Part of me is missing

Chapter 5 - Found

"Oh. Okay, I'm sorry!" Harper said, "Anyways, I was trying to give you an apple since you haven't eaten all day."

Harper took Petra's hand and placed the apple in her hand. She nodded as a 'thank you' to Harper and bit into it. The group was silent while they ate.

After a few minutes, the sun began to rise. The light reflected off of something and Romeo shielded his eyes. He lowered his hand and squinted. When he realized what it was, he shot up.

"Guys, I think that, uh, thing over there might just be what we need to find Jesse! It's where Cassie came from, so there's a pretty good chance that I'm right," Romeo exclaimed. Petra shot up when he finished talking.

"Well, let's go then!" Petra exclaimed. Harper grabbed her shoulder.

"If you two have a good feeling about it, then we should give it a go," Harper said, hooking her arm around Petra's.

The group headed to the strange object that Romeo saw and he kneeled down. It was a scanner of some kind. He examined it for a moment and then nodded.

"Yep, this is definitely it. Only this admin had this specific mark, and I can tell it apart from any fake," Romeo said.

"Whoah, that's so cool!" Petra gasped. Xara chuckled a bit.

"It's a really big admin thing to have your own marks. Romeo, Fred and I had them," Xara said, lowering the volume of her voice for what she said next, "You likely saw them in the cabin. The three banners were our marks."

Romeo pressed his hand against the scanner  and it opened. A staircase made out of glowing stone opened before them. He laughed in victory, surprised that his hand was still registered.

"Guess she forgot to take me out of the system," Romeo giggled. He stepped into the incision in the ground. The rest of the group followed him except Petra and Harper.

"What... happened? I just heard things, and well..." Petra mumbled to Harper.

"There's a staircase, Petra. C'mon, we don't wanna lose them," Harper said compassionately.

The two women walked down the staircase cautiously. They reached the bottom and the four other members of their group were waiting.

They walked down the long hallways that had a few entrances. They passed them without looking in them, knowing that they weren't of importance. The hallway seem to be infinite. There was a metal door in the hallway at one point with a lock.

"Jesse's in there, I just know it," Romeo muttered. he examined the rooms to find a keyring of some kind. He shouted in triumph after a bit.

"What is it?" Xara asked, popping into the room he was in.

"I found it! I found the keyring," Romeo shouted. Xara laughed in triumph as well.

"Let's go open that door, then!" Xara yelled, grabbing the red-haired man by the arm and pulling him along.

They reached the door and Romeo tried every key until he found the right one. He turned it and the door opened with a hiss.

On the other side of the door, there was a room with two departing hallways to the side. It was cold. Jack was the first to enter the room. He glanced down both hallways and motioned for the group to step into the room.

"One side has real rooms, like a kitchen and bedrooms, but the other side is just..." Jack explained, trailing off.

"Just what?" Xara asked, rather snappy.

"It's all just... one room. I don't know what it is and I don't think a want to know," Jack replied.

"Well, I'll investigate," Ivor said, stepping towards the hallway, "Because all of you are scared. Ha!"

Xara rolled her eyes as Ivor sped down the hallway. He made it to the room and screamed. A familiar voice called back to him from the room.

"Ivor!? How did you get here!?" The person called out.

The group ran back and in the room was a jail cell. Xara shivered. In the cell was a chained-up woman that they all recognized.

"Jesse!?" The group exclaimed, practically in unison.

She was sitting in the cell, eyes tired. She was so clearly exhausted. Her arm had bruises all over them and one of her eyes was swelling a bit. Jesse wore her signature bright smile when she saw them, though.

"I can't believe you all are here! I-" Jesse began, cutting herself off.

She stood up as much as she could, chains rattling loudly. She looked at Petra and her brows furrowed.

"Petra, what happened to your eye!?" Jesse exclaimed. Petra stumbled closer to the cell, resting her hand against the bar.

"Why does that matter, Jesse?" Petra said, "I wanna know if you're okay!"

"Petra, I'm okay. They haven't hurt me as much as you'd think," Jesse muttered back, grabbing Petra's hand through the bars, "I need to know what happened to your eye!"

Petra turned her head away from her best friend. Jack stepped forward and kneeled next to Petra.

"She got hit by Cassie, just like you," Jack said, upset.

Jesse didn't say a word. She sat there in shock. The group went silent.

"Is... is this going to happen to all of us?" Xara asked. No answer came.