The Ghosts of Melbrew [1/12]

Chapter 20) The Fourth Floor

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          On Thursday, December 15th, our fifth history club meeting was held. And with this meeting in particular, we had some new material to discuss and work with. That material being Victor Melbrew, of course.

          As always, we held the boring fake meeting for all the other students who thought it was just a regular old history club. After they all left, Cameron entered on his usual cue, with a loud bang as he kicked open the door. I nearly thought it was going to fall off its hinges with the amount of force he applied.

          “Yo!” He yelled, grabbing the door and slamming it shut with the same amount of force. He wasted no time getting into the details, “Mr. Marshall, did you know that Victor Melbrew is in town?” 

          Mr. Marshall blinked a few times as he processed what he said, “...Why, no I did not. How did you know that?”

          Cameron quickly began speaking in a barely coherent mess, before Mr. Marshall could even finish the question, “Veronica told us that he’s visiting for Christmas and that he came yesterday evening and he’s being really suspicious along with her parents and she says she thinks that it’s all a lie and that it really might have something to do with the super-duper top-secret portal stuff!" He took a big gasp of air, "Actually... that's a... fact!” he said, out of breath.

          “...Well to translate what Cameron just said, basically Victor came home yesterday after being gone for lots of years. Her whole family acted super weird, like aliens or robots or something. And it 100% has to do with the portal her family has in the woods.” I said.

          “Well then...” Mr. Marshall said, seemingly unsure of how to respond. “You know, your newfound friendship with Veronica is actually rather funny. I went to school with Victor, just like you all do with Veronica. We graduated together, as part of the same class. You could also say that we used to be friends.”

          “Really?” Dominik said in intrigued, genuine surprise.

          “Oh, you owe us a storytime!” Cameron said, proceeding to plop down in a chair as he rubbed his hands eagerly together, an open smile wide on his face.

          "Well, it was a while ago... seven years. It's just a memory now, nothing—"

          Cameron cut him off with a clap, "Dude! Dude. Veronica thinks her brother is being weird and here to help with portal stuff. Can I ask, was he weird back when you knew him? Was he just like Veronica, or was he different? Mr. Marshall, this could be important! Maybe there's a detail in your stories that you wouldn't notice, but we would? Dude. You need to tell us!"

          "It's— not a lot! I mean, we fell out of touch after high school, and he tended to have some issues with his temper, so really, falling out of touch was the best thing to happen. He moved out of town immediately after graduation, and I hadn't heard his name since. Back when I knew him, when he didn't have a temper, he was sort of awkward."

          “That’s what Veronica said!” I said, “He was really awkward and had a temper.”

          “Yeah… he was messed up in a lot of ways, but he was nothing like Veronica is or was. Veronica seems to have some self-awareness, but Victor was always a bit of a pretentious know-it-all. That was one of the most annoying things about him. He was always socially awkward, until you asked him a question, stroked his ego, or made him angry. Then all the anxiety seemed to vanish.”

          “Why were you friends with him?” Dominik asked.

          "He was a Melbrew, and you know me. I was exactly like you guys when I was in high school, except I didn’t have a group, and was a bit of an outcast. My grandfather knew Gregory Humphrey, and I always wanted to figure out what happened to him, and thus started my dig into the murder mystery. But you all already know that. I befriended Victor in the hopes that we could get along and be partners in crime, kinda like you and Cameron, and it...ehh, it worked out. kinda. For the most part… While he may have been a bit awkward and mean at times, I wouldn't call him a bad person, at least not back then. Does Veronica know what he's been up to all these years?"