Dangerous Past

by Cobe Reinbold

  I was still staring at it when the doorbell rang. I assumed it was Jason since he lived the closest, Kent would have to stop and pick up Jessica on the way. A tired looking Jason leaned on the door jamb. I guess we couldn’t sneak out until five in the morning and not show the effects the next day.

  “Hey, man.” He brushed past me heading directly to the kitchen. He checked the coffee pot and finding it empty, started a fresh pot. I didn’t blame him. I felt like I could use a cup right about now too.

  “So, what’s this all about? What’s with the early morning meeting?”

  “First of all, it’s not early or the morning, and second, let’s just wait until Kent and Jessica get here so I don’t have to explain everything twice.” I settled down next to Jason with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

  After a couple of minutes a car pulled into the driveway. I got up to answer the door before they could knock. Kent and Jessica followed me to the kitchen and got coffee before we went up to my room. The note was lying on my desk. Everyone gathered there, pulling some chairs in from the hall so we all had a place to sit. I think we were all nervous about what was in the note. Finally, I picked up the note read it out loud.

  Goodbye

  To those who it may concern,

  I, Mady Smith, have decided that it has all become too much. Pretending like I enjoy living in this small town. Acting like someone I’m not in front of my so-called friends. Nobody here truly knows me, and for that I am deeply sorry. I wish the move would have helped. That I could have fit in and forget about my past completely. Once and for all. Alas, if you’re reading this then it’s too late. I have done the unthinkable and taken my own life. To anyone who was close to me, please don’t blame yourselves. There is nothing you could have done, and in all honesty, I tried. Oh, I tried to make it work. Since the day I arrived in this little rundown place I didn’t like it here. I put on a good face for the prying eyes, but in actuality, I never belonged in a place like this. It may seem hard right now, but soon you will see that you’re all much happier without me. To my true friends, please don’t miss me. Think about all the times we have shared, and please cherish those memories. I know I will be in a better place. To my parents, I know you will be more hurt than anyone else. I want you to know I thank you for all you have ever done for me, and this is in no way your fault. If I could be with you now, I would, but sadly there is no other option. Please don’t cry for me.

  That was it. Half a page of nothing really. It couldn’t be for real. For starters, Mady would have never talked like that. At least the Mady I knew wouldn’t. It reminded me more of a speech a valedictorian would give on the last day of school, not a suicide note. She said she didn’t want her parents to cry for her. In what world would parents not cry for their daughter? There had to be some kind of hidden message. Mady wouldn’t have written it like that if she wasn’t trying to hide something, but none of us could figure it out. The room was silent except for the sound of our breathing.

  What was the point of this scavenger hunt? In the letter we found at the cabin, she implied people were after her. She claimed it was so she could make sure those people couldn’t hurt her. The only piece of the puzzle that was Mady’s death so far that had anything to do with me was the blog password. If the person stalking her found her through the blog, then they could just as easily followed the post to the hidden cabin and read the letter before me. But, if that happened why would they leave the thing there and not destroy it. Besides, from the condition of the plywood and vines covering the hidden doorway no one got there before me. None of it made sense.

  “I don’t know what any of this has to do with a clue. It’s just super depressing,” Jason said.

  I think he saw how defeated and tired I was.

  “Brian, are you okay, man?” Kent frowned at me.

  Without a word, I got up and picked up the letter. I had everyone’s attention now.

  “I’m ending this once and for all. No more searching, no more trying to find clues that just lead to more clues. I’m sick of it all…” I stopped in mid-sentence.

  I was on my way to the garbage can in the corner near the walk-in closet, letter raised above my head, ready to hurl it into the can. I caught a glance of the back of the letter in the glass of the balcony door. There was a part of the letter that hadn’t been visible before. I froze and stared at the reflection.

  “Guys, come here.” I didn’t take my eyes off the writing.

  The three of them stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Kent was the first to move. He came up behind me and looked at the letter. His breath hitched as he saw the hidden words. Jason and Jessica followed, while Kent moved aside to let them see.

  On the back of the note, when you held it up to the light there was faint writing visible. I had checked the back many times and never saw anything out of the ordinary. I took the letter back to the desk after everyone had their turn. My friends joined me and I turned on the desk light. When I held it up to the light you could make out a set of numbers, but when I turned it around those numbers disappeared.

  “How can that be?” Jessica asked, clearly astonished at our find.

  “What do we do now?” Kent sounded as astounded as the rest of us.

  “We have to figure out what the numbers mean,” I said, opening one of the desk drawers and pulling out a notepad and pen.

  Jessica held the letter to the light while I wrote down what I thought the numbers were. Then Kent and Jason did the same, since it really wasn’t clear what they were. The regular writing cut right through most of the numbers, making it hard to figure out what lines belonged to which number. Once the guys finished, I held the note up for Jessica and she wrote down what she thought she saw. In the end, we all had different interpretations, and there was no way of knowing if any of them were actually correct.

  Jessica took the note from me and started to pick at the corner. It took me a second to realize what she was doing. She was a genius! Mady hadn’t just left a photocopy of the suicide note, she had made an exact replica, and there were actually two pieces of paper glued together so precisely it looked like one piece.

  Jessica worked at it until she could peel the papers apart, being careful not to mangle the numbers. Mady wrote on the front of the paper she glued to the back of the actual note. It was only visible when it was held up to the light, but otherwise hidden. Those numbers were important in some way.

  Jessica set the two papers on the desk. On one was a sequence of ten numbers. They didn’t make any sense at first, until we got the idea to figure out things with ten numbers.

  Jason thought it might be some sort of password to a hidden room in the cabin. If there was a hidden room in that place, we would have seen it.

  It might be a phone number. I checked the first three numbers against a list of area codes, but I wasn’t familiar with the one it matched. I took out my phone and called it. I put my cell on speaker and set it down on the desk.

  The call rang once, and then it went to voicemail. Great. But at least it was a valid phone number.

  We were discouraged, but kept on trying to figure what the numbers could be if they didn’t represent a phone number. My phone buzzed, but I ignored it.

  I think we were all confused and it seemed like a good idea to go get something to eat. Nothing like a burger and fries or pizza to help kick start our brains and refuel.

  The phone buzzed against my hip when I stood up. I checked the caller ID. Mom texted checking in, below her text was the 10 digit number we contacted earlier.

  ‘Who is this?’ The text demanded.

  A wave of embarrassment swamped me. I probably called some random person from another state and now they were wondering who was trying to get in touch with them from Idaho.

  “That weird number texted me, guys, I don’t think it’s right, though. The person just texted me asking who I am.” I had their attention now; that was for sure. My friends crowded around me.

  “You have to respo
nd. Just in case,” Kent said.

  I chewed my lip and tried to figure out what I should do. If Mady wanted me to contact whoever was attached to this number the person on the other end should know who was texting them. I texted Mom that we were all going out for food, and that I wouldn’t be out long. I scrolled to the unknown number: ‘Sorry, must have typed in the wrong number.’ Short and sweet.

  I didn’t expect to get a return text. We crowded into my car and went to the one of the fast food places in town. We knew most of the kids who worked there and usually managed to get the employee discount.

  It was around 3:30 P.M. by the time we ordered and ate. One of the guys I played football with the year before was working the counter, so we did end up getting the discount. Score!

  I waved to him as we left and headed for my place. It seemed like we were always at my house in the summers.

  “Can we please go in the pool? Get our minds off of everything for a while? Maybe that would help us figure out what’s going on,” Jessica suggested.

  “Sure, that’s a good point. Maybe a couple of hours of relaxation would help us digest everything,” I replied.

  At least, that was the plan until I checked my phone. The unknown number responded: ‘I asked, who is this?’ This was getting seriously weird.

  I didn’t tell the others but texted back: ‘This is Brian, who’s this?’

  I parked out front of Jessica’s house and she ran inside to grab her swim suit. I stared intently at my phone. Before there was a response, Jessica came back in a beach cover-up. I put the phone down and concentrated on driving. The next stop was Kent’s house. I checked my phone as soon as we got there. There was no text, and before I knew it, Kent was out of the house and back in the car. I didn’t want to go to Jason’s since we would have to drive past my house, and since we were practically the same size, I told him he could borrow a swimsuit of mine.

  We went directly to the backyard. I left my friends by the pool and went upstairs to change and get Jason a suit. I took the phone out to check for messages when it buzzed with an incoming text.

  ‘Send a picture of your face.’

  I hesitated but finally sent a selfie and moments later a return text popped up. My heart felt like it stopped and my vision blurred for a moment.

  ‘This is Metrix. 2,9,2-1,4,1-5,10,2-4,8,3-1,5,2-4,8,3-2,2,4 1,2,4 1,1,1-1,3,1-1,1,2 4,8,3 1,1,2-1,3,1-1,1,2’

  That’s it. None of it made a single bit of sense, except the name. Metrix. Mady mentioned him in the letter, this was all connected somehow.

  I raced downstairs, phone clutched in my hand. I burst onto the deck and everyone looked up.

  “What now?” Jason pulled out his earbuds. The bass pounding faintly from the dangling ends.

  I showed them the text and brought them up to speed. I decided not to shut them out again because every time they found out something was going on and they weren’t in the know, they trusted me less.

  “That means we have more information. That’s good,” Kent said right away.

  “Yeah, but I have no idea what it means. He’s a hacker so it could have something to do with programing? I know they use 1’s and 0’s, but I’ve never heard of them using random combinations of numbers before.” It had already been hard enough to figure out that the number on the back of the note was a phone number. I couldn’t even begin to think how difficult it would be to decipher these numbers.

  “Guys, I know this sounds insensitive, but can we please, please, just have one normal day. That way I can hold onto that one normal thing in my summer,” Jessica said. Her black medium length hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was lounging on one of the deck chairs in the sun.

  I didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, of course. You guys deserve it. I really appreciate you all sticking with me through all this weird shit. I’ll keep quiet and try to figure things out. We can just chill here for the rest of the day.”

  After that, everything kind of went back to normal. We hung out by the pool until Mom came in. She promptly ordered pizza, and we stayed by the pool until the sun went down. Then we relocated to my basement and rented a movie. It felt like what summer should be. Good times with your friends. I did my best not to think about the Mady situation.

  That was the whole problem. Before, when I thought about Mady, I remembered a wonderful girl who took her own life for some unknown reason. Now, I thought about sneaking out late at night and hiding most of my daily life from my parents. I wonder if that’s what she was aiming for with all this hide and seek stuff. For us to remember her? The Mady I knew would never have done that, but if a fraction of what I learned about her in the past week was true, I never really knew who she was in the first place.

  After pizza and the movie, Jason, Jessica, and Kent left. I wandered upstairs to visit with Mom.

  Even though Mom was always willing to listen to whatever I had to say, I couldn’t share what was happening with Mady. For some reason, everything I was keeping secret seemed to be shoving me away from my parents and it didn’t feel like we were still a family. That somehow I was separate and apart from them. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t know how to change it either. Mady and her death had taken over my life, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell them about that.

  After chatting with Mom about nothing in particular, she went up to bed and I followed close behind. I had no idea how to start decoding the numbers and dashes. I couldn’t sleep until I tried though. The sooner I got started the better. I got ready for the night and looked under my bed. Shock and disbelief took my breath away. I shoved my arm under the bed and swept it back and forth. Where was the laptop? I glanced over my shoulder when a cool breeze chilled my back. The patio door was open. I know it was closed when I left earlier. I scrambled up and fished the flashlight out of my desk. I shone it under the bed and confirmed my worst fear. The laptop was gone.

  Chapter 10

  I fought back the nausea burning up my throat. How was I supposed to figure out what happened to Mady without it? How did someone even get in here? The lock. The damn lock. The lock on my door had been broken forever. Dad always said it was fine, nobody would be climbing up the side of the house to break into my room. Nobody had before. I charged to the bathroom and puked in the sink. How could I have let this happen? Why didn’t I hide it somewhere more secure?

  My first thought was to call Metrix. He obviously knew more about this than the rest of us. Maybe if I got a hold of him, he would know what to do. I went back to my room and grabbed my phone which was still sitting on my bed. The doors to my patio were open and I walked over and slammed them in a fit of fury.

  I sent Metrix a text.

  ‘The laptop’s gone.’ Fear and uncertainty twisted my gut. I had no idea who I was texting, but now I was reaching out to this person for help. It could be a girl for all I knew. Maybe this Metrix was really Mady trying to get a rise out of me. All I knew was I had to put my faith and trust in them and hope they knew what to do. They were my only link to Mady right now.

  The response came quick. I guess I should have expected it since Mady did say that he was a hacker. I assumed hackers were glued to their phones and laptops.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Gone. It was hidden. Someone broke into my room and took it.’

  ‘Not good. Really not good. Need to see you and explain in more detail. Tomorrow?’

  That was the last thing I expected. How much was really hidden on that laptop I hadn’t come across yet.

  ‘Noon?’

  ‘Where R U?’ If Metrix was as involved as it seemed, wouldn’t he know where I lived? I sent my address.

  ‘Flankstone? Never heard of it. Found city park on maps. Meet U there, noon’

  They’d never heard of Flankstone? Didn’t Mady say he’d hacked her before she met him? If so any hacker could easily track the IP address and find out where she lived. At least that’s what I expected from crime shows on T.V.

  ‘C U there’

  A
nd there it was. Now I wasn’t only talking to a stranger and sending them selfies I was setting up meetings with them. Of course, Jason and Kent would come with me, but how far would I have to go to get to the bottom of this?

  I went to bed then, I was tired after a long day in the sun. I drifted off to sleep quickly.

  My dreams were different. For the last little while I dreamed about Mady; past experiences like the times we went to the beach late at night, or the nights I needed to see her so bad I snuck out and drove to her house. Instead, that night I dreamed she was still here. The five of us all going down to the beach. Jason would feel left out since he was the only one without a girl. He’d comb the beach with his eyes, trying to find someone to flirt with. Jason and I had gotten much closer with Kent and Jessica since Mady died, and I could easily see Mady talking to Jessica about girl stuff while the guys threw the football around. The summer would feel like what it was supposed to feel like at sixteen. Fun and carefree.

  The morning came quick, Mom shook me awake as soon as the rays started to break through my blinds. I sat up and knew today would be hot. When my room was hot before the sun even peeked above the mountains the day would be a scorcher.

  I got out of bed and showered as fast as possible. Just as I was getting out of the bathroom the door closed behind Mom as she left. Perfect. I went back to my room and checked my phone. No text from Metrix, but there was a text from Jason.

  ‘Hey man, I think I figured out that clue! So far the clues have had something to do with one another; maybe that series of numbers has something to do with the note? I mean, maybe it’s some kind of code, and the words in the note mean different things? I don’t know yet. Just about to look online. I’ll let you know if I find anything.’ The time sent was 2 A.M.

  I assumed he hadn’t found anything yet since there were no further texts. Knowing Jason, he probably went to get his computer and decided he’d rather sleep than dive down the black hole that was the internet.