38 We are safe...Aren’t we?
1668 Words
“Jules! Where are you?!” Max screamed as he ran through the school hallways.
Her voice echoed through the halls as she screamed at the top of her lungs in terror. He could barely make her out at the end of the hall, being restrained by the same people that attempted to catch her the first time. Instinctively, he ran at full speed toward her direction, using every bit of energy that his muscles could possibly release. He bolted down the hallway, yet for some reason, she seemed to be getting farther and farther away.
“Max! Help me!”
“Jules! I’m coming!”
He ran until he was exhausted, but even still he continued. It was then that he heard something behind him. He turned his head for a moment and saw tendrils of darkness rushing towards him from the other end of the hall. Fear for his own life began to rush through his brain and pushed him to use every ounce of adrenaline to keep him going. No matter how hard he tried though, Jules kept getting farther, while the darkness got closer. With a misstep, he tripped and fell onto his stomach. Max in despair looked back up at Jules, who was already being taken away. In a moment of hopelessness, he reached his hand out to her, as she faded from his sigh, and the darkness started to engulf him.
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“Jules!”
Max shot up from his bed and bashed his head on the ceiling, which was only a few feet from the bunk that he lay on. Recoiling in pain, he lay back down and clutched his head in pain. As the pain subsided, the memories of the nightmare that he had just had flooded back. Along with those memories came the ones from the original attempt for Jules’ life, headed by the Wolfpack. He shuddered at the thought of how easy it could be for them to kidnap Jules if he took his eyes off of her for even a second. Max just wanted to do everything he could in order to keep her safe. But the more that he thought about it, the more he remembered the things that she told him.
“I don’t want to be some maiden to be rescued, Max! I hate that idea! f**k that idea!!!”
But as she was, he knew that there was not much that she could do on her own. Not at the moment anyway. In his head, the gears started to turn on how he would prepare her to be able to fight on her own. If he wasn’t there to do the protecting, then he wanted to at least give her the tools to be able to do so. For now, they all had to get passed the initial wave, which he knew would come the next day.
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Max barely got any sleep after the nightmare. He was able to go out at 5 am for a while and grab some supplies for the all daybreak that he was giving the others. Trae was still asleep by the time he got back, so he decided to do a bit of preparation. He put down extra cushions for everyone else to sit on for the time that the rest of his team would be bunking with him and Trae. He put chips and water on the table, as well as the raw vegetables and meats that they would eventually cook when they got hungry. Finally, he was able to prepare the microphone that was attached to Ivan’s backpack. Thankfully, he hasn’t picked up on it yet. He set it up to play on speakers so that everyone could be able to hear any kind of communication between him and the culprit. Although Max was already completely sure that the people behind this are the ones who tried to kidnap Jules the first time. The Wolfpack. All he did now was wait until everyone was awake.
It was a couple of hours before Trae woke up. They both went to class as per usual. However, over their breaks, they made sure to contact each other in order to make sure that everyone was on the same page when it came to the plan for the day. It was only a matter of time before most of them made it to the room.
“Alright Max, so there’s clearly something going on right now. Care to explain?” Charlie asked, as he sat down and munched on some of the Doritos that Max had graciously provided for all of them.
“Same here, I’m wondering what’s going on,” Jules said as she made herself comfortable on Max’s chair.
“I’ll explain in a bit you guys, but we gotta wait for Lina to get here,” Max replied.
“Well that might take a while man,” Charlie said as he licked his fingers clean.
“Why’s that?”
“She has some club activities for the art fair coming during the Christmas break. So she is overtiming in her club at the moment.”
Max shook his head disapprovingly but sighed knowing that nothing could be done about the situation she was in right now. So he decided to proceed with informing everyone with what was happening at the moment.
“Alright, you guys. I need to let you guys in on something that I discovered yesterday. It’ll be a bit jarring, especially for you Charlie as you’ve never been in this situation with us before. That being said, here I go,”
Max took a deep breath and continued his talk.
“So, Jules. I’m sorry I gotta bring this up again. But a few months ago, you were almost kidnapped by the people we believe to be the Wolfpack. Charlie, have you heard about this?”
“Somewhat, yeah. I heard in the news that the daughter of some high up was almost kidnapped. However, you and Trae were able to get in between that. And as a result, the three guys are in jail now.”
“Right. Well, the Wolfpack is a very powerful organization. And we believe them to be backed by the prominent bookselling company in America, known as Banner&Bunny.”
Charlie’s eyes widened almost in disbelief.
“No way!”
“Trust me, it’s legit. So it’s not out of the question that those three men have been let out. But I’m getting away from the topic. The reason that we are here.”
“And what reason would that be, Max?” Jules said, as her unease began to rise.
“Well, I have reason to believe that the Wolfpack is after you again Jules and that they are planning to try again today.”
Jules froze and the fear in her face started to become more evident with every second of silence that passed. She started to tremble as she realized the danger that she was in yet again. With a gasp, she took a breath and began to speak again.
“So… they’re here for me again?”
Max hesitated again but confirmed her fears again.
“Yes, they are.”
She tried to hold back her tears, but they came down no matter how hard she tried to suppress herself. Even if it was painful to watch, Max knew he had to continue in order to keep her safe.
“Anyway, I was able to plant a mic on the operative that they have on the inside. This person tied to them tried to get close to us in order to be able to have a better attempt in reaching Jules.”
“But who? I don’t remember anyone just up and try to get close with us-”
Charlie immediately cut his sentence as he realized the only person other than the XMC Tech members that were able to get close to them in recent memory.
“You catch on quick, Charlie. That’s right.”
“You mean… Ivan?” Charlie asked, in complete disbelief.
“That’s right.”
“But I don’t remember him trying anything specifically! Are you sure?”
“That’s what the mic is for.”
Max turned on the remote control microphone and proceeded to let the others listen in on the conversation that Ivan was currently having. The speaker let out an audible rustling sound so they could only assume that he was on the move at this current moment in time. Everyone zoned in on the speakers trying to find telling sounds that would incriminate the person in question, which was their potential hire named Ivan Perez. For the moment, there were no sounds coming from the mic. However, after a little while, they heard him start to speak.
“Sir, will we proceed with the plan?”
It was at this point that everyone was even more invested in the conversation to be had. The only person who was not as zoned into the speaker was Charlie who was still checking up on where Lina was at that moment. The more time that passed that she wasn’t there, the more he started to build up anxiety.
“Yes sir, I think this is the girl that you’re looking for.”
“Yes sir, I know exactly where she is at this moment.”
“And you swear that you won’t threaten my life anymore once you have her?”
“Ok...ok. Well, I am looking at her right now and she is just at the fountain that I texted her to meet me at.”
Jules raised her eyebrow.
“Wait for a second… He didn’t text me about any fountain.”
Max looked over at Jules in shock.
“What?! Then who is the girl that he is referring to?”
Charlie dropped his phone as soon as the voice on the other end of the line started to speak again.
“Yes, I’m sure she is the one… She has red hair, doesn’t she?”
It was at the moment that Charlie dropped everything and sprinted out of the door.
“Charlie! What’s the matter?!” Jules yelled out after him.
It was no use. Charlie knew exactly what the voice meant when he said red hair. There were only two girls that Charlie knew that had red hair. One of them was in the room with them the whole time before he ran out of the room. The other... Is Lina.
- Writer
