Admittedly, sneaking out again wasn't our brightest idea. It was only twelve in the morning, most of the student body still awake, the result of living with hundreds of other teenagers. We took the route we'd always take- a passage underneath the school that lands directly in the basement of the movie theatre in town. I had discovered the passage one day, after spending my first weekend at the school alone, trying to find a hiding spot where nobody could bother me. I came across a cupboard hidden on my level of the dormitory building, and discovered it had a trapdoor in the floor. I'd let that information slip one night when Amaia and I were talking, and, being the chaotic individual she's always been, convinced me to discover where it led to late one night. Now, nearing five years later, we'd spent so much time sneaking in and out of the movie theatre entrance, we were well acquainted with its owners, Jeremy and Axel, who had no idea we utilised their basement on a weekly basis.

"Jeremy." Amaia nods to the owner now, the three of us walking past the movie theatre after we snuck out of its back entrance.

Jeremy nods back as we pass, him clearing the floor of the theatre with his 2000's vacuum cleaner he refuses to replace. Amaia and I nicknamed it 'the cheeto', seeing as it was rather large, orange, and made the floor ten times more dusty after using it.

Faye had chosen to sit out of our expedition, leaving Khoi, Amaia and I to our own devices. We clambered up the cobblestone streets of Woodbridge, every empty alleyway and flickering streetlight a poignant reminder of just last night. What made it all so more surreal, was that we were on our way to the convenience store to visit Collin- again. Amaia had failed to inform us of the reason he'd landed himself in juvie- he was a hacker, and to quote Amaia, 'a bloody good one.'

I got a clearer view of the store as we drew nearer, the scuffed edges, and small cracks in the windows, the lack of respect for the building apparent. We could see the shadow of Collin through the window, standing aimlessly at the counter, his whole life hanging on the hours he spent mindlessly serving customers.

A ringing sound filled the store as we stepped over the threshold, alerting Collin to our presence. He waved at us, and we all trudged over to the counter.

"Hey guys," His voice was cheery, in that fake customer service sort of way. I could tell Amaia was immediately concerned by it, her face befuddled, sending a sharp glare towards Collin.

"What's wrong?" She asks. "Why are you so happy right now?"

Collin's grin grows. "What can I say-I'm just a happy person." He looks around the store, as if he's searching for someone. When his eyes widen, seemingly catching on someone towards the back of us, he continues. "What can I get for you guys today?"

As slyly as I can, I glance towards the back of the store. There, in the corner is a man, probably in his mid to late thirties, mopping the floor with intense concentration. I can tell Amaia sees him too, by the way she takes a deep breath, and moves closer to the plastic partition on the counter, dividing the server from customers.

"Who is that man?" She whispers, voice harsh, glancing at Collin from where he's smiling down at us in, quite frankly, an unnerving manner.

"My boss." Collin whispers back, the smile still plastered on his face.

I turn back to glance at the guy, and find him glaring in our direction with such ferocity, I feel as though he'd take great pleasure in treating us with the embrace of death in the quickest amount of time possible.

"Shit man, I think he hates us." Khoi whispered, his breath creating fogs in the plastic near his face.

Collin let out a small laugh, his face still plastered with that fake smile. "No, no. He hates me. Watch." He raised his hand, and waved to his boss from across the store. His boss looked up, and scoffed, returning to the mopping he was ever so invested in.

Amaia rolled her eyes. "Of course he hates you, look at your smile- It's fucking creepy." Collin looked down at that, dropping his smile. "No- Collin, I didn't mean it in that way. Just meet us in the park after your shift."

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The night was cool, a stark contrast to the warm days we were used to encountering this time of year, as summer neared its end. The swings we sat on were rusty, and made loud screeching noises whenever we tried to swing on them. We'd been sitting there for around thirty minutes before Collin came wandering over to us.

"Sorry. Boss wouldn't let me go so early."

Amaia grimaced. As much as she teased her cousin, I could tell that she really cared about him deep down, like he was the brother she never got to have. "What a dickhead. Anyway, we need your help."

Collin's face lit up with intrigue. "Oh? What for?"

"Hacking."

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We'd followed Collin through the streets of Woodbrige, winding alleyways, and desolate storefronts. He led us to the place he was staying, some 70's apartment complex he was sharing with a 'distant relative'. Amaia insisted he tell her who this elusive relative was, but Collin was adamant she wouldn't know them, and so, gathering she would not garner a response, Amaia quit asking. The apartment was dark, and open plan, illuminated only by a small lamp in the corner of the room. The kitchen and living room flowed into one, and there was a small hallway off to the right where three doors were situated.

Collin led us over to a large couch in front of a television, two armchairs nestled beside it around a tacky fur rug and scuffed wooden coffee table. He grabbed his laptop from where it laid in the middle of the coffee table, and set it up in front of where we were sitting on the couch.

"Alright," he said, glancing at his computer with unwavering intent whilst he connected it to the TV. "So you guys want to see the security footage of Mavens from last night, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's where the murder happened." Khoi was staring at the television screen, enamoured by whatever hacker shit Collin was doing on his laptop.

"Murder?" Collin asked, concern echoed on his face as he snapped out of typing on his keyboard to look at the three of us. "None of you told me there was murder involved."

Oh, right. I'd forgotten we haden't informed Collin of the events that took place mere minutes before arriving at his store. The three of us looked at each other, nerves flowing through the air like sound waves. Finally, in an attempt to break the deafening silence, I started to explain the whole situation, in as few words as possible.

"We're at Maven's last night, our ex classmate Markus is performing. He gets killed. We leave. We find you. Nobody tells the authorities, and absolutely nobody remembers that Markus exists."

Collin just stares at me with wide eyes, mouth slightly open in shock. "What?"

Amaia rolled her eyes. "She just told you the story dumbass- go back to your hacking."

Blinking rapidly, Collin turned back to his computer.

"I think you broke him." Khoi remarked, gesturing to the absent look on Collin's face.

"He's always been broken. He just hides it well." Amaia responded, leaning back into the leather couch.

"Shut up Amaia." Collin quipped. "Do you want to see the footage or not?"

Amaia shut her mouth.

"Mhm, that's what I thought." Collin leaned back from his computer screen and pointed towards the TV. "Here's the footage from the 16th- last night. I've sped it up, but when it gets around the two a.m. mark I'll pause it, maybe slow it down- that's when the..uh..incident happened, yeah?"

"Yeah."

The television projected the security cameras placed throughout Maven's. The place was an old pub, with an added underground section for live music performances. It was really the only thing to do in town, bar the movie theatre Jeremy and Axel owned- but that wasn't open to the public at three in the morning on weekends. It was free to enter, and technically over 18's only, but Khoi knew the manager and managed to score us entry each week- nobody minded three sixteen year olds who kept to themselves. The footage showed the hustle and bustle of the pub upstairs throughout the evening, and the slow decline in patrons as the evening grew longer. Soon, Markus' band- It's my soap started setting up on the stage in the lower level.

"Slow it down here." I called to Collin, as I saw the first concert goers enter the building.

A few walk over to Markus, one- a woman with strikingly blonde hair, shakes his hand and they have a lengthy conversation, the two laughing heartily before moving their separate ways. They conversed with an aura of familiarity, like they'd known each other for years. The band starts playing, and after a few moments, I notice Amaia, Khoi and I descending down the stairs.

The four of us watch as the events of last night reoccur before our very eyes. Amaia dancing, my need to take a break on a bench, Khoi spitting out the pink drink he ordered. I observe intently, scanning every head in the room as the lights flicker, watching for any suspicious behaviour, any glint of a knife, but then the feed cuts off completely after the lights go out in the concert. The cameras show static, nothingness, no footage from the outside of Mave's, the first or lower levels.

Then, a flicker. The camera filming the bottom floor of Mave's flickers on- the figure of Markus Raz, dead and bleeding, lying on the floor. The camera flickers off again, and then a second later, turns back on, Markus nowhere to be seen.

All four of us glanced at each other, alarmed expressions etched upon our faces.

Amaia took a deep sigh, and braced her hands on her knees. Looking at us all, she exclaimed "What the actual fuck?"

Collin looked uneasy. "It doesn't look like the footage was tampered with."

"Then what happened?" Khoi asked,

"Maybe the power went out? I have no idea- I've never seen anything like this before."

Amaia rolled her eyes. "Maybe you just suck at hacking."

Collin gasped, his mouth dropping open. "I'll have you know, I am a convicted felon."

"They caught the wrong one then."

Khoi and I shared a look- clearly the dramatics ran in the family. Thinking back to the footage, I wondered. "Can you see the footage from the street? See if there's any clues there? Maybe we can see like, I don't know, all the people that exited through the front?"

Collin nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

A few moments of feverish typing, and the sounds of a keyboard clicking later, Collin gestured to the screen once more.

"Footage from the security cameras of the library across the road."

We watched, intently. There was no activity at the front of Maven's, only the hurried strides of pedestrians passing by. Then, the large, wooden door at the front of Maven's opened a crack, and, before we knew it, darkness. The same glitch from before. It lasted longer this time, and stopped at the three am mark- the path out the front of Maven's completely drenched in water.

At that moment, nobody had to talk, all our faces a unanimous collection of the one question we were all bearing,

What the fuck?

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