The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Five: Search Parties

 Adam must have circled Tyche Point's halls twenty times before he finally spotted Eric's friend Summer standing at her locker. He called her name and jogged toward her.

"Adam?" Summer closed the locker door and turned to face him. "Do you know where Eric is?"

Adam's heart sank. He stopped in front of her. "You haven't heard from him, then?"

Confusion gave way to concern. "Not since history yesterday," Summer said. "Is he missing?"

"He went out on a walk last night and never came back," Adam explained. "I'm going to go help look for him, I was just hoping you might know—"

"Summer!" A boy Adam didn't recognize walked up to them. A girl trailed behind. Judging by the similarity in their appearance and troubled expressions, they had to be siblings.

"Oh, Sam, this is Eric's brother Adam." Summer halfheartedly gestured to Adam. "Sam, you haven't heard from Eric since yesterday, have you?"

Sam. The telekinetic Eric had mentioned yesterday.

"No." Sam frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"He's missing. And this isn't the first time," Adam explained. "He disappeared for about a week when he was a kid, around ten years ago. We never figured out what happened, and he doesn't remember anything." Maybe it wasn't related. But given the superpowers, Adam couldn't rule out the possibility.

Sam's sister's eyes widened. "No way," she whispered. When everyone's attention shifted to her, she cleared her throat. "Sam. That happened to you twelve years ago."

Sam rubbed his arm. "Right. Yeah."

"This is what I was afraid of!"

Summer turned to Sam's sister. "Listen—uh, I didn't catch your name."

"Veronica." Her response was cold. "I warned Sam about getting involved with this stuff. If he goes missing again—"

"What's important right now is finding Eric," Sam said.

"Right." Summer's attention moved back to Adam. "Did he say what direction he was going when he left?"

"No." Adam shook his head. "Look, we've already talked to the police, and my mom's out searching for him. I'm going to go look too, I just wanted to check with you first."

"I can help," Summer insisted.

"Thanks, but you should go to class," Adam told her. "We've got other people out already. I'll let you know if we find anything."

He walked away, eager to leave behind the brewing tension. Veronica had a point about their powers being dangerous. And if Sam had disappeared as a kid too, Adam was sure there was a connection.

But that was an issue for later. Right now, Adam had one more person to talk to before he went back to his search.

She was in the classroom tech club was held in, as he'd hoped. She sat alone in the corner, typing at a laptop, hair up in a ponytail, coffee next to her, all while kids around her chatted and worked on projects of their own.

Adam approached her. "Willow."

"What do you want?" Willow asked as she looked up.

"Your help. It's an emergency."

Willow lifted an eyebrow. "Go on."

"My brother went missing on a walk last night. Since you were apparently able to hack into the auditorium cameras, I was wondering if there was a chance you could get into security cameras around town and see if you can find out what happened." Saying the words out loud, Adam realized how much of a long shot this was. "I know, it's a lot, but I'm desperate. If you can help, I swear I'll find some way to make it up to you—"