Chapter 12

Saturday, August 25th, 2012

It was the weekend before they knew it. Not even the Friday football game was as eventful as West expected it to be. He saw Neil and his boys play, and they were good. Really good. The blond wasn't worried about his rival being better in that aspect. Football was just a sport to pass the time until basketball season started up.

"It's obviously drugs."

West heard Kaspar say as he sauntered down the stairs after putting his little sister to bed. He was tasked with looking out for Ophelia while his parents were out of town for the weekend, but that didn't mean he'd put solving the mysteries in Tuct Side on pause. He had sat on showing his guys the recording of the conversation between Neil and Shaun in the bathroom, his mind juggling with the ethics of revealing such a private discussion since then.

Now, he was walking back in the living room as the other three pondered on what they just heard.

"Is that the bias talking or…?" Finn narrowed his eyes quizzically at the redhead.

"No, I'm serious. 'Destroy other people's lives? A good time over necessity?' The first is a piece of shit drug dealer, and the second's an addict," Kaspar's glanced at his cousin, who sat next to him with his camera in hand. "Don't feel bad for catching their shit on tape."

Suddenly, Kaspar's face lit up like it did when he found the answer to some complex math problem. "In fact, the more I think about this, the more I think it was all planned!"

West was quick to turn his camera on and record his relative.

"What do you mean?" Justin asked. He was smoking a joint, something he's been doing more often, near the open door that led to the patio. The team captain was thankful his tall friend waited until Ophelia went to bed, but he was still worried his parents would still be able to sniff out the remaining smell.

That, and Justin's wellbeing.

"I don't know what's going on in this town," Kaspar got up and started to pace, "but it's something… something bad. Wildwood is shut down by a simple shooting threat. The students there move here. And they're basically handed crowns, but this time, they're polished."

"But why?" Finn questioned, laying back in a recliner to gaze up at the ceiling in thought. "Whose powerful enough to do all that?"

"Der Handel. We're dealing with cold, calculated business."

Justin blew out a puff of smoke. "And you think Neil and his guys are doing this?"

Kaspar shook his head. "Based on what we just heard? No. But that doesn't seem to matter to whoever's in charge."

"It sounded like they've been doing this for a while," West mentioned somberly.

"Don't start feeling guilty now. The asshole wanted to leave in the wake of his destruction. His brother's probably in on it, too."

Who wouldn't want to escape the cage they had no business being in? The blond kept the thought in his head.

"I just don't get the captaincy shit," Justin sighed, gazing out the patio door and into the night. "For one, there is no way in hell the team would let him take over," he looked at his blond friend and smirked proudly. "Not when our boy here led us to the championship once."

West shook his head but smiled back. "Still not taking all the credit."

"You should. Seriously though, why does he want it so bad?"

"A power play or something?" Finn suggested.

It was quiet for a moment as they searched for an answer. West briefly wondered if he could secretly interview an ex-Wildwood student to get them, but dismissed it entirely. Despite attending the same school, they still had loyalty to where they came from, and that little tidbit would definitely make its way back to Neil, leaving him to face the lightning-eyed noirette's wrath.

"Maybe… influence," Kaspar piped up. "People might not like him now, but with him at the position of top dog and the right people coming to him…"

"It'll make their jobs a lot easier," finished West, his fingers scratching his head and making a mess of his hair.

Attempting to make sense of all this was going to take a lifetime.

"We gotta do something about that," Justin suddenly stood up as he threw his joint in an ashbin on the patio. "I know I have no room to talk, but at least I'm doing this crap to myself. We can't let them upend everyone else's lives."

Kaspar nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I say we host a couple parties or two," he turned to West, who expectedly opened his mouth to voice his concerns. "I know. I know you don't like to flaunt your popularity like that, but this is dire. They can't gain any favor if we want to protect your position and the lives of everyone at school."

Being captain of the basketball team – freshman, junior varsity, or varsity – was becoming a coveted rank. West could almost see why Neil was jockeying for it. Or, at least, part of the reason why he was.

"I… uh…"

"Besides," his cousin continued. "What's the harm in a party? They don't have to be so out of control like in the movies. It'll be big coming from you."

Of course, this made Justin ecstatic. "Fuck yeah! Let's do it, bro!"

There really wasn't any harm in it. Neil and the rest of Wildwood were bound to crash one of them. It would be simple to put someone on them and track their actions.

West blew out a breath and nodded. "Well, alright then. We'll plan, but let's get the rest of these clues out of the way first. Then, we go explore."

Finn promptly sat up, his lips slightly curved up in a light grin. "I, uh, think I know where we should start."

-

"When my parents and I moved here, searching for a house, we thought about living on this side of the tracks only because it was cheap," Finn told them, "but we didn't want what happened to us back in Seattle to have a repeat performance. Though, we did come across this place just to look around. I haven't been back here for, like, ages, but I don't think anyone ever has. But you know what they say about abandoned locations."

West followed his ebony-haired friend's directions as he drove through the western side of Tuct Side. He hated to think it, but the deeper they went into the area, the creepier the place appeared at night.

Justin's arms stuck out the open window as he, at the request of his captain, recorded the passing dark landscape with his phone. "I dunno what they say, but you can always find some crazy shit at abandoned places."

"What do you think we'll find, man?" West asked Finn, who shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but it's got to be left for dead for a reason, right? All I know is that one day, for some unexplained reason, people decided to stop showing up."

A couple of minutes down the line, West parked his car before what looked to be the remains of a playground.

Kaspar's lips pursed as he took in the area. "You were talking about the woods next to the playground, right, Finn?"

"That, too, I guess. But seriously, look at this place. This playground's been here for ages! It's forgotten. Maybe we might find something forgotten lying around somewhere."

With that said, the four climbed out of the vehicle and trudged toward the play area, flashlights in hand – Justin still recording and West handling his Canon camera. The playground looked to be neglected for years, left for fungi to grow on the wood and rust to overtake the metal. One of the swing sets was missing and the slide seemed to be colonized by small rodents.

Justin cringed as he pointed his phone and flashlight at the rotting, infested construction. "Everything looks like it's covered in shit. How long's this place been here for?"

As Kaspar took West's flashlight so the latter could take pictures, he began explaining. "Back then, it was just the eastern side of Tuct Side that existed. A whole company town. It was a decent way of living until the prices of daily necessities got too high. People straight up left the town without paying rent, leaving their houses to the dirt and bugs. Thus, the western side of Tuct Side was born."

West, much to his brunette friend's chagrin, got close to the slide and took a shot of the rats, who squeaked in dismay and quickly scurried away from the approaching human.

"We can't be here too long," his cousin said to him. "You and I have to babysit tomorrow."

"I know. I just wonder if-"

"Hey, guys! Come look at this!"

Finn's voice sounded distant. All flashlights followed the sound to find him standing right near the treeline, a boundary that separated the play area from the woods. His flashlight was pointed on a specific tree, which appeared no less ordinary from afar.

Kaspar cursed. "Jesus, Finn! Don't wander off so far! It's too dark for that."

"Sorry. I guess I was half-joking when I said we might find something in this place, but you can't ever doubt the woods."

"Man, this is how horror movies start," Justin complained, looking more agitated and frightful by the second. "Now, we wait for the masked psycho kid killer to cut our heads off with his big-ass machete."

The four boys surrounded the tree and settled their gazes on the bark. From a distance, they would have never noticed the purple spray paint. The three letters T S S were imprinted vertically and largely on the wood, from bottom to top. And at the head was a familiar shape.

An encompassing diamond.

The revolver cylinder.

And the tiny, centered x.

Justin gaped. "Hold up! Is that…?"

Kaspar nodded, his features hardened. "The symbol we saw on those guys' jackets. It's spray-painted and everything. Usually, the paint would wear off after a decade, so this must either be initially drawn here not long ago or repainted recently."

West was shocked, his head filling with assumptions, questions, and predictions. Still, he found himself asking calmly, "What's TSS? I think it's an abbreviation for something. Anyone ever heard of that before?"

"TSS," Justin sounded out slowly. "Tuct Side… s-something…"

"That's pretty much my guess," the redhead shrugged.

Finn was busy waving his flashlight at nearby trees, inspecting them for similar marks. "It's only on this one, though. No other tree has it as far as I can see."

Justin backed away from the tree, bouncing anxiously on his heels. "Alright. Alright. Now that we know where to find it, let's get the fuck outta here, revive a couple of our brain cells, and think about doing this shit in the morning, yeah?"

Kaspar snorted. "Your high not last long enough?"

"No, and it's making me freak the fuck out!"

West nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I don't want to leave Ophelia alone for too long. Let's head out."

The four began their trek towards West's car. They were halfway past the playground when Kaspar suddenly flashed both lights at the ground and hissed, "Oh shit!"

While West and Finn merely snapped their heads down, an unmanly squeal emitted from Justin as he leaped and tripped over himself, latching onto Finn in terror. "What!? What!? Fucking what!?"

Kaspar burst out with laughter, clutching his stomach with one light as he pointed the other at his tall friend's frightened face. "Nothin'! I just… I just had to! Too easy!"

"Fuckin' dickhole!" He angrily raced up to the redhead and threw fists at him, which made the latter chortle harder. "I'll get you back! I swear, Kas!"

"I'm counting on it, du Angsthase!" Kaspar wheezed as he guarded against the punches.

Finn chuckled as he watched the two duke it out – Kaspar blocking and laughing more than reciprocating as Justin unleashed on him.

West hid his snickers, not wanting to draw his brunette friend's ire to him. He felt his phone buzz in his shorts. He dug it out and turned it on. Lately, he had set up his device to show notifications of AMBER alerts in Tuct Side just so he wouldn't forget to do it later.

So, he was honestly surprised to see one pop up now – a second alert despite the last one being a week ago when it should have been in two months.

*

AMBER Alert

Tuct Side, ID AMBER Alert: LIC/NYC-TSS (ID)

2012 Black Dodge Caravan

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