For the Curious

By Alyssa Abeyta

During lunch, Samantha is interrupted by a knock on her car window. It's Jasper. He shows her a folder filled with some pretty incriminating evidence, both against herself and Matthias. Samantha destroys the folder, despite her conflicted feelings of curiosity. Samantha and Woods decide to meet up with Jordan, hoping for some words of advice on what to do. How many secrets is Sam willing to keep?

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A harsh knock on my window jarred me out of the doom scrolling I was doing on Instagram. I’d decided to sit out in my car for lunch, though I didn’t eat much of it. I couldn’t stomach anything today. I was still reeling after the threat. We’d been hacked, the whole STUDIO had been hacked. But we kept going. That’s what we always did...but I was questioning how long I’d wanted to keep doing this. Would WE be the next target of this murderer? It had gotten to be enough today, so I’d opted to sit alone in my car. I found that scrolling through endless posts helped distract my mind from pretty much everything. I hadn’t even noticed this person's approach, but before looking up I automatically assumed it was Matt or Woods. Those were the only people that should’ve been knocking on my window.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I jumped in my seat as I was met with a smug look and curly brown hair. The anger that welled up inside was not at all surprising, but I wasn’t too happy to be looking at him with some fear. It’s not confirmed he’s anything.

He rapped his knuckles on my window again, pointing downward. He wanted me to roll it down. I swallowed, quickly pressing the record button on Instagram and rolling it down a crack. I should just ignore him. Let him try yelling over the wind and the air conditioning. But I went against every good instinct because I was curious. Why was he here? Talking to me? He didn’t want to give me any attention only a short while ago.

“Long time no see, eh?” Just his voice made me angry. We hadn’t seen him since that day in his office. His cool calm was scarier than outright anger. That’s what I had expected after all. His grudge showing, perhaps a break in his character. But it remained.

“What do you want?” I bit out, glaring through the window.

“Well, I’d like to talk to you if you have a few minutes. Though doing it like this is a bit awkward.” His eyes traveled past me, to the other door. Did he want in the car?

My first and automatic response was a simple “No.” Hellllll to the no. Jasper was good at hiding his true intentions, we’d all experienced that before. He could be faking...whatever this was to get in my car and do something else. While I was curious what he wanted, I was sure I could live without it. I wanted nothing to do with him. I didn’t want to be his next victim.

Jasper rolled his eyes, his smug look remaining as he held up a folder. I read on the cover the words “For the Curious”. A pit settled in my stomach. Opening it, he took his time pulling out a photo and holding it to my window. He did this all silently, pressing the image to the glass. My heart dropped to my feet. I could see my car, along with Woods, Jordan, and myself. I already knew what that was from. Where it was from. He’d been stalking us?! Why couldn’t he be normal for a change?! Not creepy!

“How do you-”

“I can take this to Matthias if you’d like. Or Magnolia. Everyone knows you did it, but not with Jordan. Unless you’ve told them already?”

My hand clenched around my phone, another on the door handle. He knew I hadn’t. He knew Matt and Jordan weren’t on the best terms. Which is stupid in its own right. There’s no reason for that to even be a thing.

“Get in.” I hit the button on my door, the locks popping up. He returned the photo to his manila folder and quickly made his way around the front of my car. My eyes followed him the entire time, already palming the pepper spray on my keychain. I would never trust him....but Matt couldn’t know why. Not yet. There was too much going on anyway, telling him would only add more to their plate.

The door popped open, and Jasper climbed silently. From his side of the car, he grinned, turning the dial of the air conditioning up just a smidge. He was wearing a normal shirt and pants like he was just hanging around. It was odd seeing him without some type of formal attire. He just wanted to make me as uncomfortable as possible it seemed.

“Man, I’m glad you have the AC on in here,” he said, shutting the door and making himself comfortable. I shot him the coldest glare I could, no pun intended. He could never get to the point, could he?

“Whatever it is you want, just spit it out.”

He placed the folder in front of me, his eyes never once leaving mine. It was unnerving how long he could hold eye contact, and I looked away.

“I don’t want anything from you. I just want to tell you something. To put it simply, Matthias knows about your little adventure at location 7. Oh, and that Jordan was there with you.” The first part didn’t shock me. Everyone knew because we’d made a whole video on it. But Jordan hadn’t been in that video.

“You’ve already told him, haven’t you? You’re just here to rub it in my face.”

“No no, not me. Look at the second photo in that folder.” He gestured to the manila, his smirk growing. His usual snarky attitude wasn’t present surprisingly. Instead, he was just being difficult and only slightly creepy. It was obvious he wanted me to find it out on my own. He had

all of the evidence, quite a few pages actually in that folder, but I only wanted to focus on the photo he mentioned.

I recognized the car in it almost immediately. The photo was taken from a distance and rimmed by blurry leaves, but I knew who it was. And more importantly, where it was. We hadn’t seen a Tesla on the way in, but I recognized the spot where it was parked.

Did Matt follow us? The idea of it sent a pang of guilt through me that overrode the growing feeling of betrayal. We were hiding things from him, he had every right to do the same thing. But...We were supposed to be a team. We didn’t follow each other around.

I must’ve made a face, I could feel my jaw opening before he even said anything.

“It can’t be that shocking, can’t it? You’re hiding things, and he’s hiding things, that’s what you all do best. Hide it, until you have no choice but to spill the beans.”

“That’s NOT who we are. There’s a reason we haven’t told him yet. Just like there’s a reason he hasn’t told us.” I paused, knowing this wasn’t a good excuse, “And talking about it would distract from what’s currently going on. People are dying.” It was valid, no matter how ‘good’ it was. We didn’t have time to stop and chit-chat- every time we tried, we were interrupted by this hacker. If we were distracted by something like this the killer would just use it to their advantage.

Jasper let out a dry chuckle, shaking his head.

“Funny. That’s the same excuse he’s used. I don’t suppose you’re reading his little diary entries to Subject 4 then. They are public you know.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but I had considered taking a peek. He hadn’t told us not to. It also would be nice to see their thoughts, but neither Woods nor I wanted to pry. Matt wouldn’t hide things from us on there, would he? That’d be pretty stupid. And pretty dirty. So Jasper had to be lying about the Substack, that was the only logical reason he was here. That’s all he’d ever done to us, from the moment he’d first written that letter. Lying to get something out of us. And now, something out of me.

So WHY was I still listening to him? I should’ve said no and just let him walk away. Matt already knew about it, he wouldn’t have heard it from him. Woods wouldn’t have given him a chance to begin running his mouth. So why did I?

“Why are you showing me all of this? I would’ve been fine not knowing this. Life would still go on peacefully,” I said, glancing down at the picture again. I could see more images behind it, and

a glance told me they were screenshots. I slapped the manila folder closed as I felt my stomach turning. ‘For the Curious’ was just another taunt. Of course I’d be curious. Part of me, a very, very small part, wanted to know his secrets. He shouldn’t have followed us, he should’ve known. And I shouldn’t be looking through this folder any more than I had. I was dying to know if what he was saying was true.

Jasper sat, letting my question drift off into silence. He adjusted the vent, tapping his chin in thought. Did he know why he was here? Or was he just here for fun?

“Your slogan is ‘curiosity over fear’ right? So why are you afraid to read those screenshots? Learn what he’s hiding from you. I think you’ll come to find he’s the most secretive out of all of us.” And just like that he stepped out of the car. He was gone, the door shutting and leaving me alone.

Alone with that folder, and alone with yet another secret I’d be keeping from Matt. My fingers leafed through the pages, feeling their ends, while my eyes stayed trained on the hood of my car. The temptation to look was there. Just a peek. It wouldn’t hurt anything, right?

He trusts us. Wouldn’t this break that? My conscience argued. But we’d already broken that trust the moment we didn’t tell him about Jordan. Or what we did at Location 7. But we couldn’t. We couldn’t tell anyone...He understood that, right? It was secretive for a reason.

And he was keeping his secrets for a reason. I had no right to be like this. Jasper just wanted us to distrust each other, and pull us apart. But his words meant nothing. Whatever was in this folder, however true or not, didn’t matter. What mattered now was sticking together. We couldn’t be doing...whatever this was. Soon we’d have time to sit down and talk about it. About Everything. We wouldn’t have to keep hiding things.

At least, that’s what I hoped. I hoped we’d soon be able to stop hiding things from each other, a point we’d be able to share things freely with each other again.

I stepped out of the car, grabbed my half-eaten lunch, and put the folder under my arm. I felt dirty holding it like it’d give me Jasper-cooties or something. It wasn’t a good feeling, one only helped by tossing both my food and the folder into the trash can right inside the studio. I made sure my food landed on top, covering it up as best I could. I didn’t want to keep it or have someone else find it.

I should’ve done something to hide the fact that I was...well, hiding something. I looked up to see Woods a few feet away, an odd look on his face directed out the window.

“Was that Jasper?” He asked, his head nodding down the parking lot. Sure enough, I saw Jasper taking a wide berth around the REDACTED unit and cutting around the back. That did look suspicious. But if he wanted to be seen, he’d be making a show of coming up close. I was so confused as to why he was still there. Did he park that far away? Maybe he’s hoping to find Matt. That didn’t feel right, so I quickly swatted that thought away.

But now I had another lie to tell or not tell. I knew I could trust Woods. After all, he was in that picture too. But what would he think of me talking to Jasper? Letting him get in my car?

I didn’t want to lie to him. I didn’t want there to be another lie on the table.

“I know why. Let’s go to my office,” I said under my breath, closing the trash can and swiftly moving up the stairs of Blue Base. He’d have to understand about Jasper and me. And maybe he’d know what to do about it.

Luckily we didn’t run into anyone else on our way up the stairs. As I stepped into my office I let Woods file in before shutting the door firmly behind me. I didn’t even sit down, I just threw my bag on the desk with a sigh.

“He followed us to Location 7. Jasper showed up while I was outside eating. He gave me this stupid folder with pictures of all of us. Including Matt’s car just down the road.”

“Are you kidding me?” Woods didn’t stay silent for long, already fuming. I knew that’d make him mad. He looked like he was ready to chase Jasper down already, but that wasn’t the half of it.

“Maybe Jasper was just following Matt and happened upon us, but they both know now. I’m more afraid of what Jasper will do than Matt.” I finally collapsed into the chair next to him. I kept my voice low when I just wanted to scream. He was holding it over me, both of us now. If Jasper knew that, what else did he know? He obviously knew a lot about Matt - if he was telling the truth about whatever was now in the trash can - he could have dirt by now on all of us.

“You haven’t told Matt about it, right? I thought we made sure no one was following us. He wasn’t there that day anyway-”

“Apparently he did. You know he’s been acting weird, maybe that’s why. But maybe we have to tell him now. I don’t want Jasper holding anything above us.” I glanced to the door, then down in guilt. This needed to stop, and I was doing nothing to help it.

“Look, umm....What if we called Jordan? She would know what to do, right? I don’t think it’s wise to go spilling it all to Matt right now. That’s probably what he wants us to do. For whatever reason.” Damn, that was such a good idea. And that’s probably what Jasper wanted. To ruin what we did, so he could know too. If Matt was putting stuff out on the Substack, that’d probably be the featured item. And Jasper would know right away.

“Of course, that’s exactly what he wants. He has access to the Substack, where Matt shares everything with Subject 4. He’d know and... yeah, why didn’t I see through that before?”

“He came at you alone. We shouldn’t feel guilty in the slightest about what we did or who we didn’t tell. There are reasons. But Jordan should be the first person we go to about this.” Everything he was saying made sense. Jordan pretty much had all the answers.

THE NEXT DAY

It didn’t take Jordan long to meet up. We’d decided to do it during the lunch hour again, but this time away from the studio. Now that Jasper was lurking around there she didn’t want to risk him barging in on their conversation. We’d opted for a Starbucks, which was pretty loud and crowded. The smell of coffee was distracting, I had to get a drink. Woods opted for water.

Jordan had chosen a table in the back corner, a small coffee also beside her. I hadn’t told her everything over the phone, mostly because I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t even been able to tell her about what Jasper said concerning Matt. That didn’t feel like all that bad of an idea though. They still didn’t seem to get over the little spat about Deb. I hadn’t heard a peep about it from Matt, or her. I was starting to think they both were hoping it’d fix itself.

I didn’t wanna think about that too much though. Right now, we needed to focus on Jasper and his ever-growing list of stuff to use against us.

“Before we do anything, I need to know what he said to you and what was in this folder. Do you have it?” My nails went tapping on the table, and I shot a glance at Woods.

“I don’t... have the folder. I kind of destroyed it. Both for our sake and Matt’s.” Her shoulders stiffened, a reaction I was expecting but also hoping not to see. Focus Samantha. You can deal with that later.

“But all he said was that what we did best was hide things from each other. He showed me these creepy photos of us outside of Location 7 and then Matt’s car down the street. There was other stuff in there, stuff he said would ‘show us’ Matt was just as bad as us.”

“Did you look at this other evidence? It could’ve been useful.” She didn’t look particularly phased at what she’d said, but Woods and I both shook our heads. ‘Useful’ to her maybe. I didn’t see how ‘useful’ it’d be carrying around whatever knowledge those screenshots held. Realistically, I’d slip up at one point and blow it anyway. That’s a good excuse.

“Of course not. It’s unfair to do that when he doesn’t know our secrets.” I stopped my nail tapping, leaning closer to her. “We didn’t come here to talk about Matt and whatever’s going on with him. Jasper has dirt on all of us, but he wants to know what we did. And probably why you were there. We want to know if it’s a good idea to tell Matt, for the sake of our team.” Woods nodded beside me, finishing his water and adding,

“He has his secrets, but so do we. IF Jasper is even telling the truth about any of that. We need your help.” His support was greatly appreciated. I don’t think I’d be here without him.

Jordan let out a harsh breath through her nose, leaning back in response. She met both of us with a hard look, before shaking her head. Just saying his name seemed to irritate her. I could get it, but it also irked me.

“We haven’t told him yet, we shouldn’t break that silence now. Whether what Jasper said is true or not,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “we can’t trust this information getting out to Subject 4 through him. I know you both are itching to tell him, but we can’t right now.” She said this all with a firm tone, her voice never wavering. I trusted her judgment, but a part of me still said it didn’t feel right. We were still hiding behind it, and who knew how long this would go on? How long we’d have to lie and keep this from him? To put it simply, it sucked.

But we had to trust her on this. This was all for a reason, no matter how bad I felt about it. It needed to be this way.

“I had a feeling you were going to say that. But thank you. Is there anything we can do in the meantime to like, stop him? Jasper, I mean.” That was the only logical way to go from here. We could argue about Matt’s ‘true’ intentions or his weird attitude all day, or we could try to prevent whatever Jasper was doing. I would much rather focus on Jasper.

“I mean,” she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “Don’t tell anyone. The less people that know about anything, the better. It stays between the three of us, four including Scott, and that’s it. Jasper can go around lying and getting under Matt’s skin about it if he wants, but he doesn’t know the truth.” Her eyes met mine saying this. I nodded silently, wrapping my hands around my cold drink. I could wait. I didn’t really have a choice, but thinking I did helped me come to terms with it. I looked to Woods, then back to Jordan.

“We understand. Thank you for your help. I’ll let you know if he comes around again or anything.” Jordan gave a curt nod, gathering her things and standing up. We did the same, following her out the door.

I stopped her before we parted ways though, wanting to just say one last thing.

“Please don’t keep this against Matt. I know you two have issues, to put it lightly, but he’s just like that sometimes. We all need to work together on this, that's what Deb would’ve wanted. Please give him a chance.” She didn’t nod, or really acknowledge what I said at all. She just glanced to Woods, before turning and making a quick walk down the street and around the corner.

And that was that. As we drove back to the studio, I could only think about Matt. Jasper should’ve been at the forefront of my mind. What to do if he came back and all, but instead it was on Matt. I kept running over scenarios of telling him, of ending the secrets. Ones where he understood, and ones where he didn’t, and reacted similarly to how he did with Deb’s last name. They were all different, but I couldn’t stop. It was a self-destructive habit, but I couldn’t stop focusing on the what-ifs. The biggest one of all was the ‘what if this ends it all?’. That was the scariest to come to terms with. If he didn’t accept our explanation and just ended it. The thoughts continued to spiral and I had to distract myself with music. I could sense more doom-scrolling in the near future.

She HAD to be right about it. I didn’t want to keep any more secrets from anyone.

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We hoped you enjoyed these short stories written by the very talented writers in Subject 4! Please stay tuned to the Discord for the announced date of Season 7: The Absolute.