Everything turned eerily quiet. Parker could hear his own heart pounding in his ear. Were his eyes telling him the truth? Had something happened to Hailee?

Lara dropped out of the air and crashed to the ground with an ear-splitting scream. She ran to Hailee and Caleb and put her hand on Hailee’s face and in the next moment, they were both gone.

Parker still didn’t fully understand what was happening. Almost as if it were simply too much to take in. Alexis jerked him by the arm dragging him to Caleb. When they got there, he was in a heap on the ground sobbing uncontrollably. Next to him on the street was a pool of blood where Hailee had been.

Alexis threw her arms around Caleb, hoping that it may help some but she figured it probably wouldn’t. How could something like this have happened? Parker collapsed to the ground next to them, silent, not knowing what to do or say.

Everything around them didn’t matter anymore. The chaos on the street seemed so distant that Parker almost forgot they were sitting in the middle of a street. People still ran around screaming. Parts of buildings were starting to fall apart more from the chunks Master Terra had taken out of them. Sirens wailed in every direction, but none of that mattered to them.

Hailee, innocent Hailee, was the victim of others’ actions. How was that fair? Parker put his hand on Caleb’s shoulder and tears began to run down his face, as his body was finally able to react to his emotions.

The area grew quiet once more, aside from the sirens, and Parker looked around. Everyone had stopped running and screaming. They stood still, staring at the crater made by Master Terra’s body. He looked closer, through water-filled eyes and saw what looked like a very mangled Master Terra crawling out on his hands and knees.

“We need to get away,” Parker said.

The three of them stared at Master Terra as he crawled a little further. After a moment, the master collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

“What do you think is happening with him?” Alexis asked.

“I don’t know…” Parker mumbled. “But it looks like he might be unconscious.”

Parker and Alexis started to look around at the destruction everywhere. People were starting to stare and point at them as they sat huddled together in the middle of the street. After a few minutes, a group of people started to approach them, and the sirens grew closer and closer by the second.

Alexis started to rapidly tap Parker on the arm. “Parker, we really need to get out of here. Like right now.”

Parker’s heart started to race. How was he supposed to teleport them somewhere safe? Everything was so chaotic; would he be able to do it without messing up? His mind raced back and forth with everything that was happening. Lara flying around causing destruction. Master Terra nearly tearing apart the city brick by brick. Hailee...

A person reached their hand out toward Parker, and he panicked, teleporting the three of them away and they crashed onto a grassy hill in a massive heap. Each of them moaned and groaned as they untangled themselves.

Parker sprawled out onto his back and took many deep, heavy breaths. He could hear the two of his friends doing the same next to them. After a moment of quiet, with the only noise being the wind that rolled by and the waves that crashed against the cliffs below them, they started to cry again.

It was several minutes before any of them could pull it together. Parker crawled over to Alexis and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in close and squeezing her. It took a little bit, but she was able to stop her tears, even though her breathing was still heavy.

“What happened?” she asked in the calmest voice possible.

Caleb tried to stop crying but couldn’t. After a few minutes, he tried to explain it but still couldn’t pull it together. Parker and Alexis wanted to help him but didn’t know how to. How were they supposed to console their friend after losing the girl he liked right in his hands?

“Was she shot? Was that the noise I heard?” Parker asked knowing it would be a little bit before he got an answer. Although after a few seconds Caleb nodded his head, still sobbing.

“It’s not your fault!” Alexis exclaimed. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. None of us could’ve stopped that. Not even me and I can stop time! We couldn’t have predicted that would happen. There was too much chaos happening for us to be able to intervene like that.”

She knew it was a long shot, but she had to try. Parker wasn’t sure that Caleb would ever get over this, no matter what else happened.

“Okay, we need to figure out what to do next.” Alexis tried to sound as calm and rational as she could. Parker could tell that her heart was racing a million miles a second though.

“You’re right,” Parker said with a smile, backing her up. “Obviously the next step is to go tell the masters what happened.”

“What is Lara doing with her?” Caleb exploded. “Why did she take her?” He started to sob uncontrollably again.

Parker stared at Alexis for an answer but he knew there wasn't one. Why would Lara take Hailee? What was she going to do now? “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’re not safe out here on our own. She needs us to make her new world and she knows exactly how to find us.”

“Do you think she really cares about making her new world now?” Alexis asked. “I mean, the whole point of it was to save Hailee.”

“There were two reasons,” Parker started saying. “To save Hailee from Master Terra and to make all of the humans pay for the way they’ve treated Imperials over the years.”

Alexis gulped loudly and her eyes went wide. “That’s not good…”

Parker shook his head. “No, it’s not. Especially considering that she probably assumes it was a human that just killed her daughter.” Caleb let out another sob.

“Let’s get back to the masters and explain everything.” Alexis grabbed Caleb’s hand and squeezed it. Then she reached and grabbed Parker’s. “Let’s go.”

Parker focused as hard as he could on feeling Master Sora’s core. There shouldn’t be any problem this time since Master Sora should have no reason to change his core’s rhythm. After a moment he felt it and in a second teleported them right to him.

It was the first time that he’d done it perfectly. They were in the dining hall, right by the head table. The rest of the school was sitting at their tables, eating like it was just another day. Parker stood in front of Master Sora with Alexis by his side. Caleb sat at his feet, still sobbing at the loss of Hailee. Master Sora stood up staring at them and the room fell silent.

“Master—” was all Parker could get out when a blinding white light filled the air around them.

End of Book 3

Thank you so much for reading. Stick around because Book 4 - Tinkering with Time, the final book in the Lancastre Academy Series will begin posting soon.