September 20, 2023

I sat in my bed, bored and uneasy.

Half of the state had gone missing to who knows where, and I was all in the middle of it.

I was sick and tired of everything, but I was also sick and tired.

I didn't bother to tell anyone, I didn't think it would be of huge concern, and I knew that if I did, I'd have to go back to my home, where I would be more likely to disappear.

I didn't even know if my mom, sister, and brother were still alive. I tried to stay positive and hopeful, but I hadn't heard from them in weeks.

I didn't know what was going on, just like the week before, and the week before, and the week before. Captain still hadn't said anything about it. And I took it like this, He wants us to figure it out ourselves, doesn't he...

But I didn't know what I would tell the other kids. And I didn't know what I would even be able to do. I hadn't unlocked my charged figure, and I hadn't fully been able to fight. But I knew I would have to talk to everyone in order to have the three charged figures I knew to be there.

I felt weak and powerless, but I couldn't think gloomy anymore because I had to come down to group dinner.

Isabel and Isla weren't in our room, but were already in the dining room, along with everyone else.

There were only two people that I didn't really know: Cassie and Houston.

I didn't know Houston at all, and I barely knew Cassie. I've already described Cassie for you though, so I'll tell you about Houston.

From what I picked up on, he was sort of emotional. He kind of seemed fragile and was very quiet. But he didn't seem all that bad.

He had shaggy curly blonde hair that caressed his forehead and his cheeks, he had large teal eyes, olive skin, and wore grey moon glasses. He was relatively short in terms of height and weight from what I could tell, and there wasn't really anything that stood out to me about him other than his personality.

Cassie sat on the chair next to him, and they weren't talking at all, so I decided that I'd be a dumb human and attempt to help, and talk to them.

I sat in the chair next to Houston, completely on the other side of the table that my closest friends sat at.

Cassie and Houston looked at me confusedly, and I announced, "I haven't really talked to you guys. I'm Lauren."

"Oh yeah!" Cassie asserted cheerfully, "I'm Cassie! Well, my real name is Cassandra, but I go by Cassie."

"Why do you go by Cassie?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to, honestly!" Cam announced cheerfully, "It's shorter than Cassandra? I think that's basically like questioning nicknames themselves. Do you want to give me a nickname?"

"Oh, okay. Like now?" I asked awkwardly.

"If you're comfortable with it!" Cassie let out with a large smile.

"Oh okay." I mumbled, repeating myself, "You're Houston, right?"

"Yeah. I'm Houston." Houston muttered with an innocent smile.

This wasn't going too bad, now was it?

"Houston can be a bit quiet sometimes." Cassie said, whispering.

"Wait, I can be?" Houston asked sadly, almost through tears.

"Oh no, don't cry." I said soothingly, putting my hand on his back, "I can be pretty awkward sometimes too."

"Really?" Houston asked.

"Well, you've seemed to have made more friends than him." Cassie confessed genuinely.

I could tell that she wasn't attempting to hurt his feelings, she just was.

And very successfully at that.

Houston looked as though he was about to cry again, so I mumbled, "No, it's fine, you have me as your friend now."

"Well, only because you came over to me." Houston said sniffling.

I chuckled awkwardly, and explained, "Well, I came over for you and Cassie."

"Exactly, him and me." Cassie explained, taking a bite of her sandwich.

I hadn't taken a bite out of my food, so I decided that I should probably start eating.

"It's kind of crazy how this all is." I confessed, trying to think of the only thing that was happening now.

"Yeah, it's crazy that you're here." Cassie exclaimed with a smile, "If I were you, I'd be out this door in seconds."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, because the FOF had to kill your father for you to be here." Cassie explained, casually taking another bite of her sandwich.

"What?" I asked confusedly, "I think I heard you wrong."

"Well, if you heard me say that the FOF killed your father, that'd be correct. They had to get you to move out here somehow." Cassie admitted.

"What?" I uttered, my voice shaky.

"Wait, you didn't know?" Cassie confessed, "I thought Captain told you."

"What?" I said, in only a whisper.

"Yeah, three years ago." Cassie explained.

Houston looked at me with wide eyes that looked confused and almost scared.

"I-I...how?" I whimpered to her.

"They had to kill your father in his sleep. And because you're so good at hearing, they had to put you into the dream complex." Cassie announced cheerfully.

"Dream complex?" I asked confused.

"You know? That dream when you met Luke. They had to put him into it too in order to kill his parents in that fire." Cassie explained.

"What?" I said sharply.

"They made a dream for you guys to see what was the story of your family." Cassie confessed, "You know, their fates. The Sdarson family Fate."

All I did was look at her in shock.

"I think I've got to go." I announced harshly, standing up from the dinner table, and walking up the stairs.

No one really noticed me leave and paid no real attention to it. They didn't even hear Cassie and I's conversation.

What else had they done to all of these kids to make them move here?

I was out.