Early the next morning, the rain had stopped.
Taryn took the opportunity to dress in a light grey T-shirt that had black buttons up in the front, a dark blue sweater with a zipper and dark jeans, something of which her body wasn’t too happy to do for she still felt sore and stiff in her neck and shoulders. A dull throbbing pain that didn’t last all too long, but one that she could easily handle. She tied back her hair into a ponytail and took her and Yoko’s notebooks. The small black satchel with her essentials, including her asthma medication.
Taryn paused briefly when leaving the room, she felt terrible for not telling Rachael what she was planning, but she needed to confirm what had been on her mind before going into detail with the others. Another habit she had developed from her parents.
Always check the facts before explaining something you weren’t sure about.
So, out of that guilt, she wrote a note for her friend, silently made her way upstairs and slipped it into their original room where Rachael would find it when she woke. Then discreetly headed back downstairs, taking her black steal-toed boots and made her way to a place where she could leave without being spotted in the early morning.
With it being so early, it was easy for her to move through the mansion’s alcove without being spotted by one of the staff. Or so she thought, but who stopped her from leaving was someone she didn’t expect.
“Taryn!” It was Robert, dressed for the coming day and out of breath from running. “I need to talk to you.”
Taryn looked at him for a moment. “Can’t it wait?” she didn’t know when someone from the mansion’s staff might show, or worse, tell Toya or Mei. The last thing she needed was forced bed rest and confinement to a room where she could be getting possible answers or even more questions about what has been going on.
“No look, it’s about… about Roy I—” he didn’t get the chance to finish what he intended to say, for Taryn quickly shut him up with her hand covering his mouth as she had shoved him against a nearby wall. Remaining that way as her gaze shifted from left to right, silently checking if anyone else was nearby. When she heard nothing, she removed her hand from his mouth.
“Robert, that’s enough,” Taryn said with sternness in her voice as she spoke softly. “If you want to talk, wait a bit until I get back. Right now, I don’t have time for some needless argument.” She put on her boots and headed out without so much as looking back. “We’re past the stage where apologizing holds no weight. Not after what we’ve said in anger, those words, once said aloud can never be taken back…”
He said nothing as she left the mansion’s grounds without so much as looking back.
She briefly thought about keeping to her word and punching him as hard as she could in the face, but that would be petty. And the chances of her being heard by such actions were something she wished to avoid.
Taryn had made it to the village’s entrance; she stopped in her tracks and let out a heavy sigh. For the love of… “Why are you following me, Robert?” Taryn demanded, her voice holding slight frustration. When she turned around, she saw him there, several feet behind, stopped dead in his tracks.
“How’d you know I was following you?”
Was he serious? “Because I saw you,” she told him. She caught a glance of him when she left the mansion’s grounds. He wasn’t making it hard to hide either. “Now, answer the question.”
He hesitated, a look of concern embedded in his features as his brown eyes glanced to the ground, contemplating something before finally speaking. “I want to help.”
That caught her off guard. She couldn’t understand why which is what she asked. “Why would you want to help me? You don’t even know what I plan to do.”
“Your right, I don’t. But I still plan on helping you.”
She frowned. “Wha—No, no you can’t.” she wasn’t about to drag another person into this. Quick on a heel turn, she had her back facing him. “Go back to the mansion, Robert, I’m sure Stephanie will wonder where you’ve gone.” And continued up the path, only to come to a sudden halt when Robert shouted.
“You were right!” slowly, she turned back to face him, seeing the worry on his face, an expression she had never seen. “You were right…” he said again. “Before, after you had been attacked. And you called me out on all of those things, things that I… that I did blame myself for.” He tore his gaze away from her, unable to look her in the eye. “Even though I know that I wasn’t the cause, I felt like I was. That I killed my best friend. I took it out on you when you first tried to help. When you were still grieving over Roy. And I did that… I cheated on you. And I realized… that I was just like him and I hated it, I hated myself. But most of all, I never apologized to you.”
When Taryn confronted him about it his cheating, Robert hadn’t offered an apology. No, instead, he offered up to be hit in recompense. Taryn wasn’t about to do it, for it would change nothing of their broken relationship. But now, as she recalled his response, perhaps he felt like it was his punishment for how things ended. “Oh? So what? Do you think if you apologize to me now I’d accept it? Just because you say your sorry does not mean I’m obligated to take it.”
It was harsh, but something that needed to be said.
“You tore my heart out with those words Robert. I broke down. All of the emotions I tried to suppress from Roy’s murder came back to me in a flood. A total stranger consoled me, someone whom I knew nothing about and was there for me when you, you were supposed to be, but you weren’t. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
He flinched, but his torn expression showed that he might have a vague idea, he opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.
“Don’t,” she told him. “If you’re going to tell me to hit you then save your breath. What good would it do to hit you now? It’s not like it’ll change anything.”
Robert violently shook his head. “No, it’s not that!” his gaze became pleading as he looked at her. “I never… I never apologized for what happened at the funeral. What Paul said about your brother… I should have done something. But I didn’t.”
Taryn didn’t say anything in response; the late summer wind blew, causing the leaves to rustle around them. Bridging the silence for a brief moment. “Do you know why Paul said those things?” Robert was quiet, so she answered. “He always hated me, didn’t matter why, but he made that clear to me on that day. And since then I’ve hated him too, regardless of his death. I won’t forgive him. Even still, I know Paul cared about you. But I also wished that you did something rather than stand there. You weren’t even on my side.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I know that no matter what I say you’ll never forgive me, and you have every right not to. I was a shit boyfriend and an even shitier friend. Hate me all you want,” he then looked at her with eyes that were unwavering. “But I’m still coming with you.”
Taryn merely stared at him, why was he doing this? What reason would there even be? Self-pity? Lamenting his actions towards her? It was a little late for that.
Still, as angry as she was with him, something about how he acted reminded her of how he once was before all this came about. He had been the type to not leave someone when something strange happened. Stephanie told Taryn that he was even heavily part of the search party when they all thought Taryn had gone missing, even being a voice of concern when Rachael mentioned that there was no note left behind. Something that he knew very well.
Taryn turned and began walking up the path only to stop and call out. “Are you coming or not?” when he looked confused, she added. “You said you were going to come with, so get a move on, I don’t have all day.”
Still surprised by her response, he asked. “You mean that?”
With an exasperated sigh, she gave him an unamused stare. The kind that she used when they were back in high school. “Unless you have something better to do? Maybe you just want to stand there until you become one with nature like that statue of the Priestess that’s next to you?”
A statue right next to him in the forest tree line, the same kind around the village, but this one was covered in moss.
“No, I’m still coming.”
She continued walking. “Then come on.” She had nothing else further to say as he picked up the pace to catch up to her. She couldn’t forgive him, she didn’t think she ever would, but going alone was not a smart decision so she would let him come, if she really wanted to she could stop him. Knock him out cold and leave him at the base of the mansion before continuing, but she was still recovering, so that wasn’t in the cards.
It did make her wonder why he suddenly wanted to help, his sudden change and what pushed him to finally open up after their last blowup, but figured to save that until they were further away from the village as a whole.
Robert watched as Taryn walked up the path.
“Why do you hang out with her all the time? You know what people say about her, right?” Paul’s words echoed in his mind. “She’s nothing but a freak in some privileged family. She knows nothing of what people like us are like.”
But Paul was wrong, she did know. Seemed to know more than anyone else, regardless of who that person was, she always seemed to see what a person was like deep down. It's what drew him to want to be close to her, it’s what made him ask her out in the first place. And in the end, it's what made him think so negatively about her at the end of their relationship.
“You tore my heart out with those words Robert…”
Those words gripped his mind like a vice. Wrapping around his brain like barbed wire, words that would never leave. Even in death.
But there was another reason for him forcing his way into coming with. Something he needed to tell her and only her. The only problem was, she might not believe him…
* * *
The two of them had been walking through the forest path in abject silence for about thirty minutes now with only the occasional breeze to fill the void of speech.
But the silence could only last so long.
“Hey, Taryn, there’s something I want to ask.”
“No, I have no intention of dating Toya.” She stated to him as they kept walking.
He paused. “I… ah, well, that wasn’t what I was going to ask first but, okay, good. Good to know.” He cleared his throat. “What I wanted to ask if… well, if you and Isaac… are you guys… dating?”
She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him with a flabbergasted look on her face. As if she couldn’t believe what she just heard him say. “Excuse me?”
“Well, I mean…” he cleared his throat again. “Look, I-I get it, I lost Paul, you lost your brother, and he was always there for you, way more than I ever was. He’s a pretty good guy, both in the looks and personality department. So, if you guys ended up… you know, tougether. It makes sense.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
What did I just hear?? “Oh, Christ…” she muttered with a heavy breath. “Robert, I was a little more preoccupied with the trial and my trauma than finding a romantic love interest after what you and I had just ended. What’s more, Isaac has a girlfriend!” Well, he had a girlfriend, but that’s not important right now.
A little bit before Roy’s death, the woman that Isaac was dating ended it with him, though he didn’t seem too bothered by it, probably because of the university and working with her mother on top of all that. But that was beside the point here.
“Why in the world would you think that?”
He walked to stand by her side before continuing up the path. “You guys were always so close to each other. I mean, how else was I supposed to see it? Besises if you guys do decide to date iif or when he leaves his current partner, I think it’d be good.”
Wait, what?
“Wait, wait, wait.” She walked ahead a few steps as he kept walking as if what he said wasn’t odd. “You thought that, and you never bothered to ask me?”
He stopped in his tracks as though the thought just accrued to him. “No… I didn’t.”
Why did she even agree to let him tag along in the first place again?
“Seriously?” she let out a breath. “Look, I care about Isaac, a lot, but it’s different from you, hell it’s different with Roy and my parents even Rachael. Just because he and I were close, doesn’t mean I’m going to fall for him. Besides, he’s way out of my league.”
Robert frowned at her. “Wait, you really think that?”
She stared at him with a knowing expression. “Ah, yeah? You’ve seen him.”
He thought about it. “True, he does look like he’s God’s gift to Man like the next Alexander the Great 2.0 addition.”
“Right?”
“But,” he added. “Stephanie could also be seen in the same way to. You know how many comments I got when she and I dated? If it happened to me, it could happen to you too. Besides, I still think he’d be good for you. Leauges better than me that’s for sure.”
I can’t believe we’re talking about this… “I can’t believe you.”
“That doesn’t sound like a no~!” he teased, but she wasn’t having it.
Taryn didn’t answer him.
* * *
They continued up the path when Robert asked. “Where are we going exactly?”
Without even stopping, she said. “I want to get a look at that white car and check something.”
Robert looked confused. “Wait, what car?”
“The car that we saw when we first arrived,” she stated. “Remember? The white one covered in leaves?”
He frowned. “Didn’t that car belong to Sato?” he said, recalling the car in question.
“You believed his story?”
“What one?”
“The one where he said that he intended to use for us. With how many people there are in our group, we could just barely fit inside that thing. It’s a five-seater, sure. But getting all of our stuff in the trunk? On top of which, it looked as though it hadn’t been used in months. What kind of guide uses that to pick up tourists?”
“Then, why would he lie?” a sudden realization came to his eyes. “Wait, Stephanie told me that people have gone missing in this village, other tourists. Would that car belong to someone who might have disappeared?”
So, she did tell him. Taryn thought. “Possibly, won’t know until we look. Rachael and I found what looked to be an electric car key. Although, the actual key part seems to be busted. I also want to have a look at the roads. Toya said that there had been landslides, but I just want to be sure…” She stopped and cleared her throat.
“You okay?”
“Give me a second…” She rested her hands on her knees and took several deep breaths that slightly wheezed as the inside of her throat still hurt. After a few minutes went by, Taryn continued on her way as if nothing happened.
Robert remained silent, his eyes on her throat. It must have still hurt to talk. It made him feel guilty for even having her speak in the first place.
They continued on the rest of the way in silence, walking on the now downward-sloped path, with Taryn pausing every so often to look into the forest that surrounded them. Robert would look in the places she had but saw nothing. Did she assume that someone was watching them? Or was it something else?
When they reached the drop-off point, Taryn saw Stephanie’s dark blue rental van where it had been left and just a few feet away was the white car. Taryn moved closer to the car and went to peek inside; she was suddenly greeted with an image of June being handed something by Yoko when she touched the trunk.
The image was brief, and when Taryn looked inside the car, it looked to be empty. But on a closer look, she saw that there was a clothes wire wrapped around the locks to keep the doors shut even if the buttons for the electric lock were used, they wouldn’t budge.
Which meant that the key had been busted on purpose. The amount of time to do all of this must have been considerable, considering that June didn’t wish for her car to be tampered with. Pressing the electronic lock, Taryn was at least able to open the trunk. She wouldn’t be able to get into the car through here either, since it wasn’t at all like Stephanie’s van, June’s car was small and compact.
“There’s nothing inside,” Robert said when she opened it.
“A clothes wire is keeping the other doors locked in place.” She indicated to him. “There’d be no way to get those off without some kind of tool.”
Robert then dug around in his pockets before pulling something out. “Maybe something like this might do the trick?” what Robert had pulled out was something she didn’t expect him to bring with her. Several blank keys of various sizes were attached to a keyring known as a bump-key and some thin coiled wire and a small hammer.
“You brought that with you?”
He tossed the keys in the air and caught the keyrings. “You know I never go anywhere without it.”
That was true.
Back when they were in high school, he always had those tools on him, along with a ton of blank keys that could be modified if someone lost one, or used the wire to snag something out of a small drain. He was known as the school’s “lock-smith” since there almost wasn’t a door he couldn’t open. Thanks to the tools his father left before the man abandoned Robert, his older sister, and his mother for some other woman in another province.
Robert never talked much about his father, but it was always bitter and contempt when he had. Robert downright hated his father for what he did to his mother, and always said that he swore to never be like him.
“…I realized that I was just like him and I hated it, I hated myself.”
Realizing how similar they were must have hurt more than anything. Especially when trying to be so different from the one they were related to and hate just as much.
“Have you ever opened a car door before?” Taryn asked. “One that’s been intentionally tampered with?” she stopped suddenly and quickly looked underneath the car. She could see no signs of a makeshift bomb. If the people behind this wanted tourists killed, they could have resorted to doing something like that when someone tried to escape. It wasn’t much of a leap in logic, given how many vanished in such a short amount of time, yet there were no bodies to be found. No signs that people had been killed in the village or mansion.
If this were to be taken as fact, then, where were they?
“Well, not a deliberately locked car like this,” he said, drawing her attention as she stood up. “But I’ve had my fair share in dealing with older cars. It’s the newer models I wouldn’t be able to open since they have electronic locks and all that. But with this car, I should be able to open it, it might take some time though.”
“You do what you need to, Robert,” Taryn said as she brought her attention back to the empty trunk. Something about this seemed intentional to her. Led here with a reason. She racked her brain, recalling everything she could about what her parents had to deal with in their jobs; there had to be an answer. Then something clicked, her gaze now focusing on the trunk’s interior. It looked oddly clean. Too clean.
She rested her hand along the carpeted bottom. The moment she moved her hand to the trunk’s center, she could feel a distinct bump from the carpet.
Digging into her small bag at her hip, she pulled out an ornate folding pocket knife that could easily fit her palm. What’s more, it was left-handed, a gift from her Uncle for her eighteenth birthday.
“You never know when you’ll find yourself in a bind. Something like this can always be useful if used right.” Was what he had written inside a birthday card. When she got it, she wondered what exactly it could be used for. The other was how in the world it got through customs without any issues. Still, she was grateful to have it.
Taking the knife in hand, she cut into the carpet before pushing it back until that bump came into view. It was a hidden compartment with a small lock. Taryn recalled hearing her father talk about those who try to smuggle things into the city. Be it guns from America’s border or drugs across the ocean or other illegal items in nature. People had ways of modifying their vehicles to hide what they didn’t want to be seen by others.
Of course, it didn’t necessarily mean that all who did it were smugglers or drug dealers. People who were wealthy with too much time on their hands or those who just generally have something to hide could have a similar design element in both the car they drove or home.
“How goes the process?” Taryn called out as she looked at the locked compartment.
“Getting there,” he said. “I think I’ve almost managed to get the wire off the front door’s latch, at least. This person went to hell and back to keep whomever it is out of their car. Makes you wonder what it is they wanted to hide.”
“Since the key belonged to a journalist, I take that it would be a lot. And there’s a locked compartment back here, just so you know.”
“Holy shit, really?” Robert’s voice filled with excitement. “Wow, don’t see those every day. Maybe there’s treasure.”
She scoffed as she went to sit along the car’s trunk, elbows resting on her knees. “Probably not the kind of treasure your thinking of Robert.”
“Hey don’t doubt it. Remember, in our second year of high school? The locked box in the storage room?”
The two of them in the second year of high school had come across an old-looking box in the school’s storage room. As it turned out, the box was from World War Two. A teacher who had returned from the war left the box, possibly as a memento, perhaps to forget, tucked away where no one could see. Taryn could feel the emotions of the one who had left it behind. It was a mixture of melancholy, regret, and a faint feeling of hope.
After Robert did his thing and opened it, what they found inside were letters and a journal along with metals of honour and some old war photos.
In the end, the pair tracked down the teacher’s decedents, with the help of their history teacher, who was knowledgeable in the school’s history and returned it to the rightful owners. It became a bit of a highlight for a part of the year considering the horrible event a year prior. It even ended up in the local newspaper and on TV.
“I honestly doubt it’s something like war mementos.” She told him. “Besides, what happened in high school and what’s going on here are two completely different things. It’s like comparing apples to asshats.”
Robert merely paused before saying. “I resent being called an apple. You take that back.”
Taryn smirked at his response. But it slowly faded as a scowl rested in its place, as a thought came to the forefront. If this was June’s car, then how did Ai Matsushita get here? How did the fifteen before them? A sudden feeling began to press down on her shoulders, causing her head to slowly raise in realization as her gaze shifted over to the nearby forest.
Someone was watching them; the feeling mirrored the ones from many times before. Slowly, Taryn moved towards the forest. Stopping at a nearby tree, she realized a slope going down further into the forest. Almost a steep incline, if she wasn’t careful with her footing, it’d lead to a nasty fall. She stood there for a brief moment, looking down into the darkening forest as a faint breeze blew as if edging her to go forwards. It wasn’t the first time she had felt the lure of going down something when reason said otherwise whenever she explored an abandoned place. However, those times were different than this.
She went down the slope, carefully distributing her weight as she went so as not to fall and hurt herself further. Sliding to a stop with the assist of a tree, Taryn looked further into the forest. The trees were many, but in the distance, she could see a clearing. Before she headed deeper, she pulled out her compact and looked into the glass.
In it, she saw the reflection of the same woman, of June, her face still obscured as she pointed ahead. Asking what was there would do no good since she couldn’t hear them. Putting her compact mirror away, she called out to Robert ignoring the pain in her throat.
“Robert, I’m going to check something out in the forest. I noticed something strange. I’ll be right back!”
“What? No, wait a second, I’ll come with!”
“Prioritise the car,” she coughed a few times and cleared her throat. “I won’t be that far…” and headed deeper into the forest.
Robert merely frowned. From where he was, he couldn’t even see Taryn. The urge to just drop everything and go after her was tempting. But it wasn’t like she was the type to endanger herself. Hell, that within itself seemed to be an occupational hazard for her that she actively wished to avoid. He did as intended; he was so close now too.
And it wasn’t long before he finally removed the wire opening the door.
A sense of pride filled him as he grinned, opening the door fully and removing whatever wire had remained so the door wouldn’t be so difficult to open again. Noting how even the wire was wrapped around the handbrake kept it secured so it couldn’t be budged. But that didn’t matter much to him at the moment.
“Ha! Take that door!” he said with pride at his job. “Think you can keep your secrets from us? I don’t think so!” he then turned his attention towards the forest and called out. “Taryn! Doors open!”
No response.
The good feeling he had slowly began to dissipate as he called out again. “Taryn, did you hear me?” he waited. Still nothing. “Taryn!”
“Here!” she called out; her voice rasped. “Over here!”
Quickly Robert left the car with its now open door only to stumble to a stop when he reached the ledge seeing a sloped incline to the bottom. Quickly but carefully, he headed down the slope, practically using it as a slide to get down faster. When he reached the bottom, he broke into a sprint; Robert needed to reach her as quickly as possible.
He could see an opening from the other side, Taryn standing at the edge of it. “Taryn!” he stopped running, hands resting on a nearby tree to catch his breath. “What the hell… are you doing?” but she didn’t respond. With a look of confusion, he went to stand beside her as her gaze remained locked on whatever she was looking at. He turned and soon found out why.
“What the hell?”
There were cars.
Various makes and models, all to rust and decay. Plied to be left and forgotten within this makeshift graveyard. Many showed signs of their age, while others still looked to be in modestly good condition. And far too many to count.
“I thought only fifteen people went missing?” Robert said as Taryn remained oddly quiet. “Taryn, just what the hell is going on?”
Taryn merely continued to stare. This was what June wanted her to see, giving her the clearest picture that one could without using words.
This was not a recent event.
This was something that had been happening for many years…