Don't freak out but... the tapes are missing!

We all got up extra early Monday morning to head to Dustin's, but the recordings were nowhere to be found. We dismantled our houses but found nothing. They seemed to have vanished. With shivers all over our bodies, hairs springing up, and ringing in our ears, we immediately grew concerned. We were urgently calling each other to figure out what was going on, but Babylon cut us off.

We could hear the cops enter through Dustin's front door with a search warrant and make everyone in the home pile outside, even if they were in the shower, over the phone. They started wrestling with the house in a matter of seconds. They pulled the couches, flew books off the bookshelves, turned over furniture, and meticulously searched the drawers. They discovered the box in Dustin's room and loaded it as evidence into their van.

As I hung up with the others, I noticed the cops approaching my house through the window of my room. At this moment, I was terrified, but for the wrong reasons. I raced outdoors, gathering my feminine items that I had hidden. I hurried back inside after burying them in a shrub next to my neighbor's shed.

   My mother and sister had just gotten out of bed to get ready for work. 6:30. Before they could even brush their teeth, the cops came up to our door and began performing exactly what they did at Dustin's residence here. We were also escorted outside, myself in my school uniform and my sister and mother in their robes, while our neighbors gossiped and observed from afar.

"This is getting serious!" my mother said in a scared voice.

They then searched Beth's, Carson's, and Mandy's homes all within the same hour and in the same hostile manner. They even went to Mr. Rainyman's. He was furious about it and Babylon was glad he could take advantage of the circumstance to spite and get back at him, and there was nothing Mr. Rainyman could do to stop him. My mother and sister had to call out from work by the time they let us back in, as did the other's parents. What was strange was that when we returned inside, the cops had cleaned up all of our residences precisely as they had been before, making everything appear untouched and spotless.

   Our parents were still irritated and swiftly called each other. They all got together and decided to go to the police station to figure it out. Because we drew too much attention today, they encouraged us to stay home and stay indoors for a while.

   We wanted to chat to one other but decided against it in case the cops were watching or listening through our phones. We decided to meet up tomorrow at Dustin's. We were all frightened, but Beth was the one who was losing her marbles the most. She is an extremely emotional person, and anything that bothers her will eventually ruin her from the inside out. Her brother was attempting at soothing her down in his own love language, telling her that everything was okay and that she was making a big deal out of nothing because he knew she hadn't done anything. It wasn't soothing, but it did help.

9:15 a.m
    Whilst we were all at home our parents stormed in each to the police station one by one but not one of them could get any officer not even Babylon to speak to them. They stayed there for hours but eventually were escorted out by officers. Dustin's mother was incredibly pissed and made Babylon know it as he held her by her arm and showed her through the exit.

"Y'all have NEVER made this much effort for a case on this island before! But now all of sudden y'all are making a big deal about this and disturbing my family and my living?! Or are you just doing it to fill your FUCKING ego?!"

"So let me get this straight, you complain about us not doing our jobs but when we do do it, you complain again?!" Babylon served her.

"You just proved me right?! RIGHT?!"

    But Babylon ignored her and locked the door in their faces.

7:15 p.m
As soon as my mother and sister reached home, they informed me that they and the other parents had called the school and had us excused from class for the rest of the week until things simmered down. I got a bit scared thinking she spoke to the school and thought they might've told her about my double life but she said that Beth's mother was the one who made the call.

    My mother, on the other hand, was a woman who liked to worry, especially about her children, and she spent an hour and a half grilling me about DeeJay, his murder, and our friendship. Our trip having to end early because of her work warping around the same time of DeeJay's murder had her worrying more. It wasn't looking good for anyone. Not even Babylon. The other's parents were grilling them as well, and Beth burst into tears because of all the pressure. She told them how Babylon has been pestering us and her mother became furious.

    They all got even angrier when she contacted the rest of our parents. They were aware that their kids had done nothing wrong and were perplexed as to why we were being singled out.

Beth's mother was aware that she had spent the entire day with her father, who could attest to her reliability. In fact, they weren't even near BerkVille.

Because she was with Mandy the entire time in the living room attempting to calm her infant, Mandy's sister was aware that they had returned home immediately after she picked up Mandy from under that balcony. She spoke to Mandy about the situation and knew she did nothing.

I spent the entire night with them watching out the window in the dark with a lit candle, so my mother and sister knew I wasn't able to commit the crime.

Because he was the one who made food for them to eat, lit candles, and brought them blankets and other items to keep them warm, Dustin's family all knew it wasn't him either.

Because they drove him home that evening after picking him up and didn't allow him to leave their sight, Carson's parents knew it wasn't him either.

    So if we all had alibi's that could be backed up, why were we being singled out? That's what our parents set out to find and this time they weren't backing out easily. The next morning they sat us down and gave us a wicked soul seeking look as they questioned us.

8:23 a.m
"Tony, if you know anything about who did it and you're trying to protect anyone or anything that you know... you should tell us NOW and I'm not taking the bullshit ass answer you gave to us yesterday" my sister started.

"Yes! Especially because you were in a fight with DeeJay!" my mother continued.

"Listen, all I know is that some guys in DeeJay's art class said that he changed and was like a walking suicide attempt waiting to happen. I could also tell. Plus, the different stuff he put up on his social media seemed like a suicide note. That's all I know"

   I couldn't help but worry under all this strain, especially when I considered the possibility of going to jail. On my laptop, I did some research and came across numerous articles that described the horrifying treatment of trans women in jail. The situation was getting frantic.

9:34 a.m
"DUSTIN! YOU BETTER STOP FUCKING AROUND AND TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" His mother screamed whilst entering his room.

    Dustin knew how bad the entire situation was getting and knew that eventually he'd be the one with the most fingers pointed at him so he had to come clean.

"My fingerprints are on the gun that killed DeeJay" he whispered after barring the door closed.

"WHAT?!" His mother shouted in awe, her heart palpitating and her eyes ready to pop out of it's sockets. "How THE FUCK did it get on there?!"

"I was at his house after school because we were doing... homework... and I played like I was going to shoot him with it. But I SWEAR I didn't kill him or anything!"

   His mother wanted to shout, but she realized she had to do damage control because of the predicament her son was in. They were lucky that one of her brothers was a lawyer because they immediately went to his room to figure it out. They told him everything, and he advised them not to worry because their case was slowly being washed away and they no longer had the proof because of what happened to Babylon and the evidence. He added that they were merely attempting to construct a brand-new defense and that, provided we continued to conduct ourselves as usual, we could escape the situation. Dustin was still a little scared at the possibility of them being able to build a new case and could use his fingerprints to lock him up.

But then he continued. He stated that the police are corrupt and if they wanted to they could plant evidence since this case was going on for way too long. That didn't help Dustin's worries. He also said that any one suspicious thing that any of us does until this case goes cold could result in a bad outcome. So he advised Dustin to act as ordinary and to tell us to act ordinary as well. This is where Dustin became more concerned. If Carson goes to buy drugs or alcohol and displays any wild behavior like what he did on the tape this could fuck everything up for us.

9:56 a.m
"Carson... did you tell anyone about the gunshot that we heard?" His father asked.

"No, I swear!"

"Ok then we should be good-"

"But there is something else"

"What are you talking about?" His mother said, scared.

"Back when I was on drugs... I threatened to kill DeeJay"

"YOU WHAT?!" They shouted together.

"Listen, I didn't even remember it happened. He sold some drugs to me and he was being pushy and I threatened him. But I promise you no one else knows about it and I did NOT kill him?!"

"Good, because I'm tired of you screwing this family over!" his mother wailed as she exited his room.

    Carson knew just like we did that we couldn't tell our parents about the tapes because we let crucial evidence slip through our fingers. Plus this scandal could tip over everything for him. Everything he was working towards could be stripped within a second if things didn't tip in our favor.

All of this stressed muffled through his head and he became frantic and began an unquenchable thirst for liquor or something. He looked around for some but then pulled himself together by staring at pictures of Dustin on his phone. That was the only thing that felt better than a drug.

10:11 a.m
    Beth stood in the closet hanging up her clothes and her mother and Kendrick were seated on the bed.

"Babylon is a fucking asswipe! I should go down there and beat the shit out of him!" Kendrick bloated.

"I know, Beth would never so something like that and she definitely knows nothing about anything!"

    Beth almost laughed at the irony as she hung her school shirt. Being the "innocent" girl does have its perks. This calmed her nerves a bit because she knew if they did grill her she would crack very easily.

   However, she was unable to get rid of her fear and guilt. Her mother was only making enough money to pay for her brother's medication and other necessities, so if she also has to pay for lawyers, her brother would suffer. And if that occurred, Beth wasn't sure how she would ever be able to forgive herself.

11:23 a.m
    Mandy's mother was the only one who didn't really care. She asked Mandy about it once and then completely moved on with the situation. Mandy's sister was at the house with her and Mandy told her about how she met DeeJay the day and they both were trying to make sense of the situation.

"DeeJay left before I could even speak to him! I don't know where he went or anything!" Mandy spoke.

"Yes but I don't think no one else is gonna see it that way. I'm glad you kept this a secret. If you didn't you might've been locked up by now"

"Yeah..." Mandy said as she looked off out the window thinking of how dire the situation was evolving into. And she knew that if she had to dig herself out of it, she had to do it alone considering her mother was useless and she didn't want her sister to get too deep into this and go to jail for her or something which would unfairly let her niece grow up without a mother, just like she did.

We failed to make contact with one other once more since our parents wished to keep us hidden from view for the remainder of the day. But we texted each other on "WhatsApp" to arrange a meeting the following day. We knew we had a window then because our parents said that they would be going back to the police station to try to straighten things out. We also dabbled in a bit of conversation on the phone discussing Dustin and DeeJay's relationship as we snickered. Well us except Carson who was a little jealous.

8:15 p.m
    Last but not least, Mr. Rainyman's house. He was seated at his desk, his pen in hand and glasses on writing up a few cheques to be sent out tomorrow. Then all of a sudden he was disturbed by a call coming to his phone.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Yes, Mr. Rainyman, this is the lawyer you wanted to hire for your daughter. I'm calling to ask about the cheque you sent me"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Well, it's not going through I'm afraid"

"Um... hold on" he pulled out his laptop and logged into his bank account to be greeted with a nasty surprise. All his assets were frozen.

    Then another call came to his phone. Babylon. He answered and put the lawyer on hold.

"Hope you found my little surprise. See what I can do when I tell my guys at the office that I suspect you of money laundering? I didn't want to start acting like this or being vile but I had to. You played dirty so so did I. Bring me that camera footage you have of me and any other copies and I'll get you your money back" dial tone click.