Chapter Six

I lay on the floor of my room studying the wood on the ceiling. I roll over and see my makeshift weapon propped up in the corner, but it's probably a good thing that I haven't had to use it. It's pretty safe here anyway. I sit up and stretch then hear the sound of knocking on my door.

"One minute please."

I fix my clothes and hair before opening the door to see Eugene.

"Hi."

"You're late."

"I'm late?" I lookout in the halway to see that the sun was already up," Oh, my bad I guess I was really tired huh?"

I scratch the back of my head embarrassed.

"That's alright, but we need to get to the meeting."

"Right. Let's go then."

At the meeting there is an announcement from Foland.

"Sorry but from increased worry from the disappearance of Jade, we are all going to pare up for patrol on the property. I'll choose the pairings so that there aren't any issues, remember we're looking for clues of any trace of if there is someone else in the building who could have taken her. The partners will be.."

I don't lesion while he talks, the thought that there could be someone we don't know about in the building is quite terrifying.

"Riviann," I hear my name and am brought back to attention," and Eugene, you are going to do the second floor."

He looks up at me then goes back to looking out the window. When the meeting ends we walk out the lounge he opens the door and I walk through. We walked down the stairs and threw the hall, It was quiet. I fiddle with a loose string in the pocket of my jacket while we walk.

"So," I start nervously," How long have you been round here?"

"Awhile unfortunately," he sighs," at least I have Zane to keep me company."

"You two friend?"

"I guess you could say that, we went to the same school before all this, and we knew about each other but we only started hanging out when we got in this little group."

We pass from room to room, I make small talk and we check the room until we get to the last one. We walk into the room, it's filled with musical instruments. Eugene walks around the room running his fingers over the piano. He looks at it sadly.

"Something the matter?"

"No, just thinking about the past. I used to play, well before all this happened and all."

"The piano?"

"Ya, we couldn't afford one at home, or lessons, so I taught myself at school, how to play," he gives a light laugh," I used to spend all my free time playing, and of course there were rumours about me. In some ways this whole thing is good and bad."

"When this is all over," I ask," do you think you could play for us?"

His mouth curls up at the sides," right, I guess I could."

We finish checking the room and head back to the lounge. Everyone slowly starts arriving, we all sit around for lunch and get our rations. The door to the lounge is pushed open, and everyone stops to look at the door. I turn in my chair to see Zane carrying a girl. She looked incredibly fatigued and quiet beat up.

"What's going on?" Foland asks standing.

I jet up out of the chair to help Zane lift her up onto a table.

"We found her on patrol, she had jumped the fence to get in."

Sebastian hurries over as he looks at the girl, "We need bandages, Zane?"

"On it," he says before running out the room.

"What's your name?" He asks the girl.

"Kaia."

"Ok, Kaia we're going to help you as much as we can, alright."

I back up not wanting to be in the way, Bell grabs my arm. I look back at her and she looks worried.

"What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you, not here."

"Ok?" She drags me out into the hall,"I think something's wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"People keep disappearing and then randomly new ones appear out of nowhere, Jade wasn't the first to go missing, but we thought that the ones before were leaving on their own. The others think so, but I think something else is going on I kno-"

Zane comes back down the hall and runs into the room, and we get out of the way. Foland knotices us outside and tells us to come back, I follow but Bell just looks at the ground as she walks behind me. I've never seen her do something like that before. She's probably just scared, I try to think about something else as I finish my lunch.