“How am I supposed to ask the right ones when you’re not answering any?”
Chapter 12:
Wolvrin doesn’t say a word on the drive back; I’m sure he can tell how well this mission went. Bella and I show our wrists at the gate after removing the makeup with a tissue, before finally being back in the comfort of the underground.
This is familiar, this I can handle.
Madam’s office is crowded once again for the mission debrief, but it doesn’t last long considering there’s no new information worth telling them. I don’t tell them what Cayden knows, I don’t tell them I know his name, Cayden Ashford, and I certainly don’t tell them he knows the name of every girl, including the ones who died.
The second I’m excused, I head straight for the bunk rooms to find Lauren and try to give her a piece of my mind, but her bed is empty. The sheets haven’t been moved, her assigned reading books are still on the bedside table, her gear still hung in the wardrobe next to the bed…but Lauren is gone?
There’s nowhere else she could be. It’s well past curfew, and it would mean the chair if she was caught out after lights out. Bella. I need Bella.
I open the door to find her standing outside. “Kylie is gone.”
Fuck.
I cross the room to Lauren’s side, searching her bed by throwing off the pillow, the cover, the sheets, lifting the mattress trying to find something, anything. I move to the drawers and throw them open, being louder than I should, but the fear controls me in this moment. Only when I have turned the entire room upside down do I give up.
My knees give out as I fall to the floor, but I don’t feel it. She’s in the chair, she will survive, I try to tell myself, but deep down I know it isn’t true.
The room spins and my chest feels heavy, so heavy. I know they wouldn’t take Lauren for no reason. I knew this would happen the second they paired me and Bella together.
And I did nothing to stop it.
The next morning comes, and for the first time, I don’t force myself out of bed. I don’t care. I need a minute to breathe, to come up with a plan, to find a way to get to Lauren if it isn’t already too late.
I stayed in her bed last night, desperate to remember what it was like to have her here. I barely slept. The few hours I did get were filled with dreams I never want to have again. I have to force myself to get out of bed and change into my training uniform.
I make the effort to quickly tidy Lauren’s side of the room again, considering I tore it apart last night, before walking out to the dining hall.
It’s not just Lauren and Kylie missing: there are seven girls total. Alora, Elena, Fran, Rose, Chloe, Kylie, and Lauren. It turns out Bella and I weren’t the only ones switched out last night, they are cutting everyone who doesn’t make the standard.
There is no announcement, no recognition, just girls disappearing into thin air without a word.
“PX-3, sit down.” Madam’s voice screeches in my mind, but they have no effect. I don’t tense or roll my eyes like I usually would. I just sit down in the dining hall next to Bella. Whispers fill the sector, but no guards silence them. Madam doesn’t even look upset.
She wants us to be afraid, on edge, and I won’t accept that.
“Where are they?” I ask before I can stop myself. The entire room falls to silence as Madam glares at me.
“No talking” is her only answer before she walks away, leaving the room in shock.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Bella hisses, pulling me back down to her side and shaking me as if I’m asleep. “Kylie and Lauren are gone, and I cannot lose you too. I will not allow it.” Her voice breaks slightly before she puts on the same mask all of us have.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t. Don’t be sorry, don’t die. That’s the only apology I’ll accept.”
“Want to go throw some knives?” I ask, trying to defuse the situation slightly. Bella’s favourite way to calm herself down is to go to the throwing dummies and practice her throw. Her lip curves slightly, and I know I’ve won.
“You’re still a bitch.” She smiles, standing up.
We walk to the weapons training sector in silence. There’s not much that can be said to calm either of us right now, and neither of us wants to say the words we don’t believe.
The weapons sector is empty aside from us, and we each grab a knife vest before walking over to the dummies. There are five dummies lined up horizontally with a three-metre distance between each one. They were designed specifically for The Academy, to match the anatomy of a human, so we learn exactly what force was needed for a knife to land, and where to cut. There are lines all over them, highlighting the organs and which ones would kill instantly, and which ones are designed to prolong death, to torture.
Bella takes the first throw, landing it in the stomach, before throwing the rest, landing everywhere but vital organs that would kill on contact. If I wasn’t friends with her, I would be afraid of her, honestly.
