August 5, 2023

Isabel and I crept between the hallways of the dark house and used our best efforts to stay quiet.

It was my first time being on a real mission and was wearing the real FOF uniform, the black hoodie and etc from the night before.

We had been training all day, awaiting whatever happened to us this night.

I was pretty much terrified. If we got caught, it wouldn't end well. Especially for Parker.

We knew he was in his room, where we had just left him. We were now scaling the walls and sneaking through the corridors of his house.

Captain had told us, that as our first mission, we'd be getting Parker away from these people permanently. And then after a quick discussion, the only question was how.

We knew that we couldn't tell the authorities that Parker had been kidnapped, otherwise they'd send him back to Colorado with his parents, which he said, was equally as bad.

Usually, criminals like these guys have things other than abducting kids, so we decided to investigate after school.

And what we saw shocked us.

One of Parker's 'parents' worked for the government, and had been stealing and slowly drafting money over time. And once they got enough, they'd move.

We couldn't let Parker keep living with them, so we had to catch them in the act, or find proof.

His 'mom' was asleep, and the 'dad' was somewhere else, which Parker said was at work.

We snuck into where, Parker said, the proof was, or in other words, his dad's at-home office.

The only problem was that it was directly next to the mom's room.

Isabel slowly opened the clear door of the office and looked inside carefully.

She motioned for me to walk in.

We both carefully crept behind the desk and opened his computer.

The second we opened it, it blared a noise, and we quickly lowered the volume and heard the door, of the woman in the room next to us, open.

Dang, it.

"Honey? Are you home already?" the woman asked.

Isabel and I looked at each other in fear and hid under the desk.

"Hello? Oh, looks like he left his laptop open." she whispered.

Yup HE definitely left his laptop open.

She closed the laptop right above us.

I was about an inch away from her leg. And felt a sneeze tickle my throat.

Don't do it, Lauren, don't do it.

The woman began to walk out of the room, and almost closed the door, when I let out a giant sneeze.

Then I thought a naughty word in my mind.

"Hello? Who's in here?" the woman asserted harshly.

Just your son's coworker, whom of which he was kidnapped.

I began to raise from underneath the table and Isabel gave me a look of fear.

I stood up and the woman saw me.

"Oh, there's my pen!" I lied, taking my dad's pen out my pocket, and showing it to her.

Sometimes you are very bad at acting, Lauren.

The woman looked at me confused, "What are you doing here?"

Think think think think think think

"Oh, Parker and I are doing a project together for Spanish class." I exaggeratedly lied.

Good save.

"Oh, then why were you in here?" she asked.

Crap.

Just then, Parker walked into the room, and stood right next to me.

"I told her she could find a pen in here. But it turned out that she had her own." Parker explained, elbowing me playfully.

Thank you, Cat Eyes.

"Parker, you know not to let anyone into your dad's office." the woman proclaimed sternly.

Well, Parker is certainly in trouble if he can't save this.

"Sorry, I just didn't know where else to send her." Parker confessed.

"You can stop elbowing me." I said to him.

Jeez, Cat Eyes is strong in the elbows than he looks... Ouch

He laughed forcefully, stopped, and then explained, "Well, I guess we should get back to our Spanish project."

Yes, please, our "Spanish" Project awaits. Exponiéndote, as I like to call it.

"Parker, why didn't you tell me you were in inviting someone over?" she asked condescendingly.

I kind of invited myself, actually.

"Well, I didn't want to bother you?" Parker confessed as a question.

That was the worst cover to come out of your mouth, Cat Eyes.

"Well, even so, you should have told me, especially since it's a girl. " she declared, smirking at me.

Well, then...

I forcefully laughed and let out, "Yeah, Parker can be like that sometimes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Parker asked genuinely.

"That you can be a real dumb-" Isabel cut me short by silently flicking my leg, "Well, never mind." I finished.

You shouldn't be saying that in front of his 'mom' anyway.

"Okay, to my room for the Spanish project." Parker mumbled, "Let's go."

Yes, please.

He pretty much pushed me out of the door, and into his room.

I felt bad leaving Isabel in there by herself, as she would have to deal with the hacking part on her own now since the doors were locked and Parker's 'mom' was awake.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Parker asked, shutting the door.

"I don't know." I confessed, "Your 'mom' locked the door. But the good thing is that Isa is in there. All we have to do is wait and pray that she makes it out of there."

Parker sighed, "Well, it's better than nothing, and it could be worse. But now they know you're here!"

Correct.

"I know, it'll be easy for them to suspect me if we call the cops." I declared, sitting down on his bed.

"Princess, who said you could sit on my bed?" Parker asserted.

Dang, Cat Eyes is cranky.

I stood up quickly and explained, "Sorry, I'm just tired. I haven't slept in two days."

"Ah, that's normal for me." Parker announced.

"You're insane." I declared.

"And you're confident, but you're not supposed to know that, just like I'm not supposed to know that I'm insane." Parker said.

I gave him a slight smile, and walked around his room.

Just then, I got a text from Isabel.

I got the page open. Now what?

I texted her back.

Send me a picture.

I set down my phone and looked up at Parker and announced, "She has the file open."

"Good. Good. Good." Parker mumbled nervously.

Cat Eyes seems scared, I mean that's justified, but still, I haven't really seen him scared.

"I suggest you get packing." I said to him.

"It's not like I have anything I need, except for this." he admitted, pointing to a black bracelet on his wrist, "It was my mom's last gift to me. The last time that she actually cared."

Is there something I don't know?

"What do you mean?" I inquired, clearly, I still didn't know everything about him.

"I ran away from home because of family issues. My mom and dad were so busy fighting that they didn't even care for me, then even started letting out their anger on me." Parker explained, pointing the scar underneath the bracelet.

Poor, Parker.

"Parker, dude, you live a pretty sad life." I insisted.

"And you don't?" Parker argued.

Why would he think that?

"What?" I mumbled confusedly.

"Lauren, I know what happened to you. Captain told me." Parker clarified.

WHAT THE HECK?!

"What?! I didn't even tell Captain!" I complained, confused.

"What?" he mumbled.

"It doesn't matter right now" I insisted crossly, "I don't like to think about it anyway. Let's just get ready for Isa."

Parker stayed silent after I said that, and began to fiddle with his bracelet.

Soon enough, Isabel sent me the picture of the files.

"I've got pictures." I declared monotonously.

"Good." Parker said, changing his posture.

I called 911 and texted them the picture of the files.

"Parker." I announced, once I had hung up the phone, "They'll be getting here in 5 minutes, you need to get out of here so they don't think you're associated with them."

Wouldn't want this to all be for nothing.

He nodded at me, then climbed out the window.

I was left alone in the dark of his room.

I looked at the mirror in front of me.

In the mirror, everything around me was black, and murky.

But when I turned to look at reality, the room was normal.

But one thing was not.

I peered into the mirror and saw the tall shadowy figure.

With its sinister smirk, and curved eyes, it's black hood, and split black hair, and pure white skin.

It looked like it was in all black and white.

And when I looked carefully at the side of me.

There it was, looming 5 feet above me, with its lanky sharp hands clawing out of the cloak.

I fought the urge to scream, as the darkness indulged me.

And I drifted into sleep.

_______________________________

I woke up, confused, and alone. Not alone physically, but with no one to talk to, and that was all that really mattered anyway.

I woke up and heard loud noises all around me.

Sirens.

Not the evil sea creatures, the kind that police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks make. Turns out that all of those were there.

I was lying on the floor of the room I had been left and struggled to breathe.

Fire.

There was a fire.

THERE WAS FIRE?!

SCREAM LAUREN, SCREAM!

I gasped suddenly and searched all around me.

There was no one there, but the room was in flames, everything burnt.

What had happened to Isabel and Parker? What happened to the plan? What was going to happen?

Everything around me was scorched, and my eyes watered and burnt. My skin was worse, every part of me hurt like knives. I looked down at my arms, and every part of my body was covered in ash and blood. I filled with fear and felt my breathing begin to cease.

My head pounded steadily, covering up the sounds of everything else.

My vision was blurry, and my body was limp and weak, I couldn't stand.

Just then, the door bust open.

"NO!" a voice screamed from the doorway.

It was a boy, with ginger hair with red streaks, tan skin, and a large shadow over his face, which was only disrupted by his large yellow pupils, which were the only thing behind the shadow that I could see. He wore a completely black outfit, which was complemented by the red jewel on his wrist which was attached to a bracelet.

He was from the FOF!

"Wait a minute, I'm getting us out of here!" the boy said.

Who is this dude?

He held his hands to the fire, and the area between us died down to a small ember, but everywhere else was still in flames, and I still felt like I was going to pass out again.

The boy ran to me, and lifted me off the ground, and carried me.

"Alright, let's get out before the authorities find us," he said, running to the window and jumping out of it.

He agilely jumped from roof to roof, until we were atop the roof of a school.

The house behind was being tended to by fireman, and from the distance, I could see Parker's kidnappers getting arrested.

I sighed in relief at the sight.

"Who are you? You're obviously a part of the FOF." I asked.

Astute observation.

"I'm not supposed to tell you, I'm sorry, but my identity must remain a secret. But, you can call me Fire Lord." the boy explained kindly.

Lauren, did you seriously forget?

"Thank you. I'm Lauren." I declared, coughing.

"Oh, are you okay?" Fire Lord asserted, "We should get you to help, you inhaled too much smoke, and I don't have a full handle on my powers yet."

Don't make this guy do much, Lauren, you can push through.

He put his hand on my shoulder, as I hunched over, coughing.

My throat hurt like stabs, and wouldn't stop aching in pain.

I couldn't even think about how badly my eyes, skin, and body felt.

My hands and everything was covered in blood, and I had gashes and bruises everywhere.

But in a few moments, I regained my ability to see, and breathe, but saw that the shadow over the boy's face hadn't gone away.

I couldn't see any of his facial features and then were no indents or curves to show that he had a mouth or nose.

He obviously did, I just couldn't see them.

"I hope Parker and Isabel got out of there." I confessed.

I really do, I hope I didn't screw it up for them.

"The firefighters have gotten your friends out, in case you're wondering." Fire Lord announced.

Oh thank goodness.

"Oh, Parker's not really my friend, but Isabel is." I clarified.

Cat Eyes isn't your friend? After you literally saved his life, Lauren.

"Oh, well, sorry for the misassumption." Fire Lord apologized eloquently.

What's up with the fancy words?

"Its no big deal." I said with a smile.

He smiled brightly and proclaimed, "Well, you should presumably get to Captain, he's waiting for you guys at the school."

"In the middle of the night?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, it's a crucial discussion, I presume it's about the first mission and the contemporary dorm." Fire Lord explained politely.

Again, what is up with Captain.

"Okay, thank you so much. You saved my life." I confessed.

"No problem, it's both of our jobs, right?" Fire Lord declared.

He's nice.

I gave him a sweet smile and began to walk down to the school, where Mr. Furish was waiting.

________________________________

I held my breath, as Captain told us the news of what happened to Parker.

Parker had escaped, and the records were changed, and Mr. Furish was now official his 'uncle'.

Parker told Mr. Furish that he'd be getting his belongings from the wreckage in secret and that he'd be back later with food from In N' Out, which Isabel and I never managed to go to.

So whilst we waited, we discussed the large complex that Captain had found us.

We'd be moving into the dorms tomorrow.

I confessed to Captain, "Hey, I saw someone from the FOF at the fire, he saved my life. Is that what all fully charged FOF members look like?"

That got to the point quickly.

"Not exactly." Captain began, "All FOF members will have the color of their Destiny jewel glow, and they will always have the shadow over the face, and the glowing pupils. But in terms of powers and looks, that is all unique to who you are."

Oh wow.

Isabel walked into the room, covered in soot and ash, coughing like crazy.

What happened?!

She had her arm wrapped around Luke's shoulder, and he was holding her up, helping her walk.

"ISABEL!" I shouted, running over to her.

She kept coughing, and her eyes were squinted.

"She was in the fire for too long. The desk above her collapsed and she got stuck." Luke confessed scared.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no nono no no no no no nono no no no no no nono no no no no no no no no no this is all my fault!

I ran up to her and helped her to Mr. Furish, where he gave her a necklace.

"My necklace!" Isabel managed to screech.

He put it around her neck, and she stopped heaving, and the ash fell from her skin.

Parker walked into the room with a bag in his hands.

"I brought the food!" he announced.

YES FOOD!

We all sat down with our burgers and milkshakes and had a normal obese American dinner.