49 Inside the Hospital (2)

I sat on my bed with my feet dangling in the air due to my childlike height.

"You're here," I smiled when I spotted the couple entering the room.

"What are your terms?" The girl warily asked.

"I need to make sure that you will help me escape after I pay for your friend's fees," I replied in a serious tone.

They didn't have to know I wasn't carrying money that worked in the second district. The money that Luke put in my bank account only worked in the first district.

"You could transfer the money to us once we help you escape," The girl confidently answered.

I guess that worked too. I looked outside the window as I stood by the windowsill to see the dim violet sky. I felt greatly wronged that I was in this situation just because I wanted to explore the beautiful second district surrounded by tall skyscrapers.

"What's your plan?" I turned to ask them.

"I brought some spare clothes for Melissa today. You can change into those clothes and we'll pretend that you're my sister that came to visit Melissa with me. Since you're not wearing your hospital gown anymore, no one will notice that you're actually a patient." The girl explained.

I nodded my head as I couldn't find any fault with the plan. The girl handed me a shopping bag and I went into the washroom to go change.

"It's too big," I complained while looking at myself being eaten by the oversized blue polo shirt.

"A dress? It can pass as a dress!" The boy came up with an excuse.

"The shoes?"

The boy turned to stare at the ground like he didn't know what to do next.

"Socks! We can pretend the socks to be boots?" The girl answered like she didn't even believe in her ideas.

Well, it was the best option we had. I wore the white cotton socks as the boy handed me a soft cloak.

"Melissa always wore cloaks," The girl glanced at me sadly.

I wore the cloak to find it reaching my ankles. The dark hood perfectly covered my face while the rest hid my figure.

"Let's go." The boy grabbed my hands and walked to the elevators.

Surprisingly, no one stared at me wearing an oversized cloak. It was really true that people didn't pay attention to a person wearing regular clothes.

"Wait!" A person tried to stop us.

"What?" The girl asked casually.

"That girl looks like the patient on the third floor," a middle-aged man grabbed the wrist of the girl.

"She's my little sister, now if you would excuse us," the girl rudely replied while tugging me towards the entrance.

"It must have been my imagination," the man mumbled while rubbing his eyes.

When the man saw a glimpse of my tangled red hair, he murmured, "It wasn't my imagination."

"Stop! That's my niece you're trying to take!" The man yelled.

"Curses," the boy muttered.

We started to run as we spotted security guards not so far away from us. Eventually, we ended up hiding behind the dumpster behind the hospital while police officers were called to the scene. The security guarded the entrance while the police patrolled the nearby grounds.

"Transfer us the money now. We're out of the hospital," the girl shook me aggressively.

"I don't have any money in the second district currency right now. My brother who you also kidnapped last time is carrying it. Bring me to the La Fantaisie hotel and he'll definitely give you the money," I replied.

The couple looked dejected as it would be hard to get me to the hotel with the police officers who called for more reinforcements. The worst thing was that it took me about ten minutes in the police car to arrive at this hospital, meaning that the hotel was a far distance to get by walking.

"Let's get going," the girl sighed while looking for an opening.

We sprinted to the bus and abandoned our hiding spot while the couple acted like a shield. The bus driver didn't pay attention to our appearance as he assumed we were playful students.

"Duck down," the boy whispered as I immediately stopped looking outside the window.

[We interrupt this broadcast for urgent news. Please report if you see a the missing young girl with long red wavy hair around the age of ten with golden eyes] The speaker announced inside the bus while interrupting the music.

No wonder people got me confused with the missing girl. I looked just like the girl except I had bright pumpkin coloured eyes instead of her golden speckled eyes.

"Is that her?" The student sitting behind us whispered.

"I think it is and I think we should report this," The person sitting beside the student whispered back.

Thankfully, the next stop was the hotel. We ran out of the bus as soon as the doors opened to find the employees of the hotel also looking for a young girl with messy red hair wearing a white gown. When I removed my hood, the manager spotted my tangled up red hair.

"That's her!" The manager yelled.

The manager escorted us inside the hotel as he ordered another employee to contact Ben. Not even a few minutes passed, when I found Shelly and Ben running towards me.

"Rika!" Shelly had tears in her eyes.

"This is my older brother who'll give you the money for your friend's treatment." I introduced my former kidnappers to Ben.

"How much do you need?" Ben asked like he didn't care what happened between the former kidnappers and I.

"One million crystals," The girl replied.

Shelly gasped as Ben instantly transferred the money through his smartphone that he took out from his pocket.

One million crystals translated to one hundred thousand Aris. One hundred thousand Aris was a great amount of money in the first district as well. A family of four in the first district could live quite comfortably for an entire year with one hundred thousand Aris.

"Is this ok?" Ben questioned as the girl checked her phone to see the money come in.

Before the girl could respond, Ben went to the manager to thank him for finding his sister.

"Riikaa," Ben looked at me madly when I still stood beside my former kidnappers.

"I'm coming." I walked to the elevators with Shelly as Ben waited for me inside.

I forgot about the young girl who resembled most of my features until her portrait appeared on the flat screen when both Shelly and Ben watched the news.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the restaurant at this time for lunch?" I asked.

"We were waiting for you to wake up," Shelly replied.

"Who knows what would happen if we went to go eat breakfast and lunch without you," Ben added as he continued watching the news.

"Then let's go eat now," I opened the door from feeling hungry from yesterday's incident.

"Wait. Go change first," Ben suddenly grabbed my wrist to stop me from going out.

I looked down to find myself in a white nightgown that I changed into after taking off the oversized clothes from my former kidnappers. Learning from the incident that happened just yesterday, I changed into a fine pastel blue dress laced with embroidery.

"How do I look?" I asked while twirling to show off the dress.

Ben nodded in approval as I snagged Shelly's hand to walk together to the restaurant. I didn't know where Ben and Shelly acquired the dress that perfectly fit my size, but it was better than the nightgown.

"I paid a week's worth of money to stay in the hotel room. The teleportation gate has enough energy to teleport two people back to my villa in the evening." Ben sliced a piece of his steak.

"So Shelly and I can use the teleportation gate first?" I asked.

"I know this must be a very shameful request, but can Rika and I use the teleportation first?" Ben hesitantly asked Shelly.

"No," I shouted to Ben before Shelly could open her mouth.

"I'm not going anywhere without Shelly!"

I stopped eating my steak as I hugged Shelly to show that I wasn't going to leave Shelly here in the second district alone. The second district wasn't exactly a safe place as young high schoolers could easily kidnap middle school students in the daylight.

"You disappear from my sight every time I look at other way from what I've experienced in the second district with you. That's why I have no choice but to-"

"Oh please. Don't make rash assumptions when it's only our third day in the second district." I interrupted Ben.

"If we really do have to go to first district, I know a way to get there without using a teleportation gate."

Ben and Shelly both dropped their utensils and stared at me dumbfounded that I knew a way to go to the first district.

"Remember how we entered the second district from the first district?" I asked Shelly.

"The staff only room!" Shelly recalled after going through her memories.

"Yup! I think we can go to that cafe where we first met Ben since it's near that area."

Ben sighed as he got up to pay the bill and gave the waiter a generous tip.

"Fine. But if that doesn't work, we're using the teleportation gate later today," Ben leaved no room for discussion.

I confidently nodded as I knew we would be in the first district soon.

"Grab onto my hand Rika," Ben offered his hand as if a small child would get lost without him.

I hesitantly took his hand as I couldn't argue since we got separated pretty easily in the second district while clutching onto Shelly with my other free hand. When we were in front of the cafe, I noticed a faint translucent barrier that acted like a wall buzzing in and out of existence.

When I narrowed my eyes to try to see what was clearly behind the barrier, I spotted a tall cliff I remembered hiking down. The blue skyscraper acted like a shield in front of the barrier to strengthen the disguise.

If one had no mana, the barrier would conceal the existence of the cliff. However, the low frequency made my ears perk up like it was trying to tell me something.

"There!" I pointed to the direction of the cliff.