▌Chapter 7 ─ Can't Be Afraid Of The Truth ▌
▌Part 2 ─ Season 1 ─ Episode 4 ─ The Haunted Rig ▌

      ━━━━━ ALORA AND NANCY had changed out of their work clothes and into clothes for a funeral. The twins walked down the steps and looked into their father's room. The two walked in the room and Nancy lifted the paper so they could read it. A car could be heard outside, Alora knew it was their father. After looking at the paper, Nancy placed it back down on the desk and the two turned around walking towards the edge of the room, waiting for the father to come in. When he did come in, Nancy was quick.

"That autopsy is a lie. Tiffany had a puncture wound behind her left ear from a needle. No mention of that anywhere." Nancy explained, staring at her father with her arms crossed over her chest. Alora also had her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at her father.

"How do you know about a puncture wound?" Carson asked Nancy.

Nancy looked at Alora, while she looked at her. She knew that they would have to tell him eventually. "Because I put it there." The twins then walked away from their father.

"You what?"

"When Lor and I broke into the morgue, I stuck a needle behind Tiffany's ear, and I stole a vial of her blood."

"Nancy, Alora, for God's sake, you can't keep doing things like this!"

"We want the truth! Nobody is looking out for Tiffany! Everybody is so busy looking out for the Hudson's instead." Alora told her father, joining into the argument.

"Ryan is my client. That's my job."

"And you have no concern that the autopsy' a complete lie?"

"I have more important things to concern myself with, like paying off medical debt. And your bail."

"How convenient for you. To have two daughters and a dead wife to blame your selling out on." Both Alora and Nancy walked past their father heading out the front door. Nancy slammed the door closed behind her.

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Alora stood next to her sister, they were standing inside the funeral home looking at Ryan and everyone else that walked by them.

"You can tell a lot about a person by the way they act at a funeral. Ryan hasn't looked at Tiffany's casket once. Bess appears to be too terrified of the Marvins to talk to them. And Nick is wearing his heart on his sleeve."

Nancy walked away from her sister to talk to Nick. Meanwhile Alora walked away to find Ace. She looked up and saw him standing at the top of the steps. She moved past her sister walking up the steps and passing Chief McGinnis on the way up. Ace sent her a small smile.

"How are you doing?" Ace asked her.

"Okay. Starting to become paranoid about what'll kill me and when it'll happen. This town is a death trap for me and George." Alora mentioned, looking down at everyone that walked by.

"Who knows, maybe we'll figure out the curse in time to save both you and George."

"That's what I hope."

In the aftermath of the conversation the two separated from each other. Alora walked back down the steps and stood next to her sister. The two continued to watch everyone as they conversed with others. George eventually came over to them.

"Where were you? I almost got caught." George said, switching eye contact between the two.

"I told Bess to watch the door." Nancy replied, placing her eyes on George.

"Okay... She didn't."

Nancy sighed. "Oh, God." She walked away from Alora and George, but the two followed after her. They made it outside of the funeral home where Bess had been standing.

"I'm sorry. A situation occurred." Bess said, as she pulled her phone out.

"What type of situation?" George asked her.

"My Lyft is pulling up."

"Why don't you carpool with the Marvins?" Alora said loud enough for them to hear. She watched the older woman turn around and looked at them. "I mean, they're all right here. I'm sure they have plenty of room for family." Bess shook her head and started to walk away from them.

"What?" George questioned looking at Nancy and Alora. The twins then walked away from her following after Bess.

"What do you want from me?" Bess asked, turning to look back at them. Nancy had clued Alora in to what Bess had been lying about.

"Answers." Nancy said. "Why are you in Horseshoe Bay? Who are you really?"

Bess sighed. "I think I'm a Marvin." She switched her accent over to her British accent. The shock fell onto the twins' face hearing her accent. "But I don't know for sure."

"How is that possible?" Alora asked her.

"I grew up in a crappy neighborhood in East London. My mum would talk about these Marvins, some fancy family that we were descended from. They sounded so perfect, and when things got really hard, I dreamt I was one of them. I didn't know if it was one of my mum's stories or the truth, so I came here to find out."

"And?"

"I have a genealogy kit in my baggage. I need DNA from one of them."

"You told everyone your last name was Marvin. Why would you do that?"

"I didn't realize how small this town was; I didn't know everyone knew everyone."

"Once you get DNA proof, what happens?"

"I'll present myself."

"Where? At high tea? I don't think you've thought this through."

"I... I didn't ask for either of your opinions. Hey, just because family isn't that important to you, does not mean..."

"Okay. You don't know about our life." Alora told her.

"And you don't know about mine."

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Alora stood with Nancy and Nick in the back, others were gathered in the chairs and around them. Everett Hudson stood at the front next to a picture of Tiffany Hudson.

"It means a great deal to us to see so many familiar faces who loved Tiffany as much as we did. Tiffany was a beacon of light: loving wife, daughter-in-law, sister, and friend. Who always brought with her..."

"911, what's the nature of your emergency?"

"Help me..." Tiffany was panting in the audio. Alora looked towards Ace. "Please! Please! I'm at the Claw! No!"

"That was Tiffany right before she died. Panicked. Scared. That was not the voice of a woman who died of natural causes. That was the voice of a woman pleading with her killer." Laura said

Everett walked over to the woman trying to grab a hold of her. "This is neither the time..."

"Everett Hudson is a liar! You didn't care about Tiffany. Neither did Ryan or any of you in this family. My sister was scared of you, but I'm not. Tiffany was murdered. And I'm gonna prove it."

Laura put her glasses back on and proceeded to walk away from Everett. "I'd like to apologize for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen." Both Nancy and Alora looked at her as she passed them by.

Alora and Nancy walked away from the others as the service had ended. They walked together passing by graves.

"Hey... Nancy, Alora. How you holding up?" Karen asked the two.

"Fine. Why?" Nancy asked in return.

"Just... if there's anything that you needed to talk about... I'm here." The twins came to a stop in front of Lucy's grave.

"Lucy Sable. Did you know her?" Alora asked.

"Uh, we were in the same class in high school. But we moved in different circles." Karen answered.

"Who do you think killed her?" Nancy asked.

"All we know about the killer are the bloody knife and the tire tracks they left behind at the crime scene."

"So you think somebody stabbed Lucy before pushing her off the cliff?"

"I think that you're asking me these questions to avoid talking about who else is here. Have either of you been to your mom's grave?"

After talking to Karen the two proceeded to walk over to their mothers grave. When they got closer their father looked back at the two.

"One of these is supposed to be from you two." Carson said, holding the flowers up. "Not that you couldn't bring your own. It's just... sort of a ritual I've been doing."

"Okay. We'll come back, then." Nancy said.

"Hey, hey. This... tension between us, it has to stop. I can't go on like this anymore. What can I do?"

"Nothing." Alora and Nancy answered.

"Seriously, Nancy, Alora?"

"We weren't with mom when she died." Alora said as the two walked over to their father.

"We didn't get to see what she was going through or what she was feeling. We were in a gym, dancing with our friends. We both had our phones. You could have called one of us. And instead, you made us believe that everything was okay. And we never got to say goodbye because of you." Nancy explained.

"It's what she wanted. She wanted you two to remember dance parties and homemade pizza nights... and the time that the projector broke at the drive-in, and you guys acted out the entire final scene of When Harry Met Sally, verbatim, for the audience: she didn't want either of you to remember her suffering. She wanted to protect you both."

"What about what we wanted?" Alora had tears falling down her face. "There was so much more that Lor and I had to say."

"She knew how much you both loved her. That's all that matters. That was enough. I was trying to honor your mom's wishes. I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe I wasn't. Whatever you're feeling, you can carry it with you, but you can't... let it consume you."

The two walked closer to Carson and he handed them not flowers. "Thanks for bringing these." Nancy said. He nodded his head, the three turned and kneeled down to look at the grave.

"I have to go." Nancy and Alora nodded their head. He left and the car turned on and was gone.

"Hi, mom. A lot has happened since you died. Most of it's been pretty weird. I am starting to believe in ghosts." Nancy chuckled. "It took me a while to get there, I think, because..." she sighed. "I was waiting for you. I thought, if ghosts exist... you would come to me and Lor. Why haven't you? Are we not enough to keep you here? Because we really need you."

"Nance." Alora breathed out. Her sister turned to look at her. "I know we still don't believe in curses, but I don't want to die. I don't want to." She cried out.

Nancy turned towards her sister and pulled her into a tight hug. Alora hugged her back tightly as the tears continued to fall down her face.

"I promise we're going to beat that curse. I won't let you die."

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Alora and Nancy stood by a news van looking at the news reporters, their dad, and the Hudson's that stood with him.

"Good afternoon. The Hudson family is honored to announce the establishment of the Tiffany Hudson Educational Outreach Center, a nonprofit dedicated to improving academic opportunities for the children of Horseshoe Bay. The organization will launch at a garden party tomorrow afternoon." Carson explained.

"Can you tell us more about the autopsy?" A reporter asked.

"What kind of 'natural causes'?" Another one asked.

"My client is confident in the results." Carson replied.

"Can you verify the accuracy of the autopsy?"

"Uh, that's it, we're done here. Thank you very much." Ryan went to pull Carson back but he stopped him from doing so:

"No. My opinion is that the autopsy report is inconclusive." Both Nancy and Alora smiled at their father.

"Are the police reopening the investigation?"

"We're done here. Thank you very much." Carson walked away from the Hudson family and the reporters and passed his daughters, sending them a nod while they smiled at him. The two then turned and walked away.

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Nancy and Alora sat in Nancy's bedroom at her desk looking at the video on the laptop.

"Why would this video play the night Bess came to our house?"

"Help me. Please. Please. I'm at the Claw. No!"

"Maybe we've been looking for the wrong thing." Nancy rewound the video and played it through. The two watched Tiffany lose her ring. "Bess was telling the truth. She didn't kill Tiffany to steal her ring. Tiffany dropped it herself before she died."

The screen started to freak out, then an image of Lucy Sable appeared, she was staring right at the twins. The two gasped when the video started to play again. Bess opened the door and Nancy slammed the laptop close.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Bess said, closing the door and walking over to her things to grab her iPad.

"It's okay,"Nancy said.

"Hey, uh, I'm-I'm really sorry for putting you on the spot at the funeral today. We both needed a distraction, when you were and easy target." Alora said.

"All I wanted to do was to see what the Marvin's were like. To imagine myself in their world. I think that's why I've avoided 'em, though, cause if it's all a lie..."

"It'll hurt, but you can't be afraid of the truth." Nancy said, and Bess shook her head. "We know you didn't kill Tiffany."

Bess smiled and walked past them heading back out of the room. Nancy opened the laptop once she was gone. The screen was cracked just like the tv and the microwave.

"I'm starting to think this is not a coincidence. Nancy and I have seen this shape before." Nancy proceeded to pull a map up. "It's a map of Horseshoe Bay. And the epicenter of the crack is... our high school."

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The two snuck into their old high school. Hats covered their hair, they both held onto a flashlight as they looked around. Lights flickered on. They turned and saw the lights so they walked over to it. Nancy and Alora looked at the pictures and trophies that were in the case.

There was a portion dedicated to the class of 2000. The twins saw a picture that caught their attention. Nancy opened the glass and reached in for the picture, moving the others in the process to get a better look at it. Shock fell onto Alora's face.

It was a picture of Karen with Lucy Sable. "Karen did know Lucy. Why'd she lie?" Nancy pulled her phone out and took a picture of the picture.