Secrets of the Cellar (Inside Secret #1) || COMPLETED

Chapter Seventeen: The Plan

We sit down at our regular booth at the coffee shop. We all agreed to meet  up, after school, again to discuss a plan to stop Liliana from trying to get our necklaces.

"Why does she even want them?" Alyssa asks, a bit perplexed. She sets her hands on her coffee mug, trying to get them to warm up. Snow here in our little town of Mist Herald is the worst.

"I don't know." Tyler says, not bothering to look up from her cup of coffee. She sighs.

Tyler, Alyssa, and Kellie are squished into one side of the booth, while Krissy, Emilie, Brianna, and I are in the other side, facing them. 

Brianna looks nervous, her fingers twisting a bit of her hair into hopeless little knots, and Kellie looks frustrated after trying to look at the past ... and only seeing the present.

I sigh, also getting frustrated. Where is Alicia? She should've been here by now. She's already thirty minutes late.

I start contemplating as to whether or not pulling out my hairs one by one would be inappropriate, but someone's phone ringing stops me. And the look Krissy is giving me right now.

Alyssa gives us a sheepish look, then opens her backpack to take out her phone. Which isn't easy, since she's crammed in such a small space.

When she finally can get her phone out, the ringing stops, and each one of us breathes of a sigh of relief.

"Hello?" She asks whoever is on the other side of the line. She mouths "Alicia's mom," to us. Then her face falls.

"Uh huh ... Yeah ... I'll ask... Okay, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow ... Bye, Mrs. Valentine." As she ends the call, Alyssa looks like she's about to burst into tears. We look at her, silently asking her to tell us what's wrong.

"You guys, Alicia..." She pauses, as if she can't bear to say it, "She's gone."

We're all silent, not moving, and I know we can't believe it. Alicia? Gone? This has to be a joke. Alicia wouldn't just up and leave, she would at least take us with her.

Then, suddenly, Krissy looks up, startling us by moving her mug of hot chocolate, creating a slightly annoying sound. 

"Well then, I guess we'll just have to find her." Krissy says, getting happier by the second. And we won't stop looking.

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"Alright," I tell them, after grabbing a map from the coffee shop's collection, "We'll break off into groups of twos and three."

I open the map, and take out a pen from my back pocket, which is pretty much stuffed into it.

I circle a couple places on the map: The mall, the school, the bank, and a couple of other places.

"Wait, what about the weaponry?" Brianna asks. I think about that for a second. Would Alicia really got to a weaponry to hide out?

"I honestly think she wouldn't go there," Krissy says, taking the words right out of my mouth. Brianna and the rest all nod in understanding.

"Circles are Krissy, Brianna, and I; Triangles are Emilie and Tyler; and Squares are Alyssa and Kellie." Krissy says, taking the lead. No one says a word, and I can tell that Alicia's disappearance has taken a toll on them already.

"Alright, everyone keep your phones on, and be on the lookout. We'll meet back here in, say, an hour? Is that enough time for everyone?" I ask. They all nod their consent. 

"But we don't even have weapons or anything." Alyssa tells us. Then I point at the map. Towards the building that says YE OLDE WEAPONRY.

"I think that might work." I say, but Kellie interrupts me with a shake of her head.

"No. There's something else. It's not in the store. It's under it." She says.