House of Anonymity/House of Rescue

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Rachel and Tyler arrived to the station where they eventually met with a police officer. Rachel handed him a picture of William and the three of them sat at a table to hold a brief interview.

"When was the last time time you saw William?" the officer asked.

"Friday night," Rachel responded truthfully. "We had just gotten back to our house, on campus, and the last I saw him was in the foyer as I headed upstairs."

"And he wasn't there the next morning?"

"I share a room with him," Tyler spoke up, "and he wasn't in there when I woke up yesterday. And he was missing for the entire day."

"He didn't sign out either," Rachel confessed. "And his parents didn't take him to spend the night."

"Right..." The officer looked down at all the information he had written down and gathered.

"You'll be able to find him, right?" Rachel inquired.

"Of course," he assured. "As of now, we don't have much of a lead to go off of, but we will do the best we can, and we will certainly get him back."

Rachel nodded. The officer left the table and she placed her hand over her forehead.

"They're going to find him," Tyler reassured. "If not, then we will."

"What if he's in danger? Things like this happen; I've read enough articles to know so."

"You just read articles on kidnapping in your free time?"

Rachel glared at him.

"Okay, okay," Tyler backed away a bit. "But hey, the jury's still out on this one."

"No one says that, Tyler."

"Yeah, well people from California do, so you'll have to live with it. Come on." Tyler stood up and held out his hand to bring Rachel along.

~~~~~
Jonah, Sarah, and Lucille reached the gatehouse which was unlocked to their efficiency of getting inside. No one on the campus expected anyone to go inside, so they never took the authority to place a code on the door which someone would, in the expansion of time, inevitably forget.

They noticed everything was cleared as they entered. They could assume it was once filled with furniture and decorations, but it was now stripped bare for dust to collect naturally and for dullness to settle in. There wasn't much to find on the ground floor so the three of them headed up the stairs to further explore.

They noticed an organ against the wall as they continued further into the main room. Much of the furniture up there hadn't been removed, but they were covered in plastic. Behind the organ was an open passage, and they figured there was something to explore back there, so they approached it. They realized to further go through the passageway used to require a key, but it seemed the doorways and barriers had just been dislodged so that problem wouldn't arise anymore.

They were prepared to walk down the short corridor to the wooden door at the end until they heard a faint voice along with footsteps and retreated back.

"Hide," Sarah whispered to the other two.

Lucille and Sarah ended up squeezing under the desk that still remained, and Jonah partially climbed up into the chimney so his feet wouldn't show.

They listened to his footsteps as they clacked down on the wood. Lucille and Sarah could see his polished shoes as he walked around the desk, but they had a desk chair shielding them so hopefully he would look back and see them. The two of them couldn't catch sight of his face, but Sarah attempted to lean down to do so.

He soon walked out, and the three came out as soon as they knew it was safe.

"We should get out of here," Jonah declared. "That person could be back at any moment."

"Let's just explore really quick," Lucille pleaded. "I just need to see what's in there." She nodded toward the area they just tried to enter.

"You keep lookout," Sarah advised to Jonah.

He stood by the organ, and Lucille and Sarah headed back through the corridor, through the the wooden door, into the circular room which was entirely empty except for one thing they needed to see.

Sitting against the wall was a person with his arms and legs tied up and a cloth bag over his head, but knowing him well enough, Sarah and Lucille could discern that it was William. They approached him and pulled the bag off. He shook his head, and his eyesight adjusted to Sarah and Lucille looming in front of him.

"William, how'd you get here? Who did this to you?" Lucille knelt next to him.

"I-I don't know," William admitted. "I don't remember."

Jonah came running into the room, getting caught off guard by finding William there, but bringing forth the more critical matter of the moment.

"I hear footsteps. He's coming back!" He yelled this in a hushed tone to exemplify the urgency of it.

"Okay, William, do you know another way to get out of here?" Sarah asked.

"I think there's a lift over there," William nodded his head in a certain direction. "I don't know if it works though. He never uses it."

"He?" Jonah repeated.

"The guy who brought me here. I still haven't seen his face exactly."

Meanwhile, Sarah had gone to check out the lift, but the doors weren't even opening. Jonah and Lucille attempted to untie William's ropes but realized they were tightly knotted and would probably have to be cut.

"The lift's not working," Sarah declared.

Jonah rose back to his feet to go and listen for more footsteps and realized they were decreasing in volume yet again.

"He's walking away?" Jonah informed in a questioning tone.

"Well let's take this as an opportunity," Sarah declared. "We'll get around him somehow and get out of here."

"But William-" Lucille began.

"-Jonah can carry him. Right, Jonah?" Sarah and Lucille looked over at him.

"I'm really not that-"

"-well you are today," Sarah cut him off quickly before he reached what he was going to say. She had a good idea of it anyway. "Follow me."

She headed out the room. Lucille decided to help Jonah carry William not allowing any time for him to struggle at lifting William on his own.

~~~~~
Yep, so they've found William! But they still have to escape the gatehouse and on top of that, they don't yet know who this mysterious kidnapper is...but all that will be revealed. Some time...But for now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There won't be any discussion questions for this one, so until next time, Aristocrats.

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