish this." I said, feeling like I just needed to be fully honest with her about this.

"I mean, the guy is thirteen years old. He needs to see that sooner or later, Sam is going to do things on his own, and that he doesn't need to be fucking focused on what Kevin wants all the time. I mean, imagine if Kevin was the older brother, and Sam was the younger one, and he was doing this? Just ask Kevin how he would feel if the roles were reversed." After she was saying this, I was wanting to say more, but then decided against saying anything else at all.

"I mean, I guess that I do sort of see what Kevin is like. He probably just feels like he is being left behind, and I think that he is just scared of what Sam is doing. Probably feels like if they stop talking with each other entirely, then nothing else will ever fucking matter at all." I said, and I was feeling like there was nothing else for me to say at all.

"I don't know. I mean, I want to understand his perspective. But I guess that this is going to be a bit hard for me to fucking get. But I guess that I will just remain silent on this for a while. After all, I have no siblings, and I will just have to remember what I am doing." After she was telling me this, I was seeing her looking like she was kind of feeling bad for everything she had been doing.

"But Sheldon, I really want to do my best to get Sam to open up with me at all. I guess that perhaps you will just not understand what it is to like somebody who will probably never really like you back. But I guess that I will not be able to really get you to see what I am saying right now." After she was telling me this, I was then feeling like there was nothing else to be saying to her at all.

I was then feeling like what she said was really running close to home about what I was thinking about Christen. Liking somebody who I know would never really like me back. But I decided that I would just not say anything at all, to not get her to accuse me of not getting it.

"I get it much more than you ever believe I could. I mean, there was somebody when I was younger, that I had feelings for. A girl who was a couple of years older than me, and I start to feel like actually did like me back. But I guess that I knew from the start that this wasn't going to fucking work out at all." I said, and then I shook my head, hoping that saying this would help her out.

"Oh, I think I heard Sam talk about that once or twice. Do you seriously think there was any chance she would have loved you? Regardless, I guess that you do kind of get it." After she was telling me this, I was slowly nodding, wondering what in the world I was even wanting to say at all.

"I think I kind of knew from the start that in all honesty, there was no way that it was going to ever fucking work out. But anyways, I think the best thing to do with Sam, is just keep talking to him, and just see what you can be able to accomplish from getting to know him quite a bit more. Just know that he is a good guy, who will really be willing to work with you in due time." I said, and then I was seeing her looking like she had seemed to really not care at all.

"But what is Sam just thinks that I am annoying? I mean, he also kind of just knew me from Jamie, and probably doesn't really have much thoughts on me one way or another at all." After Natalie told me this, I was standing up, and then I was walking out from behind the register, thinking about the fact that I had hardly ever had a single customer in my entire time here. In all my shifts, I think I could count them all in two hands.

"I don't think he will fine you annoying. I mean, he talks with him, and I feel like if he was able to talk with me, then he really has no leg to stand on telling you that you are annoying." I said, hoping that I could be able to make her feel at least slightly better now.

Natalie grew a smile on her face, really enjoying the fact that I was throwing myself under the bus, but doing so in a way that was kind of innocent, and fun. "Okay, I guess that maybe you might be right. I will try and see what I can do with that." She told me, and I was seeing her growing much more confident about what was happening.

"And besides, I feel like you always seem to be the one who knows what to be doing here, every time that I talk with you. Either you are a great bullshitter, or you are the smartest person that we have ever met in the world." Natalie was saying, and then I was shrugging, feeling like what she was telling me this in order to start to boost my ego just a little bit more.

"I mean, I am not the smartest guy at all. I just really have a idea on what I am supposed to be doing, and I just sort of roll along with it and stuff." I said, and then after I was telling her this, I was staring at the sky outside, and I was wondering if she would ever consider me to be a friend at all. She would probably think that I was rather annoying, no matter what I was going to be doing.

Before long, the day had ended, and I clocked off when the manager showed up, nearly fifteen minutes late. As much as it was annoying to deal with, it was a extra fifty cents, so I guess that maybe I couldn't fucking complain too much.

I went to my car, and I was Natalie looking like she was just kind of annoyed at what was happening. She was looking like she had wanted to tell me what was really in my mind. I was sitting down, and she ran to my car as fast as I possibly could. I felt like whatever she wanted to talk to me about, I just needed to let her have this moment, and not get too annoyed with this.

"Sheldon, what are you going to be doing right now?" She asked, and she was sounding kind of annoyed with this question. I wondered why in the world she would have even fucking cared what I was going to be doing. She was probably just trying to see what she would have been able to force me into.

"I don't know what I am going to be doing now. But since you are here, I guess that I could try and bring you to Sam's house, and see what he might be willing to do with you. I mean, if he doesn't want to hang out with you, at least you would be able to know the truth." I said, and then I was seeing Natalie looking like she was genuinely happy to be hearing me bring up that idea, and wanted to find something to help us out here.

"Thank you. I mean, I know you probably don't want to do this. But this is what I want." She said, and then I was sighing, feeling like she was going to be having her heart real fucking broken soon. Especially since her think with Sam last year was a like one month short ish fling before things had to be thrown down the drain for what is happening.

But with that, I started to drive towards Sam's house, I was wondering what I was going to accomplish by doing this. I hated the fact that I was basically being match maker, which was something that I had no desire to be doing at all.

When we were at Sam's house, that was when he answered the door. I was seeing him looking right at Natalie, and I was seeing that he had no real idea what in the world he was even going to be saying. "Hey, what are you planning on doing tonight?" After Sam asked me this, he seemed to be kind of annoyed with what I was doing.

"Well, Natalie was hoping to reconnect with you for a bit. I mean, that was what she was telling me when we were at the gas station today." I said, and then I was seeing Sam looking like he had no idea what her intent with this was even going to be right now.

"Oh shit, it has been forever since I have talked to you. I thought that you were starting to very quickly realize hanging out with me was kind of a bad idea." After Sam was telling her this, I was seeing her looking like she was kind annoyed with the way that Sam had been talking to her here.

"Wow, you seem like you are trying hard to just throw me away." She said, and then she was kind of annoyed with what he was saying. But then I was seeing Sam had seemed to instantly regret what he had told her. Probably felt like she was going to be using that as a way to make him sound like he was a complete fucking piece of shit.

"That is not what I said. I am just saying that in all honesty, we just never really got to know each other too much. I mean, you can't fucking pretend like that isn't true. But I guess that nothing I say will even fucking matter at all." Sam said, and then he was then wondering why he was having a hard time even having this conversation at all.

"So Sheldon, what are you even going to be doing right now?" After Sam asked me this, I was slowly nodding, feeling like I would be able to finally open up with her. I hated the fact that suddenly they were wanting to know everything that I was doing. It just showed that they were going to be having some fucking plans, but I had no idea what to even tell him at all.

"I was planning on just spending the last couple of hours today looking around a bit longer. I mean, I know that it is hard to be making friends when I am looking into this town. But think of this? At least doing this will be able to help you guys find some fucking closure with Jamie." I said, and then I was seeing Natalie looking like she hated the fact that I was bringing her into this, as a excuse to just screw around with her.

When I was at Todd's house, I was hoping that he wasn't going to be upset at the fact that I had been talking with Natalie and Sam. I just hoped that he had known that in all honesty, they were just trying to fix things up with each other. And besides, I think Todd knew deep down inside, I was just trying to have some fucking friends outside of this investigation, like what he had been doing here.

Todd answered the door soon after the knock, and he was looking over at Sam and Natalie, and he was sighing, aware of what was going to be happening. "So Sheldon, what is your plan right now? Have a bunch of people coming over to harass us for several minutes?" Todd asked, and I was wondering why he was asking me this in the first place.

"Look, Harold was able to get me a platinum card, which means I can go around the casino relatively freely. So I can basically go around and do whatever I fucking need here." I said, and then I was seeing him starting to realize what I was saying a bit more for once.

"The only issue with this right now is the fucking down stairs area, where those men in black are working down there. That seems to be the only place I can't fucking go to, and it pisses me off to no fucking end at all." I was telling him, and I was seeing Todd starting to get much more interested in what was going on for once.

"What are you going to fucking do about that dude?" He asked, kind of annoyed with this, and I was unable to fucking blame him with how he had been acting. I was looking right at him, but I just decided that I would just tell him the truth.

"I don't know. I was planning on maybe getting in character. Finding one of those suits, and pretending like I work with them as I go down there. Or even get the job, but just pretend like this is something that I am doing, to get some information here." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was scared of what I was basically telling him.

"Oh god, if you do that, then how are you going to be able to work with us? You are basically the thing tying us all together If you have to leave this, then I think things are only going to get much worse." He said, and I was rolling my eyes, trying to hide my relatively annoyance at the way that he had been acting right now.

"I don't know. I am just telling you what is in my fucking mind dude. I think that if I am going to learn the truth about what is going on, then that is really the best chance that I fucking have." After I was saying this to him, I wondered what in the world Todd was even going to be telling me at all.

"Besides, what in the world are Sam and that random girl doing here anyways? I mean, what are you really going to be getting out of this?" After Todd was telling me this, I was starting to see how maybe from a casual perspective, this whole thing would just seem relatively random to him.

"Well, she was a friend that hung out with Sam and I when we were working together last summer. She told me that she kind of had a thing for Sam, and wanted to try and get him to like her. But that is something that you would probably have no interest in going any further with this." I said to him, and I was wondering if Todd was going to be having any interest in this subject at all.

"Wow. I never thought that people were going to like Sam. Do you think that he would even want to try and show a level of interest with her?" Sam asked me, and then I was shrugging, not sure what to even tell him at all. After all, that was something that was out of my expertise.

"Hey, don't fucking tell him that. I mean, he probably is just kind of oblivious to these things. I think he just needs some fucking help figuring things out for the most part." After I was telling him this, I was wondering if saying this would get Todd to calm down, and not be messing around with Sam.

"What do you think he would say if I did try and tell him that stuff?" He asked me, and then I looked right at him, and I was feeling that Todd was going to just be kind of annoyed with everything that had been going on.

"I don't know dude. Just don't make things worse than they need to be for no fucking reason. Just focus on the job, and we can make things work. I am just going to be focused on getting my job wrapped up. I will try and see what I can get from those guys. Just like one week or something." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Todd looking like he almost knew that this wasn't going to be how things would work.

"Sheldon, I think you know that they would not let things slide if you are going to be trying to fucking leave after a week or two. They are going to be watching over you, aware of everything you are doing. So I think you need to come up with a more realistic plan." Todd said, and then I was wondering why he even fucking cared so much what my plan was.

"Sometimes the sacrifice play has to be made." I said, and then I was looking at Todd, hoping that he would at least consider what I was telling him. I was seeing Todd looking like he was just hoping that his reluctance wouldn't get us killed.

"Alright, well if you are going to be doing this, going around and pretending like you are agent I mean, then what is your plan going to really be? I mean, you are going to need to find a way to make this all work." Todd said, and then I was seeing him looking like he was just kind of a bit worried over how bad this was going to be turning out.

"I feel like maybe I will have to talk to Shaun. Make him think that I do want to join what he is doing, and by doing so, create a situation where he will be forced to feel like he needs me to join him. I just think that if I play the roll really well, then perhaps this can work." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was just trying to find something to say, to argue with me.

"Then how are you going to be explaining all of us, and what we have been doing? There is no way in hell they are going to be buying what we are doing. So unless if you have a counter argument with me, to make it all work, then I feel like you are going to be on a losing side." Todd said, and then I was thinking about what he had said to me.

"Maybe we can pretend like we had a falling out, or had a fight. I mean, I know that it might not be easy for them to buy, but it could be something worth trying out. And I feel like we both need some form of a lie that people can see." I said, and then I saw Todd looking like he was just kind of annoyed with what I had been saying.

"Well, I think you need to know that I am not that good or a actor. But if for whatever reason, you feel like this is the best bet that we have here, then I guess that I will just try and listen to you here. Although I will say that this better be a good way to fucking find a way to be helping Joy out here." He said, and I was aware of the fact that Joy was the main thing he cared about the most.

"I get that Joy is the only person that really matters to you right now. Maybe that is a good sign that she is the person for you." I said, and then I was seeing Todd feeling kind of annoyed with the fact that I was even suggesting something like this in the first place.

Todd and I walked on to his car, and then this was when the door opened once again, and this was when Sam and Natalie came out of the car. As if glad to see that I was finally acknowledging the fact that we were actually going to be talking with them once again.

"We were wondering how long you were going to be having that conversation, without giving us a chance to hang out with you." Sam said, and I was looking over at him, and I was wondering what he was even trying to accomplish here.

"We just needed to talk about our investigation that we were doing, and we were feeling like we just make some plans before we started to hang out for the rest of the night again. You know, just make sure that everything is all fine." I said, hoping that they would be able to buy what I was saying right now.

"Oh yeah, what were you guys so deep into a conversation about anyways? Just trying to hang out, and pretend like you were some fucking ass detectives?" After Sam asked me this, I was wondering why he was trying to be saying this in the first place. He was clearly just trying to be making me feel a million times worse for no fucking reason at all.

"Yeah, Todd's friend Joy was giving us a bunch of information that she wanted us to be looking into, and my plan for how to handle things going forward was just something that was intriguing to Todd and stuff." I said, and then I was wondering what I was going to be saying at this point.

"You have been wanting to work with Joy for a really long time. Do you feel like you are ever going to be telling us what you were even doing with her anyways? Why is she a fucking target?" After Sam was asking us this, I was wondering why he was caring so fucking much what we were going to be doing now.

"That is because she is the one that Todd feels like is the most in danger. Obviously this makes a situation where she has to be the main priority." I was telling Sam and Natalie this, and I was seeing that Natalie was clearly wanting to be saying something else, but then decided to just not say anything at all.

"God, I forgot what it was like to be hanging out with Sheldon. Him always being scared, and wondering what type of conspiracies are true." After Natalie was telling me this, I was then taking out a cigarette, and I was feeling like I just needed to pretend like what she was saying wasn't quite bothering me, even though it really had been.

"Nobody ever fucking stops me from having these conversations. I just feel like I need to be having them, and that is something that I am aware bothers people. But in a strange way, I hardly find myself caring at all." I said, and I was already feeling like I just needed to calm down, and not be super upset with her at all.

"I wasn't trying to be making fun of you for the stuff that you were doing. I just felt like I needed to tell you what I had been noticing is all." After she was telling me this, I was then feeling like I just needed to calm down, and know that deep down inside, she was having good intentions here.

"I know. I just have to deal with people constantly coming towards me, and acting like I was a worthless fucking idiot every single time I had been discussing this with people. Always feeling like I am fucking better than them." After I was telling them this, I was feeling like there was nothing else that I could have said at all.

"But I will admit, the recent idea that Sheldon had was really fucking bad, and I feel like it would be best for you guys to just not get too involved with this." Todd was saying, and I wondered why he was telling them this in the first place. There was no reason for him to even say that, as this was only making things worse.

"Todd, this idea might be rough, but if it works, then this is the best idea that I fucking have, and you guys fucking know it. So get off my fucking ass. And besides, I was seeing that you were kind of finding yourself agreeing to this." I said, and then I was really having no idea what I would have been able to do to make the situation seem any different.

I was seeing that Sam and Natalie were wondering what in the world I was even going to be doing at this point. I was feeling like whatever the two of us were going to be doing would be getting them all really paranoid. And I was just kind of having nothing else that I could have been able to do to make things all work out.

"Don't fucking worry about it. You do not need to be getting involved in this at all." I said, and then I was wondering if they were going to be feeling any different at all. I was hoping that by getting them to calm down, and know that I had no intention on forcing them into this, then things would have been much better.

I was then thinking about what in the world I was going to be telling Shaun. I was feeling like whatever in the world Shaun and I were going to talk about, we were going to be in a whole lot of danger. Eventually, I sat down, and I had nothing to tell them all.

"Natalie, I hope that you know that everything that I am doing is all because I want to find Jamie, and that I am going to have a chance to bring this all together." I said, hoping that in the end, they were going to actually listen to what I had said. Both Natalie and Sam really had no idea what I was accomplishing, and I was seeing Todd looking like he was having virtually no fucking hope.

Scene 9: The Agency

The next day, I was starting to head on towards the Lazarus Corporation tower, wondering what in the world I was even going to be doing. The truth was that in all honesty, I was feeling like I just needed to see what Shaun was going to be doing against me.

I was feeling that no matter what the hell Shaun was going to try and tell me, I would make it very clear that at least for the time being, I was not going to throw him under the bus. I wanted to just know what his business was doing, and perhaps we just needed to work together.

I didn't even try and speak to my father as I was leaving that morning. I knew that if I tried to talk to my father, he would throw away every single thing that I was trying to do. I knew that he would have probably thought that I was setting myself up for a death sentence. But in all honesty, I had not given a single shit what he was going to say.

If he wanted me to not do something like this, then he needed to have told me what was going on in his business in the first place. The truth is that my father was almost setting me up for wanting to check into this whole thing alone, because of the fact that he refused to tell me anything at all.

The entire time that I drove to the front entrance of that building, at a early enough time to where nobody was really working and stuff, and that Shaun would hardly really have a chance to be throwing me away just for his own sake.

There was nothing that I was even sure of telling him. I mean, how was I going to approach him? Ask him to help me find out what he was doing, so much so that it would virtually indict his entire team? No, just simply ask him what the men in black were doing, and then tell them that I wanted to help him, in order to help with my fathers job.

Once I parked at the front entrance, I took a cigarette out, and I was staring at the guard who was pulling stuff in, and they were having some sweat down their throat, and I was feeling like as long as I kept a relatively low profile, then everything would be fine for the time being.

When I was done with my cigarette, I got out of the car, and I went inside, and I was feeling like I just needed to show off a form of confidence, and make it seem like I was not too scared of what was even going on. I hardly even showed any interest to him at all, and just was on the strictly business mode.

I went to the elevator, and then got inside, and then started to head right to the highest floor. I knew that Shaun was either going to fucking throw me out right away as soon as he was seeing me, or he would want to see me, and would want to perhaps make this whole thing work out. Either way, I was going to just take the risk. And when the door opened, I was seeing Shaun confused to see me here, at a relatively early time for a teenager in summer or eleven in the morning.

I sat down, and then I was staring right at Shaun, wondering if he was going to be throwing me out of here right now. "Look, I know that you probably do not want me to be here at all tonight. But the reality is that I am going to be wanting to talk to you about some work that I really feel like I need to do." After I was telling him this, I was feeling like there was a lot of work on how to be getting him to actually believe me.

"Oh my god. Are you seriously expecting me to believe something like this? I feel like you are going to need to give me some real fucking careful evidence if you want me to buy for a second that this is actually going to work." After he was telling me this, I was feeling like I just needed to try as hard as I possibly could to not get exposed.

"Look, I know that this might be kind of hard for you to believe, and I do not blame you, but the truth is that I realize that my investigation in Wayside has lead to a lot of monsters, and that being the biggest fucking thing that I am looking at it all. On of my friends has a strange obsession with monsters, and I feel like helping you guys can be able to give her the best idea on what to be looking for to make her feel better." I said, and I was seeing that Shaun was having a hard time really getting this.

"Sheldon, I hope that you know that this is something that you better be meaning. I mean, you have been a really hard ass to deal with every single time that you have left this house this summer. But I guess that maybe we do have a common enemy. Those monsters. That the two of us can be able to work on." After Shaun said this, I wondered if I was getting him to work with me now.

"The one thing that I feel like maybe I can work with you on is stopping those monsters right now. And because of that, I am willing to entertain the idea of us working together." After he was telling me this, I wondered what in the world we were going to be doing now.

"See, you do know what I am trying to do. I never wanted to be making things much worse for you. And I feel like as long as the two of us can agree on something, maybe there is a way that we can clean slate everything going on, and just pretend like we are not hating each other anymore. Or at least in silence. And I think we both know what those men in black are doing." I said, and then Shaun was starting to get a look of utter fear in his eyes.

"You are bringing that up against me right now? Look, I think we both know that those men in black are literally the only thing that is keeping Wayside safe against those monsters. Having to look everywhere for them. They are trained to deal with these things on a daily basis." After Shaun said this, I was then wondering if he was starting to regret everything that he had been saying.

"Please dude, I want to have the chance to help. I know that we disagree, and you heard me say yourself that I think that we can pull this off. Just give me a idea why you are never telling anybody about these monsters at all." I said, and then I was seeing Shaun looking like he was kind of upset with the way that I had been talking.

"Use your brain young man. If people hear this, and know what we are doing to destroy the monsters, and to make sure that the truth of the missing cases doesn't leak, then the town will be going into a giant panic. At least with this, we have a small chance of not creating giant media panic." After Shaun was telling me this, I had no idea what in the world I could have done.

"Okay. I guess that I sort of see what you are saying right now. Doesn't mean that I exactly get it. But I feel like you might have your own reasons. But Shaun, I feel like I deserve a chance. I want to help my friends, and I want to help my father. After all, my father is the fucking mayor, and he deserves better here." I said, and then I was feeling like there was nothing else that I could have said to make things any different.

"I am in a shortage of employees. I do not know if I want to buy what you are saying. But I guess that I have no choice but to give you a chance. Alright, if you want to help them out, then I guess that I have no reason but to just see what is happening. But on one condition." He said, and then I slowly nodded, willing to hear it.

"You report to me every single week what you have been able to find and do here. If you do not do this, then the deal is off." He said, and then I was slowly nodded, and then he sighed, as is hating everything about what we were doing now.

Eventually, he was handing me a card, and then he was closing his eyes for a bit. "This will allow you to go into the lower floors of the Wilson casino. I heard that you already are able to go in there in the first place. That is none of my business, so I am not going to be getting in your personal business." After he was telling me this, I was really having no idea what in the world I would have been able to tell him at all.

As I was starting to head off, that was when the man was calling out to me again. I looked at Shaun, and I was wondering what he was going to be telling me. "Sheldon, I know that you just want to give your father a chance to be proud of you. And I know that you have some things that you want to find. Maybe one of these days, you will actually see that I am doing what is best in this town." Shaun said, and then with that, I was just closing my eyes. I was not really in the mood to be dealing with this, and I was starting to head on out.

Once I was going down the elevator, I wondered how much I was going to regret this choice. I was wondering if these people would even want to work with me in the first place. I was feeling that no matter what Shaun wanted to do, and no matter how much he wanted to get in my business here, he would never understand that my fathers trust was something that I was not really all that interested in.

I was wondering if those men were even willing to give me a chance to work with them. I was feeling that if they had known what my plan was going to be, they would have probably tried to kill me, and then go around and kill Todd and the others as well. I was scared for their sake more than I was ever scared for my sake. I hardly scared for my own sake, since that was something that I could let go in due time.

When the door had opened up, I walked on out of the building, and I was seeing the girl who was at the counter just looked utterly scared of what I was doing. Not to blame her, considering the fact that the last time I talked with one of these women about this, they ended up dead.

I ended up getting in the car, and then I left everything alone, and I was wondering if my plan was actually going to be working out at all. I felt like no matter what I was doing, no matter what my father would tell me, I would just be my own self for once, and that was all that I needed to do.

I started to drive towards the Wilson casino, and I wondered what the casino was going to be like to visit, when I would eventually visit and Harold's father would be there. He would probably hate everything that I was doing.

During the drive as well, I kept begging myself that Todd would fucking forgive me for the shit that I had been doing. I knew for once, he would never forgive me. This was going to be pushing things too far, and I fucking knew that nothing else I would do would fucking matter at all.

I would be amazed if Todd was ever going to be willing to speak to me again, given the choices that I had made at all. I knew that my choices were kind of running out, no matter what in the world I could do. And I wondered if Todd would be willing to look at what I was doing obejectively speaking when things all settled down.

Eventually, I was at the casino, and then I was taking a cigarette out, and I was ready for whatever was happening. I went inside, and when I was inside, there was hardly any fucking people around at all. They would probably have just found me being here to be a normal presence eventually. And in all honesty, something like this was all that I had needed to make my life better.

I had wondered how it was that after three times of this, I had still never fucking seen Harold's father once. I wonder if he ever even came here unless if it was those Friday night meet ups. I would not be surprised if he did, since that would be keeping the target off his back for the time being. I just felt like if he was gone most of the week, I feel like I would have free reign to what I could.

I went to the door that I couldn't earlier. And I was feeling like I finally got what I had needed. I wondered if would be impressed with what I had been doing. I was smoking a cigarette, and then I was starting to take out the car. I was staring at the card for a few seconds, and I was closing my eyes, and I was starting to realize how much this was going to be a giant mistake.

I opened the door up, and then I was starting to walk down the stairs, and then I was seeing a table on the distance. There was a black suit there, and I was taking a deep breath once again. Every single moment that I was here, I was wondering what in the world I could have done to not seem like I was going to be having a mental break down. I wondered how these people were able to basically have their own society down here, without any fucking side affects here.

As I was staring down at the suit, that was when I heard a voice calling out to me. "Look, I am not sure if this is going to be a good idea. You know, having you working at this area. Considering your age and stuff. But I guess that with how popular your father has been, and all the progress he has made, I feel like I should give you a chance." After he was telling me this, I was really having no idea what I was going to do now.

"I want to do whatever it takes to help Wayside, no matter how much things must be a pain in the ass. I know that you might not like me right now. But I honestly hardly find myself caring at all." After I was telling him this, I was seeing the guy looking like he was just trying to find something to say in a response to my plans here.

"I mean, I find this whole thing strange. You have been going around, and acting like the work that we are doing is all utterly horrid. And now you find yourself doing this. I guess that maybe desperate times call for desperate measure. Or maybe you are starting to grow in maturity, and see that there is more to this than the generic beliefs." After he was telling me this, I was really having no idea what I could have said now.

"I am sorry about everything that I was doing. I guess that perhaps I just never fucking saw the bigger picture. But that is not really something that I wang to be talking about right now." After I was telling him this, I was feeling that perhaps this guy would be willing to just let I was saying go for once.

"I don't really care to have this discussion right now. Just make sure that whatever you do, you do not make things much worse for us. And do not ask a million questions every time something comes up when you get confused." After he was telling me this, he was starting to head off, and then I looked at the black outfit, and I was utterly horrified at what I was doing.

When I looked around, I was seeing that there was a dressing room, so I started to head inside, and then when I was inside, I sat down, and then I started to change, and I was wondering what in the world these people would do when they found out that I was going to be a 'traitor' to them later.

For once, I was getting myself convinced that my father was not going to be saving me no matter what I would do this time. I was going to be getting myself killed for once, and I knew that he was going to hate what I had done. And in all honesty, I could not blame him for the way that he would react here.

When I was done changing the clothes, I was then placing on the pair of sunglasses that I had seen right next to the room on a table. As I was walking out of the room, I was wondering what in the world I was even going to do.

Once I was out of the room, I was feeling like I just needed to focus on my own issues for the time being. I was smoking a cigarette once I was out of the room, and I was in the main casino. I had hoped that nobody would be too upset with what I had been doing. So I figured that there was no reason to be so worried about everything that I had been getting myself into.

I was then heading to my car, and I was going to be heading to Todd's house, and I was wondering what he was going to be reacting to this. I thought that in all honesty, Todd was going to be kind of annoyed with what I had been doing. I eventually felt like no matter what I had been doing, Todd was going to just let everything slide, and see that I was a decent guy, who just had a different method on what I was doing compared to him here.

I just wondered if Todd even wanted to hang out with me now that he had known that I was actually doing. I mean, he probably thought that I was being a bit of a fucking idiot doing all of this. But I just did not care what he was thinking, and I was aware that at the end of the day, what I was doing was for the best. I felt like he would just eventually see that in the bigger picture, I was not a bad guy at all.

Once I was at his house, I went to the door, and then I knocked on his door, wondering what he was going to be saying now. He opened, and he was looking at the suit, and then he was looking at me for a few seconds, wondering what in the world he was going to tell me.

"Wow, I did not expect you to actually do this. I thought you were just saying that to try and be big on me. But I guess that maybe I need to give you more credit than I want to." After he was telling me this, he shrugged, and then he was sitting down, wondering what to say.

"Just do not get so in character that you actually forget that I am trying to work with you." Todd said, and I was seeing that at the end of the day, I needed to remember my allegiance, and not be letting things any worse at all, for his own sake.

Scene 10: The First Monster Sighting

When I was out of the area, and I was done talking with Todd, I was feeling kind of bad for everything that I was doing with the guy. In all honesty, Todd deserved better than what I had been doing. After all, I knew that he wouldn't sell his soul off to the devil, even if it was just being in character.

When I was walking around to the Wilson casino, I was wondering what in the world that man in the black jacket was going to be sending me out to be doing. He probably had a real plan for what I needed to do, and he was going to be giving me the first contract about destroying monsters.

The entire time that I had been driving towards the casino, I wondered if they were going to be sending me right to the area that the missing girls were, and if maybe agreeing to this was going to open things right up, without any issues at all.

Before long, I was at the casino, and I was already seeing two of these guys heading inside of the casino. I knew that they would probably find me a bit annoying to be here, but in all honesty, I did not really fucking care at all. I just hope that they hardly knew me, and that having this outfit on might give me some form of anomnity.

I went inside, and then when I was seeing that the two guys stopped right away for a second when they heard me walking inside. As soon as they were seeing me here, I was seeing that both of them were looking really confused to what in the world I was even going to be trying to accomplish now.

"What are you doing here?" They asked me, and I had no idea if that was because of who I was, or because of the fact that they assumed that I was flaking out on a job. So I started to get much more confident, and just felt like I just needed to pretend like I was not too scared of what I was doing.

"I was wondering what my next job was going to be. I just started, and I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing." I said, and then the guy was laughing as he was hearing this. He probably just felt like he could not fucking believe that he was hearing this at all. Probably felt like this was the worst luck that he could possibly ever have.

"Oh god, what the hell was Shaun thinking when he decided to let you be doing this? Regardless, I am not going to be making a fight out of this. I think I heard that there was a sighting near the exit of town, when you see the Wayside sign." The man said, and he just sounded really annoyed to be seeing me here. I knew that he was probably just trying to get away from me.

I started to think that he was wanting me to just leave him alone. I was shaking my head, and then I was heading away from him, and I decided that I would not be saying anything at all. I then started to head to my car, feeling like I just needed to pretend like this was what I needed to be doing now.

As I was inside my car, I was shaking my head. I was having a terrible feeling that when I was going to be gone, if there was going to be a monster there, then I would probably die from not having enough to fight it with, and then with that, those people could finally work on their own.

Before I was able to be leaving, that was when I was noticing something that scared me. I turned around, and saw that one of my windows was opened in the back, and I saw that a brief case was there. I checked out what this brief case was, and saw that inside, there was some files, a gun, and a pocket knife. I tried to see if there was more. But I couldn't find much, and I knew that this was something I needed to use to defend myself here.

I knew right then and there, that there was no way in hell that I would be able to get out of this anymore. Even if I wanted to just pretend like this idea was something I was retracting on, I had no choice but to deal with this. I was smoking a cigarette, and felt like maybe monster hunting was something that could unite the two of us.

I was then getting in my driver seat, and looked up at the Wilson Casino, and wondered what in the world I was even going to be getting myself into. As I started to head off to the tree house, and I was wondering if I was going to hate myself for this down the line, and wondered why I was even doing this.

I was wondering if I would be able to fight these monsters with just a fucking gun. I felt like something like this was just going to be impossible to handle. But I guess that nobody really fucking cared what I was going to be doing.

I then started to drive on towards the video store, feeling like I just needed to grab a camera to record this. That way in case if I ever did find a monster here, people would actually take what I was saying seriously, and I would finally show people that these monsters were actually fucking real.

I knew that the men in black were probably were going to be super upset with what I was doing by coming to that area. But to be honest, I was not really fucking caring. If they confronted me about this, I would tell them that this was something that I was just doing for my own personal point.

Eventually, I got to in front of the video store, and I was asking myself mentally if this was really the right thing to be doing. I just shrugged, and I was not caring at all. I was getting out of my car, and I hid the brief case under my seat, that way nobody knew that I was having a gun with me, which could be able to buy me a minor form of leverage for a little bit longer.

I eventually inside of the video store, and then I was seeing that the guy working on his shift was looking bored as absolute all hell, which was kind of making me laugh, as it reminded me of what I was like when I was at the gas station, and I was wondering how much my boss was going to hate me if he knew the truth of what I was doing.

As I was looking around, that was when I was hearing the guy calling out to me. "Hey dude, what are you looking for?" He asked, and then I turned around to him, wondering why in the world he would even care what I was looking for.

"I was looking for a video recorder. I need to use this for my fucking job." I said, and then the man was looking like he was just really unsure of what I would get out of this. He was standing up, and I was seeing that while he was mildly annoyed that he was getting distracted, there was a small part of him that was glad that he was going to finally be having something to do for once.

"Well, it beats sitting around and doing nothing all day. Anyways, in all honesty, I do not know how I will be able to fucking help you out. I think it's in the left corner over there. I haven't been there in a while, since nobody ever goes there." After he said that, we were walking on there, and I wondered if he was actually really wanting to do this.

Once we were in that room, and then I was smiling, and slowly nodded. "Why would you need a recorder anyways for your job?" After he asked me, I shrugged, and I was wondering why he even gave a shit what I was doing in the first place.

"I got a very important commission, that I need to make sure everything is recorded just to be one hundred percent safe." I said, and I was seeing that he was not really looking like he was taking what I was saying too serious.

I grabbed this, and I looked at the length of how long I can record at one go. It wasn't as long as I wanted, but I guess that it was something that I needed to take. So with that, we were walking to the counter, and the guy was just slowly following.

I handed him the money, and then as I was leaving, the guy was calling out to me. "That outfit is familiar. Do you know anything about it?" After he asked me this, I was sighing, and I really had no idea what in the world I could have said to not get in trouble.

"Honestly, this is just something that you have to wear when you get a job that I work at." I said, and I was seeing him looking like he was trying to decide if he was buying what I was saying. But then he shrugged, as if feeling like it hardly even fucking mattered, and then with that, I headed towards my car, not really in the mood to deal with this.

As I was starting to head to the entrance sign of the town, I was wondering what the hell I was even going to get out of this anymore. I was thinking that perhaps when I would see the monsters there, I would be able to finally feel like I was doing something right, and I was hoping that Dana would be able to appreciate what I am doing.

I wondered if Dana knew what I was doing, and I was wondering if Dana was going to be fine with my methods with what I was doing. In all honesty, I had a feeling that she would probably be upset at my plans at any given time. But in all honesty, I really could not give much of a shit, despite the fact that I was doing this all on my own.

Eventually, I was at the entrance sign of Wayside, and then I got out of the car, looking around for a bit. I wondered if I needed to head on towards the gas station, since it was still not a weekend or anything. But before I could think about it any longer, I was placing the camera out of the box, and then I placed the recording sign to the wind shield.

I pressed the recording button, and then I closed my eyes, hoping that nothing would happen here. Or that if it did, the monsters would be showing up at night, which meant that I would be able to still do my week days shifts at the gas station.

I took out a cigarette, and I was placing my feet at the steering wheel. I was kind of tired to be totally honest, and I was feeling like just sitting here was kind of something for me to take a nap on. And then every hour or two, I would wake up, and check out the footage or something like that. I knew that people would not be very happy with what I was doing. But in all honesty, I hardly fucking cared at all. And I was wondering if that guy was going to be reporting me somewhere, as he now knew what I was doing here.

I sighed, and looked at the time, and saw that it was only like twenty minutes before the shift was supposed to begin. So I drove on to the gas station, and I decided that I would be coming back here after eight in the evening, when I would be able to dedicate my time with this once again.

Before long, I was at the gas station, and I was seeing that the attendant was looking scared out of his fucking mind when he was seeing this. I felt like I just needed to keep myself calm, and not be too upset at what I was doing.

"Sheldon, what are you fucking doing with this outfit? I thought that you would reject everything like this forever." After he was telling me this, I was wondering why in the he would even fucking care what I was doing in the first place.

"I am just doing what I must. I hope that this does not become a big issue right now." I said, and then I saw that there was nothing else I could be able to do to make him any better. "I mean, it's just a outfit. It is no big fucking deal."

After he was looking at this, he just shook his head, and he just left me there. I wondered if he was against what I was doing off the clock. I mean, this is none of his business, and I was feeling he just needed to get off of my fucking ass in the first place.

I sat down, and I was feeling like everything that I had been doing was wrong, and I just hoped that these people would be willing to forgive me for what I had been doing in the first place. But I guess that nothing I could say would even fucking matter at all.

I was smoking a cigarette, and I just told myself to not really make any issues about what I was doing. I stared out, and I hoped that nothing that I would do would make things any worse in the first place. I knew that Dana would probably not really like the way that I was doing all of this, and think that I was doing this all fucking wrong.

I thought that if Todd was ever wanting to talk to me again, then I was going to have to step the fucking hell up with everything. I wondered if maybe I could be able to help him learn what in the world Nora was getting herself into. And if I could find out the truth of Nora, then at least Jenny can start to sleep easier in some degree.

And I was wondering if perhaps I was going to be putting myself in a situation where I would have no fucking choice but to kill Harold's father. I never really wanted to think about this, but I just decided that I would keep things in that mind for later.

But I was only going to do something like that, killing in the first place, if I was feeling like there was no fucking choice on what I was doing. That being said, if I did something like this, then I feel like I would just justify that I did this as a way to defend myself, and that the town needed something like this to become more prosperous in the long run.

I started to wonder if working all this much was worth it in the first place. That I didn't have more time to just focus on the bigger picture ahead of me. I feel like every hour that I was here, just earning empty money, was another hour that I did not really work on finding the girls in this town.

I was starting to wonder if maybe quitting this job was going to be worth it in the long run. I mean, it was only forty dollars a week that I was getting my doing this in the first place. That hardly seemed to be fucking worth it at all anymore.

Before long, the man was coming back, and then I was able to clock off once again. As I was starting to head off, I was hearing the man calling out to me, and I decided to just listen to what he was saying. Not because of him being my boss, since I was off the clock so I didn't have to take orders. But because he was older and more experienced.

"Sheldon, I have no idea what you think you are going to accomplish by doing this. Just make sure that no matter what you are doing, you have some friends at your side, who will actually stand by what you are doing. That is all that you can really fucking do. I just feel like what you are doing right no will not fucking be worth it." After he was telling me this, I was wondering what he was even trying to get out of this.

"Why the fucking hell do you even fucking care what I am doing? You seem like you do not fucking care what I am doing in the first place. So I feel like I just need to do what I must, without your approval." I said, and then I was seeing the man looking like he was wondering why I was even acting like this in the first place.

"I hope that you know what you are talking about. If you don't keep yourself careful, then I do not want to think about the long term affects." He was telling me, and then I was sighing, and rolling my eyes, not really in the mood to be hearing what he was wanting to tell me at all.

I went in my car, and started to head to the sign. In all honesty, I was not really in the mood to be dealing with something like this in the first place. He was kind of annoying me, and I was hoping that my boss would not be giving me the fucking high ground lecture anymore.

As I was back at the town entrance once again, I was starting the recording once again, trying to just have a bit of time for myself. As I was staring out once again, this was when I was starting to feel a bit better about what was going on for the time being.

I had been there for about twenty minutes, and smoked two cigarettes, when my door got knocked on. I looked over, and then I was seeing that it was Todd there. I was shocked to be seeing him here. I was sighing, and I was wondering what he was planning on doing right now. I beckoned him in my car, feeling like I just needed to give him a chance.

"So Sheldon, I saw that you were in the area, and I was wanting to see if you were able to talk for a bit. I know that I might have been kind of pissing you off and stuff. I just wanted to apologize for my behavior, and show you that I sincerely regret what I have been doing here." Todd said, and then I was thinking that whatever he was wanting to say, I was just not really in the mood to hear it.

"They basically gave me fucking guard duty. It is really fucking boring. Not going to fucking blame you if you do not really want to be dealing with this." I said, feeling like there was no reason to be saying anything at all.

"I guess that you should have expected something like this. I am not going to be making fun of you though. At least you are doing something you are going to be proud of." After Todd was telling me this, I was then wondering what in the world he even wanted to say at all.

"Sheldon, do you seriously think that the monsters are going to be coming by here?" After Todd was asking me this, I was sighing, and I had really no fucking idea what I was going to tell him at all. I was feeling like I was only going to just kind of trigger Todd, no matter what I was telling him.

"Yeah, I do think they will be there. Honestly, if these guys have said that monsters have been found there, then either they are, or these people are just trying to throw me off, and I would have expected this from the start. So in all honesty, this is something that I am really ready for." I said, and then I was wondering if Todd could have been willing to hear what I said.

"I wonder if Dana wants to hang out with you if she knew that you were going to be investigating this much more?" Todd asked me, and then I was decided that I was not going to say much more, and I was feeling like whatever Todd wanted to tell me, I felt that keeping Dana out of this was going to be for the best.

"You know, Myron and I actually found some of those monsters down in the well. We were just trying to figure out what we were going to do next, and then we found one down there. We were shocked to see this like cat like being, just fucking demonic, and there was nothing that we can fucking do to change it." I said, and then I was shrugging, having no idea what to tell him.

"Myron? Wow, I never thought that he would be the one that would find them with you." After Todd said this, he was laughing, and I was wondering why he was so fucking interested in hearing this in the first place.

"I mean, seriously, give the guy a chance. I mean, he always talks about what he wants with politics, and becoming class president. But he has good intentions, and he really does want to help people." I said, hoping that he would actually hear what I was telling him.

"I mean, I wish that I could buy that. But to be honest, it is just kind of hard knowing how seriously he takes everything, and he just needs to relax. I mean, there is no fucking better way to say it. He always just acts like he needs to prove to people that he has this great plan in life." Todd said, and I was wondering if he was having a level of resentment in what he was saying.

"I mean, I feel like he always just wants to show people that nothing he does is all that harmful. I think maybe he is like everybody else, just wanting to prove you that he has a good plan. It seems like you always bring the best out in people." After I was telling him this, Todd looked like he didn't care.

"Did you have a fight with him, that you felt like you were cheated out on?" I asked, and Todd was shaking his head, clearly not wanting to talk about this at all. I decided that I would just remain silent for the time being, for his own sake.

"I want to believe that Myron is doing this for the best. I mean, who doesn't want their friend to be the best bet for the mistakes for Wayside? But I mean, you have Kevin, Jenny, even Joy, and Maurecia if you can get her motivated for more than gushing over me for more than ten seconds." Todd said, and then as he was saying this, before we could talk any longer, I looked down, and realized almost twenty minutes had passed since we started. And I looked up, and saw yet another one of those monsters, starting to head to the right.

I stood up, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was not really in the mood to be dealing with this right now. But then he shook his head, and decided to just remain silent at what he was saying.

As Todd and I were looking out, I was looking at the camera, and saw that it had been recording this. I grabbed it, feeling like I just needed to get right to work. "Alright Todd, we need to be heading right there right now. No fucking messing around." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he wanted to find something else to say to fight this. But then he shrugged, and decided to drop it.

We were running along for a while, and were following this path to see what the monster was doing. I was thinking to myself about how strange it was that I was doing this, as if I was leaving the fucking town, even to a small extent, and I was wondering if Todd was planning on telling people about what he was going to be doing now.

I was feeling like I was finally getting my daily worth of exercise, especially with the fucking suit, and I was wondering how things would work out if I even tried to reach out to those other men in black. They probably knew for a fact that I wasn't actually supporting them.

Before long, we were at a tree, and I was staring at it, and I was looking around for a bit, seeing that there was a small hole down there. "I remember seeing this tree and hole down there. But what do you think we are going to be doing with this." Todd said, and then he was looking at me, as if wondering what my plan was going to be.

"Sheldon, are you going to be heading down there?" After he asked me this, I was sighing, and I was not really in the mood to be dealing with this in the first place. I was just taking a deep breath, not really in the mood to be hearing this at all.

"I am wanting to go down there eventually. But it is so late at night that I am wondering if it is even going to be worth it in the first place." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was considering what I had been saying in the first place.

"Alright, that makes some sense. Are you planning on going to be heading down there yourself?" After he was asking me this, and I was looking at him, and I was wondering what he was going to even fucking be planning right now.

"I am probably going to try and find somebody who is willing to come with me right now." I said, and then I was seeing that Todd looking like he was just thinking about what I was even saying. I was just closing my eyes, and was so glad that I caught this in recording, feeling like I could show this to the men in black, and perhaps we

Scene 11: Going Down There

The next day, when I was done with my shift, I was going over to Dana's house, and I was wanting to just tell her about what I was going to be doing. I had hoped that she was wanting to help me with the tree investigation. When I knocked on her door, I knew for a fact that she was going to hate working with me right now, but I hardly fucking cared about what she was going to think here.

She answered the door, and then was scared for a second before she was looking at my face, due to the black suit. When she was calming down for a bit. "Oh god Sheldon, what are you fucking doing right now. You know that everybody is going to hate you for doing this." After she was telling me this, I slowly nodded, knowing that she did not need to confirm something like this at all.

"What are you wanting to do?" She asked, clearly not seeming to be in the mood for this at all. I was slowly nodding, and I felt like I just needed to give her what she had wanted to know. "Todd was telling me that you were wanting to work with him on something. But I just figured that nobody ever wants to work with me ever anymore." After she was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling kind of bad for her now.

"Look, I am not going to judge you at all. I want to work with you with the stuff that you know from the monsters. And Todd and I found something by the tree near the exit of the town, and I think you would probably want to go down there." I said, and then I was seeing that Dana was looking like she would not believe that I was even suggesting this in the first place.

"I do want to do this. This is going to be super fucking dangerous. But I guess that there is nothing to be so worried about." After she was telling me this, I was then feeling like the two of us could finally continue this investigation, and this was going to be the best way for us to finally be getting some fucking closure.

"Well, if this is the case, then I think we need to be getting right to work. Do you want to be taking anybody with you right now?" After she was asking me this, I was then slowly nodding. Feeling like now that I was having her wanting to actually do this, we can just get right to work, and make this the best bet for both of us.

"I want to pick up Kevin, and maybe even Todd. I know that you might not want to be hanging out with any of them. But I hardly fucking care, especially with Todd. And besides, the higher the numbers, the more safe that the two of us are going to be." I said, and then I was seeing Dana looking like she was kind of seeing what I was saying.

"Let's just fucking grab them right now." After she was saying this, the two of us were getting in the car, and then I was driving to Kevin's house, since he was much closer. "I think that I might have to gather some stuff to go down there, since we are going to be there for a while." I nodded as she was saying this to me.

"Sheldon, I want to make sure that we are going to be safe now. I mean, do you feel like you can be able to promise me this?" She asked me, and then I was sighing, since I honestly was not going to be able to give her any form of promise at all.

"I want to try. But I have no idea if I can. I can promise you that I will try." After I was telling her this, I was seeing her looking down at the car floor, wishing to say more, but then deciding against it.

Eventually, we pulled up at Kevin's house, and then I knocked on his door, wondering if Kevin was even going to be in the mood to deal with this right now. When he answered the door, I was seeing that he was looking mildly tired, as if he had been busy on something for several hours.

"What are you planning on doing today? I feel like either way, you are going to have me come along. Might as well just do this, and go along with this." After he was telling us this, I saw him looking like he had wanted to argue this a little bit. But then he just shook his head, and decided to not be making a issue here any longer.

"If you have no fucking desire to do this, then we can just leave. I mean, I figured that maybe you would want to come along, given the fact that you have been involved in our work for quite a long time." I said, and then I was seeing that he was wanting to fight this. But then he decided to just drop the subject for the time being.

"No, I will go. I just wish that I knew how you were planning on putting this all together. That is all that I am worried about right now." He was saying, and then that was when Dana and I were both wondering what in the world the two of us were even going to say at all.

"I will only be going if Todd wants to come as well. I mean, he has a better idea on how to handle this than you guys do, no offense. I mean, you basically brought him in as a protégé." After Kevin was telling Dana this, she smiled, as if glad to hear that he was giving her some credit for her involvement here.

"I was already planning on bringing him along anyways." I said, and then I was starting to drive towards Todd's house. "To be fair, I feel like he would have wanted to come along anyways, due to the fact that he is the guy that helped me find out about that anyways."

"What were you guys even doing around that tree anyways? I mean, the entrance of Wayside sounds like a really strange place for you guys to be looking around anyways." After she was telling me this, I was then feeling like I would just be fully honest with what I was doing there anyways.

"I was playing a character basically, and when there, I found a monster running by, and Todd and I followed along, to see where it was going." I said, feeling like I would just tell her everything that I Had been doing.

Eventually, the two of us were at Todd's house, and then I was wondering if Todd was going to be fully down with bringing Dana along with this. I feel like he would probably try to come with any excuse about why she should not be coming along. As if having her here was only going to be making things worse.

I didn't have to wait for more than just a couple of seconds when I knocked this time. He answered me, and I was seeing that he was having a back pack already prepared. "What the fucking hell do you have in there?" After I was asking him this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was kind of proud of what he was doing right now.

"Just some dynamite. I know that you probably do not want me to use this. But in all honesty, when you have a dad who is involved in some crazy businesses, you have to have something with you to defend yourself with." After Todd was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was aware that he was going to be getting us killed right now.

"I mean, I guess that if we are utterly fucked, then I guess that we can use that as something." I said, and I was hoping that we would never have to actually use this at all. Todd was heading to his car. "I was going to be heading to my house, and some other places, that we can get some other weapons."

"See, I knew that you would not hate my idea forever. I mean, it might be rough to do things right now. But I guess that is the name of the fucking game." After he was telling me this, he was getting in the car next to Dana, since Kevin took the passenger seat.

"This is fucking crazy. I can't believe that I am finding myself agreeing to all of this in the first place. It just seems like we are all getting ourselves in some dangerous business." Kevin told me, clearly just trying to hide his fear. I started my car, and began to head to my house.

I went to my bedroom, and picked up a baseball bat that I had never used before. I was then running to my car, and then I shoved it right next to my seat in the area. With that, I drove on down to the general store, feeling like I was going to have to pick up something that would probably be totally un-needed.

Once I was at the general store, I went on right towards the gasoline section. Kevin got out of the car, and he was wanting to just ask me several questions, that I was not really in the mood to be dealing with at all.

"Are you seriously going to be buying gasoline? What the fucking hell are you going to expect here?" After Kevin asked me this, I looked at him, and I was feeling like he was just not seeing the bigger picture, or what I was going to be doing right now.

"In case if I need to burn it down when we are done. I mean, those monsters are really going to be the biggest issue that we have. And I think you probably know that I am right." I said, and then I was seeing that Kevin looked like he was wanting to fight with me. But then he shook his head, and decided to not fight here.

"Oh god, I can't believe that I am doing this right now. Alright, go ahead and do what you need." Kevin said, and then I was sad about everything that he was dealing with. I felt like he genuinely deserved better, and I was wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

I got back to the car, and placed both canisters of gasoline in the back trunk, and I was seeing Kevin looking like he was wanting to ask me a couple of other questions. "Sheldon, what are you fucking planning? I mean, I want to help you. But I think that we just need to be more careful here." After he was telling me this, I was wanting to say more. But I just decided to not say anything at all.

"I have no fucking plan. The only plans I have right now are finding out the fucking truth, and then after that, burning the fucking place down if I need to. It is going to be a terrible plan, but I hardly fucking care right now." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he wanted to fight. But then he just shrugged, and hardly seemed like he cared anymore.

"Alright, I guess that I might as well just go along with this. I mean, you have a better plan than I do right now. My main plan is just running around like a fucking idiot, and then hoping that what my friends are doing makes more sense." He said, and then he laughed as he was saying this, hoping to make me laugh a bit here.

The entire time that I was driving towards the tree, I was wondering what in the world I was going to be doing right now. I was scared that I was going to be letting my friends down in some way if I was doing this. If they were going to be thinking that I was a traitor or some shit like that.

"Jenny has been having a really hard time right now. I wanted to try and help her. But I know for a fact that she will probably just find everything that I am doing to be a fucking lie. Something to get people to believe that I am the answer that I couldn't give them." After Kevin was telling me this, I was wondering why he was even telling me this in the first place.

"Do you think that Jenny truly loves you guys? I mean, I have a horrible feeling that she probably thinks that none of us care about the fucking case with her mother. Accuse us of just taking it way too easily. I feel like she just will never see how much we want to help her." I said, and I wondered if Kevin wanted to even hear what I was saying.

"I think we just need to fucking focus on making sure that we survive this right now. Sheldon, why do you even think we can have a answer for her? She probably already despises us for everything that we are doing right now." Todd said, and I was shocked to be hearing him say something like this. Knowing that this was completely against everything he had been saying earlier.

Eventually, I was at the entrance sign of Wayside. I was then getting out of the car, Grabbing the baseball bat, and I was grabbing my brief case. I saw that Dana had been eying that the entire time. Wanting to know what in the world was in there in the first place. I was giving her that look, trying to tell her to not even fucking try and do something like this right now.

"Dana, I think if you want to destroy these monsters, then you need to find a way to steal up the courage for yourself. Monsters are here, and they will kill us all right now. Just make sure that you are going to be prepared for all of this." I said, and then I was wondering what in the world I was even trying to accomplish by telling her that.

I started to head towards the tree, and I was wondering why in the world I was even telling her all of this in the first place. I felt like I was being harsh for no fucking reason, and I felt like I just needed to give her a bit more of a break, since I knew what she wanted.

Once at the tree, I was seeing the entrance down below. I ended up placing the brief case down on the ground, and I was thinking that every single environmentalist ever in the world was going to hate my guts for doing this.

I grabbed out my knife from down there, and then I started to cut down at the tree, trying to open up even more space for us to go inside. As I was doing this, that was when Todd, Kevin, and Jenny, finally saw the gun down there, and all of them started to freak out a bit. Finally realizing what was going on here.

"What are you going to fucking do with that gun?" Kevin asked, and then I was thinking that he was just trying too hard to give off the cool boy impression. Probably thinking that everybody would be making fun of him if we knew how much he was scared out of his mind on what was happening here.

"I don't know. I mean, I don't really plan on using it unless if I fucking have to. I just know that I have the option if things get any worse." I said, and I was hoping that by telling her this, I would start to make her feel a bit better about what was going on now.

"Wow, I guess that having those guys with you is a good option after all." Dana said, and she was clearly just trying to be funny when she was saying this. I wondered what her problem was, considering the fact that I was never once saying that using this gun was going to be for the best.

"I am just trying to have everything open, in case if I was ever fucking wrong. It is that simple. I am not expecting you guys to agree with me. But I am just doing what I know is right." After I was telling her this, I was just hacking away as much as I could. Hoping that I could finally have enough to work with in due time.

"Sheldon, I hope that you know that both of us are going to be behind you, one hundred percent, regardless of what you are doing. You have a wonderful idea, and that is all that really matters." Kevin told me, and I was seeing him looking like he was hoping that what he was saying was going to be convincing us enough that he was actually meaning what he had been saying.

Eventually, there was enough to go down, and then with that, I went to my car for a second, and then grabbed the recorder, that way I would have this to show Shaun when it was coming to that time to report to him. I didn't want to report to him, but I knew that I needed to do this the sake of staying alive, just even a few moments longer.

I started to walk down the tree, and then I was seeing the other three considering what to be doing. As we were walking down, I was taking a cigarette, and I really had no idea what I would even be able to do at this point in time. The longer that we had been walking down the path, which was making me wonder why there was what was basically a set of stairs going down the tree.

First, Kevin started to go down, and then with that was when Todd started to go down a bit, and then I was seeing Dana kind of accepting what had happening. I really had no idea what in the world I even would want to be telling Dana. She was clearly scared out of her fucking mind, and there was nothing we could be able to do about it.

The longer that we were going down, and I was recording, the more certain that I had been getting that in all honesty, the entire town was going to be looking for where the four of us were. I really had no idea what there was to do about what was going on.

Eventually, we had gone down the stairs, and started to look around, where there was a bunch of destroyed boxes, and clothes ruined all the place. I was unsure of what the hell I even could accomplish here. I was thinking that if my friends wanted nothing to do with this anymore, then I guess that I could not blame them at all.

"We are going to have to fight every monster that we find. And then when we are done, we are going to be burning down this fucking tree. I don't care how many people get upset at us destroying the environment." I said, and I really had no idea what I could have accomplished by I was telling them.

"Sheldon, this is going to be getting us a massive target. I mean, I don't even fully disagree. But this is going to be a terrible idea." After Dana was telling me this, I sighed, aware that she was just trying to make any excuse in the world here. I knew that no matter what I told her, she would be upset, and constantly find something to complain about.

"Kevin, what do you think? I mean, we have a lot of shit that we need to do. I mean, people have clearly gone down here, and I think we need to take advantage of our chance here." I said, and then I was seeing Kevin looking like he was not wanting to do this.

"I don't fucking know. I wonder if these people have been going down here before. Probably just to hide what they are doing." After Kevin told me this, I really was not in the mood to be hearing what he was telling me. This was kind of just getting a bit annoying, and I wanted help with my plans.

Scene 12: Burn The Damn Tree Down

As I was thinking about what I was doing, I was thinking about what it would be like to start to get to know these people a bit more. Maybe just sort of break the ice, and just make them feel better. "Hey guys, I wanted to just see how you were doing right now." I said, and then I was seeing that neither Todd or Dana really knew what to say.

"I mean, we are going to be stuck down here for the time being, so I feel like getting cold with each other is not going to be helping out anybody at all. I feel like we just need to have a good conversation, and see how we are all doing." I said, and then I was wondering if anything I would say would be making the situation any different at all.

"Sheldon, I just feel like doing something like this right now would probably be really bad timing. I mean, what in the world are we going to be able to discuss here in the first place?" After Dana was asking me this, I was looking down, and I was feeling like there was nothing I could be able to tell her that could change her conflicted emotions.

"I know that it might not be the best timing. But bad timing is better than no timing, and you never know when the last chance might possibly be. So I feel like we just need to be doing this." After I was telling her this, I was wondering what I was even trying to get out of telling her all of this.

"I guess that you of all people have the right to say that, due to what happened with your sister. So I guess that maybe I should be considering what you say." Dana was telling me, and I was wondering if she was even wanting to say this in the first place, or just wanted to change the subject to make me feel better now.

"I mean, I know that my sister never liked me all that much to begin with. But every day that passes by, I feel like I want to just honor her for what she had been able to do more and more. As strange as that might be sounding." I said, and then I was feeling like nothing that I would tell her would even make any difference.

"I guess that I will admit that I am probably not really doing this for my brother at all anymore. I mean, at first, that was my intention. But in all honesty, I feel like if I don't start doing this for myself, then I am only going to just be making things worse." After Kevin was telling me this, I was then wondering what the others would want to respond with.

I was walking down the area that we were stuck in for a while, when I was hearing Todd asking Dana another question, that in all honesty, I had not been fully ready to hear. "So Dana, why do you care so much about finding the monsters? I mean, in all honesty, you never really had much credentials on the whole thing at all." After Todd asked her, and I was wondering what he was accomplishing by asking her this.

"Honestly, I want to feel like I am finally doing something that I can say is helping people out. It seems like people always just get annoyed with what I am doing, and I feel like there is only so much that I can do before people just eventually want nothing to do with me." Dana was telling us, and then I was checking something out. Brushing off all the dirt, and seeing that it was a box.

"What is that?" Kevin asked, and then I was looking at it for a while longer, and in all honesty, I had no idea what I was looking at. I wanted to give Kevin a better answer, but in all honesty, I felt like there was nothing that I could tell him that would make him feel any differently.

"It says Needlemeyer. So that's Larry's family. What the hell was something of Larry's doing down here? That makes no fucking sense." I said, and then I pulled it out, and saw that it was something like a small box. I was showing Kevin it, wondering what he would be saying to this.

As Kevin and I were doing this, I was hearing Todd and Dana still talking. "Look Dana, you can't say that you didn't contribute. You were the one that showed me the fucking monsters, and you were able to get me some idea on what I am supposed to be doing. That is enough for you to be happier. I just wished that I would have been able to help you out better." Todd said, and then Dana was just kind of taking it for what she heard.

"I think when I saw that I was the first one to meet you when you got introduced to the school, you would have been the one who would have made my life easier. But the fact that we hated for a period, and then broke up, and are still hanging out, just all feels so fucking strange." After she was telling Todd this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was sad to hear her say something like this.

I opened up the box, and when I was seeing it inside, I was seeing that there was a journal that was in there. I opened up the journal, and I was seeing that it was numerous years old. Like it seemed like it was in the 1930's or 1940's. I looked up at Todd, and I was shocked to even see that this was still readable in the first place.

"Take that Kevin. I mean, I feel like you might be able to read this in due time. And make sure that no matter who wants to know about it, unless if they are in this room with us, that they learn about this." I said, and then I was seeing Kevin looking like he was getting a little bit flustered with this. Probably thinking that I was giving him way too much of a task for him to care about.

"But what if Sam wants to see this in the first place? I mean, I feel like there is only so long that I can be able to hide this from him. After all, he is my brother, and he deserves to know the truth." After Kevin was telling me this, I was wondering what his point was here in the first place.

"I mean, maybe eventually. How about you read it first, see for yourself, if this is worth it or not, and then after that, choose where to be going from here. But until you read it and decide, you need to fucking not show this to anybody." I said, and I was not even caring at all how much he was getting annoyed with what I was telling him.

"Sheldon, I feel like I need to be making my own choice on this whole thing. But I guess that there is no reason to be arguing with you at all." After he was telling me this, he just sighed, and decided that he would let things go for the time being, and hope that I wouldn't get too annoyed with him.

"Please, just think about what I am saying. I mean, I know that you do not like it when I say this, but I am more experienced than you, and I feel like you just need to trust me when I just tell you what your best bet is." I said, and then I was seeing him looking relatively annoyed at what he was doing.

I was looking at other things, and they were all just various writings and pictures, and I closed the box, and then I was grabbing it. Wondering if it was better to bring this to Larry, or at least look at it when I am done with this. And then I was unable to think about it too long before I heard another noise from those monsters.

"Okay guys, I know that you guys are scared, and I do not blame you. But I think that we just need to be smart about how we are doing this." I said, and then I was seeing them all looking like they wanted to just try and keep a level of calm. I was not aware of what this was at the time, but I think that it was something like a wendigo.

Dana was pulling the gun from my briefcase out. I was wondering if she was seriously thinking for a damn second that she was going to be able to do anything at all to change this. I was then feeling like I just needed to give her some hope, and not be too rough with her right now. She was wanting to help, and that was all that I needed.

"Dana, don't fucking use that unless if you feel like you absolutely have to. This is serious fucking business." I said, and then I was feeling like telling her this was probably not even needed. But I just wanted to make her understand this.

"I fucking know Sheldon. But I think we both know that I might have to use that really fucking soon, and I would rather take the shot then anything else." After she said that to me, the monster started to come towards me, and I swung my baseball at it, and then swung it again, to just give it some actual damage.

Kevin was placing the journal in his pocket, suddenly taking what I was telling him much more seriously, and not wanting to argue with me anymore. I was glad at least he was actually listening to me for the time being. And not arguing with every fucking word that was coming out of my mouth.

Todd was pulling one of the stick of dynamite out, and I was muttering under my breath about how much I really did not want him to be doing this. But then I just figured that I would remain silent, given the fact that he was just trying to help me out here.

He took a box of matches, and I took a step back, and then he threw the stick at the monster when he was done striking it. When it was hitting the monster, the monster seemed to hardly even care about the fact that this explosive powder was hitting it.

Once it exploded, the monster only really just had like two seconds of being stunned. I was wondering if this was even going to be worth it, considering how little damage we had actually put on it in the first place. I wondered why I thought it was a good idea, even for a second, to bring these people down here with me, and that I was going to potentially have their deaths literally on my head after this.

Dana was firing the gun as soon as it was starting to come towards us once again. As she hit the monster in the eye, this was when the three four of us were finally feeling like we had a fucking moment to be able to get out of this shit. I was starting to run up the tree path, and then Kevin was getting in the lead. Not that I could blame him, since he was the only one without a weapon.

He was seeming to try and record the stuff to a small degree, but he was too focused on running away, and surviving, that he didn't seem to be getting all the footage. I was kind of shocked that he was putting in as much effort into this as he had been, given how he had reacted earlier.

"Sheldon, do you even think that we can destroy this anyways?" After Todd asked me this, I was wondering why he was even asking me this in the first place. I think we both knew for a fucking fact that there was no way in hell that we were going to even destroy this. I felt like anything I would tell him was just kind of to make him feel better.

As we were getting up on the entrance, this was when I had seen that Kevin had already gone out. "Hand me the gasoline!" I demanded, in order to make sure that there was even a small chance that my plan once again. Kevin was immediately complying relatively aware of what I was trying to tell him. I knew that this was going to be getting us killed.

Dana fired the gun once again, and Todd threw one extra stick, just for good measure. And once they were officially out, Kevin was handing me the gasoline. I started to pour it all over the area, and the second canister was placed down, for when I was ready.

As I was placing it down, this was when I was seeing the monster started to seem somewhat scared, and they were starting to run back once again. I was glad to finally get them scared for once. This was what I had fucking needed. I was feeling proud for the fact that I was getting them to be utterly terrified.

When the monster was several feet behind, I was pouring more and more down on the ground. I was so fucking glad to just be giving my friends a moment to rest. A moment to plan, and a moment to figure out what might be happening in case if this became a fucking big deal with the police and what not.

Eventually, when I was done pouring down the first canister, I was getting out of the tree myself. I was planning on getting the second canister oiled down in the area immediately around it. I knew that this was going to be a terrible idea. But it was a idea, and that was what I had fucking needed at this point in time.

We got out of the tree, and then I started pouring the gasoline all over the tree. I was feeling like I was going crazy at the moment, and I was not caring who was going to think that I might have been going too far. I just needed to make this place was destroyed, and at least one hub of monsters would be gone forever.

As I was getting this all done, I was seeing Todd looking like he was just aware of what he was needing to do. He looked at Dana and Kevin. "You know that he has no choice but to do this. I mean, we got a lot of material there, so I feel like we need to just take what we fucking got." Todd said, and then this was when he was pulling out one of the sticks of dynamite. He ripped the lighter out of my pocket.

"Guys, this is insanely dangerous, and I think that you guys need to plan things out a bit better. I mean, we need to be smart." After Kevin was telling us this, I was looking at him, and I was wondering why he was even trying to be saying this in the first place. He was seeming to just try and take things to a diversion here.

"Nobody ever said that this wasn't dangerous. We just said that this is something that we had to do. We understand if you do not want to do this. But this is something that needs to be done, if we want any fucking chance." As I was telling him this, I saw that he was obviously wanting to fight this, but then he just decided that he would remain silent for now.

Todd was lighting the stick of dynamite, as I was still pouring everything down, and Dana was stuck recording everything. I was seeing that she clearly did not want to do this, but that she was seeing that there was no point in fighting this at all.

"When the stick of dynamite was getting close to the explosion point, I started to run off, after throwing the gasoline tank to the tree, and then I started to run with every measly second that I could get. I was seeing Todd was doing the same after he thrown it.

Before long, the tree started to go into a giant blaze, and I was covering myself for a second. Once the worst of the fire was dying, and I was feeling like I was safe for now, I was starting to lower my eyes, and I was scared out of my mind on what I was seeing. I was wondering why I had done this, and if I would get arrested for this, as Todd had said would probably have happened to me. And I wondered if what I was doing was the right choice.

When I was done staring at the burning tree, this was when we were seeing a bunch of police cars already starting to drive on towards the house. I was not really in the mood to be dealing with this right now. I was looking at Todd, Kevin, and Dana, and I was wondering what in the world I would even be able to tell them at all.

"Sheldon, I think we need to be leaving soon. What the fucking hell do you think they are going to do once they see that we are the ones who did this?" Todd asked, clearly terrified at what we were getting ourselves into. I couldn't blame him, but I needed him to calm down, and perhaps get a grip. After all, I was the one who was in the suit, so I would be the suspect.

"Look, if we get in trouble, my ass is on the line. You guys don't have anything to worry about. I mean, you guys just need to be happy that you guys are going to be even alive in the first place." I said, and I was not caring what I was saying, or if I was making them angry at the way that I was acting right now.

As I was saying this, I was seeing that Dana was just still holding the gun. I was seeing that she was just kind of stirred up by what she had done, and I was wondering if she was even really able to talk about it when we are done with this. After all, this was a really big moment for her, and probably one she never wanted to repeat.

Before long, I was finally standing again, and I was looking down at how dirty my clothes had become. I laughed at this. Not because it was funny, but because I was becoming more and more somebody who was really getting in character here. And that was enough to make me feel much better about what was happening here.

When the officers parked their car, they got out right away, and held out their guns. I was holding my hands up, as they were running up to me. "What were you doing here tonight?" After one of them asked me this, they were clearly scared over the fact that they knew they were talking to the mayors son, so they probably felt like they needed to be careful at how they were approaching me here.

"I was doing a job. I was told that I needed to just try and fucking see if there were some of the monsters here. And we were attacked. The only choice that we had was to destroy this tree. The monster is either dead, or stuck down there forever." I said, and then I was seeing that neither one of them were looking like they were really planning on dealing with this for the time being.

Before the police were able to tell me much more, this was when the monster was causing a loud screaming noise, and then the officer was holding the gun towards the direction of the burning tree. The other one who was there started to head towards us, aware that we were not lying, and that was scaring him more than anything else.

"You guys get out of here. You need to give that report to Shaun. We will buy you as many minutes as possible." They said, and then I was slowly nodding, realizing that for once, because of my character that I was playing, that the police and I were allies, and able to work together as I was starting to head to my car, and then Todd, Kevin and Dana followed without having to be told twice.

Once we were in the car, that was when I started the engine up, and the box of Larry's stuff, the journal, and my brief case were all thrown in the trunk. The camera was placed at my head again, and then I was beginning to leave when I was sure that none of the weapons were going to be a issue.

"Well, now there will be no doubt about monsters anymore once this footage is shown. They are going to have to show this to the town." Dana was saying, both scared and happy. Scared because of what this meant, but happy because she knew that there was no more lying at all. As we were a block away, more monster noises were made, and human screaming, and the tree was having a slightly diming burn. I was wondering if I would ever forgive myself at all.

"Guys, if you had died during that, I would never be able to sleep properly again. I would have nightmares every night when I try to feel better." I said, and then I only now realize that this might have been one of the first things that made the idea of hard drugs almost start to seem like a good idea. At the moment. You know, just being able to sleep properly, and not feel like I was ruining the world.

When I was at the entrance of the company hall, I honked my horn, to make everybody around us aware of what we were doing, and not be getting in our business. I was grabbing the camera, and I was getting out of the car. "Do whatever you guys want, staying here, going home, or coming with me. But whatever you are doing, make your choice right now." I said, and then I ran in the office lobby, and I ran to the women at the counter.

"Hand this recording to Shaun the first chance you get." I said, ending the recording, and placed the tape on the table. "I don't care if you are interrupting a appointment. He needs to know right now." I said, and then I was seeing from the look on her face, that she was aware that it was not time to fight with me at all. She knew that I was serious to the bone.

Scene 13: Truth of Nora Wakeman

I was in the casino once again, and I was able to get Todd to come with me once again. I was hoping that he would not be too upset with hanging out with me right now. In all honesty, I felt like whatever he was going to be judging me off of, he just needed to be keeping it to myself. I mean, I already really hated everything that I had been doing, and I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to forgive myself at all.

"We need to just look for Mrs. Wakeman right now. Nothing else fucking matters at all anymore." After Todd was telling me this, I knew that he was not even caring about anything else. I knew that it would be best to just remain silent, due to the fact that he was clearly upset at how everything turned out.

As Todd and I were looking around, I was smoking a cigarette for a bit. "Hey Sheldon, if you are able to get those guys to enjoy working with you, then I guess that you did a pretty good job getting in character. I suppose that maybe I shouldn't be judging you too much." After he was telling me this, I was feeling like nothing I could tell him at all would make things any better for him.

"Well, I mean, I know that sooner or later, I was going to have to do that. I just hope that they did not think too much with what I had been doing in all honesty. I just feel like perhaps I really just kind of have no choice but to go along with it." I said, and I was thinking that no matter what I told Todd, he was never even going to believe a single word of what I had said.

As Todd and I were looking around the rooms, I was wondering what I could say to Todd, to just perhaps soften the blow over what was going to be happening. "Do you even think that there will be anything in this casino that will give us more information about Jenny's mom? I mean, I really honestly believe that there is nothing that can help us here." Todd was telling me, and I was feeling like he was just kind of annoyed with what we were doing right now.

"I mean, there is something that we can perhaps find there. I am just wanting to make sure more than anything else. That is literally all that I could wish for at all." I said, and then Todd just seemed like he was wanting to believe what I was saying, but could not find it in himself to do so.

Before long, there was a random red room door that was open. Todd and I looked at each other for a moment, and saw that everybody working here was too busy to really check up on us. So with that, we started to head to the room.

As we were inside, this was when I was looking around the area, and saw that there was a bunch of things all over the area, such as women's clothing, and a few condoms. I was wondering what I was seeing. But then before long, this was when I was hearing Todd looking like he was kind of sick, and I looked over at him, wondering what his issue was.

"Oh my god, we need to call the police right now, and arrest these people." Todd said, and I was wondering what the hell he was talking about. I looked over, and then I was seeing that he was looking at a naked dead woman on a table.

I walked to the body, and then I was seeing Todd started to piece things together, realizing what he was looking at right now. I saw that there was a body in the woman's chest, and there was a lot of blood, and her throat had been slit open. "That's Jenny's mother. What the fucking hell?"

As he asked this, I was instantly feeling a level of regret I did not even know possible. I mean, it was not my fault that this happened, but I was still feeling utterly horrible over what he was confessing. I ended up taking a picture of it, feeling that Jenny needed to know the truth, one way or another, so that way she would get some closure.

"Todd, I never knew that something like this was going to fucking happen. I just wish that I could have helped you right now. But I suppose that this is something that I can't do anything about." I said, and I was feeling like everything that I would tell Todd would just be kind of pissing him off.

"Sheldon, I do not want to fucking think about this. I mean, at least we know what happened, and we can tell Jenny's mother. I just hope that she will be able to forgive us." Todd said, and then he was kind of starting to notice how horrible she had smelled.

We looked around, and we were seeing that there was a couple of people who were talking with each other, and I was seeing that they were planning on heading over to the room. And as we were seeing them talk, Todd and I were starting off.

As we were outside of the main room, the two of us were wondering what we were going to do. "What about Joy? I mean, we need to figure out to do about that right now." I said, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was kind of upset at that idea. Knowing that deep down, I was totally right about what I was saying, and that this lie was hurting him mentally.

"I guess that we will have to see what Joy will say about this. In all honesty, I have no idea what the hell I can fucking do right now." After Todd was telling me this, I was hearing him looking like he was really regretting everything that he had been saying.

With that, we were starting to head to the casino, where I was hoping that by doing this, I would be able to give the information to Jenny, and she would finally know what she had needed for once. I mean, I knew she would hate this. But I was not giving a single shit at all.

When I was in my car, I was seeing Todd opening up the door, and I was seeing him looking like he was just trying to decide what he was going to say. "Look, I know that this is going to be a horrible idea. But I don't fucking care. Jenny needs to know the truth. We will just have to work to make sure that Joy stays alive." After Todd was telling me this, I was shocked to be hearing him actually say something like this in the first place.

I got in the car, and then I was hoping that whatever Todd was going to say, he was going to hold himself accountable if she ended up dead. I started to drive towards Jenny's house, and I was wondering if Todd knew what in the world he was actually getting himself into by doing this.

"Todd, are you sure that by doing this, you are going to give Joy any form of closure here? I mean, this could really end up being a horrible idea." I said, and then I was thinking that there was no other way that telling him anything could get him to start to actually be mature about this.

"I mean, I am so fucking sorry about what I could be doing right now. I hardly fucking care right now. I mean, Joy was never really wanting to hold back. So I think that we just need to be as respectful as we possibly could." After Todd was telling me all of this, I was wondering why he was even taking so much of a risk by doing this.

Eventually, I was at Jenny's house, and then I got out of the car, and then I was seeing Todd looking like he was indeed considering what he had been doing. But then he shook his head, feeling like there was no reason to be holding back on what he was doing, and then with that, I got out of the car, thinking that any form of arguing would get me nowhere.

Once at Jenny's house, I knocked on the car. Before long, she ended up answering the door, and I was seeing her looking like she was shocked to be seeing us here so fucking late in the first place. But then I decided to just get right to the point.

"We have something that we feel like you need to see." After I was telling Jenny this, I was then seeing Jenny just glancing at Todd, as if wondering what Todd felt about this. But then she sighed, and then she let us inside of the house, feeling like she needed to give us a chance.

We went to her room, and I was wondering if her father had any plans here. I was just deciding to hardly even acknowledge that he was there, and that by doing so, I might have been able to give myself at least some time to think things through for a bit.

Once the door was closed, I took out my camera, and I handed it to her, where I was thinking she would instantly fucking get it. As she was looking down at it for a moment, I was hoping beyond everything that she would not get upset at what I was doing right now.

As she was seeing what I was needing to show her, Jenny dropped my camera on the ground, and then she placed her head on the pillow. She was holding back a scream, just to make sure that her father didn't realize what we were doing. Then after a moment, she looked right up at me, and I was seeing that she was beyond any form of consolation at all, and I felt like I just needed to remain silent.

"What did they do to my mother? Why would they kill her for no fucking reason?" She asked, and then I was feeling like I just needed to remain silent for a moment longer, to just let her have her fucking moment. Considering how horrible this really was.

"I know you are not going to want to hear this, but Joy's father was behind the bill of sale. They sold her to make sure that Joy had some extra time in the world. I feel like maybe he was just thinking that a older woman was a fair trade, and made sense, when Joy was just in seventh grade." Todd said, and I was seeing like he literally just gave Joy a death sentence by admitting her fathers involvement.

Jenny looked at the two of us, and I was seeing that the fumes in her face were barely at any form of a contained level. "Why would he do that? Joy is my friend. I trusted her, and I thought that we were friends. What the fucking hell did she do?" Jenny asked, and I was aware that there was nothing else we could do now.

"Please don't do anything that you will regret." Todd said, and then he was standing up, and then I was seeing Jenny looking like she really could not care what Todd was going to say for Joy at all, and that nothing mattered.

"I won't do anything here. I just want to know why he did this, and hopefully see that he can be held accountable. But I know that it is not Joy's fault at all." After Jenny was telling me this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was just glad to finally hear her calming down a little bit, and not being super upset here.

Todd and I were starting to leave, and then as we were leaving, that was when Jenny was following us. To be honest, I wasn't sure if either Todd or I were wanting to be doing something like this right now. I just figured that she was going to try and ask us to make sure that her mother was going to find justice or something like that.

I was smoking a cigarette, and I was just feeling like I just needed to let her say what she was needing to say, to make things much better for all of us. "Todd, do you think that Kevin will accept me right now?" After Jenny asked Todd this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was utterly shocked to be hearing her ask him this question right now.

"I have no idea. I feel like you need to give it a try. I know that Kevin really likes you. And that is something that I feel like you should be feeling much better about." After Todd was telling her this, I was seeing that Jenny was just trying to find something to discuss right now, to make things a bit better for us all.

"Thank you. I mean, Kevin has been there for me right now, and I feel like I need to try and make him feel better. He deserves to know that I appreciate what he has been doing for me." After she was telling Todd this, I was seeing Todd looking like he was proud to hear something like this.

"I mean, I need anything that I can get right now. Literally fucking anything." After she was telling me this, I was then feeling like there was nothing else to tell her. We were heading right towards my car, and I was seeing Jenny looking totally looking out of this thing right now. Probably not really in the mood to hear what Todd or anything else to be saying at all.

I was starting the engine, and then I was wondering what I was going to be telling her. "Jenny, I hope that you can forgive me for what I did. You deserved so much better. I figured that maybe I could help you out here. But I have nothing to prove here." After I was telling her this, I was seeing that Jenny was not really in the mood to be hearing me trying to brush off what happened here.

"Just take me to Kevin's place. He has been the most supportive friend that I have right now, and that is all that I fucking need right now." After I was telling her this, I was really having no idea what in the world I could tell her.

"I am sorry for everything that I did that made you feel like I wasn't one of your most supportive friends. I should have been there for you more, clearly, but I just didn't fucking know what I was going to be doing to make things any different at all." Todd said, and I was feeling like him taking a level of responsibility like this was something he should be doing, for her sake and everybody elses.

As we were driving along, I was feeling like the tension between the two was growing worse and worse, and I was wondering if I was only making things worse by being around them. But I decided to just remain silent, and not be saying a fucking word of what was going on in my head.

Eventually, we were at Kevin's house, and then Jenny took a deep breath, thinking of what to say. "The truth is that you are the most attractive man I ever met Todd." Jenny said, and then Todd was slowly nodding, feeling that with every woman he knew saying this about him, maybe this was the truth.

"You are so incredibly driven. You care about your friends. You are good looking. You grow more mature with every week. You always are there for people. And you are probably the only person I know who just works non stop on something. And Maurecia was right about every single word she said about you." After she was saying this, Todd was kind of trying to find something else to say, to make things different.

"And I know that because of this, when I try and show you what I feel, and you brush me off, as if feeling like I am just a little sister, it hurts my feeling. Just because I'm a year younger than you doesn't mean you should just throw me away." She said, and then after this, this was when Todd was sighing in annoyance, not wanting to deal with this.

"Kevin makes me feel like I fucking matter. And that is enough to want to be around him." As Jenny was stepping out of the car, the grinding noise went off once again. Went on for several minutes this time, and I punched my steering wheel, which added a really loud honking noise as well.

As I was doing this, I took a long and deep breath, wondering what in the world my thoughts were going to be going forward. Eventually, I just then decided to remain silent. But then as it ended, Jenny started to head on towards Kevin's door, and barley even acknowledged what Todd and I were feeling. Probably just simply not caring at all.

Scene 14: Drug Deal

That night, before I was heading back, I was heading back to the casino, and I was hoping to find something there. Something that my father would fucking hate, but I hardly fucking cared. I just needed something to take the pain away from what I was doing. And I was hoping that deep down, he would be able to see where I was coming from, even if it was unhealthy.

I was parking at the front entrance, and I was getting out of the car, and then I smoked another cigarette for a bit, and wondered how long it was going to take for me to finally forgive myself on everything that I had been doing. But then with that, I decided to stop thinking about it as I was walking inside.

Eventually, when I was walking around, I was seeing that the two guys at the counter were wondering what in the world I was even going to be doing right now. "Do you need something right now?" They asked me, and then I looked at the guy who gave me the platinum card.

"I am going to need a new set of clothes." I said, referring not only to how dirty it was, but the fact that the pants and to some extent the shirt sleeves were fucking ripped up to shit and back. And then with that, I was then wondering what to say. "I also feel like I need a hit. Of anything that you guys have."

As I was telling him this, he was shocked at the latter party, wondering what to tell me now. But then he shook his head, feeling like there was no reason to be making a deal out of this. So with that, he was waving another guy to come towards me, and then he started to lead me to where the area of the suits was.

When I was there, I was feeling like I just needed to make it clear that I wanted this deal to be between the two of us. "I feel like I need some drugs. Something to help me sleep better. You know, just anything at all." I was telling him, and then I was seeing the guy looking like he wanted to say something to argue, but then decided against it.

"Well, I guess that I will see what I might be able to do here. Do you feel like your father would judge you if he knew what you were doing?" He asked, and I was shrugging, and in all honesty, I hardly gave a shit what my father was feeling right now. He would just deal with it, regardless of if he liked it or not.

We went down the stairs, and then he was walking to the clothing area. "I knew that you wanted to change up. Wouldn't blame you. You look like fucking crap, no offense." He said, and then I was laughing as he was telling me this. Knowing that he was telling the truth.

"Yeah, give me a fucking moment. I need to just think about what I am doing." I said, and then I was grabbing a new set of clothes in the proper size, as I was staring down at the glasses that I had grabbed, and in all honesty, knowing that those were broken was even more sad to me than the clothes.

I went into the changing room once again, and then I spent a few minutes there, and when I was done changing, I smoked another cigarette, and I was feeling like any time I had one of those, my life was getting better, and I was feeling like having something as simple as that would be just taking me out of the world that was around me.

Eventually, I was out of the room, and then the guy was going to a drawer, and he was grabbing a small bag, and then he was heading towards me. "Heroin. A minor dose. Just something that you can test out, and see if you would even want to use them any more." After he was telling me this, I was feeling like that was now what I wanted to do. But then I shrugged, and decided that I would just let it go.

"I hope that my father would be able to forgive me if he ever knew that I was doing this. I hope that he understand that I am mainly doing this because I really feel like I have no fucking choice." I said, and then I was looking at the man, and he was looking like he was actually kind of feeling bad for me.

"How much are you wanting? I will pay you as much as I have in my pockets." I said, knowing that I did not have like anything at all. I was just trying to give myself a minor form of leverage, and he was having a fake smile on his face as he was hearing this.

"Don't worry about it. If you are in the organization, then it is free. The charges is taken care of with non members paying an extra ten percent to come in every time." After he was saying this to me, I was feeling like I would just need to take it before he had a chance to change his mind, since I knew that this was basically high way robbery.

"Thank you dude. I mean, I have been seeing some shit lately, and it has been hurting me a lot. I want to just forget this shit, and I want to pretend like nothing happened, but I know that I am fucking lying to myself." I said, and then I started to place the drugs in my pocket as I was starting to head on out.

"Hey young man, if you ever need to talk to people, then I think you need to find a therapist. I feel like they would be willing to help you out if you just reached out to them." After he was telling me this, I was shaking my head, and I was not really in the mood for this right now. I knew that no therapist would believe my shit.

"Nobody is going to fucking believe what I am talking about when I tell people about monsters and shit. I mean, the story sounds stupid, from myself. And when I think about telling anybody about this, then I feel like I just need to fucking stop even bringing up the idea." I said, and then I was seeing the guy just remaining unsure.

"In all honesty, I never expected you to be joining with us. It seemed like you had wanted to just fucking fight us for no reason, no matter what. But I guess that maybe you are able to see the bigger picture, which I guess I did not give you enough credit for." After he was telling me this, I was not really in the mood to be hearing this at all.

"I guess that I just needed to find something, and I guess that after this point in time, I am desperate, and when you are desperate, you have to do whatever you fucking can get. Don't get used to this. I will probably have to take a break soon." I said, and then I left the room, feeling refreshed, and feeling like I would be able to sleep for once. And not be scared of what I was going to be seeing.

I got in my car, and then I was starting to drive on to my house, and I was feeling like there was no need to be so scared anymore. I wanted to be happier, but I knew that something like this wouldn't be fucking possible. I was feeling that no matter who I saw, and what I knew, I would never really get to the point where I would be happy.

Before too long, I eventually at the house, and I was getting out of the car. I wanted nothing to do with a conversation with my father. He was going to simply never understand what I was doing. I knew that he would try, and I would appreciate the fact that he was trying. But that did not mean that he fucking would get it, and in this moment, I was not really in the mood to be dealing with this.

Once in the house, I was seeing my father looking like he was wanting to say something. But he just looked to sad to stop me, and then when I was in my room, I closed the door, and I was starting to take the heroin out, and I was getting it all set up, not aware that my life would go down the drain after this.

Scene 15: The Never Ending Pain And Confusion

I was sitting down on a bench, staring at the lake in the down town area, and I was smoking a cigarette. Dakota was with me, and I was clearly seeing him looking like he had wanted to find something else to say. But he was just kind of feeling unsure of what to tell me.

"So Sheldon, I feel like the idea of finding Ashley is probably never going to happen. I mean, I want to find her. And I want to be able to bring her home, but deep down inside I know that she is never going to be found. I think maybe I just want to know what happened wither, and that way I can be able to prepare for my redemption." After he was saying this to me, I looked at him, wondering what he was meaning when he was saying.

"What do you fucking mean, your redemption? I mean, for gods sake, I was the one that kept on making horrible mistakes, and I kept throwing you guys down the bus to continue my case. I feel like if anything, I am the one that needs to redeem myself." I said, and then I was feeling like he was probably not really in the mood to hear what I was wanting to tell him.

"Sheldon, you were the one who was right. I think deep down inside, I knew that there was something wrong with this town. Labyrinth, if you want to call it that. But I was just scared to confront the truth, and I was scared of what was going to happen if we were going to follow through with this. But now that Ashley is gone, I feel like there is no point in hiding it anymore. If anything, I feel like I just need to fight harder than ever before." After he was telling me this, I was sighing, and I had no idea what in the world I was even going to tell him.

"You could have simply just told me that instead of constantly denying it all. That was where I was having a issue with this, the fact that you constantly denied what was happening. It just felt really irresponsible. But I guess you probably already knew this." I said, and I was feeling like I just needed to remain silent, for his own sake.

"I thought that by denying it, even if I knew it was bullshit, would be able to give Ashley some time to be safe. I just figured that was what to get from doing that. I didn't mean to be hurting you by doing this. But I guess that nothing else fucking matters." After Dakota was telling me this, I wondered why in the world I was even wasting my time talking about this in the first place.

"I guess that I do sort of see where you are coming from. I guess that I just figured that if I knew these things were going to happen, then I might as well embrace the investigation, and just try and find out what happened, and maybe prevent it from getting worse. That was mainly the way that I had been looking at it. Not a great way of looking at it, but it is true." After I was telling him this, I was seeing Dakota looking like he wanted to say more, but then just decided to remain silent.

"Sheldon, what do you feel like will happen once we start looking into this together? I mean, I feel like Todd will start calling me out, and in a way, I guess that I will not even be able to blame him. Considering the fact that I had been brushing him this whole time. Maybe I can finally start having a actual friendship with him soon. You know, making things worse. He might be kind of annoyed with me, but I hardly fucking cared at all." After he was telling me this, I was sighing, and I was feeling like there was nothing that I could have said to make it different.

"I don't know. I feel like there is almost no point in looking into this right now. I am going to just have to head down and look at all the stuff we know with Ashley. You can help me as much as you fucking want, and we can pull something together." I said, trying to just get it to seem like we were working together for a while.

"Sheldon, I think we need to go on and talk to her parents. I mean, I know she didn't like me very much, and I feel like having you at my side will be able to make it much better. So as selfish as it sounds, I feel like maybe having you at my side is going to be doing me a giant favor." After he was telling me this, I was slowly nodding, understanding what he had meant with this.

"I guess that does make sense. I do remember that was something you were having a problem with." I said, and then after I was telling him this, I was feeling like there was nothing else that I could get out of this at all.

I was starting to walk to my car, and then I stomped my cigarette down to nothing again, as I was at my car, and then with that, this was when Dakota came inside the car. "Are you sure you don't want to spend another five minutes there? After all, this was one of Ashley's favorite places to go to. I just figured that I would ask at least." After he said that to me, I was really having no idea what in the world I was even going to tell him. This just seemed to be relatively irresponsible, but I didn't want to say anything, as he was kind of just dealing with the sad moment.

"I mean, if you want to do that, then go ahead. But I am wondering if this is going to be worth it at all." I said, and then I was shrugging, wanting to say more. But then I felt like there was no point in what I was wanting to tell him. I was starting to drive towards Ashley's house, and I was wondering why I was so scared of what I was going to be doing here.

"I mean, I feel like no matter how I handle this, I am going to be wondering what I am doing to change this whole thing. But to be honest, I am scared out of my mind, promising you that I would find her, and then never being able to do so. I have a feeling that I will never see her again." I told him, and I was hoping that he would actually listen to me this time.

"I do see what you are saying. But if that happens, then I guess a part of the fault is mine, considering the fact that I kept throwing this whole thing away, despite the fact that I had a great chance this whole time." After Dakota was telling me this, I was wondering why in the world he was even saying this in the first place.

"Don't say something like that. Give yourself a fucking break." I said, and then I was patting him on the shoulder. I had no idea what I was going to be able to tell him. Eventually, when we were at her house, I was wondering if this was actually going to be worth it at all. I was scared out of my mind on what was happening.

Once we were out of the car, this was when the two of us were walking to the door. I knocked on the door, and then I was seeing that nobody answered the door, and there was no point in time. "Sheldon, I feel like there is no point in staying here at all. Might as well just leave this alone, and try to find something else." He said, and then I was sighing, and I wondered why he was even saying this.

Dakota was looking right at me, and I was kind of wondering what in the world I was even so worried about what I had been doing. "Where would we even go? I guess that I do have something to drop off for Larry Needlemeyer. But when that is done, what happens now?" I asked, slightly annoyed, but not really directed at him, since he wasn't the one behind what I had done. But Dakota looked really curious.

Scene 16: Dropping the Parcel Off

I decided that perhaps as a way to appease Larry, and get him to want to work with me much more, I just needed to try and give Larry the stuff that I had found in the tree. If I had done that, perhaps I would have been able to get him to be willing to talk with me about what he had done with the monsters. Especially since I now knew the truth, so there was no reason for him to even pretend like nothing ever happened here.

I grabbed the box, and then I was starting to leave. I looked down at the heroin that I bought, and I was wondering if my father was going to be upset with what I had been doing. I was feeling like perhaps I just needed to tell him what I had done. Maybe he would be willing to understand if he had known the context. Or he would blame me for my carelessness.

I then just placed it down under my pillow, and I was honestly feeling better. I mean, for the first time in several months, I didn't have some of my sleep disturbed my Riley, or Jamie and other people that I had promised that I would help, but was never able to. At least for once, I was able to actually be happy. I felt like that was more important than anything else.

I decided that in order to find give myself more leverage with Larry, I needed to get his journal back. So I went on over to Kevin's house, where I would just come in real quick, grab it, and head on out. I was hoping that Kevin wouldn't be too upset with what I had been doing.

Once at his house, I was wanting to scream. My entire plan, and my entire way of going at this was a fucking mess. There was no way around how much of a fucking screw up I had been, and I was feeling that my father was having all the perfect reasons to be upset at what I had been doing.

I knocked on his door. When Kevin answered, I was seeing that he was clearly looking like he was just not really in the mood to be dealing with me right now. "Sheldon, what the fucking hell are you going to be doing right now? I have no idea if this is going to be worth it at all anymore." He said, and then I was seeing him looking like he had wanted me to fucking get it for once.

"I just wanted to grab the journal. I was planning on letting Larry have it again. I was hoping that by giving him this, he would be more willing to actually give me some information. I know that I am grasping at fucking straws here. I know that there is nothing that I can do to change what is happening, but I hope that maybe Larry is willing to be more open here." I was telling Kevin, and I saw that Kevin looked like he was wanting to find a way to argue, but then decided against it.

"Alright. I guess that perhaps this can work out. I just hope that you know what you are doing. If he doesn't want to do this, then I think you know that he will judge you everything that you have been doing." After he was telling me this, he was walking towards his bedroom, ready to just give me what I needed.

I was wondering what Sam would say if he knew what I had been doing. I was thinking that Sam was going to be considering me to be a terrible friend, for putting his younger brother at risk. Even if they did not get along too well, this was still something that must have been crossing a line.

Kevin was then hanging me the journal. "Just make sure that this is going to be worth it. I do not want that guy to be hating us because of the fact that you made a wrong move, and thought you were doing something that would help but didn't."

As he said that, I looked right at him, and I wondered why he was caring so much what I was going to be doing. "I won't do anything that wouldn't be one hundred percent safe." I said, hoping the lie can give me some fucking time to be better off here.

As I was driving towards Larry's burger shop, I was aware that before he even gave me a chance to talk, he would just be throwing me down, and telling me that he wanted nothing to do with talking to me. He probably felt like I was nothing but trouble this whole time, and that talking to him was only going to be making things much worse for him.

When I parked, I looked around, and saw that people were not here right now. I knew that I only had a couple of moments to be doing this, so I got out of my car, and started to head inside, where I was looking around, hoping that nobody would be coming in during the next several minutes, as I needed as much time as possible.

Larry looked up at me, and I was seeing him looking like he wanted to tell me that he wasn't going to be able to talk with me, and that it would be better for both of us if I just headed off. But as he was getting ready to say this, I was pulling out the box. With that, I was seeing that he was clearly looking less confident in what he was wanting.

"How did you end up finding that?" Larry asked, and then I was seeing him looking like he was finally piecing things together a bit more, and clearly was scared out of his mind what I was going to be doing here.

"Were you the one that was behind what happened with the tree house? Dude, that would have gotten you killed. Was something like this really fucking worth it?" He asked, and I was seeing him clearly starting to get angry at what I was doing. More for my safety than the investigation.

"Yeah, I did that. I didn't realize your stuff was down there. I was seeing that there was a monster that went down there, so I figured that I would try to destroy it down there." I said, and then I was seeing Larry looking like he was just kind of trying his best to be hiding his annoyance at what I was saying, as if thinking that what I was saying was a pure liability.

"Dude, you are really making a big mistake here. Those officers that were killed were killed because of you and your recklessness." After he was telling me this, I was feeling like what he was telling me was kind of hurting me a little bit. I wanted him to feel better, but I had no idea what to tell him at all.

"I know what I did was a mistake. But that is all that I needed to do. I thought that by doing what I had done, I would have been able to help those around me out. I guess that maybe I was wrong though." I said, and then I looked at him, wondering if he was willing to accept my comments, and not be a fucking smartass here.

"Sheldon, what are you even trying to accomplish by doing this in the first place? I mean, you know that no matter what you do, you are going to be getting people judging you over everything that you had been doing. I guess that nothing I will say will make you think any differently." Larry said, and then he was placing his hat down, and for the first time, I was seeing him looking like he was genuinely flustered at what I had been doing.

"Larry, I need your help. I mean, there is nothing that we can fucking do about it now. Let's just focus on getting this job done, and see what we can do to help each other out." I was saying, and then I saw that Larry was considering what I had been saying at this point in time.

"Yeah, you need my help alright. But I need you to promise me that no matter what you are going to do, you are not going to be doing anything with a clear fucking cut plan. I need to know that you are actually going to think everything out before you do a damn thing." After Larry was telling me this, I was having nothing else to tell him.

"I do try to make plans. I try to make things make sense, but those plans always fucking fail. I know that you might not like what I do, but I am trying my best to not do anything without a clear idea on what is happening." I said, and then I was seeing that Larry was clearly not that interested in hearing what I was going to tell him.

"God damn it. I mean, I guess that I just need to remind myself that you are still a younger guy who needs to have somebody at your side right now. After all, you are working really hard on all of this. Perhaps I just need to remember that judging you the same way as everybody else is a really unsafe thing to do." After he was telling me this, I was seeing him looking like he was kind of regretting what he was saying. But then he decided to just remain silent.

"Regardless, I know that most of the people are going to have a harder time taking you seriously most of the time. Maybe that can give you some leverage. Not having to deal with people constantly getting in your face, and acting like you know everything in the entire world. But Sheldon, what do you think you will do once you have the answers." After he was telling me this, I was shrugging for a second.

"See? You do see the strategic value of what I am doing. So Larry, would you be willing to just open up with me, and stop fucking messing around, and getting in my way?" I asked, and I wasn't even caring if he was going to be upset with what I was saying. If he wanted to accuse me of not caring for what he was thinking, then I would just have to throw what he said away.

"Well, I am just kind of curious what your plan is going to be anyways. You know, I think that you need to get something going here." After he was telling me this, I was seeing that he was just genuinely looking like he was wanting to just find a way to make this work out, since it was too far gone this time.

"Well, I have been trying to work slightly under cover with the agents at the Wilson casino. I have seemed to be getting their respect a bit more back, and I feel like that is what really matters to me. Once I get them wiling to work with me on more things, I can perhaps find out where their base of operation is. If I find out what I am doing, it is only a matter of time before I can finally have a idea what the town secrets are going to be." I said, and then I saw that Larry looked like he was kind of unsure of he was thinking here.

"I will admit, that is something that I never thought about before. Maybe that can actually work out, as much as I hate to admit it. But I feel like I don't need to remind you that you need to be careful. Both in your actions and in your words. Not letting it leak that this is a undercover thing, and that you aren't really with them. Larry looked like he was just trying to make this work as much as he could, given the situation he was in.

"So Larry, what personal investment do you even have in this in the first place? I mean, we both have something to get from this. Why not just tell me what it is?" I asked, and then I was seeing him looking like he was kins of unsure of what to even tell me.

"Once I know and trust you better, I will tell you everything. Just be glad to know that I am not completely rejecting working with you right now." After he was telling me this, I was slowly nodding, since I knew deep down inside, that he was right. What I had was a start. Not what I needed, but it was something.

Scene 17: October 15, 1986, Finished

Sheldon took a long and deep breath, and he was wondering what she was going to be saying at this point in time. He felt more than anything else, this would be the thing that would make his therapist fucking furious at what he had done.

Sheldon: I basically sold my soul to the devil, to finally have a chance. I know that most people did not like what I had been doing, but I was sincerely feeling like I really had no choice but to do this.

Therapist: No, it is not that which upsets me. You know, you had to do what you had to in order to learn the truth. But was this seriously the thing that made you start your drug addiction?

Sheldon: Yes, it was. I mean, I thought I would be able to be smart with it, and not do something like get super fucking addicted like the others could. But I guess that nobody would fucking understand. My father had kind of given up on the investigation, and let me do that on my own. But the heroin was made him lose hope in me.

Therapist: Do you feel like you would ever be able to get along with him much more? I mean, I feel like you probably know that he just wanted what was best for you. But going around, and just spiking yourself up might have ruined everything.

Sheldon: I mean, I thought that I was making progress. Destroying monster, feeling like I really got these people to be friends with me, finally got Dakota to listen to me, and I got a really great under cover story. And now it seems like everything that I had been doing was all a waste of fucking time.

Therapist: Sheldon, do you feel like maybe this was the true peak of your life? Where you were able to get everybody to talk with you, and show you some genuine respect?

Sheldon: I guess that maybe that might be fucking true. I mean, I felt like things were starting to really come together. But who knows, maybe I was just giving myself way too much credit for my own good. But I felt happier for once.

Therapist: Sorry if I am sounding like I was judging you. I just felt like I need to look at what I am saying, and see that perhaps I just need to work on the way that I talk with everybody else. Since you do deserve better than what I am doing.

Sheldon was upset, knowing that he might have finally made his therapist lose hope in him, and he was wondering if there was ever going to be a way where she was even remotely willing to talk to him about what was happening, but he hardly even fucking cared. But he left before things would get worse.