28. Baited

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28. Baited

_______________

I stopped at home before officially heading out to the church. There was about fifteen minutes left before we would meet with Danielle.

I had hung out with Sayora and Travis after school at a local cafe. It was nice. For so long I had been shutting people out. Living in fear of what would happen if I let people get too close to me. Too close to what I'd been hiding. But everything was different now.

Travis and Sayora knew the truth, at least the main idea of it anyway. And in them knowing that, I was able to be open up again. It also helped that at the moment they were the only two people I trusted, of course.

They were currently outside waiting in my car. I'd decided to just drop off my school things at home. No use in dragging everything along.

School.

How backed up on homework was I again? It'd been a challenge keeping up in my classes recently for obvious reasons. Not like I was ever a real top notch student, but to my credit I did try to get work done. Now school seemed to be so frivolous.

I'd simply thrown my backpack on my bed before heading back downstairs. On the way down, I passed Mom, who'd been making her way up. We made brief eye contact, her giving me a slight smile.

I'd been out far longer than I was supposed to be, given that I technically was still on punishment, but she said nothing about it as we passed by each other. Probably figuring it was best to not speak on it for fear of worsening our shaky relationship as of late.

I hadn't paid much attention to the bags and suitcases in the living room when I'd first entered the house, but they finally registered in my brain just as I was about to leave.

Raymond came waltzing in a second later from the downstairs bathroom. He noticed me and gave an awkward smile.

"Hey, bud."

"What's this?" I asked, getting to the point.

Raymond looked around at the luggage. "These would be mine. I'm leaving finally."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Finally got approved for a place then?"

"Actually," Raymond started. "I've had my own house here for quite a while."

I gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I moved to Hillbury a while ago."

"Then why would you pretend you're staying here just until you get your own place?" I inquired.

Raymond hesitated for a moment. "Ricky, I think it's time we had a talk."

"Talk?"

"The talk," Raymond said. "About... Everything."

I was intrigued, but I couldn't sit here and talk now. I needed to get to the church. Why out of all the times did he want to have this conversation at this moment?

"I know I've deceived you," he continued, "and trust me, it pained me to do so, because I love you. But it was in your best interest... and the interest of your parents."

"I already know what you're going to say," I said.

"I highly doubt that."

"It's about the boy right? Your son?"

Raymond gaped and had the most puzzled expression on his face.

"How did you...? The letters? Your mother told me she gave them to you. Is that what was in them?"

"Not exactly," I said. "The knowledge of you and Mom having an affair came from a different source."

"Which would be?"

I ignored the question. "So how did Kevin find out? You obviously were aware Kevin knew something. You even went to your girlfriend Shawna to get information from her about what Kevin was saying in his sessions. And you definitely knew Kevin left me something that day I searched his room."

"All true," Raymond said. "Kevin found out because he witnessed something."

"What?"

"A confrontation between your mother and the son we had together. It happened here actually."

"And where the hell was I?!" I said.

"Probably out with your friends. In fact, I know you were because after it happened your mother called me in a panic, screaming about how Kevin had seen him and luckily you were hanging out elsewhere, otherwise she'd have some more explaining to do."

"So Kevin witnessed what happened, and then he himself confronted mom about it and she definitely told him to keep it to himself," I figured. "And you were going out of your way to make sure he kept his mouth shut, too."

"I only tried to keep Kevin from telling the truth because I was trying to protect... everyone. You. Your mother. Your father. If Kevin told, the family would've—"

"Are you ever going to tell Dad?" I interrupted.

"What?"

"My dad," I reiterated. "Your best friend. Do you plan on telling him any of this?"

"What do you think I've been doing here, Ricky? Those conversations you've overheard? Those were about me trying to convince Mariana to tell the truth. To own up to what we did, and for her to accept the child we had."

I studied him, knowing what he was saying made perfect sense.

"Ricky, I'm not a bad guy, here." Raymond said. "What your mother and I had—what we did, was a mistake. Not even a mistake, just very poor, stupid judgement and I think about it every time I see Mauricio's face, knowing I'd betrayed him in one of the worst ways possible."

"But you did it," I said.

"Yes, I did."

"So where's the boy—my other brother?" I asked. "He has to be around my age, right? He live in town? What's his name?"

"I can arrange a meeting," Raymond said. "For just the three of us. Maybe a restaurant? See him for yourself. What do you say?"

"Sure," I said.

Raymond smiled. "Great."

"But, I'm still not understanding something," I said.

"And what would that be?"

"How does SPI fit into all of this? The mental institution?"

Raymond's face went blank. "SPI?"

"Kevin was talking to some guy there. That was your son, right?"

"Ricky..."

A honk came from outside. Travis and Sayora were probably getting impatient.

"You can tell me later," I said. "I have to go now."

"Ricky, how did Kevin know that place?" Raymond demanded, a look that I didn't know exactly how to describe came over his face.

"The guy contacted him. There were letters in that envelope between the two of them. They were even meeting in person."

"That's not possible," Raymond said, frowning.

I frowned in turn, because now I was growing both confused and concerned. "What do you mean? I still have those letters. It had to be your son."

Another honk.

"Ricardo, you need to stay here. I'll call Mariana down. There's something else you should know—"

Yet another damn honk.

"I really can't," I said. "We'll talk later."

"But—"

I was already out the door before he was able to say more. That was weird. Now I was extremely curious as to what he wanted to say, but Danielle was the current priority. Raymond could wait.

I hopped into the driver's seat of my car.

"Which one of you were being annoying with the horn?" I asked.

"Travis is a little impatient it would seem," Sayora said, shooting Travis a glance in the backseat.

Travis looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry."

___

We pulled into the church parking lot and sat there a moment. There were no other vehicles around. It was quiet.

Almost too quiet.

"Think she's here yet?" Travis asked.

"Maybe," I said.

"Have we thought about how we're even gonna get into the church?"

"It's open all day, everyday," Sayora said. "It's less common for churches to do that these days, but there are a handful that do, and our church happens to be one of them."

"So anyone can just go on in whenever?" Travis asked.

"The idea is that anyone who seeks prayer in the house of God at any given moment, can come as they please," Sayora explained. "My dad sometimes comes at, like, five in the morning before starting his shifts at work."

"Seems like a sure way of getting vandalized," Travis said.

"There's that risk," Sayora agreed. "But as far as I'm aware, no one has done that in recent years."

"Well, let's pray our meeting with Dani doesn't get interrupted by someone going through a midlife crisis," I said.

"Let's hope," Sayora said.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out, Travis and Sayora doing the same. We walked over to the church's entrance and went inside. It was dark, but lights along the walls lit the area dimly. The moon shining through the church windows helped, too.

My family was religious, so the church was nothing new to me. It was a decently sized, with about twenty rows of pews on the left and right, creating a path—an aisle—down the middle. There was an altar where the priest and the high members of the church would stand. Behind them stood a large stained glass window with an image depicting Jesus.

I hadn't visited the church in a while, but all still looked the same.

"For a place that's supposed to make you feel comfortable and safe, I'm sure getting the creeps right now," Travis commented in a hushed tone.

I had to agree. I'd never visited the church at a late hour, so it did give off weird vibes being here at this time of night. But even so, there was nothing to fear. We were here to meet Danielle, nothing dangerous.

"I do think it's safe to say she's not up here," Sayora whispered as the three of us walked down the aisle, pews on either side of us.

"She's either not here yet or downstairs," I said.

"Why would she be downstairs?" Travis asked.

"Hell If I know," I said. "There's a recreational room where bible studies and Sunday school is held. Bathroom, too."

"Well it'd be pretty silly to ask you to come and not specify where exactly to go if not here."

"Guys!" Sayora said.

"What?" I shot a questioning look her way.

"Outside!"

We all had our attention on the stain glass window that was to the right of us. Naturally we couldn't see through it, but there was a shadow; a figure of someone walking along the side of the church.

"They're heading toward the entrance," Travis said.

"Hide!" I demanded.

I dropped to the floor and crawled under a pew. Both Sayora and Travis followed, going under two more pews on either side of me. Travis to my right and Sayora to my left.

I didn't exactly know why we were hiding, it was just instinct. If it were some random person coming to pray, we could easily say we were doing the same and not look suspicious.

But I'd been through too much to take chances. What if we weren't the only ones who knew Danielle would be here?

The door to the church opened and I heard footsteps making their way down the aisle. I looked to my left, Sayora's direction, which was the direction in which the footsteps were approaching from.

I suddenly felt very nervous and couldn't shake this bad feeling.

The footsteps drew closer and eventually they were passing by us. I couldn't tell who it was, not even by the shoes. They were just basic black shoes from what I could tell. I watched the shoes as they went up to the altar and stopped.

I was holding my breath and I didn't doubt that Travis and Sayora were doing the same.

Moments passed and the legs of the person began turning left and right, as if they were looking for something.

The voice was loud in the silence of the night and echoed throughout the church. "Anyone here?"

My eyes widened. I was partly relieved, but also confused and and a little bit upset.

"You're fucking kidding me," I said, not bothering to keep my voice lowered.

I crawled out from under the pew, stood up straight and stared him down. "Jory?!"

Jory seemed appalled when he turned to face me. "Whoa."

"Are you serious?!"

Sayora and Travis were soon joining me.

"Well," Travis started. "This just took an interesting turn."

"Where's Danielle?" Sayora asked.

"How the hell should I know?!" Jory said.

"Seeing as how you used her phone to text and lure us here, I'm betting you have a pretty good idea," I said. "That's what's going on, right?"

I felt stupid. This was clearly some ruse created by Jory, Danielle and probably even Luke to get us here. For what, I didn't know. But Jory was gonna have to explain himself.

Instead of explaining though, he continued standing there looking confused. "I—"

"You really pretended to be Danielle?" Sayora asked.

"Hold on!" Jory exclaimed. "I didn't use Danielle's phone for anything, she told me to meet her here at this time!"

"Dis she?" I said, not believing him.

"Yes!" He said. "I can show you! She texted me during school saying that she wanted to meet with me and not to tell Luke."

"Why wouldn't she want Luke here?" Sayora asked.

"I don't know," Jory said. "I just agreed to meet her so we could figure things out."

"Is this starting to sound fishy to anyone else?" Travis asked.

It was fishy. Where the hell was Danielle?

"Look, how about we quit jumping to conclusions here," Jory said. "Clearly Danielle wanted all of us here... except you," Jory looked at Travis. "I'm not positive about who you even are."

"I'm mostly just along for the ride, if I'm being honest," Travis said.

"Anyway," Jory continued. "Maybe she needed us all here but figured it would be challenging to do that considering we haven't all had the best relationship with each other lately. So she sent different messages to force us all together, like it or not."

"Okay, makes sense," Sayora said. "But why leave Luke out?"

"Look guys, we can ask her that when she gets here," I said.

"Unless she is here and she's just downstairs," Travis reminded.

"Right. Okay. Say and I will go look downstairs. It'll take, like, one minute. Travis and Jory, you stay here just in case Danielle shows up."

"Cool," Travis said.

"Whatever," said Jory.

"Alright. Sayora, let's go."

"Oh, wait!" Travis stopped me. "I think I left my phone in your car. My dad will lose his mind if I don't tell him I'm okay and just out with friends or something. Can I use your key to get in and get it?"

"I didn't lock it. Go. Be quick," I said.

"Right." He looked at Jory. "I'll be right back."

"Great," Jory said. "Guess I'll just sit and pray on my ass until everyone regroups." He took a seat at the front pew facing the altar.

Travis chuckled before he jogged toward the church door and into the night.

Sayora and I left Jory by himself as we headed to the door in the back of the room that would lead downstairs.

"I doubt she's down here," Sayora said as we descended.

I shrugged. "Eh, so do I. But better safe than sorry, right?"

"I suppose," Sayora said. "It's just... I don't know, something's weird."

"Weird?"

"Yeah, I mean she could just be late or whatever, but this is pretty important. Why wouldn't she be on time for this?"

"Well, not everyone believes in arriving five hours beforehand to be on time, Sayora," I teased.

"Very funny," she chuckled. "Seriously, I've just got this feeling."

"Yeah," I admitted. "So do I."

"Probably nerves, right?" She offered. "This entire situation regarding Kevin has been crazy."

"Hopefully when we go on our trip tomorrow, all questions will be answered," I said.

"What a relief that will be," Sayora said.

The bottom of the stairs led to a corridor. Even the walls down hear were decorated with pictures and paintings. There was also some art that had been hung up presumably done by children based on how extremely sloppy most of it was.

We passed the unisex restrooms fit for only one person at a time each. We both knocked on either of the restroom doors, peeking inside and only seeing the usual. No one was in them.

The door next to the restrooms I already knew was a closet used for an assortment of supplies, so we didn't bother looking in it. Not like Danielle was expected to be holed up in a closet for some odd reason. It was probably locked anyway.

We came up to a different door, one that made us stop in our tracks and stare. It was opposite side of the restrooms and the closet. I knew this was the recreational room, I wasn't confused about that.

What made us stop in our tracks was what was on the door, written in some red substance.

"X" Marks The Spot

"Th—that seems out of place," Sayora said.

I stared at the message, blood running cold. "That's because it is," I whispered.

"What's it supposed to mean?"

"X" Marks The Spot? "X"? I knew what that meant. I knew exactly what that meant. That phrasing, that word choice—it was no coincidence.

"It means we probably should leave and get as far away as possible," I said.

"Ricky, what are you—?"

"I didn't tell you everything," I said. "I didn't tell you about the letters Kevin left me. I haven't fully explained the purpose of the trip we're going on tomorrow."

"Okay."

"He was here," I muttered. "He was here. 'X' was here. That's what this means!"

That had to be it. It only made sense.

"Who?!" Sayora asked. "You're scaring me, Ricardo."

"Danielle," I whispered, heart dropping. "Danielle didn't send those texts."

"What?"

I shook my head. "That was bait... It was fucking bait."

I gathered my courage and quickly opened the door to the room. As expected, it was dark mostly. What wasn't expected was the room to be partly lit with candles. The candles created a path. And with the orange light of the candles I could see the red arrows painted on the white linoleum flooring of the room.

The arrows followed the path, straight ahead to the large chest freezer that stood against the wall across from the door.

"What the hell?" Sayora whispered, awestruck at the scene displayed in front of her.

I tried to flip on the light switch, but there was no luck there. I bent down and touched the red substance that created the arrows that was painted on the floor. Not blood, definitely paint. But I did notice that it wasn't completely dry. Meaning whoever had done this; whoever had set this up, had done so recently.

I stood back up and eyed the freezer. Something was in there that "X" wanted to be found.

"Let's get the others and leave," Sayora said, becoming anxious.

I inched closer to the freezer.

"Ricardo!" Sayora protested, latching onto my arm.

"I have to see," I said in a shaky breath, scared.

"Let's go, now!" Sayora demanded, but I continued on with her holding onto me.

We finally were directly in front of the freezer, and neither of us were in much of a hurry to open it at that point. I'd insisted on going forward. I'd ignored Sayora pulling on my arm, begging me to turn back. And now here I was, too scared to open the damn thing after being so eager to find out what was inside.

Partly because I feared I knew what was inside.

"What's in there?" Sayora whispered.

"I've got an idea," I said. "But I'm afraid to see for myself."

About ten seconds passed before I took a deep breath and forced myself to man up and open the freezer.

I immediately wished I'd have just turned back.

The moons' shimmer from the windows right above gave us just enough light to see her.

Her eyes were wide open and staring at me, however they were not her eyes anymore. She was no longer there. Blood stained parts of her face. Her hair was a mess as if she'd been in a fight or had been left without a comb and brush for a

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