MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

HIDDEN SECRETS

"Who do you think you are exactly to take my little sister out? Are you her boyfriend or some sort of fuck boy?" Laura's elder brother questions Mathéo while using his eyes to furtively examine the teen's entire appearance, looking for any glaring red flags. "What do you even plan on doing with her during this 'time out' ? Is it sex or drugs?"

"Nathaniel! Just stop!" Laura cries in embarrassment as she walks into this very awkward interrogation. She understands that he's just trying to be a protective brother and all, but the questions he just asked were more than excessive. "I'm not sneaking off somewhere to go make babies with Mathéo, it's just a day out with friends," she assures her brother with a hug before following her classmate out the door. "I'll be back before evening, I promise."

Mathéo stares at Laura in awe for a moment as he gazes upon the lovely blue apparel she's wearing and her freshly done hair. Her beauty is more accentuated now than he has ever seen. In fact, any random bystander would think she's trying to impress him.

"Sorry for staring, it's just that you kind of took my breath away for a minute there," Mathéo compliments her with his usual charming yet playful laugh, causing the girl's face to redden a little.

The two teens turn around and slowly walk towards the grey Toyota Camry that has been parked in her driveway, where Sara and Aaron are waiting. The vehicle belongs to Rob, but he lent it to his son for the day.

"Thanks for agreeing to join us at the last minute," Mathéo continues the discussion as they approach the car.

"I didn't really have much of a choice, did I? You kept on asking until I said yes," Laura replies before opening the car door and getting into the back seat. "But I'm sorry about Nathaniel's bizarre questions back there. I understand if you're feeling uncomfortable around me right now."

"Not at all. I get that he was just being protective of you. If anything, I would've been shocked if he didn't interrogate me after telling him I was there for you. Now that I think about it, that's a pretty vague statement," Mathéo appeases her worries as he follows her into the back seat and shuts the door. He then comes closer to her ear and whispers, "plus I needed you here 'cause I couldn't handle any more of Aaron and Sara's PDA."

"We heard that !" Sara shouts furiously from her seat in the front.

"It's about time we get going," Aaron cuts into the conversation as he starts the car. "We don't know what we might find there, so it's best we go and return before it gets dark." He keys the coordinates into the vehicle's GPS and drives in the direction it instructs him to.

* * * *

After a long and excruciatingly boring two-hour drive, our characters arrive at the coordinates' location at last, which just so happens to be in the middle of some forest. The four of them exit the car and all they find is plain old disappointment. For as far and wide as their eyes can see, all that is there is endless vegetation. They were expecting to see something extraordinary, or at least somewhat eye-catching or scary, but what they got is quite the opposite. The only thing surprising here is the fact that snakes aren't just crawling around everywhere.

"Are you sure you put in the numbers correctly?" Mathéo asks Aaron, feeling very sceptical about them actually being in the right place. "Maybe you made a mistake somewhere."

"No, that's not it. I'm sure I put it in perfectly," Aaron replies to his friend's question as he takes another look at the card to confirm it. "It could be something hidden. We should probably split up."

The teens then disperse in different directions to search for clues, anything that could be considered out of place in a location like this. Not long after, Laura discovers something that wholly fits that description.