Demons (Galen Hooks: Hunted- Book 2)

Chapter Seven- To The End Of The World

"Isabel, are you sure you're not being crazy right now?" Rhea asked. "The police could have taken her yesterday."

Isabel shook her head firmly. "I checked the hospital. She wasn't there. She would have been there."

"Does she still have her phone with her?"

"Don't be stupid. Even if she did, she wouldn't be able to use it anyway."

"True."

"I can't even imagine what they're doing to her right now," Isabel sighed, collapsing onto the couch with the tough pouch of ninja stars clutched in her hand. "There's definitely more of them and they seriously hate her for some reason."

"There must be someone or multiple people in that group who have a grudge against her somehow and they're manipulating the others to go after her."

"That's scary though."

"But what are we supposed to do now?"

"We're going to find her. I'm going back to Brianna's hotel to find clues."

"But my car's in the shop right now!"

"I'll walk then." Isabel was out the door before Rhea could even take another breath. Then she realized that she had that special app on her phone that could track any of her contacts if they still had their phone. If Rhea was right and there was a small possibility that Galen still had her phone on her, she could figure out where she was by using that. However, as she turned to it, she didn't realize she'd started walking as well, eventually accidentally crashing into someone else. The two of them both fell to the ground.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry !" Isabel gasped in surprise.

"It's okay," the other girl groaned, studying her for a moment as they got up. She had long, straight blonde hair, pale skin, and bright blue eyes and was wearing a short beige dress, as well as a long brown necklace.

"Are you okay?" Isabel asked in a worried voice.

"Yeah, I am." She looked her up and down. "Hey, you're Isabel Diaz, aren't you?"

"How do you know my name?"

"You're good friends with Galen Hooks, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"My name is Camila Cortez. I am a dancer and also a good friend of hers."

"That's amazing!"

"Have you seen her today yet? I haven't seen her around much lately."

Isabel bit her lip nervously.

"You know something, don't you? Come on, you can tell me."

She sighed and in about ten minutes, she had spilled everything to Camila, including the time Galen had been held hostage in the hospital. No one would understand why she was telling this to a person she'd never met before, but something inside Isabel told her she could trust her. The other girl's reaction was instantaneous.

"Are you serious?" she snarled.

"I'm serious. Galen was pushed out of the window and survived, but was taken as a prisoner by those... those people. I've only seen men so far, but there could be women among them too."

"Well then, we have to go find her! Have you checked that tracking app on your phone?"

"I was doing it before I crashed into you. But it's not working. She might be somewhere where I can't access her."

"That could only be in a forest or underwater or in a desert. There's no deserts out here though and from what I've heard, they would have just killed her when they had the chance if they'd meant to. She can't be underwater in any way then."

"Well, what forests are near here?"

"You know we can't drive into a forest, right? We'll have to walk to wherever it is."

"You know of one near here?"

"Oh, it's not here at all. It's about four days' journey away and who knows how long it'll be before we actually find her, if she's even in there."

Isabel sniffed. "Knowing them, they'll eventually bait us and let us find her, then hatch an even scarier scheme to kill her."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Camila exclaimed. "My friend, we will find Galen soon."

"Oh, I hope so. She disappeared only yesterday and I've been so scared."

"I totally get that."

"But you honestly don't get it. I was there when Cassie died because of someone who thought she was Galen. I was there in the hospital when Galen was shot. I was there when she was attacked in the street and later barely survived a fall from 20 feet high. I saw her being taken away. You have no idea what it's like to witness all that. If you don't really understand how I feel about this... then we can never be friends."

Camila winced, then leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Isabel. Isabel felt that it was a bit weird coming from someone she'd just met, but when she began to speak, it took away all those thoughts. "Isabel, I can tell you're someone I'll be able to trust. And I can tell you that I do understand how you feel about this. I'm very good at putting myself in someone else's shoes in my mind and I can feel the pain you're feeling. Trust me on this."

There was something in Camila's eyes as she pulled back that made Isabel realize she could definitely trust her on this. Not knowing it about each other, though, they'd both had friends before that were like how they saw each other. Camila had someone on her side and Isabel... she had used to have Brianna.

"I'm sorry about your friend though," Camila added, bringing Isabel back from her thoughts. "To see how she did that and nearly got Galen killed as well... that's the one thing I can't identify with."

"I'm starting to wonder if she really betrayed us though," Isabel murmured confusedly. "I've been thinking about what Brianna said before and it occurs to me that she might have just been being loyal to Rhea and I. She said he would have killed us all, not just Galen, if she hadn't gotten her over there."

"Well, you just told me she got arrested too, but you really think Galen's going to see it the way you do? She could be suffering enough right now that it won't change her mind about Brianna."

Isabel let out a huge sigh. "If only I had convinced her to stay back, this never would have happened."

Camila glared at her. "Isabel, blaming yourself for this won't help. What matters is finding Galen and getting the people who captured her arrested." She put a hand on her shoulder. "Stay with me. We'll bring her back safe."

And hopefully alive.