Chapter 178 – Destructive until the End – Holly Hayfield

That weekend with Ellie wasn’t the only instance that my friends from school spent time with her. The very following weekend we all spent some time at Lilith’s ancestral estate, preparing the property once again for guest renters.

To my surprise, Ellie blended in well with our lot of weirdo girls. She claimed that she was becoming one of the weirdos herself. In any case, I was just happy to be reunited with her, and even happier to see her getting along with everyone. I got everything that I wanted out of that initial meeting with her.

The next several weeks went by in peace and quiet. When I first retired the mask of the Killing Cat it was solely because of my injury. Eventually though, I found it hard to pick it back up. It was heavy. Every time I interacted with it, a flow of bloody images flashed through my mind.

I was happy to let the mask gather dust, deep inside my closet.

That still left the question of what to do with Crystal Gray. Alyssa wanted to take up the mask of the Killing Cat for herself, but I stopped that plan in its tracks. Instead, it was Lilith that provided a solution to this problem.

Lilith and I were recently busy decoding some of the information she received from Jacob. Apparently Crystal Gray never stopped threatening him, the crazy demon. Lilith didn’t ask for details on where I got the decoding key after I told her that it was something that I found at Angel’s place, which was a lie.

She was so excited that we could decode these messages that she didn’t put any mental stock into the fact that I had this all along. Lilith was an intelligent girl, but she often let her emotional highs get the best of her. I wasn’t complaining. Most people were the same way when it came to their interests.

“Why do you think Crystal is sending all these messages to Jacob?” Lilith asked as we were working to decode messages in her bedroom. “She must realize that this is very incriminating evidence.”

“It is.” I said. “We may be able to use this against her.”

“She gave us her location in one of these. Should we try turning all this information over to the police?”

“I don’t think that…” I started to say.

On second thought, maybe this was the best possible circumstance to get the police involved? The fact that Jacob could verify these emails if pressed could be all the proof that we needed. They could easily question Jacob about all this and then go visit Crystal’s hideout for themselves.

It was clear that I’d have trouble defeating her as the Killing Cat. A win against her wasn’t guaranteed. Not only that, but I was enjoying my peaceful life for the past several weeks. Maybe, just maybe it was time to let the police do their job like, as we originally intended.

“You know what, Lilith…? I think that’s a great idea.” I said.

She sat up straight and smiled broadly.

“You do?!” She asked. “You think this is enough?”

“Yes. I think it’s enough to make them look deeper.” I nodded. “We just need to send this information to them carefully. They might be suspicious about us reading Jacob’s emails and decoding these messages. It’s best to send them anonymously. When they reach out to Jacob about it, he can give them his sole perspective.”

“Great! I’ve already got an idea of what I want to say!”

“I’ll send the final email.” I said. “Give me your first draft tonight. I’ll make some revisions of my own before we send it off.”

“Great!” Lilith said, turning back to her laptop. “I’ll get started on it right now!”

Lilith was ecstatic to finally be involved with taking down one of Malorie’s murderers. Part of me believed that it couldn’t be this easy, but that was just me being negative. The local police arrested violent criminals all the time. Crystal and her cohorts were only able to hide this long because they were smarter than the average gangbanger.

With this much evidence mounted against her, a personally written invitation of address, and a few hints about what to expect, the police should be in a good position to take her down. The key point of contention would be how seriously the police took the threat and how prepared their response was.

With that worry out of my head, I returned my focus back to school. With my leg fully healed up, and nothing else vying for my time, I got my track club back into full swing. I also served as a temporary member on the soccer club while a member was sick.

They weren’t the only club that I was busy with during this time period. After getting the vice principal to ease up a little, my next job was to affirm the condition of many of these groups. The vice principal was still pushing for more rigid club regulations. I’d do everything in my power to help preexisting clubs make the cut.

Outside of school, the girls of Autumn Eden were working to develop more rooms. Funnily enough, Helga wanted a more ‘permanent’ house inside the old school, despite claiming that living here was only a temporary situation. She was investing more time and money into the renovation than was advisable.

I wasn’t shy about telling her as much. With the amount of money she was sinking into the latest round of projects alone, she’d probably have enough for several months of rent at an apartment or condo. She felt otherwise and wasn’t willing to argue.

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I concluded that she simply preferred Autumn Eden for personal reasons. Maybe it had something to do with her ‘witch’ background and the fact that the building often felt haunted. Although I spoke out against her renovations, I didn’t shy away from helping her.

After all the help she gave to the Killing Cat it would be rude to snub her when she kindly asked for my help with the renovations. I knew that it wasn’t easy for her to ask favors of anyone, so I treated the request with all the seriousness it deserved.

Over the course of the past few weeks, we made more and more of the building livable by cleaning and sanitizing various rooms, covering up holes in the wall, and filling cracks in the floor. Helga handled most of the technical aspects herself, being something of a jack of all trades, master of none.

She was able to handle some brickwork well enough to repair the damaged walls. Whenever we had a question about how to handle some home improvement related task, she helped us. She occasionally looked up solutions on the web and went out to buy the materials we needed.

She was genuinely committed to revitalizing as much as Autumn Eden as she could. She mentioned that she wanted to do this before but couldn’t do it on her own and didn’t have the work ethic at the time. After working at the school for a few months now, she wanted to dedicate her off days and spend her spare money towards advancing this goal.

Silver, Alyssa, and I were dressed raggedly, the three of us wearing simple white t-shirts and gym shorts. Our main task for the day was painting one of the newly renovated rooms. For that, we needed clothes that we didn’t mind getting ruined. We finished applying the first coating and sat down for a break.

“Man…” Silver said as she wiped sweat from her forehead. “I never thought that painting would take so much out of me. When Helga asked us for help, I thought this would be something I’d excel at, given my history. This isn’t like I imagined.”

“We’re doing well.” Alyssa said, kneeling to sit down beside Silver on the ground. “This is just a big room.”

“There are a few big rooms we’ve renovated lately.” Silver noted. “Is Helga trying to build a house in here or a freaking mansion?”

I smiled and sat down with them.

“It seems that way almost. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to leave this place... There is a special type of opportunity here, given the size.” I said. “Not to mention that this place is otherwise free of charge.”

“Until some bored city inspector remembers that this place exists.” Silver said.

“Don’t jinx us.” Alyssa said. “We need this place too.”

Silver smiled at Alyssa.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t tempt fate. Maybe I should claim a room or two here for myself, since we’re practically restoring the building.”

“Helga did say that we could live here alongside her whenever we needed.” Alyssa said.

“Lilith offered us something similar with her family’s old place.” I said. “That will be more sustainable than Autumn Eden.”

“But not by much…” Silver said. “Lilith’s family can currently afford it only by renting it out. That doesn’t sound so sustainable to me.”

“True,” I said. “But she’s hoping that any of her friends living with her can help her with the upkeep costs. I’m onboard to help her once I start working at the school full-time.”

“If I had to make a choice, I’d choose Lilith’s place.” Alyssa said. “But then again, this place is closer to my grandparent’s house. They’ll still need me around to help them.”

“I’m not sure I could live here on a permanent basis.” Silver said. “This makes for a great hideout, but it isn’t very homely.”

“That just means that we have more work to do.” I said as I stood up to stretch my arms.

“Ugh…” Silver said as she stood up and stretched also, “Don’t remind me.”

Alyssa stood up too.

“So I guess we’re getting back to work?” She asked.

“I guess we are.” I said.

Helga threw open the door so suddenly that the three of us turned in startled surprise. Her face was pale, and she hesitated to say anything after coming in so dramatically. She had a shocked look on her face like she had just seen something.

“Is everything okay?” I asked. “Are you hurt?!”

“No, no, no! It isn’t like that… It’s… Well… You girls will want to see this for yourselves. Follow me.”

We followed Helga back to her new ‘living room’. The living room was a renovated classroom. There were two new couches, an additional armchair, a coffee table, a few lamps, and a flatscreen TV. The bookshelves, posters, and other knick-knacks made this room feel more homely than the others.

The channel playing on the TV was a breaking news report showing a building on fire. There were four police cars lined up outside the burning building. The camera operator must’ve been using a drone or helicopter. The scene kept rotating from above the location.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“That’s Crystal Gray’s hideout!” Alyssa answered. “I remember what it looks like from this angle from the satellite images I researched before.”

“Crystal…?” I started to say.

“Can you turn up the volume?” Silver asked. “I want to hear what the reporter is saying.”

“One second.” Helga said, reaching for the remote.

“…In critical condition. Additional police forces and emergency vehicles are in route to the scene as we watch this fire unfold. It was believed to have activated upon using the front door. The uninjured deputy that was willing to talk to us said that they triggered an improvised explosive device. He says the suspect, Crystal Gray, is still at large.”

“She got away.” I realized.

“Let’s be grateful that wasn’t you getting involved with one of her traps.” Helga said. “I’m glad that you chose not to go after her again.”

“I…” I started to say, thinking about how horribly this police operation went. “I wouldn’t have used the front door. Still, Crystal is smart. She probably put that there specifically to respond to a police assault. They must’ve taken serious damage in their initial attempt to get inside.”

“And then she fled the scene while they were busy?” Silver asked.

“If she was even there to begin with…” I said. “There’s a real chance that she abandoned the place after my incursion into her lair.”

My phone began vibrating, but I ignored it in favor of watching the news report. I was looking for more details on exactly how many police officers were injured. Crystal was already a wanted criminal. Injuring police officials was going even further across that line. How was she expecting to return to her life from here?

My phone rang again and this time I took it out to see that it was Lilith calling.

“Hey, Lilith... Are you watching the news too?” I asked as I answered my phone.

“What? The news…? Why….?” She asked.

“I thought that’s why you were calling?” I asked. “Crystal Gray managed to escape the police when they activated one of her traps. You didn’t hear…?”

“Shit…” Lilith hissed just barely loud enough for me to make out. “Well… I guess that answers a few questions. Let’s just say… We’ve got bigger problems right now.”

“Bigger problems…?”

“Sit tight… I’m going to forward you the images that were sent to me.”

She ended the call without any further explanation. I soon received a couple of image messages from her. The first image was of an old brick church building that looked vaguely familiar. The second image was of Jacob tied up in a corner with a written message beside him saying. ‘I’ve got the brother’.

She went after Jacob in response to us sending the police after her.

“Lilith was right…” I whispered to myself. “We’ve got bigger problems…”

Silver and Alyssa turned away from the TV to crowd around me. They noticed me staring at my cellphone in tense silence and leaned over my shoulder to get a glimpse at my phone.

“What’s going on?” Silver asked.

“Crystal Gray has a hostage.” I said.