The Silver Knights

Chapter 5 • Missing •

Jenn and Sally had finally made it through their last year of high school. Closing their lockers for the last time, they grinned at each other as the lockers clicked closed simultaneously.

"Hey girls, are we ready for school to be out or what!" Dillon hollered as he came up behind Sally and Jenn.

"Got a great idea for you."

He pulled them in close as if he was sharing the greatest secret in the whole wide world.

"Who's up for a party?" Dillon asked. "A bunch of us are gonna celebrate the beginning of summer."

He ran his hand through his dirty-blonde hair. Jenn always liked Dillon; his friendliness and humor were always welcome; of course, Sally liked him more!

"Whose house?" asked Sally.

"Huh-uh, by the docks."

"The docks?" asked Jenn. "That's not a safe place to be, not since the Minotaurs took over the Warehouse District."

"Mitch has a cousin who works at the docks and he arranged safe passage. There's going to be a whole bunch of us, security too. Please?" He looked at them with pleading eyes and a funny attemt-at-a-pout frown that was trying to turn upside down.

"We'll go for a while, won't we Jenn?" Sally looked hopefully at Jenn. Jenn wasn't too sure.

"Are you sure it will be safe?" Jenn looked to Dillon for more assurance.

"Sure I'm sure! Besides, with a big strong guy like me there, what other protection do you need?" he reassured her laughingly.

The girls pummeled him teasingly while he put his arms up in mock defense.

Still laughing, Jenn agreed to go. "But," she added, "we'll have to tell our moms it's at a hall somewhere, and my mom will want to talk to whoever is doing security."

With the details worked out, the girls giggled together while they decided what to wear.

The party itself turned out to be a flop. It started out ok, but the band was suddenly gone, which left everyone just milling around. Next thing Jenn knew, everyone was hustled onto the roof . When Jenn overheard someone say "see if the flying menace will come near enough to accept our sacrifice.", she went running to Dillon.

She'd had every boy in school offer to 'save her' from the 'Let's Sacrifice Virgins' Club during her freshman year. She wanted the Dragons gone as much as anyone else, but that was not the way! She never wanted to believe that people like that existed in the world.

"It's time to go," Jenn told Dillon in a rush as she repeated what she had heard. When he tried to dissuade her, she got insistent.

"We're going now, Dillon, with or without you." she told him angrily.

"OK, we'll go, let me just..."

"Sally and I will be waiting for you downstairs. Sally!"

Sally turned around from where she was chatting with a couple of other girls, startled, "What?"

"Come on, we're going. Now! The rest of you had better go too, these guys are up to no good."

When they got back to the apartment building, Dillon wanted to make it up to them.

"I nabbed a few bottles if you want to finish the party here?" he hinted, as he swung his backpack down.

Jenn shook her head as Sally blushed a bit.

"I'll pass. You two have a good night."

She headed toward the building with the sound of their giggles in her ear.

A few hours later Jenn was pounding at Dillon's door. He stepped into the hall with her instead of inviting her in like he usually did.

"Sally's mom called me. Sally never made it home. I've been waiting to hear something from her. Where is she, Dillon?" Jenn demanded.

Dillon started to answer but couldn't seem to get past her name. "Je, Jenn...I, Jenn."

'Where is she?' Jenn asked again.

Dillon looked at her, then lowered his eyes, refusing to respond.

'What did you do?"

Anger and accusation filled Jenn's voice as she sought to pull the truth out of this idiot in front of her, for she feared she knew what he had done.

"What happened after I left you two?"

He still wouldn't answer her and tried to avoid looking at her.

"Dillon!" she finally screamed out, getting more and more distraught.

He jerked his head up as she screamed his name, and when he did, she saw the truth in his eyes. He actually cringed at the look of horror that came over her face. As the realization of what must have happened came to her, she caught her breath. The reality hit her like a physical blow. Jenn backed up without even realizing it, breathing hard.

Again, "What did you do?" disbelieving this time, and still backing up.

Dillon started toward her.

"Jenn," he tried, and then more urgently as she started to turn away, "Jenn!"

She ran away then, wanting nothing more to do with Dillon.

He chased her down the hall, and shoved her against the wall when he caught her. Turning her around, he said "It's not what you think!"

She kneed him to break his hold, then stood there and released her pent-up emotions in a rant that she couldn't control.

"Tell you what I think, you lowlife murderer. You had no right..."

"She volunteered!"

Dillon's interruption shocked Jenn into silence. Disbelief filled her as she silently shook her head no.

"We, that is a group of us, thought if the virgins went willingly, well, that the Dragons would stay gone for awhile again. Like the sacrifices last time," he finished with a whisper.

"Stupid. No, Don't you touch me!" she hissed as she backed up, hands raised as if to ward him off.

This time she strode off, anger emanating from her every step. This time, he let her go without a word.

With no real plan, Jenn took off. Her thoughts were roiling, she couldn't believe that Sally would choose to be eaten by a Dragon. She didn't stop walking until she saw the warehouses in front of her. She had not planned to come here, but part of her wanted to see where Sally had died.

Jenn glimpsed the occasional Minatour, but she didn't care. Eventually she found herself on a roof with no real idea of how she ended up there, let alone what made her choose that roof over all the others, until she saw a few decorations from the party off to the side.

The few party streamers weren't the only thing Jenn saw. She stood there, staring at the chains that were bolted down, knowing there was meaning in that jumbled pile. Then it was if her head just cleared. Volunteers wouldn't need to be chained.

Sally! Her grief overtook her then, and she crumbled into a heap. Her grief continued until something moved to blocked the early morning sun. She looked up and gasped in shock.