“You’re right. I’m not going to lie; you’ve really ticked me off. I’m not saying no, I’m in. All the way.” Vukosava goes over to Mary, who’s still staring in shock at the television, her old hands folding over her tender heart. “Could I please head off early, I need to make sure everything at home is alright.”

  “Of course, dear, please be careful out there.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around, miss.” John adds darkly.

  As they head out the door, John brings her up to speed.

  “There’s a couple things that we noticed in the recordings, the monsters are all there. Usually, when they’re pulled back into their world, nothing should linger behind. On Marcus’ camera that wasn’t the case, the energy that Nathen and Harley keep prattling on about is still there.”

  “If energy still lingers, it’s because of what happened.” Vukosava walks forwards reflectively.

  “Right.” John hovers around her.

  “Memories and moments can st years.”

  “You don’t trust our ghost spotters?”

  “We need solid evidence, if people are going missing, then that means.”

  John’s eyes widen instantly. “You got to be fucking kidding me; the seal isn’t working! Have we been pyed?”

  “There’s only one thing we can do.” Vukosava walks over to her car, flinging her lunch bag into the backseat. “We need to go back to the scene. Where everything happened.”

  “First, we’ll stop over at my pce, the rest of the gang is there waiting for us.”

  “So, it’s one gang now, not two?”

  “I figured after the mess we got ourselves into, all we have is each other. That Carlos guy made up the whole gang violence bullshit to cover his own ass, and now he’s got an even bigger problem now.” John prattles off quickly as they round the corner going onto the main road, away from the library. It’s getting cloudier with each passing moment – there’s not been enough heat to justify this sudden switch. But she can’t pay attention to it now. “The footage we have might be worth nothing, but it’s a start.”

  “Where is this pace of yours, on the other side of the country?” Vukosava asks dryly.

  John rolls his eyes. “It’s by the river, just out of town.”

  “You gathered everyone up. It must’ve been hard.”

  “It was. I didn’t think my life would end up like this, the same goes for the others.”

  “We made our choices, now we got to lie in them.” Vukosava takes a deep breath as she stops at the lights in front of her local shopping mall. “We got the rest of the afternoon to do it – I’ll start sifting through the footage. I reckon we’re dealing with something else, not the prince or his dogs.”

  “You reckon they’ve been had?” John ponders aloud.

  “The Red Queen has a vendetta against them. If they’re on the loose, that means things have really hit the fan.”

  As Vukosava follows his directions down to his house, she’s blown away. It’s a two story, with a tennis court and swimming pool in the back, along with a small disused dock for a jet ski. It’s a postmodern designer's dream, with a ton of artistic fir on the inside in the form of paintings and soft carpets. Under the television, crackling away constantly is a small firepce.

  “Hey, guys!” John calls out. “I got Vukosava. Hurry your asses down here.”

  Nathen nods in my direction. “It’s good that you’re here. We need an expert.”

  Harley and Amber stand together.

  James tilts his head to the side. “An expert, seriously Nathen? The expert we need right now is a psychologist or a straitjacket. I just can’t get over this.”

  “Neither can I.” Vukosava replies honestly. “But we got stuff to do. The longer we take, the more people get caught up in this. What were each of you able to get out of the footage?”

  Nathen folds his hands together. “To make a long recording short, we got confirmation of the dogmen on camera. And that’s about it – we don’t have evidence that points to anything else being able to manifest into our reality. I’ve been pulling at straws for hours since then, trying to figure out if anything in the footage pointed to the seal weakening beforehand.”

  “That’s not a bad theory.” Vukosava looks over to Amber briefly.

  “Harley then mentioned your camera, when it was dropped and left down there.” Nathen confirms quickly with a tight nod in her general direction. “Somehow, it still had a decent charge on it, and the footage remained partially uncorrupted.”

  “I nabbed the thing.” John adds quickly. “Stowed it somewhere safe - figured the other shoe would’ve been too obvious.”

  “We’ve been trying to decipher it, ever since.” Amber waits for him to finish before talking, she is barely legible, more like a ghost than a living person. Vukosava couldn’t stand seeing her like this – to have a life completely torn apart by circumstances that shouldn’t have happened at all. “But we need you.”

  “Give me a notebook, an A4 one, and I’ll get started on breaking it down.” Vukosava couldn’t fix the past but if there’s one thing she’s fixing for sure, it’s the future. She’ll stop at nothing to achieve it. John goes over to his 4K television, complete with surround sound and high definition, Marcus’ camera is connected up to it. He picks up the remote and starts pying through the recording. John is struggling emotionally, Vukosava can tell, his hand is shaking.

  Gregory’s camera wouldn’t offer much but horrific cruelty. Vukosava can still hear the crunch, the crack of bones. With a firm shake of her head, her pen starts running across the pages.

  John’s eyes start scrunching up, as he’s holding back his tears. “You want to get a full picture right?”

  “I’ve already gotten all the confirmation I need. Please, go to the next recording.”

  As the hours burn away. Vukosava’s hands were ridden with ink.

  “Okay, I’ve got the general picture. At least most of it. John, I need you to go back to when the camera was dropped on our end. There’s something I need to verify.”

  “What are you verifying, Vic?” Harley cuts in.

  “When the Eternal Prince was summoned, the dogmen followed suit, the accounts of where they emerged after death is up to specution. After helping Lord Harald Vestris obtain the throne of Avaron, according to the World History Archive in 739, one year before the war officially ended. They were granted a favorable position, as officers of the w, once they betrayed that post - they were executed.” Vukosava leans forwards in her comfortable, custom-made leather chair. Her specutions are chilling her to the bone; it’s right in front of their eyes. “Their execution took pce in the summer of 765, it seems in our case they emerged from their pce of mortal death. The Red Queen is a very powerful entity, capable of really strong magic. But when a powerful figure is summoned into the real world, what do you think is stopping other entities from jumping at the opportunity? The door is open.”

  “So, it’s all connected is what you’re saying?” Harley curses loudly.

  “Yes. Those speckles of dust that are flying over the camera, those shadows. That’s not just a coincidence.” Vukosava mutters with a bit of anger.

  “There’s one other thing, the quality started to drop, the resolution.”

  Vukosava nods slowly, as she takes the remote from John’s hand, pausing it just as the camera’s charge is running out. Without hesitation, she looks down for the surround sound function, turning it up as high as it can go. The audio is full of static, as if the battery is corroding with every passing moment. It’s then that the group nods grimly, no doubt they’ve heard this a million times.

  “Well, investigator, do you have some insane revetion about this?” Harley asks sternly.

  She gets up from her spot, walking over to Marcus’ camera. She removes the lens, examining it closely. “No. The resolution dropping could be connected to a great number of things, narrowing it down is difficult. There’s no practical way we can do that – we need to look into the disappearances.”

  “We got started on that.” Nathen shrugs helplessly. “All the news anchors are saying the exact same thing.”

  Vukosava states gently. “There’s one avenue that we can depend on. YouTube.”

  James sniggers. “What if they’re just looking to make a quick buck, capitalise on a trend?”

  Amber interjects firmly, holding a tissue to her face. “We have to view every source we possibly can. We cannot afford to leave anything out.”

  “Amber’s right. We can’t afford to start picking and choosing, we need to get through all of it.” John agrees. “Let’s get to work, people, we got a lot of shit to catch up on.”

  As they start delving into the internet full throttle, John takes time to ring his family. “Hey, mum, I have friends over. Yeah, don’t worry, the pce won’t be a mess after you and dad get back. Love you too, bye.”

  After working well into the night, with the television going off and the glow of computer screens burning into their eyes, they fall asleep. Exhaustion and old wounds eating away at their stamina, the carpet is soft, and the sound of the river makes it too easy to drift off. Tomorrow, they’ll be able to start again.

  For some, it’s a restful night. For Vukosava and Amber, it’s a completely different story.

  Vukosava didn’t know what to say. “Hey.”

  “You look almost as bad as I feel.”

  “Almost. You had it way harder than me, Amber.”

  “I know you took it hard; we all did. I see him, you know, all those moments stuck on repeat. I smile, then I cry all over again. I’ve had enough of crying; I want that guy and his dogs to pay. If I could’ve had my hands on them.” Amber is starting to shake, Vukosava holds her close.

  “I know. I want those bitches to pay. But Marcus – he wouldn’t want you to become consumed by wanting revenge, because he knows that’s not you. He didn’t want you to experience that.”

  “Why? Why can’t I have my moment, why do I have to be like this?”

  Those words dig deep into Vukosava’s heart.

  “I couldn’t even fight him, let alone stop that prick from having his way.” It’s the first time in a long while that Amber’s sworn. “And it’s not just Marcus; there’s two more people that were ripped away because of him. Gregory and Barry. I’ve spoken to their siblings, to their parents about all of this. I want them to die. I want all of them to burn.”

  There’s tears, but there’s no mistaking it for sorrow. There’s one pce where those with sadness go, rage. She wasn’t there to give Amber a shoulder to lean on, wasn’t there to hold her close when she needed her the most. Vukosava promises quietly to herself, she won’t leave any of them on their own again. She’ll fight alongside them.

  “Listen, I’m not going anywhere, whatever happens next. I won’t leave you.”

  “Can we avenge them? Can we pay those bastards back?”

  “We will. I swear on my life. I need you to promise me something, Amber.”

  “Okay.”

  “Please, don’t allow those things to change you. The prince, the queen, his dogs.”

  “Do you really think I can promise you something like that, Vukosava, do you really think I can swear on my soul that I won’t feel this way? That I won’t change?”

  “We want you to be the Amber that we all love. That Marcus cherished. You are precious to all of us – and I know that he’d want you to live your life to the fullest. Even if he wasn’t a part of it.” Vukosava is still holding onto Amber, patting her back gently as if she were a child.

  Amber lets out a long sigh, all the tension escaping for just a moment.

  “I know. He was such a moron, but I liked him for it. I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything.”

  “That’s the best answer you could give.” Vukosava squints as the sun rises on the horizon. “This damn guy’s got a piece of paradise, doesn’t he?”

  “He does.”

  “I’m going to wake the sleeping beauties. After breakfast, we should be good to head out.”

  “Go to the physical locations?” Amber enquires.

  “It’s one thing to view it from behind a screen, it’s another to be on the scene.”

  John groans from his position on the sofa, rubbing at his eyes. “Can someone close the blinds? I haven’t slept long enough.”

  Nathen and James give consequential grunts from the carpet.