Misty rolled off the couch, groggy from sleep. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. Terrisa and Miss Beron were still sleeping peacefully. Misty tiptoed over to the door, grabbing her jacket and flip-phone, then proceeded to open the door, with it followed a creak from the old door as if trying to alarm the others to her leaving. She looked back to make sure the two were still asleep, luckily they were, and then walked out, closing the door.
Misty sat with her back against a support beam for the motel and let her mind think. That blood was probably just an animal shot by a hunter, she reason, still sad either way, it could also just been my eyes playing tricks on me, I'll go back later after proving my brother is alive. Misty sighed "Why does everything have to happen at once," Misty groaned.
"But isn't that the fun of it all," Zach said behind her.
"Ah," Misty blurted, jumping up seeing Zach leaning on the other pillar, "How long have you been there?" She asked.
"Hehe, I'll leave that up to your imagination," Zach grinned. Misty sighed shaking her head, Zach stepped away the pillar to face Misty, "So what's up?" he asked.
"... I'll leave that up to you're imagination," Misty glared.
"Fair, but for real if you need anything-" Zach started.
"No no, I was just thinking through some stuff it's nothing that important I swear just some stuff I'm overreacting to," Misty said.
"Oh come on, I'm you're friend we can overreact together, except it's unlikely I'll overreact as much as you do," He chuckled.
"Low blow, but yeah, well I guess I can tell you," Misty paused thinking of how to speak her concerns, "Okay so I went out last night to just relax and I stumbled upon this eerie tree and I'm not sure but I think there was blood, it could have just been from an animal but it's been bugging me," She told him.
"Well, we can go check it out after we check out the body," Zach said, "That's sad sorry."
"No you're fine it is sad that someone died," Misty sighed, "But on that note, we should probably go and prepare for the whole... thing."
"Well okay stay cool," Zach said sliding back into his room. Misty took one last breath of the crisp autumn air and went through the creaky door back into her room, Miss Beron was already up and looked ready.
"Oh hi Misty," Miss Beron waved.
"Just call me Mist, only friends can call me Misty, Miss Beron," She said going over to her stuff, Miss Beron looked genuinely sad but recovered quickly. Misty fumbled through her belonging and pulled out a blue shirt with black and blue strips on the long sleeves, and some dark blue jeans. Misty went into the bathroom and changed into the clothes.
When she came out a loud thud echoed in their room, Misty looked over and saw that Terrisa had fallen onto the floor. Miss Beron rushed over "Terrisa are you okay?" She asked alarmed.
"Huh? What time is it?" Terrisa said sleepily as if she hadn't just fallen off her bed.
"You just fell off your bed," Miss Beron said as her alarm turned to confusion.
"Oh," Terrisa said grabbing the bed and hoisting herself up, "Good morning, so today we get to go out in the big city," She said chipper, and now fully back to her normal energy.
"If you do then make sure you and Rian don't split up and be safe," Miss Beron ordered.
"Pfft, the city people should be scared of me," Terrisa snickered.
"Okay, Terrisa, stop being an evil genius for a minute, the bathrooms open if you need it," Misty said light-heartedly.
"I'm glad you recognize my Genius and thanks I'll go change," Terrisa said as she grabbed her clothes she had already picked out yesterday before going to sleep and headed to the bathroom.
"Are you going to go in that?" Miss Beron asked.
"Yeah, are you going to try and force me to change," Misty asked glaring.
"No, just thought you want to be in something more formal," Miss Beron explained.
"No need to dress up for some false identification," Misty said.
"Mist, you have to accept that your brother might actually be dead," Miss Beron said cautiously.
"Shut up," Misty spat as she walked out the door with ear screeching creak and loud slam. He's not dead she repeated in her head several times. She took a couple of minutes to cool down and she walked over to the car waiting for Miss Beron to drive.
Miss Beron and Zach came down to the car, Miss Beron avoided eye contact with Misty. "Hey Misty can we talk later," Zach asked as they funneled into the car.
"Okay," Misty agreed. They drove out of the near-empty parking lot heading towards where they were told to go.
They stopped at the turn they were supposed to take, but it was blocked with police tape. There were big cracks in several building walls, "What do you think happened there?" Zach asked, looking curiously.
"I don't know, but it looks dangerous. Maybe I should've just told those two to stay inside," Miss Beron said worriedly.
"Yeah, you'd like ordering them around, huh," Misty remarked. Zach kicked her softly. "What?" Misty asked, and Zach just glared at her. Misty sighed and laid back in her seat.
After a little detour, they were able to drive to the office where they'd be told the inheritance. They went in there was a clean half circle desk attached to the wall. "Oh, hello. Do you have an appointment?" The man behind the desk asked.
"Yeah we're here for the will reading of my brother who I doubt is dead and this all a mix up so," Misty stated.
"... Oh okay, Wast. Sorry, we accidentally overbooked, and something came up, so," the man started grabbing some under the desk, "This is what was left to you. Sorry, we will have to reschedule all the formal practices for later, but you can have the key to the place he left you." The person produced a paper and a key.
"Oh okay, well, that's not convenient," Zach sighed.
"It's fine, let's go," Misty said quickly walking at as the other two followed.
"It's fine, let's go," Misty said, quickly walking out as the other two followed.
"Well, I haven't seen where my brother has been living... I'm a little curious," Misty said, plus he might actually be- she started to think but shot the thought down as soon as it popped into her head.
"Yeah, we can head over," Miss Beron said.
"No, I think I'd prefer to walk," Misty stated, "Plus, this is a big city. I'm sure you can find some things you want to do. I wouldn't want to make this all about me."
"But will you two be safe?" Miss Beron asked, a little worried.
"Yes, Miss Beron, we won't split up blah blah blah," Misty said, already walking away.
"Goodbye, Jasmine, and yeah, have some fun!" Zach said, running to catch up with Misty.
They walked and talked while heading to the place they had been given a key for, "We're close now, I think," Misty said, looking at the city map. They turned the street corner to a pretty worn-down block. Some houses had patches with no grass other's chipped paint on the outside. They walked up to the house they had been given an address for by the counter clerk.
"Misty, are you sure this is the right place?" Zach asked uneasily. The house's paint was chipped almost everywhere. The yard was unkempt as weeds, and other things crawled on the broken, old porch.
"Seems cheap, so it'd make sense," Misty said as she walked up and unlocked the door, and it slid open with grace. The inside looked unbelievably better condition-wise. However, there were papers and books scattered around the place. They stepped inside and closed the door. "Well, this is surprising."
"Well, I guess we shouldn't have judged the book by its cover huh," Zach said, looking around.
"It's a mess though. What even are these books anyway," Misty picked one up and flipped to a bookmarked page. The pages had several lines crossed out in red ink, and some notes scribbled on the margins. "A Deep Literature Study on Elves? That's weird," Misty said, shuddering. The eerie sensation she had last night seemed to return. She closed the book and set it down.
"Was he being a historian or something?" Zach theorized.
"I don't think so, but we haven't actually talked in forever," Misty stated.
"Yeah... Misty, I know you're going to hate me, but you do know Wast could actually be dead," Zach said, preparing himself for backlash.
"NO-" Misty spat in defiance of the idea, but then gave a sigh of defeat. "I guess I know, but I still can't accept it... I don't think it's real at all though it feels, fake and I hate the idea of it," Misty admitted.
"Yeah, and I wish I- you didn't have to go through this and that... I could help, I mean like I want to be able to help, anyway I can Misty," Zach said trying to find the words.
"Ugh... it's fine Zach, you're cool. I just... I'm fine," Misty sighed staring down at the ground, Zach opened his mouth to speak but decided against it. After a moment of awkward silence, Misty piped up, "Can... I need some time if that's okay with you, I'll be upstairs so-" her voice was shaky.
"Oh! Totally just do whatever makes you feel better," Zach reassured her, "I can just pick up these papers and whatnot."
"Okay, thanks," Misty mumbled as she sluggishly climbed the stairs into an upstairs hallway. There was one door on the right end of the hallway and two doors on both sides. Misty entered the room at the end of the hallway. It was a medium-sized room with a bed, chair, desk, and papers with books scattered around the room. There was a desk lamp with a red pen next to it. The color made Misty think that pen was the culprit for all the marks on the papers and books. The bed looked relatively unused, and books were piled on it too.
Misty closed the door and sat against it relaxing, she didn't want to think of anything at all she just wanted to relax. She had so many emotions going on that she couldn't even feel all of them but she let that all flow away, all the worry disappeared, for a peaceful relaxing minute. Sadly the thoughts of everything rushed back as quickly as they were pushed out.
Misty sighed and pushed herself up. She rubbed her wrist thinking, they really didn't want their brother to actually be dead, they wanted t show up and dismiss her worries but even then the house itself is bothersome. Everything was just a mess. Misty started squeezing her wrist for a moment. She tried calming herself down as the pressure on her wrist eased and she took her hand off, she was taking deep breaths.
After a while she was calm. "I hate this," Misty uttered, she just had to see the body. She walked out of the room and down the stairs to where Zach was, he almost had half the room cleaned when he saw Misty.
"Oh hey, Misty, are you good?" Zach asked worriedly.
"Define good," Misty let herself chuckle.
"Well at least you can still laugh, we should probably go soon they'll be expecting us," Zach said stretching. Misty nodded, they walked out the door and Misty locked it behind them and they headed for the second dreadful place. Misty wanted to see but also didn't, fearing that her brother is actually dead.
They entered the office which threw Misty off a bit, Miss Beron was already there gesturing them over to her. "Oh hello, we should be going in soon enough," Miss Beron informed them.
As if right on queue the desk lady called them over and guided them into another office room there were three chairs and there was a woman sitting on the other side of the desk she had her hair in a bun and a business suit on. "You're here for the identification of your brother?" the woman asked, "This might be a little harder to identify but see if you can," she slid a picture of a man's body with his face badly burned.
"He looks taller than my brother, but I can't see his face," Misty said tensing up.
"Yes, I understand, I have his belongings if that'll he-" She started pulling a box from under the desk.
"Shouldn't I just go and see the actual body now?" Misty said impatiently
"That's not what we usually do here, just have patience," She said and pulled out the box there was Wast's wallet with his ID and his passport, which Misty dismissed, however when her eyes came upon the oozy green crystal necklace her eyes widen. "That's-" She closed her eyes and rubbed them. "That's his... necklace, I gave it to him the last time we were together, he'd never let anything happen to it unless he was... dead."
Misty felt as if she was being strangled, she quickly dashed out of the building as fast as she could and just kept running, she heard diluted voices but she paid no attention just kept running until she was out of breath in some ally way, in her panic she didn't even notice that she had grabbed Wast's necklace.
Misty collapsed to the ground gasping for breath. After several seconds she heard a noise to her left. A trash can had been knocked over. But, right next to it was a child in a black cloak with a circular hat with a crow's beak and feather on it. All Misty could make out were their distressingly pale hands and almost glowing yellow eyes that studied Misty. As soon as the kid laid eyes on the green crystal, their eyes widen, and the kid growled then ran off.
Misty pushed herself up and ran after the kid worried but as she turned the corner no one was there as if the kid had gone another way. Misty looked around for a while but eventually gave up, I'll tell Zach later and then we can think of how to find them again, she thought.
She went to Wast's house and locked the door behind her, she didn't know what she was doing she headed up to Wast's room and stood there looking at everything, "DANG IT!" Misty yelled with tears in her eyes she slammed her fist to the wall pain filling it but it barely compared to what she was feeling on the inside. "Why did you have to die, Wast! Why!" Misty yelled grasping at her head gritting her teeth, she couldn't stand it. "Why Wast why not me why why why why!" She kicked a stack of papers that flew everywhere, "First time I see him in 6 years and he's dead! How is that fair in any sense of the word!" Misty cried, she grabbed a stack of heavy books and launched them at the roof and fell down.
Her breath was unsteady, "I don't want this," she tried calming herself down but with little success. "Why am I angry I shouldn't..." Misty sighed as she looked at the ceiling trying to get a hold on her emotions. She noticed there was a loose part in the ceiling as if a part of a panel was falling out. Misty gather a lot of books and stacked them on the chair next to the loose part of the ceiling.
Misty pulled up her sleeves to protect most of her hands, and she grabbed onto the loose part then jumped off the stack. A lot of paint started to crack, and the panel opened wider and wider as Misty's arms ached from holding onto the panel. All of a sudden, a book hit misty on the forehead, and she let go falling and hitting her tailbone on the wooden floor, "OW!" Misty yelped. She climbed to her feet, rubbing where she got hurt. Misty turned to the book, which looked more like a journal. She picked it up, wiping a thick layer of dust off it before looking back at the panel, which seemed to be back to its original position with new cracks in the paint.
The journal Misty had picked up had a blank leather cover, she looked around and decided to take a peek in the book however there was a latch on the side and she didn't know how to open it. She put her hands on the latch preparing to pry it open but then she felt a sharp quick pain on her finger which had been on top of the latch she quickly dropped the book and the latch opened, and her finger now bleeding.
Misty looked at the journal then back at her finger, "I don't think that's normal," Misty said she carefully opens the journal to the first page. Oh hey Misty, you found this ... I'm not very good at writing sorry but basically I guess I'm dead or something so I need you to save some people. I'm sorry I can't you more the second page should have a drawing and description of them. Again I'm sorry to push this all on you, it said, Misty was full of questions so she swiftly flipped to the next page of the journal.
Misty's mouth fell agape as she saw the drawings, one looked exactly like the child she saw before in the alleyway with a final reminder, Save Them. Misty shot up, "I have to go and find them now," Misty said, but just before she left she stopped turned back and rummaged through the desk drawer, she found a blue pen and wrote Nice drawing Wast, onto the page then closed it and took it with her.