The Ghosts of Melbrew [1/12]

Chapter 22) Back to a Building

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[ Saturday February 4th, 2017 ]

          January was boring, to say the very least. It was the second half of the school year now after winter break, and man, you could feel the student dread. Two weeks of no school, and now there won’t be another break for months. Everyone was miserable from the school work, and it took until February before we felt good enough to continue on with our investigations.

          “Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea?” Dominik asked as we trudged through the still snow-filled woods.

          “You think EVERYTHING we do is a bad idea!” Cameron said.

          “Well, maybe! But this is different! Why in the world are we going back to the sacrificial goat cult hideout place?!”

          “How is this different? You say that like we haven’t seen worse things!” Veronica said, “For the last time, there might be some important things in there that you guys skipped over! It’s most definitely connected to that underground hideout.”

          “No one forced you to come with us, so why are you here?” Kimi asked him.

          "Well I'm sorry that I'm concerned about the well being of my friends."

          "The earbuds exist. Didn't have a problem using those, did you? You're curious like the rest of us, you know it." Cameron said.

          “Yeah, and the last time I let you go off without me, somebody jumped off of a cliff and broke their arm!”

          “Hey! It was fun and it healed really fast!” Cameron defended, flexing his now cast-free arm.

          “You and I have two very different definitions of the word fun.”

          “Oh wow, would you look at that! We’re already here!” I said, putting an end to their conversation.

          “That was fast.” Kai said.

          “That’s because I actually know how to get there.” Veronica said, reaching into a bag. “Here, It’s more of that smell-masking magic dust stuff. Just in case.”

          We each took turns breathing in some of the dust, and just like that, my sense of smell temporarily disappeared.

          Cameron went ahead to open the door, and upon doing so, it fell off of its hinges, collapsing to the ground with a loud slam. He shined a light inside, and it was definitely different from what it looked like before… but contained things that were a familiar sight.

          Inside that old building, that we now knew was the first building in Melbrew, were some of the horrors we previously saw underground. The wolf skin rugs, the stuffed wolves and skeletons on display. It was all wolf, though. There were none of the human parts.

          "Yooo." Cameron said quietly in thought, "Do you think... dude. They're totally trying to throw us off or something."

          "What?" I was confused.

          "Like... like they... ugh, hold on. Gotta find my words... they like, know, or something. Like it would be a lot worse if people found humans in the woods or something, right? But with wolves you'd normally assume hunters or taxidermists or whatever. They have to know we were down there. They moved it to get rid of the evidence."

          "So why the hell have we come back here?!" Dominik said, "Y'all are crazy! What the hell!"

          "You literally came with us, you dumbass!" Kimi said, "Don't blame us if your ass gets possessed. It's not like we've taken away your free will! How many times have we had this conversation by now?"