I Know What You Did Last Summer

"Sir, here's your key. You're room is A-610. Welcome to Calgary, Canada. Enjoy your stay!"

As if I would enjoy my stay here if I'm running away. I grabbed my key and went straight to my hotel room. It's been 3 months since that squalid incident happened.

I didn't mean to do it. We didn't do it.

I opened the door and scanned the room. It's huge. But my guilt tells me that I don't deserve any of this. Why? Why didn't I tell the truth to the police?

My conscience is eating me. I can't hide this lie forever.

I took a long warm shower to shake off all the negativities. Now what? I flew miles away from home just to cover up the truth.

When I became satisfied I went to the closet but there was a piece of paper lying inside.

I picked it up. It wasn't there when i fixed my clothes awhile ago.

It is an old piece of vellum with tattered edges. But the smell is strangely different from it's appearance. It smells like fresh mint.

I opened it and felt a shiver crept up and down my spine. This can't be real. It must be a mistake or a coincidence.

What a huge coincidence.

"~Ekim. Ohce. Ohce. Ognat.~ Ekim. Ohce.~ Arreis. Ohce. Rotciv. Ohce. Rebmevon. Apap. Ekim.~ Ahpla. Apap. Racso. Atled. Racso. Eilrahc. Letoh. Aidni.~ Eilrahc. Ahpla. Tortxof. Ohce.~ "

This isn't right. Who sent this? Is someone watching me right now? Who sent this damn note?

Tina.

Only Tina can give me this code. Only the two of us are aware of this. It used to be our secret note when we don't want our parents to know what's happening in our lives.

But this can't be right. Tina's dead.

She went missing 3 months ago. Well, that's what they're thinking. But I know, what really happened. She already died.

I got dressed and got out of the hotel immediately. I hailed a cab and told him the place.

"Apodochi Cafe? Are you sure sir?"

"Yes, I am. Can we hurry up?"

This is weird. I'm losing my temper again. Who might've sent that?

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Did you know that the cafe closed years ago? It's an abandoned house now."

"Oh. I'll just meet someone there."

We went eerily quiet and I can feel my pulse and hear my heartbeat loudly.

We stopped at an abandoned small house-like structure. There was no other building in sight. The cafe stood there alone. The place is giving me chills. I gave the driver the money and asked him to keep the change.

7 p.m.

Please tell me this must be a joke. Why am I even here? Maybe the note's just nothing. A simple coincidence.

I went inside. It's thrice the size of my room way back in Hawaii. The place's rusty and old. The smell of metal mixed with dust came through my nostrils. But there's also a hint of fresh mint.

"Eiram! Don't be silly! Mom and dad are gonna find out!"

"Oh come on, Tina. They won't, just keep it a secret."

Blood went out of my whole body. I'm as white as milk .

There in the projector screen, a video is playing. It was a video made by Tina when I was in 10th grade and she's in 9th.

She caught me bringing a girl home when our parents are out of town. She opened the door of my room and caught me kissing Kat. Tina laughed hysterically and my one-day girlfriend walked away.

"You know what? When I die, you should play all of our crazy videos at the funeral."

"Very funny, Tina. Now, Out!"

Then the video ended. There was no funeral. Because they thought you went missing. Tina, I'm sorry.

Another video started.

"Eiram! Tell your friends to get the hell out of my room! Wait, are you recording this?!" She went after me. Even my friends, Vin and Kris, joined the fun. We were young, careless and happy.

Several other videos played. Just stop it, please. It's torturing me. A tear escaped from my left eye. I'm sorry.

"Hi there, Eiram."

A creepy laugh echoed the abandoned building. This can't be real. No. Please no.

"Turn around, brother."

I turned around. There she is, with her chocolate brown straight hair still nicely combed, still wearing the dress when that incident happened. She walked towards me, but I stepped back.

"Oh. Why, brother? Should I record this too? Aren't you gonna give me a welcome hug?"

"Tina?"

Streams of tears fell from my eyes. I can't control them anymore. She gave me a sinister smile. She's real. She's here. No one knows what happened last summer, except for Vin, Kris, Tina and I. I've been keeping it for too long. That summer wasn't supposed to happen.

"Tina? Aren't you..."

I can't compose myself to ask her the question.

"Dead? Am I supposed to be dead? I'm just glad you still remembered the code."

I can't find the right words to say. All these months, I've been running away because of my guilt, because of what we did. But here she is, alive and breathing.

"I'm really disappointed, Eiram. With you and your friends. I thought you'd be back for me."

"Tina. I'm sorry."

I walked towards her until we were only inches apart. I stared at her furious hazel eyes. She just smiled.

"Sorry? Well, I don't think so. Let me give you a quick recap of what happened. Our parents were out of town for the whole summer, as usual. So you asked your bastard friends to stay at the house. You invited me to have a round of Call Of Duty so I gave in. We were fine, right? But things got messy. You were drunk. You were all drunk."

She pushed me away and stepped backwards, her face evidently told me that she's disgusted with me.

"Vin suddenly thought that I might be interested with him. So he kissed me and forced me to kiss him back. Instead of stopping him, you just laughed."

I remembered that day. No need to remind me, Tina. Please.

"Things got nasty so I decided to escape. Vin's the most wasted guy, Kris don't even care of what's happening and you were not in perfect shape to protect me. I head to our backyard but your friends followed me."

They did. And I didn't even stop them. Because I was drunk, I'm not aware of what's happ'nin'.

"Again, they tried to do 'it'. But I resisted. I slashed the knife at Vin's right arm and kicked Kris very hard. I got a chance to escape again, but you surprised me. You picked me up and threw me at Vin's side. What a sweet brother."

Tina, I'm sorry.

"Then I just felt the blood dripping from the back part of my head. Kris did it again. He grabbed another pot and smashed it on my head. Again and again and again, until I was numb. Then your buried me. I'm guessing no one knows what happened?"

She looked at me again, that gaze do not belong to my sister. What did I do? I'm sorry.

"You buried me, though I'm still breathing. You chose your friends over me. Thank God, I'm lucky. Someone unburied me when all of you got inside the house. He witnessed your barbaric stunts and decided to help me. But you stayed quiet, you didn't correct your mistakes. That summer, you were not my brother, you were a monster."

"Tina, Please. I regret helping them. Please."

"Oh, yes. You will regret you ever helped them, Eiram."

I hugged her tightly,she smells like ftesh mint, but she didn't move. I muttered the word sorry several times but she wouldn't budge.

"There's this guy who helped me live for 3 months. You should meet him."

"Tina, let's go home. Please. Tina, I'll confess the truth. Let's start over again. Tina, I'm sorry."

She didn't reply. She let me hug her for a little longer. But she pushed me away, again.

"Home? Home is not with you. Home is with Nick."

"Nick?"

"The one who helped me. I told you, you should meet him.... now."

Someone tapped my shoulder so I turned around, a guy hit my face with a shovel. But before I lost consciousness I heard them laugh.

"Revenge is sweet my dear brother because I know what you did last summer."

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Author's Note:
If you didn't figure out the coded letter yet, read each word backwards and look for the phonetic alphabet. :)