Trails of Secrets

46. The Disaster

Almost there.

Liam was trying very hard to not be a pain. But he was in so much of it.

In pain.

The majority of his wounds seemed to be above the waist, so he was able to walk around. But man, was it painful.

He seemed to be healing well. Or maybe it was just his adrenaline. He figured that after a day or two, the pain would really start to hit.

Thankfully, they were almost to Annalise's house. The four of them planned to talk over the last message and figure out where to go from there.

Liam looked over at Phin. Things would be different now. He knew it.

And for once, he was happy about it.

They finally reached Annalise's house and they all scurried inside. After the long few days they all had, everyone was exhausted and in pain. Except for Noah. He didn't look like he had a scratch on him. We had already asked him what happened during his interrogation.

The response was the usual.

"I don't know."

Of course.

If Liam was being honest, he was beginning to get a little skeptical of Noah. He was such a strange person and his situation was even stranger.

Liam didn't like strange.

Once everyone was comfortable in Annalise's living room, she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket. Liam recognized it as the last message.

Phin immediately snatched it from her hands and scanned its contents in a hurry. She smiled at Annalise once she was finished. "Nice job, Annalise. This was a combination of three different codes. I'm impressed."

"I didn't spend half my childhood reading mystery novels for nothing."

"Wanna play.... I think I know what my sister was trying to get at."

Everyone leaned forward in their seats.

"My sister and I had a favorite spot that we would play in. It's in the most obvious place. That must be why Chris destroyed my treehouse. He thought that my sister and I played there. And we did. But that's not our favorite place. I never told Chris about my favorite place."

"So, I'm guessing you told Chris about the treehouse?"

Phin nodded at Liam's question. "We thought that maybe my sister would leave a message there a while ago. We never found anything."

"I wonder what made him look again. It's not like he knew what the last message said," Noah said in confusion. Liam stared straight at him.

"Who knows? The good thing is that he doesn't know what my sister really meant. The place that we would play at the most, was the playground outside our neighborhood. No one was ever there since it was such an old playground. It was our little secret. The only thing that wasn't broken or breaking on the playground, was two little swings, side by side. We would swing there for hours. Taking turns jumping off and jumping back on. Seeing who could go the highest. The farthest. The fun never ended. Until it did."

Everyone stared in silence.

"I know where she hid the item."

Annalise stood up in confidence. "I'm pretty sure I know, too."

"Alright!" Liam clasped his hands together and stood as well. "Let's get going, then."

Noah and Phin joined them in standing. "We can't just walk over. We need a plan in case anything goes wrong!" Noah urged.