~Nathan~
I was having trouble processing things. If she wasn't here, then where was she?
I watched Victor fiddle with his phone, I had been doing the same, as if waiting for Sang to spontaneously text me. And then I would realize her phone was still with Silas.
I jumped when Gabriel marched into the room, and he was pissed! Even though he was the least muscular out of all of us we had all been scared of Gabe these past few weeks.
Not really scared of him, scared for him.
"Who the fuck do you think you are? Texting? It better be so fucking important that your dick would be chopped off if you didn't look at the message!!!"
With that, Gabriel stomped over and jerked Victor's phone away.
Gabriel had apparently gotten very very touché. The doc followed in after him as did the rest of the guys, minus North and Mr. Blackbourne.
Dr. Green was frowning and I watched Gabriel incase he was about to have another attack. My eyes flickered to Victor.
What's going on, I raised my eyebrows.
He shrugged sheepishly, I guess you'll find out.
I glared, what the hell man?!?
His shoulders slumped and his eyes hit the ground, I'm sorry.
Gabriel looked up from the phone, he was gripping it so tightly I'm surprised it hadn't cracked yet.
"What's going on?" Kota demanded, I could see him tapping his finger against his pants.
He had been on edge too, he was tapping furiously and I had no doubts that his genius brain was counting, letting go of some stress.
I wished I could train.
Gabriel spit it out with venom and something else in his voice, "apparently an ambulance picked up someone from this property, most likely Volto. Yeah, the fucker is Volto. Anyways, the shit head got away and North and Blackbourne are searching for him. They found him by the woods with a stomach wound. So Trouble could have escaped and had to fight her way out for some awful reason. I told you! I told you she would get in trouble!!"
Victor looked like this scenario hadn't accrued to him, that would explain why he hadn't said anything. He had been expecting the worst.
Gabriel was huffing and puffing real loud.
Kota was on freeze and then suddenly he snapped.
"Okay, there's a bunch of broken glass on the floor in the bed room that was probably Volto's. Luke, Victor, can you both stay here and piece it together. See if any pieces are missing and if there are text the rest of us immediately. We don't know if Volto hurt himself trying to escape or Sang did this to him in attempt to get away. Nathan, Dr. Green, please go to Nathan's house and grab the four wheelers. Me, Silas, and Gabriel will all go out into the woods and look for Sang. Nobody is to yell her name in case Volto is also looking," he paused, taking a breath, "if anyone finds anything they are to text everyone. Luke, fill in Mr. Blackbourne and North."
I was bummed out, why we're me and doc leaving to get the four wheelers?
Kota looked at my face and continued, "if Sang is injured please call Dr. Green, him and Nathan are getting the four wheelers so that they can get to whoever's got Sang quickly. By that point, silence won't be a priority."
"Alright," Dr. Green said, "You heard the man, move out!"
~Silas~
The woods? How was she supposed to survive the woods with no food, no water.. no nothing?
I followed both Kota and Gabriel out to the woods and I took the West path.
Gabriel, who insisted Aggele mou was smart and would head north, towards home, took north, and Kota took south.
I was trying to be quiet while walking but my bigger frame and muscular build was hard to be stealthy with, especially while I was trying to look for Aggele, not tiny sticks that would make noise if they were stepped on. I glanced up hearing a human noise, or what I thought was a human noise up in the trees, my eyes caught a squirrel and I frowned.
Surely a squirrel wouldn't have made a heavy breathing sound...
My legs caught in some underbrush and I nearly tripped.
I heard a faint pitter pattering on the forest floor but I most likely scared a dear.
I wanted my Aggele mou, and I wanted her home now.
We kept searching for a while, after I scared off the dear I took time to be stealthy and decided to start searching more thoroughly.
Kota: Okay, it's too dark to search now.. we'll need to start up first thing tomorrow.
Gabriel: we can't get flashlights? Trouble is out here alone.
Blackbourne: we are no use to Sang if we are all bone tired. Everyone go home and get at least 7 hours rest. And I mean REST. That's an order.
Dr. Green: if she comes home send updates immediately!!!
That night I stayed in Sang's bed with Gabriel, Luke slept on the floor. Nathan, and North were at Nathan's house. Kota and Victor stayed at Kota's house.
It was a very very long night. I don't think I slept so much as dozed and woke up with every creak and groan of the house.
I missed Aggele mou so bad, if she came home with a scratch on her I'd kill Volto.
Sang's well-being was the first thing that had provoked a killing side of me. I would do anything to ensure her safety and well-being.
~Sang~
A loud chirp sounded near my ear, I was so startled I tumbled over the edge. Off the tree, the edge of a tree.
I landed on the ground with a thud and the air whooshed out of my lunges.
"Oof.."
A bird landed in front of me, I remember being out with Kota and Nathan, Kota had told me this beautiful little bird was called a humming bird.
When I regained my breath I giggled, "hey there pretty bird."
The birds fluttered, it's wings to fast for me to comprehend and flew off, I followed it with my eyes and yawned.
My tummy grumbled as I stood up and a wave of nausea rolled over me, I ran towards some bushes and emptied my stomachs contents.
When I was finished I backed up a few steps and rubbed my mouth with the bottom of my shirt.
What was going on? I didn't get sick very often.. my stomachs lurched and I gripped it tightly.
My skin felt hot and sticky and it wasn't the air, in fact today was pretty cool, the skies were overcast and it looked like it might rain.
I wanted something to clear my mouth of the awful taste, when my eyes swept the area again, I saw the tree. Why was it so familiar? Had I been walking circles?
I made my way over to the tree, but from this distance I could only see the top of it. My tummy hurt and my muscles were sore from so much exercise. Every step felt like I was dragging an iron ball behind me.
I wanted to just lay down in a pool of cool water, or maybe curl up in a nice hot, snug bed. Either or sounded so amazing it was hard to fathom.
After a few yards of walking I started dry heaving in the bushes, I made myself keep going afterwards though.
I didn't make it this far just to die.
I struggled to keep myself upright, I wanted to vomit yet I also was so hungry tiny pains had started up in my tummy along with the grumblings. If my body kept this up I wouldn't need to bother trying to be quiet, I'd attract myself a dinosaur with the t rex in my tummy.
I was half way to the mysterious tree when water starting dropping lightly from the sky. Before long it was falling down in sheets, the rain fell in big fat raindrops and I was struggling to stay conscious. Vicious faces swam into my eyesight.
I saw my mom and McCoy, I was the shower and I suddenly felt like I couldn't breath. My lunges felt like they were just giving up on me.
Then I started heaving again, only this time after a particularly violent cough I vomited blood.
My eyes widened and I recognized how bad this was. Blood, I was vomiting blood.
Hastily I kicked some dirt that was quickly turning to mud and I mixed it with my blood until it was unnoticeable at a glance.
Thunder shook the skies and lightning lit up the gloomy scenery. I was scared, what if lightning struck a tree and it caught fire? Not that I was afraid of fire but I already had a terrible cough because of the smoke.
Finally I got to the tree and when I looked up at it I remembered why the tree had stuck to my memory. There was a really old tree house with an ancient ladder. The tree had grown since the tree house was made to the tree house had limbs and branches growing through it.
It would be a safe place from the storm, it would be dry and high up. Since it wasn't winter yet the leaves still his the tree house fairly well and you would only see it if you knew what you were looking for.
I climbed up the ladder. My clothes where soaked and my hair was sticking to my neck. I hadn't had a clip in a while and tonight was going to be a long, loud, cold, wet stormy night.
Tonight reminded me of when I first met Kota.
What I wouldn't give to be with him, sipping cocoa and sleeping in his bed was a very short list.
I would absolutely love to be with any of the guys right about now.
I curled up on the wooden floor and shivered in my clothes, the tree house kept me safe from the wind and most of the rain but it was still freezing.
I hope I could go home.
I started sneezing and dread welled up. I hope the boys where all safely tucked in bed and none of them were working late. I definitely hoped Volto wasn't looking for me.
~Luke~
I didn't sleep much that first night, I wanted to, I really did. But not knowing whether Sang was alive or not sent sharp pain into my heart whenever I thought about it.
The glass that me and Victor had to painstakingly put together, piece by piece, had ended up being a full window no blood in sight.
Everyday I tried to think of something to lighten the somber moods and expressions. But I couldn't come up with a single thing, it's like the atmosphere around me, combined with having Sang not in the capable hands of my team, my family, was having an effect on the way I processed things.
Every time I looked at food or though about food I'd be so happy, until I thought about Sang and wondered whether or not she got food.
I figured, if she had to suffer so should I.
"Luke, you up?"
I looked up and caught Silas's eyes. It didn't look like he had slept either.
"Yeah, so what's the plan today?"
He shook his head, he didn't know.
I nodded and got up, stretching. Since Gabriel had remodeled the first time, the carpet in Sang's room wasn't to bad to sleep on.
I looked over at a snoring Gabriel, he only snorted when he was in deep enough sleep and for that I was glad. Me and Silas may or may not have slipped him some sleeping pills.
As I followed Silas down the stairs of Sang's house my phone buzzed.
Mr. Blackbourne: We are all meeting up at Sang's house in 45 minutes. Understood?
Luke: Me and Silas gave Gabriel some pills to help him sleep, he's still passed out.
Kota: Okay. Will be there.
Victor: No problem.
Nathan: I did the same for North.
Dr. Green: I'll be over early.
Mr. Blackbourne: let them sleep until it's time to start the family meeting. Then we'll wake them, there's no need right now.
I sighed in semi relief and helped Silas make some breakfast, not that I was probably going to eat it but there were other people in the family that might.
It didn't take long for us to figure out there was no food so I sent Silas to the store to get some.
Dr. Green showed up when Silas left.
"Hello, Luke. Are you planning on eating a quality meal today?"
I frowned, "I do eat."
"Not lately, not since Sang has been gone."
I lowered me eyes to the floor and nodded.
He clapped and started rambling about something neither of us really cared about.
Silas came back just as Victor and Kota trickled in through the door.
"Ah, ill go wake up Gabriel," Dr. Green said, and started up the stairs.
Kota, Victor, and I, were all making some breakfast when we heard Gabriel yelling.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?"
We all exchanged glances and ran up the stairs, what was going on?
Victor grunted and followed us at a slower speed.
Inside Sang's room we saw Dr. Green frowning and Gabriel look like he was going to pounce someone, then he said in a low very broken voice, "I am not putting the room back the way it was."
"Gabriel, we agreed that no big changes would happen without Sang's consent and this is a really big change."
Gabriel lunged at Dr. Green and Silas caught him, he hugged him from behind and kept his arms down. We knew Gabriel would never intentionally hurt us but right now he was untamed.
The stress and situation had finally cracked him. We had all secretly hoped he would be able to stay semi sane u til we got Sang but now...
I was bucking against Silas and yelling at him to let him go.
"You want me to fuck up her room, fine!!!"
With strength none of us knew he had, he got out of Silas's hold and started ripping at the bed, pulling off the bedding.
He was going to completely mess up her house if he kept going.
North pounded up the stairs and when he took in the scene he locked eyes with Silas.
North was a bad ass, so was Silas, but if you were taking them both on, there were no bets. You were simply screwed.
It took both North and Silas to restrain Gabriel, North held on to Gabriel and Silas put him in a hold until he passed out.
I had just watch my best friend loose his cool, he had finally broken.
Dr. Green quietly remade the bed and then ordered us downstairs.
It was so seldom that he actually ordered anything that we all listened.
I walked over and took Gabriel from Silas and North, then I carried him downstairs and set him on the couch.
Mr. Blackbourne and Nathan were walking into the house when I was putting Gabriel down.
"I thought I said to wake him," Mr. Blackbourne said.
"We did, he snapped," I didn't have to say anything further.
Mr. Blackbourne's expression darkened and he stood up straighter, he walked up the stairs towards Sang's room. Soon after, everyone filed down the stairs.
After everyone was seated somewhere he started, "Alright, this is today's plan..."
~Victor~
I made my way down the stairs slower than the other because of my injury. Mr. Blackbourne was talking by the time I made my way down the stairs.
"...plan, North, Silas, Luke and Nathan are all searching the woods, don't over look anything I want her found. Victor, you'll stay here with Gabriel and watch over him, while hacking into the hospital's data base and see what Volto signed in as. The hospital nurse's were being fussy when me and Dr. Green visited and they would not permit Dr. Green to access the files. Dr. Green and I will be on the quads just searching for her. Kota, I want you to be at your house and check in to Nathan's house via the camera's incase she somehow gets home."
Everyone nodded, including me.
It amazed me how he could say an entire plan that revolved around Sang and not once did he say her name. I gripped her little bracelet in my hand tightly, the metal bit into my palm but I welcomed the pain. It reminded me that even though I had her bracelet, and Silas had her phone and there was no way right now to get a hold of her... there was still hope.
In this group, there would always be hope until we find the body.
Dr. Green cleared his throat, "nobody is to leave until I see each and every one of you down a hearty plate of breakfast. Nobody needs to be fainting from fatigue today," he looked over the group of guys, "and each group looking for Sang will bring a bag with food, water, a first aid kit, a blanket, and spare clothes for Sang. We don't know her condition so be prepared."
Dr. Green looked over at Gabriel and frowned, he looked up at me, "Are you able to restrain him if
needed? Kota will be right next door... but can you handle him on your own? You can't try to comfort him. Right now he sees any of us that aren't working towards finding Sang as a traitor. The only one who can bring the Gabriel we know and love back to us is Sang. And if she is....," the group tensed and Dr. Green swallowed, he couldn't even voice the word, "if she is... well. I don't know if Gabriel will ever be the same again."
"Yes," I started, I knew that if I didn't say yes one of the others would stay behind, and that meant one less person searching for Sang, "I can handle it. And if I need to I'll call Kota."
Dr. Green nodded, satisfied and then waved for Kota, Luke and Nathan to go start up breakfast.
North went and grabbed my laptop and I started typing away. Codes and numbers flew across the screen as I worked to hack into the hospital's data base and find what Volto's real name was. And if he used his real name at all.
Hacking was a hard job especially for places that seemed to have better firewalls and protection for their information. Before long I could smell breakfast.
Usually breakfast consisted of jokes and other things but not today, the kitchen was eerily silent and I hated it. I hated that my family was going through so much pain.
We all missed Sang and I knew that, but I couldn't help compare the then and now's. Before her, we were coasting through, of course we joked and messed around. But we didn't really have anything that was keeping us to be the best we could.
And with her, we were always trying to prove we were good at what we did. She gave us a new reason to be good.
This separation was terrible, I don't know how we were all going to share her but if this was what it was going to be like if she chose to be with just one of us I wouldn't be able to handle it.
I'm not insecure but there are eight other guys for her to choose from.
I have a 1 in 9th chance that I'll be the one she chooses.
If she chooses.
And everyday I wondered whether she would go along with the plan, I also saw what the other guy had to offer that I didn't.
But I tried not to think to hard about it. There was no use in comparing myself to my family and The Academy had taught me better than that.
Silas and Dr. Green were packing six bags, one for each of the guys who would be searching for Sang. Right as the they were finishing Kota and Luke started bringing in plates, I pushed my computer off my lap and onto the floor, exchanging it for a plate piled high with food when I saw Mr. Blackbourne glaring at me.
I ate my waffles, bacon, and hash browns without really tasting anything and when I had finished I got up and took plates from everyone else who was done. Luke and North started up dishes and for the millionth time since I had known them I tried to process how they could be brothers and be so different.
Then again my father was my father and I was nothing like him. I never would be. I made a plate of food for Gabriel and stuck it in the microwave in case he woke up and wasn't out of control.
After the dishes were done Mr. Blackbourne ordered us to our jobs.
I didn't know why the dishes were so important, we could do those when she got back. But then I looked at Mr. Blackbourne and the reason was clear in his eyes.
If she never came back we would still have to live. We'd still have to survive and if we started not caring now, it would be worse when she was permanently out of reach.
Everyone left and I was left with Gabriel, as I pulled my computer back into my lap it started raining.
When I got I to the network, lightning cracked across the sky and thunder rumbled and shook the house.
I searched in for last night's males around Volto's height and weight and came up with three names.