PART XXIV

"Hello?"

"Keilla, you are not on school campus. Can we meet please?"

"What do you want to meet for Gabriel? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"Okay, says the girl who finished her classes I get it." He mocked her before going all serious. "Keilla, I wouldn't be calling if it weren't something serious not to ignore." Keilla raised her head from the pillow she was laying on.

"Do not expect me to come to school cause I won't be coming."

"Yeah, I am willing to skip class if you are up for it, so I am coming to pick you up?"

"Yeah, let me get dressed. But don't pull in our house, just park around the block somewhere then I will come."

"Fine, hurry." He said to her and hanged up the phone before starting his car from where he would parked to call keilla and drive to her neighborhood.

Keilla pulled her body from bed and walked to her bathroom to take a shower as lazily as she felt.

Things were looking so much unjust, uninteresting, there were so much of it that it started to be unnecessary in her eyes.

She walked to her closet and reached for black tight leggings with an oversized hoodie that she paired with Nike socks with Nike running shoes.

She was tying the laces of her shoes when a knock came through on her door. She raised her head and lazily asked.

"Who is it?"

"It's your father kei, may I come in?"

"Yeah." She said but she didn't budge to look at him, she just kept being busy with tying her laces.

"Hey, how are you doing?" He walked in and stood there.

"I'm fine."

"Are you going somewhere? Chanel told me you told Xavier to tell her you weren't going to school today?" She tied her shoes laces and stood up to find Chanel beside her father. "Yeah, I just feel like going for a walk to clear my head or something."

"Alone?"

She shrugged. "I want to clear my head so I am going alone."

"Will you be going far away?" Her father asked again and she started getting annoyed with all these questionings.

"Is there a problem?"

He shook his head looking hesitantly.

"No darling no, it's just with everything going on, I was thinking now we can all use the help of bodyguards from now on if we are to be heading out." She frowned not liking what she just heard not even for a second. "What? Bodyguards?"

"Yes." Her father said nodding her head, keilla looked at him and knew her protest would be of no use. As she said nothing Chanel interjected.

"Keilla, it's for our safety."

"I understand, and don't worry I will be cooperating." She said nodding her and her father let out a relieved sigh.

He didn't want to be a forceful father to his daughter but one way or another, he was going to make her allow. Now the safety of everyone was a priority to him.

He walked to her and hugged her to his chest before pulling back and kissing the top of her head. "Please be careful and keep your phone on you."

"Yeah." He pulled away and Chanel walked to her and hugged her too.

"I love you, keilla."

"I love you too." She said and her eyes landed on her father. "You too, dad."

"I love you too, sweetheart."

They walked out of her room and she scoffed, how was she going to take a bodyguard with her when she was going to meet Gabriel.

She kicked nothing in particular but she realized she didn't have to worry about it at all.

She used to always sneak Natara out wherever she wanted to got out without their parents knowing, so doing that for herself, she knew it was going to be a piece of pie.

She paced around planning for a way out and also waiting for an arrival text from Gabriel.

She waited but every second ticked with her life so she reached for her phone and texted him first.

Keilla: I'm sneaking out already, been assigned a bodyguard it's hell here, call me when you reach the hood.

She sent the text and walked out of her room and walked to Natara's downstairs, the bathroom of hers faced the back of the house and in there, it was easier to go without anyone's knowledge.

She walked in her bathroom that looked neat more than hers as if Natara was a neat girl. Everything about her screamed mess.

She looked at it and felt tears wanting to fall but she stopped and just focused on finishing what took her in there.

She pulled the window up and climbed in it careful not to make a sound to alert anyone or to break anything either.

She jumped down once she saw there was no one.

She pulled her hoodie and tightened her pony tail stronger feeling glad for her decision on her outfit.

She walked to the front of their house and found bodyguard waiting there, she couldn't risk to run there.

She walked back to the outside of Natara's bathroom and calculated the fence.

She held her breath in and planned her moves well, she was about to fall in the neighboring residence and walk away from there, she just hoped luck would be on her side.

She closed her eyes and on the count of one to three, she held her breath and run out of her cover to the fence and jumped over at once.

It was then she was grateful for the practices they did of running it over and over for fun back then with her, Keitha and Natara. With the help of resting your hands on the top of the fence, weighing your weight on it as you lightened the lower part in order to jump, she did it in one ago like a pro and landed on the other side.

She fall in the neighboring property and their dog came instantly running to her but that wasn't a problem because they made it their friend long ago.

Once it came to her, she held out her hand and it run to it.

"Hey buddy." She said stroking it's back.

She heard movements to where she came from but she couldn't dare to be seen, everything she did would swim into the pit of drain.

She stood and run again, her phone ringed but she didn't stop to take a look, she run at the front of the neighbor house and kept walking until she was on the road and a few blocks away of her house did she reach for her phone but when she did she spotted Gabriel's car.

She sighed a relief breathe and run to him, she got in the passenger seat and turned to him. "Now, drive away, Gab." She said and he nodded doing it.

***************

It hadn't been a timeframe of more than 24hours but the police was already flooding with cases of kidnapped young girls in the age zone of 14,15&16 only. Not less not more.

As the calls was coming through one after another, Mr. Queens also called to question on the progress of finding his daughter but the answer was the same like that being told to every parent who called.

"The disappearance hasn't yet been 24hours to consider it a kidnapping, sorry to inform you this. We can't do anything till then."

Some parents were too good to understand and try to do something on their own while the others thrown a fit about it.

Mr. Queens found the message he was given back to fishy to understand.

Last night he talked to officer Zheng and Lin and they promised him to go to the bottom of the situation but now he was answered like this.

What changed their reasoning.

He frowned and called back.

"Hey, sorry again for the disturbance. May I be connected with officer Zheng or office Lin?"

"Just a minute." The officer on the call replied and it took sometime before he got connected through with them both on the phone.

"Mr. Queens."

"Officer Lin, how is it going? I just talked to someone there but I don't know why I find what the officer just told me to fishy to buy."

The officers looked at one another knowingly because it's not like they had to ask in order to know what he was referring to.

They knew what he was saying because with the case at hand, it was what the meeting in the morning came up as the excuse to provide to each parent or guardian in order to buy time as they figured out what was going on. But with every missing girl, the police was meeting with dead ends to each and every side.

But one side they knew Mr. Queens was not like the majority because this was not their first time colliding with him about this, at least for what they knew he deserved fully disclosure though that would be going against their commander's order.

"Do you mind giving us a moment."

"I need to know how the case is going, please officer Zheng." He begged because at this time he could feel himself losing the last hope he had and he didn't know how to address to this matter.

He didn't want to think about what would happen if then his wife was to get a word of this.

They weren't over Natara's case and now Keitha.

God where did they go wrong?

The officers muted him on the call to discuss among themselves if they agreed on sharing information with the man because it was the risk they both had to agree on before going with it, each second of not getting in touch with them felt like torture. He started feeling like storming to the police station and show them who they were messing with.

"Mr. Queens?" This time it was officer Lin talking.

Timothy couldn't be relieved to hear them back. "Yes, yes."

"How about you make time for us, so we could meet somewhere private."

"If you guys are free why don't you drop by my residence so we could talk here."

"You will hear from us soon."

He sighed and dropped the phone running his fingers in his hair feeling like it's about time he run insane.

He sighed and walked back to his room to take care of his still traumatized wife.

Shunyi things were looking so bad secretly, the people still didn't full grasp the idea of what has come for them.

The devil had came for their city and some were still in the ignorance.

Keitha opened her eyes again, this time she wasn't in the room as she was in before and not only that she wasn't the only one in the room.

There were more than ten girls there with her and each wore the same feet lengthened white dress and they each stood still in one place with nothing holding them.

She looked at everyone there trying to find a face of her sister but as she looked and counted each girl she didn't see her.

She let out a relieved sigh but she didn't want to get her hopes high in case they were divided.

The big doors of the room they were into flew opened and in walked the one and only Diego Darker. The devil himself.

He walked with confidence, power with a king like aura radiating from him.

He walked with his most high fellows to his side and an army following behind him.

He walked and stood in front of where the girls were and offered them a smile.

'Darkness all over the world,'

He said and his people repeated after him.

He turned then to the girls and offered them another sinister smile.

"How are you doing girls?" He asked but none of them answered because they could feel something was wrong and felt something off from the person standing in front of them.

Getting no reply from any he chuckled and said. "Welcome girls, feel free and comfortable here. Everything that is going to be done, it's going to be done for your own good and at end of this new journey you will be taking, I guarantee you all an amazing gift." He said and the girls looked among themselves and frowned their faces filled with terror and fear.

The man chuckled evilly one last time before announcing. "Let's get started."

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