Chapter 2

Putting down my pen, I look up at the sound of helicopter blades whirring coming closer to where I sat. The helicopter lands safely a few meters away from me as the door slide open, revealing a tanned man in his mid 40's with a classic black and white suit. The man wearing a black glove that seems made from the finest cotton, and his hairstyle is quite funny. He stuck his shiny-expensive black shoes out and, oddly, he has this 'I hate the world and I hate you the most' face.

His face moves from staring at the piece of paper in his hands to looking up at me, arching his brow and letting out a sigh. He walks up closer to me, "are you Elizabeth Lupisicoupokulus!?" the man asked, scratch that, shouting due to helicopter engine sound.

Curse that long-mouthful last name.

I nodded to him, "depends on who you are but that is me, pal! And you are....?!"

"Good! We need to go now, we are on a tight schedule! No time for an introduction!" the man in a suit said, nodding his head at the helicopter while the other men inside are hold the door open. Ignoring my question and then moving to step aside, he gestures to me with his head to stand up and come inside.

"Hold fuckin' on, dude with fancy stuff! The only reason I'm here because my mom told me so... You know what is worst the most?! Only God knows what happens to her now and I'm here instead of being with her!"

I've been sitting my ass down on the roof in an abandoned warehouse for hours and hours because that's all mom gave to me before she drove me to the bus station. She told me to go to this unknown location and I couldn't tell a damn soul, not even a harmless elder man or woman who seemed harmless.

I folded my arms over my chest, "worst that could happen is she died and, again, I wasn't there with her... Oh, God!" my eyes went wide at this sudden realization, "what if she died alone?!"

I shifted my gaze to him and his men, "and you could be a part of those men..." His posture went stiff when I mentioned my mom, gazing at this strange man who seems having an inner battle-fight in his head.

"...My deepest condolences and, if it helps, we knew your mother as well as she knew us. In fact, she was the one who asked us to take you somewhere safer than here." Inhales deeply, "listen, I know you, probably, feeling overwhelmed. But it's not my place to explain the detail you deserve to know, there's someone more capable and willing to answer every question you have. However, the longer we are here the more threat will come to us. Well, more like to you..." this time he softens his tone than before, "so, please..."

We? Who is this "We"?

He takes a gold-coloured pocket watch out, it also has a long golden chain that is attached to his vest-...

Excusez-moi, but a pocket watch?!

He sighs then muttered something too low for my ears. "My name is Paolo Göwiglass III. I'm here as your.... Tour guide to this safe place... May we please go, like, now, Ms Lupisicoupokulus?"

First, a pocket watch. Now, another mouthful name like mine?

I let out a defeated sigh and then stood up, dusting myself off before went with him. I put one of my feet at the foothold, Paolo stuck his hand out to help me get inside quicker. The other guy closes the door as soon as Paolo sits across me and motions to the pilot to take us to wherever it is.

I keep staring at the last place of my memory with my mom that has been a hometown, trying to remember every detail of it until it becomes smaller and fades away as we fly to God knows where.

I shifted my gaze to the brown-haired man, who closes his eyes in exhaustion. "So, Mr. Göwiglass III, what is this "safe place" look like?" He reminds me of Allan, my former neighbour, an old man with grey hair and a wooden stick who tries to have his nap time after a long day with his hyperactive grandchild.

"Noble Academy."

"A what!? And where is this Noob place?"

"Noble Academy," he corrected. "Does anybody ever tell you that you ask a lot of questions, kid?"

I shook my head as I heard him sigh and mumble something in a foreign language. "Scotland, kid. We're going to Scotland, I hope you know geography very well." My eyes went wide, "b-but we're in the States....." stammering. "Are you trying to... are you by any chance a part of some weird cult?" squinting my eyes.

"And how many times I have to tell you that neither myself nor the academy is a kidnapper nor scammer nor a cult!?" he snapped before taking a deep breath. "Forgive me, that's not very polite of me... And yes, I know we're in the States. Thank you for reminding me, but I still can remember my geography lesson very well, unlike you and your generations these days. In fact, we're going to the nearest airport before we fly to Scotland."

Me and my generations these days?

"I-I I don't even have money to buy a plane ticket..."

He turns to look at me with an amused smile, "I know, kid. We're using the school's private jet," he told me. My jaw drops open, "did this academy ask you to fetch every student and hand you a key to a private jet instead of the school's bus? Wait, the better question is from a scale of one to ten, how rich is this school?"

He tapped his chin repeatedly, "solid eighty-five?" he said unsure, "fun fact, jet doesn't need a key, Ms. Lupisicoupokulus...."

I nod my head, "sure... How did my mom know you and your associates?" his eyebrow twitches in annoyance at the 'associates' word. "Your mother was our student. One of our-so-many best students-..."

"So, mom was the queen bee of the school?"

Mom, what kind of freaky thing are you into?

"Something like that. I must say you look so much like her and... I thought you were her at first. She's quite an artist."

I nodded repeatedly and look outside the window. Mom barely speaks about her past, not even her school days or my grandparents'. She never talked about my father or, at least, told me his name. She said that I'm better off not knowing anything at all about him.

"Just sleep, kid. We have a long journey ahead of us, I'll wake you up." I lean my head back on the backrest before letting sleep take over me.