CHAPTER 9

I woke up the next day, feeling as tired as ever, I woke Mia up, and she was not happy about it. I asked her to see what PAOMAS had done to my neck.

"Its… uh, some sort of a controlling device…" She said, She looked like she wasn't happy about the device being attached to me, then she quickly added, "Don't worry, You aren't the only one."

"Huh?" I said, confused, "What do you mean I'm not the only one?"

"Oh… I guess no one has told you anything about PAOMAS entirely," She said, Like she was dying to say everything, but something was stopping her from telling me, "I guess it's better that way… I don't want you to know! PAOMAS has lost about 20 people who were informed of these things."

"There you go!" I said, frustrated, I couldn't handle being left in the dark! So, I finally said, "Another person who would shoot my curiosity away when I need to know something!"

"I'm sorry," She said, she indeed was sorry, her eyes said so, "But I can tell you this, Isaiah is one of the only ones who didn't die after getting to know the information."

"So even you don't know anything about this?" I asked, my curiosity filling my emptiness, "Nothing? Nothing at all?"

She nodded. Millions of thoughts flew through me, making me wonder, I wish I could escape, PAOMAS and ISTACES sounds very suspicious… I needed to know what was going on! Even if it meant that I died.

"So Isaiah is probably our one and only saviour." I gave an exaggerated sigh, returning to my cheerful, yet curious mode once again. Then, I raised my eyebrows, and said "Wanna go kidnap him and ask him to spit all of this information out?

"Yep," She smiled, "But not today, Natalie… Not today…"

The morning passed, with Mia and I reading and making fun of PAOMAS and ISTACES in the library. Isaiah joined in much later, when It was almost time for lunch.

"Hey!" He said, beaming, "whatcha doin'?"

"Mia, you tell him!" I said, I tilted my head, smirked, and then gave a slight shrug.

"We've been making fun of ISTACES and PAOMAS, all while reading a few books here."

"Sounds… uh… fun?" He said, probably being sarcastic, "Care if I join?"

"Meh!" I said, I pointed towards the seat that Isaiah sat on, "There was an empty spot anyway".

He sat down and me and Mia started making fun of PAOMAS but Isaiah sat there not speaking a word as if he was scared he would reveal some information about it. Just like that... our fun mood deteriorated.

"So, anyways… " He said, probably trying to divert the topic before he spit it all out, "Wanna eat something?" My treat!"

"Uhhh…" Mia said, like she wasn't that sure, "Okay!"

"Fine." I said, I was kinda angry at him being my buddy and not telling me a thing about PAOMAS.

He looked sad, and grim, like wanted to tell everything, but he was afraid of losing us. Maybe, also because I was rude to him earlier, He was hurt, But he kinda deserved it. Being secretive towards his own best friends. I never felt any guilt though. We started talking about chores the witch gave us, as we walked towards the cafeteria's automatic food delivery system, state of the art god knows where they were getting stuff like this. I chuckled knowing that the food was being made actually by Tisha's maids.

We ordered our food, and sat there, continuing to make fun of Tisha and PAOMAS, But, I couldn't get one word out of him, he would giggle or smile at our jokes, but wouldn't open his mouth! He was not going to tell us, we were exhausted, and decided to quit trying to trick him to tell us something just something. So, we decided to forget to make him answer our questions, And as soon as the orders arrived, and we were gonna take a bite, Tisha arrived, scowling.

"Uh oh!" I said under my breath, and nudged Mia and Isaiah, "I guess we're in trouble now."

"Yeah..." Mia said without any remorse, "Maybe"

"Hey Tisha!" Isaiah said, walking towards her, "Why're you here?"

"Isaiah, dear…" She said, mimicking the sweet voice she gave me when I was in the room yesterday, "You'd better stay out of this for a while, I have to deal with Natalie for a few minutes."