It was the next morning now. I was too scared to leave my room but I had to. I walked into my personal bathroom and freshened up. I saw myself in the mirror. I looked like shit. I walked back into my room and chose my new outfit out.

I moved onto my makeup.

I looked at the time on my phone. 9:30. I had to leave my room to be somewhere in half an hour but I didn't know where we were meeting up. I decided to go to the beach and if they weren't their tough.

~~~

When I was in my parking space and got out of the car. I saw Molly and Gert walking down the slope. "Yo, Gert, Y/N, wait up!" I heard Chase say from behind me.

"Yo yourself." Gert said from behind me.

"Sup." I said not looking back.

"Morning Molly." Chase finally said to Molly. I had reached the bottom of the slope and was officially on the sand. I got inside my shoes so I was annoyed. I saw Nico near Alex so I decided to run to them. After almost falling a few times I had reached them. I sat on the table that we all gathered around. "Hey." Chase said to Alex as he sat next to me.

"Let's just get this over with." Nico said moving her hair out of face.

"It's five out of six." Alex told us. I noticed that Karolina wasn't their. "We do have a quorum." He added.

"No, we should wait for Karolina." Chase said. Gert did not look happy with Chase. It's not like they were dating or anything.

"Maybe she's not coming." Gert said. I was hoping that she wasn't coming.

"Hey, guys, sorry! You have to see this." Karolina said making her way over to us. She got her phone out and showed us something.

"Holy shit." Me and Alex said at the same time.

"Is that her?" Nico asked.

"That's her." Gert said. We didn't know what to think.

"So what does this mean?" Molly asked.

"Her phone might've been taken." I told her.

"Means I could've slept in." Chase said. I laughed a bit. The thing that Karolina showed us on her phone was a text and a picture of Destiny, the girl who we saw yesterday, in London. If she was in London then got in the box. I took my seat back on the table.

"See? Destiny is fine. We don't have to worry." Karolina told us.

"Uh, Photoshopped much? This picture could be a total fake. I know you want to believe, but this just isn't proof to me." Nico said. I nodded my head in agreement. I would need to see Destiny in person to know if she was ok. Not a picture.

"My mom seemed fine this morning. She wouldn't have acted so normal if she'd killed a parishioner last night." Karolina said to Nico. Obviously she doesn't know much a murderers.

"Most serial killers are completely devoid of empathy." Nico told her.

"Serial killers?" Karolina said confused.

"This is more ritualistic killing type of thing." Chase said from beside me.

"Like a satanic ritual?" I questioned.

"Maybe." Chase said back to me.

"Maybe we should consider a LARPing scenario." Gert said. That sounded so funny out loud. "Live-action role play?" She added to try and make more sense to us.

"Is that where people dress up like cute animals and have sex?" Chase asked. I laughed at his idiocy. He was describing furries.

"No way." Karolina said.

"Our parents." Alex said.

"That's furries." Me and Nico said at the same time.

"That's a thing?" Molly asked confused. We looked at her and nodded.

"Look guys, there's an easier way to get to the bottom of this. We do some P.I. work and let cooler heads prevail. Hopefully in a couple hours we know that our parents are just weird, and not killers." Alex told us. I was down with being a P.I.

"You had me at P.I." Gert told him.

"I could check in with the youth group at my church, make sure Destiny's actually on this trip. Not that I think we need to." Karolina told him.

"I'll go with her." Chase said. He got of from the table next to me and stood on the ground.

"I'm all for the buddy system, but I think we need to prioritize." Alex told him.

"Aw, bummer." Gert said. I looked at her and smiled.

"I mean, you said it yourself your dad's new Leapfrog has a mega-sized trunk. I'm thinking he put that glowing box in back and took it home with him. I mean, Destiny could still be in there." Alex said to Chase.

"Oh yeah, and he'll be psyched when he catches me digging through his shit." Chase said unsatisfied.

"Then he better not catch you. If you had an awesome sleuth like me as your lookout, you'd be safe." Gert said hinting that her and Chase should look together.

"Good call, Gert. See? Pairing up here actually makes sense." Alex told us.

"Hold on, I haven't agreed to anything yet." Chase said making me smirk a bit.

"It'll take five minutes, and then afterwards we can prepare for your Spanish quiz on Monday. I have flashcards." Gert said. I let out a little laugh.

"I guess that's not a terrible idea." Chase said to Gert.

"Okay.
I'll try and check out that secret ceremony room. Might be some clues down there, seeing as it's a secret ceremonial room. I could, uh, use a lookout, too." Alex said while looking at Nico. It wasn't a secret that he liked her but she would never like him back.

"Think I'd better check out my Mom's staff, see what the thing really does. Prioritizing, right?" Nico said. I smirked at how Nico shut Alex down.

"Prioritizing. Okay, how about we use that text chain, keep in touch, important business only." Alex told us. Seriously were calling it a text chain.

"There's something else we could look into, a monster in our basement." Molly told us. Now theirs a monster to watch out for. How more weirder could things get.

"These last 24 hours haven't been crazy enough." Nico said. It was true though.

"No, seriously, Dale and Stacey could've engineered some kind of creature." Molly kinda shouted.

"Anxiety's often linked to paranoia." Gert told Molly.

"I'm not paranoid! And it could all be related." Molly shouted. Their was a pause of silence after that. "Fine. Go ahead. Don't believe me. Let's just let Destiny get eaten alive. Just leave me alone." Molly continued.

"Alex who am I gonna be stuck with?" I asked him. I was dreading the answer.

"Chase and Gert. Only if that's ok?" He told me. I rolled my eyes back. I saw Chase smile at me in the corner of my eye.

"That's Fine. Completely fine." I said rolling my eyes and getting off of the table. I started walking away next to Gert.

"So, We'll see you at your place." Gert told him. I walked up ahead but I saw Karolina talk to Chase about something. I got in my car and started driving to Chase's house. I arrived at Chase's house and waited outside for the others to get here. When they did we went down to his garage where his dad's lab was. "You're all clear." Gert said while Chase was looking through his fathers things.

"You said that two seconds ago." Chase said ducking his head down so he could see me and Gert.

"I was providing you with an update, Jock Jams." Gert said.

"Yeah. Jock Jams." I said after her. Me and Gert looked at each other and smiled. Fake smiles.

"How do you say "whatever" in Spanish?" Chase said walking round to us. Me and Gert walked forwards.

"Hey, I read about these in Wired." Gert said while lifting up a glass container that had a pair of glasses on the inside.

"Oh, yeah? I love that site." Chase said. I couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Same here." I said.

"Totally. Yeah. Aren't these supposed to let you, like, see through everything? Whoa." Gert said as she put the glasses on and started staring at Chase.

"Were you just checking out my junk?" Chase asked. I started laughing.

"Huh? Hmm? Why? Why would you say that?" Was the only thing Gert could get out.

"The x-ray goggles on your head." Chase said. I held in my laugh that was coming on.

"I Maybe I gave it a cursory glance, purely out of scientific curiosity." Gert said. She walked over to a tool station and saw something. She cleared her throat. "Chase, Y/N, there's something back here." Gert said. Me and Chase walked over to her. When we moved it the box, transporter whatever it was. Was their. We pulled it out and stared at it. Chase has his hands on it, Gert had her hands crossed and I had my hands on my hips waiting. "Come on, open it." Gert said rushing him.

"What if she's still in there? I've never seen a dead person before." Chase said. Gert put the glasses on and looked at the box.

"You're all clear. It's empty." Gert told us.

"Good, 'cause I can't figure out how to open this thing. Hopefully that means that Destiny is chilling in some sick club in London now. Should we call it a day?" Chase said. He put both of his hands up for me and Gert to high five. I did but Gert didn't.

"I'm afraid our work here isn't done." Gert told us. I groaned and paced the room a bit.

"What do you mean? We checked the box." Chase started but I interrupted.

"The box was empty. What else do we need to do?" I complained to her.

"My parents experiment on living things all the time. I mean, Molly said she heard something weird in the basement. What if Destiny is their latest test subject?" Gert told us.

"I guess we could check it out." Chase told her.

"And we can use these goggles to scour the basement from the outside. No sense in risking our wellbeing." Gert told us. I let out a chuckle and so did Chase.

"No sense at all." Me and Chase said at the same time. We left the garage and went to our cars. We drove to Gert's house. When we arrived at Gert's it was dark. We were crouched down the bushes facing the basement.

"All I see from here is a giant toad and something that looks like a dildo with wings." Chase said I couldn't take him seriously especially wearing those goggles. "No naked chick." He added.

"Positive?" Me and Gert said at the same time.

"Trust me, I'd know." Chase said.

"How would you know?" I asked him.

"I just know." He said again.

"Perhaps we should go closer." Gert whispered.

"Perhaps we should just go in the actual basement!" Chase whisper shouted back.

"Good idea." I whispered.

"No, Y/N, Chase, that is a terrible idea!" Gert said back to us.

"Aw, is someone a 'fraidy cat? Don't forget, you do have a strapping lacrosse player at your side." Chase said as if we would feel safe.

"I'm gonna bring my pepper spray. Way more reliable than lacrosse players." Gert said. I let out a little laugh at her.

"All right, suit yourself, but I'll take these biceps over some spray can any day." Chase said flexing his biceps.

"Which biceps would they be exactly. I don't see anything." I said sarcastically.  Gert laughed along with me while Chase just glared at me. We made it inside of the Yorkes' home. We went down the stairs of the basement. I could hear the chickens clucking all around us.

"Who trashed the door?" Chase asked. He was still wearing the goggle like things.

"Must've been Bigfoot." Gert said making us chuckle. I saw Chase staring at me and Gert. Afterwards he took the googles off.

"Are you serious? You saw my actual dick. Isn't that what you call, like, a double standard or whatever?" Chase said.

"Uh Chase, are you forgetting that I didn't." I said coldly.

"After centuries of patriarchal oppression, me getting to objectify you is just called evening the playing field." Gert said. I heard something hard hit something making a loud thud. I jumped at the sudden noise not expecting it.

"Destiny? Are you in there?" Gert asked. As if she would be able to reply.

"That door must be made out of the same stuff as your apron. I can't see inside, which means there's only one thing left to do." Chase said. He was almost ready to charge at the door when suddenly Gert stopped him.

"Hold on!" She said.

"What? You wanted to check out your parents' lab. What, are you gonna pussy out now?" Chase said. I laughed at him.

"I resent the usage of that word to imply weakness." Gert said. Chase started to open the door. When he did steam came out of it. Something ran out and pushed us all to the ground.

"I don't think that was Destiny." Gert said.

"Neither do I." I said afterwards.

"Now would be a really good time to use those." Gert said to Chase.

"Oh, god." Chase said, it was making me nervous. "Let's leave." Chase said. He helped me up the Gert.

"I like where your head's at." Gert said to Chase. We crept forward the monster came towards us. It looked more like a dinosaur now that I was closer. I roared at us. We all screamed. "Deep breathes." Gert said trying to stop hyperventilating. "Calm down. Deep breathes. Calm down. deep breathes." She repeated. "Okay. Everything's under control." Gert said for reassurance. "Hey, doggie, do you hear me? I need you to back down. I'm under control. Chase is under control. Y/N is under control. Even this bloodthirsty dinosaur's under control." Gert said. She started taking sharp breathes.

"Actually, it kind of is." Chase said.

"What it's doing?" Gert asked us.

"Listening to you." Me and Chase said at the same time. I heard a car honking outside. Gert's parents. The beast in front of us ran out of the basement and up The stairs. Chase pulled me and Gert into a hug I tried to get out of it but I couldn't.