Every day since Nathan left him stranded on route 195 had been a new chapter of loneliness for Tom. He never really thought about the fact that he didn't have any other male friends. He had family, lovers, acquaintances and Nathan. What would it take to be forgiven? An apology from the heart? A beat-down? Whatever it was, it would be worth it to restore some normalcy. Winter was over, and it was time to make things right.

Tom strutted across the street and rang the bell at Nathan's house. The wind chime rang sweetly as a breeze tousled its silver rods. Eleanor answered in her bathrobe.

"He says he's not home," she said bluntly.

Tom kicked the ground and scuffed his shoe. "Come on, Mrs. Stone. I really need to talk to him."

Eleanor sighed. She started to close the door, but Nathan pushed her aside.

"What do you want?" Nathan asked, bursting through the screen door. Tom stumbled backward and caught himself on the bottom porch stair. Nathan shoved him.

"Hey, man, I'm sorry," Tom said, holding up his hands defensively. "I know you can resist that kind of thing just thinking about honor, duty, and country and shit but I'm not that strong."

Nathan shoved him again until they were both standing on the lawn. Tom's shoes squeaked over the surface of the slippery grass.

"Hey, you broke up with her," Tom said in his defense.

"So?"

"So, you can't just say she's your forever girlfriend!"

Nathan slugged him. The contact made a sound like a wrench in a dryer. Pain shot through his neck. Tom choked on his blood and caught part of a broken filling with his tongue, spitting it up.

"My tooth!" he cried in amazement. Tom pushed on Nathan's shoulders, but his friend barely budged. "You broke my tooth over a V-card?"

Nathan lunged forward, grabbing Tom's legs and wrestling him to the ground. Tom's head whipped backward and smacked against the dirt.

Eleanor screamed.

"Go inside, mom!" Nathan's frame and height gave him an advantage. They writhed in each other's grasps. Tom slipped his hold, but Nathan crawled after him and pulled him down. This was unbearable. Tom coughed as his ribs hit the ground. Nathan pinned him, crushing him with his weight.

"Was it everything you hoped for, you fucking pervert?" Nathan asked.

Tom struggled to speak. He couldn't get any words out. Nathan pressed the back of Tom's skull and gave him a mouthful of wet soil.

"Always talking about how hot my girlfriend was. I should have seen it coming!"

"Ex-girlfriend," Tom corrected, spitting up dirt. They wrestled to the brink of exhaustion until finally Nathan rolled off him, falling flat on his back. They lay side by side on the lawn, Tom coughing. His body trembled with relief that it was over. The two stared up on the sky, panting. Then Tom looked over and saw the tear falling out the corner of Nathan's eye.

"Why would you do this to me, Tom?"

    "I'm sorry," Tom said, sitting up on his hands. He felt tears of his own falling on his wrists. "Nathan. I swear to God, I'm sorry. I fucked up, but I care about you, okay? I swear I'll never screw up like this again."

Nathan covered his eyes with the crook of his arm. "It's not even that I want her for myself. It's weird. I don't want anyone to have her. I don't want anyone to hurt her." Nathan sat up and Tom gave him a hand getting back on his feet.

"Do you know where my tooth went?"

Nathan ignored him, heading up the creaky steps of the porch. Tom scanned the grass for any trace of enamel to no avail. He joined Nathan inside where Mrs. Stone was on the phone.

"What are you doing?" Nathan asked her.

"Calling Tom's father."

"No need," Tom said, clutching his jaw. "I'm okay." He waved to her and followed Nathan down into the basement.

It was dark and smelled like cold stone. The crazy bastard was living down there now. He had his prosthetic silicon parts in the utility sink. His mattress and box spring were in the corner next to a stack of books. Tom recognized the titles from their youth. Beowulf, Mists of Avalon, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Once and Future King, Morte D'Arthur, Don Quixote. A chaotic brain web covered the entirety of the back wall as well as a distinct timeline of Hannah's activity before her overdose. There were medieval drawings of witches and demons collaged with blurry photographs of Liam and his entourage. There were maps, hand-written notes, news articles, all taped up and connected with ribbons of black striking tape.

"What is this?"

"While you've been dicking around at parties, I've been figuring out who killed your girlfriend," Nathan said.

"I haven't been dicking around at parties. I've been working to get Alex clean."

Nathan pointed to a school picture of a teenage girl. "This is Caroline, the girl I told you about. She filed charges against Liam ten years ago for statutory rape. The charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence, but our guy lost his job at the school. The history of this was almost impossible to find. I had to really dig. He moved down here and started giving private lessons."

"And one of his students was Alex," Tom said. Nathan nodded.

"So let's look at Hannah's overdose on the beach. Everybody wrote that off as a beach party that went horribly wrong. I think not." Nathan pointed to a picture of Liam and a female outline with a question mark drawn on the face. "There were three people at that crime scene. We know about Hannah. One of them I'm sure was Liam, and after that story you told me about Halloween, I think the unnamed female from the scene might have been Hypatia. She provides the girls with a sense of ease and in effect facilitates their rape. Maybe Hannah wasn't supposed to die. I have a theory that this pair have been working together, assaulting girls while they're too high to remember. What girl will report a rape she doesn't remember? They could have been getting away with this for years. Nobody ever died until Hannah."

"You want to do something with this," Tom said. "But Alex will never go public. And she has no evidence."

"I have all the evidence I need." The psychotic gleam in Nathan's eyes made Tom uneasy. He sat down on the mattress, leaning his face into his hands.

"If we tell the police about Hypatia's involvement, maybe they can intimidate her, cut a deal, get her to snitch."

"Fuck that, brother. I just need an hour alone with her," said Nathan. "She was the one watching over Alex that night. She will have the missing piece to-to-to—" Nathan tapped the collage, "—all of this."

"Nathan... you need to let go of this. Let the police handle it.."

"She's the evil behind everything. She's Morgan La Faye." Nathan pointed his tactical knife at the question mark's face. "I need to find her."

Hypatia. She had been Captain Morgan's number two on Halloween. It was all coming together in Tom's mind now that he was sober. He still had her number. He had entered it into his cell phone before washing his wrist.

This was how he could rescue Nathan. The only way. He had to talk to the girl and convince her to tell his father what happened to Hannah. The police would arrest Liam, the case would be closed and Nathan wouldn't be flying any farther off the handle.

"I've got to go," said Tom.

"Now?"

"Sorry."

On his way upstairs, Tom pressed send to call the number in his cell. He was already outside when it started to ring, and soon enough a female voice answered, rich as dark honey. "Hello?"

"Hey," Tom said.

"Who is this?"

"The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we find out who is right... and who is dead."

She giggled on the other end of the line. "Dread Pirate Roberts. I thought you'd never call."
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Music: Muse "Hysteria"