This chapter is dedicated to percabeth1223 for all the amazing support you've given me and for all your comments, thank you!
Oh and last I checked this story was #27 in Mystery/Thriller so thanks so much.
(UNEDITED)
❤️
"Cassie, you remember!!" he screamed in excitement through the phone causing her to instinctively pull the phone away from her ears.
She placed it back on her ears when she couldn't hear his scream anymore "You almost burst my eardrums" she scolded as she massaged her ears slightly.
"So who is the killer?" He asked excitedly.
"I don't know" she replied softly.
"What do you mean you don't know? You just said you remember"
"I think I remember how I got to the killer, I think I can lead us to where I found him, it was at an old abandoned warehouse" she explained "a few things are coming back to me, I remember following someone to that warehouse but I don't remember who"
"So what do we do now" he asked, crestfallen.
"I want you to come over, don't park your car in front of my house park at a distance and I'll sneak out to meet you, my bodyguard wouldn't even let me look out the window" she said rolling her eyes. "She thinks I'm sleeping so she won't be so alert, I'll sneak out through my balcony door"
"I'm on my way, I'll call you once I get there" he said and he dropped the call.
She kept pacing about her room impatiently more flashes were coming to her but nothing to clear, she remembered being chased, memories of the crash started coming back to her but she found it hard remembering the most important thing, who the killer was. But she knew that just knowing who the killer was wouldn't do much good, she needed evidence that she knew she would get at the warehouse. Her phone rang after ten minutes of her impatient wait for Danny.
"Are you here?" She whispered
"Yes, I'm right under your balcony be quick I think I saw your bodyguard outside so be careful not to make too much noise"
"Alright I'll be there in a few" she said as she hung up.
She tiptoed over to her balcony window and slowly slid it open, when her fingers came in contact with the cold glass door an unpleasant memory flashed through her mind. The memory of the day the killer was on her balcony haunted her she remembered how he wrote Danny's name in bold bloody letters on the glass door and how he called to threaten her. She shook out the memories and quickly shut the door and slowly climbed down using her spiral wooden staircase that was right beside her balcony.
"Let's go" Danny said as soon as she was on the ground
"Where did you park?"
"Ten minutes away" he said as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Danny do you not see this heavy wind, why would you park ten minutes away?, oh my gosh I'm freezing here. It's frigid out here" She complained as she hugged herself tightly.
"If you're too tired I'll carry you"
"No I won't let you carry me" she said stubbornly but before she realized what was happening, he had already scooped her up in his hands and was carrying her like a sac. "Danny put me down" she said as she hit his back playfully.
He dropped her back on the ground "now will you stop complaining?"
"Yes" she grumbled as she folded her hands under her chest.
"What's the time?" He asked her as soon as they were seated in his car.
She brought out the phone he gave her and checked the time it's 8:45pm" she read "there's something familiar about the date too but I can't quite place my fingers on it"
"What do you mean?"
She turned the phone around to show him the date "it's the thirteenth, I feel like this date has a significance but I just don't know what"
"Shit" he cursed loudly as he banged his hands on the wheels.
"What's wrong Danny?"
"Caleb's execution day isn't tomorrow" he said, frightful "it's today I guess I foolishly lost count I thought today was the twelfth and today also doubles as the day that another victim could surface"
"Oh my" she said as she placed a hand over her mouth "how long do we have"
"Just before midnight, they want to make sure he's killed in the thirteenth, the same day all the other victims were killed. I don't know the exact time but a few minutes before midnight" he exclaimed.
"I know it is a terrible thing to say but if someone else gets killed today doesn't that automatically vindicate my brother?" She asked hopefully.
"It's not that easy they could say he has an accomplice"
"But if they don't know who this accomplice is and seemingly he's the only person who can identify his supposed accomplice, why kill him?"
"I don't know Cassie, I guess they think he's the leader and they want to take down the main killer, the people of Freetown are desperate they just want to see someone pay for the deaths happening"
"In that case drive as fast as you can" she instructed.
She directed him the way that she remembered going on the day of the accident, they had been driving for about ten minutes before he said "Cassie when we get there what do we do? We have no weapons, we don't have anything" he exclaimed "I'm pretty sure I can't wrestle a killer either, so what do we do? How do we get proof"
"I don't know Danny just drive" she said frustratedly.
"Why don't we call the cops for backup?"
"First of all the cops will announce their arrival from ten minutes away because of their bloody sirens and we have no time, they'll slow is down"
"It's dangerous going alone, the psychopath will kill us, cut us into tiny pieces, cook us and eat us, this is crazy" he panicked "why did I even let you talk me into this"
"Danny I promise nothing will happen to us, please just drive I can't take any risk okay? It's my brother we're talking about, I can't loose him knowing I could have done something to save him" she pleaded
"I still think we should involve the cops but fine" he said stubbornly as he kept on driving.
They had been driving for a while, the journey was a bit slowed down because her memory wasn't perfect yet and she had issues with guiding him on what road to take so they made a few wrong turns and had to drive all the way back as she looked for the right way to go.
"Cassie are you sure it's here?" He asked with uncertainty as they drove into a deserted area "nobody ever comes here"
"Yes, I'm sure this place is so familiar I feel like it was just seconds ago that I was here"
"Okay if you say so" he said uncertainly.
"Keep going straight, I'm pretty sure we passed that creepy looking motel over there " she said pointing ahead to motel that she remembered driving past. They drove for a while and then she saw another familiar place "the gas station!" She exclaimed excitedly "I'm very sure I drove past this gas station keep driving as fast as you can Danny, I have a feeling that we're almost there"
"I can see you're eager to get into another car crash but I'm not" he teased.
She rolled her eyes at him playfully "I might have lost part of my memory but I still know some embarrassing stories about you that I can tell the whole school now drive!"
"I can see you've mastered the act of blackmail, I'm impressed"
"Gosh I hate you, there!" She exclaimed pointing at something ahead "I remember that diner so clearly I think we're getting closer. Take a right turn over there" she instructed and he did so "another right" she said.
"I do not like where we're headed, there are hardly any cars or buildings here if anything happens to us it will take weeks before anyone finds us and when they do all that's left of us will probably be sand" he complained.
"Oh my there!" She said pointing at a narrow path ignoring his complaint "keep going straight"
He followed her instructions and they kept on driving on the narrow path for a while they had already driven so far along the narrow path and from a distance she could see the old abandoned warehouse come into view.
"There it is" she said with both excitement and fear "this is for you Caleb" she said softly. Danny packed his car under a big tree that was in front of the warehouse.
"Well here goes nothing. Why do psychopaths always use old abandoned warehouses as their hideouts " he said as he slowly opened his car door.
"Because they're old and abandoned, perfect hideout"
"True, But before we go into what could be our possible death, do you remember anything you saw in there"
"I'm not sure exactly but we are about to find out, I'm just sure that there's some type of clue in there"
"And Cassie before we go there's something I need to tell you"
"And what would that be Danny?"
"Cassie, if anything happens to us I just want you to know this before we reach our early departure from this world" he said dramatically "I love you" he said playfully and dramatically as he placed a hand over his chest.
"Danny stop being silly and let's go in" she laughed as she playfully hit his shoulder.
"Let's go into what could be our possible death" he said taking a deep breath as he got out of his car and shut the door.
They walked to the door of the warehouse and were hesitant before finally getting in, once again the room was a mess random furniture scattered round the floor, different tools.
"Shit are those rats?" Danny exclaimed but Cassie was too busy scanning the area, trying to remember the last time she was there. Her eyes caught something on the floor and more memories came back to her.
"I used that to hit someone" she said pointing at the spade with shaky hands "I remember hitting someone on the head and running for dear life."
"Let's keep moving, maybe you'll see something else that will make you remember faster"
She simply nodded her head and they kept on looking around the warehouse.
"Let's go up the stairs" he suggested and they both gently walked up the creaking wooden staircase. "Holy crap what's that smell" he complained as he placed his hands over his nose.
"Smells like dead bodies in here" she said also protecting her nose from the smell. The lights flickered on and off making the place look even creepier.
"The hell is this" Danny said as he reached the table with the coffins with a horrified expression on his face.
"I think I remember this place everything feels and unfortunately, smells so familiar " Cassie said as she skimmed her fingers through the table with the roses as she kept on scanning the room trying her hardest to remember anything important.
"Come and take a look at all this"
She walked over to where he was he was standing right I front of the briefcases that contained the knives he opened four of them and then he stopped at the fifth one, unlike the others it was empty. "Why isn't there a knife here?" She asked terrified.
"Cassie as we speak the knife missing from this box could be piercing through the next victims flesh leading her to an untimely death"
"We need to find something quick, our aim is to save Caleb but we could also save his next victim if she's still alive"
"Yeah but how, I saw four caskets with pictures of his four victims so I'm guessing the remaining eight contain pictures of his future victims, in the fifth casket there should be a picture of the girl who's life is in danger today"
He walked over to the already opened casket which contained a picture of his new victim. "All we have is a photo, we can't do much with this" he said looking at the picture.
"Wait what's that?" She asked pointing to the back of the photo"theres some kind of writing at the back, turn it around"
"Arabella Night" he read as he turned it around "all we have is a name that wouldn't do us any good"
She pointed at the table with the laptop "we could look her up on at laptop, maybe her number is on her social media" they walked over to the laptop and opened it up but before they could even do anything a screen popped up and on that screen was a picture of Arabella alongside personal information about her. Cassie and Danny both looked at each other in amazement and at the same time relief that they had information about her.
"Well I guess we don't need to look her up in social media after all Mr. Murderer has all that covered"
"Yhep I can see someone was in a hurry to kill, he didn't even shut down first" she said resting both hands on the table as she read all the information that was before her. "Let's see if we can find some sort of phone number and there's also an address " she said, scanning her eyes through all the information in the screen.
"Over there" Danny said as he pointed to a phone number. "This lunatic gathered every single information on her including irrelevant things like her bra and shoe size he also has her families information, where she was born, hobbies, favourite food, if this isn't stalking then I have no idea what is"
"Well he's crazy what do you expect we're dealing with a crazy person here. Copy down the address and let's start heading to that party" she said as she pulled out the phone Danny gave her from her back pocket, she dialled in the number in the screen and waited for it to ring. They both ran out to his car and as soon as he had programmed the address into the GPS they drove off.
"Do you think we are too late?" Danny asked.
"I hope no-" her reply was deterred when she heard loud music coming from her phone "hello? Hey is this Arabella?"
"Who's this?" She asked sounding completely terrified "how did you get my number, you're not the first stranger calling me today please just leave me alone"
"Wait please don't hang up" Cassie pleaded. "Who else called you?"
"I don't know who you are, why do you want to know"
"Please you have to listen to me there's a killer out there and you're his next victim, whatever you do don't go anywhere alone, stay in a place that's crowded"
"I can't," she said with a shaky voice " someone called me and he asked me to meet him somewhere if I don't he'll harm my family, he sent me pictures. He called me as soon as I got the party, luckily I wasn't drunk yet and when he did I ran up to a room to hide, occasionally drunk people will come in to make out and I'll have to drive them away. Im so scared right now"
"Listen to me, I'm a cop" she lied "I've been working in this case for s while and a trap is being set for you, this person isn't aiming to kill anyone in your family, he's just using that to scare you, to lure you into his trap and as soon as he sees you you're dead" she said in a strong and powerful tone.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a cop, what do I do? I'm scared whoever called me sounded very scary he asked me to meet him somewhere not too far from the party venue at eleven, he said if I'm not there then one person from my family is gone I can't take any chances. "
"What's the time now?"
"It's nine forty-five"
"Alright, like I said I don't want you to go anywhere alone stay where people are no matter how drunk they are, he wouldn't try anything on you with people around. I'll send my men over to your house to be with your family, I'm on my way"
"Alright thanks" she said as she hung up.
"Why did you lie to her?" Danny asked "what if he actually does something to her family.
"I'm taking a chance here Danny she has to meet him when it's eleven, all we have to do is get there before that time and everything will be alright" he said reassuringly.
They had been driving for a while and it had already started to drizzle time kept on flying faster as Danny sped up in order to get to the party venue before eleven, unfortunately the party venue was also quite far and they feared that they wouldn't get there early, they cared about saving Arabella but mostly about Caleb and by saving her they were a step closer to saving him. After about an hour of driving they finally got to the venue and they knew for sure that they were at the right place because of the loud music pounding through the roof and the drunk people outside dancing like lunatics.
Cassie pulled out her phone and dialled Arabella's number.
"Hello please tell me you're here" she whispered.
"We're outside where are you?"
"I'm inside I'm in one of the rooms upstairs I'm scared, it's the first room to your right please come get me"
"Alright we're on our way" they walked into the house and pushed past all the crazy people dancing and climbed over the ones passed out on the floor. The party was crazy there were beer bottles everywhere, empty cans, empty bags tossed carelessly on the ground, chops crumbled in the floor and someone's vomit that was already changing the smell of the room, it was a complete mess even if the killer decided to attack Arabella in the house they probably wouldn't notice because of how wasted they all are.
They opened up the room she directed them to and flicked in the lights. "Hello?" Cassie called out and as she did, someone crawled out from under the bed. "Arabella?"
"Are you the cop?" She asked uncertainly
"Yes and this is my colleague"she said referring to Danny.
"I'm not stupid, you're both too young to be cops"
"Okay now listen up Arabella" Danny said "yes we're not cops but we are here to help you, there's a blood thirsty lunatic waiting to decorate your body with deep cuts and we" he said pointing at himself and Cassie" believe it or not, might be the only ones to save you, I have no bloody idea how but we will find a way because someone dear to the both of us is being wrongfully accused of being the murderer so by saving you we are saving our friend so you have to work with us" he said indignantly and she simply nodded her head.
Cassie looked at Danny in shock for a moment before finally speaking "where did he ask you to meet him?"
"There's a small park not too far from here people are hardly there in the day let alone at night. He'll be waiting for me there and he asked me to come alone" she said nervously
"And that's exactly what you'll do, you'll go alone and we'll hide in a place that he wouldn't be able to see us"
"What if he kills me before you guys can do anything we need to call the cops"
"First of all everyone in Freetown including the cops are in the field close to the Freetown graveyard and they are preparing to kill her brother, almost everyone is there that's probably even why whoever is throwing this party decided to throw One" Danny said angrily "I was hesitant too and terrified, I wanted to involve the cops but I trust Cassie and whatever plan she has, he wouldn't kill you we won't let that happen"
"Certainly there are still officers available not all of them will be at the execution"
"True" Cassie said "but they all have to know about the execution and they wouldn't believe us, they'll think we're just prank callers or something"
"But they're only three of us unarmed he probably has some sort of weapon" she complained.
"Listen to" me Cassie said softly "you have to trust us the worst that could happen is that he'll run away but I promise you once we notice him emerge from wherever he's hiding we'll run out of our own hiding place. As you've figured out we aren't cops and if you don't do this he probably will harm your family "
Arabella nodded her head softly although she was still very terrified that she was being used as bait "it's almost eleven" she declared "we should start going he wants me to wait under the big tree at the park there's a slide and some swings not too far from that tree, they'll hide the both of you perfectly"
"How do we know that's not where he's hiding?" Cassie asked.
"Well let's hope that's not where he's hiding" she said "gosh this plan is stupid we should call the cops"
"Well being young also comes with a special free package of being stupid and sometimes the stupidity pays off, so let's use our free package and hopefully we'll get something out of it" Danny said
"But how do we capture him we have no proof to hand over to the cops"
"There's three of us and one of him I hope" we'll find a way to hold him down. Danny said as they all headed downstairs, on the last step Cassie who was leading the way bumped into someone.
"Tucker? What are you doing here?" She asked confused.
"Well I had to get my mind off something" he said casually swinging around the bottle of vodka in his hands.
"She knows about Caleb" Dylan said "I had to tell her and that's why we're here"
"We might need your help we think we can save Caleb will you help us?" Cassie asked hopefully.
"Anything to help a brother out" he said as he dropped the bottle on the ground and followed them out.
"So how's Tyler?" Cassie asked nervously as she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears.
"I don't know, he's been way too busy and distant lately" he said stoically.
"Oh"
"So where are we even going and what do we do there?"
They explained everything to him on the way to the park with Arabella leading the way and them following her at s distance, they told him about the warehouse and about the plan they had with Arabella. They stopped when they saw her approach the park it was already three minutes to the hour of eleven and they hid behind some of the huge slides just as they were instructed. The slides were so big and so they were sure that the killer wouldn't see them sneaking in.
Arabella stood nervously under the tree and she was being soaked in the rain she kept on looking round but she refrained from looking anywhere close to the slides so that the killer doesn't notice anything suspicious. Eleven o'clock came by and there was still no sign of the killer, they were worried that he saw them and ran away but they knew that they were very well hidden and the chances of him spotting them were slim. They lost hope but after about five minutes they saw someone emerge.
"Oh my gosh" Cassie whispered.
"He's here" Danny said and Tucker just watched in awe.
"Shouldn't we go out now?" Tucker asked.
"Not yet" Cassie instructed.
They watched as Arabella's shaky legs threatened to fail her, she was paralyzed with fear she looked as though her shock would kill her before the killer had s chance to. She slowly moved back as he came closer. His face was still covered by a black mask and he was dressed in all black, he took strong threatening steps towards her she wanted to run but she knew that it wasn't part of the plan.
"I'm here" she said in a shaky voice "what do you want from me?"
"Rose" he whispered but his voice was still quite muffled so they couldn't make out his identity "My Rose" he said as he came forward and massaged her hair gently I loved you Rose" he cooed "I still love you" he said as he slid his hands into his coat pocket
"Now" Cassie ordered. "Stop!" She yelled foolishly and the killer snapped his head towards their direction "The cops are here" she lied "its over just hand her over there's no way of escape now" he just stood there watching them and he pulled Arabella's back to his chest and slowly started moving backwards.
"The cops are everywhere," Tucker said trying to sound convincing but he just kept on moving backwards with a frightened Arabella. "Surrender, there's nothing else you can do" he said fearlessly taking small steps towards the killer but before he could get closer her slid the knife across Arabella's neck and threw her injured body in the ground as he ran away with Tucker following him closely.
"Arabella!" Cassie and Danny yelled as they ran to her aid and they left Tucker to chase the killer.
Tucker put his fastest guy in school title to great use and ran after the killer, he quickly caught up with the killer as he tackled him to the ground. Soon they heard sirens blaring near the park.
"Who called the cops?" Cassie asked shocked as she took off her sweater and pressed it against Arabella's neck.
"I sent a text to Phoebe and I asked her to call the cops tto this address I told her to tell them that there was a serious fight that broke out at this park and that two people were shot. I just made up something" he said. "The paramedics are probably here too since I said two people were shot" he explained.
"Gosh thanks," she said hugging him. They looked over to Tucker who was still struggling with the killer but luckily the cops came to his aid.
"Thank you," Arabella said in a choking voice as she coughed out blood.
"Shh, don't speak," Danny said "you'll be alright" he assured her and soon a team of paramedics ran over to attend to her. From a distance, they saw Tucker explaining something to the cops and they saw the killer trapped in handcuffs as he was being pushed towards one of their cars. They made way for the paramedics to attend to Arabella. "Cassie it would be nice to stay and find out who the killer is but we need to run over to Caleb's execution.
They quickly sprinted back to where his car was parked in front of the party venue got in and sped off to Caleb's execution venue.
"Wait if the cops already arrested a ready why do we need to go the execution," Cassie asked."We have no time we could just ask the cops to call them and ask them to stop." She reasoned.
"Yes but Freetown is crazy right now I don't think one call from a bunch of rookies will do anything, all the officers that matter had to be at the execution" he said "we have to go there and talk to the detectives, they're the only ones the Mayor will listen to."
"Yeah you're right, these people are new to the force no one will pay much attention to them. But how do we know they won't say that it's Caleb's accomplice"
"Well all we have to do is be hopeful, we can buy time for them to further investigate since we've been able to capture a killer at the scene of the crime" he pulled out his phone and quickly dialled Phoebe's number. He explained everything to her and asked her to rush over to the field in front of the Freetown graveyard. "Phoebe is with Jesse I asked them to go there since they're a bit closer"
The rain started pouring more violently making it harder for them to get there on time
"It just had to rain today," Cassie said annoyedly
"I know right I can hardly see where the hell I'm going," he said as his phone beeped and he took a look at his message.
They kept on driving struggling to see through the rain and finally they were getting closer, they were packed behind so many cars that were still on the road. And from a distance they could hear people, cheering and screaming.
"So many people showed up," Cassie said.
"Yeah but why aren't they moving?" he asked, pushing the horn of his car. His phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket and put it on speaker. "Hey, Phoebs are you guys here yet?"
"Yeah but there's a problem"
"What type of problem?" Cassie asked nervously.
"You see all those cars in front of you?" She asked
"Yeah we see them"
"Well they're all empty, people parked their cars haphazardly obviously in a rush to get the best view of Caleb's execution"
"Shit there are about s thousand cars parked out here we'll never be able to get before the time is right"
"What do we do now?" He asked as he stepped out of the car with Cassie following suit he was about to speak again but something averted his attention "what the hell?" He said, looking up. "Phoebs didn't you drive here with Jesse?"
"No, he took his car why?"
"Step out of your car and look up," he said and both Cassie and Phoebe looked up and then they saw Jesse on the hood of a car trying his hardest not to slip.
"What the hell is he doing?" Cassie complained
"Is he trying to kill himself?" Phoebe yelled through the phone.
"It's crazy but that's the fastest way to get past all these cars, I'll join him while you and Phoebe try your hardest to squeeze past these cars" he instructed.
"We can't just go jumping on people's cars like a bunch of lunatics" she complained as she held her hands over here had in a futile attempt to shield herself from the harsh pouring rain.
"Well the owners of these cars are over there with a bucket of popcorn and a nice hot bucket of chicken wings and some good beer to watch your brother get killed"
"You're right, but please be careful"
"Don't worry I'll be fine" he said as he climbed up in the hood of a car and started jumping from car to car, he slipped sometimes but he got his balance back and continued while Cassie and Phoebe slid through the cars there some of the alarms on the cars went off and they started going crazy but that was the least of their worries. They kept on running and jumping in the dark and under the pouring rain until they successfully went past all the cars that were there. Jesse was ahead and Danny was running closely behind him. After a lot of struggle both Cassie and Phoebe finally got past through all the cars and together they both ran behind Danny to the large field where Caleb's execution was being held. From a distance, they could see about a thousand people gathering round a large tree on the field.
"Stop!" They could hear both Jesse and Danny scream but no one could really hear them through the rain but they kept on screaming and soon they were getting closer "stop!" They kept on screaming and so they grabbed the attention of some people there, more importantly, they grabbed the attention of the Mayor.
Both Danny and Jesse were talking to the Mayor and everyone in the crowd was looking at their drenched bodies as if they were crazy people.
"My brother is not a killer" Cassie yelled as people attacked her with their objections.
"Who are you, young lady?" The Mayor asked she looked around for her parents but she couldn't find them anywhere.
"Like I just said I'm his "sister she snapped "we have the real killer, he tried to kill someone else today he attacked another victim and she's in the hospital fighting for her life right now, my brother is not the killer the real killer has been arrested"
He pulled Cassie forward to an area where people wouldn't be able to listen to their discussion.
As the Mayor of Freetown I have to please the people" he started off "I know I'm in charge but sometimes the people win, I do not believe that your brother is guilty and I don't want him dead"
"Really?"
"Of course, but you have to tell me if what you're saying is true or are you just making excuses?" He asked seriously.
"Everything I'm telling you is true, the police have already arrested the real killer I'm shocked that they haven't called by now"
"We haven't received any information I'll make sure that this execution doesn't go on I don't like spilling blood, but we need evidence and we don't find a killer in that station then we will have to reschedule"
"I promise you that we have the real person"
"Very well then, I'll make the order for this unjustness to stop"
"Thank you so much," she said as she ran over to Caleb who was chained from his hands to his feet and attacked him with a hug. "Caleb!" She beamed. She could hear the Mayor making the announcement and some people rejoiced while others grumbled.
"Cassie!" He said as he hugged her tightly "I've missed you, I'm so sorry about everything that happened to you" he cooed as he stroked her wet hair lightly.
"You have nothing to be sorry about I'm just glad that you're here now, safe and alive"
"You don't remember how I got here do you?"
"Not yet"
"Well it's better you don't remember at all"
"Why?" She asked, looking confused but before Caleb could give a reply Danny, Jesse and Phoebe came rushing over.
"Cassie" Danny yelled.
"Tucker just sent us a text" he started "you wouldn't believe who the killer is," they all said simultaneously with the most horrified expressions on their faces.
*************
Ahh please don't pull out your guns on me! I know another cliffhanger, but don't worry you'll definitely find out EVERYTHING in the next two chapters to come. I'm just writing the story how I planned from the beginning and I planned on explaining everything with the big reveal in the same chapter.
This was one long chapter I'm exhausted.