I was inside the teachers’ lounge at my school.

In front of me was a man who sat behind his desk. He had a calming atmosphere about him, mostly because I’ve known him for a while now and I’ve grown comfortable at his company.

He spoke to me, talking about his experiences when he was still a student like me. He smiled and let out an occasional laugh. I couldn’t help listening to his stories, and before long, I was too engrossed to even think about doing anything else.

“You know, Damis…” he said with a comforting voice, “It’s not wrong to do things all by yourself. People might even find it endearing. But it’s also not a mistake to have people help you out. Look at it this way, the more people you have working for you, the less effort you’ll need. Right?”

…

I shouldn’t be here right now.

And you shouldn’t be talking to me.

I woke up by a dim light, a warm, pulsing pain appeared at the back of my head. I looked around and saw that I was in a room with about enough space for three people. The room was dusty and smelled like old furniture.

I tried to move my arms but they were tied behind my back, specifically both of my thumbs were tied together with some piece of plastic. I also noticed a piece of fabric tied around my mouth preventing me from being able to speak. I managed to loosen it up and free my mouth for use. I checked if my feet were tied as well and they were but, my right foot was tied to something else, something alive.

And then I realized I was not alone in this dark, dusty room.

With the only source of light being the moon peeking through a narrow crack in the ceiling, I tried looked at who was beside me. It was June, her soft breath was the only sound I could hear. She was tied up the same way as me though I’m sure they didn’t hit her in the back of the head with a blunt instrument.

I continued checking my surroundings to see if Noah was here as well but it seemed like it was only the two of us. Which meant they either didn’t bring him with us, or he was in a different room. Although, there is still one other possibility I did not want to consider.

I looked around us once again to try to get a better idea of our situation but the room was too dark for me to see anything useful other than the dim light seeping in from what looks to be the bottom of a door.

I may be acting all calm and collected I am fully aware of the gravity of our situation. But panicking won’t help, it’ll only stress me out. And I can’t deny that having somebody else in my situation helps me feel a lot less anxious.

I took a deep breathe, though not loud enough to be heard outside it was enough to wake June up. She looked at me confused, and after a few seconds she finally understood what’s happening.

She frantically moved around as if a dog tied to a chain as tears dropped from her hazy eyes once again.

“Shh, stop that!” I whispered trying to calm her down to her but she wasn’t listening. She loosened up the handkerchief around her mouth.

“Where are we?!” she said in a panicked voice but fortunately it was quiet enough to not be heard outside the room.

“I said quiet! There’s no use wasting your energy like that! It’ll only get us in trouble”

“B-but we have to get out of here!”

“I know!” I silently exclaimed, “But we have to be smart about this, okay? So calm down and help me get us out of these restraints.” After stopping and closing her eyes and taking a deep breathe, she began to calm down.

“Can you stand?” I asked.

“… I-I can try…”

“Okay, our ankles our tied together so we need to move at the same time or we’ll end up tripping each other. We’re going to stand up on my mark…”

“Alright…”

Both of us positioned our feet and got ready to stand up. We leaned against the wall behind us for added support.

“One… Two… Three!”

We stretched our legs as if we were doing squats and pushed up our bodies that were leaning against the wall making sure that we won’t get out of balance. Luckily, we managed to get up on the first try.

“W-what do we do now?” she asked with a nervous voice.

“Now that both of us are properly upright we need to find a way to free us from these restraints. Let’s look around the room.” She immediately started walking after I finished talking, she almost tripped the both of us.

“Hey, easy! Our feet are tied together remember?” I said in a slightly stern voice.

“I… I want to get out of here… please” she begged.

I let out a deep sigh, “Look, even if you beg things won’t get any easier. We’ll need to work together if we want to make it out of this. We don’t really have much of a choice.”

“… Why did he leave?” she muttered as she began to cry, “He said he’ll always be there but… he’s not!”

What the hell is she talking about? Is it Noah? Why does he have to keep making weird promises to every girl he meets?

“I’m sure Noah is out there right now on his way to help us.”

That’s if he’s not in the same situation as we are.

“… It’s someone else.” She clarified.

I see so it’s not Noah then.

My eyes widened up as I came to a realization, this might me what May was talking about earlier.

“Was this “someone” special to you?” I asked, putting our escape on hold.

“… Yes.” She answered, “He was so kind, and I feel safe every time I’m with him. He’d tell me fun stories about his life when he was travelling around the world whenever we walk together.”

“Was this person… did you tell other people about him?”

“… No.”

“… Why?”

“… Because no one would understand…”

“Because they might think your relationship with him is weird?”

She looked at me with disbelief.

“How did you know that?”

“Someone who likes to meddle with other people’s lives told me about it. Although she said it was only a guess, it seems like it hit the mark.”

“… Is it wrong?” she continued, “I mean, our relationship wasn’t intimate but, I didn’t want to talk about it with other people. I… I lost my father when I was young. I’ve been really close to him back then and I couldn’t accept the fact that he was gone.” She paused as she stared down at her feet, “Then, I met him. He told me he was a good friend of my father and that he promised to take care of me like my father would. He was kind. He bought me stuff and told me stories about all the places he’s been for his job. And eventually, it felt like my father never left…”

“I kind of understand that.” I said having a secret of my own.

May’s guess was pretty much spot on. I confirmed that she had an unusual association with someone.

I would have liked to ask more about it, but digging deeper into it will make her uncomfortable and stress her out, possibly affecting our attempt to escape.

“Why would you say that?” she suddenly asked me.

“Say what?” I asked, puzzled.

“You said you understood what I was talking about.”

This isn’t good, it looks like I said something I shouldn’t I have said again. I got to steer her away form that train of thought.

“Anyway, were still trapped in this room against our will. How about we focus on escaping for now?”

“… That’s not fair.” She said in a somewhat pitiful manner.

“Alright, how about I’ll tell you about it after we get out of here?”

“It’s a promise then.” She declared with a smile. Although I’m not too keen about that promise, it may be enough to get her motivated.

“Okay then.” I replied, going along with her idea, “First things first, let’s try to find something that could get our arms free.”

We tried to examine what kind of restraints we had on our hands, it looks like one of those long thin plastic lock things that has grooves under it that serves as its locking mechanism. I noticed June staring at something at my back.

“… I think I know how we can get out of these.” She said looking at me with an elated expression, “we’ll need something small and thin, kind of like a lock pick.”

“But, something like that would be hard to find in a dark room like this one.”

“… Oh, you’re right...” She bowed her head as she frowned. Well, this is new, being so close to her like this, she’s starting to look kind of cute right now...

What the hell am I thinking?

Argh! This is not the time to be thinking like that! I shook my head as if I tried to get a hold of myself.

As I stared at her head I noticed something on her hair. She wore a thin, black hairpin. Seeing it gave me an idea.

“How about we use your hairpin?”

“Yeah! I think that could work! I forgot I had one,” she exclaimed with a cheerful smile on her face.

But a few seconds later her smile faded, “But how are we going to--”

I picked up her hairpin form her hair with my mouth as she was talking.

She looked surprised, and her face flushed.

Seeing her like that confused me. I mean, with our hands tied behind our backs the only way for me to get a hold of that item was to use my mouth.

“… You’re weird…” she uttered, looking away.

What’s she going on about? Here I am trying to get us out of this situation and she throws a degrading statement at me.

“… And creepy… ” she continued.

I scrunched my eyebrows and gave her an annoyed expression. I don’t know why but it made her smile.

Whoa, wait a minute, flushed face, looking away, smiling at me, does she… like me?

Is what I would say if I actually cared about what she thinks of me and we weren’t locked up in a dark room probably in the middle of nowhere. I still haven’t gone over her calling me a creep among other things.

I gestured my head telling her to face her back towards me. She was confused at first but she caught on to what I was trying to tell her. I lowered my head to place the hairpin that was in my mouth on her tied up hands. I raised my head to look at her and saw that she was still a bit embarrassed.

“Go on, use the thing.” I told her, reminding her of the situation we were currently in.

“O-oh, right.” She snapped out of her discomfited demeanour and proceeded to use the hairpin. After a few wriggles and nudges her hands finally got free. It was quite interesting to watch. I’m impressed.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked out of curiosity.

“I saw it on the internet,” she said, “I was kind of… expecting something like this to happen… so… I did some research…”

“Well, good thing you did.” I replied feeling relieved.

This could’ve been more difficult if weren’t for her paranoia.

“… Yeah.” She replied in a soft, almost cheerful voice as she smiled at me.

Now I’m pretty sure that she has a thing for me. No one can see a girl act like that towards him and not think that she’s interested in him.

I guess it only takes a stressful and potentially life or death situation to change a girl from hating your guts to smiling at everything you say.

“Okay, I’ll do yours now…” she continued.

“Please do.” I replied, showing my back to her.

She continued to mess around with the plastic tied around my thumbs. As she moved it around I felt her hands, they were cold and trembling. It looks like she’s still terrified about what’s happening to us. In contrast to that cheerful smile she kept showing me.

I felt my opinion of her change at that moment. She’s a stronger person than I initially thought.

Without fail, she managed to free my hands as well. Spreading up my arms I began to do some stretches to bring life to my limbs that began to sting like pins and needles. Taking notice of what I was doing, June joined me and did some stretches of her own.

“Now that that’s done and over with, let’s move on to removing our leg restraints.” I said after taking a deep and exhausted breathe.

June nodded in response.

Both of us took a closer look at what’s tying both of our feet together. We discovered that our feet were bound by some kind of hollow tubing similar to a small garden hose. I felt it with my hand to see what kind of material is was made of. The outside was soft and malleable but not stretchable.

Although I’ve already determined it to be made up of plastic I felt something hard and metallic on the inside of the hollow tubing. I looked at June with worry.

“… I don’t think we’ll be able to get out of these. ” I said.

Not unless she had a hairpin that could slice through metal.

“So what do we do now?” she exclaimed, she began to panic once again.

“We’ll just have to make do. Let’s try to keep the same pace as each other while we move. How about we do a bit of practice before we leave the room?” I suggested, trying to keep her hopes up.

“… O-okay.” She replied wearily. I was not satisfied at the way she answered me. I need her to stay level headed if I want to get out of here.

“It’s going to be alright, the fact that we managed to stand up on the first try means we have a high chance of being able to walk like this together,” I said trying to encourage her, “Think of it as a three legged race event during our school’s intramurals.”

She continued looking down and bowing her head with a weary expression. What will it take to make her act all cheery again? With her acting like that I can’t believe she managed to smile earlier.

“… I know but… if one of us ends up tripping, the other one will end up tripping as well…” she explained.

So she was worried about me.

“Don’t worry,” I told her, “Like I said, I won’t fall that easily.” I forced out a smile. I kind of feel bad for lying to her. But if it means that we’ll be able to get through this safe and sound then I’ll lie till my pants get incinerated into ash.

She looked at me and finally showed that smile of hers. Now we can finally move on with our escape. But we still have a difficult obstacle right in front of us. It might be the hardest part of our whole escape.

We still have to unlock the door.

Although the room was mostly dark, light that seeped through below it made it easy enough for us to spot.

“Let’s go check the door.” I told June, pointing at the door in front of us.

She nodded in response.

Our walk to the door served as our walking practice. June almost fell as we walked towards the door, but I grabbed her just in time. She looked away as her face started to get flushed once again.

When we got close to the door I proceeded to check if it was locked. Discovering that the doorknob twisted freely I continued to push on to the door in hopes that it would open up and give us a taste of freedom. But although the door seemed to be unlocked it would not budge.

“The door’s unlocked but I think something is blocking the door on the other side.” I told June who was staring intently at the door.

This is bad, I don’t see any other way for us to get out of this god forsaken room. At this rate we won’t be able to continue our escape at all. The people who are keeping us captive are probably on their way here now with whatever plans they had for us.

Damn it, how I wish to get a vision of all them getting shot at or something. But this damn blight of mine never comes along when I need it the most. At this rate I’m going to start losing hope myself. I’d rather deal with a year’s worth of schoolwork than be in this stupid situation.

Why did I have to be here? If I just had gone home, if I never gone along with them in the first place, if I never agreed to May’s deal then I wouldn’t be here. In the end, it’s all my fault. I deserve this. This might just be a fitting end for someone like me.

A cool breeze touched my face bringing me into reality. I looked in front of me and saw the door was no longer there, rather it was tucked in all the way to the left as if it was a part of the wall. The doorknob prevented it from sliding further in. I turned towards June and saw her smiling.

“It was a sliding door, you slide it sideways to open it,” she said, “We have one like it at home.”

I stared in front of me as I let out a chuckle. To be honest, that door was poorly designed so you can’t really blame me for making that mistake. And I can’t even believe that they didn’t lock the door. Are they amateurs or something?

I examined the door once again and noticed that the lock was already broken.

Well, that explains it.

“We’re finally out!” June declared cheerfully.

I nodded in response.

I noticed an empty foldable chair placed next to the door with a racy men’s magazine placed on top of it. It must’ve belonged to the person guarding our room.

But, why isn’t he here?

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“No, it’s nothing,” I replied before rubbing my face, “We’re not out yet, we still need to get out of this building.” I gestured her to begin walking. We walked slowly to be as quiet as possible. Our captors might still be in this building after all.

I looked around us and saw that the building we were in was some kind of warehouse hinted by the dozens of identical crates lying around the area. The room was considerably large with a few electric lights providing enough brightness for people to see where they are going.

We saw an office like room directly in front of the room we were just in. The shadows of adults could be seen escaping out its open door. They were there, the ones who tied us up and brought us here against our will.

I noticed a large door halfway towards the office, it’s probably the exit. There was still the problem of getting our things back, so we decided to put our escape on hold.

We saw a small crate where all of our stuff were stacked on. The crate was located next to the office door which means if we want to get our stuff back we’ll have to go uncomfortably near them.

“We need to get our stuff back, I have something there I don’t want to lose…” June said.

“Let’s go then.” I replied.

I too had something I couldn’t afford to lose. Because losing it will mean that doing my homework will become twice as harder.

With a nod from her we continued to walk towards the room, staying as quiet as possible. It was hard considering the amount of rubble and scrap scattered on the floor. But it confirmed my speculation that this warehouse was abandoned. So all of the stuff over there in the crates belongs to those guys.

I also noticed a makeshift cooking area at the far right of the office and a showering area farther in, as well as a few sleeping bags. From what I’ve seen this might be a temporary hideout of theirs.

I checked if there were other places where they could’ve put another person they kidnapped but there were only two rooms in the warehouse. And I doubt that they’d put Noah in the same place as they are based on how they treated us.

We got near enough to the office to hear what our captors conversation. We also heard sounds of bottles being placed clumsily on some flat surface, probably a table. We decided to listen in on them for a while before taking back our bags.

“So, you think we got it right this time?” one of them said with a deep voice.

“Hopefully. I’m starting to get tired of this job.” Another one replied.

“Yeah, and good places to dump the bodies are getting harder to find.” The other one added.

Both of us were taken aback at what we had just heard. We glanced at each other.

“Does that mean they were responsible for the other kidnappings on the nearby town?” June whispered.

Afraid that they might hear me if I spoke, I just gave her a nod.

“That was mostly because we were looking in the wrong town.” Another one said with a stern voice.

“At least we had a good time even though we kept getting the wrong one.”

The man laughed, “I especially liked that last one, she was enjoyable to watch.”

They all laughed as the sounds of glass clinking filled their room.

“Man, it’s been a while since I had one of these. I had somebody try to smuggle some to me in prison. I ended up having to serve 4 more years.”

“It’s a good thing we got out then.”

“I still think we should’ve brought that other kid with them.”

Hearing that caught my attention, they’re probably talking about Noah.

“Bringing more people will just end up making our job harder. And besides, he didn’t even had the chance to know what was happening before knocked him out cold so leaving him there won’t be a problem to us.”

Looks like they didn’t kidnap Noah after all.

I turned towards June and whispered, “I think they’re drinking.”

I wondered why the security in the place was so lax that nobody even noticed us opening that door. They probably began drinking a while ago and ended up getting too engrossed to notice. All of them being intoxicated will make it easier for us to escape.

I gestured for June to begin taking our stuff. We grabbed our bags while trying to stay as hidden and as quiet as possible. June quickly open her bag and checked its contents.

She let out a sigh of relief, “It’s still here…” she said.

I took a peek at what she was holding and it was her phone. She noticed me trying to look at it.

“This strap… it was a gift… from him…” she clarified, “He told me to keep it safe and treasure it even when he’s gone.” So it was really a gift. May got it right again.

As I got a closer look at it I noticed that the circular pendant on the strap had weird carvings on it. It also looked like it had weathered down a bit.

“We shouldn’t have killed that guy so soon.” One of them said.

June froze up as she heard what they said.

“We could’ve gotten more information out of him if we kept him alive a bit longer.” Said by the same man.

“Well it’s not our fault he already died before we even got to talk to him. I didn’t expect him to be that pathetic.”

“I didn’t expect him to bleed out that quick, was he sick that day or something?”

“Holy shit, I didn’t know you’re that much of a sadistic fuck.”

“You’re one to talk, I saw you laughing when you were busy ramming that girl.”

“That was just because she looked so fucking pathetic as she cried out for her mommy.”

The guy laughed as he sloppily drunk from his bottle.

I don’t really to mention it at this point but, these guys are messed up. I don’t know what they would’ve done to us if we didn’t manage to get out of that room. I glanced at June and saw tears dropping from her eyes.

“Was the guy they were talking about, him?” I asked her trying to be as gentle as possible.

“I… I don’t know… I don’t want to know… ” she answered nervously. She began trembling, she was cold as ice.

This is bad, if she ends up freezing up in here, all of our efforts of escape will be for nothing.

“June, look at me,” I told her, grabbing her shoulders as I positioned her facing towards me, “We need to get out of here, now. These people are crazy, you already heard what they’ve been up to. You don’t want your body to end up in a briefcase right? I don’t want mine to end up like that as well, so get a grip and let’s get the fuck out of here.” I gave her a few nudges to wake her back up, she stared at me as she began going back to her senses.

Her tears stopped flowing and she gave me a nod. We walked towards the exit but before we opened the door June grabbed my arm.

“Wait…” she said. She took out something form her bag, it was a plier.

I looked at her with a grin, “Just how prepared were you?”

She responded with a smile.

She attempted to cut the restraints on out feet with the plier but her hands trembled too much making it impossible for her.

“Give it here.” I told her.

“… S-sorry.” She said as she gave me the pliers.

“Don’t be, we got this far because of you.” I positioned the plier’s teeth on our restraints and squeezed as hard as I could. It was tough, the plastic covering the metal inside made it difficult to cut through it. My hand turned red as I continued squeezing hard on it. After having a few more attempts at it I finally managed to get it off. She and I smiled at each other in relief.

“I think it’s about time we check on those two.” one of the men declared.

Hearing one of them say that made me jump in fear.

“I second that,” said the other man, “when was the last time we checked on them again?”

“I’ve got no fucking clue.”

“It’s all because you invited us all to drink. What would you do if those two brats managed to get away?”

“Relax, asshole, none of the people we kidnapped managed to escape anyway. They were too busy pissing themselves to actually care.”

“But we never actually tried kidnapping two people at the same time, did we?”

“I’ll go, I needed to take a piss anyway.”

“What are you going to do? Piss on them?”

“I’ll come with you. I want to see what you guys brought this time.”

“Asshole you only what to get a chance at the girl first.”

“Don’t worry it’s not like I’m going to hog her all for myself. If you’re that worried then I’ll give you the boy.”

“You take the boy, shithead.”

“Whatever I’m gonna take a piss now.”

This is bad, if we don’t get out soon he’ll notice that we took our stuff from the crate.

“We need to open this now!” I whispered to June.

We pushed on the door while trying to avoid making any sound. The knob looked rusty and was hard to move. But with adrenaline pumping through our bloodstream we managed to open the door with a final push.

The door made more noise than we expected.

We heard the men reacting to the loud sound, we saw one of them go out of the office. After checking the crate beside the office door he furiously looked at us. We started to run as fast as we could.

I gasped for air as I started breathing heavily from running nonstop, I checked on June to see how she was doing. She almost tripped and fell but luckily she recovered. I took my phone out of my bag and called May since I’m not too sure if Noah will be able to pick up.

While waiting for May to answer I looked around my surroundings. I didn’t recognize where we were, the place was surrounded by plain fields and greenery. It looked like we were really in the middle of nowhere.

Focusing on what was in front of us, we kept running for our lives. Soon we entered a part of the road that was surrounded by forest.

“Come on, pick up!” I shouted as I waited for May to answer my call.

I glanced at June once again and saw that she was doing okay, though she was breathing rather heavily. I looked behind us to see if we had any pursuers but strangely enough no one was chasing us at all.

I turned my attention towards me once again as I waited for May to pick up. I began to hear the sound of a ringing phone somewhere in the distance.

“You hear that?” I asked June in between my breath.

“… Y-yeah…” she answered weakly.

We kept running as much as we could but as we got tired we ran a bit slower.

The ringing got louder and louder until I was certain I knew where the source was.

We slowed down as we approached the large rock on the left side of the road. I nodded at June telling her to be alert. I told June to stay behind me as I went to check what was making the sound.

Slowly, I walked around it. Suddenly, without even getting a chance to look at the back something pulled me down and twisted my arm as I fell forward to the ground.

“Ouch! Damn it that hurts!” I exclaimed in pain and shock.

“Are you okay?” June shouted.

I glanced upwards to see who grabbed me into a submission hold, and what I saw made me smile. May held my arm as if she were ready to snap it in two while Noah sat behind her looking all worried.

“You don’t know how happy I am seeing your faces right now.” I said. Even though I knew that they had recognized me May’s grip did not loosen one bit.

“It’s okay now, it’s me!” I declared as I struggled to get free, “Let go of me god damn it! You’re going to break it!”

“May?” Noah said puzzled at May’s actions.

While on top of me May answered my call, she then proceeded to talk to me through her phone. Having my phone fall inches away in front on my face I heard her through it loud and clear.

“What are you?” May asked in an awfully calm voice. Her voice travelled through her phone though I could hear here talking behind me. Because of it her voice had some kind of delay feedback. It was really uncomfortable for my ears.

“What the hell are you talking about?! Let me go! There are people chasing after us right now so get off me!” I said, trying to reason with her. But she kept pushing at me with the same force.

“What are you?” she asked once again. She spoke so loud that her voice through the phone got distorted.

I saw June walk to where we were, she smiled when she saw May and Noah but then her expression turned into confusion, probably because of what’s happening to me right now. After trying to think about what May was trying to do, I finally got what she wanted me to say.

“I’m your assistant!” I shouted. May finally loosened her grip and got off me.

“I’m glad you think that way.” May said, she looked very pleased. Seriously though, is she secretly a sadist or something?

“Ow… What the hell was that for?” I groaned in pain.

Seeing June, Noah stood up and smile. June ran towards him and hugged him fiercely.

“I’m glad you guys were alright.” Noah said after their hugging session ended.

“Noah told me everything,” May said, “He called me as soon as he came to. Hearing that the two of you were possibly captured I immediately rushed to the where Noah waited. After looking at the map of the area on my phone, I determined the most probable route they might have used in their escape west of riverbed, the residential are you were in earlier. And judging from the past victims of kidnappings, I had a growing suspicion that the person they’re trying to find is somewhere in this city.” May took a brief glance at June.

“Could you believe we walked all the way here?!” Noah exclaimed, “It took us more than an hour to reach this place. My legs are killing me right now.”

“So you mean you didn’t bring a ride with you?” I exclaimed, dumbfounded, “How did you think we’ll be able to escape from here?”

“We don’t want to risk attracting any attention. They’ve managed to evade the police up till now. They’ll most likely flee in the first sign of any authorities.”

She continued, “When we reached this place and saw that suspicious building, Noah recognized the van that was parked right outside of it and told me that you guys were probably being held over there. I’ve already told Glenn to contact the police as soon as we’ve located their hideout.”

“S-so are the police on their way here?” June asked with relief.

“I haven’t told Glenn about the place yet,” May answered, “There was still a chance of it not being their hideout at all.”

“Tell him right now!” I shouted as I began to get aggravated at the turn of events that was transpiring.

“Dude, you don’t have to get all worked up like that.” Noah said in attempt to calm me down. But frankly it had the opposite effect. Hearing him say that to me felt like he’s dismissing what I’m going through right now, and it pissed me off. I was not in the mood for one his annoying jokes.

“Worked up? Of course I’m worked up! For fucks sake Noah don’t talk to me like that when there are killers right behind our asses’.” I replied sternly, I felt like I wanted to punch him right then and there but fortunately I wasn’t stupid enough to do so.

“… Are you okay?” June asked with a soft voice. She looked at me with worry.

Somehow, seeing her like that was enough to calm me down.

My throat felt sore from shouting too much so I just nodded at her in response.

“I’ve finished notifying Glenn of the location. The cops will be here any minute.” May said after messing with her phone while listening to our banter.

“Let’s start getting the hell out of here.” I suggested, but it looked like May had other plans.

“Like you said, there are hostile people hunting the both of you down right now. I don’t think we’ll be able to get out of here fast enough if we’re on foot. For all we know they might be using that vehicle of theirs to make chase.” May replied.

“So what are you suggesting?” I asked.

“We’ll just have to wait for police to arrive before we do anything.”

Although she does have a point I’m still hesitant in staying here any longer. And from the looks of it, even June isn’t too fond of the idea.

“I agree,” Noah said, “It took us long enough to reach this place. I’m not sure if we can manage going back any faster.”

I glanced at June, she looked back at me.

“… I-I…” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “… Let’s wait.”

“Looks like most of us are on the same page.” Said May, glancing at me.

“Tsk, alright. Let’s find somewhere to hide.” I said reluctantly.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of a vehicle moving in the distance. It was them. And they brought the van with them as expected.

“There’s a lot of places to hide in this direction. It’ll be better if we split up for now. If we hid as a group it would end up being too risky.” May whispered as she walked towards the cover of the trees.

Noah and I followed but I stopped as I noticed June was still standing there. She held her arms as if she was hugging something, she acted the same way during her consultation with the student council earlier in the morning. She began to freeze up again.

I approached her and placed my hands on the top of her shoulders.

“We need to hide, now.” I whispered.

She looked away, nervous and trembling. This isn’t going to end up well if she keeps on acting like that again and again. I was starting to get sick of it to be honest.

“I’ll help you find a good hiding spot so let’s go.” I told her thinking she’ll be more inclined to move if someone went with her.

She looked at me and gave a nod.

“Hurry up!” Noah silently shouted as he stood there waiting for us.

Both of us began sprinting towards the greenery as the sound of wheels and exhaust got closer and closer.

But as we got deeper and deeper into the forest, our source of light that came from the few streetlights in the area began to deplete. It wasn’t long before I had to take out my phone and used it as a light source. My phone’s display wasn’t bright enough to be of any use at all even though I already maxed it out.

Fortunately, the moon shone bright enough to light up most of our way. We reached the point where we were deep enough in the forest to not be seen by people passing by on the road but we still had a clear view of it. I found a small ledge below a tree where one of us can easily hide in. I gestured June to use it as her hiding place.

“We’ll be nearby.” I reassured her.

I began sprinting in search of a good hiding place. I found an area surrounded by large rocks that were slightly lit up by the moonlight. I decided to make one of them my hiding place.

I thought about finding the largest rock to hide behind but that might be too obvious, so I decided to choose the most inconspicuous one of them all and made myself comfy as I hid behind it. I tried to keep a look out for anyone scouting around the area.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

So quiet I thought I had gone deaf for a second.

I began to hear people getting off the van. Their footsteps and unintelligible speech broke the silence of the forest. I was starting to get tense. I heightened my senses and focused them on the people walking along the area flashing lights across the forest. I hoped Noah and May found a good spot.

I tried to find where they might be hiding and I found Noah who was hiding up a tree.

Is he a fucking monkey?

I kept an eye on where I left June, I’d feel responsible if she got discovered in the hiding place that I chose for her. But judging by the way they were moving they weren’t planning to go in too deep.

When I noticed most of them leaving the forest, I let out a sigh of relief. I looked around for May but I wasn’t able to see her at all, she’s good at hiding from people. I bet when she played with her friends as a kid she’ll be left alone by herself in wherever place she decided to hide in after her friends got tired of searching for her.

Suddenly, I felt something touch my left shoulder, I almost jumped in shock.

“Holy fu—” I turned to my left and saw May gesturing me to keep quiet.

“It seems like we’ve chosen the same spot.” She said.

“Y-yeah, it looks like we did.” I took a deep breath as I tried to recover from shock.

“Did she finally tell you anything?” she asked in an awfully curious manner.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk while killers are walking right behind us.” I told May trying to avoid the conversation.

“… Was I right?” May asked in a soft voice as she looked into my eyes. She talked the same way as when she thanked me for saving her.

I coughed to clear my throat, “Yeah,” I answered, “She’s been hanging out with some guy, probably older than her. But she said they weren’t in an intimate relationship.”

Frankly, I have no idea what their relationship is.

“I see…” she replied, holding her chin.

“You were also right about her phone strap being a gift. It was given to her by the same guy.”

“Did she tell you his name?” she continued.

“She didn’t tell me his name, all she said was he was kind and like a father to her. She also trusts in him quite a lot.”

I stared at her as she got lost in her train of thought. She stared motionless into the distance, she looked lifeless. Seeing her like that made me wonder if I look the same way when I’m in deep thought. If it is then I’ve got to stop doing it.

“I got a closer look at that pendant on her phone strap earlier. It had these weird carvings, and it looked really old.”

“Yes, I also noticed that earlier.” She replied.

She must have razor sharp eyesight if she managed to notice all that just by looking at it from afar. I had to be inches away from it to notice all those details it had.

A bright light flashed behind me casting my shadow, my heart stopped as I heard heavy footsteps behind me.

“So there you are.” The man said, interrupting me. I slowly turned my head around. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a black cap, a handgun was tied on his waist. His attire fit the description of one of the stalkers June had mentioned.

I tried to glance at May but I saw that she was no longer next to me. Confused, I looked back at the man.

I saw May approaching him from behind, it looked like he didn’t notice her at all. She kicked the back of the man’s left knee causing him lean backward. After catching the man’s neck she landed a chop on it with her right hand. The impact was loud and sounded like a popping balloon. The man fell down unconscious. May gestured me to get up and start moving.

Hiding time’s over, it was time to run.

“Run!” I exclaimed as we passed Noah and June.

I stopped in front of June and grabbed her hand. I won’t let her have time to freeze up again. I glanced at the top of the tree where Noah was hiding and I saw him having a hard time getting down.

That dumbass, why did he climb that tree if he doesn’t know how to go down from it? He gave up and continued hiding on the tree top. Lucky for him our pursuers didn’t notice him at all.

The three of us ran through the forest as the men started to chase us, before long we started to hear bullets passing by us. They were starting to get serious.

“Where you going you fucking brats?!” one of the men shouted as he opened fire in our direction.

June was starting to fall behind us. Before long she tripped on something and fell on the ground. Bullets were whizzing by her. May managed to help her up and continued running with her.

Before long, we started to hear multiple sirens in the distance. It looks like the police finally arrived. The men ceased firing and began falling back.

We took cover at a large tree near the road and took a moment to rest. I got a glimpse of the police mobiles heading our direction. We’re finally safe.

I let out a deep, exhausted sigh as I made the widest smile I could. I glanced at June who was smiling with me. With all of those recent gunfire I hoped Noah was safe. I glanced behind us and saw Noah strafing towards us as he tried to stay as hidden as possible.

I glanced at May who was unusually quiet. I grabbed her shoulder to get a reaction out of her but she felt cold. Looking at her closely she was starting to get pale as she began to sweat. I felt something wet and warm seeping through the palm of my hand. It was her blood.

“… Damis… I feel… heavy…” she uttered as she began falling to her side. Her body slammed on the ground at her left. It felt like time had stopped. The sirens grew louder and louder until it was the only thing I was able to hear.

I got out of my bed and looked at the clock.

This time I ended up sleeping in for four more hours. Fortunately, today was a Saturday.

I sat up and stretched my arms, my limbs still felt a bit sore from all that had happened. I looked at my phone out of habit and saw that Noah sent me a message about how much his legs were hurting after the whole ordeal.

I put down my phone and stood up planning to open up the curtains and let the sunlight invade my room through the glass sliding door it covered. I opened it up and got outside the balcony.

My apartment was right next to a small river that passed through the whole city of Sundridge. As I stared into the river’s flowing water, I began reminiscing about the events that happened yesterday.

May was sent to the hospital after she got shot. The bullet didn’t hit anything vital and just managed to graze her shoulder, but she lost a considerable amount of blood. All of us went our separate ways after we accompanied her to the hospital on one of the police cars.

While the tired Noah went home, June and I went with the police to the station where they questioned us about our kidnappers. June looked pretty out of it during the whole time, but she managed to avoid most of the questions involving that man she knew. Apparently, the man’s name was Henry Acer, and was 30 years old.

After what felt to be an hour of interrogation, we were finally allowed to go home. They offered to give the two of us a ride but I declined since my apartment was only a few meters away, and I wanted a chance to stretch my limbs and take a quick walk after all those hours of being cooped up inside that dark, dusty room. I also remembered the police mobile having a musky smell that my nostrils found irritating.

Suddenly, my phone began buzzing and ringing. I went inside to pick it up and I saw that it was May giving me a call.

“So, umm… how are you?” I said after answering her call.

“Where’s June?” she asked abruptly. Here I am genuinely concerned about her and she doesn’t even bother answering my question.

I let out a sigh, “Why do you want to know?”

“I need to tell her something,” She answered, “Do you have a computer?”

“I have a laptop, why?”

“Go on a search engine and type “recently missing auction items” on the search field.” She said.

“What is this about?” I asked, perplexed by what she was trying to make me do.

“Just do it. You’ll know it soon enough.”

I opened up the laptop on top of my desk and booted it up.

“I didn’t have the chance to ask this to you yesterday but, do you really think that they were after June?”

“Most likely. Yesterday, I looked up the recent kidnappings June mentioned and I found out that the victims were similar. Not just because they were the same age and gender as each other but all of them shared similar facial features. Short dark green-ish hair, black eyes, all of them looked like June.”

After my laptop finished booting I opened up the internet browser and enter the words she gave me on the search bar. The image page displayed multiple items that looked like priceless artefacts.

“Then, why do you think they were after June?” I checked the images on the page. After scrolling down a few times I found something shocking.

“Judging from your silence I believe you’ve just found your answer.” May said.

On the page was the image of a necklace that had a pendant that looks exactly like the one on June’s phone strap. It had the same carvings and old looking feel to it as the one she had.

It was the most recent item that had been missing from an auction on a different country.

Looking at the price made my jaw drop.

“Eighty million…” I said in awe.

“The men last night were after that.” She explained, “I got word that they were former convicts turned mercenaries who worked for the same man who took them out of jail. They were tasked to get a hold of the pendant. And the man June was talking about must have had something to do with it being missing.”

“So you think he’s the one that stole it?”

“Most likely.”

I never thought that “him” telling June to treasure the gift he gave her had a different meaning. It was literally treasure. Then, the stories about the “job” he told June must involve these items and those kinds of activities. That would explain the fact that he travelled a lot for his job.

But I can’t help but think that he gave June the pendant in order to use her as a scapegoat. Thinking about it again, I don’t think he’ll be able to do that. I don’t think he’d ever want to do anything malicious to someone like her.

“He gave her an eighty million phone strap…” I uttered in disbelief, “Why would he even give something like that to a highschool girl?”

“… It might be some sort of charm.”

“A charm? Like it’s supposed to bring good luck or something?”

“Some ancient relics and artefacts are tend to be associated with the supernatural. These were often used in some sort of religious worship in the past, after all.”

“…”

Supernatural, huh?

Having experienced the supernatural for most of my life, I don’t find it hard to believe.

I mean, we managed to escape a group of armed criminals by running through an unfamiliar forest in the dead of night. Although one of us got injured, we got away from that situation still fairly safe.

“Are you going to tell her?” May asked.

I thought about it.

I mean, the money’s no joke. It could help her a lot financially. But deep down, I felt like it won’t matter even if I tell her about it. Because she’ll never be able to let go something she treasures so much. Rather, she doesn’t want to lose anything anymore.

The way I saw it, both of them fill a hole in each of their lives.

June lacked a father figure in her life. And the man she spent time with probably saw her as his own daughter. They were basically playing a role for each other. But they were happy, they were content. And maybe giving that kind of gift to her was a way for him to show his gratitude before disappearing from her life. To show just how much he treasures her and the time they spent together.

But still, to give a high school girl something like an 800 year old pendant, it’s nothing short of ridiculous.

“… I won’t tell her.” I answered.

“Alright then, that was all I wanted to tell you.” She said before hanging up.

She hung up so fast that I didn’t even manage to remind her of our deal. I hope she’s been doing her part. I’ll just tell her about it when I see her.

I glanced at the mountain of homework that rested atop my bag. After making myself a cup of coffee I picked up and moved them to my desk. I sat on my chair as I began working on them. I took a sip and felt my body warm up.

I continued working on my homework at a steady pace. I smiled, feeling at ease.

Things have finally gone back to normal.

Chapter End