Madelyn Beckett acted as though she cared. Did she? No. But no one knew that. She tugged discreetly at the hem of her pinafore for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She was in what felt like the hundredth class of the day, robotically writing down her name and the date for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Was this her life? Staying carefully in between the lines through a series of repeated actions and words each day. For now, yes. Forever? She hoped not. 

Madelyn ceased to understand how her peers proceeded as if everything was fine. Although, she couldn’t be judgemental for too long. She had also never once expressed an original thought, not because she didn’t have them, but because of what she thought might happen if others knew she did. 

But she felt so blindfolded in her society. She needed to know if other people thought like her. If there were others who didn’t want to go to school in uniforms, or eat turkey for dinner every Thursday (which was today, yuck.) She had to know something, anything aside from what she had been taught her whole life, but there was no possible way for her to obtain this knowledge, unless-

“Miss Beckett!” Professor Marium’s voice boomed through the silent auditorium, vibrating off the walls and colliding with her ears. The vowels echoed and repeated themselves, calling her name over and over again. She shot up in her seat immediately, straightening her back and tilting her chin upwards.

“This is the second time this week I have caught you slouching in my class. Girls, do we need to review protocol?” Professor Marium looked extremely menacing as she said this. Her gray bun never moved a centimeter as she scolded Madelyn and her thick rimmed glasses stayed perfectly centered on her nose.

“No Professor.” The students responded in unison, and shortly after they turned to stare at Madelyn. She caught many different looks, some girls were glaring, others were trying to conceal spiteful smiles and the rest looked disappointed and disapproving, as if they were far better or possessed more maturity than her. Madelyn blocked out the cold and judgemental gazes as best she could, turning away and causing them to ricochet off her skin, leaving marks every time that they did.

“Attention back on the lesson girls.” Professor Marium instructed sternly, “And Miss Beckett,” the Professor said, turning her gaze back to Madelyn, “don’t get to three.” 

Those four words were terrifying. They vibrated through Madelyn’s ears, bouncing off of each other and repeating themselves again and again till the lesson was tuned out. Don’t get to three. Don’t get to three. She had sharpened each syllable to a point before she threw them at Madelyn. The words were stuck in her for the rest of the day till they were all she could hear, and she couldn’t pull them out.

Madelyn’s mother was speaking rapidly on the phone in Swedish which told her that it was one of her adult friends she was speaking to. Her neat blond bob cut moved up and down with her jawline and words flew out of her mouth and into her cellphone. Madelyn didn’t disturb her and instead went straight to her room to complete the school work for the day. If she wanted to get back on Professor Marium’s good side, then she was going to have to devote the whole night to her studies.

Madelyn stared through her bedroom window in her family’s apartment, her large pale blue eyes soaking up the sight of streets nearly identical to hers. Red brick apartment buildings lined up in rows and columns one after the other. Perfect and in order. Their pristine white roof tops gazed back up at her.

Madelyn dumped the contents of her saggy brown book bag onto her scratchy blue cotton comforter, watching as an unfamiliar paper fluttered to the floor. The piece of postage caught her eye immediately, and only because of how out of uniform it was. The only type of stamp Madelyn ever saw was something that advertised or glorified her country. Usually an eagle or American flag. 

But this envelope had something different in the corner; an image of a book and quill, the background color and bright emerald green. 

Questions shot into her head at the sight, she tried to grab them as they flew through her mind but worry was overtaking all of her confusion. How could anyone have acquired this? Should she let someone know? No. She didn’t know why this answer was so apparent, but something in her gut was screaming out to her, forcing it into her head. She twirled her hair around her finger as she turned over questions and possibilities in her mind.

Madelyn began to flip the envelope round in her fingers, debating whether or not to open it.Two sides of her brain were fighting, and the curious side won. So she slipped her pointer finger underneath a small opening in the seal and separated the paper as daintily and quietly as possible. A bright red paper peeked through the top at her, hidden by the rest of its white shield.

The worrisome side of her brain took control again, causing her to flip the envelope back over with the intent to check the return address. Surely she would have to send it back, surely it was not recommended for her. But there was no return address. The person who sent this had to have been completely sure it would go exactly where they wanted it to. Could that mean they delivered it by hand? Madelyn’s eyes shot up to the window, a new lens equipped to them; one that noticed anything abnormal or out of place. Was that there before? It didn’t matter. She dragged her attention back to the red paper concealed within the envelope, fending off the worrisome side of her brain.

The paper rustled as she slid it out of its shell, the smell was crisp and new. It reminded her of opening brand new school books for the first time in a trimester. The paper was folded into quarters and Madelyn’s anticipation grew every time she undid a fold. Once the paper was unfolded to its full size she could see the indents where it had been previously bent.

Madelyn let out a small gasp just as she heard the click of the telephone being returned to its base, her mother’s soft footsteps followed shortly after the noise just outside her bedroom door. 

Carefully, but quickly, she tucked the envelope back into her bookbag and quickly as she could, just as the handle of her bedroom door turned downwards.

Chance Kilman felt sleep begin to consume him. It shut off parts of his mind, redirecting the attention to the darker corners that were less explored. He listened to the sound of his own breathing, but it didn’t feel like it was coming from him. The moonlight filtered in from the window beside his bed, coating his eyelids and casting his face in a ghostly light.

His mind began to wander, displaying in his head a replay of the day. Just as he was getting to the part where he had arrived home from his low paying job at the docks, something rustled underneath his pillow. Again.

It was officially the fourth night of these strange occurrences. For the past four days now Chance had felt as though strange objects were being planted everywhere he went each day. But that was impossible. No one knew anything about Chance, let alone his exact schedule. Although it was simple.

Each day he left his small shabby home (if it could even be called home.) Then he proceeded to go to work where he slaved away all day until the sky turned a darker shade of sapphire. He was monitored at every single turn, watched during every single action, and kept in by every single wall. When you had a reputation, no one trusted you. Chance hated that he couldn’t prove people wrong, couldn’t show that his name didn’t define him, because he was never given a chance.

If there was someone leaving these letters for Chance to find deliberately, then they would have to be nearly invisible, either that or the world’s best spy. And Chance reckoned that the odds of both were slim to none. Somebody would have noticed by now.

But even still, he lifted up his feather-filled pillow, knowing exactly what he would find. The envelope with his name. Just a name and a stamp, no address, as if it had been hand delivered. 

Strangely enough though, Chance never opened the letter. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, or maybe that was it. But he was scared of what he would read.

Still, even knowing the possible consequences he was nearly bubbling over with curiosity. The bright green stamp was a spurt of color in his dull world, and one he needed. 

Instead of destroying the letter like he knew he should, he tucked it under the same floorboard that he had opened the previous three nights. Hopefully, social services wouldn’t decide to pay him an early visit.

The sun was not yet present when Chance cracked open his eyelids. He slid out of bed, the warped floorboards protesting underneath his feet as he did so.

He heard voices just below his bedroom window and sauntered towards it, careful not to be seen by the people that were conversing below. He dropped his gaze towards the noise and his heart began to beat rapidly. He stumbled backwards, almost tripped over the loose floorboard. Those men had been in uniforms, outside of his house. No one else lived here, they had to be here for-

“Chance Kilman.” Came a muffled voice from behind the doorway, followed by a series of loud, intimidating knocks.

Chance didn’t give a second thought to what he did next. He drew back from the door immediately and turned towards his hiding spot. He pried open the floorboard as quickly as he could, getting several splinters during the excursion. Another series of knocks came as he yanked up the dust covered, bent letters. Still in his striped sweat-shorts and fishing shirt he dashed for the window, tucking the envelopes carefully in his pockets so he could pry it open. To his dismay it was painted shut. 

Chance glanced around the room, panicking as he heard the door handle being tried. He had nothing special, he barely owned anything. But an idea was forming at the back of his brain, and he tried as hard as he could to drag it to the front.

If he had been able to pull up one of the floorboards to hide his letters underneath, then that must mean that there was a loose screw. Chance flung himself onto the wooden floor, trying each screw of the board and pulling so hard that once he found the loose one he nearly flung it across the room. He sprung to his knees, the joy of his small victory not laying long as it was overtaken by fear.

Quickly, Chance jammed the screw into the paint and ripped the layer aggressively with all his might. Letting the screw scatter to the floor he used both hands to push the window sill upwards.

Once he had almost gotten the window completely open, which was quite hard, because the windows had not been tended to or opened in a long time, he heard another knock at the door. It hadn’t come from a fist, so his brain narrowed it down to two other options. It was either a bat, or the butt of a gun, neither of which sounded pleasant.

Chance was finally able to force the window all the way to the top, allowing him just enough space to dive through. Powered by adrenaline, he slammed the window shut by leaning against it with his forearm. It returned to its original position with a loud clatter that was drowned out by the sound of his door being knocked down.

The morning air was muggy and the grass was cold and damp with dew on his bare feet. He sprinted down to the lakeside, dodging behind as many row boats and kayaks as he could to avoid being seen. After almost a mile and a half, he reached the dunes and crashed, feeling like he was about to throw up. Why couldn’t his damn parents come back?

Salvator Mantoksh slipped through his front door quietly, sliding off his wet shoes without bothering to untie them. As usual, something was burning in the kitchen, his mom was passed out on the couch, and his dad was nowhere to be seen. 

He debated for half a second whether he should go upstairs or not, and then decided to try to ascend towards his room as quietly as possible. He knew it wouldn’t work, because it never did. His brothers were like bats, even with their grunge music blaring, they had special hearing when it came to Sal.

Sal crept up the stairs, making sure to be extra careful of the creaky one four up from the bottom. Just as he thought he had successfully passed the first door on the left it swung open, the Nirvana poster nearly hitting him in the face. All six feet and two inches of his older brother by three years; Rodney, hung in the doorway. 

Further into the room Sal heard the mattress creak, he needed to go. But his two older brothers would not let that happen. His other brother, Kato made his presence known by yanking on Sal’s backpack.

“Where ya goin’ Sally?” Kato teased, yanking him backwards where he was intercepted by Rodney.

“Where were you all day, huh?” Rodney asked, holding him in place by the collar of his shirt.

“I was at school dumb-ass, some people have futures, lives that don’t consist of failure and drugs.” Sal spat.

“Oooh, someones’ got jokes today!” Kato chuckled, giving Rodney a look that couldn’t have meant anything good for Sal.

Rodney tightened his grip on Sal’s shirt, raising him up as a punching bag for Kato.

“Put me DOWN!” His pleas didn’t work, and he received a punch to the gut. Sal keeled over, but Rodney didn’t let go.

“Maybe if you grew another couple inches you could touch the ground from here little bro.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Sal flinched as Rodney moved to punch him again, but stopped. Sal knew what he was going to do next. He would say, ‘two for flinching,’ which was worse. So to avoid an even more painful fate Sal wriggled out of his grasp and fell to the floor. 

He didn’t have time to stand up, so he thrust himself back down the stairs, feeling a hand close around his foot as he did so. He spun around on his back to see Kato holding his ankle with shockingly powerful strength. 

“We found your stash Sally.” Kato said, wiggling Sal around in his grip.

“What are you talking about?” Sal exclaimed, “I don’t h- I’m not like you! Let me go!”

“The money.” Sal’s brothers must have seen him go white, because they began to snicker spitefully amongst themselves.

“No. No! NO! GIVE IT BACK!” He screeched at them, his voice tearing its way out of his throat.

“Too late!” Rodney sang out, a satisfied smile creasing his face once again.

“Uh-oh…” Kato cooed out from in front of him.

“What do you mean?” Sal was beyond worried, and beyond upset. If he couldn’t get this money back then…

“We spent it man.” Rodney replied simply, crouching lower and waddling towards Sal as Kato made room for him on the top step.

“That was my FUTURE! You-you-” Sal screamed again, praying that somehow none of this was true.

“Too late.” Kato said quickly, cutting him off before releasing his ankle, pulling off his sock in the process.

The boys snickered once again as they watched Sal tumble down the stairs. He heard them make their way back to the room, finished with their tormenting for the day. He could not be in the house a second longer. 

Sal pushed himself up with much effort. He scooped his shoes up from the front door mat and flew outside in an instant.

Outside, he was one-socked, bruised, rugburned, and now wet. Thick, warm rain drops dampened his hair and torn shirt, they masked his tears. What was he supposed to do now? That money he had saved, and that strange invitation he had gotten… He had slaved away and finally got his well-deserved ticket out, and the barbarians he was forced to spend his life with had ripped it out of his hands, he didn’t even want to think of what they had most likely bought with his hard earned money.

Thoughts collided in his brain, knocking into all his hopes and dreams and shattering them, the sharp pieces piercing his heart. He was choking, he couldn’t breath, he felt like the air had been sucked out of him.

Dropping to his knees, his soaked body met the soaked pavement. Sal was shaking uncontrollably with sobs and his tears were coming down as heavily as the rain. Pulling himself up he slipped on his tattered shoes and ran, almost wiping out on the end of the driveway. He had no idea what he was doing or where he was going, he just needed to run, to get away.

He flew past various lampposts and street signs until his surroundings were unrecognizable. His brain had nearly stopped working but his legs wouldn't. They kept pushing him on. Away. Away was all that mattered.

Sal was nowhere that he recognized when he woke up the next morning. All he knew was that he never went home last night, in fact he was pretty sure he had passed out on the side of a road. And now his surroundings were like none he had ever seen before. 

Sal was laying in a blindingly white bed, aside from a dirt streak in the middle of the comforter which he assumed was from him. He felt very sticky, he still had on the same jeans and torn T-shirt from the previous night, the only thing that had been removed from his body were his gym shoes.

The rest of the room was extravagant. The ceilings were about twice as high as the ones in his own room and they were made of glass. The rest of the room was narrow, with only a small white desk and another window illuminating the space from behind his bed. On the white desk he spotted what looked to be a help button. He didn’t feel in any danger at the moment, and he knew what danger felt like. It was a nice break, feeling safe, but he was confused. That being said, Sal lurched himself out of bed and made his way towards the button. He pushed it down with his pointer finger and waited.

_ _ _ _ _

“Wait, so did you, like, kidnap me?” Sal’s question came off a little more casual than one might expect it to, but his voice cracked on the word kidnap. He didn’t feel threatened by this place, and especially not by the woman sitting across from him.

“You could put it that way. But we’ve been tracking you for a while now Salvator,” Sal flinched at that and shuffled around in his new plush robe. It was insanely soft. He had assumed that people would call him Salvator here, including the person in front of him. Everything he had toured so far was extremely grand, and about sixteen times as big as his house, but apparently that was just “the part of the West Wing that he would be able to view on their walk to the meeting room.” The meeting room was stunning, to say the least. The ceilings were twice his height and covered in intricate carvings. He couldn’t help his eyes from drifting up to them while the woman talked, wondering how long it would have taken to carve such a design so delicately by hand. Overall, it just seemed like the kind of place where people didn’t use nicknames.

“Would you prefer I call you Sal?” Her voice was just a shade softer. Sal noticed her digging her nails into her palm. She was squeezing her hand in a fist like she was holding a stress ball.

“Yeah! Uh… yes please. What’s your name?” Sal had too many questions, so he figured he should start with the basics.

“My name is Michelle, but you will most likely be calling me Professor Dulshwitz. And my team and I realized after tracking you that you were a special individual that required,” Michelle paused, as if cycling through her extensive vocabulary for the right word to use, “rescuing.”

“Wait wha- ok hold on. Tracking?” There was an appropriate twinge of concern in his voice now.

“The-” Michelle inhaled, but it sounded like a sigh, “I-I understand that this is quite a lot to process, but it really will be easier to explain once the other members of your group arrive.”

“My group?”

Andy blinked back at her from his glasses, his eyes wide and magnified by the lenses. Jordan could have guessed that this would be the reaction she got, in fact she knew it would be, but she couldn’t do this without Andy.

“Jordy…” he sucked in a breath, “I- this is the one thing we’ve been told not to do…for our entire lives.” He adjusted his glasses, a nervous reflex of his, “I just don’t want to get hurt.” He added quietly.

“Whatever is in there that we can’t see, that people are so afraid of, I won’t let it hurt you…pinky promise.” Jordan stretched out her hand, but Andy didn’t do the same.

“But everyone sa-” He started

“Everyone here is being controlled! Controlled by fear! I will not sit by and be one of them. I need answers, I need…” Jordan couldn’t say anymore. She watched as Andy dropped his gaze to the ground. “I need to know,” she choked out, her vision blurry, “You-you know how important it is to me.”

There was a long pause. “Ok,” Andy said softly with a slight nod of his head, “Ok, I’ll do it.” He looked up again, and they instinctively performed their secret handshake.

Jordan awoke at almost precisely midnight. She carefully made her way out of bed towards the front door where she quietly slipped on her shoes. Her eyes darted across the room to her sleeping dog Bucky, her second best friend. She couldn’t leave without saying good-bye, so she tiptoed over to plant a kiss on his forehead, turning back before she could cry. When she opened the door the morning was pitch black and quiet, ready to swallow her whole.

She hoped that Andy would be waiting for her at the edge of the trees, that he had kept his word. But she knew he would be. The events of nine years ago had torn him apart almost as much as they had her, and they were all that the other had. If the world began to spin the other way and everything was flipped inside out and shaken up, Jordan could turn to Andy, and vice versa. So she wasn’t relieved when she caught sight of him wobbling back and forth at the base of the treeline, she was warmed. Because she knew that no matter what happened next, she would have someone that was always there for her, an island in the middle of a choppy ocean. Someone who she would be nothing without. And, even though Jordan hated to admit it to herself, she needed someone who could replace him.

_ _ _ _ _

As Jordan began to walk further from her house, the edge of the woods came into view. She remembered what had happened there, and suddenly the dark tree branches seemed like they were reaching out for her.

“Jordy!” Andy shouted, and Jordan snapped out of whatever trance she had just been in. “Let’s go. It’s cold.”

Jordan began walking, and Andy followed shortly behind her. The moonlight began to vanish, and the trees grew denser as they traipsed farther and farther into the wood.

“What are we even looking for?” Andy whispered after nearly ten minutes.

“Something. Anything,” Jordan paused, “or maybe nothing.”

“Well there has to be something. Right? If we’ve been forbidden from going in for all these years.” Andy sounded slightly annoyed, and Jordan couldn’t blame him.

“Not necessarily, I mean-” Jordan blinked, there were spots in her vision, and it was already hard enough to see in the midnight black forest.

“Jordan, I don’t feel good. Can we go back?” Andy whined.

“Yeah, hold on,” Jordan said, balancing herself on a tree, “I’m kinda dizzy, so maybe just a little farther.”

“I told you this wouldn’t-” But Jordan didn’t get to hear the rest of his sentence before she blacked out.

_ _ _ _ _

Jordan awoke staring straight up at a white sky from which snowflakes drifted down and landed on her face. She shot up, ignoring the sharp pain in the back of her head.

“Andy!” She called out. She eventually spotted him a few yards ahead, curled up into a ball in the snow. She stood up the rest of the way and dashed over to him. After several seconds of violent shaking, he awoke as well.

“Wha…” He sat up, groggy and trying to speak.

“Andy! I think I blacked out!” She exclaimed.

“Oh no! No! We have to get back! We’ll be in so much trouble!” Jordan watched the expressions on his face change as he too realized the situation they were in.

“No!” She shouted, then regained control of herself, “Andy,” she glanced around her surroundings, “I don’t think we can.”

Andy went pale, “What do you mean?” he asked, his gaze flying upwards, he seemed to analyze the sky for a few moments, as if he was just realizing that it was daytime now.

“Don’t you think it’s a little coincidental that we both blacked out last night at the exact same time?” Jordan prompted, waiting for her friend to catch on.

“What are you saying?” He didn’t.

“I’m saying,” Jordan said, pulling Andy to his feet, “that I don’t think we’re in Bracksilton anymore.”

“Can you elaborate on that?” Andy squeaked.

“Come on,” Jordan groaned, “let’s just go look around.” She began to walk, and eventually Andy followed. Her boots crunched against the snow covered ground, which consumed nearly her entire shoe. After a while worth of walking the two began to ascend a hill. If Andy hadn’t perked up behind her, Jordan might’ve walked right into it.

“What is that?” He asked, dumbfounded.

“What is…” Jordan’s breath was taken away as she glanced upwards, “Woah.”

Away. Away was all that mattered. Chance had no idea how long he’d been running, but it had been long enough that he couldn't feel his legs anymore. His surroundings were blurred, but despite feeling completely lost, he felt a sense of security in knowing that he was no longer where he had been. He nearly collided into a tree before finally stopping. His reaction time delayed, he put his hand out to steady himself against the trunk. Feeling like he was going to hurl, he remembered why he had been running.

Quickly he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out the creased and torn envelopes. And his heart stopped. There were four. There were four. Now there were three. His curiosity overtook his cautiousness and he tore open all three, each one’s contents identical to the others. 

At first, Chance thought that he had been running for too long, but no matter how much he blinked or rubbed his eyes, the letters stayed arranged in the same position:

zkdw’v Eoxh lv rUdqjh, zkDw’v ubg lv juhhq 

qrwklqj lv hyhu dv lw vhhpv 

Frqfhdo brxuvHoi 

dyrlg ehlqj vhhq 

vdqfwxdub Olhv dw Wkh vdqghg Rdn wuhh 

wdnh wkh ohds dqg brx’oo eh iuhh 

zh rqob Qhhg rqh pruh wkdq wkuhh

MD & CO

His eyes skimmed once, twice, three times until he ripped it apart. Chance watched as the remains of all three letters drifted to the ground. The papers that he had risked his life for had ended up being nothing but a jumble of randomly spaced letters. He sank to the ground, his back pressing against the tree. He was expecting the bark to scrape him, but it didn’t. 

As he turned around, Chance noticed something very unusual about the tree that he hadn’t during the haste of opening his letters. It had no bark. In fact it looked as though someone had sanded it smooth.

After what felt like an hour, Chance had  managed to piece the letters back together. His eyes studied the same disappointing message that he had viewed before, but this time his brain was working over time. He noticed the capitalized letters, the apostrophes. What could they mean? Did they spell something? Stand for something, even? EUDFHOWRQ. The only word he saw there was “HOW,” which he couldn’t relate to anything.

Chance stood up and realized that he hadn’t been breathing. He let out a long sigh and began to pace back and forth, letting the fresh air settle his mind. He felt so tired, too tired. Feeling even sicker, he focused on breathing deep. In. Out. In. Out. Out. In. Out. Out. He couldn’t think straight. Black spots appeared in his peripheral vision as everything began to fade…away.

Madelyn had a small sum of money tucked neatly away beneath one of her itchy and unworn school uniforms. Ever since she opened the letter, she had been discreetly packing everything she suspected she might need in her school bag. Her plan was that one day, once she was ready, she would make her departure after school.

Madelyn couldn’t help her mind from going to her mother. Sure, maybe she hadn’t been anything special, but she was her mother, and when it mattered she had always cared for her. Ever since her father died when she was young, Madelyn had been all that her mother had. What would it do to her if she left?

Madelyn counted the money once again, knowing that just like last time she would come up with $26.48. She had everything she needed, she would just have to figure out which bus to get on when the time came. She stopped herself, realizing that she was rambling on inside her head again, and forced herself to get her thoughts in order.

She tucked her money back into its hiding place and stepped outside of her room.

“Hi mama.” She said quietly as she walked into the small kitchen.

“Hello Madelyn. Help me prepare dinner, will you?” Madelyn agreed silently by busying her hands quickly. As she diced the cucumber she stared at her mother’s face. It was almost identical to hers, pointed nose, porcelain skin, and long thin lashes. Her blonde hair -shorter than Madelyn’s- hung down in front of her face as she seasoned the turkey. 

Madelyn would miss her home. After all, it was her home. But even still, a chance at freedom meant more than home, it meant that the rope around her waist could be cut, and that meant everything to her. So even if the whole situation was one big dead end, she would still try. She would still make a leap for freedom, and hopefully latch onto it.

The curtains cast strange shadows on the floor as Madelyn stepped gracefully out of her twin sized bed. She crossed the room towards her dresser where her money was hidden, moonlight illuminating her pale skin. She quietly slipped into a soft white dress, just long enough to shield her legs from the cold. Her hands sifted through the pile of uniforms, locating the money she had left there. She made sure to grab her school jacket, the only one that she had.

Unaware of what time it was, she slid out of her bedroom and into the living room of their small apartment. Making sure her brown leather jacket was wrapped tightly enough around her body to keep her warm in the cool night air, she slung her backpack over one shoulder. Despite her carefulness, she still winced as a stepped creaked beneath her socks on her small journey towards the door. 

Madelyn managed to find her shoes regardless of the darkness surrounding her. After slipping them on silently slipping them over her pristine white socks, she twisted the door handle, taking one last glance back into the apartment while her heart beat out of her chest. 

“Bye Mama,” she whispered into nothing before closing the door with a small click.

A lone tear trickled down her left cheek as she descended the spiraling staircase towards the lobby. No one could get in at this time of night, but she could still get out. It was strange how quiet everything was once she stepped outside, and Madelyn had a feeling that this would be the last time for a long time that her surroundings would be peaceful.

Trying her best to ignore the eerie stillness of the night so that it didn’t consume her entirely, she began to walk. On her previous walks to school, she had tried to map out where she would need to travel on her journey. Heading for the 24/7 bus station, she busied her shaking hands by checking once again that her refolded letter was still tucked safely in the depths of her jacket pocket.

As Madelyn approached the ticket purchase station she noticed the very tired looking old man hunched over in the box. She pitied him for a brief moment, eventually clearing her throat when he didn’t acknowledge her presence for several long seconds. She squared her shoulders and focused on looking as grown up as possible, though she probably didn’t have to. The poor man wouldn’t have noticed if she had snakes coming out of her head.

“I need one ticket for Bracelton, please.” Madelyn said, her voice not sounding like her own and she twirled a few blonde strands of hair around her index finger.

The old man looked up at her, seemingly confused, “We don’t have any of those,” he straightened in his chair, a miracle, “In fact I’ve never heard of a Bracelton before.”

Madelyn felt a wave of emotions crash over her, and everything seemed to pause for a second, but she wouldn’t let herself drown. She couldn’t waste any more time, “Yes, sorry. My mistake.” 

She scurried further down the street scanning for anything that might help her, her head clouded with confusing thoughts and questions that she didn’t have answers to. Her hands still shook uncontrollably as she pulled the letter out of her pocket to read it for the thousandth time. She had to’ve had the translation memorized by now. At first glance, it looked like a jumble of random letters, but if you applied the caesar shift cipher with a right shift of three it read: What’s Blue is oRAnge, what’s red is green, nothing is ever as it seems, ConcEal yourseLf, do not be seen, sancTuary lies at the sanded Oak tree, take the leap and you’ll be free, we only Need one more than three.

“Should we knock?” Andy asked hesitantly behind her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“How am I supposed to know?” Jordan retorted, staring up at the tall burgundy double doors in front of them, “It’s worth a try right?” She turned to Andy to see him adjusting his glasses. His face contorted to a disapproving and concerned expression,  Jordan shrugged and adjusted her bracelet.

Turning back around she grasped the gray iron knocker on the door and swung it three times, the metal meeting the wood with a triumphant bang. Behind her Andy grasped her jacket sleeve tightly.

There was an unusual creaking sound, and the doors began to open inwards. It took Jordan a while to realize that they were not being pulled by a person, but some sort of automatic force. The space behind the doors was extremely grand, with a very sophisticated interior design style.

Andy let out a small whimper. The two best friends wavered near the doorway, unsure what to do until a powerful voice boomed out from somewhere above.

“Jordan Clayter! We’ve been expecting you!”

_ _ _ _ _

Jordan hesitated for several seconds, before taking a tentative step forwards, then another. Having no choice but to follow, Andy stayed directly behind her, making sure there was no more than an inch between them. A tall lady whom Jordan assumed was the owner of the voice who had beckoned her inside began to make her way down the grandest staircase Jordan had ever laid eyes on. Even more of the extravagant room was visible from this side of the doorway, and Jordan had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

As the woman drew closer, Jordan grew less afraid of her. Her heels made her at least 6’3, and her neat black bun resting on the top of her head made her appear even taller. Despite her beautiful dark and incredibly clear skin, her smile was the most attractive part about her. It was warm, welcoming, and accompanied by two dimples. Jordan sensed Andy tense behind her. His energy turned her feelings into an even more confusing mix of anxiety, suspicion, and content. 

“Well I see you’ve brought a plus one!” The woman spoke in an accent Jordan had never heard before, “Don’t be shy now.” The woman genuflected gracefully to be on Andy’s level as he shuffled out from behind Jordan’s back. Jordan flinched at the sudden moment, a reminder that she needed to breathe.

Jordan managed to say the only words her brain could form at the moment, “What is this?” She asked breathily.

“This,” the woman said, rising back up to her full height, “is your new home.” She gestured dramatically towards the rest of the room, closing her eyes and smiling joyfully as if it was her first time seeing it as well.

“Who are you?” Andy asked timidly.

“Ah, yes! How informal of me to not properly introduce myself!” She exclaimed, eyes wide, “I am Cassandra Dulshwitz, but you may call me whatever you are comfortable with children.” Cassandra held out a perfectly manicured hand that Jordan shook.

“Ok thanks, but uh…would you mind explaining why I’m supposed to be here?” Jordan asked politely.

“Well of course darling! My sister Michelle and I established this academy nearly twenty one years ago when we were both twenty nine years old-”

“You’re fifty?!” Andy exclaimed in utter amazement.

“Andy!” Jordan scolded before delivering a soft elbow to the ribs.

“Oh it’s quite alright,” Cassandra chuckled, “people often think I’m younger than I am.” She gave a slight clearing of her throat and then continued on with her story, “Anyways, we are in the business of removing children with great potential from unfortunate circumstances. Obviously we try to be quite subtle about it. It’s not as if we could just go grab you ourselves, as that would be illegal. But I had faith that you would turn up, and of course here you are!”

Jordan took a few seconds to process the information, deciding which question she should ask first. “I have great potential?” She subtly tugged on a strand of hair to check if she was dreaming.

“Oh sure darling! And you are right within our age range.” Cassandra seemed flabbergasted that Jordan did not think more highly of herself.

“Age range?” Jordan prompted.

“We take interest in individuals anywhere from eight years to sixteen years of age and pick four per year.” Cassandra answered, her cheery attitude never wavering, “I understand that this is much to process, so we assign each of those new individuals an older student to show them the ropes. That way you can have things explained to you from a younger perspective, someone who understands you better.” Cassandra paused, probably waiting for a response, but the only thing Jordan could produce was a wide-eyed nod, and she wouldn’t be surprised if Andy had already passed out behind her.

Cassandra seemed to understand this because she gently took Jordan’s hand and said, “Why don’t I show you and your friend to your rooms?”

Sal had just barely finished marveling at the size of his room when he was summoned downstairs by Professor Dulshwitz. He was still too in awe to be anything but captivated by his surroundings. On either side of him, white bricks were stacked perfectly to enclose the spacious hallway. They passed briskly through a portion of the corridor that revealed the frozen ground outside. The floor to ceiling length windows matched up symmetrically on the left and right side. It wasn’t until then that Sal realized it was nighttime. 

Outside thick snowflakes fluttered in the air, standing out against the black sky almost as much as the stars. He followed her to a room twice as big as his entire house while scratching the back of his neck, still feeling like he was in a dream. 

The first thing he noticed was the girl. Sal hadn’t seen many other kids here in the few hours he had been here, or at least in the few hours he had been awake, but he could tell that she was new too. Her dark hair was damp and she was wearing the same type of plush robe that he had been previously wearing. And she looked shocked. Her nervous expression faded slightly when she met Sal’s gaze and gave a small wave.

Then, Sal noticed the woman behind her. She looked almost identical to Professor Dulshwitz, except she wore a kind and welcoming smile. Sal’s brain finally caught up, and it occurred to him that they were most likely twins. He was still slightly disoriented, but still too tired to commit to any sort of suspicion towards his surroundings.

He heard Professor Dulshwitz speak behind him, “I trust you have explained the circumstances to Jordan as I have to Salvator.”

Sal winced at the sound of his full name.

“Indeed,” the woman next to the girl whom he assumed was Jordan spoke quickly before acknowledging him, “You must be Sal!” She said, beaming at him. Her smile was contagious.

“Yeah,” Sal shifted on the marble tile, “Who are you?”

“My name is Cassandra Dulshwitz, but you may call me whatever you feel comfortable with.” She replied, “Now, allow me to introduce you to Jordan. She is one of the four individuals to be included in this year's selection. It is our hope that you two will get to know each other, as well as your two peers who remain to be seen.”

Sal had been given a short speech about the selection, how it worked and why. He stared intently at Jordan, wondering how much they had in common. 

“Once all four of you are present,” Cassandra continued, “you will each receive mentors to help guide you through your first week here.”

“Yes,” Professor Dulshwitz stepped forward, “Now as long as there are no further questions you two may return to your rooms for the night. Since you both fall into the group of residents who have been selected within the past two years, you will be staying on the same floor. Nobody is allowed out of their rooms after hours and your schedules will be posted up on your dorm room doors. Cassandra can escort you there.”

“Of course I can!” Cassandra motioned for Jordan and Sal to follow her, “Come along children!”

_ _ _ _ _

Sal trailed behind Cassandra on their way up the long flight of stairs. It kept spiraling upwards, and Sal saw no ending in sight, so he turned to Jordan. He told himself that he would save any questions he had for tomorrow, but something about Jordan’s appearance and attitude made him want to talk to her.

“Hey,” he said, inviting her to talk.

“Hey, how’d you get here?” She sounded like she had been itching to ask the question forever, so Sal answered honestly.

“Honestly, I don’t even remember. I just kind of woke up and then…” He trailed off as he saw Jordan pale, “It’s pretty cool here though.” 

Jordan gave a half nod, half shrug, “Yeah…sure.”

“Why’d you say it like that?” Sal asked, his brows knitting together.

“I don’t know, don’t you think it’s a bit…off?” Jordan never met his eye, and he thought it might be intentional.

“What is?” Sal didn’t follow. He felt fine, better than fine.

She drew in an impatient breath, “Neither of us can even remember anything up until a few hours ago and we just, what, teleport here?”

“You don’t remember anything either?” At least they had something in common.

“Nope, Andy and I both passed out and then, we were in the same woods except….” Without waiting for Sal to ask what woods she had been in, and why, she jumped into her next question, “Where are you from?”

“California.” He answered simply.

“California?” She repeated, botching the pronunciation.

“Yeah, Solvang California,” Sal reiterated, waiting for her to catch on. She didn’t. “Have you never heard of California?”

Jordan shook her head slightly, and Sal got the feeling that she wasn’t a person who was content with not knowing things.

“Well where are you from?” Sal prompted.

“Bracelton,” she replied, “Bracelton Indiana.” Sal had definitely heard of Indiana but never Bracelton.

Jordan started to speak, and Sal was ready to listen, but they were interrupted.

“Children! This is your floor.” Cassandra called out to them from the top of the steps.

Sal peered down the candle-lit, wooden floored hallway. It felt warm, but the hair on Sal’s arms bristled, as if the snow was falling straight through the roof. Maybe Jordan was right, something did feel off.

Chance was sure he was dreaming when he woke up. He wasn’t sure how long he had been out for, but his fingers were numb. It took him minutes to realize that he was lying on a bed of frosty precipitation. The melted ice creeped up his arms, forcing him to roll over. He finally realized how freezing he was and shot up. While using a tree to support his numb legs he studied his surroundings. He was in some kind of forest but, wait, there was a mansion. No, mansion was an understatement, this was a sprawling estate.

Chance strode right up to the door with no hesitation. He didn’t care what was inside, but if he didn’t find heat he would probably die from hypothermia. He was still wearing his dirtied, sweat covered pajama t-shirt, and it has come to his attention that it was not the best attire for his current circumstances. 

To his surprise, the double doors swung open before Chance even knocked. They revealed what looked to be the grand foyer of some sort of palace, which it probably was. He was greeted by a tall woman with a contagious smile.

“Hello there! You must be Chance!” The woman made Chance feel comfortable, so he stepped inside without any hesitation.

“Oh darling, you must be freezing! I’ll go fetch you some appropriate clothes.” Chance nodded, only half hearing what she had said. He was still awestruck by his surroundings.

The woman returned surprisingly quickly with a steaming cup and a thick red blanket. Carefully, she draped the blanket over Chance’s shoulders and introduced herself.

“I’m Cassandra Dulshwitz, I’ll be taking care of you,” Her predictable smile never wavered, nor did her positive tone.

“Forever?” Chance asked, the fog of sleep slowly taking over his brain.

Cassandra sucked in a breath, “Let’s get you settled, shall we?”

Chance hadn’t the slightest idea that places like this existed. Cassandra had made him sound special, something that no one had ever done before. 

Chance made his way to his room in his new warm clothes. He had to pinch himself several times until he realized that he really wasn’t dreaming, and he did in fact have a king sized bed all to himself. But not the whole room. On the opposite side of where Chance had set down his things he noticed a boy. He was sitting on his king sized bed staring out the window. 

“Hey,” Chance said.

The boy spun around and Chance was able to get a good look at him. They looked about the same age, but that was where the similarities ended. This boy was white, with freckles, blond hair, and startlingly blue eyes. He was everything that Chance wasn’t.

Upon realizing that Chance wasn’t a threat, that he was just another kid, the boy eased up, “Hey,” he said, “I’m Sal,” his shoulders relaxed, but his eyes stayed wide with something that seemed like panic.

“I’m Chance,” he replied, flopping down onto his bed.

Sal returned his gaze to the window and said, “We never got snow in California, it’s pretty cool. Hey, can you prop the door open? I don’t like when it locks on me.”

Chance nodded, even though Sal couldn’t see him, “When’d you get here?” He asked, taking off one of his shoes and putting it in the door.

“I don’t know, sometime earlier today though,” Sal sighed and rolled over onto his back, “I like it here,” he said, gazing up at the ceiling, “it’s better than where I was.”

It was at that moment that Chance realized that he might have more in common with this boy than he thought.

_ _ _ _ _

Chance had realized three things on his way up the stairs. The first one was that it was a long way up. There were twelve stories (his was at the very top), and on ten of those floors there were four rooms, two kids in each. So there were eighty other kids here. Cassandra had told him that the first selections were made eighteen years ago, so that meant the oldest students were probably in their mid twenties. Whenever Chance was overwhelmed, he thought things through statistically. It always calmed him down. 

He had only caught a glimpse of the establishment from the outside, but he assumed that the dorm rooms were in the large tower-like part. The adults, like Cassandra, probably stayed on the floor under the dorms. He didn’t know what was on the rest of the ground floor, but it was so large that even if Chance spent every last year of his life here, he probably couldn’t see it all.

The second thing was that not many people were out of their rooms. Sure, Chance had lost all track of time, so it was most likely late enough for everyone to be in bed, but there was probably a curfew.

The last thing was that it felt safe. Almost too safe. There were locks on every window and every door. Each hallway had a first aid kit and a fire distinguisher. There was a help button outside of every door, in case of emergency. There was a difference between keeping someone safe, and protecting them from something, and it seemed like the Dulshwitz sisters were trying to do the latter. But what were they being protected from?

When Chance had turned the door knob to his room that night, he had noticed one last thing. Something small. The door to his room had a key-hole, and so did the others. Even if the door was locked from the inside, someone could get in with a key. Maybe the inside locks were meant to keep other kids out, but if someone who had the keys wanted to get in, they very well could. And Chance had a pretty good idea of who the keys belonged to.

“We’ll get you your schedule tomorrow, in the meantime why don’t you get some rest. It’s late. You’ll be introduced to the rest of your peers tomorrow, I’m sure your roommate is asleep already,” Though Professor Dulshwitz had a calming voice, Maddelyn’s head was still spinning.

“You and the rest of this year’s selections will attend an assembly at ten am in the theater tomorrow. Any further questions you have may be cleared up there.” This seemed like the end of the explanation to Madelyn, so she stood shakily. 

On her walk to the dorm, Madelyn finally noticed a clock on the wall that told her it was one in the morning. They ascended up what felt like an endless staircase until reaching Madelyn’s room. Outside of the closed door, Professor Dulshwitz handed Madelyn the silkiest pair of pajamas she had ever felt.

“These are to sleep in. You’ll receive the rest of your school attire tomorrow.”

Madelyn nodded, only half making out the words that were being said to her. Despite the comfiness of her new pajamas, she simply crashed onto her bed when she made it there, not bothering to put them on. The last thing she heard before she passed out was the sound of the lock clicking.

“Hey.”

Madelyn shot up quickly, her big blue eyes adjusting to the darkness around her. Across the room, her roommate who she had yet to meet rolled over sleepily. She began to process outlines of furniture that wasn’t her’s, once she realized where she was her first feeling was regret.

“Jeez, sorry,” the voice who had woken her up chuckled, it sounded like a girl. The figure made her way to Madelyn’s side of the room, “Were you guys seriously sleeping?” She asked, opening the blinds to the window, “La-ame,” she sang in a quieter voice, quiet enough to be a whisper, but loud enough for Madelyn to know she was supposed to hear it. 

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Madelyn’s roommate asked, sitting up with a yawn, seemingly unphased.

“I’m Harper. You guys are the new kids right?” Now that the window was open, moonlight was illuminating Harper’s face. She looked mostly American, and maybe a bit of something else, Madelyn couldn’t tell. Her hair was golden, a couple of shades darker than Madelyn’s. She had big brown eyes and full lips. Madelyn had always hated using the phrase “for a girl” but Harper was tall for a girl, really tall. 

“How did you get in?” Her roommate spoke again, and something in her tone told Madelyn that she didn’t take kindly to being called a “newbie.”

“The…door?” Harper pointed to the door that she had most likely closed on her way in. 

Her roomie sighed, “I didn’t hear you come in,” she said accusatively.

“That’s because I didn’t want you to.” Harper said. 

The room went quiet for a second before Madelyn decided to speak, “So did you like…need something?”

“Me? No. But you do!” Harper reached over to grab Maddelyn’s arm and pull her out of bed, Madelyn gave a tired grunt but let her do so anyways, “You two need a tour, and lucky for you, I can give you one,” Madelyn wasn’t sure what she wanted, to be locked up like a prisoner or go wandering around this weird place, at night, no less.

Harper made her way over to the other girl's bed which only got her a, “Don’t touch me,” in response. Un-aided by Harper or Madelyn she slid out of bed and into a brand new looking pair of slippers.

Madelyn glanced at her roommate and they made eye contact for the first time, “Hey,” and her look softened, “What’s your name?” she asked. Madelyn wanted to skip the pleasantries and ask this girl what she thought of this place, if she felt safe, if she wanted to run away.

“I’m Madelyn,” she replied, smiling back.

“Madelyn,” she repeated, “that’s pretty. I’m Jordan.”

Madelyn had never met anyone named Jordan, but she didn’t know if she should say so. She never got the chance to socialize with many other girls back at home, despite being in an all girls school. Nobody there quite understood her. So instead she followed Harper out the door which led her to remember that she had heard it lock. In fact she was sure that was the last thing she heard before she fell asleep. The locks were probably used to prevent late night visits like these, but Harper knew how to pick them. That told Madelyn everything she needed to know.

“Alright Blondie, any song requests?”

Madelyn, Jordan, and Harper were sitting in the rafters above the stage in the theater. Harper had shown them the entire academy, and Madelyn was jealous that her own school didn’t have as wide a variety of classes. The classrooms were gigantic and used to teach the most interesting subjects, even Battle IQ, which Harper said was her favorite. Again, not surprising. 

The hallways were long and made of glass. The East Hallway led from the dorms to the Dining Hall, and the South Hallway led from the dorms to the Lobby. Both had built in hallways, and Madelyn did a double take when she realized that the stalls were the size of her kitchen. The theater where they currently were, was on the second floor with the Library and Study Room. Madelyn had also found out that on the very top floor of the dorms, there was a solarium. Only teachers were allowed to go up there, but obviously, the rule didn’t seem to apply to Harper.

Even with all of these unique features, Madelyn’s favorite part was that the middle of the building was carved out for an outdoor space. Outside there was a place for every sport you could think of, fencing, soccer, climbing, volleyball, basketball, and more. The square courtyard was enclosed by the brick walls of the academy. They stretched up into the sky, and from the ground Madelyn could see how tall the dorm tower really was.

Still, out of everywhere she had been introduced to, the only place Madelyn wanted to be was sitting in the rafters with her new friends staring down at the gleaming floorboards of the stage below. She liked that she was above everything. It felt more free than her dorm room, but concealed enough from whatever might be down the darker unexplored hallways.

“I don’t know any,” Madelyn said, finally answering Harper’s question honestly.

“You don’t- what!” Harper scoffed.

Madelyn shrugged in response, “No one listens to music where I lived. Well, classical and stuff, but I don’t know any actual artists.”

Harper’s face went blank, as if she couldn’t imagine such a terrible thing, “I’m so sorry for you,” she said, like she was apologizing for the loss of a family member, “Where’re you from again?” 

“Portland, Maine…I went to an all girls school,” Madelyn said cautiously, she didn’t know if that was frowned upon too.

Harper let out a theatrical gasp, “I always wanted to go to Maine. That’s where Derry is.” Before Madelyn could ask any questions Harper added, “Well, I just lost a lot of respect for them.”

“Could you play some music?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah for sure, here you pick,” Harper invited, handing Jordan some device that she had connected to a speaker. It was like a cell phone, but smaller. Madelyn had only ever used a house phone, because her mom had a strict no cell phone policy. Now, she had never wanted one any worse than she did at this moment.

“It’s only good for music, there’s absolutely no reception out here,” Harper said dryly. Well, nevermind.

Madelyn leaned over Jordan’s shoulder and watched as she scrolled through strange song titles with small album covers next to them.

“What’s ‘reputation’?” Jordan asked, pausing on a black and white album. Madelyn thought that the girl on the cover kind of looked like her.

Harper looked disgusted at first, but her face changed as she seemed to be reminding herself once again that Jordan had most likely never had access to the internet, and she reached over to press the ‘play’ button. Instantly, unfamiliar music began to fill the theater. Madelyn’s first instinct was to reach over and turn the volume down, but Harper seemed to read her mind.

“They can’t hear us up here.” 

So Madelyn started to swing her legs to the beat of the music, and she thought that this was the best she had felt in a while.

When Madelyn and Harper left the theater to go to bed, Jordan didn’t join them. She couldn’t even entertain the thought of sleeping at the moment.

She sat in enjoyable solitude for a moment before her new friend’s footsteps weren’t able to be heard anymore. Then, she made her way down the ladder carefully. Jordan had always wanted to roam her school at night, but this was better.

This place was about ten times bigger than her school, maybe more. It felt mysterious, and new, a feeling that Jordan had surprised herself by liking. She couldn’t help but be curious and intrigued about what might lie around the corner.

Jordan made her way to the room across the hall from the theater, which was the library. She had been wanting to read more lately, because she had noticed Madelyn doing it a lot.

On her way, she wondered why Sal had acted so confused when she told him where she lived. Jordan had always known her town was strange, but with everything that had been going on lately, finding out what it was wasn’t on the top of her priority list.

She crept across the wooden floorboards and onto the softer carpet of the library. As she wandered in between moonlit shelves, a book on the very top shelf caught her eye. There were no letters visible on the spine. It was dark red and dusty, like it hadn’t been touched in years.

Desperate for something to get involved in, Jordan (against her better judgment) began to scale the bookshelf until the book in question was within arms reach. She grasped it with her fingertips and pulled it out, letting it fall to the floor so that she could keep a good hold on the shelf.

Slowly and cautiously, Jordan lowered herself back to the ground and picked up the book. She hesitated, staring at the front cover, which was also blank. The burgundy face of the book stared right back up at her, waiting to be opened.

The cover was stubbornly stuck to the pages, and Jordan almost ripped one prying it off. 

She had read books before, enough to know that you had the title page, copyright stuff, acknowledgements, and all those boring things that everybody always skipped over. So when Jordan opened the book to a blank page, and then another one, she wasn’t surprised. But her skepticism grew as she flipped through one page after the next.

The only ink on the paper was the page numbers in the corner, which probably went up to at least five hundred, judging by the thickness of the thing. But why have such a hefty book with nothing written inside?

Jordan continued to thumb through. The way her eyebrows were pinched together would probably leave a permanent crease in her face. Finally, they rose up in surprise as she flipped past a single page of writing.

This time, Jordan backtracked through the pages one by one, looking for the page that had just caught her eye. Eventually, she found it again. The number in the corner read 217.

The words, however, seemed like the ramblings of a mentally ill person. Or maybe not even words. Jordan’s eyes scanned the page a hundred times over, and she couldn’t decipher what the drawing and symbols could mean.

Of course, there was always the possibility that it was nothing, and that was a very likely one. Jordan could admit that she was looking for trouble, and that she was tired. She didn’t bother to scale the shelf again. Instead she shoved the book into the first open spot she saw, and moved back out of the late night shadows. Taking one more contemplative glance at the book, she began to make the long trip back to her dorm. The numbers 2, 1, and 7 floated around in her mind, organizing themselves in different orders and echoing their syllables over and over until Jordan flopped back down onto her unfamiliar bed.

Jordan awoke that morning to sunlight streaming into her room. Well, her’s and Madelyn’s. Even with the two of them there, they had forgotten to close the blinds from Harper’s late night visit. 

Jordan rolled over to see Madelyn stretching in bed, the sun made her somehow tangle-free hair glow. Maybe some people just woke up looking like princesses. 

“Good morning,” Madelyn said brightly.

“It’s too early to be happy,” Jordan remarked, realizing that she would probably need to start being nicer to people now, considering that Andy wasn’t the only kid her age she would be talking to anymore.

Andy! She had almost forgotten about him with everything going on. Suddenly panic rushed over her. Where was he? Who had he been with? She had to find him today, she promised herself that she wouldn’t sleep until she did.

“Well you should try, because we have that assembly today,” Jordan was so consumed in her own thoughts that she barely heard what Madelyn had said.

“Huh?”

“The assembly thing, remember?” Madelyn reiterated.

“Oh yeah! Right.” Jordan did remember, and she wished she didn’t have to go. She had met Sal earlier, but she wondered who the last new kid from this year was, and if he or she would be there too. 

Jordan debated whether or not she should tell Madelyn about the book she had found the night before, then decided it wasn’t important. “What are we supposed to wear?” She decided on instead. She sincerely hoped that they didn’t expect her to attend in her new silk rich-people pajamas.

Madelyn pointed toward a comfy looking dress with cool sleeves and a v-neck. The color was somewhere in between purple and blue, it was almost too dark to tell. It was hanging on the door of her closet. Yes, the doorknob to her walk-in closet. Jordan could hardly believe it.

Before Madelyn advanced into the bathroom between their two closets, Jordan asked her if she knew how the dress got there. She didn’t. Not wanting to spend anymore of her energy on the thought, Jordan got dressed, and nearly forgot all about her discovery the night before.

Jordan stared at herself in the mirror. The floor to ceiling mirrors that bordered her walk-in closet. She would never get used to this room.

She couldn’t recall the last time she wore a dress, in fact she didn’t realize there had been one until she uncovered the memory that she had blocked out for so long.

Jordan remembered the day. Even though she never thought about it, she could still recollect everything. Exactly. It was a year after his disappearance, making her four years old. Four, and dealing with the loss. Everyone had given up. Everyone except her, because she never really did. Not even now. She still had a flame inside her that burned for him. And each year she spent without him, it got closer and closer to dying. It’s hard to keep a flame burning when everyone around you is trying to blow it out.

Jordan remembered thinking that even the trees looked sad that day. They stared down at the empty casket like they were grieving too. She remembered thinking that no one was grieving as much as she was, and that it wasn’t fair. No one had been as close with her brother as she was, not even her parents. She also remembered thinking, more believing deep down, that he was still alive. The coffin was for show, nothing was really in it because they hadn’t found a body. And that gave her the smallest glimmer of hope.

Jordan had heard before that you can sense when someone you love is in danger. It was true. She had felt uneasy all day at school, she had been itching to get home more than usual. Somehow, she had always felt guilty, and partially responsible, because in her gut she knew that something would go wrong that day.

But Jordan had lost people before, a couple pets too. The way that losing someone made her heart ache was different from what Jordan felt that day. She was less depressed, and more restless, aggravated. Aggravated, because she felt helpless, like her brother was alive and in trouble and needed help. He needed her, and there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was stand in her black dress and stare at his coffin that he wasn’t even in, pretending like he was dead. Keeping everything inside, at just four. But she had always been mature for her age.

Jordan had seen how Harper’s eyes flickered to the bracelet on her wrist last night, the one that she never took off, the one that her left hand immediately went to when she was nervous. Harper knew something. Jordan assumed that there weren’t many things Harper didn’t know. Except for maybe, that it was the bracelet that her brother made for her.

Jordan almost screamed when Madelyn emerged from the bathroom. Sometimes, she would get wrapped up so tightly in her own thoughts that she became deaf to the world around her. 

Madelyn’s dress made her hair look more orange, and of course, it looked good. It was a flowy tangerine colored dress that could have been a princess gown if it was longer.

“Woah sorry,” Madelyn jumped too at Jordan’s reaction.

“No, no, you’re good,” Jordan reassured her.

“Are you alright?” Madelyn asked, her eyebrows knitting together. Jordan felt that every time she saw Madelyn, she had the same perplexed, worried look on her face. Like she was always watching and waiting for something to happen.

“Yeah. Fine. Let’s head to the lobby now,” Jordan instructed, heading to the door and desperate to change the subject.

When Madelyn didn’t follow, Jordan turned around to find her studying her dress very intently. At first, Jordan thought she had ripped it before Madelyn broke the silence by saying, “Dark blue,” more to herself than Jordan. As if she had just made the observation. 

“Uh…yeah, I thought it was more purple really,” Jordan replied, starting at the door again.

“Hey,” Madelyn said sharply, stopping her before she reached the handle, “Did you get a letter?”

“...No,” Jordan answered honestly after some hesitation.

“Oh,” Madelyn let her gaze fall to the ground before following Jordan out the door. 

‘Oh’? Jordan knew that Madelyn had put something together in her head in those few seconds, and she needed answers more than anybody. Maybe Madelyn knew more than Jordan had originally thought she did, but she would find out her intent behind asking that question. Jordan would find out everything.

Sal hadn’t had any trouble waking up for the assembly, in fact he hadn’t slept at all in the first place. When the sun rose high enough to shine light into his room, he noticed a green suit hanging on the closet door across from the foot of his bed. Sal didn’t know a lot about fashion, but he liked it. It was a nice color, but dark enough that he didn’t look like a leprechaun. He had never worn a suit, but he had seen them on other people and he thought it might be nice.

On Chance’s side of the room, Sal noticed a red suit. Again, not bright enough to make him look like an apple, but more of a rusty cherry. Sal was never good with colors.

He was examining his suit when his heart dropped. Someone had to’ve put these in the room last night. Had Sal gotten some sleep last night after all? Curiosity taking over, he made his way toward the door. Professor Dulshwitz had gone over curfew with him. Nobody was allowed out of their rooms before seven in the morning or after nine at night. It hadn’t occurred to Sal that the doors would actually be locked during those times, he had just assumed that there were consequences for sneaking out.

Sure enough, when he tried the door handle it didn’t budge. Sal glanced at the clock: 6:12. His gears began to turn. He had seen Professor Dulshwitz with a ring of keys last night, but wouldn’t it be too much work to unlock every single door at 7:00 every morning, and to lock them all at night? There had to be some kind of automatic mechanism, the keys were probably for when they had new students like Sal arrive late.

Making his way over to the pen on his night stand, Sal was careful not to wake up Chance. He disassembled the pen and stuck the led tube inside the lock. At first, nothing happened, but when Sal wiggled the pen he heard a click. This time when he tried the door, it felt looser, but still wouldn’t open. And suddenly he knew what was keeping it closed.

Aside from his naps in class, Sal was a good student. He always felt like a nerd saying he liked school, but he did. Being at school meant not being at home, and it was a sanctuary to him. So he paid extra attention in his classes - especially his electives - in hopes that one day having a good education would get him out of his shabby hometown. Little did he know that it would be a letter that saved him.

Inside the door there was a simple mechanism triggered by a control that was probably only accessible to adults. But it was most likely a small strong metal gear inside the door that rolled into the crack between the doorframe and the door to lock it. So if Sal could just push it away by sticking the pen through the keyhole at just the right angle, he could disable the lock whenever he liked.

So he did.

Still in his pajamas, Sal crept into the empty hallway. It was wide, and tall, and made him feel like he was in a labrynth. He was almost sure that Jordan’s room was the one across the hall from his, the two closest to the spiral staircase. On the far end of the hall there were two more doors opposite of each other. Part of Sal wanted to pick those locks too, but part of him also didn’t want to intrude on random strangers while they were sleeping.

Right as Sal turned back to his door he bumped into someone and screamed. 

“Ahh,” the person said in a mocking monotone way as Sal backed up and scratched the back of his neck. He assessed the person in front of him and saw a figure with dark eyes and eyebrows, tan skin, but sort of golden hair.

“What are you doing?” He asked her.

“What are you doing?” She retorted acussitorily. 

“I asked you first.”

“Touche.” The girl took a deep breath, and Sal got the impression that she either really didn’t like him, or had much better things to do. “I was on my way to the solarium, but then I saw you snooping around the one and two year wing.”

Sal had no idea what the solarium was, or that this was the one and two year wing, but he didn’t want to let on that he was as clueless about this place as he was. 

“Your turn,” the girl added impatiently.

“Well,” Sal hesitated, “I was not snooping for one-”

“Okay, what were you doing then?” Sal got the sense that this girl thought she owned the place. Normally, someone like that would piss him off, but this girl really seemed like she did, and he could see where she was coming from. Maybe him wandering the hallways before the wake up call looked a little suspicious.

“I figured out how to disable the lock on the doors,” Sal waited for her to be impressed, but her face didn’t change.

She must’ve sensed how proud he was, because she said, “Okay? Do you want a cookie?” 

“N-no?” Sal backed up, “You’re tall for a girl,” He observed.

“You’re short for a guy.” She replied, matter of factly, before spinning on her heel and heading to where Sal assumed was the solarium.

Chance and Sal made their way down the stairs to the lobby. Chance had to lead the way, since Sal had been passed out on his first night. In  the daylight, the lobby looked even grander, its glossy floor sparkled even more in the sunshine and so did the crystal chandelier overhead.

Cassandra was waiting for them there along with another tall, slender woman, who looked almost identical to her. Next to them were two young girls, maybe about Chance’s age, both about the same height, but one was blonde, and the other had a darker complexion. Next to the dark haired one was a little boy with glasses and freckles, both of which took up almost his whole face. 

“Oh, don’t you boys look handsome!” Cassandra exclaimed, “And now we finally have all of you in the same room at once!” Cassandra gestured to Chance and Sal and the girls on the opposite side of the room.

When Cassandra looked at Chance expectantly, he introduced himself, and so did Sal.

“I’m Madelyn,” The blonde girl said.

“Jordan,” The dark haired girl said before reaching forward to shake each of their hands. To Chance’s surprise, her handshake was incredibly firm. She barely moved when she shook his hand though, as if she was glued to the boy next to her, who seemed too shy to get any words out.

“And I am Professor Dulshwitz,” The woman beside Cassandra spoke for the first time, “Now that we’re all acquainted, why don’t we explain today’s schedule for you.” She finished, nodding to Cassandra, who spoke next.

“We will give you a brief tour of the academy up until the theater, where you will be given a speech regarding your classes, your school uniforms, and then introduced to your younger guides who will continue your tour. Any questions?” 

There was a pause before Madelyn broke the silence, “Wait, so are we all just like, okay with this?”

She was right, Chance had found it strange how easily he and everybody else had taken to this place, but then, he didn’t know anything better. And he got the sense that his peers didn’t either.

In response to Madelyn’s question, Professor Dulshwitz pursed her lips, and Cassandra let out an uncomfortable laugh. Everybody else half-heartedly nodded, as well as Chance. He was sure he was on the same page as everybody else when he  thought there might be consequences to speaking out. 

Chance wanted to trust the adults, after all, Professor Dulshwitz seemed like a very reasonable woman, and Cassandra had been so welcoming and kind to him on his first night. But before the group slipped away, Chance could’ve sworn he heard Professor Dulshwitz murmur to her counterpart, “Keep an eye on her,” in a tone that sent chills down his spine.

Chance would look out for Madelyn.

Once the group finally arrived in the theater, they sat in the chairs arranged there for them. Chance noticed four older looking kids standing off to the side. A girl with a slim figure and the brightest red hair chance had ever seen gave him a smile and a wave.

Professor Dulshwitz droned on about school etiquette and other things that Chance didn’t quite pay attention to. They passed out papers like schedules and dress codes, which Chance skimmed over mindlessly. He was still tired from the night before.

Cassandra’s bright tone woke him up out of his trance, “Once you arrive back at your dorms, your closets will have been stocked by our kind staff. You will notice that you have clothes of only your assigned color, and that is what you are to wear each day.

“If you are in need of new clothes, simply place your laundry basket outside of your door, and our lovely staff will take care of the rest.” Cassandra finished.

Sal and Madelyn raised their hands at the same time. Professor Dulshwitz called on Sal first.

“Do we get to meet the staff?” He asked.

“You will likely see them around,” Professor Dulshwitz replied, “Miss. Beckett?”

“Yeah um,” Madelyn began, “What do you mean by our colors? What’s my color?”

“Every new student is assigned either blue, green, orange, or red as their color.” Professor Dulshwitz responded, glancing to Cassandra for help.

“Oh, ah yes. Miss Beckett I believe is…” Cassandra pulled out a thick binder she had tucked under her arm, “orange, dear!”

Madelyn’s brow was still creased, and it looked like her brain had jumped to something else.

“Why do we have colors?” Jordan asked, not bothering to raise her hand. Chance couldn’t tell by her tone if she was genuinely curious, or just aggravated because she didn’t like the idea of having a dress code. Maybe both, but she didn’t seem like a person who expressed her emotions very often, so it was hard to decipher.

“They are randomly assigned. No rhyme or reason.” Cassandra answered. If Chance hadn’t been so on edge lately, he might not have noticed the minute twinge of concern in her voice. But the small dose of nervousness stood out like a sore thumb against all of Cassandra’s positivity.

Professor Dulshwitz’s firm voice broke through his thoughts, “Now we will send you off to your tour guides.”

Chance stood up, relieved to give his back a break from the hard wooden chairs. When he did, he was greeted by the red haired girl whom he had spotted before the speech.

“Hey! I’m Carmen,” she said, outstretching her pale hand. Her eyes gleamed like emeralds, standing out against her fair freckled skin.

“Hey, I’m Chance,” he replied, shaking her hand.

“Nice to meet you,” Carmen said, “I’m gonna be showing you around the academy today.”

“Does this place have a name, or do we just call it the academy?” Chance asked.

Carmen hesitated, “I mean…we’ve never called it anything else. For the kids who’ve been here a while the unofficial title is The Animal Farm, but…you might not want to call it that in front of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.” 

Carmen seemed to see the questions on Chance’s lips before he could get them out, so she added, “Animal Farm, because some people are more equal than others, even though Cassandra and Michelle ‘don’t pick favorites.’” She put air quotes around the last part.

“Wait, Professor Dulshwitz’s name is Michelle?” Chance was originally going to ask who Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were, but the pieces were starting to come together now.

“Yeah! You didn’t know that?” Carmen’s brow furrowed, and then she seemed to remember something, “Ohhh, right. Yeah don’t call her that, even if she tells you to, it takes too long to say.”

Chance opened his mouth, then closed it again. They had made their way out of the theater during their conversation and were standing in a large cafeteria-like area with tall bookshelves and taller windows. 

“This is the Study Area,” Carmen stated, “also in my opinion the best place to eat lunch, unless you prefer dealing with all the Dining Hall nonsense.” She was probably right. Dining Hall nonsense didn’t seem like something Chance wanted to deal with.

“That other room right next to us,” Carmen said, pointing to the glass double doors on their right, “is the library. Good for eating lunch, and skipping class. It’s as dense as the forest in there with all those shelves.”

“How long have you been here?” Chance asked after Carmen showed him the remainder of the second floor. Her tour so far had seemed effortless, like she had lived here forever.

“Eight years, I came when I was ten. You do the math.” Chance did do the math, and it took him an embarrassingly long time to figure out that Carmen was eighteen.

“That’s a long time.” He finally said.

Carmen frowned, “Not really, other kids in my year came even younger. They only put the age range into place a little less than a decade ago. I don’t know why, because they don’t even follow it all the time.”

“What do you mean?” Chance asked, happy that they were getting side tracked from the boring tour. He wanted to know the history of his surroundings, not the geography.

“Well like this one girl, Harper, her and her sister have been here forever. Almost as long as I have, but I think she’s only your age,” Carmen said, “I don’t know her really well, just that people say she killed her dad or something.”

Chance was once again at a loss for words, but something in him didn’t want to believe Carmen.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Carmen didn’t sound too apologetic, and she seemed to forget about the conversation as she walked Chance to the classrooms.

Chance had been hoping that the tour would clear up some of his confusion, but it had just produced more questions.

It was weird to talk about someone in the past tense. To say ‘was’ instead of ‘is.’ And even stranger, because when you forgot, no one corrected you. Everybody was too scared to remind you that the person you were talking about is gone. That they officially ‘were.’ Not ‘are.’ You are the only person who can correct yourself. But Jordan never did. She would hear other people do it, and she would pretend to forget that she needed to too. In reality though, she just didn’t want to. Saying it herself would make it real. And she couldn’t, because it would be a lie.

So when she saw her tour guide, her first thought was Wow, Jace looks just like him, not ‘looked.’ And he did. His hair was dark like his, skin light like his, and he was tall like him with the same caring brown eyes that melted Jordan with one glance. His appearance flooded her with warm memories of backyard games, followed by the cold feeling of longing and heartbreak

They were so similar that Jordan had to remind herself that her guide’s name was Ryder (a cool name, she thought.) She called him Jace once, and Andy had given her a look. He saw it too, she knew it. Andy had been close with her brother, and what was even more uncanny was how close he was with Ryder too. The same kind of brotherly relationship had formed between them in the past couple days.

Apparently, Andy had been staying in Ryder’s dorm while Jordan got settled in. They had made fast friends, and Jordan had whispered a quiet thank you to Ryder for taking care of him when she couldn’t. Most people questioned Jordan’s relationship with Andy, and she had to admit, it was an odd pairing. But Ryder had just nodded and given her a soft smile, just like her brother Jace would do.

Even though Andy and Ryder laughed and smacked doorways together while they toured the academy, Jordan didn’t feel left out. Ryder was welcoming to her too, and even though Jordan didn’t want to let anybody in too early in this place that she barely knew, she couldn’t help but give into his stupid jokes and charming personality.

But the lighthearted atmosphere was suddenly shattered when Jordan piped up in the middle of the athletic fields, “Ryder where did Andy stay in your dorm room?”

Ryder paused, “What, you mean, like…where he slept?”

“Yeah, sure.” Jordan said eagerly, twisting the threads of her bracelet as she waited for her answer.

“In the other bed,” he stated, but it came out more like a question, “Why, where else would he have slept?”

“But…don’t you have a roommate?” Jordan asked. She could see Andy glancing back and forth between the two of them, eyes pausing on Jordan to search her face for whatever it was she wanted to get out of this conversation.

“Nah, I got lucky. My roommate never showed up, so I got a room all to myself.” Ryder spun around, “Until this little guy decided to butt in!” 

Jordan's pulse began to drown out the sound of Andy’s noogie-receiving giggles, “Wa-wait Ryder?” She managed to choke out, her throat suddenly dry.

“What’s up?” He said, turning around in sync with Andy, who now had small splotches of mud on his face from the slushy ground. It was okay, though, because they blended in with his freckles.

Jordan cleared her throat, “What year did you say you were?”

“Ninth, why?”

“Nothing.”

It was not nothing. Jordan sucked in a breath as they made their way back inside through the lobby doors. She suddenly felt very faint. What were the odds that Jace would disappear the same year that Ryder’s roommate decided not to show up? This was far from nothing. This was what Jordan had dedicated her life to ever since she was four years old. This could be everything.

When the tours were over, the kids made their way back to the first year floor. Jordan barely felt like she had obtained any knowledge at all, but she had been busy worrying about other things. 

Without planning it, the four automatically sat down in the hallway, and it was understood by everybody that they had things to discuss. Lunch was at 12:30, so they had about a half an hour. 

“Okay, am I the only one who decoded the letter?” Madelyn demanded.

“Yeah.”

“Yep.”

“What letter?”

Andy bounced up and down on his heels, as if not sure whether he should stay or go back to Ryder’s room.

“Andy you can sit down,” Jordan offered, but it came out sounding like more of an order.

“Well,” Sal stared at Madelyn, along with everybody else, “What did it say?”

“Hold on, let me get it,” Madelyn shot up and ran into her’s and Jordan’s dorm, returning to the circle with a slightly weathered green envelope. She slid a paper out of it that contained a jumble of letters and began to translate.

“What’s blue is orange, what red is green. Nothing is ever as it seems.” 

The pieces began to come together for Jordan as she read. This had to be the reason why Madelyn had acted so strangely about the color of her dress that morning.

“Conceal yourself, avoid being seen. Sanctuary lies at the sanded oak tree.” 

At that line, Jordan felt Chance go stiff beside her.

“Take the leap and you’ll be free. We only need one more than three.” With that, Madelyn slowly rested the letter on the wooden floorboards. No one seemed to know what to say out loud, but the shared glances said everything they needed to.

Sal broke the silence first, “Okay, what in the Doctor Suess was that?”

His question was immediately followed by Chance’s, “How’d you get that?”

Madelyn straightened up, like she was about to get into a story. And she did, “When I was little, maybe like…seven, I don’t know. I really wanted to be a spy, no one would let me though. I went to an all girls school, and my mom told me I had to set out for more ladylike things.”

Jordan hadn’t noticed that Harper had entered the scene until she heard the over dramatic gag from the other end of the hallway. Madelyn and Sal glanced up, both of them looking the least bit surprised, but Chance’s eyebrows got closer together as Harper got closer to them.

“That’s Harper. Don’t talk to her.” Sal advised Chance right before Harper got within earshot of their whispers. Chance simply nodded.

“No offense blondie, but your mom sounds like a…” Harper paused as her eyes fell on Andy, “square,” she finished cautiously, and Jordan gave her a discreet ‘thank you’ as she sat down to join the circle.  

Madelyn continued, “I didn’t listen though, I taught myself how to decode stuff and make invisible ink. All that fun stuff. I’ve probably forgotten half of it by now, but,” she paused and sniffed, “when I saw the letter I remembered about this one code, the Caesar Cipher Shift I think it was called.”

Everyone around her narrowed their eyes or knit their brows together, but Madelyn kept going, “It’s where you shift the letters of the alphabet to the left or the right by a certain number. I think this one was a right shift of three…”

“So you know what the colors mean?” Jordan asked the second Madelyn paused long enough to let her.

“Not really, but I know they’re connected to something. The ones we were assigned are the same as in the letter.” Madelyn began to explain.

“But they gave the letter to everyone,” Chance jumped in.

“Yeah, they made the whole color thing public to us at the assembly so…” Sal added, building on to Chance’s thought.

“So why would they be keeping anything else from us?” Chance finished for him. Their brains were almost perfectly in sync and Jordan knew that everybody else around her could feel the mystery of their circumstances slowly being solved, unfolding right in front of them.

“No, not just the colors,” Jordan said, putting a barrier between the boys, “I think what Madelyn means is that the colors could have meanings, like for us. What we’re doing here.”

“Right,” Madelyn confirmed, “They’re only going to tell us as much as they want us to know. Like in Animal Farm.”

Jordan couldn’t be more in agreement with Madelyn. It felt like everybody else was putting too much trust into Michelle and Cassandra. (That was what Ryder had told her to call her, as opposed to Professor Dulshwitz, but only in secret.)

“Okay can someone please tell me what Animal Farm is?” Chance begged, his tone rising, adding to the frantic energy that the hallway was now buzzing with. 

“It’s a-” Sal and Madelyn both started at the same time.

“You go,” Sal invited.

But Madelyn was already looking past his shoulder. Jordan followed her gaze to Harper who had been quietly observing them with an amused smile.

“You know something,” Madelyn stated.

“I wish!” she exclaimed, “I gotta say, I'm proud of you kiddos,” Jordan flinched at that, and Sal snickered into his palm, “You’ve managed to uncover almost as much as I have in all of my time here within, what, like fifteen minutes?”

Before Harper could be harassed with requests to inform them of what she did know, a high pitched ring echoed through the hall, reverberating off the walls and stopping the conversation in its tracks.

“Lunch bell,” Harper sighed resentfully, “Meet me in the Study Room.”

Madelyn had to blink a few times when she stepped into the dining hall. During her tour of the academy, the lights had been off, the afternoon sunlight wasn’t streaming through the stained glass, and it hadn’t been bustling with people. 

She backed up as Jordan and Andy rushed past her, babbling to each other about how fancy everything was, causing her to bump into Sal, who was standing behind her with a tray. 

He just smiled forgivingly and backed up like he was trying to get a better look at her, “You look just as confused as I do,” he said.

“Yeah,” Madelyn laughed, pink rushing to her cheeks for reasons beyond her. Her hand immediately went to her hair. She was able to get a better look at Sal too. The tips of his hair looked like they had been lightened by the sun, and his cheeks pinkened by it. His blue eyes stood out against his tan skin and provoked Madelyn to ask the question, “Where are you from?”

“California,” he replied, “You?”

“I went to an all girls school in Maine. If I’m being honest I kinda hated it there. Our uniforms were really short and itchy, and they made us wear these ugly hats in the…” Madelyn paused, realizing that it was probably rude to just bulldoze the conversation like this, but Sal was still listening intently, waiting for her to finish. And she felt like she could say anything.

“Sorry I-” Madelyn began.

“No you’re good,” Sal reassured her.

There was a quiet pause, drowned out by the chatter in the Dining Hall around them, but it was less of an awkward silence and more of a companionable one.

“I’m probably gonna be in a lot of trouble when I get home,” Madelyn said, half joking, but also knowing she was right.

Sal looked taken aback for a second, like she had just cussed at him, but his calm demeanor took back over within a second, and that strange expression was just a ghost.

“Ha, yeah,” He said, laughing it off, “Oh, weren’t we supposed to meet Harper in the Study Hall?” Madelyn couldn’t tell if the subject change was intentional or not, but she followed along.

Truthfully she had completely forgotten about meeting Harper during lunch. She glanced around the room, looking for Jordan or Andy, but they must’ve left already, “Yeah I guess so.”

Sal began to walk out, gesturing for her to follow, “Your name’s Madelyn right?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Madelyn said, slightly offended.

Sal seemed to notice, “Sorry I’m terrible with names.”

“It’s alright, so am I,” she wasn’t, really, she didn’t know why she had said it.

“I think I’ll call you Maddie,” Sal said, holding the Dining Hall door open for her.

Madelyn’s stomach did a little summersault, and for a moment she was lost for words. “Cool,” she eventually said, forcing herself not to smile.

As she took her spot next to Jordan around the circular table Madelyn could only think about one thing. It wasn’t that she had just met the first boy to ever give her a nickname, it was how he had flinched when she had mentioned going home. Madelyn had never seen the same mix of fear and anger and other indescribable and unseen emotions flicker so quickly in someone’s eyes. Sal didn’t want to go home - desperately, did not want to - and Madelyn needed to know why. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt like it was her job to make sure he was okay.

It hadn’t occurred to her until she saw Chance take a bite of a grilled cheese across from her, that she had forgotten all about food.

“Well?” Jordan prompted expectantly, on the edge of her seat like everybody else at the table, their eyes locked on Harper.

“Yeah,” Andy said, “are we close?”

Harper drew in a breath, as if contemplating how to go about whatever it was she was preparing to tell them, “Can you guys tell me your colors?” She finally asked.

The group waited for her to explain why, or elaborate further, but when she didn’t Chance spoke.

“Mine is red,” he said, glancing at Sal on his left.

“Green,” Sal said, looking across Harper to Madelyn and Jordan’s side of the table.

“Orange,” Madelyn’s eyes immediately fell to her dress that she had yet to change out of. The orange one that she had found on her closet door this morning.

“Blue,” Jordan finished.

Andy hesitated, “I didn’t get a color,” he said, “Wha-what does that mean?” 

Jordan put a hand on his shoulder to keep his voice from rising anymore than it had.

“It doesn’t mean anything, there are four colors because four people are supposed to come each year,” Harper said, “so you’ll be okay Andy.”

Madelyn saw Andy let out a breath as he shared a glance with Jordan.

“They use the colors to keep you guys organized, I don’t know why they need to, but you’re assigned a role here based on your color,” Harper continued.

“What’s mine?” Sal and Jordan asked in unison.

Harper addressed Sal first, “Green is the brains of the operation. Like my sister.”

“What operation? What do I have to do?”

“I don’t know Sal,” Harper sighed, “It’s more for them to know, not you. That’s how most things are here.”

Harper turned to Chance, “Red,” she said, reaching out for a fist bump.

“You’re red too?” he asked, meeting her knuckles with his. 

“Yep, just like one of the greatest Taylor albums.” That made everybody’s eye brows draw together, but Harper continued before questions could be asked, “We’re the fighters.”

Harper directed her gaze to Madelyn, “Blondie, you’re orange. The heart.” She said dramatically with faux positivity, “You have to be the glue of the group. Very important.”

“And Jordi, the leader.” Harper finished. Madelyn looked to Jordan, if anyone could be a strong leader, it was her, “Any questions class?”

Sal looked quite proud of himself, now deemed by Harper as ‘the brains of the operation,’ and Andy looked like he was the last one to be chosen for teams in gym.

“Where’d you get this?” Jordan asked, the question overlapped by Madelyn’s, “You have a sister?”

“Just some observations of my own combined with a chart I saw in the solarium. Also, yes, a half one,” Harper replied, killing two birds with one stone.

“Can we meet her?” Andy said, taking the words out of Madelyn’s mouth.

“Sure, she doesn’t get out much, but we could plan a little midnight party,” Harper gave Sal a soft elbow to the ribs, “Especially since Johnny Lawerence over here figured out how to pick the locks.”

After searching up Johnny Lawerence on the library computer, just to make sure that Harper hadn’t insulted him, Sal walked to his first real class of the day. It was not a piece of cake, and he was familiar with cake by now, as he had had four slices during his lunch period. The academy was impossible to navigate, and it didn’t help that each hallway looked the same.

He had studied his schedule so much that the image was burned into his head now. Forgetting his classes wasn’t the problem, what he needed was a map, not a schedule. 

It was nothing short of a miracle that he made it to class five minutes after the bell rang, but his teacher didn’t seem to care. He didn’t think anyone who taught Battle IQ cared too much about being punctual.

Sal got excited at first when he thought he saw Maddie’s familiar face, but it was just a similarly featured blonde girl with a very smug look on her face. It was like she was trying to hold in laughter, maybe laughter that was directed at Sal. No, the laughter was definitely directed at Sal.

The floor of the room was in a sort of wide staircase shape, the desks lowest to the ground at the front. As Sal began to ascend towards the only empty seat, he heard the blonde girl in the front row begin to whisper to the red headed girl that sat next to her.

Immediately, he turned around to face the girl, the same giggle-suppressing look still there.

“Stop doing that with your face,” Sal said, “You look constipated.”

_ _ _ _ _

“Your classes went better, I hope?” Chance flopped down on his bed, followed shortly by Sal.

“Boring, but yeah,” Sal replied, “I gave my second nick-name of the day.”

“Care to share?” Chance invited, rolling over. He was now wearing a comfortable looking red sweat suit that Sal was quite jealous of. Despite how much he dug through his freshly stocked closet, he couldn’t find a duplicate in green.

“Well, I’m calling Madelyn Maddie, just because it takes less time,” Sal began.

“What do you plan to do with all the time you’re going to save calling her Maddie as opposed to Madelyn?” Chance remarked.

“Oh I don’t know,” Sal started, the sarcastic tone already infecting the rest of his words, “Cure cancer, pay for our college tuitions, you know, the basics.”

“Right, right,” Chance said, “Now what was the second?”

Sal inhaled, preparing for the big reveal, “Consti-girl!” He announced dramatically.

Chance was quiet, his top lip curled, “...Explain. Please?”

“This girl in my Battle IQ was laughing at me.”

Chance raised his eyebrows, waiting for the explanation.

“And she looked constipated,” Sal finished.

“Riveting story,” Chance said, starting to applaud him, “Did you call her out?”

“Yeah, bro, I called her constipated.”

“In front of everyone?”

“Yeah!”

“What did the teacher do?”

“Nothing.”

“...Bro.”

Chance began to tell Sal about his unbearable Mathematics teacher, repeatedly comparing her to a fossil and/or witch, but Sal couldn’t listen. He was too busy thinking about how he never wanted to leave this place. Never. While he had been here, even just in the past few hours, something had been placed inside of him. Something that filled a hole, a deep, aching hole that he had for a long time. This was what he had wanted all along. To talk to someone about his day without being ridiculed, having someone who cared what you had to say, that listened to you and protected you. That was the missing piece in his life. Just having someone. Having a brother. Not even by blood. Sal had just wanted somebody who felt like a real brother. And now he did have it, that someone had been placed right in front of him, right in his bedroom. He would be stupid to give that up.

For the first time in an alarmingly long while, Chance knew what day it was: Sunday. Sunday meant no classes, which meant no mathematics, which meant Chance could get through the day without wanting to jump out of a window. Somehow, the unbearable class was still infecting his day off with the copious amounts of homework it entailed, so Chance was forced to spend his afternoon in the library surrounded by papers covered in equations he didn’t understand.

Sal had been disappointed, but eventually ceased his pestering to go enjoy the courtyard. Chance hoped he would run into some of his other friends, but Harper didn’t exactly seem like a library type person, and wherever she was, Chance assumed Madelyn and Jordan weren’t far behind.

Chance was about to give up and leave when he heard the voice of an angel over his shoulder.

“The seven goes over the one hundred, not the fifty two.”

Chance glanced up and saw a girl about Jordan’s height standing there. She seemed relatively close to his age, but the way she held herself made her seem much older. Her eyes were dark and lined with delicate long lashes that were the same color as her perfectly square shaped eyebrows. Her long dark curly hair was pulled into a half up half down that looked like it had been done in a rush, but it worked. The pulled back hair revealed her familiar face structure, full cheeks and a defined chin. Chance began to realize that this was likely Harper’s half sister, because she was also wearing a green sweater, the collar of a white turtleneck poking out of the neckline.

Chance realized that he had stared at the girl for maybe a little too long, because her full lips were pursed as she waited for a response.

“Oh, uh,” Chance shook his head, “sorry.”

“You are forgiven,” Harper’s possible sister said as she took her hand off the back of his chair, and it wasn’t until then that Chance realized how close their faces had been.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Chance called out before she walked away.

The girl re-angled her body towards Chance, and he noticed the frayed laces on the Converses that poked out from under her jeans, possibly the only visible flaw about her.

“Aren’t you Harper’s sister?” Chance asked.

“Half-sister,” she corrected, “hence the varying complexions,” she explained, gesturing towards her cappuccino colored face. She extended her hand, and Chance shook it, surprised by her firm handshake.

“I’m Malanya,” she introduced.

“Oh…that’s a cool name,” Chance said stupidly.

Malanya bemusedly raised her left eyebrow expectantly.

“Oh!” Chance added, “I’m Chance.”

“Good to meet you Chance. I trust my sister has made quite the first impression on you.” 

“Yeah…” Chance began to think of ways to make conversation, “So how are you and Harper related?”

“Same dad,” Malanya said, sitting down and immediately grabbing a blank sheet of Chance’s math homework and a pen.

“You don’t have to do that-” Chance began.

“Are you going to?” Malanya gave him a be honest with me look. So he was.

“No.” He sighed, resting his head on his arm.

He was impressed on how quickly she flew through the paper, pausing occasionally to read the word problems or breathe hot air on to the pen.

“What math are you in?” Chance asked.

“Trig two.” She replied, sliding the paper back to him across the table. Her handwriting could be a font.

Before Chance had the opportunity to ask her how on Earth she understood trigonometry, Malanya asked him a question.

“So you’re red?” She said, holding eye contact while fiddling with her pen.

Her gaze was so powerful that Chance had to look away, “Yeah,” he replied, his eyes falling down to his red t-shirt.

Malanya nodded, as if she was assessing him, “Well,” she said, using both hands to push off the table, “Harper and I are on floor eight. You can pay us a visit anytime.”

It was barely three minutes after Malanya left that she came scurrying back in, her calm composure from before had vanished. Chance was still pushing down his butterflies from their first meeting, and the sight of her made his heart rate accelerate again.

“I was never here,” she whispered as she brushed past him, leaving a trail of expensive smelling perfume behind her.

Right after she vanished behind a tall bookshelf with intricate carvings in the wood a trio of all equally nasty looking girls appeared in the doorway, their eyes focusing on Chance who immediately glanced down back at his homework. He then felt a dreaded tap on his shoulder.

“Excuse me,” Chance was faced with a girl who looked similar to Madelyn and was sporting a high ponytail, just like her other blonde companion. “We’re looking for our friend.”

“Okay,” Chance said, trying to look as innocent as possible. He doubted that Malanya was friends with these girls.

“Okay so did you see a girl come in here or not?” Asked the slightly more rude red haired girl next to Madelyn’s look alike.

“God Carla would it kill you to be a little nicer.” The blonde girl who was originally speaking to Chance scolded her friend before turning her attention back to him, “So sorry about her. I don’t think we’ve met, but you’re on my floor. My name is Piper.”

Chance looked her up and down, “Cool,” he said, and this time he didn’t leave out his name by accident.

Piper seemed to get the message, and she peered over his head to look at the several rows of bookshelves behind it. “Whatever,” she sighed, “Let’s go.” Piper’s two friends followed her out of the library like obedient puppies, and once the large double doors slammed shut behind them, Malanya crept out.

“Thank you so much,” she said, before exiting in the opposite direction that the girls did.

Jordan hadn’t known who Piper De Lafont was until she saw Harper clutching a tuft of her blonde hair on Monday morning. The previous night, Harper had come to Jordan and Madelyn’s room with a bag of snacks from an unknown source. They had spent the evening playing board games-and much against Jordan’s wishes-braiding her hair in all different ways. 

In the middle of Uno, Harper had ventured out to investigate the “vexatious snickering,” as she had called it, that was coming from the hall. But she never came back, leaving Jordan with half of a dutch braid on one side of her head. Now Jordan was wondering if the events of last night and this morning were related.

“Like, your entire personality doesn’t have to be based on the fact that you’re blonde!” Harper ranted as the girls walked to first period together. History was the only class that all three of them shared.

“Is that why you cut her hair?” Madelyn asked, a blonde eyebrow arched in disapproval.

“God, no! What do you think I am? She was tugging my sister around by her hair for some bull-crap reason,” Harper’s cheeks were on fire.

“What was said-bull-crap-reason?” Jordan asked.

“I guess Malanya was unlucky enough to get partnered with her for a presentation and Piper, like, flipped when she wouldn't do all the work. That’s the thing about her, she just expects everything to come so easy to her,” Harper said.

“Well, won’t she tell on you?” Madelyn said, holding the door to the classroom open for her two friends.

“Piper and I don’t really…I guess you could say we have a bit of an ongoing war. We don’t tell, we just retaliate,” Harper tried to explain. Jordan wondered how anybody got anything out of an endless loop of retaliation.

“Why? I mean, she has to have some kind of villain origin story,” Madelyn said as she sat down in their row, “or like, a reason for hating you. Vise-versa.”

Harper glanced at the clock, there were still other people shuffling in. Her golden hair fell into her face as she leaned forward to begin her story. Judging by the look on her face, it had to be a good one.

“So me and Malanya have been here for six years, and Piper just came the year before you guys, so she’s on your floor. We used to have dorm wars on the last Friday of every month, but they put the kibosh on it after what happened last year,” Harper cleared her throat and inhaled, “So we’re split into teams based on our floor, and at the time only one side of Piper’s floor was filled, because you guys weren’t here yet. And at every single dorm war everybody had to hear about how unfair it was that her team only had four people, and everyone else had eight.

So obviously me and Malanya agreed that we both hated her, so our floor decided to pull a really big prank on her. Now,” Harper was getting into the rising action, clearly feeling in her element, “it’s important to understand that the pranks usually entailed water balloons, silly string, maybe the occasional snake. But Malanya’s like, hella, smart. So I was like, ‘Gurl, you’ve gotta put those brains to use.’ So while Piper and Isla, you know, the other blonde minion, were off pranking the ginger demon sisters, we put some yeast and stuff in their drains, and then when they came back Malanya did some cool sciency stuff with peroxide to make it explode, and it blew out the windows!” Harper had been slowly getting more and more excited as she told the story, and Jordan now understood why; it was a good one. “Ever since there’s kind of been a neverending dorm war, but just between the two of us. And mark my words,” Harper said, pointing at both of them, “I will not surrender first.”

******

After Harper regaled them with her tales from the year before, Jordan had a few questions for her. One of them being who on Earth the ginger demon sisters were (apparently a red-haired sibling duo with annoying tendencies.) But as well as queries that regarded more pressing matters.

“The only place you can find those records are in the teachers lounge,” Harper said, not asking any questions about why Jordan would need a list of all the people who ever received a letter.

“Ok, how do I get there?” Jordan asked, she was willing to do anything to get her eye on those records.

“Oh honey,” Harper shook her head, “I can’t even get into the teacher’s lounge.”

Jordan sighed, if Harper couldn’t do it, or hadn’t done it, it was most likely impossible. Just as Jordan was about to turn away though, she added, “but I do have a list of times when they leave the doors unprotected.”

It was lunch (thank god) and Jordan and Harper were sitting in front of a map of the dorm tower. They had claimed the circle table for the period while Sal and Chance did ‘homework’ at the window seats. Madelyn was somewhere reading romance novels in the library, she had disappeared there minutes ago muttering something about never seeing that many books in her life.

Aside from a table of older kids on the right side of the room who were continuously bringing up the name Edgar Allen Poe, the Study Hall was pretty desolate. 

“The very top floor above yours is where the teachers spend most of their time. There’s always at least two of them in there-”

“Why do the dorms stop there?” Jordan interrupted.

“...What?” Harper asked.

“They add more kids every year, right? So they need more floors.” Jordan explained.

“I don’t know, that’s not what we’re doing right now. They’re building another one soon.” Harper said.

“Are they?” Jordan questioned doubtfully.

“I don’t know, probably. Do you want these records or not?” Harper asked impatiently.

Jordan hesitated, “Yeah.”

“Now you could risk picking every single lock in the short window of time you have, but…” Harper paused, tracing a line on the map with her index finger, “all of the vents connect at the solarium, so you can easily get to the ceiling from your dorm.”

“And then what, Spiderman crawl down to the floor?” Jordan remarked.

“Wow, Marvel references already, I’ve taught you so well!” Harper exclaimed sarcastically, “No stupid, I’ll hook you up with a bungee cord, Mission Impossible style. Then you’ll only have one lock to pick, and that’s the door to the teacher’s lounge.”

“Wow, sounds safe,” Jordan said drily.

“Oh, come on,” Harper rolled her eyes.

“So…” Jordan glanced at Harper’s time sheet, fidgeting with her bracelet again, “I’ll have to go next period?”

“Yeah,” Harper said.

“How am I supposed to get out of class for that long?” Jordan asked.

“Well,” Harper paused to think for a second, “What do you have?”

“Art,” Jordan replied.

“Oh Ms.Chevalier is a huge feminist. Just tell her you have period cramps and she’ll let you go,” Harper said.

“Will I be able to fit in the vent?” Jordan had never been overly claustrophobic, but the idea of crawling through a slim dusty rat tube didn’t exactly appeal to her.

As if on cue, Andy walked in with a stack of books so large that he was teetering back and forth. Jordan had wanted to go through with the operation on her own, because she didn’t want to explain to anyone about her brother. Luckily, getting Harper’s help hadn’t required an explanation, but Andy wouldn’t need one. He had known her forever…But Jordan stopped herself. She suddenly felt sick for coming up with the idea. Sure, Andy had found his place in the past few days and Jordan had found her’s, but that wasn’t a great excuse for her barely seeing him. She was supposed to have his back, always. Especially right now. But where had she been? And how guilty would she feel if she just popped out of the blue again to ask him for a favor? 

Jordan suddenly felt a gut-wrenching sadness in her stomach, and she had to force back tears. She hadn’t let them out since Jace’s funeral, she hated to let people see her vulnerable like that. Because everytime they did it never turned out well. She got up and walked away, only focusing on her breathing and not whoever was saying her name behind her, Harper or Andy. What was happening lately? There was too much change. Too much everything. It was all just too much.

Madelyn had art with Jordan. Art was her favorite class of the day, partly because she shared it with a friend, but their teacher was nice. Madelyn wasn’t sure she would ever be able to pronounce Ms.Chevalier’s name out loud, but normally she just called her Ms.C. The two hadn’t had many interactions, aside from when Ms.C called Madelyn’s eyes pretty. But compared to all the other mundane teachers, she wasn’t bad at all.

They were about half way through class, learning about the science behind shading, when Jordan started acting strange. The tables sat two students, and Ms.C had let them pick seats, so obviously Jordan and Madelyn were next to each other. So it was extremely noticeable when Jordan started doubling over.

“Are you okay?” Madelyn whispered with concern.

“Yeah, just bad cramps,” Jordan said.

“Well tell her then!” Madelyn whisper-yelled.

Jordan raised her hand, and of course, Ms.C excused her. It wasn’t until their pieces of paper were passed out that Madelyn realized she had forgotten her pencil case.

“Ms.C,” she said raising her hand, “Can I go to my dorm to get my pencil case?”

Madelyn dreaded the spiral staircase that took her to her dorm room, and of course it was on the top floor. It was always such a weird feeling walking around school while nobody else was there. The hallway delivered the sound of her footsteps back to her, the echoes bouncing off the candle lit walls. During the days, the dorm rooms were always unlocked, but for some reason, her’s wouldn’t open. It wasn’t jammed, or locked, it felt like something was in front of it. Maybe Jordan had come back to their room when she left class?

“Jordan,” Madelyn called from the outside, “Are you in there?”

There was a sound of something thumping against metal, followed by a soft, “Ow.”

“Yeah, uh,” Jordan began. Her voice sounded different, like she was inside something hollow, Madelyn twirled her front pieces of hair around her finger as she waited for a response, “Hold on,” Jordan said again, gruffly.

“What are you doing in there?” Madelyn asked as she heard Jordan jump to the floor.

The door opened to reveal a very exasperated looking Jordan with extremely tangled hair. Behind her, on the far wall closest to her bed, the vent was wide open. Madelyn made her way inside and sat down on her bed.

“Would you care to explain?” She asked. Madelyn watched as Jordan’s face contorted, she looked like she was deciding on what excuse to give, and then realized that nothing she could say would make the situation seem any less abnormal.

“I need to get to the teacher’s lounge,” she said.

“Through a vent?” Madeyln asked, “There are fans in there, you could get your head cut off!”

Jordan looked like she was at a loss for words, her left hand reached for her bracelet, a tell-tale sign that she was anxious.

“Why do you even need to get to the teacher’s lounge?” Madelyn asked.

Jordan sighed and fidgeted with her bracelet, something that Madelyn noticed her do quite often. “My brother,” she said, “I think he was here but, I don’t know I…” her voice trailed off, “I guess I’m just that desperate to find him.”

“What happened to him?” Madelyn asked, then regretted it, “Sorry you don’t have to-”

“No it’s fine,” Jordan sat down next to her, “He…” she paused, searching for the right word choice, and Madelyn thought she could guess what Jordan was about to say. There was no easy way to say that somebody had died. The words never fully encompassed how serious the situation actually was. And when they were spoken out loud, it made everything real. You could listen to other people say it, but once the words came out of your mouth, there was no going back. That’s how it was with most things. 

The only thing Madelyn could think to do was rest a hand on her friend's shoulder.

“You’re gonna think I’m delusional,” Jordan began, “and maybe I am!” She said, throwing up her hands, “But…but my tour guide, on the first day, he doesn’t have a roommate.”

Madelyn didn’t know what she was getting at, but she listened.

“Ryder, that was my guide’s name. He came here the same year my brother went missing.”

Madelyn finally put two and two together, “So you think…”

“Yeah, I do. And according to Harper the teacher’s lounge has a list of all the people who ever got selected,” Jordan said.

“How does she know that?” Madelyn asked.

Jordan exhaled, “She doesn’t, but that makes sense right,” she said, picking at her nail, “I mean, they’ve gotta keep track of it somehow.”

“So let’s go,” Madeyln stood up.

“Now?” Jordan asked.

“When else?”

“Wait,” Jordan said, grabbing Madelyn’s arm, “I wanna get Andy first.”

After Madelyn and Jordan stole Andy out of Battle IQ for a ‘survey,’ Jordan asked if she could talk with just Andy. Madelyn wasn’t sure what they said to each other, but they came back performing some sort of secret handshake.

“So,” Jordan said, “Andy has agreed to venture into the vent.”

“Was that purposeful alliteration?” Madelyn joked.

“I don’t even know what alliteration is,” Jordan said, “so probably not.”

Madelyn frowned, then turned to Andy, “So Jordan told you what you’re doing right?”

“Yeah, but…I don’t know how to pick a lock,” He replied.

Jordan and Madelyn shared glances with each other, and then Madelyn remembered something. The first night, the girls had gone through their closets together. Jordan had a really pretty skirt that Madelyn had begged to try on. But it was maybe just a size or two big on her. If Jordan could just barely fit in the vent, then maybe Madelyn could make the excursion comfortably. Harper had obviously shown her how to pick a lock, and now she could put that to use.

Madelyn had never been in a vent before, and she hoped that this was the last time. Initially, she panicked at the first fan she came across. Jordan told her that Harper said to ‘just kick them’ to stop them from spinning, but Andy, who was surprisingly smart, had explained to her how to disable them.

After receiving some very sore elbows and knees, she came to what seemed like the solarium. The bungee cord she held, which had been passed down from Harper, to Jordan, to her, suddenly seemed very thin. 

Carefully, Madelyn pushed off the vent cover. Her heart skipped a beat as it almost clattered to the floor. The idea of bungee cording to the ground seemed quite absurd to her, and in that moment she realized how much she was willing to do for Jordan.

When Madelyn surveyed the room, she noticed a large calendar posted on one wall, a desk with a few souvenir looking things on them, but what caught Madelyn’s eye the most was the knife in the glass case sitting on that desk. From her position up in the air, it looked to be gold with some kind of gems around the handle.

Much to her dismay, Madelyn heard footsteps underneath her as she was securing the bungee cord. She froze and held her breath, realizing that there were two people there. She seemed to be catching the middle of a conversation. An important one.

“Cassandra, you can not avoid this any longer,” said someone who Madelyn guessed was Michelle, “Eventually, it will wear off, and everything is going to catch up with us. With you!”

“God, you are so worried about yourself! It’s only ever about you! Don’t you think we’ve kept this up for a little too long?” Cassandra replied furiously, “I do everything, I don’t have the strength to keep this up!”

“Well what do you suggest we do instead? I’m genuinely curious!” Cassandra didn’t respond, “We have two options here, and I don’t think either of us could stoop low enough to pull off the remaining one, so do as I say, and nobody gets hurt.”

As Cassandra began to walk away, much to Madelyn’s horror, the bungee cord slipped out of her now very sweaty palms. She caught it just in time, but not before the plastic could smack against the metal. Madelyn retreated further back into the vent, getting as low as possible. She held her breath as she slowly backed away from the opening. The sound of Cassandra’s heels clicking on the ground stopped directly beneath Madelyn, and she never heard her relocate until she had successfully crawled out of earshot.

The girls had summoned everybody to Harper’s room for another meeting after dinner. Apparently, Madelyn had been in the vent today, (the reason was classified) when she had heard a concerning conversion between Cassandra and Michelle.

“What does she mean by the other option?” Sal asked.

“We would tell you if we knew,” Jordan said. Andy fidgeted beside her, and his face almost looked…maybe like he was withholding information. Chance, who was sitting next to the girl he wouldn’t shut up about the night before - Harper’s sister - noticed too.

“Andy,” he said, “why do you look like that?”

Everybody directed their attention to Andy, who seemed to disintegrate under their gaze.

He was silent for a while, before saying, “I heard Cassandra talking about Jordan. She was talking to Ms. Marlin about how they might need to pull her from classes for a while.”

Sal saw Madelyn become lost in thought, and suddenly looked very worried. Jordan had a similar expression on her face.

“Okay what did you guys do today?” Sal demanded.

“Yeah guys come on,” Malanya said, mainly to Harper, “if we’re going to figure out whatever it is that’s going on lately we can't keep things from each other.”

Madelyn looked at Jordan, and Jordan nodded. Neither of them had known Malanya for too long, and Sal hadn’t either. But she was reasonable and smart. As well as a fellow green.

“We were looking for student records. We think…Jordan thinks that-” Madelyn began.

“That they could lead me to my brother. He’s…missing.” Jordan finished, trying to get the sentence out of her mouth as quickly as possible, like it was a nasty piece of food.

Everybody glanced at one another and became more focused as the girls (plus Andy of course) began to explain about Ryder’s missing roommate and how all the dates coincided almost perfectly. Sal saw Malanya give Harper a why wouldn’t you tell me all of this look, and Harper just gave an apologetic shrug in return.

“What if your brother knows,” Malanya suggested, breaking the contemplative silence.

“What do you mean?” Chance asked on behalf of everyone in the room.

“What if he found out whatever it is that we’re getting at. And what if the twins didn’t want that. And-and what if…” She trailed off, glancing up at Jordan who had left her seat to pace the floor.

Harper followed her sister’s gaze, as well as her train of thought, “Jordan,” she said, “you’re tied into all of this somehow. You, your brother, I mean that makes the most sense right.”

“I was thinking so too,” Madelyn said, and Sal wondered if that was what had caused the sudden look of fear and realization on her face. Concern for her friend. But did they need to be concerned?

“Jordan,” Andy said, getting her to stop pacing, “you know how Bracelton boards up every year. Like, during the same time as the selections.”

Jordan nodded, a crease forming in between her eyebrows.

“Do you think…maybe they know. About this,” he gestured to the room around them, but everybody knew that he meant the academy as a whole, “I mean I know you said it was all…horse crap. But,” Andy swallowed, “maybe they were protecting us from something.”

“Or protecting you,” Malanya said it into her lap, but she looked up at Jordan once again, who was now steadying herself on the bedpost, “Think guys,” Malanya turned to everyone, “what are the odds, assuming her brother was a selection, that both of them were chosen. There are four a year. Four. In the whole country.”

“What are the odds,” Chance repeated softly beside her. Sal cleared his throat, and a cold air seemed to rush into the room, despite no windows being opened. Because the windows didn’t open at all. Sal felt his brain begin to work at something. He pursued the thought, desperate to come up with something for the good of the group. He was supposed to be the brains of the operation.

And then he had it, “Look guys, I don’t wanna give anybody more nightmares than we’re probably already gonna have. But, adding onto Malanya’s, uh, theory,” he paused to clear his throat again, surprised by the sudden dryness of it, “Jordan assuming that everything we’ve thought of is right, your brother being alive, and him getting an invitation, figuring out some dark secret or whatever - and by the way that’s all super iffy, so I’m not saying I’m right - but…you could be in danger. Michelle and Cassandra could be using you for leverage, against, against-”

“Jace,” she finished for him.

“Like a hostage, you mean,” Harper said, the way she lingered on the word ‘hostage’ and how her eyes lit up when saying it were equally alarming.

“Jordan,” Madelyn said, grabbing her attention, “You are going to be sick tomorrow.”

*******

They had appointed Andy as Jordan’s companion; he would keep her company all day in the dorm while Sal, Harper, Chance, Madelyn, and Malanya focused on the bigger issues. Harper and Madelyn had been scheming all day about different ways to get into the teacher’s lounge, because it looked like Jordan’s brother might be a bigger piece to the puzzle than they all thought.

Madelyn had informed all the teachers that Jordan had gotten a very upset stomach from the sea-food last night, and would be out for a few days. Although they later regretted not coming up with a more contagious excuse, because they would have to be more creative to explain Andy’s absence. While Harper, in all of her school ditching experience, worked on coming up with that, Sal was busy third-wheeling Chance and Malanya.

The three of them had chosen two teachers each to tail/spy on throughout the day. Sal was in charge of keeping an eye on the math teacher: Ms.Marlin, and the arts teacher: Ms.Chevalier. Chance was watching the battle iq teacher: Mr.Morris, and the theater teacher: Ms.Palagonis. And Malanya had their history and science teachers: Ms.Mclennan and Mr.Brates. 

Watching Ms.Marlin got Sal bored extremely fast. During his math class he realized that she was a very plain woman, who really did live up to everything Chance had said about her. Her outfits were all neutral colors, today, it was a gray skirt-suit. Her hair was always up, and her voice was always monotone. 

However, while the class was doing a worksheet, she announced that she would be taking a break from grading homework to use the restroom. To continue the hunt for information, and to avoid the chaos that occurred in the teacher’s absence, Sal also got up to use the bathroom.

He quickly caught up with Ms.Marlin in the hallway, and made sure to keep a safe distance between the two of them. So far, it looked as though she was telling the truth. She was headed straight for the first floor bathrooms. But then she stopped. So did Sal’s heart, and he pressed himself into a door frame to avoid being seen.

Sal caught his breath and peeked around the side of the door frame just in time to see Ms.Marlin vanish through the now opened up wall at the end of the hallway. Within seconds, the wall rotated right back to its original position, like something out of a Scooby Doo episode, and it looked as if nothing had ever happened.

Sal had been giving Chance weird glances all History class. He would try to mouth something, but it was incomprehensible with the distance between them. Chance was completely lost once he resorted to sign language.

At the end of the period, Sal nearly attacked him, and he was across the room to Chance in a flash.

“Ms.Marlin. Went. Through. The wall.” He gasped loudly, then looked over his shoulder to make sure no one had heard. Chance was just about to ask Sal if he was on something when Malanya came rushing up to them out of breath.

“Okay I know none of you are going to believe me,” she began, glancing around quickly to make sure none of the stragglers from History class were eavesdropping, “but I just saw Ms.Mclennan walk out of a wall.”

Sal was giving Chance, who looked extremely bewildered, an ‘I told you so’ look, and Malanya was staring at the two of them, waiting for an answer.

Just then the lunch bell rang, and the three of them rushed to claim their table in the study hall.

Sal, in classic fashion, was in his usual spot with a pyramid of mini triangle sandwiches in front of him. The three of them were waiting on Harper and Madelyn, who were almost ten minutes late. This struck Chance as strange, because Madelyn was always punctual, Harper not so much, but Madelyn would’ve normally gotten them there on time.

“What have these two gotten themselves into now?” Sal asked through a mouthful of turkey and tomato as Malanya anxiously drummed her fingers on the table

“Do you think they got caught or something?” she asked.

“Caught for what? The only thing we asked them to do was come up with ideas,” Chance said reassuringly.

“Yeah but,” Malanya paused, “you don’t know Harper like I do.”

Chance shrugged, “Maybe not, but I know that she wouldn’t get caught.”

Malanya nodded and sipped her coffee. She always had some with her, and Chance thought it was one of the many things that made her seem so mature. But just then, as if they had heard their names mentioned, Harper and Madelyn came rushing in. Harper was in front, clutching a roll of papers in her right hand so tight that her knuckles were turning white.

“Oh my god!” Malanya exclaimed, standing up in unison with Sal, “you found the records!”

Before Harper could boast, Madelyn stepped in.

“Now before everyone gets their hopes up,” she said, “this might not have what we’re looking for. But we'll be in our room tonight to look at them with Jordan.”

“You haven’t looked at them yet?” Chance asked.

“No!” Harper scoffed, “We’re doing this for our girl aren't we? This is about her brother. We’re not just gonna go through them without her.” 

Sal gave a ‘fair enough shrug’ and then swallowed his last bite of BLT before gently sliding the papers out of Harper’s airtight clutch to examine them.

“So,” he said, “how’d you get these?”

Harper and Madelyn smirked at one another, and then Harper began talking.

“So, your guy’s floor is right below the teacher’s lounge. So we staged it to seem like Madelyn was coming out of her room from checking on Jordan-”

“And then I started absolutely screaming my head off and yelling about how I saw a mouse. And the staff outside the lounge must’ve thought I’d seen a dead body or something, because they came sprinting down the stairs.”

Then Harper jumped back in, “Uh-huh. And while she was putting on that spectacle I picked the lock and rifled through the cabinets and grabbed anything with a label that looked relevant.”

“Yep and then she absolutely booked it back to her floor where we met back up,” Madelyn finished.

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive,” Sal complimented, which made Madelyn glow.

“Yeah guys!” Malanya seconded, “Also, almost as exciting; I think the teachers have a secret passage.”

“Wait what?!” Harper exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah! Malanya and I saw Ms.Mclennan and Ms.Marlin disappear into the walls today!” Sal explained.

“Wait, did they just go through them…like, ghosts or something?” Chance asked, he had wanted to wait till everybody was here to ask his questions about the wall phenomenon, because there were quite a few.

“No,” Malanya and Sal said in unison, Malanya nodded to Sal to elaborate, “The walls opened up for them,” he said.

“Do you think they’d open up for us?” Harper asked Malanya.

“Beats me,” Her sister replied.

“Wait, wait, wait, did they go in together?” Madelyn asked.

“No-” Sal started.

“No…but they did go in at roughly the same time.” Malanya said.

Everybody chewed on the new information for a little bit before Chance finally broke the silence, “This definitely calls for a midnight meeting right?”

Harper smacked the table, “I’ll bring snacks.”

Jordan and Andy had been playing board games for the majority of the day, and the longer she went with no word from Harper and Madelyn, Jordan began to actually feel sick. 

“I just hope they’re all looking out for each other down there,” Jordan said to Andy, who didn’t seem to be listening. His gaze was focused on something outside the window, “Andy!” That got his attention.

“S-sorry,” he said, wiping the lenses of his glasses on his t-shirt and turning back to the window, “I…” he let out a breath, “Is that Bucky?”

Jordan flung herself out of bed and sure enough there was her three legged dog, slightly skinnier but still spotted and happy looking, staring right back up at her.

“Oh my god!” Jordan exclaimed.

“Maybe he followed our scent?” Andy suggested.

Right then, Sal and Madelyn came barreling into the room followed by the rest of the crew. 

“Hey-” Sal paused, “What are we looking at?”

“My dog!” Jordan said out loud again to cure her disbelief.

Madelyn rushed to her side and peered down at the snowy ground, “Aww,” she cooed, “he wants to come up.”

“Well…” Harper began, “we were headed up here to tell you that we’re having a meeting here tonight, but I guess we could add saving your dog to the to-do list.”

“Yes, please!” Jordan said.

“I’m the next one of us to have gym, I can do it, you guys stick to the plan, keep an eye on the teachers.” Malanya calmly addressed everybody.

“Wait hold on, isn’t it impossible to leave this place?” Chance asked.

“Yeah Mal, I doubt you could sneak out of gym class,” Harper seconded.

Sal cleared his throat just as the end of lunch bell rang, and everybody redirected their gaze to him as he pulled a bag of pretzels out of his pocket, “We don’t need to get out, for her to get in.”

“Him,” Jordan corrected. 

“Him, sorry.”

*******

The window on the end of every dorm hallway closest to the stairs looked out at the courtyard, which was how Jordan and Andy ended up kneeling in front of the window, watching Malanya try to inconspicuously sneak away from her back row position on the volleyball court.

From one of the highest floors in the dorm tower, she looked like a tiny spec, but her curly hair was still highly recognizable, even from such a substantial height. It was bursting out of its ponytail wherever it could, and it reached all the way down to her lower back.

Jordan watched her turn to a girl behind her, probably asking if she could sub in for her. Malanya made her way off the court and towards where they had last seen Bucky. He had been by the right wall, at least, if you were looking at the building from the front. Where the hallway to the dorms ended, there was a slender patch of an ivy covered wrought iron fence. It looked out of place, almost accidental in between all the brick walls. But there was a slot underneath just small enough for a cat or possum to squeeze through, or, providing he had lost some weight on his journey over, Bucky.

“Jordan!” Said a voice behind her. Jordan whipped around and was faced with who she assumed-based on several stories-was Piper. Sure enough, the next words out of her mouth were, “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Piper, my dorm is across from your’s.”

The way she held herself, her smug face, and everything Harper had said made Jordan mad. And to think of what she did to Malanya almost set her off the edge, “Why do you know my name?” She asked flatly.

“Oh,” Piper said, slightly taken aback, “Well I figured I should do my research considering we’re on the same floor and all. But I heard that you were sick today!”

“Yeah. I am.” Jordan replied.

“Well it looks like you’re feeling better!” Piper said it in a friendly way, but it sounded like she was accusing her of something.

Jordan was thinking of a response when Andy stepped in, “Actually she’s not,” he said, “She just threw up. Everywhere.”

Piper’s nose scrunched up the tiniest bit, and now Jordan could tell that she didn’t know whether to be, or at least act polite, or be suspicious. She finally decided on something to say, “Uhm,” she cleared her throat, “sorry to hear that,” there was a pause between the three of them, then Piper made a move for the window.

“What are you looki-” she began to say.

Jordan cut her off, “I’m still nauseous.” 

Piper had to know something was up, because she said, “No worries.”

Jordan could practically hear Andy getting anxious beside her. You could see the whole courtyard from up here, and Piper would definitely notice Malanya, especially if she was luring a dog onto the grounds.

“Actually yes worries,” Jordan said, standing up, which made Piper take a step back. Andy did the same so that her view of the window was blocked.

Piper eyed her, not bothering to hide her suspicion this time. “How’d you get sick Jordan?”

“Food poisoning,” she replied, holding eye contact.

“Hm,” Piper said, and Jordan had to hold back a sigh, because Piper’s tone told her that she was about to drop the issue, “Well feel better soon,” she said numbly before retreating back down the stairs.

“She’s got him.” Andy said once Piper’s footsteps were out of earshot.

Library time was Madelyn’s favorite part of the day. In her thirteen, almost fourteen years on the planet, she had never seen so many books in one place. The floor to ceiling windows that looked out to the snowy woods completed the room, and the space was big enough that Madelyn could easily find somewhere to sit without any classmates in sight.

So far she had checked out all romance books, but today, against her better judgment, she was taking recommendations from Harper, who had given her directions to the Stephen King section.

It was in the back corner of the library, but the window seat there was unoccupied. That was Madelyn’s other favorite part of the library: the window seats. 

Madelyn did feel the slightest bit guilty about taking a break while her friends were all diligently watching their targets and trying to figure out how to activate the secret passageway or whatever it was, but she also felt that it was well deserved. 

As she was getting situated with her book, she heard a scuffing sound. Like a shoe against carpet.

“Hello?” The greeting came out a little more drily than she had intended it too, but she hated being disturbed while reading.

When she wasn’t given a response, she turned back to the story and flipped a page. And then she heard it again, and a third time.

“Okay,” she finally demanded, “Who is there?” Her voice wavered more than she would’ve liked. Maybe all of the drama lately was driving her to insanity, but she heard soft breathing behind a bookshelf a few yards in front of her. 

Standing up, she clutched her 1,138 page novel like a baseball bat, and with the thickness of it, it was almost as effective. She walked slowly, spinning strands of hair around her pointer finger as she made her way out of the horror section. 

It was the last period of the day, and being mid-winter, the sun was already quickly sinking down into the treeline. The monstrous bookshelves cast shadows on her face as she moved towards the site of the noise.

Once she finally came to a stop and peered around the shelf, she gasped in surprise as she came face to face with her Battle IQ teacher; Mr.Morris. 

“Oh,” she breathed, relieved, “Mr.Morris you sc-”

Before she could get out the rest of her sentence he grabbed her forcefully, making an attempt to pin her wrists together. Madelyn couldn’t even get out a scream as she noticed the rag in his pocket. She knew that this was life or death. 

Using every ounce of strength she had, Madelyn squirmed free and brought the hardcover down onto his head. Mr.Morris fell to the ground with a grunt and Madelyn took the opportunity to run while she could. The teacher wasn’t unconscious, but if Madelyn was lucky she could spare enough time to hide.

She slid behind a bookshelf near the middle of the back wall, and suddenly she wished that the library wasn’t so big. If Harper were here, she would be yelling at Madelyn for asking who was there. Apparently, it was a death wish in situations like these.

Madelyn tried not to breathe too loud as she searched the vicinity for anything she could use to defend herself. Suddenly she heard a floorboard creak on the other side of the shelf. She scurried away on all fours and pressed herself up against the side.

Everything was quiet for a moment, until a hand reached for her face from behind. Madelyn screamed and dropped to the ground, sliding out of Mr.Morris’s grip in the process. She spun around and ran for cover behind another shelf, hoping that she was getting closer to the door. ‘This place is like a maze,’ her guide had said.

Madelyn closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. A single tear fell down her cheek and onto her orange and cream checkered sweater. When she opened them, she hoped to be somewhere else, but she was still in the library, fighting for her life. She blinked back any other tears that were trying to force their way out and thought of her friends. She was going to be there for them.

Just as she was about to grab another book, hoping it might work as well as the first time, she felt her hair being yanked from a gap in the shelf behind her head.

Madelyn let out the loudest scream she could muster, but before it could barely leave her lips, her attacker pulled her hair, slamming the back of her head against the thick wooden shelf. At first, it was like the pain didn’t register in her brain, but a moment later, it felt as if somebody had clubbed her. Her vision began to blur at the edges, and she wobbled before falling to the ground.

All she could think on her way down was: I will not die like this. I will not die like this. She made one last feeble attempt to grab a hardcover book, but her arm was pinned down by what felt like a foot. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and the last thing she saw was Mr.Morris’s blurry face staring back down at her.

Sal could not stop pacing, he had one hand on the back of his neck, which was his usual thinking position. He was more anxious than he had ever been in his life. According to Jordan, Madelyn hadn’t been in their dorm since lunch. Now all of them were present for their midnight meeting, and she still wasn’t here. 

By 12:30, they had given up and looked at the records, where they discovered that Jordan’s brother had indeed been given a letter. She was now sitting in a circle with the rest of the midnight meeting attendees, plus Bucky, whom Malanya had snuck back up to Jordan’s room after gym. As much as Sal loved to see Jordan be happy after so long, his mind would only focus on one thing.

He would catch snippets of the conversations around him:

“So your brother is alive?”

“I hope so!”

“What are the odds you both get a letter?”

Sal had to admit, it was crazy that Jordan had spent so many years being told her brother was gone. He was almost jealous, that she would go through all this trouble for her sibling, that they cared enough about each other. The working theory was that Jace had found out some sort of secret, whether it was true or not, and was alive and blackmailing the academy. But even though everybody had their own similar opinions, no one wanted to say out loud why they might have been looking for Jordan. Although by this point, it was widely accepted by everyone in the room that they weren’t safe here.

Sal knew exactly what was going on. They had foiled the plan. Whoever was behind all of this, the teachers, the twins, they had done the same thing with Madelyn that they had planned to do with Jordan, because she was the weakest one of the group. Now, they were waiting for Sal and his friends to take the bait, just like they would’ve waited for Jordan’s brother to come save her.

Sal managed to tear his mind away from Madelyn just long enough to recall his first day here. The colors. What did they mean? They were a part of this, they had to be. Suddenly everything he had picked up here, every little detail, they began to make sense. Why else would they be organized into groups based on their strengths? Why else would they have a Battle IQ class? This wasn’t a school, or an academy, or whatever lies they had been fed. They weren’t being educated, they were being trained, like an army.

“They’re using us.” He said.

The chatter in the room died down and everybody looked at Sal.

“They know that we’re getting to the same thing her brother did,” he said to the ground, “But they won’t let us get away like he did. They’ve gotten smarter too. We’re trapped unless we do something about it.”

Everybody’s mouths fell open slightly as Sal explained his thought process.

“B-but,” Malanya stuttered, which was a first for her, “Jace wasn’t one of the first letter recipients, I mean this place has been around for almost twenty years, they didn’t build it just because of him, to fight against him.”

“She’s not human,” Andy said.

“What?” Jordan asked. She stopped stroking Bucky’s fur to stare at him.

“Do you remember how we came here?” He retorted.

Jordan stammered, “Yeah, well we,” she paused to think and then her voice trailed off.

Andy looked around at everybody else, who all shook their heads. Bucky rested his head on his paws and sighed, probably upset that he couldn’t contribute to the conversation.

“I just remember my vision blurring, and then, like some weird spinny feeling,” Chance answered.

“Exactly,” Andy said, “Like a portal, right?”

“Andy that sounds-” Jordan started.

“I know how it sounds! But is anything so far-fetched anymore?” Andy knew he was right, and so did everybody else, “Plus, no fifty year old looks that young,” he added.

“So they’re what, like, witches?” Harper asked.

“Like in Hocus Pocus?” Malanya said.

Harper snapped her fingers and her eyes widened, “Wait, wait, wait! Maybe!”

“Harper-”

“No! Why else would they be collecting kids?” She exclaimed.

“Okay it sounds really creepy when you phrase it like that,” Sal said.

“Because it is really creepy!” Harper countered.

Sal looked around the room, Andy looked like he was about to pee his pants, and Jordan was messing with her bracelet. Malanya had her usual pensive expression and Harper and Chance were staring at each other wide-eyed.

“Guys, how are we not all focused on the same issue right now?” Sal asked, finally confronting the group, “Madelyn is missing, and after everything that was just said I doubt she's safe. So I don’t know about you, but I’m not waiting anymore,” Sal declared, finally ceasing his pacing and coming to a standstill to stare at the crowd for a response.

“He’s right,” Jordan said, standing up immediately, followed by Harper, “We’re not solving this without her. We can’t”

Chance stood up and gave Malanya a hand, which inspired Jordan to do the same for Andy, who all joined Sal by the door.

“And we won’t. If they are witches, or…whatever we said, we’re not taking them down unless all of us are here,” Harper said, “If our girl is in trouble, that’s the first thing we take care of.”

Before Chance had come here, he had lived all on his own. No parents, they had left. No siblings to keep him company. Nobody who cared. Nobody looked out for him in his small little fishing town, and he never knew that he could care about people so much before he shared a room with Sal.

Chance had narrowly escaped social services, entered another realm, his friend had gotten kidnapped, and now he was searching a 50,728 square foot building to find her. 

Sal and Malanya, being the smartest, had crept off with their flashlights to break into the secret passageway. Harper was their lookout. Jordan and Chance were searching in other hiding spots throughout the school, while Andy hung back by the entrances to look out for them. Andy had originally insisted on staying in the room with Bucky, but Jordan would not let him back down from the mission, so Sal had supplied the dog with a stolen sandwich platter before the group left Jordan and Maddie’s dorm.

Chance knew that if Madelyn had been taken, it would make the most sense for her to be kept in a secret passageway, which was why he never expected him and Jordan to find their first piece of evidence.

He was searching the back of the library, and Jordan searched closer to Andy at the front. Chance never knew bookshelves could be intimidating, but being surrounded by so many tall structures was nerve racking at such a late hour. 

He shined his light up and down the shelves, watching the dust float through the air around him. He walked in and out of shadows, and places where the moonlight flooded in. 

As he was passing through the historical fiction aisle, he saw something out of the corner of his eye and paused. Turning back on his heel he noticed a small red stain on one of the wooden shelves. He lined himself up against the shelf vertically beside the smear, and noticed that it was slightly above his shoulder, and slightly below his chin. 

Chance didn’t want to scare himself anymore, because he realized that he was now visibly shaking, but he knew that he couldn’t discount anything. Once he had shone his flashlight onto the spot, it became apparent that it was blood. Chance let out a small gasp and backed into the bookshelf behind him. From further away, he realized that the splotch was right about where Madelyn’s head would be.

“Jordan,” he whispered-yelled into the shadows, hoping he wouldn’t have to raise his voice anymore, but unfortunately, he didn’t think that she heard him, “Jordan,” he said again softly.

To his relief, she called back to him from her spot, “Chance? Did you say something?” 

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied, “I found something important.”

Chance heard footsteps approaching, and he prayed to God that they were Jordan’s. He let out the breath that he didn’t know he had been holding once her face appeared in the beam of light coming from his flashlight.

“Look,” he said, nodding to the stain.

Jordan directed her gaze towards the shelf. Chance realized he had been right not to discount the position of the stain, because Jordan and Madelyn were roughly the same height, give or take a couple inches, and the blood smear was right near Jordan’s head.

Jordan reached out to touch the spot, “Dry, but still dark red,” she said out loud, “This was recent, maybe a few hours ago.”

Chance touched it too, and agreed with Jordan’s observations, “You’re right, if this was an old stain, it’d have to be brown by now, right?”

“Right,” Jordan said, surveying the rest of their surroundings. Then, something must’ve caught her eye, because she bent down to examine something on the floor.

“Hey,” she motioned for Chance to join her, “look at this.”

Chance crouched beside Jordan and saw what she was studying, a slightly discolored patch of carpet almost directly below where they had been standing.

“Do you think that’s…blood…from her, too?” Chance asked.

In response Jordan pulled out a short, fair strand of hair that was weaved into the threads of the carpet and held it up for Chance to see. 

Suddenly Jordan stood up, positioning herself in front of the shelf with the stain, then mimicking a fall, in which she landed with her head on the same spot of blood they had just been looking at.

She stared back up at Chance with wide eyes, and then reached her left arm out toward a hardcover copy of Lord of the Flies, which was slightly dislodged from the bottom shelf.

“Uhhh, guys?” Chance jumped as she heard Andy whine from the other end of the library, and Jordan sprung to her feet.

“Guys, we have to leave,” Andy clarified, the anxiety in his voice infected Chance too, and Jordan could definitely tell something was wrong.

“Shoot,” she muttered under her breath. The only way to exit the library was forever away, and so was Andy, “Come on, we gotta leave,” she said, yanking Chance’s arm. He followed her as they weaved through the forest of bookshelves, while doing so they slammed into Andy, who screamed out loud.

“Shhh,” Jordan said, quickly clamping a hand over his mouth and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

“I saw Professor Dulshwitz!” Andy’s lower lip trembled and Jordan went pale after hearing his words.

Chance turned to Jordan, who had released his arm to comfort Andy, “Why is she up?”

“How would I know?” Jordan retorted, raising her eyebrows.

“Guys, what happens if she finds us?” Andy worried.

“That doesn’t matter, follow me, I know where we can hide,” Jordan pulled in front of the group, and the three of them tip-toed the rest of the way to the open wall that led into the Study Area. Jordan pointed down the hallway and to the right, towards the theater.

At the end of that hallway were the stairs that led to the Dining Hall, and once the trio was about halfway to the theater, they heard the sound of somebody ascending those stairs. Without a second thought, Chance booked it the rest of the way and nearly drifted into the theater on the cool marble floor. Jordan rushed in shortly after him and yanked Andy through the doorway.

“We have to get to Sal, Malanya, and Harper! Warn them!” Chance said frantically.

“No up here!” Jordan said, pointing to a rope ladder that led up to the rafters above the stage.

“But-” 

“No Chance! They’re a floor below us on the other side of the building. If we go back out there we’re putting them and ourselves in danger. If we go missing too, then who will look for Madelyn?” Jordan had made several points, and the last one reminded him of the promise he had made to himself on the first day: That he would look out for Madelyn. But he had broken that promise. She could be dead right now…

“Hello? Snap out of it!” Jordan demanded from the middle of the ladder, Andy was slightly above her, clinging onto the rungs for dear life.

Jordan was right, Chance would do Madelyn no good if he got caught. With that final thought he scurried up the ladder and Jordan helped him up into the rafters just as the doors were flung open.

Jordan held her hand over Andy’s mouth, who had his arms and legs wrapped around a wooden support beam with his back to the ceiling. She was pressing her back up against a vertical beam with her knees folded tight in front of her, and Chance was straddled uncomfortably close to a spiderweb in the corner.

Chance’s breathing intensified as the person that he assumed was Professor Dulshwitz, but severely hoped was not, made their way to the ladder. A million thoughts were rushing through Chance’s head. One of them was that the ladder, being made of rope, was probably still swaying back and forth from when they had climbed it. He would’ve cursed out loud if he wasn’t trying his best to be dead silent.

“I know you’re up there. So there’s no point in doing this the hard way,” There was the proper sounding voice that Chance wished he had never heard.

He exchanged a glance with Jordan who was fidgeting with her bracelet, but both of them remained quiet.

“Alright, well then,” Professor Dulshwitz began to climb the ladder, and then stopped. There was what sounded like wood being scraped against the floor. When Professor Dulshwitz came back into view, Chance saw her step onto a box that she had slid directly below the ladder. What is she doing? he thought.

She climbed up a few rungs, and then to Chance’s horror, cut the ladder from the top. The rope fell to the ground with a thump as she pushed the box back to its original position.

“I hope it was worth it, Clayter,” The professor said before exiting through the double doors with a thud.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” Andy yelled, “They’re gonna think we got taken too! And then they’ll come to the library looking for us and she’ll get them! There are only three of them down there, they’re gonna pick us off one by one and-”

“Andy!” Jordan snapped. She never snapped at Andy, but he was being unbearable right now. They had been stuck up here for barely twenty minutes and they were already turning on each other, “We will get out of here.”

“Yeah come on man, Jordan’s right. As long as they’re together they’ll be fine. Worst case scenario, the first theater class is second period tomorrow, so someone will find us soon,” Chance’s voice was so calm, but underneath it all, Jordan could tell that he didn’t believe what he was saying either.

By now it had to be almost two in the morning, and everybody was tired. 

“They’ll find us, I know they will…” Jordan made another weak attempt to comfort the group, but the fraying ends of the now useless rope ladder caught her eye, “Hey, would anyone happen to know how many rungs were on the ladder-”

“28,” Andy said immediately, adjusting his glasses.

“How…” Jordan started to ask.

“I hate heights, so I guess I just subconsciously counted on my way up to see how long the climb would be,” he answered.

“Hey, hey!” Chance said from the corner, and Jordan got the sense that he had caught on to what she was thinking, “They were all about a foot apart right?”

“Yeah,” Jordan replied, “So we’re probably about 28 feet off the ground!”

“Guys, I don’t want to ruin the moment, but you realize that won’t get us anywhere, right?” Andy reasoned, “We still can’t jump.”

“No…” Jordan pondered, “But maybe there’s something up here that could help.” She began gingerly picking her way across the beams with the grace of a cat.

As she moved, dust floated up from in between the texture of the wood, making Andy sneeze. 

“Rope!” Jordan called out as a pile of junk in the back corner caught her eye. Excitement taking over her, she scrambled forward, losing her technique and control and slipping in between one of the gaps.

She screamed, and Chance sprang forward immediately to grab her shoulders. Jordan made the mistake of looking down, where she saw her legs dangling helplessly. The ground seemed much further down now that she was about to fall.

Chance could only get to her so fast, not wanting to make the same mistake, and Andy was sedentary, looking like he desperately missed his inhaler. 

Chance finally got to Jordan, whose arms were about to pop out of their sockets from gripping the wood for so long, and he hauled her up onto the support beam. Jordan took a deep breath, and she kept going

The rope was fairly long, maybe even long enough to get them to the ground. They assumed it was what used to be used to draw the curtains before they switched to technology.

“Maybe we could fold it in half over this beam,” Andy said, patting the beam he was sitting on, “That way you can hold on with both hands and slide. No one has to stay at the top.”

“Yeah!” Chance agreed.

“But we’d practically shred our hands open!” Jordan said.

She saw Andy look down at his socks. Jordan looked at her’s, then at Chance. Their eyes gleamed with victory.

Jordan went first, socks on her hands and she gripped each rope tightly. She didn’t hesitate, because she knew it would make her back down if she got in her head. Instead she went right away, and she met the ground with a powerful thump.

Chance slid next, Andy on his shoulders. He would have never gone alone. His eyes stayed shut and his grip stayed tight even after the two had reached the ground. Jordan tapped on his glasses, and his eyes cracked open timidly. 

“Put your socks back on,” she said.

Sal and Malanya had been taking turns trying to figure out the secret passageway. The both of them had seen their teachers disappear into the same spot, which was the end of the long hallway that held the classrooms.

“So,” Sal said, attempting to make conversation while Malanya felt for cracks in the wall, “What’s up with you and Chance?”

Malanya didn’t bother turning around to look at him, and Harper was by the lobby entrance, flashlight tucked under her right arm while she picked her nails.

“What’s up with you and Madelyn?” Malanya retorted.

“Did you seriously just answer my question with a question?” Sal asked.

“Yes, and you just did the same to me. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Malanya said, standing up and brushing off her hands on her green plaid pajama pants, “I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m worried about her, of course I am, but you have been hellbent on finding her.”

“Hey! I caught that subject change,” Sal said.

“Guys it doesn’t sound like you’re getting a lot done back there,” Harper called from the lobby entrance.

“Well, we’ve been trying for about an hour, and it’s starting to seem impossible,” Malanya yelled at her sister. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Harper said, sauntering over, her flashlight beam pointed at the ground. When she got to where Sal and Malanya were standing, she pointed it at the wall, “So you said it just…opened up?”

“Yes, and don’t use that voice. If you would’ve seen it you would actually believe me,” Malayna said. Sal backed up, not wanting to be a part of the sibling fight that might ensue. He knew how serious they could get.

“Oh my god, you are so naive. I’m not saying you’re lying! Does it sound like I accused her of lying, Sal?” Harper turned to Sal who threw his hands up in the air and turned his back to them.

“Ok, whatever,” Harper said, turning her attention back to the wall. Her oversized red zip up slid off her left shoulder as she bent down to feel the ground, her hand suddenly stopping over a small bump in the carpet. She felt around for a minute, pressing her hand down on it. At first, nothing happened, but when she got up and stood on it, the wall swung open just like Sal had seen it do with Ms. Marlin.

Malanya gasped and ran towards the dark passage, but Harper grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She motioned Sal over, and the three of them gazed down into a dark abyss.

Sal had been expecting a staircase or a hallway, but what he was looking at was a seemingly endless black pit, on the side of it, was a rusty metal ladder, leading down into the nothingness. If Harper hadn’t grabbed Malanya, she would likely be dead, that, or still falling.

Malanya and Sal bent down at the same time to touch their fingers to their nose, the universal sign for ‘not it.’ 

“Wussies,” Harper said, rolling her eyes and stepping forward. She gripped her flashlight in between her teeth so that she could use her hands to steady herself.

“Wait, wait,” Malanya said, reaching out to put a hand on Harper’s back, “You’re actually going?”

“Well duh,” she replied, “What use was opening this up if we’re not gonna go inside?”

“But…look at it,” Sal reasoned.

“It’s not my girlfriend,” Harper said with a shrug, placing her foot on the first rung.

“Oh my god. Was I that obvious?” Sal asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes,” the sisters said in unison.

“I hate this. I hate this. I hate this,” Malanya was directly above Sal, he couldn’t see her, but he could definitely hear her. It was pitch black. Everybody’s flashlights were in their pockets so that they could talk to each other, and have both hands available so as to not fall to their deaths.

“Maybe if you say that again it’ll change the situation we’re in,” Came Harper’s voice from below him.

“That’s not-” Sal could tell that Malanya was about to argue, “Oh wait,” she said, “you were trying to be funny.”

“It was funny, you just don’t have taste. Wasn’t it funny, Sal?” Harper asked.

Sal was quite literally stuck in the middle.

“Oh my god!” Harper yelled, “We’re at the bottom guys!” He heard her slip off the ladder and land on a wet sounding surface. Sal did the same, and bumped into her upon descent.

“Ugh, these are my favorite pajama pants,” Malanya said, immediately grabbing her flashlight and shining it into Sal’s face. He threw up his hands and squinted against the light.

“Sorry,” Malanya said, pointing the light back at the ground. By doing so the three saw that they were about ankle deep in murky water, and that Malanya’s favorite pajama pants were in fact ruined.

“Who would willingly come down here?” Harper asked, clicking her flashlight on.

“It must be really secret and really important,” Sal said, shining his beam of light in front of them to reveal a long hallway (more of a tunnel) that looked just as unpleasant as where they were standing now.

“So we’re just going to go trudging down there too?” Malanya said resentfully. She liked to calculate things, and Sal could tell that the aspect of winging this whole operation was really bothering her.

Sal shrugged, “We’ve come this far…Unless you wanna go back up the ladder?” He offered sarcastically.

At his remark, Malanya walked ahead of the group, gingerly picking her way through the tunnel and keeping her light in front of her at all times. Harper and Sal followed, doing the same.

“If we get attacked down here, there’s nothing to do but fight,” Harper said randomly.

“Wow,” Sal said, “thanks for putting that out there.”

“Not true, we could run. But if you guys weren’t so damn loud, there’s a chance nobody would find us in the first place,” Malanya told them.

“Well I think you just jinxed us, because if you weren’t so loud, you would’ve heard the wall open up,” Harper said, nodding up and behind them where they had opened the wall about fifteen minutes ago.

“Wait, what!” Malanya cried, “Also, how did I jinx that, that is totally on yo-”

“Shut up!” Sal yelled, “We should be running right now!”

Harper and Malanya looked at each other, before following Sal, who was already sprinting down the tunnel.

“Wait!” Malanya called, out of breath. They came to a stop after about two minutes of running, “What if it’s Chance and Jordan?”

“No,” Harper said, “We agreed to meet back in Jordi’s room by three, remember? They’re probably waiting for us there.”

“Oh crap,” Sal thought, and only realized that he had said it outloud when Harper replied to him.

“Well don’t worry, if they have any brains, then they probably assumed that we got into the passageway,” she reasoned, “We’re no use if we’re all in the same spot, and they have to stay up there anyways to cover for us.”

“You don’t think we’ll make it to class tomorrow?” Malanya said.

“I mean…there’s no telling, but…” Harper gestured down the tunnel to prove her point.

“Um hello?” Sal snapped, “I think we’re forgetting that somebody else is down here with us.”

Malanya snapped back out of her thoughts, and the three of them took off again. Just when Sal thought that the tunnel would never end, he almost crashed into a padlocked door. It was a number lock, the numbers facing them read 328.

“Woah,” Malanya breathed.

“Harper,” Sal gestured to the lock, “this seems like your forte.”

In response, Harper knelt in the dirty water and began to examine the lock. Madelyn had to be in there. Out of the corner of his eye, Sal watched Malanya anxiously tap her foot as she stared down the hallway. It was like she was waiting for something to go wrong. 

“Ok I got-” Harper was cut off by a scraping sound. The trio whipped their heads around to find Cassandra standing further down the tunnel, clutching something behind her back.

“Hello children,” she said in a haunting voice, “I believe it’s past your bedtime.”

Jordan didn’t sleep a wink, even though she was more exhausted than she ever had been. Everything felt wrong. The room was far too empty without Madelyn, the only comfort she had was the warmth of Bucky on her left side. It was quite a familiar feeling for her, one night, you’re playing stupid games with someone and sleeping in the same room as them. The next moment, they’re gone, and you don’t know whether it’s forever, or if you’ll see them again.

Chance had gone to bed, probably having similar thoughts about Sal, who they had assumed, and hoped, was in the secret passageway safely with Malanya and Harper, since they hadn’t come back on time.

Andy was back in Ryder’s room, and she couldn’t blame him for that. His stuff was there, and she was glad that he had somewhere that felt like home to him. At least one of them did. If she was a little kid who had gotten wrapped into something as scary as this, she would wanna sleep on a floor with the bigger kids too.

One of Jordan’s recurring thoughts she had while staring up at the ceiling from her bed, was war. If their theories and ideas about Cassandra and Michelle’s intentions were true, they would never beat them on their own. When they had gathered up several talented kids for their own good, it probably never occurred to them that those kids could turn on them, and how powerful they might be if they did.

Ryder would help. Jordan knew he would. Jordan liked Ryder, probably because of how much he reminded her of her brother. But she was bound to feel respect for anybody who treated Andy as kind as he did. She had seen how mean kids could be, and it had caused her to resent most people her age. Therefore, she was happy to see Andy happy, even if she wasn’t.

She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, Chance had talked about skipping classes to watch her dog, and Jordan was very grateful to him for it. But going to class might provide more opportunities to search the library and gather intel on teachers. Obviously, with everything that had been on her mind, she was barely learning anything, but she could at least pretend to. If she acted normal and avoided Professor Dulshwitz, maybe she would do the same.

--------

Jordan couldn’t explain what she felt when she was called down to Professor Dulshwitz’s office that morning. First period History seemed extremely lonely without her two best friends sitting behind her, and now she had nobody to reassure her either.

Her heart jumped to her throat immediately when she heard her name over the loudspeaker. She could only procrastinate so long before she was forced out of the classroom, her pulse beating so fast it felt as though her veins might burst.

Her first instinct was to run the second she got into the hallway, but to her horror, she was met face to face with Michelle when she opened the door.

Suppressing her scream, Jordan forced out a weak greeting instead.

“Just the student I wanted to see,” Professor Dulshwitz put on a very manufactured looking smile. It might have been intended to make Jordan less uptight, but it only made her hand move to her bracelet like it always did when she was anxious.

Professor Dulshwitz studied her face for a moment, then said, “Let’s go somewhere more private, shall we?”

She had phrased it like a question, but Jordan knew that declining the offer wasn’t an option.

Michelle walked her into an empty science lab, and Jordan was very aware of the fact that she locked the door behind them.

“What exactly were you doing last night, Miss Clayter?” She asked her.

The last thing Jordan wanted to do was answer that question, so she decided to make an extremely bold move instead.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she said.

Michelle let out a hollow chuckle, “Alright Jordan, I’ll drop the act if you drop yours. I know that you know something, what do you want? Answers about your brother?”

Jordan’s heart jumped to her throat, she was rarely at a loss for words, but at that moment her brain truly could not work out anything to say.

“Alright, I’ll give them to you. When was the last time you saw him?” Michelle asked, she wore a bitter smile on her face. It made Jordan want to punch her.

“E-eight years,” she managed.

Michelle’s smile grew, like she had gotten what she wanted, “Now, I know in your mind, he was probably the best person ever,” Jordan flinched at her use of the word was, “That’s the magic of older siblings, no matter what they do you always look up to them.”

“I don’t know what you think you’re going to prove,” Jordan cut in, “but my brother was a good person, better than you.”

“He was smart, I’ll give you that. He figured everything out. We were so close, he read the letter, went through the portal. Everything. But then he must’ve changed his mind,” Michelle said.

Jordan hesitated, “What do you mean?”

“Well you tell me this: if he cared about you so much, then why did he not come back for you?” Michelle sneered. Jordan felt the words puncture her heart.

“How was he supposed to know I’d be here?” Jordan yelled, “That’s not his fault.”

“You know I caught wind of one of your little discussions one day,” Michelle began again, ignoring Jordan’s question, “Your mind is almost as sharp as his. Miss Clayter, we are using you for blackmail,” her words sent a chill down Jordan’s spine, “My apologies, I suppose leverage is a lighter term. That’s how leverage works, he knows that you’re here.”

Knows. Suddenly, nothing else that had been said mattered. What she had hoped for ever since that day had been confirmed,“You mean…he is alive?”

“He wouldn’t be if I could help it. But just as he has, we’ve grown,” Michelle said, standing up and drawing herself to her full height, with heels, she was about a foot taller than Jordan, “He won’t be able to escape this realm, and neither can you,” she said, tilting up Jordan’s chin with a cold hand.

Jordan twisted herself away from her grip and made an escape for the door, only to remember that it was locked.

“I already screwed up once with your brother, and I won’t do it with you,” Michelle grabbed her arm and practically threw her into a seat, “We need you kids, soon we won’t just control this realm, but the human world as well.”

Jordan blinked to remind herself that she wasn’t dreaming.

“I suppose I should fill you in about your little friend Madelyn,” Michelle said, making her way towards a supply organizer, “She’s been dealt with, got a little too curious,” she began to rummage through the drawers, “I know that you thought you were so special, blue, the leader, but really she was the one we worried about,” finally she paused and pulled out a syringe.

Jordan’s eyes widened, “What are you doing with that?”

Michelle smiled to herself, “See, normally when kids come here, they never have a second thought. They don’t know anything better. But she questioned us on the first day.”

She began to walk back to Jordan, taking her time and enjoying watching the fear spread across her face.

“I’m sure Cassandra told you that you were special, that we were rescuing you from your old life to give you one that you deserve,” Michelle said.

“Yes, she did,” Jordan interrupted, “And every other kid in this school is just as talented and smart as I am. Once they realize that you two have been lying to them, you won’t be able to protect yourselves anymore.”

“You believed her, didn’t you?” Michelle asked, her brows furrowed, “Oh well isn’t that sweet,” she said when Jordan didn’t reply, “Actually, it’s pitiful really. Jordan Clayter, you are not special. And neither are your friends. You are worthless, that is why we chose you. We knew you would jump at the chance to live a different life. Because you were all out of hope.”

Jordan felt the tears prick at her eyes.

“Andy is defenseless, Madelyn is trapped, and I trust that my sister has taken care of the rest of your little group,” Michelle grasped Jordan’s arm so tightly that she couldn’t squirm free, “Tell me, if your friends are so special, where are they to save you?”

Jordan whipped her head around to see the lab door swinging open. Behind it was Malanya, Sal, Madelyn and Harper, their clothes were covered in mud, and they looked like they had been through hell and back to get here. Each one of them clutched a makeshift weapon.

“Actually,” Harper said, “we’re right here.”

As much as Madelyn wanted to run to Jordan and give her a hug, she realized quickly that it was not an option. It hadn’t been an option when Sal, Malanya, and Harper had busted open the door to her confinements, because they had been harassed by the other Dulshwitz sister. But, Cassandra had obviously overestimated her power, because she was now unconscious in an underground layer.

Jordan flung herself out of the chair the second Professor Dulshwitz loosened the grip on her arm.

“Guys!” She exclaimed, rushing towards the group. Harper gently pushed past her and stepped in front of the group.

“Ah, look at that, a little reunion,” Michelle said, “Now you can all die together.”

Madelyn saw Sal glance at the open door out of the corner of her eye, and Malanya did the same thing. They seemed to share a thought, and in one quick movement Malanya grabbed the closest chair and pushed the rest of the group out of the room.

“Malanya! What the heck?” Harper yelled at her sister as Sal slammed the door closed.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Malanya said, positioning the chair underneath the door handle so that it couldn’t be opened from the inside, “Did you want to have another epic fight scene?”

“Oh, shut up-” Harper began.

“No, both of you shut up!” Sal yelled, “Hi, Jordan,” he paused his ranting briefly to give Jordan a half hug, “You never stop fighting! Even when our life is on the line! We need to find Andy and Chance, and then-”

“And Bucky,” Jordan interrupted.

“And Bucky,” Sal added half-heartedly, “And then we need to warn the rest of the school.”

“Well why don’t we just split up and-” Malanya began.

“No!” Everybody yelled in unison.

“I am never splitting up from anybody again. Splitting up got me locked in an underground dungeon” Madelyn said.

“Yeah, you’re welcome by the way,” Harper said sarcastically. Jordan saw Madelyn’s cheeks turn red, and she assumed that it was because she had forgotten to thank Harper in the midst of all the chaos.

“Thank you,” Madelyn nodded, then turned to the rest of the group, “Let’s just follow Sal’s plan.”

Harper and Malanya exchanged a look and smirked at each other at Madelyn’s last sentence, and she caught Sal rolling his eyes in her peripheral vision as the group began their journey towards the dorms.

_________

Andy’s floor came before Chance’s, and Jordan informed the rest of the group that he had skipped class. His eyes widened behind his glasses at the sight of his five exasperated friends barging into his room.

Ryder emerged from the bathroom clutching his toothbrush like a weapon, “What’s going on?” He asked, taking in the. Andy dropped his book and ran to hug Madelyn. Jordan had told her that out of all of Jordan’s friends, Madelyn was Andy’s favorite. For some reason that made Madelyn feel special. 

Sal and Jordan glanced at each other, and Madelyn knew what they were thinking. Ryder could help.

“Look,” Harper paused, “Wait what’s your name?”

“...Ryder,” he said, confused.

“Ok Ryder. There’s not a lot of time to explain, but the teacher’s are trying to kill us and we need Andy,” Harper stumbled over her words.

“Actually Ryder, we could use your help,” Jordan said. When he didn’t reply, she said, “Please?”

__________

“Wait wait wait, explain it to me one more time?” Ryder asked from the back of the line. The group was rapidly moving up the stairs, and Sal and Ryder were holding up the rear. Madelyn could hear Sal getting tired of repeating things, but she also understood how unbelievable everything sounded.

Madelyn and Jordan had finally gotten their hug in, and they were at the front of the pack with Andy. That left Harper and Malanya sandwiched in the middle, which was a recipe for arguing.

They finally reached the top floor, and Madelyn was comforted by the sound of the familiar creak at the top step. It was good to be back.

Jordan threw open the door to her and Madelyn’s room and practically ripped it off the hinges.

Chance snapped his head up, “Jordan your dog won’t roll ov-” He paused as the others began to walk into view. He shot up from his place on the floor with Bucky, who came hobbling after him.

“You guys got the dog?” Madelyn exclaimed, just as Chance wrapped her in a hug. When he released her, he did some guy handshake thing with Sal and then introduced himself to Ryder.

“Okay enough of this sappy stuff,” Harper said, regaining control of the situation as she broke up a hug between Chance and Malanya, “We need to get the rest of the school on our side. Second period just started, so half the school is in the courtyard, and the first Battle IQ class of the day is starting soon.”

“Yeah, right. So we’ll travel as a group through the classes and tell everybody, and then-” Jordan was interrupted by a familiar voice near the steps.

“And then what? Lock all the teachers in a room with a chair?”

Everybody spun around. Bucky growled, something he had never done before.

“Oh yeah guys what are we gonna do about the teachers?” Sal asked. Malanya elbowed him in his ribcage.

“Actually I was thinking we’d put you in a closet this time,” Harper said sarcastically.

Cassandra appeared at the top of the steps and began to walk closer to the kids. Harper remained in the same place, and Madelyn saw the utter confusion on Ryder’s face as he backed up.

“You were always my least favorite student, Harper,” Cassandra said.

“That’s funny, you were always my least favorite teacher,” Harper said with a smile.

Cassandra reached out and grabbed Harper’s hair and flung her against the wall. Everybody stood shocked as she slumped over and fell unconscious. Then, Madelyn heard an almost inhuman sound from behind her. At first, she thought it was Bucky, but to her surprise it was Malanya. Madelyn had never seen Malanya get mad before, unless it was with her sister. Madelyn realized in that moment that she would never understand sibling bonds, because Malanya lurched forward and tackled Cassandra down the stairs. The two tumbled down together with a series of painful sounding thumps.

That was when all the chaos broke out. Everybody rushed to the top of the stairs to see what had happened, but they were stopped by Professor Dulshwitz. In a flash, Jordan jumped on top of her and began striking in any way that she could, and the rest of her friends followed suit.

Madelyn snuck away from the violent scene to check on Harper, who was still unconscious. Madelyn patted the side of her face, and watched as her eyelids began to flutter open. She let out a laugh of relief.

“Harper!” Madelyn exclaimed, “Malanya’s in trouble.”

With that Harper shot up, but her hand immediately went to her head. Madelyn watched her regain motivation as her eyes drifted over to where her friends were struggling.

Madelyn pushed past the ongoing fight at the top of the steps. She knew that together Ryder, Andy, Jordan, Chance, and Sal would be able to take Michelle. But she was greatly worried about Malanya.

Madelyn led Harper down the stairs until they came across a terrifying scene. Malanya was struggling to hold Cassandra off of her, and Cassandra was clutching the blade that Madelyn had seen framed in the teacher’s lounge during her vent escapade.

Harper made a move for the knife, but Cassandra rolled out of her reach. That gave Malanya time to rush back to Madelyn’s side. Suddenly, something shifted inside of Madelyn. She felt it. She assessed the situation. She was pressed against a wall, terrified, as she watched her friend fight. She was standing by. Waiting for someone else to take care of the problem. And she was sick of it. Sick of being good.

Madelyn pushed off the wall, she didn’t quite feel in control anymore. Almost like she was numb, and spectating herself, but incapable of stopping her actions. She was fueled with the kind of power that only came from pure rage. Without a thought, she twisted the knife out of Cassandra’s hand and plunged it into her enemy’s stomach.

Madelyn heard Malanya gasp from behind her, Harper barely flinched. Cassandra sank down onto the floor, smearing blood on the wall behind her. Blood. There was so much. Madelyn blinked, realizing what she had done, but feeling no remorse. If it hadn’t been Cassandra, then it would’ve been Harper.

“Madelyn,” Harper scolded, “I wanted to kill her.”

At first, Sal thought it had been Harper. But when he saw the look on Madelyn’s face, he knew the truth. One thing Sal had noticed in the past day or so, though, was that there was rarely time to explain things. So everybody’s eyes fell on the very apparent dead body as they descended the flight of stairs, but only Sal saw Jordan second guess herself before removing the knife from it and taking it with her.

Now, they were being chased down the staircase that now seemed extremely cramped. They ran in a single file line, which Sal was unfortunately at the back of, clutching Bucky in his arms like a baby. Maybe it was his imagination, but he could feel Michelle’s breath on his neck.

He had never felt so useless. Every time Sal, or any one of them had gone to pounce on her, they had been tossed to the side like wads of paper. Michelle only seemed interested in Jordan, and of course, she had the advantage of not being human.

“Okay,” Chance gasped from the bottom of the stairs. Sal was the last to catch up with the group, “I know we said we won’t split up, but this is gonna have to go quicker than we thought.”

They were in the lobby now, out in the open. Everybody nodded, and Chance continued.

“So there’s eight of us…and Bucky,” Jordan gave an appreciative smile, “Madelyn, Malanya, Sal, and Harper, can go warn the classrooms. Jordan, Andy, Ryder, and Me, can take the courtyard.”

Everybody nodded once again.

“Meet back here once we’re finished, okay?” Jordan added before they dispersed.

Sal watched Madelyn disappear out of sight as she moved toward the lobby exit. Bucky hopped out of his arms and ran after Jordan.

Chance turned and led the group to the main hallway that led to all the classrooms. They flung open the Battle IQ door first, and they were faced with faces staring blankly back at them.

“Come one guys!” Harper yelled, “We have a rebellion to lead!” She received a few muffled giggles.

“Crap,” Harper muttered, turning around, “I never entertained the idea that they might not believe us.”

Sal rolled his eyes and pushed past her. Madelyn had gone into brief detail about her kidnapping, therefore, Sal knew why the Battle IQ teacher, Mr.Morris, had a substitute. But Sal knew better than to assume that anybody in this place was good.

“Excuse me,” He said, “What’s your name?”

The teacher hesitated, then said, “Ms.Abarough,” Ms.Abarough was short and stout. She wore her frizzy gray hair in a top knot that was just barely holding up all her hair, a few pieces had managed to escape the confinements of the elastic. She looked extremely confused.

“Are you familiar with Madelyn here?” Sal said, gesturing behind him to where Madelyn, Malanya, and Harper, were standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“No, I’m sorry dear, I-I’ve never taught before,” Ms.Abarough stuttered.

“Oh, okay sorry,” Sal apoligized. He turned and began to walk back towards the door.

“Wait, wait, what?” Malanya said.

Harper intercepted Sal and forcefully turned him back around by the shoulders.

“You can’t just let her off the hook that easily!”

Sal took a deep breath, feeling very stupid, “Okay, Ms.Abarough,” he said, “If that even is your real name.”

“Ooh good one.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“We know what you’re up to,” Sal accused, making the rest of the class lean forward in their seats. Now he had an audience.

His senses became very in tune, and he noticed something. Ms.Abarough was digging her nails into her palm. Squeezing her hand into a fist lightly, like if she was holding an imaginary stress ball. And suddenly it all made sense, Ms.Marlin and Ms.Mclennan in the secret passageway, Madelyn’s abduction.

“All of this was you,” Sal stated confidently. He heard Harper scoff behind him, but he ignored it. “Because you’re not Ms.Abarough, and you weren’t Ms.Mclennan the day Malanya saw you walk into the secret passageway, and you weren’t really Ms.Marlin when you taught my class.”

Madelyn seemed to catch on, “And it was you who kidnapped me, not the real Mr.Morris.”

“Children, back to your classes,” Ms.Abarough said, trying to shoo them away frantically, “All of you are drastically out of line.”

“You were drastically out of line when you tried to kill us!” Malanya yelled. The students in the classroom gasped.

“Okay, I have a feeling something’s going way over my head here…” Harper said from the door.

Sal figured that the idea probably would have gone over his head too, if he had done anything differently on his first day. But he had ran, he had passed out, and he had ended up in the infirmary. And then he had a one on one talk with Professor Dulshwitz, who had the exact same nervous tick as ‘Ms.Abarough.’ Seeing her dig her nails into her palm had triggered Sal’s memory, and he remembered his first day here. When he had sat across the table from Michelle and watched her do the exact same thing. 

“Sorry I’m late, class,” Mr Morris appeared in the doorway, then paused, “Um, excuse me, I wasn’t supposed to have a substitute today.”

Madelyn flinched at the sight of him, and her hand went to the blood crusted near her hairline.

“Give it up Professor Dulshwitz,” Sal demanded.

“Sal,” Malanya elbowed him, “the teachers are in on it, they could trap us in here,” Malanya whispered.

“No, they’re not. They’re brainwashed, just like the kids here,” Sal explained.

“But Ms.Mclennan…”

“I’ll explain, just give me a minute,” Sal reassured her.

There was an awkward pause, then Sal decided to just be straightforward.

“We know what you are,” he told Ms.Abarough, “You’re a witch, and a shapeshifter. You trapped us here. All of us. Even him,” Sal said, pointing back to where Mr.Morris was standing, looking horrified.

“Alright, fine,” Ms.Abarough undid her bun, and everybody watched with gaping mouths as the wrinkles slowly disappeared from her face, and the color came back to her skin and hair, “But may I remind you, that you killed my sister?”

 Sal saw Madelyn’s eyes flicker, and she pulled her gaze away to stare at her shoes.

“How does that make you any better than me?”

“Don’t pull her into this,” Harper yelled, whatever she would’ve said next was cut off by Jordan’s appearance in the doorway. Behind her was Chance, Andy, Ryder, and the half of the school that had previously been in the courtyard. Obviously, their persuasive skills were better than those in Sal’s group.

“Madelyn, Sal, the teachers aren’t-” she paused, and her eyes fell on Professor Dulshwitz, “Oh God. You’re like a cockroach.”

“Okay,” Mr.Morris spoke up, him voice cracking, “I would like to know-”

“The children have gone wild!” Came a teacher’s voice from the hallway. Sal could imagine how confused they must be, and he couldn’t help but feel bad for suspecting them of doing such horrible things. They were just as helpless as the students, the Dulshwitz sisters were the masterminds behind it all.

The kids in Battle IQ period two took one look at their surroundings, and then bolted. Sal, Malanya, Madelyn, and Harper, followed right on their tails.

Chance never had a desire to know what one hundred people running at the same time sounded like, but now he did. The teachers, having no direction whatsoever, had sided with the majority, which was the students, over their boss.

Chance was having trouble thinking about anything as he ran, but one thought crossed his mind, he didn’t know where they were running to, and there was no way out.

A few people had tried to open doors, or windows, and Chance understood now what the purpose was of all the locks. He wasn’t sure how powerful Michelle, or whatever her name even was anymore, could be when using her powers to their full potential, especially now, since she was royally pissed off.

It was also quite impossible to keep such a large amount of people in once close herd, and everybody had dispersed to different parts of the building. 

Chance ended up locked in a room on the second floor of the door tower with Jordan, Malanya, Sal, and Harper. He had seen Madelyn running with Andy, but he had no idea where they were now, which greatly worried him. Ryder was also nowhere to be seen, as was Bucky, which had Jordan extremely on edge.

 Chance also recognized a few kids from his dreaded math class, and Piper De La-something. Chance couldn’t exactly remember her last name.

Everybody was heavily breathing, and someone had pushed a nightstand up against the door. Chance immediately went to his friends, who were frantically talking in a huddle which they welcomed Chance into.

Suddenly Harper spoke up, “Okay! Everyone! Shut up!”

Surprisingly, they did as she said, allowing her to continue, “Does anybody know who this dorm belongs to?”

A girl with long dark french braids and glasses spoke up from the other side of the room, “Yeah, this is my tour guide’s dorm.”

What Harper said next completely caught Chance off guard, “Does she have baking soda?”

“What?” The girl said.

“You heard me, does she have baking soda?” Harper repeated.

“Maybe. I think she might use it to whiten her teeth,” That sent Malanya sprinting into the giant bathroom, “Uhm, how is this relevant?” The girl asked as she watched Malanya rifle through cabinets with a concerned look on her face.

“You can thank us later,” Harper stated.

A few people were hiding in the closet, including Piper.

“Woah-woah-woah,” Chance saw Sal run over to stop Jordan as she began to push the night stand away from the door, “What are you doing.”

She looked up at him with determined eyes, “You’re going to have to trust me Sal,” she said, unlocking the door with such confidence that he did seem to trust her.

“Hey,” called the dark haired girl, making her way to the bathroom, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be doing that.”

Chance and Piper got up to see what she was talking about, and the both of them were faced with Malanya dumping chemicals down the drain in the bathroom.

“Hey Malanya-” Chance began.

“Stop, stupid, you’re gonna get us killed!” Piper screamed.

“Hey, you, shut up!” Harper scolded, “She knows what she’s doing.”

“Does she?” Piper mocked.

“I can rip all that hair out of your head, if you want,” Harper retorted. That shut Piper right up. 

Then, Malanya grabbed a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide, “Okay,” she instructed, “On the count of three, we’re all going to run out the door.”

Everybody looked around at each other frantically, and Chance’s math classmates emerged from the closet.

“One,” Chance took a deep breath, knowing, hoping, that he could trust his friends on this one.

“Two,” Malanya’s voice never wavered, and if Chance had heard it without seeing the events he had today, he would’ve thought that nothing was wrong.

“Three!”

When people don’t know what to do, they follow the first person who takes the position of a leader. So when Malanya reached her last number and ran, everybody else ran too.

Sal held open the door for everybody, and once they were all standing in the hallway, they watched. At first, aside from the distant screams coming from upstairs, it was silent.

“Sal,” Jordan hissed, “shut the door.”

Sal did as he was told, and shortly after there was a bubbling noise. Then Chance heard breaking and sizzling noises from inside the room. He didn’t know how else to explain it, and he definitely didn’t know what was going on in there.

Then, there was the sound of glass shattering. It was loud that Chance was sure they would be compromised.

Sal went to open the door, but Malanya put out a hand, signaling for him to wait. After a few long seconds, she slowly turned the knob. When the door was fully open Chance could see that the room was covered in some sort of foam, and the windows had been blown out.

“Holy crap,” Sal muttered under his breath.

Malanya broke into a smile, and then her, Jordan, and Harper, did some secret handshake thing.

“Careful of the puffy stuff,” Malanya warned, “It’s about one hundred sixty degrees.”

“What did you do?” Chance asked, completely bewildered.

“It’s called elephant toothpaste,” Malanya said, peering down through the open window.

Piper gasped, “This?! This is what you did to my dorm?” She shrieked.

“No way, that was you?” Asked one of the closet hiders.

Malanya simply smiled proudly.

“There’s a lot of snow on the ground,” Jordan told everybody, “If we lower each other down, we can get out safely.”

“But it’s gonna be so cold,” Piper whined.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Harper said, “Do you want us to wait while you go grab your Channel coat?”

Piper scoffed and rolled her eyes. They lowered her out the window first, making sure that Harper wasn’t the one to do it. She landed on the ground with a scream, then rolled over and gave a thumbs up.

Chance and Sal let down Malanya next, then the closet hiders, Jordan, and Harper. Sal volunteered to go last, and he lowered Chance out the window, where he fell into a circle of his peers, who were all shivering.

Chance looked up to see Sal staring down at them.

“Come on man,” he said, holding out his arms. The others followed suit, and they made a canopy for him.

“Just jump,” Jordan said, “We’ve got you.”

Sal began to shake his head and walk backwards. At first, Chance thought that he was second guessing himself. But then he realized why he had volunteered to go last. He was going to find Madelyn.

Madelyn had ended up huddled into a dark closet in an empty dorm, on a floor she didn’t know the number of. The only comforting part of the situation was that Andy was beside her, but she knew that if it came down to it, he wouldn't be able to help her in a fight.

Both of them screamed when there was a scratching sound on the closet door. The whimper that came along with it, quickly reassured both of them that it was only Bucky.

Andy got up to open the door for him, but Madelyn yanked him back down, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

“Wait,” she whispered, “What if she can shift into animals too?”

She saw Andy contemplate the idea for a moment, but then his face lit up, “No, she’s never seen him! He stayed behind me the whole time we were in the classroom hallway.”

So, they let Bucky in, and he showed his appreciation with many licks. For a moment, Madelyn forgot that the dog only had three legs to begin with, and she almost had a heart attack thinking that he had lost a limb in all of the chaos.

All of the sudden, the door to the dorm room flew open, and Madelyn almost dove back into the closet, but in some strange, unexplainable way, she knew that the person in the room with them was not a threat.

Slowly, but confidently, she crept around the corner, and came face to face with Sal. She watched his face change from surprise to relief, and she knew that he had been looking for her.

“We found a way out!” Sal told them, “It’s on the second floor, we just have to get there.”

“Wait!” Madelyn interjected, “Shouldn’t we tell everybody else?”

Sal looked down and chewed on his bottom lip, “No.”

Madelyn recoiled in shock, “No?” She repeated.

“Maddy if we run around telling everybody, we’re leading Michelle right to us,” Sal justified his answer.

“I mean,” Andy swallowed, “It sounds wrong, but he’s right, there’s too many people for us to save everyone.”

Madelyn was torn. She had to make what was possibly the most difficult decision of her life, and both of them felt selfish and evil. But she had killed someone today. Did she even get to use the word evil anymore? When she was evil? ‘How does that make you any better than me?’ Michelle had said. Madelyn knew she had used those words to get under her skin, and it had worked.

“Madelyn!” Sal’s voice brought her back to reality. He had never yelled at her, and the way he raised his voice reminded her how serious the situation was. So she ran. And she left all of her classmates and teachers behind.

She could feel Sal’s tight grip around her wrist, she could make out Andy’s figure beside her, Bucky tucked safely in his arms. Her head was spinning and her vision was blurred. Was she crying?

The chill of snow underneath her shocked her back to life, and she shook her head. Sal appeared beside her, brushing the icy dust off himself. Out of the corner of her eye, Madelyn saw him intercept Bucky, then Andy, whose teeth were already chattering.

“Madelyn,” Sal said, looking her in the eyes, “Are you okay?”

She turned around and nodded, slowly, and hesitant at first, then softly said, “Yeah.”

Then, the warmth and feeling flooded back to her as she heard Harper’s voice far off in the distance. She was speaking loudly. Madelyn ran towards the sound, she could hear footsteps crunching in the snow behind her.

Madelyn rounded a corner of the building, ready to wrap her friends in a hug, but what she saw brought her to a halt. Chance had his head in his hands, a look of despair on his face. There was a group of unfamiliar faces huddled together at the base of a tree, all of them staring at Jordan. Jordan was the one who worried her the most. She was kneeling on the ground, her cheeks bright red, and it looked like she was crying. And Madelyn realized why. Harper and Malanya were yelling down at her.

“Hey!” Madelyn called, “Stop! What are you doing?”

Harper looked up, not even an ounce of excitement showed on her face when she saw Madelyn, “Why don’t you tell her, Jordan,” she said angrily.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jordan sobbed, “I didn’t know.”

Madelyn and Andy immediately ran over to place comforting hands on her shoulders. Malanya folded her arms and turned her back to them.

“Jordan calm down,” Madelyn said, “tell us what happened.”

“Yeah,” Andy seconded.

Sal had found Chance, and the two of them were standing by Harper, waiting to see what the outcome of the conversation would be.

“I didn’t know. I swear I would’ve told you if I knew,” Jordan said, her sentence split up by her sobs.

Madelyn snapped her head to look up with Harper, her face growing more and more concerned by the second.

“We’re trapped here,” Harper said, plopping down into the snow, her lips were blue.

“Okay guys, well, arguing won’t get us anywhere, we have to keep level heads,” Madelyn reasoned.

“Well that’s a little tough right now!” Piper yelled from the tree.

“Stop yelling at her,” Andy growled, Madelyn hadn’t known his voice was capable of having so much authority.

Madelyn gave Jordan a comforting look, as if to say, It’s okay, go on. Jordan took a deep breath, then began speaking, “The night we were in the theater, I stayed up later. When you guys left, I went to the library,” She drew in another breath to suppress a sob, “I found this book, it was all in weird symbols and stuff, but only on one page. But I…I didn’t-” She choked on a sob, and MAdelyn rubbed her back, “I didn’t think it was important…so I put it back.”

“Why is that her fault?” Madelyn said, glaring up at Harper and Malanya.

“Because she didn’t tell us,” Malanya spoke in a softer tone than her sister.

“Jordan,” Madelyn said calmly, “Did you keep it from us on purpose?”

Jordan shrugged without saying a word.

Madelyn stood up and reached her hand out in front of her. She made contact with a forcefield type wall, Harper was right. They were trapped. She took a deep breath, “Okay, well, so what, she kept a secret. We all do. But if there’s a way in, there’s a way out. There has to be,” Madelyn barely believed in what she was saying herself.

“That book she found,” Chance said, “It was some sort of spell book. That’s where this portal thing that we all went through comes from. But once you’re on the inside, that’s it.”

Madelyn’s mind cleared, and she remembered the conversation she had overheard in the vent. I don’t have the strength to keep this up. Is that what they had been talking about? She realized what the concern was now. They were stuck.

Everybody stared at the ground in despair, until Sal spoke up.

“Wait, where did the dog go?”

Jordan’s head shot up, and she turned in a full three sixty, but Bucky was nowhere in sight.

“No,” she breathed. Madelyn saw Malanya’s cold edge melt away, and she took a step closer to Jordan and draped an arm around her shoulder. 

Soon, they were in a group hug. Harper was the last to join, and if Madelyn hadn’t known her any better, she would’ve thought she was crying. They could hear Piper’s distant comments about how stupid they were, and one of the other kids had run off.

That’s when Madelyn felt it; something wet on her leg. At first, she dismissed it, thinking it was snow, but once she couldn’t ignore it anymore, she turned around. 

“Guys!” She exclaimed excitedly, “It’s Bucky!”

Jordan whipped her head around, and sure enough, there was her furry three-legged companion, gazing up happily at her with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

“Bucky!” Jordan pushed past her friends to pat her dog on the head. He wagged his tail, and then turned around, almost as if he was motioning for her to follow him. Then, he walked right through the portal. He just disappeared, no fainting, no problem. A few seconds later he walked right back out, appearing in front of them again.

Sal tried to do the same thing, and failed, bouncing backwards onto the snowy blanket that covered the ground.

Everybody was gathered around Bucky now, staring at him in wonder.

“Why can’t we do it?” An unfamiliar girl with french braids and glasses asked from the back.

“Because he’s an animal,” Malanya and Piper said at the same time. Jordan caught Piper looking up to glare at Malanya, but Malanya kept her eyes trained on the ground.

“Jordan?” Sal asked, “Is Bucky smart?” 

_________

Bucky was not smart. He couldn’t roll over, as Chance had found, he couldn’t sit, and he only stayed because he was too lazy to move. Jordan had overheard the kids she didn’t know who had been trailing behind them say that he was dead weight. But he was their only tie to the human world, and they had to be able to use that to their advantage somehow.

Another issue that the portal posed was that even if Bucky did get help, the help could get stuck here too. But all of that thinking made Jordan realize that she didn’t really want to leave. She had friends who would do anything for her, a warm bed, good food, for the past few weeks she had been living a luxurious life, and going back home didn’t sound like an improvement.

She felt guilty thinking this, because her parents and Andy’s parents were probably worried about them. Jordan just wished there was a way for her to let them know she was safe, but no matter how much she racked her brain she couldn’t come up with one.

Most of all, she wanted to find her brother. However she knew that as long as Michell was alive, or as long as she was in the same place as Jordan, that would never happen. What they needed to focus on right now was not getting out, it was finding her weakness.

Jordan explained this all to her most trustworthy friend: Madelyn. Madelyn, having a way with words, got the group's attention.

“I know that leaving may seem like the most important thing right now, but we’re burning daylight,” she said, “the more we linger, the more vulnerable we are. We have to find Michelle’s Achilee’s Heel, and trap her.”

Everybody nodded. They were all so scatterbrained and nervous at the moment that they would take orders from the first person who gave them.

“It’s best if we gather as many kids as we can, and all take on different jobs,” Madelyn began to weave her way through crowd, assigning jobs to different acquaintances as she did, “Harper and Chance, find about ten, twelve kids, you guys can be our offense.”

Harper held her chin a little higher and glanced at Chance, who also seemed proud to have a purpose.

“Malanya, you can form a lookout group. Sal and Andy can figure out a strategy with their people, and Jordan and I will form a defense group, you three can help us,” Madelyn finished, pointing at the bunch of kids that Jordan didn’t recognize. And she got the feeling that Madelyn had purposefully left out Piper.

Right on queue, in her squeaky little voice, Piper protested, “What about me?” She cried.

Everybody glanced around, no group offered to take her in. Finally putting her few brain cells together to see the distaste everybody had for her, she scoffed and stormed off, grunting as she trudged through the snow.

Madelyn did her best to conceal a satisfied smile, and Harper didn’t try to conceal her’s at all.

“Alright,” Jordan clapped, “What are we waiting for?” 

The groups ran off, leaving tracks in the thick snow that went in all different directions. Several sets of footprints, and one three legged track of paw prints that left indents in the icy dust right behind Jordan’s feet.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Jordan asked the dark haired girl with the glasses.

“Raveena,” she said with a pleasant smile. Jordan noticed that there was a tiny fracture in the left lens of her glasses. She wondered if it had happened during all the madness today, or if it had been there before.

“Jordan,” she said, introducing herself.

“Hey guys,” said Madelyn, this time they weren’t traveling in a line, the five of them were huddled together in a pack. Madelyn pointed above their heads, and high up by the second story, Jordan saw the floor to ceiling length windows where the library was. She could see the dark outline of the shelves from down on the ground, but they were extremely far away. Jordan couldn’t believe that she had been up that high.

Suddenly Jordan remembered a discussion they had had during a midnight meeting, where Harper had brought up that thing about the Hocus Pocus movie.

“Guys,” she said, stretching out her arms so that everybody would come to a stop.

“What is it?” Said one of the strangers in the back. He sort of reminded Jordan of Andy.

“I know that Michelle said they needed all of us to defeat my brother…but I don’t think we can trust her, well, obviously we can’t. I mean maybe she said it believably in her villain confession speech or whatever, but I have a feeling she is one step ahead,” Jordan explained.

Madelyn tilted her head to the side, so Jordan elaborated.

“They couldn’t be just using us to get to my brother, he’s only one person,” Bucky sat on her foot, giving her a boost of confidence, “And, not to mention, he came, what? Like ten years after the academy had opened.”

“Oh I get it!” Raveena exclaimed, “So you mean, like what were they trying to do before?”

“Yes, exactly,” Jordan said, her eyes lighting up. She thought back to the portal, and suddenly she came up with a theory she couldn’t believe she hadn’t before. The possibility had been sitting right in front of them, waiting to be discovered.

“They could have been trying to break into the human world,” Jordan speculated, “but maybe that’s easier said than done, they might need a ton of people to do it.”

“People like us…” Madelyn breathed.

Everybody stood for a while, staring at the ground, contemplating.

Raveena spoke first, “But we can still do that without them, right?”

Madelyn nodded, suddenly looking frustrated, “Shoot! We should’ve never broken into groups, I should’ve never broken us into groups.”

“Hey,” Jordan said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, Bucky followed suit and relocated to Madelyn’s foot.

“Yeah, it’s okay right?” Said the kid with glasses who was standing near Raveena, “We can just get everybody together again and try to break through.”

“But how do we know it’ll work?” Asked the other boy next to him whom Jordan assumed was his friend, “Didn’t we just try?” he added.

“No, not just us, like, the whole school,” Raveena elaborated.

“If we can surround the border and all try together,” Jordan began.

“Then we have almost ten times the power,” Madelyn finished.

When Sal and Chance ran up to Jordan with their groups, she initially thought that something terrible had happened. The boys were red-faced and panting, and a few of the kids behind them looked like they would throw up any second. But when she took a closer look, she realized that everybody was accounted for, and no one was hurt.

“She’s gone,” Sal breathed.

“What do you mean?” Madelyn asked, stepping forward.

Malanya and Harper came rushing up behind the boys, and Jordan was relieved to see that Andy and Ryder were behind them. Jordan scooped up Bucky, who had been pawing at her leg, and strode up beside Madelyn.

“We checked the whole building, Michelle, she wasn’t there,” Chance panted.

There was a slight pause, “That wasn’t part of the plan,” Jordan said.

“I know, but…” Harper began, “A while passed and we didn’t see her, so we went looking.”

Beside Jordan, Madelyn seemed to still be in disbelief, “And you checked the whole building?” She said, eyebrows raised skeptically.

“Do you think she’s trying to-” 

“No,” Jordan stated matter-of-factly.

Everybody turned to her, waiting for an explanation. And Jordan didn’t really have one, she just knew that this was far from over.

“She’s not trying to trick us. She’s out numbered. Simple as that. She accepted defeat,” Jordan said.

A few people began to slowly nod, and Jordan was comforted as she saw the people around her start to believe her. A different feeling hung in the air, they knew they were safe.

And then it began to snow. Jordan felt the cold flecks landing on her nose, as light and fluffy as powdered sugar. It fell in thick flakes, like marshmallows sinking down to the ground.

Andy stuck out his tongue and caught one. The rest of them stood around, staring at the sky or the ground. No one really knew what to do. Jordan felt blank, just like the white fresh snow on the ground.

After everything, she felt like they should still be moving, going, but maybe, for once since she had gotten here, she could take a break.

It was freezing outside, but she felt a sudden rush of warmth. It could’ve been from the hand she knew was Maddy’s resting on her shoulder, or because she knew that, at least for this moment, she was safe.

Simply out of habit, her brain went to do what it always did when she didn’t know what to think, it forced the image of her brother into her mind. But this time she forced it right back out.

She wanted to find him, and see him again. Of course she did, with every inch of her being, but maybe just this once, she could appreciate the fact that he wasn’t the only one who cared for her anymore.

Suddenly Jordan was swallowed in the embrace of her friends. She smelled Malanya’s warm vanilla scent and she felt Andy’s glasses poking into her shoulder. He had gotten taller. Bucky’s fur pressed into her chest, his face pressed under her chin. She closed her eyes and inhaled. The world could have been splitting in half underneath her, and she wouldn’t have noticed or cared. In this circle, with these people, she was safe. For now.