Vanished

Chapter Thirty-Four

Mark carried some blankets into the daycare, seeing children sleeping with dim lights. He dropped some of the thin blankets and placed them near a shoe rack. Quietly, he stepped around the broken glass. He had to fix this door with Xander and Zane tomorrow, which he had no idea how to do.

He walked in the quiet plaza, with lights shining and the false moon glowing. Many classify the sun and the moon as illusions, especially with this bubble surrounding them. It was neutral weather that wasn't going to change anytime soon, hopefully. If it became blazing or freezing, they'd need air conditioning or heaters.

He pushed open the church door and walked downstairs into the infirmary. James and Cindy both slept in their cots, healing from their injuries. Some have been calling it a massacre, like in horror movies. Two girls died, and some were injured; more could have died. They had been saved by the girl, who slept on the ground beside an empty plate.

Mark tried to figure out a way to get her up. Knowing from experience that sleeping on the floor wasn't comfortable, since it's cold and oftentimes dirty, especially if there aren't any mattresses of any sort. Placing the blanket at the end of James' cot, he used both hands to slowly lift her up, trying not to wake her up. That didn't exactly work, as she blinked multiple times, still dazed.

"Is it morning?" Emma murmured and rubbed her eye.

"No, it's 11 p.m," Mark said.

Mark didn't know Emma very well; other than that she was the healer of this place. Oftentimes, she does get physically sick from some injuries that she declines to treat, like putting a broken bone back in place.

"Why are you waking me up? Did someone break a bone?" Emma mumbled as he sat her down on the empty cot near the stairs.

"You fell asleep on the floor again," Mark stated.

"Right, Esme had been here for a while before I got tired, and then Bryce came," Emma muttered. She sat herself up on the pillow as he laid the blanket over her. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I had to do some extra duties with everything that happened," Mark implied. "Can I ask why you were on the floor?"

"Had to stop Esme with something before she left. Guess I just fell asleep from all the injuries," Emma whispered, her lips pressed together.

"Did you heal them?" Mark questioned, but Emma nodded, reaching over to grab her water bottle from the small table.

"Cindy hasn't said anything since then. Do you think that she's mad that I couldn't save Melany?" Emma asked.

"Probably mad at Luke," Mark said. "Who pulled the knife out of Cindy's eye?"

"Jason," she said, glancing over toward Cindy. She was wearing a piece of tied cloth over her eye, with a blindfold supporting it.

"Is the daycare okay?" Emma questioned.

Mark nodded at her, who breathed out a sigh. After the events, many were crying while those helping tried to clean up broken glass and blood stains.

"I didn't end up healing their injuries, mostly. Only healed ones when they brought them."

"Do you have a clue about the vanishing tomorrow?" Mark asked.

"Two boys from Uden had vanished. The first day, we saw it all in plain sight. There one second and gone the next," Emma explained.

Mark wondered if there were ways to stop it—not just the disappearing, but all of this. It wasn't his job to figure everything out. That's more to Jason's route of knowledge than his.

"Greyson might know how to stop it," Emma said, rubbing an eye.

Mark got involved with the Uden Academy people, which didn't turn out well. Emma had been at least one Uden Academy student who didn't care for herself. Scarlett had used words for Greyson's personal gains, between whatever they actually wanted, which came to an unknown situation.