The Conspiracy Theory of June 17

by Alessia Holmes

  He smiles and shakes his head. "Oh Alessia," he says. "There's a lot you don't know about me- "

  "GUYS!"

  Both Damon and I jump up in our places and turn around.

  Jessie's standing there, in casual sleepwear, an excited yet nervous look crossing her face.

  "I think I've got it!" She tells me. Turning around to Damon, she says, "Remember when we got that box with the clothes back in the – well, the future?'

  "Yeah yeah yeah," he nods wildly, frowning.

  "Mrs Mitzeegh," she practically yells, "It was her clothes!"

  "No way," I say. Jessie refutes my answers by wildly nodding.

  "Yes way. Damon, that picture you showed us of Mrs Mitzeegh just then over dinner – those same clothes were in the box!"

  "Oh my god," says Damon, acting surprised, but when I looked at him, he didn't look like he was that enthusiastic.

  "So what do we do now?" I ask, clambering to my feet. Damon follows me up.

  "I don't know yet," she says, "but we need to tell Mrs Renee ASAP."

  "Right," I say, and start to walk vigorously behind Jessie, following her back to the hotel.

  But before we can go, I hear a loud splash from behind me. As I flip around, I notice Damon's absence.

  It can't be. Is it?

  As Jessie and I walk back to the edge of the pitch-black river, we see a spluttering Damon bobbing up and down, tendrils of hair stuck to his wet face, glistening in the moonlight.

  I can't help but giggle as Jessie rolls her eyes.

  13.

  A loud knock at the door wakes Jada from her peaceful slumber. The first two times she ignores it, drifting back into sleep, but the third time it sounds annoyingly deafening and urgent. Groaning, she drags her half-asleep body out of the bed. She quickly fixes her shirt and runs a hand through her wild hair before answering the door.

  "Jada." In the darkness Drew is camouflaged, the whites of his eyes the only thing lighting up. "We need to go. Now."

  Jada senses the urgency in his shaky voice, so she grabs a jacket before heading out the door. She doesn't even bother to look back to check it the door is closed.

  It would be an understatement to say that Jada trusted Drew with her life. They'd known each other their entire lives. She wasn't a dependent or a passive person at all – but she believed every word he said, and especially in these situations where he was more experienced than her, she believed he could lead her in the right direction.

  Of course, there's always that dangerous feeling of hopelessness and fear if he wasn't, in fact, the person he posed as, but she always pushed that thought away.

  Likewise, Jada pushes all thoughts of doubt and confusion to the back of her mind and walks fast behind Drew.

  She wonders where they're going, where the others are. So far, they've walked many metres away from the hotel, both of them now walking in the dark, quiet streets of Edinburgh. Occasionally a dim streetlight manages to light up parts on the street, but in no way illuminates the streets like moonlight would.

  The cold air pricks at Jada's bare face, and she wonders one last time where they are actually headed – and more importantly, whether the rest of the team are.

  At this point Drew abruptly stops, snapping Jada out of her thoughts and the rhythm of her walking, left right left.

  "Where-" she starts, but the silence is interrupted by Drew's phone.

  He, much to Jada's surprise, reluctantly grabs it out and answers it slowly. The person on the other end of the line is audible to Jada, but unintelligible.

  Drew practically shouts down the line, "I'm out, okay, Kevin! I'm not doing it! Get someone else to!"

  After a couple of angry mutters from the other side Drew hangs up. He places in neatly in his pocket and turns around.

  Jada frowns and crosses her arms. "What was that all about?"

  Drew almost cowers at her remark. "Um," is all he says before Jada hears another group of voices from behind her.

  "Jada! Drew! Is that you?"

  ∞

  I run up to Jada, who turns around to stare at us in shock. "I thought you guys were-

  "I thought you guys were- " Jessie stops. I look at both Jada, and Drew, one by one. Behind me, Damon starts to talk but I interrupt him.

  "Ok, whatever, you're here now. Here's the deal - we're going to 218 Murdoch Street again. Mrs Renee, Flynn and Shayleigh are not here right now, obviously, but we've filled them in, so they'll catch up."

  Drew nods and Jada comes to stand beside me, giving Drew an evil eye. I don't ask.

  The five of us now walk quite haphazardly across the road, all eager to get to the address once more. Damon runs over to the footpath and stops, and we follow him over.

  Once we all arrive, panting, I shake my head in disbelief as I stare at the shop – well, what once was a shop.

  A tall building made of sparkling glass-like crystals stare back at me. Inside, all the lights are on, and the grand floor is full of people, dressed in red carpet attire. The weirdest thing about this is that it's the only building in the street that's practically glowing and busy with people.

  "Well, what do you know?" I say, turning my head to look at Damon, smiling. "You were right. It is a- what do you call it?"

  "A shifting reality."

  "A what what?" Remarks Jada.

  "A place that changes its form. It's the same address," Damon explains, "but someone is changing - controlling, rather – what it becomes."

  "Why? And why change it now?" I ask.

  Damon shrugs. "I don't know for sure. But my theory is that maybe they're doing this to protect the real identity of this place – 218 Murdoch Street. Guys, I think we've done it. We've found headquarters."

  The realisation comes as a shock to us, and most of seem like we don't believe him. But it seems so obvious now. Whether it be headquarters or not, someone – whoever that is – wanted us to come here all along. The letter that Jessie and Damon got was addressed here. The robbery happened here as a distraction so we could go in and realise the rest of the team was waiting for us, and Mrs Renee was able to bring Jessie and Damon here using that address. Only when Damon recognised it as a potential headquarters site – which none of us really thought of – is when this place changed from a jewellery store, to whatever it was now. A hotel, by the looks of it.

  "Well, I guess this is it. Let's go," I say, with as much confidence that I can muster, and lead the team inside.

  Now, at this point I must explain something about myself. In crowds, I like to kind of blend in – especially in social situations where I don't know many people there. Very rarely I'll like to be the centre of attention amongst strangers.

  But today, my wishes have not been answered.

  People's confused and annoyed gazes are directed right at us as we walk in. I feel my face heat up as a woman, clad in a sparking golden gown and adorned with jewels, stares at me, her intense glare boring into my skull. I avoid eye contact with her and instead look at Jessie, who's walking next to me with her head down, like everyone else in the team.

  We stand in front of a man in a black suit sitting behind the counter, his face expressionless. As he looks up at us, he too stares, but with the same black expression on his face.

  "Um, hi," I try to say as enthusiastically as possible.

  Now what?

  "We were wondering if..." I trail off, mainly because I have no idea what to ask him. I slowly give Jessie a sly side-eye in a desperate attempt for help.

  "You," Jessie starts, looking at me and then at the man behind the desk. "could find someone for us."

  The man continues to stare at us again, before answering in the most robotic voice possible, "How old are you kids?"

  "We're fourteen," I say, causing the guys behind me to shuffle a little. I mentally slap myself when I realise.

  Really, Alessia?

  He opens his mouth to speak again. "Yep, I'm not surprised. You think this is some joke?" He stands up and his voice
starts to become less and less robotic and louder and angrier. "Didn't you see the sign? No minors allowed. That means no one under 18. What's more, you come dressed in the most inappropriate attire."

  My heart starts to pound this time as everyone comes to face us. A whirlwind of emotions run through me – frustration, annoyance, doubt...

  But as I open my mouth to say something, the unthinkable happens. Again.

  I hear a deafening bang, and as reflex I cower, raising my arms above me. When I finally look, the man is gone, and all the celebrity looking people are gone too.

  Mrs Renee comes from behind the wall before the counter, surprising us all. What really surprises us, though, is in her hand is a gun.

  But there's no body...

  "I didn't kill him," she says. "He wasn't a human, he was actually a mix between a spirit and a robot. I shot him, but that didn't kill him, it just-got rid of it, I guess. He was controlling all those other spirits. This is not a real gun, by the way." she says, pointing the gun whatever it is, at us.

  I slowly nod. For some reason, I'm not surprised, and neither is anyone else. We've all just gotten used to uncovering things like spirit robot things along the way.

  Yeah, this is...pretty normal.

  "So, this is it," she says. She gives us all a warm smile. "We did it, team. We made it to headquarters."

  For the first time in a long time during our time in Scotland, all of us smile in relief and pure happiness. I feel a connection between all of us as we stand in the brightly lit room, brought together by the mere notion of haven got somewhere finally.

  But of course, in amongst the excitement of finally finding an explanation, there is always that feeling of anxiety and slight fear in what we'll uncover as the truth. Because you know what they say...

  The truth is always stranger than fiction.

  14.

  Amelia blinks furiously as bright white interrogation lights are shone on her face.

  "Amelia Nguyen, do you admit in working with the CSS at any point in your life?"

  "No!" She yells, eager to get the interrogation over with.

  "You don't associate yourself with any of these people –

  "No," she tried to yell as hard as she could, but she could only create a small croak that shoved its way out of her throat. Her soul was being taken away slowly.

  "Amelia," This time, the voice sounded soothing, angelic, almost...like...

  "Amelia, dear, you must save yourself. Don't make the same mistake I did. People don't always pay you back when you do good things, and it'll pain you to watch them in the afterlife."

  Hot tears ran down Amelia's face and trailed down onto her collarbone.

  "I don't..." she whispers, "...I don't know them."

  Her heavy eyelids start to droop. The last thing Amelia hears is the sound of a female voice, screaming, begging her to stop.

  She's always wanted to join her mother in the afterlife.

  ∞

  As we walked downstairs and started walking through a long corridor, each person behind the other with almost synchronised steps, I got that same feeling that I had when we first got on the train, on our way to the airport. That excited, my-childhood-dreams-are-becoming-a-reality kind of feeling. That feeling I've been longing ever since the conspiracy started.

  "Ok, so one might say I know my way around this joint quite well," Mrs Renee explains as she's walking in front of us, her voice bouncing off the steel walls. "Before I started the CSS, I was part of their club. There was only one club back then, though. That's before the 'schism' happened. Obviously, that’s when they started hiding this place."

  Literally everyone, including me, cast our minds back to when it was explained to us what the 'conspiracy' actually was. I remember it was that day after English, that 'meeting', where Mrs Renee first explained it to Jessie, Jada and I.

  "So, everyone just follow me, and I think we'll be right."

  We nod and murmur in agreement.

  Soon enough we come to the end of the corridor, as Mrs Renee stops and takes out a key from her pocket.

  "Is this it?" Damon asks, peering over my shoulder to look at the front.

  Mrs Renee stops and looks back. "Really, Damon?" She smiles and shakes her head gently. "No, of course this isn't it. We have the most foolproof form of security to make sure no one not part of the team gets in. Remember the motto..."

  "...always a secret, never a secret." Damon finishes for her. Drew looks at Damon and nods, while the three of us (Jessie, Jada and I) exchange glances of confusion and mild amusement.

  Hang on a second...

  "Mrs Renee!" I practically shout as a sudden realisation hits me. Mrs Renee's body jumps and she immediately turns around.

  "We're missing Shayleigh and Flynn!"

  I can hear everyone's audible gasps and Mrs Renee slaps her forehead.

  "How could we forget two whole people!"

  After a couple of seconds of standing there looking distressed Mrs Renee finally tells us with much hesitation, "We're going to have to keep going unfortunately. We can't risk having this place change place again, and us having to start all over again. It's a shame, though."

  "Yeah," I say. "I know this is a wild statement, but maybe they're already here?"

  Everyone looks at me as if I'm mad.

  I shrug my shoulders. "Hey, just trying to make it a little better."

  After all that commotion Mrs Renee gets back to her opening of the door. She was right when she said that they have heavy security – because as she unlocks the door, it opens another door! Just like that. I can't help but compare it that scene from Alice in Wonderland.

  The next door is not supposed to be opened with a key, but a code. Mrs Renee stands back and looks at us five after staring at the door for a few seconds. "Any ideas?"

  "I've got one," I say, much to everyone's surprise (and to mine, too). "It's a wild guess, but it's worth a try."

  I press in the numbers 1716 into the code and press enter. I can feel everyone's pressure on me as we wait for an outcome.

  Denied.

  "Oh," I say, disappointment and a little embarrassment taking over. "Never mind."

  "Wait." Jada steps forward. "Try using a dot in the middle."

  I look at Mrs Renee again, who just nods. "Yeah, go again."

  Approved.

  "Oh yes!" I say, and then high-five Jada and Jessie.

  I pull that door open again, and what do know, it's yet another door. This time, this one requires a password to unlock. I groan internally, and I think I can feel Jada doing the same as well.

  "Any ideas this time, Alessia?"

  "Hmm," I rack my brain for ideas, and look at everyone else in the process. They all just stare back at me with the same look on their faces.

  "Oh look, there a clue button," Mrs Renee steps forward and points to a tiny circular green button. "Actually, it could be anything."

  "What if it's, like, a self-destruct button?" Says Damon. We all roll our eyes.

  "Well, whatever it is, I'm going to press it." Seeing as no one objects, I gently press the button in. For a second nothing happens, but then the wooden door starts to shake ever so slightly.

  Oh no. Have I done something wrong?

  As if by magic (I mean, it does exist now) slowly a carving beneath the screen starts to appear. I stare in wonder for a couple of seconds, and the realising I have to read it, I say out loud,

  "What's something that's never around when you need it, eg. During assessment time?"

  My voice is met only with silence. I slowly turn around to face everyone.

  "Ok, let's break this down," Damon begins. "What's something you have to do in assessment time?"

  "Do your assignment, or study for an exam," Jessie starts. "Assignment or exam?"

  "Could be either," I say, my brain pondering on other thoughts. "Wait. I think we have to think smaller. What about something that you do to your assignment or exam that really obvious and we don't think a
bout?"

  Everyone looks at me weirdly again, but thankfully Jessie answers almost too fast. "Stapling. Stapler. Does the passcode have seven spaces?"

  "It does," I say, after turning around to the door again. "I'm going to try it."

  "Alright, this better be it. We've spent way too much time standing out here." Damon remarks.