Chapter Fifteen: Missing

'Oh, thank goodness you are all here!' Sarah's shrill voice could be heard as soon as they entered their dorm, 'Ms. Renata is taking us out to the nearby restaurant for a treat.'

All four of them just nodded as they headed to their rooms. Sarah noticed the change in attitude immediately.

'Is anything the problem?' her voice sounded genuinely concerned, one unlike people at the Gardien house were used to; 'you guys seemed pretty shaken. Shall I ask Ms. Renata to postpone the treat?'

Jennifer managed a faint smile. Sarah was surprised to even get such a reaction from her.

'Nothing Gallagher,' she said, her voice unbelievably soft, 'We're sort of tired. We didn't get any sleep last night and today was really tiring.'

'You know you could have just stayed here right? The teachers weren't teaching much anyway.'

'Thank you for the concern, Gallagher, but we're fine. We'll get some rest and we'll get ready. When are we supposed to leave?'

'I think we leave in about two hours or so.'

'Okay, thanks.'

Sarah was surprised to hear the word "thanks" from Jennifer. As long as she had been here, they had never got along.

Maybe she's finally come around. She shrugged mentally.

***

The four parted at the top of the stairs on the first floor. Raiden and Jennifer left for the left corridor, while Aaron left for the right and Jayden left for his room on the second floor.

The first thing Raiden had done was place the bag, which now contained the Tantabulum, and hit the shower. She let the warm water calm her senses down while she tried to process everything they had just discovered in the library.

How the hell did their names end up there?

As she tried to process the fact that their names had actually been one of the most violent people in another world, Raiden's mind drifted to her older memories where odd things had happened. There was this one time, where her parents had forgotten her in the back of the car during camping with their friends while she was just a baby. A snake had managed to slide into the backseat through the open windshield. Raiden's mother had pretty much freaked out when she saw it, but Raiden was just sitting there with the snake, petting it and playing with it.

There was another time; she had gone to Santa Cruz on a school trip. It was night and she was just lying there on the cold sand, enjoying the cold breeze when she had seen a male figure in the water. It looked almost like her back then with pale white skin and violet eyes, except that his hair was pitch black. The image was calling out to her to join him in the sea. She had been so scared that she had called Xavier to help her. When she showed Xavier the spot where she had seen it, the image was gone.

There were other such numerous experiences that she could never provide an explanation for.

Getting out of the shower, she threw herself on the bed, positioning herself as far away from the book as possible. She wanted to stay away from such a weird thing. Especially something that could provide an explanation for all the weird happenings in her life. Ignorance from all this stuff now seemed to be bliss to her.

She looked at the alarm clock beside her bed. 6:48 pm. She had been there in the shower for almost an hour.

I guess I should get ready.

Raiden just went for her normal everyday look, a white shirt with black jeans along with a red jacket and black boots. She put on some eyeliner and some light pink lip tint and let her long hair fall down in its natural straightness. She decided to wear a small necklace that Xavier had gifted her on her birthday.

Xavier had always made fun of how her hair was always abnormally.

____________

'You look hideous with that hair.' Xavier commented as she was getting ready for her date with a guy Xavier himself had set her up with.

'Shut up, I look fabulous.' She flipped her hair, 'besides, guys crave straight hair.'

'Crave my ass,' he stuck out his tongue, 'guys prefer curls. Girls with natural curls are prettier than hideously straight hair like yours. Of course, you are not a girl.'

Raiden gave Xavier a punch in his stomach. Xavier winced.

'You perfectly confirm a theory that you are a guy trapped in a girl's body.' He managed, 'you could have at least curled your hair.'

'I don't and I won't. I look fabulous, and besides, it's your fault. You set me up with one of your asshole friends.'

'Hey! Liam is a gentleman among us assholes.'

'Whatever.' Raiden rolled her eyes, 'Anyways, I'm leaving.'

'Have a terrible time.' Xavier winked.

'I'll try not to.' Raiden winked back.

_______________________

Raiden smiled internally, she and Xavier did have a lot of fun together. And he would have actually been here with Raiden if he was alive.

A knock on her door pulled her out of her thoughts.

'Come in,' Raiden hollered back as she was still trying to wear the necklace.

The sound of the turning doorknob was heard and Jayden entered the room.

'Raiden, everyone's waiting for you- whoa.' He stopped short.

Raiden and Jayden made eye contact through the mirror. Just like the day they had first met, Jayden was wearing a grey V necked shirt, black jeans, and a black leather jacket. His hair seemed wet and yet ruffled, apparently, he too had taken a shower.

Both of their faces turned red.

'Uhm,' Jayden managed to cough out after a few moments of silence, 'everyone is down there,' and then trying to change the topic he pointed to her necklace, 'you need help with that?'

'Yes please,' she managed.

Raiden could feel the warmth emanating from Jayden's body as he stood behind her. As his hands held the clasp of her necklace, his cold skin made contact with hers, sending a tingle in both of their spines. He could feel his hot breath on her neck and she shivered.

'There, done,' his raspy voice seemed to evoke emotions in different parts of her body that she didn��t know ever existed before.

Raiden slowly turned around to face Xavier. His eyes seemed to have darkened but glowed at the same time, showing emotions she had been quite unfamiliar with. He looked deep into her eyes as his gaze followed downwards to her lips. He leaned in closer and she could also feel herself lean towards him. She could feel Jayden's hot breath on her face, pretty much he could feel hers as well.

Both of them were just lip's distance away from one another, any wrong move and they would actually meet. Raiden could almost feel his lips on hers, a ghost of a kiss.

Before anything could happen, Raiden stepped backward, almost colliding with the mirror.

'Tell them, I'm coming. I'll just need to grab my purse.' She said, turning away to hide her reddening face.

Jayden's face was equally red now. He turned to the door.

'Yeah, I'll tell them that.'

After Jayden had left, Raiden felt weak in the knees. What the fuck had just happened?

'Care to explain what happened?' Jennifer asked her as she sat beside her in the car in the back. Jayden and Aaron sat in the middle while Sarah sat in the passenger seat beside Ms. Renata.

Raiden flinched.

'N-nothing.' She managed, recounting what had happened earlier.

'Bullcrap. Something happened.'

'I swear it was nothing.' She explained.

Jennifer eyed her skeptically and shrugged. 'Fine.'

_________________________

'You guys can order whatever you people want, It's my treat.'

'Everything's so goddamn expensive,' Jennifer commented.

'It's not even that expensive, and why are you worrying about the price, I'll be paying it.' Ms. Renata assured her.

Raiden was about to decide what to order when her phone rang. She turned to everyone.

'Excuse me, I shall go take this.'

'Come back soon. We'll order.'

Raiden walked outside and looked at her phone. It was an unknown number.

'Hello?' she asked picking it up.

'Ms. Raiden Storm?' a gruff voice spoke on the other side of the phone.

'Speaking.'

'Ms. Storm, we have some bad news. It's about your parents.'