Chapter 118: 92. Mysterious Numbers

"Before we get started I'd like to thank the Underwoods for hosting this month's meeting," Paige said, as she looked to my parents then at me and Nina.

Then our club leader continued, "So like we said last month, it's usually pretty quiet through the winter. This year's been no exception, but now that March break is right around the corner we're heading into spring, and sure enough something's come up at the last minute that we might to look into."

She looked to her girlfriend, and Brooke took over.

"This actually began last month," the tall blonde admitted. "But at the time I didn't think it was anything serious. And to be honest I'm still not sure it's for real, but we'll see."

She paused as she pulled out her phone, then scrolled through something on the screen before she continued, "So back on Friday February eleventh I received a strange text from a number I didn't recognize. The number seemed local, like it's in our local area code. The message read, 'You and your friends might want to look into this.' After that was just a bunch of seemingly random numbers? It started with eight-zero-zero, and that made me think it was a toll-free phone number, which made me think the text was just some weird spam. The odd thing was the number had fourteen digits, instead of the usual ten? I figured the last four were like an extension number or something though."

"Like I said, I thought it was spam so I ignored it," she went on. "Then a couple weeks later, Sunday February twenty-seventh, I got another strange text from that same unknown number. This one asked why we hadn't investigated yet, and it said that the situation was ongoing. It included that same weird fourteen-digit number at the end."

She added, "This time I tried searching for that number online, but came up with nothing. Then I tried texting back to whoever sent it, I asked who they were and what this was all about? Except my text didn't go through. I even tried to call the number, and got one of those automated messages that the number was disconnected."

"And yesterday morning," Brooke said with a frown, "I got a third message from that same disconnected number. It said 'This is likely your final chance to investigate. Soon it will be too late.' And like the earlier messages, it ended with that same fourteen-digit number. I tried texting back immediately, but got the 'disconnected number' thing again. That's when I decided to talk to Paige about it."

The athletic brunette took over, "Brooke told me about all this stuff last night while we were hanging out together. She showed me the stuff on her phone, and I tried reverse phone searches on the number sending her the texts as well as that eight-hundred number in the message. That all came up empty. Then I had a closer look at the eight-hundred number, since like she said there were too many digits to be a phone number."

"Is it a magic square?" Kaylee asked.

Paige smiled, "That was my next guess. But fourteen digits doesn't turn into a square. Nine or sixteen would, or twelve would get you a rectangle. But all you can do with fourteen is two by seven. And that's when I recognized something else."

"After splitting it into two rows of seven digits I realized the first row started with eight-zero and the second row began with four-three," she explained. "And that's a combination I'm familiar with. Eighty degrees west longitude and forty-three degrees north latitude is right here, like our general area? The mystery digits weren't a phone number at all, it was GPS coordinates."

Brooke took over again, "We punched the coordinates into a map and came up with a spot less than ten kilometres from here. It's a heavily wooded area in a provincial nature reserve. The exact location is just a couple hundred meters west of Third Line."

"So," Paige said as she glanced around the room, "Who's up for a little hike one day during the break next week?"

Melody responded first, "I hate to say it but Sunday and Monday are the only days I'm going to be available. Tuesday I'll be heading out of town, I'm going to pick up my boyfriend Kelly and we're heading east to the Kawartha Lakes region to visit our other boyfriend Craig. We'll be hanging out with him until the end of the break."

"I worry sometimes you're going to kick me out of the group because I'm not around as much," she added with a grimace. "And so far I feel like I haven't really been much help? More like I just sit around and ask silly questions while the rest of you do all the hard work and figure things out."

Paige shook her head, "We're not going to kick you out Melody. And we understand that people get busy."

"You and I are also the first college students ever to be in Club Luna," Brooke added. "And you're new to the club, where I've got four years experience. So don't sweat it."

Melanie spoke up next, "Me and Cerys are pretty limited on time as well. Between picking up extra shifts at work and having the full moon Thursday night to Friday morning next week, about the only day we're available is going to be Tuesday."

"I'm available whenever," I said. Me and Kaylee exchanged a look, then I blushed and mumbled, "We have plans but they're not till next Friday and Saturday. So um, now till Thursday works for me."

My girlfriend added, "Me too. There's a few things I need to do over the break, but they're pretty flexible so I can take a day for club stuff."

"Same," Nina said. "I'm not really doing anything over the break."

That just left Paige and Brooke. The tall blonde said, "I had some plans for earlier in the week, but I can move them back to the end of the week. So I'm available for Monday Tuesday or Wednesday."

Our club leader nodded, "Pretty much the same for me, except I'm busy Wednesday. So it sounds like either Monday or Tuesday will be the best choice?"

The shape-shifter suggested, "Why don't you all go Tuesday then? That way Cerys and Melanie can both be there. They bring more to the club than me anyways."

"You're sure?" Paige asked her. "I'm sorry you're not feeling like you contribute to the group Melody, because we do appreciate having you with us."

She nodded, "I'm sure. And honestly? Stomping around in the frozen woods doesn't sound all that appealing to me. If you find anything shoot me a text or something though, I'm curious to know what this is all about. And maybe I can help in other ways? Like research or something, I don't know."

"If I really felt left out I could always postpone my plans by a day," she added. "But seriously, I'd much rather spend one more day with my guys than going on a winter hike with the rest of you. No offence."

"None taken," Paige smiled. "And we'll keep you informed, don't worry."

"Everyone else mark your calendars or something?" she added. "Tuesday March fifteenth we'll go check out those coordinates. I'll try and get my mom's minivan so I can drive us. We can confirm the times over group chat, but maybe aim for being there by noon? So I'll pick everyone up starting around eleven-thirty."

As we all started to note that in our phones my mom spoke up.

"Paige do you think this is safe?" she asked. "Considering you have no idea who sent those messages or why, or how they got Brooke's number. The first message mentioned 'you and your friends', doesn't that suggest someone knows about Club Luna?"

Mum added, "Julie's got a point. What if this is some sort of trap?"

"Why would someone want to set a trap for the club?" Melody asked. "Do we have any enemies?"

The rest of us sort of looked around at each other, then Melanie suggested "Miss Hawthorne wanted to shut the club down last summer. And I know she wasn't a big fan of me or Cass. Maybe she's been keeping track of us? Maybe she's not happy that we've brought in more supernaturals, like Nina and Melody."

I responded quietly, "May Hawthorne's a goddess. If she wanted to interfere with us she wouldn't need a complicated scheme to lure us out into the woods."

"I believe May Hawthorne knows well enough not to risk incurring Julie's or my wrath," mum added. "She may be a goddess, but her time is long past and she knows it."

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Everyone was quiet for a few moments after that. I figured they were sort of dealing with the idea that my angel parents just admitted they could kick the goddess's butt. I was just glad neither mom or mum said anything about me being stronger than May as well.

Then Cerys spoke up, "What about the council? May warned us about them before she left, she said they wouldn't be happy that Club Luna existed. And they wouldn't like how we do things either."

"We haven't really done anything to attract attention though," Kaylee pointed out. "We've had a bunch of incidents and investigations since then, but we've handled them all quietly and kept out of the public eye."

She added, "I know the fairies did have some interactions with the public, and obviously the vampires did too, but neither of those situations involved revealing ourselves. And the thing with the hoax haunting was pretty quiet too, we kept our names out of it and never mentioned Club Luna. And Brooke wasn't even there for that, neither was Paige. Brooke wasn't there in January when we met Mrs. Ainsley either, and that's the only time someone in the public had some idea we're into supernatural stuff."

"That's not quite true," mom stated. Then she reminded us, "Alyssa Ross met all of us in December, and she knows a fair bit about Club Luna after observing your forays into the forest last summer. I don't think she'd intentionally betray us, but accidents happen."

Mum added, "We have no way of knowing who Mr. Ainsley may have spoken to either, and he certainly knew at least a little about Club Luna. We never did find out who taught him how to astral project."

Cerys grimaced at that, but at least she didn't seem too upset or anything.

Meanwhile Paige glanced at me then commented, "There's also the entire Winters family. Brian dragged all of them into his schemes in December, plus all four of them have become demi-humans. And with three of them attending high school and the fourth showing up all the time too, it's led to quite a few rumours around the school."

My parents exchanged a glance then mom asked, "What rumours?"

That made me grimace and blush. I sort of sank down a bit into my hoodie as I mumbled, "The Winters can't talk about us, or about any supernatural stuff they witnessed. They're all bound by oaths and stuff."

"It doesn't have to be them," Kaylee pointed out. "The fact that we have three teenage demi-human sisters attending school is enough to start the rumour mill going. Plus people know that Cassandra is friends with them, or with Kenzie anyways. And there were already rumours going around about Cass, ever since the emergency last June that sent her to hospital."

Mom asked again, "What rumours? What are they saying?"

I cringed a little further into my hoodie, while Paige answered the question.

"They're all kind of farfetched," the tall brunette replied. "Or I mean, they seem farfetched if you don't know the truth. Basically some say Cass is a witch and she cursed or enspelled Kenzie and her sisters? Others um, some folks say it's actually you and Tanya who are the witches, and Cass somehow stole some of your magic or spells, but otherwise the same sort of idea."

She continued, "There's also rumours involving the rest of us. It's pretty obvious we're all friends, the six of us spend enough time together at school. And folks will remember Brooke was part of our group last year, some even know me and Brooke are girlfriends."

"Which is part of the reason people say this stuff in the first place," Kaylee added. "They know or suspect we're all gay, which some folks around here take as an excuse to look down on us or pick on us. And like Paige said, we stick together rather than hang out with the 'normal' groups."

My mom looked at me and in a sort of wary tone she asked, "You're not still distributing those enchanted plush toys at school are you Cass? Or anywhere else around town?"

That made me cringe even more, as all my friends stared at me. I wasn't sure how many of them knew I was the source of those toys, apart from Kaylee and my family.

"Not around here," I replied quietly. "I'm still mailing them away to people though."

Everyone was still staring at me, but fortunately mum spoke up and got the meeting back onto the other topic instead of focusing on me by asking, "Do any of you know who's starting the rumours?"

Paige sighed, "I know where some of them come from. Whenever I hear a new rumour I look on social media and... never mind the details. Bottom line is, there's a couple kids at school who don't like us. I don't think any of them know the truth though, they're just spreading malicious lies, as far as I can tell."

"Are any of them coming from Harrison Pearce?" Melanie asked. "He's in grade eleven, and he seems to have something against Cerys."

The blonde wolfgirl rolled her eyes, "He's harmless. I swear the only thing he has for me is a misguided crush."

Melanie scowled a bit at that idea, but it was clear that Cerys didn't think this Harrison guy was any kind of threat.

Meanwhile Paige shook her head, "I know who he is, but don't think I've seen anything rumour-related from him. Another of your classmates is more involved, Steve Ford? I don't think he's the source of any of them, but he regurgitates a lot of the rumours."

"Right," Melanie scowled. "Not surprised he's involved."

Then mom spoke up again, "Regardless where the rumours are coming from, the fact remains that someone might be trying to lure you girls out into the woods. They might not know the name Club Luna, but they do seem to know you're all involved in strange events or solving mysteries."

"Whoever's starting the rumours might not have anything to do with the texts," Cerys commented. "Maybe someone unrelated came across the rumours and decided to act on them? Which makes me think about the council again."

My little sister had been mostly quiet for the whole meeting, but she finally chimed in. "I don't know a lot about the council, but I'm pretty sure they're humans? They have access to magic and they might be powerful and stuff, but they're still only human. They're not going to be a threat to me or Cass or our parents. They might not be dangerous to Melanie or Cerys either, I'm not sure? But if it is the council and they do try something, me and Cass will be able to keep everyone safe."

Our parents looked like they still weren't sure it was a good idea or not.

"Melody," Brooke addressed the shape-shifter, "You're our resident expert on the Council. Do you know if this is the sort of thing they might do?"

She grimaced and shook her head, "I'm not an expert on anything at all, especially not that. All I know is what I've picked up from my dad, which isn't much. And sorry but I'm not comfortable asking her to explain in detail everything she knows on the subject. Dad's way too smart for that, she'll know the only reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to avoid them or something."

"Having said that," she continued, "My impression based on the stuff dad has said is that they'd be investigating stuff long before making any moves. So if something caught their attention, they'd already be here snooping around. And I doubt they'd try some elaborate scheme like this? I think if they wanted to do something, they'd just do it."

Melody paused for a moment as she seemed to be thinking things over, then she added "Considering we haven't broken any of their big rules I really don't think they'd be interested in the club? None of us are out rampaging around showing off magic, neither the wolfgirls or myself are transforming in front of people or posting videos online when we shift. Sure there's rumours, but there were rumours at my high school too? And I don't think anyone there was supernatural. It's just kids being jerks."

Paige nodded, "Thanks Melody. My feeling is we should check out the coordinates, but we'll be careful about it. And with Nina and Cass to look out for us, I'm sure everything will be fine."