VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 60

Sadie found herself nervously tapping her nails along her bicep, arms crossed as she sat in a chair at Grillby's, directly across from her best friend, who was looking about them with obvious excitement. It had only been a day since Rian had asked Fuku to Homecoming, but his excitement was still far from dying down. In truth, Sadie had only ever seen him this hyped up for football games, never any girls. Fuku, however, wasn't the cause for them being here. Instead, as decided over the group chat, everyone would meet up for a meal at Grillby's to discuss what had been discovered in Savory. Sadie had slept on it, given time to digest what she'd learned, pull up her own theories. After all, it was incredibly odd that Caul had access to explosives, wasn't it? He wasn't a dumb kid, maybe he could have made some, but the destructive yield of what he'd produced just sounded too unrealistic. Then there was Caul's uncle, who had divulged the detail that there was a boy with "golden" eyes interacting with Caul, supposedly presenting a bad influence. Jason Clever was the only person she knew of who had that color of irises, and he'd transferred to Voxis much like she and Rian had, though neither she nor her best friend could recall ever seeing Jason in Savory. It was all just too suspicious, but then again, maybe she was connecting dots where there were no connections to begin with, making her paranoid and unsure.

"There they are," Rian said, and Sadie turned in her chair to watch as Frisk and Terrence entered the bar and grill, talking to one another as they made their way toward the table.

"Gregory's not with them," Sadie noted.

"He hasn't been chatty in the group chat," Rian added, just as the other pair reached them.

"Hey, sorry we're late, T lost track of time," Frisk greeted.

Terrence scoffed, "I didn't lose track of time, I was just having a bit of trouble working my joints for an hour. Pickax swinging isn't exactly an easy task."

As the two settled into their usual seats, Rian casting a few glances about in search of Fuku, Sadie began to tap her foot, desiring getting straight to the point. "So, about Jason . . ."

The group exchanged glances among one another, before Rian replied with; "Maybe we should wait for Greg-"

"He's not coming," Terrence shook his head, expression becoming somewhat annoyed. "Wouldn't answer his door. Just said he wanted to be alone right now."

"A choice we respect," Frisk emphasized. "So yeah. About Jason. Sorry, but I just can't really . . . hop on board with the theory. Not fully, yet. It just seems a little . . . crazy?"

"Crazy?" Sadie frowned.

"Bad wording," Frisk quickly stated. "I mean the idea of Jason from school - doing that - sounds crazy."

"Yeah, I gotta admit, the dude gives me the creeps but he's a pretty normal student," Terrence admitted. "I mean, maybe this kid's uncle said gold for yellow? Plenty of people with yellow eyes."

Rian stroked his chin for a second as Terrence spoke, before he nodded. "Yeah, maybe we shouldn't take the eye color as the holy word. I mean, the dude was a good guy, but Caul's uncle wasn't exactly the most- er- educated person."

Sadie's frown deepened. "Alright, fine, I guess we can leave the eye color up as a maybe. But there's still two key notes. Jason isn't somebody Rian and I recognize from Savory, and barely anybody transferred to Voxis. Additionally, there's the explosives. No way did Caul have the resources to make something that potent—it practically obliterated the entire theater."

"Doctor's said I shouldn't have survived, let alone come out with just some back scars," Rian added.

Frisk and Terrence digested this, before the girl spoke; "It is pretty strange that he had something like that, but maybe Caul's involvement with this "friend" extended beyond? Maybe it was some kinda . . . group or cult? Or . . ."

"The Messiah." Terrence concluded for her.

"See what I'm getting at?" Sadie asked.

"Yeah," Terrence agreed. "But why would the Messiah instigate something like that? Aren't they pro-human or something, considering they hate monsters? It doesn't make any sense. If anything, a high school is recruitment ground, right?"

Damn. He had a decent point, enough to give Sadie pause. If Jason Clever was indeed working with the Messiah, then he was proof that they recruited young adults and teenagers. A high school, full of confused and pubescent kids would be a gold mine for easy recruitment into a cause. Half their class was already convinced that Principal Burke was actually a vampire, solely because he appeared a decade younger than he was. These kinds of people weren't the type for common sense, at least most of them.

"As for the other point, maybe we just never noticed him before," Rian told Sadie. "I mean, it's not like we knew everyone, and maybe he was a new student, or had just transferred from somewhere else before it happened."

"I'm not saying my theory is foolproof," Sadie defended. "You've all proven that, there's holes, missing evidence, reason for doubt, but I don't think this is something to be forgotten. There's something off about Jason, and the cause for suspicion is still there."

"I agree," Frisk nodded as Grillby approached their table, much to Rian's dismay, as he'd been expecting another fire elemental instead. "We're not ordering today, just needed a safe spot to talk." Frisk told the bartender with an apologetic smile, who gave them a polite bow of the head before he turned and made his way to another table. "Nothing can be proven, so let's just . . . keep an eye on things, alright?"

"That's all I'm asking for. No use in charging at the guy if he really is innocent," Sadie replied. "He's the prime suspect right now."

"Sweet, glad we worked that out," Terrence licked his lips, rubbing his hands together. "Now who's ready for some Grillby's?"

Well, it seemed Frisk had been premature in waving Grillby off.