Jo [COMPLETED]

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Nothing Alec didn't know already appeared on the screen in front of him. The first three pages were all the same--the death, the funeral, the girl (who happened to be Alec's mom). A little annoyed and disappointed, Alec's finger hovered above the mousepad before finally clicking the next page button. Again, nothing different.

It was only when Alec scrolled through to the bottom that something caught his eye. It was an old article; all the way back in 1997. The same year Alec was born.

Alec briefly read through the description and clicked on the link.

This article has been locked and under investigation.

Confused and a little excited, Alec searched through the page. He scrolled up and down the page looking for clues that he might have missed. Something was off. Why would an article be put under investigation but not the entire site? The imaginary lightbulb lit up above his unruly hair and Alec immediately pressed on one of the options at the top of the page. Home, it read.

The site hadn't been used frequently and it definitely didn't have many visitors. As Alec read the titles, he noticed they were all conspiracy theories about Jo. Almost like a cult of fans. There were the obvious conspiracy theories; "Jo's actually dead and the one left is a clone," or that "Jo was involved with the mafia." The typical Hollywood crap. But the farther down Alec scrolled, the more he realized that the site used to be popular. From the one or two comments at the top of the page to the thousands towards the bottom, it seemed that the site gathered many fans.

Yet again, there was nothing that let him open the article he wanted. He clicked on the link again and it opened to the same blank white screen with the same words in the middle. Exasperated and unsure of what to do, Alec allowed his mouse to move through the page in lack of anything to do. Suddenly, something caught Alec's eyes.

On the top right corner, where Alec's mouse had just passed, something was hidden. It looked like the page had been peeled back to reveal something. Alight with excitement once more, Alec brought the mouse back and almost cheered out loud at what he saw.

Key: (                             )

It was a passcode override. Alec and Brian had created a site similar so that their parents wouldn't find any, um, pictures that they weren't meant to. Last time Brian's mom had seen the nudes girls sent him, she called up the girl's parents and Brian got slapped by her the next day.

Alec rushed back to the main site and looked for a clue--any clue--that could have been the code. He tried everything he could find, but none worked.

Suddenly, Alec figured it out. The article was from 1997, so the password should be from the same year. He scrolled down as far as he could until he reached the articles from that very year. Alec became elated when he found a few options, but then disappointed when none of them unlocked the site. How was he supposed to figure the code if it wasn't there?

At the very bottom of the site, underneath the very first post, was contact information: coorpspiracy.23@gnail.com

When he clicked the name, it didn't take him to an e-mailing site. A little bubble popped up that allowed Alec to type out a message. So he did.

Hey, my name's Alec. I found the passcode override for the article under investigation from 1997, I just can't figure out the code. Could you help me out?

Thanks.

Sent. Delivered.

•••••

Two days later and Alec still had not received a reply from the person running the site. Every hour for the past two days, Alec had obsessively checked the site for a reply. Nothing changed that night, when Alec checked his laptop for the hundredth time. He was desperate to see what the article said; desperate to know why it had been taken down.