Squad 11-D were still gathered around the bonfire.
The storytelling had ended.
The happiness hadn’t.
Students chatted amongst themselves in small groups. Casual conversations drifted through the night air.
Reggie kept glancing toward Yesu from ti to ti.
And with every look, his suspicious expression seed to deepen.
The last portions of roasted hare had already gone around the circle.
Most of the girls had gathered together. Their conversation carried the familiar tone of gossip.
One of them suddenly looked away from the fire. Her brows furrowed.
"What’s up with her?"
The others followed her gaze.
A little distance away from the bonfire, Soraya was sitting by herself against the wall of the base building.
The light barely reached her.
"I don’t get it." One of the girls said. "We just won a Trial against seniors. Why is she so glum?"
Several shoulders lifted in confused shrugs.
"Should we call her over?" another asked uncertainly.
"No."
The answer ca imdiately.
"She’ll ruin the mood."
There was a brief pause. Then everyone silently agreed.
The conversation resud as though nothing had happened.
Nearby, Finch was sitting next to Yesu.
And every few minutes he added another piece of at to her plate.
"Are you okay?" He asked repeatedly, though not in a concerned way. "Eat so more."
He dropped another piece.
"Eat so more."
"I’m fine." Yesu said whenever he gave her another one.
But she ate it anyway.
Across the fire, Farida was talking with the girls.
Every now and then, when she thought nobody was paying attention, her eyes drifted toward Yesu and Finch.
Finch dropped another piece of hare onto Yesu’s plate.
This ti Yesu stopped eating. She turned toward him.
"What are you doing?" She asked quizzically.
Finch responded by adding yet another piece.
A devious smile stretched across his face.
Yesu narrowed her eyes.
"If you’re only doing this because you want to take your place during the trial tomorrow, then you’re wasting your ti." She said.
Finch brought a hand dramatically to his chest.
"You just hurt my feelings." He shook his head in self pity. "And here I was, missing you all day."
Yesu was one minute away from rolling her eyes and sighing.
"There was nobody to talk to." He continued, pointed at the others. "Nobody to play with."
Then he leaned back slightly, a flirtatious smile creeping up his face.
"There was nobody to tease either."
Finch’s gaze drifted toward the girls gathered across the fire.
Farida, who had been watching, imdiately snapped her attention back to her conversation.
Finch leaned closer to Yesu, like he was about to reveal a scandal.
"Besides, the girls in our class are no fun." He whispered. "None of them are my type."
Yesu stared at him.
Then calmly tipped the remaining at from her plate onto his.
"Have so sha." She said.
"Hey, Yesu." Ca Reggie suddenly.
He had been holding himself back from speaking all this while.
His voice carried across the bonfire. Conversations imdiately began dying down.
Students turned.
"You never told us where you disappeared to, earlier." He continued.
The clearing grew quiet.
Only then did everyone realize it.
They had been so caught up in celebrating their victory that they had montarily forgotten about the cause of all the chaos.
Yesu’s disappearance.
The missing Scales.
Yesu looked around the fire. Dozens of eyes were already settled on her.
Waiting for the gist of what had happened.
Yesu answered without hesitation, without emphasis.
"I got kidnapped."
"Kidnapped?" The whole squad echoed at once.
Yesu nodded with ease.
"Yes." She affird, like being kidnapped was a very regular affair.
Maybe to her it was, taking into account all she had been through in the past few weeks.
But obviously it wasn’t. And her squad gaped unbelievably.
"I thought I heard a sound coming from the bushes." Yesu explained. "I went to check it out and I got whisked away."
Only the crackling of the fire and the sounds coming from the dense forest around them could be heard.
Everyone was waiting to hear more and it didn’t seem like it was coming.
Then Reggie, impatient as always, spoke for them all.
"And?"
Yesu was staring into the fire. For a mont she thought she could see people screaming, burning.
She looked back up at the squad.
"They took quite far. But I escaped. Then I ran into a friend of mine from 12-A and realized I wouldn’t be able to make it back in ti so I asked for help."
She glanced around.
"His friend delivered the Scales. I got to look at a map... and here I am." She concluded.
The gathering beca quiet once more.
Until questions began flooding in.
"The people who kidnapped you, who were they? Did you see their faces?"
"Were they from 12-B?"
"Did you know where they were taking you?"
"How did a Zero like you manage to escape?"
"Were they also Zeros, perhaps?"
"All of this doesn’t matter." Reggie interrupted loudly.
His eyes bored into Yesu.
"How did 12-B know that she was the one with the Scales?" He addressed everyone fully. "How did they know about the traps?"
"What are you trying to say?" Soone asked.
Reggie faced Yesu again. "I think it’s pretty obvious."
"Shut it."
A steady voice ca from afar.
All heads turned.
Soraya.
She was finally looking in the direction of the fire.
Finally acknowledging it.
Reggie frowned.
But before he could say anything, she spoke again.
"The day has ended. Wrap it up. We’re going to need enough ti to rest for tomorrow."
No one said anything for a while. No one even moved.
Then Isaiah got up and the rest subconsciously followed.
The fire was put out and they started heading inside.
Reluctantly.
"Hey, perfect." Carrots called before she got to the door.
Soraya gave a ’what’ look.
"We all need to take a bath soon." Carrots stated, unperturbed. "So of your squad mbers are starting to stink."
Her eyes darted to Reggie.
"And I don’t an only behavior wise."
"Why you..." Reggie angrily reached for her.
Carrots rushed inside.
"I know a place where we can take a bath." Yesu said suddenly.
The remaining squad mbers were delighted.
"Where?"
"There’s a stream. My friend told it runs through the Zone."
Soraya stood.
"We’ll check it out tomorrow morning." Her eyes couldn’t et Yesu’s. She addressed the others instead.
"Let’s call it a night."
***
That sa evening, Olwen left his squad base and wandered down to the stream. The exact place he had t Yesu earlier.
As he climbed down the slope, he paused.
His eyes widened in surprise.
The stream was still frozen.
He had forgotten to unfreeze it back then because they had been in a hurry.
But that had been over five hours ago.
Olwen went down to the stream and touched the ice.
It was still rock solid.
And he could still make out the part where Yesu had broken through. Her blood was still there.
Olwen frowned.
The temperature was too hot for ice to stay solid this long. Plus, the water upstream should have flowed into it.
Unless... that had been frozen too.
Olwen waved a hand over the water body.
It began rushing again.
As he returned to base, he glanced at the stream one last ti.
"Strange."
Reviews
All reviews (0)