the chariot.

"i found it all in the house," nic muttered, motioning towards the kitchen table littered with audio listening devices. there was a hidden camera, that had been behind a clock. three audio recording devices that had been found throughout the house, including nic's bedroom, and an air tag from their car. everything had been disabled, and would soon be on it's way to the dump, but nic wanted to show william first. "i know it's not why you're here, but i wanted to let you know. we should probably tell the others, make sure they at least are aware of it."

running a hand through her hair, let out a sigh. this shit was way bigger then any of them had anticipated when they first got those texts. "i'm not even sure i got all of it. but i hope i did. anyway," nic started to walk towards her bedroom, motioning for william to join. "sorry about the freak out last night. it was a lot. but uh..." how did she explain what she was about to show him. "this is gonna be rough, okay? just... i'm sorry."

for someone who prided himself on being so observant, it had been a rude awakening to discover so many spy devices in his own home. one of which, though disguised within a clock, had been in plain sight! but the hit to his pride wasn't going to keep him from encouraging the spread of information. he was quick to nod in agreement with nic's suggestion, a statement of support immediately following.

"yeah, we should. liza and i found a bunch of these in our apartment last night too. there was a camera in our living room clock, plus listening devices there, in my room, and in the kitchen." a clear indicator that their stalker had money, but that was a conversation for another day. "they're in my car, actually. i didn't know what to do with them except... bring them to you."

he was tech savvy, and with some time he probably could have figured it out, but when you had someone in your circle whose job was dealing with technology, was it not better to just bring things right to the expert?

luckily, they didn't linger on the listening devices portion of their conversation for much longer. soon enough nic was leading william to their room, and though he brushed off her apology for freaking out at liza's party with an easy "you're so good," he could not as easily dismiss their warning and next apology. for that, he had no response. after all, how could he say anything without knowing what he was about to see? he remembered what they'd said the previous night, but it still didn't fully compute for him.

eyeing the shoe box in nic's hands with a curious tilt of the head, his intrigue grew exponentially the second she revealed a flash drive (a fascinating storage location for that!) and mentioned watching it on her old high school laptop.

obviously everyone needed to be highly suspicious of technology these days, but the last time he'd used a flash drive was... high school.

oh.

something bad happened at the cabin. i can't talk about it, but i can show you.

"okay," william nodded from where he'd settled, probably too calm all things considered. was he about to see something that was going to unravel the whole mystery? or was he going to watch something that made the tangled web they all found themselves in much worse? there was only one way to find out! "ready when you are."

despite feeling like he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, anthony was trying to make the best out of a really weird fucking situation. even his sisters had asked him about the party, to which he had to come up with some bullshit to placate all of their questions. it was torture. in spite of it all, ant, however, was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. everyone had made it through the party safe and alive, and above all, wren was free. for once, his daily runs were nothing but training, no longer an avenue for stress relief or silent planning about what he needed to do about the fucked up situation they’d all found themselves in.

as he rounded a corner on the trail, his watch buzzed to let him know he completed another mile. he slowed to a jog, planning to stop at the next bench he passes. however, anthony de silva, whose foot-eye coordination should be spectacular given his career in soccer, clips the toe of his sneaker onto a rising root in the trail, tumbling face first into the dirt.

“fuck,” he grunts, pulling himself up into a sitting position to examine the damage on his ankle, “fuck, fuck, fuck.”

but according to his doctors, fresh air and moderate exercise was supposed to help his healing journey. and sometimes william did decide to listen.

thus, the park. a little wandering. a small chunk of time specifically devoted to private reflection on the latest mystery that had been plaguing him. he wasn't lost in his thoughts, per se, but he was definitely distracted when he noticed someone else approaching.

seeing the man take a tumble snapped him out of things pretty quickly.

"damn, that sucks," william spoke up from where he was presently leaned against the side of a bench. and though his words were technically sympathetic, given that it was ant who mother nature had decided to temporarily strike down, there was a tinge of amusement that snuck its way into his tone.

luckily, he wasn't a total asshole. so after only a beat of hesitation (would anthony even say yes to his help?), william tossed out an offer... still from his spot next to the bench. "do you need help? or?"

"you know, i'm glad you didn't actually bring your whiteboard out into the middle of the woods for obvious reasons," jordan said to her best friend, sitting with her back against the base of a tree, not caring if the dirt below her left stains on her light colored jeans once she stood. logistical reasons, she meant. would the whiteboard even fit in his car, or would they have to drag it the entire way? "but, it is a shame because i do have some information to share." if she didn't share it as soon as possible, jordan worried she'd forget to tell him at all.

armed with news he was certain that jordan would appreciate, it was with a slowly fading smile that william took in what she was saying from their secluded (and phone free!) part of the forest. "i have something to share with you too," he volunteered, lowering himself to where she sat against a tree.

as much as he wanted to be the one to share first, given their present location and the number of unfortunate anonymous-texter-related incidents he'd personally had, there was no question that the mystery took top priority. william glanced behind him to make sure that they were truly alone before lowering his volume to a whisper, just in case.

"but you go first, obviously."

THE CHARIOT⟶ WILLIAM BELLAMY FINCH

nic nodded, glad that will had understood and stopped asking qusetion's. there was no use. nic wasn't going to answer them tonight. "and leave your phone in your car tomorrow. just in case." and just in case, nic was doing a sweep of their room tomorrow morning. checking for any kind of mics or other recording devices. actually, they were going to check their whole house, and their mom's car. and after that, make sure no one had somehow hacked into their computer. because there was no way in hell nic was going to risk anyone finding out what she was planned on showing will.

at his question regarding paige, nic nodded her head. "we used to play together when we were kids. before her family stopped talking to mine." before her dad was committed. before her family was considering an embarrassment. the dazeys were one of the only families in town who knew the truth, and they shoved the carson's aside like they were trash.

"i don't want them tracking my location either, so i'm just going to leave it at home," he admitted. and if he needed to take notes on anything nic was showing him? well, there was a reason he always had old school pen and paper on him.

intrigued by the paige dazey of it all, william listened intently as nic detailed gave a vague outline of their childhood spent together, a single quirked brow indicating his curiosity as to why the dazeys would have stopped talking to the carsons (growing up, he'd been in his own world, and had little time for town gossip). that felt like a question for another time, though, when the current focus of their conversation was now on paige. and her unexpected return.

her conveniently timed return.

was that not suspicious to anyone else?

“but we’ve kept in a little contact since then. birthday messages between then and now kind of things,” it was true, of course. every year she made sure to send a handmade birthday card to wherever he had been staying or living at the time. “i guess it was kind of weird after peyton... disappeared. to see me around or keep in contact but alex was great!”

clearing her throat, she pushed aside any feelings that dragged up in her, doing her best to once again, not make it awkward. at this point paige just thinks she is the awkward one. everyone else had moved on. who cared about a missing girl who had been gone for so long? “i just wanted to say that i think it’s great that you and your friends are doing this for liza,” she continued softly, this time her eyes moved to the fire before looking out towards the woods.

“the moment i set foot here the rumor mill was churning out nuggets of info and if even a little bit of it is true, i think it’s pretty amazing that you’re all trying to add a little happiness back into her life.” 

still, it was a little bit of a surprise that they'd kept in touch since she moved away. continuing a long-distance friendship through the rest of high school and into college was a serious commitment (william would know, given his elementary school penpal-ship with jordan!), which meant that alex must've truly cared about her. especially to still be trading birthday messages to this day. william wasn't about to be dismissive of that.

"it's not weird to keep in contact with your friends," he insisted, but he didn't offer much more of an opinion on that front (and he definitely avoided the topic of peyton). instead, he focused on alex. "but good to know that he's managed to maintain friendships in between practice and games at ut. from the family group chat, he always seems really busy." not that william participated in it much himself, but alex was his favorite brother. he kept tabs.

luckily, once that well of conversation had run dry, paige found her way to one that was much deeper. one mention of liza and the rumor mill and suddenly william, who had only been partly engaged before, was paying very close attention to the redhead beside him.

"yeah, well, we all care about liza," he insisted, even though none of them had actually planned the party for her (in their defense, based on their conversation earlier it was clear that she had not wanted one). still, the sentiment was true.

that wasn't the intriguing part of what paige had said, though, and soon enough william was shifting the conversation to focus on her later comment. "when did you set foot here?" was his first question, quickly followed by "rumors have a tendency to spiral, obviously, but i'm sure some of it is true. what have you heard?"

　　♡　　“ good because i was actually about to start quizzing you on that . ” an absent minded wave of her hand to the rest of the forest. “ pick up random sticks and get you to tell me how long they’d take to burn. ” though, realistically, she had no plans of leaving william’s embrace until they had gotten sick of the fire.

he always had a way of making things sound so convincing, being so sure in his words. often when he was talking through the facts of something. the toast repeated back, so sure and so solid, like it was another fact. sealed with the soft tap of their desserts.

there was something charming, so him in the way that asking georgia out started with for clarification. “ oh my gosh, william. ” but her words held nothing but laughter. “ you have to ask me properly. ” it was just a formality, considering they had been exclusive for months. the right moment just never came around.

despite the teasing, she fully believed he had found the right moment.

nothing would be truly perfect in their circumstances, so it was easy to ignore the fact it was a tag hosted event. it was everything else that made it right. a beautiful anecdote to share whenever someone asked how long they had been together. the kind the made you smile no matter how many times you had told it before.

was that... a thing? because he'd been in two relationships before (three if you counted his elementary school relationship with jordan, which he did not), and at no point had there been a formal declaration. with sarah, it had felt like an unspoken decision - they had been around each other enough, they were going to prom together... it was an assumption that became a reality. and then with his college girlfriend, at some point along the way, spurred on by their friends calling them boyfriend and girlfriend, they'd eventually adopted the terms themselves without much fanfare. both relationships had had definitive endings, but the start? had there been other key relationship steps he'd missed due to not knowing better?? and why had no one thought to advise him on this matter before???

all questions to answer another time, it seemed, because georgia's laughter seemed to indicate that at least she would say yes.

so, even though they were sitting at a campfire next to a cabin that held a whole lot of secrets, placed there specifically by an anonymous entity that had pushed him off a cliff and carrie'd them both, he did what she asked.

at least he was pretty sure he did. unless there was a secret other question he was supposed to be asking.

"georgia mei, will you be my girlfriend?"

"i'm hoping the same thing. sad that it's the better option," she sighs, taking a few steps away from william to gather her thoughts, "maybe it's time for you to show me your... extensive collection of post it notes."

for so long, he had been working in secret, attempting to solve the mystery all on his own. it had quickly become clear that there were too many pieces of the puzzle that were missing, and try as he might, his connection to several? most?? of those getting text messages was not strong enough to allow for him to do everything himself (disappointing, for someone so confident in his intellect!). the expansion of his trusted circle had happened quickly after that, first with nic and the creation of the board. then on valentine's day with jordan, georgia, and blythe.

they had not yet figured everything out, that much was clear. but the investigation had more or less been a rare group project success. and now, one confession later, they'd landed on a motive that felt solid. the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together, and though he didn't know all of them quite yet, they had the picture on the box for reference. once that puzzle was complete, they would be onto the next - unmasking the comedic/dramatic duo and ending things for good.

liza was one of the missing pieces in puzzle number one. and maybe, once she saw the board, she'd feel like volunteering some information...

"i agree," he tried to play it cool, even though he was pretty sure he was smiling. "but please know that i am planning on supplying you with new red yarn. and please do not judge the pictures of everyone that i chose to include."

she  had  drifted  through  the  night  like  a  moth  to  a  series  of  bright  bulbs.  the  bonfire  had  drawn  her  in  to  have  a  mini  breakdown,  and  then  randy  had  tempted  her  with  a  dance,  and  then  one  tilly  martin  endulged  in  a  whispered  conversation  about  the  sacred  laws  of  friendship.  now,  in  the  quieter  hum  of  the  cabin,  she  found  herself  chasing  a  different  kind  of  light:  the  signal  bars  on  her  phone.

she  held  the  device  against  the  wooden  beams  of  the  ceiling,  her  arm  extended  in  a  gesture  that  was  a bit of  hope,  and a bit of  resignation.  it  was  a  foolish  attempt  -  searching  for  connection  in  a  place  designed  for  its  absence.  the  screen  remained  stubbornly  blank,  a  void  where  her  instagram  feed  should  be.  a  sigh,  soft  and  almost  soundless,  escaped  her  lips.  just  as  she  was  about  to  lower  her  arm,  to  surrender  to  the  digital  silence,  a  voice  cut  through  her  thoughts,  gentle  and  observant.

a) he'd already pieced together what was going on, so unless blythe had a text specifically saying i know you did [fill in the blank] and i'm coming for you because of it (very unlikely!), they would not be particularly helpful.

b) she'd already admitted to receiving a text that lured her to the forest that night, so the confirmation he'd been looking for on that front had already occurred.

c) they did not know each other like that, and he needed to stay on the good side of one of georgia's best friends.

so, instead of scrolling when he picked blythe's her phone from her outstretched hand, william only briefly glanced at the screen. indeed, the progress bar was showing no progress whatsoever.

raising the phone straight into the air above his 6'3" frame, he kept it up there for a while with the hope that he was actually being helpful. and as he did so, he thoughtfully considered the girl's question.

"yes," was the answer he eventually arrived at. "i mean, you've seen the board, so i don't need to sugarcoat the situation. everything feels pretty purposeful, and good things don't usually happen at cabins in the woods in movies." realistically, he figured their mysterious friends had brought them all there for a sort of tell-tale heart confession from those involved. but could it be possible that that was all there was to the evening?

"then again, maybe they just wanted us to look like bad friends, to further the whole town pariahs thing we have going on. i don't think tilly will forgive me for ruining the surprise," he offered next, the slightly more optimistic alternative his way of counteracting his earlier doom and gloom thoughts.

nic wasn't going to get into the how or why she could show him what happened that night. this wasn't the place. and god knows who was listening. so yeah, they weren't going to answer will's first question. but they could answer the second.

nic shook her head no, begging that will would be able to trust her for the night and remain normal until tomorrow when they could meet up. "no, not now. but," another breath in and out, "come to my place tomorrow. i'll explain more then."

as he shifted them so she wasn't starring directly at the looming reminder of the worst night of her life, nic felt some of the weight start to lift of their shoulders. "i don't want to say too much. incase they're listening." another breath in and out. then a third.

slowly nic was starting to feel the tightness in their chest loosen. but their body still felt hot and sweaty. "what the fuck is paige dazey doing here?" nic finally asked after a few minutes of silence. her mind could not stop coming back to paige, and her reason for being in town.

that was definitely not something that one wanted to hear when one's curiosity was piqued, so even though it was incredibly frustrating, william understood the situation. as had been made very clear that evening, there was no safe spot in wrensted to have a private conversation. and given that they'd obviously all been summoned to the cabin in the woods by their anonymous tormentors, they probably needed to let the night play out before regrouping in the light of day.

fingers crossed that they both made it out unscathed...

"okay," william agreed, his nod both an acknowledgment of his acceptance and that they'd had the same line of thinking (something that seemed to be the case more often than not!).

"you're right. it does seem as though we should proceed with the night under the assumption that our little friends can hear everything. but i'll be there tomorrow. in the morning."

relieved that the shift in their positions seemed to have his desired effect, william let the silence settle semi-uncomfortably between the two. until, of course, nic brought up paige again.

　　♡　　georgia knew of william’s brothers, the way any cheerleader would wrensted legacy athletes .  that obviously didn’t include a boy scouts history. the mental image of trying to pass on the knowledge with a seriousness that only kids could possess, like they were the only ones who knew how important the matter at hand was. purposeful antagonising that georgia had heard was a given when it came to siblings.

even as the packet of graham crackers sat in her lap, georgia’s attention held steady on william through his story. unlike the usual way she’d do a million things at once. as if missing a single word would have been the worst thing.

not because of them. the fantastic finches couldn’t matter less to georgia. william finch, as a a boy with brothers, mattered more.

“ you guys both have that whenever you make smores. ” were any of them the kind to have smores regularly ? probably not. but that didn’t take away from the truth of it. “ and that’s kind of better, right ? we both know you probably could do anything. ” he had proven that to her. every time she got to see him in his element, but especially when he stepped into hers.

finally, she resumed the moves to assemble the treat, eyes glancing up every so often as she watched william do the same. “ plus, when was the last time one of them got to teach you anything ? ” what would have been a playful nudge to shoulder was admittedly pretty lacklustre considering the lack of space between them. a sacrifice worth making.

the last cheers . . . well, it had kind of worked. it was definitely a night to remember. it was just that last bit that seemed to get a little lost in translation. for all the right reasons. apparently beggars can’t be choosers ! but a bad middle of the night ( considering the end had technically been alone in william’s room ) was no reason to dampen the mood of a night that seemed to be normal. as normal as they could get.

"i suppose," he conceded to her that's kind of better, right? point. "i guess i also know how long it takes for a stick of a particular size to catch fire, if the conditions are right. so, i learned new things from both of them."

and he would think of them every time he had s'mores. just like, moving forward, he would think of georgia.

giving their toast the attention it deserved, william was relieved that this time around he was not the one actually coming up with the words. clearly, he'd done it wrong before, because their apple juice toast on valentine's day had backfired spectacularly, his specifying all the right reasons to the mystical, magical powers of the universe that he did not believe in unsurprisingly getting lost in translation.

but this time around, the toast georgia was proposing felt more realistic, something absolutely in their control. "to being in it together," he repeated, his words a promise.

knocking their desserts against each other, william didn't immediately move to eat his once they separated, aware of the fact that it was still too hot to consume. he just needed thirty additional seconds of sitting contentedly before he took a bite.

considering the situation, nic appreciated the way william was trying to help them. but to be honest, telling her to focus on her breathing wasn't exactly doing much. still, nic tried to follow his instructions and not think about anything else.

as she opened her eyes and looked at him, with the cabin looming behind, she knew thinking about something else was not a possiblity in this moment.

head falling between their legs, nic continued to breath, holding up finger as if to silently ask william to give them a moment to get their shit in check. after a few seconds, nic looked back up at her friend as she tried to push down tears. "something bad." there was a sense of sadness and fear clawing to get out of her throat but nic became quite once more. yeah, they had turned off their phones, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone nearby watching, or listening. leaning in closer, nic kept their voice as low as possible. "i can't... i can't talk about it." a pause, more for her to decide if the next words were truly going to come out of her mouth. but they had to, there was no point in hiding anymore. no more pretending. secrets like this didn't stay buried. "but i can show you."

what was she about to tell him? how badly was their friendship about to be tested?

apparently that was a question for another day, because after being told it was something bad (yes! true!), the only thing she said was that she couldn't talk about it but she could show him.

what??

"what do you mean?" he asked, but this time his confusion was genuine. how could they show him? "like... now?"

as much as liza doesn't want to be at the party, she's not sure if she's more scared of what's waiting inside or outside of it. she's been waiting for the other shoe to drop all night, why else would they all be gathered here? murdering them all in front of so many people feels unlikely, but not impossible, though there was always the possibility that the real danger lied with leaving the party. no matter what move they make it seems like it'll be the wrong one.

"so um... the thing that it texted me about, it was something that musa and i had talked about in person. when he was over the night of the dance," she pauses, not wanting to sound ridiculous despite how insane everything already was, "i know it might be our phones, but what if like— what if they put something in our apartment? i feel like maybe we shouldn't sleep there until we look. and also we should probably research some sort of security system."

but by workshopping it later, liza really did seem to mean later, because her transition to discussing their anonymous haters had william forgetting all about leaving. she wasn't wrong. their apartment could have been bugged (especially since someone wasn't so great at locking the door). but if that was the case, then the anonymous haters knew exactly where he, nic, and the rest of the snoop troop had been in their investigation.

...was that what had prompted this birthday surprise?

it was a headache-inducing train of thought, and william briefly closed his eyes to think through how to address everything she'd just said.

"i hate that i'm hoping it was the phones," he muttered, eyes briefly trained to the sky before he looked back at liza. "so, we look tonight. figure out the security system thing tomorrow. keep our phones with volume up locked away in the bathroom or something, so we can reach them in case something happens but our number one fans don't have a chance to listen in."