The pizza was already cold when they arrived back home, minutes after midnight. Morgan stayed around, waiting for them to return. Kira, Janina, and Cedric left right after they did. Kira seemed anxious and would not even respond to any questions.
All three of them darted for the kitchen, stuffing slices of pizza in the microwave, and staring as it rotated. Two more minutes of the orange glare beaming on their lumping faces before they can fill their empty stomachs. The beeping sound as it counted down was the only noise filling the kitchen, with all three of them seemingly tired.
Morgan sighed. "Can’t believe someone would try to frame you for this."
Doc nodded in agreement. "Remember when he passed out twenty minutes into a five-kilometer fun run last year? Did he even get past the first stretch?
"No," Morgan answered. "What was that like, eight hundred meters from the starting point?"
"Wow. Thank you for your confidence in my below-average strength and stamina to quickly rule me out of the suspect list." Matt yawned. He himself would not bet on him for any sports contests.
"You sure you’re okay?" Doc said with a gentle pat on the head.
"Hungry. Starving. I need lotsa pizza in my belly," Matt replied. The truth is, he is still shuddering inside. It has been a long time since he had to answer questions from the police, but this is the first time that he has been identified as a suspect. He did not do anything, but he knows from experience that the truth can be easily twisted. The last time it happened, his parents were not around to defend themselves. No one spoke again until the microwave beeped, and they all reached for slices, but not before preparing another batch for heating.
"Now I know we are all tired, so before we all go to bed, I want to know, is there anything you want to tell me?" Doc said just as Matt was about to take his second slice of pizza.
"My dad just texted me. I should go home," Morgan said, groping his pants for his phone.
"You stay here and finish that," Doc said, putting three more slices on Morgan’s plate. "This involves you one way or another. That I am sure of."
Morgan glanced at him, and he knew right away what he was thinking, but he did not have to worry if Matt would tell Doc about what happened at the cemetery that night.
"Hey! Eyes on here!" Doc raised his voice, fingers pointing at his face. "Don’t think of coordinating your answers."
"Fine, Matt said, putting down the bottle of a liter of cola he was drinking directly from. "You’re not gonna like it so the less you know-"
"The less allowance you’ll get for next month."
Matt laughed, thinking that Doc was just kidding, but Doc’s poker face is stronger than Matt’s will to call the bluff. "I was at the Beacon Lodge."
Doc groaned in protest, almost choking on a piece, and asked why Matt would even think of going there. Morgan managed to squeeze in an I told you so, though Matt is unsure whether it was directed at Doc for wanting to know the answer or at Matt for going to that place.
"You knew about this?" Doc directed at Morgan, pointing a half-eaten pizza at his face. "And you let him?"
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"What was I supposed to do? Drag him underground?" Morgan answered. "You know how stubborn he is, especially when he is on caffeine and a sugar rush."
"You’re still drinking energy drinks?!" Doc almost squealed with how high his voice went. "I told you to stop drinking that crap."
"I did stop... drinking two bottles a day. I only drink one a day now."
"He’s not gonna listen to either of us, Doc. Let it go."
Doc sighed, defeated. "I know this is useless because you’re definitely going there again, but just in case you get some sense knocked into your head, please, please, stop going there."
Matt did not respond and just stared blankly as he finished his fifth slice of pizza. The Beacon Lodge was the last place where his parents were alive. That night was the tenth-year anniversary of their passing, and Doc does not like being reminded, but Matt does. He wants to keep as much of their memory alive as possible before it fades completely.
"Is there anything else you wanna tell me?" Doc said. Another moment of silence followed as they waited for anyone to respond. Matt was hoping that Doc would just move on and pretend Matt had already answered his question, but Doc did not drop it.
They made a promise not to keep secrets from each other after all. It’s a very difficult promise to keep, but they arrived at a compromise.
"Not yet. When the time is right," Matt said. Secrets cannot be kept forever, so until they are ready to talk about them with each other, both will have to wait. "I’ll tell you when we know more. Say after the end of the month. Just maybe." It is not a perfect solution, but it keeps them less agitated.
Doc did not ask him after that. They left the plates and empty soda bottles by the sink. All three of them were exhausted and headed for bed. Doc was too tired to even go up to his room and landed back on the sofa. Coming out of a seventy-two-hour shift may mean he will be asleep from now until tomorrow evening.
"You shouldn’t go there by yourself. The Beacon Lodge," Morgan said, pulling out an extra mattress from under Matt’s bed and quickly launching himself on it face down.
Matt was just as tired, but he stayed by the window sill to catch some fresh air. Getting into the police car up until he was allowed to leave the precinct seemed like one long day on its own. He cannot even remember anything that happened before that, and now that he is back in his room, time seems to have returned to its right pace.
The truth is, it would be difficult to go to sleep right away. There has been something else bothering him since he left the precinct, but he does not want to worry Doc until he knows more. More than being framed for murder, his memory of that night after Morgan was bitten is still a blur, but now he knows that there was someone else there with him and Morgan.
"I still have a set of jerseys in your drawer, right? I’ll head out early tomorrow for practice," Morgan said, almost inaudible as he yawned. "Not yet going to sleep? You scared me there for a bit. I thought you were going to tell your uncle about that night."
"Can’t really tell him anything if we don’t know everything," Matt said. "Do you remember seeing a green light that night?"
Morgan shook his head. "If there was, must’ve been after I passed out." He put his hand over his lower torso, where the wolf dug into him. The wound is all gone now. Not even a scar or small mark that a bite had been there. "If you’re not doing anything tomorrow, you should probably get all your jackets back. You’ve left so many across town in case of emergencies. Now look what happened."
"I may just go around and check on them, actually. That one the police found at the gym. That wasn’t my gym extra."
"Wasn’t it yours? I thought they found your tags on it?" Morgan yawned. He cannot even fully open his eyes anymore.
"Yep, and those tags had serial numbers," Matt said, beaming with pride, at least until Morgan murmured nerd under his breath. "I saw the tag and the serial number. That jacket was the one I hid at the Beacon Lodge. It’s very well hidden, so whoever stole it from there knew the place well enough to find it."
Matt was expecting a surprised reaction from Morgan, only to find a snoring teenager sprawled on the mattress spread on the floor. "End of the month," Matt said, pulling a blanket to cover Morgan. "We may or may not have something to tell Doc about that bite."
Just a few more minutes of looking into the night sky might calm Matt down a little, all the while wishing that what had happened in the last few hours was all just a dream. It is the dead of the night, and in this old town, that only means peace and quiet, but the odd sensation of being watched crept onto Matt once again. He glanced, wondering where it was coming from, and for a snap of a moment, in the street below, in the swallowing darkness, were a pair of red dots. Maybe there was nothing there at all, and his mind was just playing him.