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The Visit

I sat, bored in detention as the teacher finished her crossword, "Five minutes." He said lazily. I was the only 'delinquent' today. I sighed, twirling my hair around my finger.

My phone vibrated on my lap and I braced myself for what it was going to be.

555-671-309
We're waiting outside for you.

What?

I peered at the number... it was someone else.

555-229-654
Who is this? Fuck off.

555-671-309
It's James lol

555-229-654
James wtf?? I nearly had a freaking heartattack!

James
Look outside

I turn my head, seeing James, Mason and Evelyn all peering outside, big grins on their faces. I giggle slightly, covering it with a cough, "You can go now Miss Holland."

I grabbed my shit and sped off.

"What are you guys doing here?" I said, "We waited for you. Besides, we're gonna go visit Ashton Pickering."

We had filled Evelyn and Mason in on what we found at lunch. People thought it was weird we were all sitting together.

James is like this low-key biology nerd that is also a jock, he hangs out with people like Evelyn who also does biology, but throws massive ragers and is super rich.

Mason is a stoner, who hates school and doesn't give a shit about anything.

So yeah, it was a bit weird for them.

"Okay, and how did you guys figure out where he works?" I nearly yell, "Are you insane?" I laugh.

Casually getting into James's car, Evelyn and I sit in the back, "He works at Harvey Motors. It's not hard to track someone down in a town of five thousand.

True.

As we drove, I kept stealing glances at James.

See, he was exactly unattractive. Which made this whole situation even worse.

I caught his eye in the rear view mirror. He was already looking at me and winked when I smiled at him. It's something about his face.

Evelyn tapped me on the thigh, "What?" I said.

"What's going on with you and James." She whispers. I shrug, "What do you mean?"

"What's with the weird stares, do you two have a thing?" She mumbles. I shake my head, "No way. He's cute but I just met him." I whisper back.

"So? He's cute girl, go for it."

I thought about it, "What about you? Any men in your life?" I ask.

Evelyn shrugged, "I go for the more... female side of things."

My eyes widened and I nodded, "Fair enough."

"We're here." James said, parking the car.

I looked through the window and the run down, piece of crap metal they called a shop.

We all got out and James closed the door, "How can I help you folk." Some guy said, "Yeah uh-we're looking for an Ashton Pickering."

"You found him. What's up, y'all got car trouble?" He asks us, looking over our shoulders at James's car.

"No um- we wanted to ask you something." I said.

Ashton took a step back, "Yer ain't cops are ye?" He said suspiciously. I shook my head, but wondered why he seemed so adamant, "No. We're um- students from Suncrest Valley High." Evelyn talked, "Go on."

"We're doing a project on uh- the history of Suncrest and, your name was in the history book. Something about a fire." Evelyn said.

Ashton nodded, "Yeah, what about it? That shit was years ago, what are some teenagers like you doing lookin' into a tragedy like that." Ashton said.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "Look, all we want to know is why the fire didn't burn the church. Heaps of words are underlined, and notes are in the margines, we believe it was you, that's all."

Ashton laughed a little bit, "Bunch of fucken detective kids." He mumbled under his breath. Alright' come wit' me." He said.

We followed Ashton back to his office, the smell of paint and gas burnt my nose.

"Now I don't remember much from back then, I was born in 1987, years after that goddamn fire." He said, taking a seat. "What I can tell yer, is there was some sort of protective film put on the church to keep the wood casing from rottin' during the deadly winter that was predicted to hit Suncrest that year."

I had pressed the record button my phone long before he even entered his office.

"There was no deadly winter, and the fire that spread, only spread as badly as it did because the protective film on the church was fire resistant, and the wind that night pushed it through and around. But that's all I know."

"But how do you know that? There's absolutely nothing about that in the books. We've checked the school library and the public library, nothing." Evelyn said, tapping her foot.

Ashton sighed, rubbing his temples, "I worked for the school newspaper, in 1998, my freshman year. I was curious, asked around. Even went to visit the pastor that was working the time of the fire. Unfortunately, he died before I could finish my segment."

It's all starting to make sense, but I don't understand why none of this is in any history books.

"That's all I can tell yer, I'm sorry."

"Are you sure that's all you know?" I asked, moving closer. "Yes. I never printed my piece, and after that, the church was boarded up due to strange activity in the night, terrorising the streets. Eventually though, they took it down coz it was getting vandalized."

I sighed, "Okay, thank you so much for your time Mr Pickering, we really owe you."

He shook his head, "I will tell yer though." He said, stopping us in our tracks, "The reason why it ain't written in the books, is 'cause nobody knows what really happened. Most of the folk that lived here during that time either dead' or moved away."

+ + +

Everyone was silent on the drive back. I pressed play on the recording and we all listened to it, "It just doesn't make sense." I mumbled, "I don't know what we have to do before the time runs out. There's not clues or anything."

The sun was setting and casting a glow over the town as we drove down the empty streets, "We can meet at mine if y'all want. My Dad and step-mom are at a work thing til' 9."

They shrugged, "I'm on Dillworth Crescent, number eight."

We drove down my street, pulling into my driveway as James stopped the car, "I've gotta leave soon, my Momma don't like when I'm out after nine." Evelyn smiled, "I'll drive you now if ya want." James smiled, "Sure, thanks."

"Back soon."

"Wait." I called, "Should we like- exchange numbers. Or something." I said awkwardly. Evelyn smiled, "Yes. Let's make a groupchat. She said excitedly."

After we all got each other's numbers, James and Evelyn left, leaving Mason and I.

"Okay, lets do this thing."

+ + +

I hope y'all got your big boy pants on, it's about to get scary!

Thank you all so much for reading, I love you!!

Author x