I now had an address and date for when the -- I rolled my eyes -- end of the world cult was going to meet, but I still didn’t know who left me the note. I asked Henry to see the security footage of the hall, so I could see who it was. He was worried, but accepted that it was non-threatening — I was just curious.

But the footage didn’t reveal anything. Roughly thirty minutes before I walked up the stairs, a figure in a hoodie and sweatpants walked up the stairs and hurried down the narrow hallway. Her hood pulled low, the face was obscured and the envelope quickly stuffed between my handle and door. Then she practically ran back down the hall, head bowed, and disappeared down the stairs.

I watched her rush down two flights of stairs and right out the front door, without encountering anyone.

And I was left stumped. Besides noting a possible curve at the hips, there was nothing distinguishing about this person at all. Her body, covered in the baggy clothes, appeared an average height. There wasn’t even a hint of hair falling out of her dark hood. She even wore gloves when she stuffed the letter into place.

I huffed out a breath and leaned back on the chair in front of the computer. “Well, she has to at least live here,” I muttered to myself. “Only people who live here can go up the stairs. That narrows it down to a handful of people.”

Henry, standing behind me and staring at the screen with a confused look, gave a questioning hum. “Not necessarily, Jyn girl.”

I craned my head and looked back at him. “Huh?”

He folded his arms over his round belly and tapped his fingers on his arm. “Friends of the occupants are allowed upstairs, too. There’s a two hour window from the time a woman as been invited upstairs or they’ve physically left upstairs to when the barrier at the top of the stairs prevents them from reentering that level. In that time, the only restriction is men can’t go on the women's floor and women can’t go on the men’s floor.”

I blinked at him. I totally forgot that! I’d never invited anyone to my room, so there was never a need for me to remember that rule. “So you’re saying that as long as a girl invites another girl upstairs, they have two hours to access it?”

He nodded.

My mouth wrinkled as I turned back to the computer and rewound the security footage, searching for the last person to enter or leave the hallway. The last person to leave was Leticia, lazily strolling out of her room, dressed like a cheap socialite. She left at 12:13 pm. The letter was left on my door at 3:23 pm.

“So it was obviously someone who was invited to go upstairs by someone else.” In other words, it could be anyone.

Henry hummed again. “I could ask all the girls who they invited to go upstairs. We could narrow it down that way.” He squinted at me. “This is all very mysterious. Why exactly are you wanting to know again? Are you sure it’s nothing dangerous?”

I shook my head and closed out of the security program. I stood up and smiled at Henry. “No, it’s nothing bad. At least I don’t think. I was invited to a party, but the note didn’t say who it was from.”

He hummed a third time, this time his nasally tone thick with disapproval. “Don’t go. If you don’t know who gave it to you, it’s dangerous.” He waved his arms. “There are too many dangerous things out there for a young woman. Monsters aren’t only inside the Gate, you know.”

My smile turned genuine. “I know. Thanks for caring, Henry. It means a lot.” I paused as another thought came to me. “Oh, has Marco come back yet? I wanna ask him something.”

Henry frowned for a minute before he nodded. “Is Marco involved in this party too? He’s a good enough guy, but you need to keep your distance. He likes to hang with the wrong crowd too often.”

Fun, they’d both said each other was a ‘good guy’ followed immediately with a ‘but.’ I shook my head. “It has nothing to do with the party.” Okay, it had everything to do with the party. But Henry didn’t need to worry about that.

Henry scrutinized me for another minute before he went up the stairs to find Marco. I waited at the bottom of the stairs and leaned against the wall. Henry came back down a minute later and said that Marco would be down in a minute. A minute turned into twenty. By the time he came down, the hostel was starting to fill up with Hunters coming back for the day and Henry was in the kitchen, busy as a bee.

Marco dropped off the last step heavily and looked at me with an almost scowl. “What?”

I nodded out the front door. “I wanna ask you something. Let’s go into the gym and talk, okay?”

His almost scowl shifted to a full on scowl. “I don’t wanna. I have nothing to say to you.”

I met his gaze, not intimidated in the slightest. “I’ll just ask you some pretty private questions right here in the middle of everyone, then.” I glanced down the hallway, where chatter echoed from the living room, battling Henry’s off tune humming. As if to nail it in harder, the front door opened and two women walked in. They stopped and glanced between Marco and me with interest.

Marco huffed in annoyance and swung around. “Ah, hell. Let’s go. But I think you’re an idiot to wanna get tangled in this shit.”

And you’re already tangled up to your eyeballs. So what does that make you? Man, I’d switch you anyday. I’ll take on the crazed cultists and you deal with the planet eating monster. I followed him out, my inner-monologue running wild as we went.

We walked around the side of the hostel, past a small ten-by-ten patch of dirt surrounded by concrete that Henry turned into a vegetable garden, and to the dilapidated building in the back. The metal door squeaked as it opened, the sound echoing in the dark room on the other side.

Marco stepped inside and folded his arms, glancing around with dislike. “Turn on the lights already.”

I blinked at him. He didn’t even know where they were? Am I the only one who used this building? Ah, never mind. I probably was. Every time the System added a new fighting move to my Guide, this is where I’d come to practice until it became second nature and I used it in battle. And those were the only times I ever saw this place light up. I walked along the right wall five steps and flicked the switch with a practiced hand.

The fluorescent lights high overhead lit up with a slight buzz. The lights over weight set and other exercise equipment on the left of the building flickered three or four times before they finally stayed on. The faded blue flooring was just as depressing as usual and off white walls were chipping and peeling, especially in the places where I hit when I fumbled a move while practicing.

“Okay, we’re here. What do you want?” Marco snapped.

I couldn’t help but give him an odd look. Seriously, what was his deal? “Why are you so defensive with me? I’m not going to hurt you, you know.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “As if you could.” He tipped his head back and glared down his nose at me. “I just don’t want you to go reporting me. If word got around that I was involved in the cult, at all, I could get locked up forever. And so will you, idiot.”

I nearly slapped him upside the head and yelled, Then why were you talking about it to your friend in the common room, where anyone could overhear you? Instead I counted to five to cool my irritation. “I just want to know if there’s anyone else in the hostel that’s involved in the cult.”

He gaped at me. “Huh?”

My day has been way too long to handle this guy. Resisting the urge to massage my aching temples, I carefully explained, “This afternoon, someone left an invitation at my door to the next meeting, this Saturday. I don’t have to explain how hard it is to access the women’s hall. I just want to know who left the note.”

Marco flinched away from me. “Someone else was listening? Oh god!” He looked around, as if expecting to see a crowd of people peering at him from the corners of the gym.

I nodded to the side. “If it’s that important, don’t talk about it in the middle of a common place.” It’s a lesson I knew well. “Anyway, is there anyone else?”

He shook his head frantically. “No. It’s just me. I think. Everyone wears masks, so it’s hard to tell, you know? Besides, I don’t go to talk to people...” He trailed off.

So he really had no idea? I wondered how much he actually paid attention to the people around him when he was there. From the sounds of it, he was really only there ‘to feel good’ from the drugs the cultists used.

“I’m outta here.” Marco swung around.

[DOWN!] A red System message flashed in front of my face.

I dropped to the ground and swept Marco’s feet out from under him at the same time the window behind me shattered. Marco screamed as he fell, blood exploding out of a bullet hole on the fleshy part of his shoulder. He howled as he landed on the ground, hugging his shoulder and rolling around frantically.

I twisted around and tried to look out the broken window, but it was dark outside. With the light pollution from fluorescent lights overhead, there was no way I could see who attacked. That was assuming the attacker wasn’t using a concealing spell or device.

A bright light flashed on the other side of the window. From this angle, it could only be from on top of a building. I didn’t have time to think too hard about it because all my senses went off in alarm. I grabbed the screaming Marco on the floor and scrambled to the side. A fireball shot through the broken window and landed where we had been. As soon as it hit the ground, it exploded like a bomb.

I gasped and threw my hands up, casting Mist and solidifying it at the same time. A millisecond later, the explosion hit the barrier around Marco and me. We were blown to the other side of the gym. I hit the wall and was knocked dizzy, only to have a second dizzying impact when Marco’s big body slammed into mine. I gasped for air as he flopped to the ground and laid motionless on the damaged flooring. At least he was still breathing. Cracks webbed across my barrier, but it still stayed intact around us.

The explosion set off a fire, instantly igniting everything around us. The walls, the ceiling, even the pads on the exercise equipment were on fire. Smoke quickly took over the stale, sweaty odor of the gym and pooled around ceiling beams. Head still swimming, I glanced through the fire to the only door in the entire building. We’d never make it across the fire. The hotter the room got, the more my mist evaporated. Even now, my barrier was on the verge of collapsing. The only reason why it hadn’t yet was because I was emptying out the reserve mist that I kept inside me.

Black smoke permeated the mist around us, swirling within the white barrier and further weakening it. I blinked as my eyes started to sting. At my feet, Marco coughed but remained unconscious. Sweat leaked down his forehead and darkened his shirt. As an E, he was more affected by the fire than I was.

I scowled and looked up. If I couldn’t get to the door, I had to take a window out. I didn’t know how carrying Marco would affect my High Jump. In theory, I should be strong enough to carry him the twenty feet up to the window directly over my head. I could just leave him here, but since I was the one that invited him into the gym, I felt responsible for getting him back out.

Not to mention, I was pretty sure I was the reason why the gym was on fire at all. Just because I hadn’t seen Bethany’s hitmen in a couple days, didn’t mean that they weren’t still there. I thought talking to Bethany would solve her problem with me, but apparently I was wrong.

My kindjal appeared in my hand. As soon as the smooth handle touched my skin, I flung it up at the window. It smashed into the glass and the whole window shattered, raining shards down that bounced off my dome-like barrier and pooled in a circle around us. A second later, my kindjal appeared back in my Items Bag.

I gritted my teeth and grabbed Marco’s shoulders. Awkwardly, I hauled his heavy body over my shoulder. I never thought I was that short. I mean, I’m five and a half feet tall. That’s average according to the internet. But with Marco’s body draped over me like this, his head hanging past my hip on one side and his knees touching mine on the other side, I felt small. And awkward.

The cracks in my barrier spread with a sudden clack and more black smoke contaminated my mist.

I took a deep breath and looked up to focus on the window overhead. I bent my legs slightly and bunched my muscles, putting all my strength into the action. I pushed off the ground, jumped with everything that I had.

A second fire blast hit the outside of the door and exploded like a grenade.

In mid air, I watched the metal wall before me tremble.

Then warp.

Metal wrenched against metal in an ear-splitting squeal as the ceiling suddenly collapsed into itself, pulling the whole building down with it.

*****