Zero made it's way over to the new black car. It got in and drove over hurriedly to Sirena's house where the girls were already packing some of their stuff in luggage to go to California.
It was angered. Zero hated how Lyra disobeyed it, now her friends are going to pay the price. Zero should've killed them years before.
It didn't want them to find out about the files. It should've grabbed the files when it had the chance, now the girls are going to find out.
Damn it.
Zero parked it's car quickly and picked the lock to the house, braking in. Scowling, it wandered around the house, everything was empty. It hurried upstairs to find out that it was empty as well.
Not holding back the anger, it kicked the wall and repeatedly punched it as well. Zero ran downstairs and locked the door before it went out. Zero hopped in the car and drove exactly to the airport, grabbing it's cellphone and ordering a private plane.
—————
The three girls had waited forever to get off the plane. Once they landed, Crescent looked at her phone and frowned. "I think I'm seriously paranoid, I keep thinking Zero–sorry, he, is going to text us."
"It's fine, lets just find a place to eat inside. We'll deal with him later." Lyra said.
Sirena glanced at her phone. "This is seriously the fourth time my parents have tried to call me about being safe and whatnot, this is ridiculous," she shoved her phone in her pocket.
Crescent grabbed Sirena's phone and shoved it in her pocket. "Then don't even use it, save your batteries," she said.
Lyra tugged them over to a small food court and began ordering some food. Once they were seated, Lyra and Sirena dug into their food, only Crescent didn't eat. Her eyes were glued to her laptop screen at least for ten minutes.
"Are you not going to eat or anything?" Lyra asked with a mouthful of food.
"I will eat, just not right now. I'm a bit busy." Crescent simply replied. She continued typing fast without looking at her keyboard once.
Sirena placed her chin on the palm of her hand,"What are you even doing anyways? Are you texting your mother or something?"
"Why would I be doing that?"
"It's just a simple guess." Sirena went back to finishing her food and ate some of Crescent's French fries as well. "But seriously, what are you doing?"
"I'm researching Avenue University." She answered. Crescent zoomed into the picture in her laptop and sighed irritatingly. "You guys remember that place?"
"Wasn't it where the Gemini were?" Lyra said hesitantly.
Crescent snapped her fingers loudly,"Bingo. If I can manage to find out where it was last time, we can head over there and check it out again."
"But as you can remember..." Sirena shut the laptop, making Crescent's fingers pull away quickly before they can be smashed. "The whole university was burned because of Zero. I'm not so sure that the police will even let us go through again, there surely must be some guards left there."
Crescent rolled her eyes,"Come on, Sirena, that was years ago. I'm sure that the university is being rebuilt, we can just go over and check. Besides, the last thing that I recall was that there was something downstairs in the basement. My memories are very blurry, but I do remember there were some files about Zero down there."
"And you brought it up now?" Lyra scoffed.
"I told you, my memories are fading away and that they are blurry. It was a good thing that the Gemini had taken care of us while protecting us from Zero as well."
Crescent pushed her laptop away from her and finally ate the burger that she bought. A cold and very small burger.
—————
Lyra hugged herself tightly, the chilling air was creepy enough to her as she stood besides Crescent and Sirena. The three of them were in the university where the Gemini once saved them from Zero.
Cress frowned,"Who knew that it would look the same after these years?"
"It was a good thing that we were allowed to be in here," Sirena muttered as she walked towards the steps, itching to explore further into the university.
"Hold up Sirena, we can't just walk around aimlessly. Zero must be here!" Lyra said.
"As if." Cress walked up besides them. "He wouldn't possibly buy a private plane and fly over here. That's stupid."
"Actually it isn't." Sirena glanced at the familiar pictures and paintings that hung on the walls. "Who knows, maybe he is here."
"Stalker much?" Cress nudged Lyra.
"No kidding." She agreed.
"Hey! Over there! There's the basement!" Sirena quickly dragged the others as they opened the door to the basement.
"This isn't creepy at all, and since when does the basement door ever open that easily? Wasn't there a key somewhere or something?" Lyra said hesitantly. "Didn't the basement have multiple halls as well? Do we even know where the files are?"
"We'll be fine," Cress said as she closed the door behind them, flicking the lights.
The lights flickered very dimly as they walked downstairs more until Sirena placed her feet on the cracked concrete floors. Sirena held up her phone and shone light, making them see better.
Cress and Lyra did the same. "Looks like you were right Lyra, there were multiple halls and room here. I suggest we don't separate still."
"If I remember correctly, it should that room over there," Sirena pointed over to a dark room. "Some of the files of Zero should be there."
Once they were in the room, they immediately begin to search for the files. Crescent coughed as dust flew around her,"I don't really understand how the Gemini have files of Zero in here, they could've burned down. Maybe Zero even went down here."
"That is impossible." Lyra argued. "The Gemini never told anyone besides us about the basement."
"Before, they weren't willing to." Sirena chuckled lightly. "I remember how they almost dragged us out in the rain because Zero was chasing us-"
"Until a certain someone convinced the others that we needed help." Cress sighed sadly. "I miss her, Alaska was a good friend."
Alaska.
That names made the girls frown. Alaska was truly a great friend. When the Gemini had thought they were spies for Zero, Alaska had changed their minds and they helped the girls hide from him, especially hid Lyra away.
The Gemini were actually nice people. It was a big shock to the girls when they had known Zero. They all met Zero before the girls came, Zero had asked them to find Lyra before, and when they refused, he was angered.
After Zero had found out that they were keeping Lyra away from him, that's when the fire had started.
Crescent rummaged through the shelves and found nothing but dust on her fingers. She groaned,"I'm going to look to the other rooms, you two stay here."
Lyra gasped and quickly grabbed her arm. "Don't go!"
Cress raised an eyebrow,"What's wrong? I'll just be that room across from this one, we won't be separated that much."
Crescent sent her one of her rare smiles and flicked her forehead,"Stop worrying, I'll be fine."
Once Cress let and was in another room, Lyra sighed in exhaustion and continued to help Sirena. Lyra checked the shelves once more then the ground, making sure that nothing had fallen down.
"I found something," Sirena grabbed an old photo.
Lyra nodded. "Uh... That's great?"
"Look!" Sirena held it up in froth of Lyra's face and saw what Sirena was pointing at.
It was Zero inside an old abandoned building. Zero was still in his black and red hoodie and stood very still at a window. Lyra looked at the building and gasped in recognition,"That's the old flower shop that Cress and you went to! Isn't it?"
"Yup! If Zero went there once, there maybe something that could help us in there." Sirena folded it and tucked it away inside her boot. She grinned,"It was a good thing that a Gemini member took a picture of him."
Just then, Lyra and Sirena heard a crash from the other room Cress was in.
Sirena and Lyra didn't waste a second and ran over to the room, both of the girls kicking the door open. Lyra's bright light from her phone was shine over to Cress, who was breathing very hard.
Crescent scrambled to get up and kick something down back to the floor. Crescent snapped her head up over to Lyra and Sirena,"Run! One of Zero's men are here!"
Lyra backed away once the person who attacked Cress got up, attacking Cress from behind as they tumbled down on the floor. Cress rolled on top of the person and punched the face, making the person let go of her waist automatically.
Cress got up and shoved the girls back, shutting the door behind them.
Sirena grabbed Cress and Lyra,"Run!"
Before they could reach the steps going up to the University, the guy broke down the door and ran over to them with a few more guys. Two of them pulled back Crescent and Sirena, gripping the collars of their jackets.
"Cress, Sirena!" Lyra stopped at the steps and almost ran back to them, until Sirena choked out a few words.
"R-Run!" Sirena choked as the guy dragged her off. Cress struggled to nod,"He's h-here for y-you!"
Lyra yelped as the guy tried to grab her. She didn't want to abandon her friends, but Crescent sent her a death glare that made her run.
But as Sirena and Cress were being dragged away, Lyra looked back and groaned. She ducked under the guy and rushed forward to them.
Cress glared and couldn't take the dragging anymore and elbowed the guy to escape. Cress fell on the ground, gasping for air.
The guy was about to smash his foot on her head. Cress immediately rolled away and got up, running over to Sirena and grabbing her away from the other one.
Soon the three of them were running up the stairs and into the University. Before Zero's men could ran out of the basement, Lyra and Sirena slammed the door shut, locking it.
"Come on! We have to get out of here," Cress said.
They bolted out of the University, escaping the men and getting carried away into the night. Once they were out on the streets, Lyra panted and looked at the others. Cress had a solemn expression as always, even at situations like these, she didn't even seem to be afraid.
On the other hand, Sirena was gripping the sleeves of her jacket too tightly, shaking get head continuously from side to side, shaking away fearful thoughts.
"This is bad." Lyra managed to say. "Zero knows we're here. This is very bad."
"Well no duh," Cress scowled. "I'm so confused to how he mages to find us. We don't have tracking devices on us or on our clothes."
"It could possibly be our phones." Sirena murmured.
"Then I'm buying a new one. Cress, you're paying for them," Lyra said.
"Lyra!"
Sirena shook her head. "Sleeping at the University is now cancelled. Where was the other place that we used to sleep in before?"
"The motel." Crescent answered. "It shouldn't be far from here, I remember exactly where it is."
Lyra and Sirena shrugged at each other and followed Cress, hoping to believe that she knew where she was going. For all they know, is that Zero was watching them like a hawk.
"Over there," Cress pointed at a small motel. It was old, very old in fact. There weren't very many people there, about five. "We can stay the night here."
"Are you sure?" Lyra asked her. "We don't know if we're actually safe here. I'd rather not sleep alone in a room where Zero can just walk inside and take me."
"That's fine by me." Sirena said as she walked inside, already taking to the person who was running the place.
—————
They all couldn't sleep. Lyra was biting the ends of her fingers while Cress and Sirena were looking out the window, still not believing that they were actually safe.
Lyra pushed her legs upwards to her chests, making herself curl into a ball. She frowned at Cress,"It's almost two in the morning, why don't you guys sleep or something?"
"I just had some coffee." Sirena replied sourly.
"I just ate some candy." Cress pointed out as well.
Lyra grumbled something under her breath and sighed. "I seriously think that we're safe now. Let's just rest for awhile."
"If you're that tired then go to sleep already." Sirena glanced at her. She returned her gaze at the window and tried to squint at the objects hidden in the dark. "We'll keep watch."
"You're not serious aren't you? You two literally were being choked an hour ago, and you guys act like you're fine!" Lyra bit back a sneer. She wasn't usually a person who does that, raising her voice and all.
Cress tilted her head at her and frowned. "Because we are fine. We're not dead, so we're fine. Besides, taking a bath is very relaxing to me so all my worries had been washed away."
"Same." Sirena said.
Lyra rolled her eyes and scoffed at them,"You two are impossible."
"No, we're only humans." Cress gazed outside, tapping her fingertips against the window, creating an annoying sound that was making Lyra cringe.
"Whatever." Lyra leaned her head back against the bed-frame. "Wake me up when you two are tired, I'll take over the night shift."
Right after that, Lyra blacked out from the exhaustion, the curiosity, and the raging poundings of her heart.
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I know, the update was so freaking late! Anyways, I was a bit busy with my other stories and forgot all about this one, so I hope this chapter was good enough to satisfy you guys! Check out my other stories, too!