The Darkness comes hunted

Chapter Sixteen: One small step to the Truth

"My grandmother once told me, secrets are like viruses, they slowly eat you from the inside and never truly die. I'm not sure what secret Martin Merrick is hiding, but I have a strange feeling, the answer to my future lies in the past." Betty narrated.

Later that evening at Cole's house, while Cole's busy cleaning out the living room, his phone rings, it's his Dad. He pulls his phone from the back pocket of his jeans and answers.

"Hey, Dad, what's up?" Cole asks through the phone.

"Hi, Son, I'm just checking in, I felt bad when I'm on my way over here... we didn't get a chance to do more before I leave."

"Yeah, well you kind of shut me down, Dad---Anyway, have you seen Mom yet?"

"No, not yet, we were gonna have dinner but---" Fred hesitated to talk, But Cole tried to push him to talk anyway.

"But what, Dad."

"We decided not to, we think it would be better to meet tomorrow morning, you know....with the lawyer and stuff."

"Right---Because things are so bad, you guys can't just talk to each other without a mediator."

Fred paused for a sec, he knows the divorce stuff really hurts Cole's feelings, But it seems like there is nothing he can do, if Merissa,

his wife keeps giving him trouble every month like that.

"Dad, I gotta go, Bye" Cole hang up the phone,

Back in New York City, It pouring rain outside, sitting inside his truck, Fred sigh, the phone line disconnected, pull his cellphone away from his ear, while looking out the window at one of the tallest buildings in New York, and that building belong to Merrick Biotech, the place where his Ex-Wife works right now.

Back at the house, Cole goes to a wooden cabinet, crouches down, and lowers the glass door to an array of liquor bottles. He grabs one of the whiskey bottles and stares at it contemplatively, the whiskey that his Mom bought for his Dad as a Christmas gift, Three years ago.

Meanwhile, at Prescott Manor, Valentina and Mason are just chilling in the Prescott private theater, watching some horror movie together.

"Hey, I was talking to Ziggy and she told me that you, Betty, and Cole had some serious intent scene in the hallways yesterday." Mason asks, eyeing at his new girlfriend, Valentina who's sit comfortably beside him."

"It wasn't a big deal, they just asked me about some weird stuff like they always do, that all," Valentina replies,

"Don't mind them too much, Bebe, especially Cole, I heard his dad goes to New York today, to finally divorce his Mom legally, who leave him and his dad to live with her new boyfriend, two years ago," Mason adds,

"Oh, I didn't know that, give him my sorry okay, when you met him tomorrow okay."

"Will do,---- and Bebe, I been thinking, do you think your parents have anything to do with the football team death?" Mason eyeing at surprised Valentina, asking his girlfriend point-blank questions.

"No of course not, where did you get that idea from?" Valentina replies, looking a little bit angry at Mason.

"Sorry if it hurts you, I'm just curious that all, and again sorry Bebe." he kisses Valentina on the lips, and held hands together tightly.

"And why are you suddenly just start asking me random questions, huh, Mason?"

"I only really asked about that because Ziggy made it sound like you really upset that morning, and I just want to know how upset you really are, so I can make you twice happy to counter that upsetness," Mason Adds, sits with his arm around Valentina, who wears a really tight cloth to a movie date, while Mason just casually wear a pant with a t-shirt and a slipper.

"Oh, no, if I was upset about anything...it was that I had to hear about my boyfriend's birthday from his friends and not my boyfriend himself," Valentina replies, making dizzy eyes movement at Mason.

The light goes down, the movie starts to play, " Yeah, well... I didn't think you were an American werewolf kind of girl."

"Ooh, that's where you are so wrong, Maxine Mason, I'm all about the beast within," said Valentina, giving Mason a friendly punch on the arm, then leaning toward to her right side and kissing him on the cheeks.

The next morning comes up, across town, Mike traipses across the muddy ground of his house front yard, carrying two cups of coffee and a pizza from Pop's Pizza Palace downtown.

He steps inside the house, the light is off, but the place looks very clean than the last time, he smiles happily, then gazes through the pass-through into the kitchen, seeing his Dad, Anton, clean-shaven, and walking toward him.

"Dad, You look hot when you finally shaved your beard."

"Aw, I feel good, ---wanna look handsome like you too, son--- you know clean up my body, clean up the house a bit---"

"Oh yeah, I got you some coffee, and three slices of pizza from Pop's Pizza Downtown."

"Well, thanks son--oh anyway, this morning I saw a Newspaper of the Golden Red, I forget that it still exists, and what surprised me is---it says on the top * Story By Mike Sinclair*." Anton smile in proudest toward his son.

"You read Newspaper now, really," Mike asks back, try being sarcastic at his Dad.

"Yeah, as I said before, I told you, son, that I will change myself, you know"

"Yes, you did, dad."

"And the paper you write, especially the story---is so good---I don't know how you do it, son, for me I can't even compose a proper sentence." Anton smile and sit down at the diner table, with Mike sitting beside him.

"Thanks, Dad---I just want to bring the truth out and let the people of Lakewood know what has been happened to their town, that all, Dad."

"That a good mindset right there, son I support you hundred percent," Anton said, he give his son a thump up, and the two hugs each other, for the first time in a long time.

"Thanks, Dad, really appreciated the support." Take a sip at his coffee and eat the Pizza with his dad, and this is the first time since his mom died one year ago that Mike has had a proper breakfast with his dad.

"Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions, son?" Anton asks.

"Yeah, of course, Dad."

"Why your story is so focused on that kid specifically, what his name---- Jonathan something ---."

"Nathan"

"Yeah, Right, Nathan, why, of all the kids that die with him, why you choose to only write about that Nathan kid's death?"

"I don't know, Dad, his death to me it feels to me like it has a lot of something more wrong going on behind it, and to have a chance at telling this kind of story that no one was gonna to tell or even know how to tell, from the outside, looking in."

"Who do you think shoot him, I mean you and your friends, and in this deep, you gotta have an opinion?" Anton asks, his face turning a little bit nervous.

"To me, Dad... I don't think the question is *whodunit* you know? ---- I think the real question you should ask is *is it the inside job or the outside job*?"

"Or both, most things are both--- And to be real with you, son, the Prescott's Family is not the good and generous family like most of the people in town think they are, they have enemy at every direction, ready to pick them out one by one, if they let their guard down," Said Mr. Anton with his serious tone voice, the tone that Mike never hears his father said before.

"Couldn't agree with you more, Dad, you got a point, a very good point."

"Can I make one suggestion, son?"

"That's what Betty says yesterday, and then it's about a dozen suggestions after that." Mike smirk.

"I think..at certain points, you should... Move on--- you can't let this be the only story you're gonna tell. Mike, hell it shouldn't even be the most important one." Anton adds, Mike pause for a second, reloading his brain, thinking about what his dad just told him, should he move on or should he stay with this story and dig his way to the truth of what really happened.

Later in Lakewood High's hallway, Mason walks in, high-five everyone in the hallway like he always does every other morning, and then his phone rings, it a text from Betty, it said" Do you have a minute? can you come to the G R office, please?"

A moment later, Mason joined Betty, Mike, Jimmy, and Cole in the school newsroom, where Mike just finished preparing a long list of questions to ask Mason.

"Oh great, you come, closed that door, please," Mike yells at Mason, who just entering the room, carrying his school bag pack and a Starbucks.

Mason does as Mike told, he is so confused about what his friends are up to.

"Guys, I need you to look around the room--- whoever is not in this room, is on the table as a possible murder suspect or accomplice, including Valentina's parents and your parents, Mason." Said Mike.

"Oh, my god, dude, are you over your head?" Mason replies, in his angry tone voice.

"No, I'm not over my head, dude, I am just being realistic--- and now let's talk about your father, the Mayor." Mike eyeing straightly at Mason, who sits on the table on the other side of the empty room.

"Yes, my father is doing business with Merrick Enterprise, and the business is about them acquiring the drive-in land from the city, but at first the Prescott's family strongly disagreed, and then they just suddenly okay with the deal after the Bulldog disappearing new broke out, so--- yes, it totally within the realm of possibility that my father is involved,--- it all I know for now," Mason replies but with slow movement and hesitation.

"And what about Valentina's family, do you think they have something to with it too because I have a theory,--- from what have Valentina told me, her brother wasn't supposed to be on that bus with the rest of the football team, he supposes to stay home with his sister, but he instead sneaks out behind his parent back and gets on that bus with the Bulldogs anyway--" Say, Cole.

"What are you basing that off of, huh, Cole?"

"Let me finish, Mason---for all we know, maybe the Prescott's family is the one who orders the hits on the Football team but didn't know their son is also on that bus too when the hits are carried out, and after they successfully kidn*pped all the player and take them to Merrick Biotech secrets underground lab to test their new drug, Nathan, who the only person that not on the test list, threatened his parents and Martin Merrick that he will expose their dirty little experiment if they do not let go his friends go, and to keep their unlawful experiment from going out, Martin Merrick orders someone to shoot Nathan in the forehead and trash him down the river like the other unlucky friends of his," Betty explained.

"Why would the Prescott agree with Martin Merrick to kill their own son, it didn't make any sense at all," Mason replies, still can't wrap his head around all the information that Cole and Mike just throw at him.

"Martin Merrick Is a very powerful man, maybe he threatens them that they will go down with him if he goes down, or threatened to also kill Valentina if they didn't agree with him, who knows?" Said Mike, sitting at a desk that facing Mason.

"I already asked Valentina point-blank if she thought her family had anything to do with the football team death, and she said no, and I believe her, and I still believe her" Mason answered, his body is now boiling with anger toward the young reporters.

"Mason, you're too close to this, you should back off." Betty steps in, trying to calm Mason down.

"I am not going to insult Valentina or betray her by entertaining this---now, if you'll excuse me, I have something much better to do than this" Mason step up, grabbed his bag bashing out the door, kicking it down a chair on his way out.

While Betty, Jimmy, Mike, and Cole just staring at each other in shock at what just happened, their friendship with Mason is not looking very good right now, and if Mason snitches and tell Valentina about what he knows, it gonna be a disaster for the Lakewood teen detectives.