March City: Land of the Gifted [Book 1 | Fantasy/Sci-fi | Complete]

Chapter 7: The Missing Student

Ari's jaw dropped.

"Fris?" She stared. "What are you doing here?"

Fris blinked her blue eyes at Ari with incredulity.

"You're joking." Fris crossed her eyes, and then laughed. "You're not! Well, you've not been here before, so I suppose I can't blame you. This is my flat. You're in my room."

The last thing Ari remembered was collapsing on the rooftop of some building because she'd miscalculated her energy conversion.

"Then what am I doing here?"

"I was going to ask you that." Fris's expression became serious. Ari braced herself for a telling-off. "Mind telling me why when I woke up on a Thursday, ready for school, and phoned my friend, she didn't pick up? And tell me why when I finally found her, she wasn't in her room as I was expecting, but on the top floor of some random roof in Area Eight where she didn't belong? And why was she covered in blood and unconscious?"

"How did you find me?"

"I traced your phone, duh. I told you. If you miss any more classes I'll hunt you down. My phone links to yours. So tell me—" Fris's eyes narrowed. "—what were you doing out last night?"

"I was jumping."

Her friend rolled her eyes.

"Don't play games with me, Ari. I'm not stupid. I can tell when you're lying."

Ari sighed. Sometimes Fris was too sharp for her own good. If it wasn't for Ari's superior ability, it wouldn't be hard for Fris to rank top in Class 5A.

"I'll show you. Just... don't freak out, okay?"

"Your words are telling me you're doing something that's very illegal."

Ari didn't reply.

"Where's my bag?"

"Up in the corner. Next to the computer."

Ari picked up her tattered and blood-spattered bag. Slipping a hand into it, her heart jolted.

Impossible.

She emptied it. Her torch fell out, followed by her phone. They bounced on the hard wooden floor. Her torch rolled away.

The papers were gone.

Ari stared in disbelief. No way. She'd picked them up, and put them away. Didn't she?

Did she?

They were in her hands. She racked her brains, her exhausted cells churning ever so slowly. She'd picked them up and read them. Peacekeepers arrived, making her panic. The creatures were on her tail when she'd landed. She'd fallen over, attracting their attention...

She cursed. She must have dropped them when she fell over, and in her panic, didn't realise it. The papers were still back in the basement of the abandoned impoverished accommodation, and now that the Peacekeepers realised security had been breached, there was no way she could return there. Not the way she did yesterday, anyway.

Fris looked unimpressed.

"Well?"

Ari's heart hammered against her ribs. She wished she hadn't been so hasty in escaping, but there was nothing she could do now.

"It's about Mina," she said in a quiet voice.

"Mina?" Fris said, frowning. "Her disappearance?"

"Yes. I had a hunch there was something going on in Area Nine—"

"You went to Area Nine last night?" Fris's voice was odd.