Echo [Sequel to MATW]

Chapter Four - Curiousity

Cora's POV

As me and Eric walked back to Science class, he looked over at me. "That's him, isn't it?"

It wasn't a question. We both knew, that after years of searching, we had

finally found what we'd been looking for. "All this time....." I mused. "It was right under our noses." I frowned. So why didn't he know me? I know that if my suspicion was correct, he was a Chosen. He'd been to Camara, most likely pulled through by her. And if that was true, then he had definitely met Beatrice. But then the same question arises. Why can't he recognize me? Eric sensed all these questions swirling through my mind, and he patted my arm comfortingly. "Don't worry. We'll get him alone at some point, and then we can answer all our questions."

timeskip to after school

Danny's POV

I walked in my front door and threw my backpack on the couch. I made a beeline straight for the kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing a big red apple. I chomped into it as I sat down on the couch to work on my math homework. For a moment, the world seemed relatively normal. Then I remembered how weird of a day I had been having. First I had gotten to school like it was a regular day, but Lana and Trevor, my two best friends were both acting weird. Then, at lunchtime, a mysterious girl and her brother befriended me and were also acting quite strange. With a jolt, I remembered that my mom was still nowhere to be found.

When I had first returned, I had been to worn out to think much of it, and spent most of my time sleeping. But now I was rejuvenated, and I had even more to worry about.

I got up and started searching the house for clues. I picked up my phone from the coffee table where I left it. I checked my messages. No messages from my mom, one from Trevor, asking if he could come over and compare Algebra homework answers. I texted him back, typing that it sounded like a good idea. If Trevor came, by himself, maybe I could explain things to him. But Lana couldn't know, she would just worry. But I felt like Trevor could be trusted, and that he would be chill about it. He texted back, oddly quick, saying he would be here in 5 minutes. That gave me some time. I also decided to shoot my mom a text, simply typing, where are you? I honestly didn't expect a text back, knowing her she had probably left her phone lying around.

So from then until Trevor arrived, I set my mind on looking around the house for anything that would tell me where my mom was. After about two minutes of fruitless scouring, I noticed a yellow sticky note on the inside of her bedroom door. I grabbed at it quickly. At first glance, I knew it wasn't my mom's handwriting. She was left-handed, but also had arthritis in that hand, so she had to exert extra force, making for some strange, if recognizable, handwriting. No, this note was written in a small, tidy scrawl, obviously written through pen. My mom hated to use pens, pencils were preferable because you could erase and start over.

The note said, "If you want her back, meet me at the big tree by the high school. After dark. You know who I'm talking about, and you know where. Come alone." I dropped the note on the floor and went immediately to the phone and picked it up and was about to dial 911, but I stopped. I had to think this through, but I didn't have much time. I looked at the clock. Trevor would be here in two minutes. I sat back down on the couch and put the phone back down. I couldn't think. Why in the world would someone want to kidnap my mom? And if that, why hold her for ransom, when I had been missing for days? They couldn't possibly think they would get any money out of us. Mom's work paid reasonably well, but most of her income went towards bills, my college fund, stuff like that. Plus, if this WAS a ransom situation, why would the abductor leave a note telling me to meet him? That's not how these things work, I've seen enough tv to know that. Unless the note wasn't meant for me...

All of a sudden, there was a brief knock at the door, and then Trevor barged in on me. I slipped the note hurriedly into my pocket and sat back down, all in a rush. "Uh, I knocked.." Trevor said nervously. "You didn't answer, so I figured it was fine."

"Yeah, yeah. No problem." I said awkwardly. "Uh, have a seat." It hadn't really been that long since I had hung out with Trevor, but it sure seemed like it. I realized we probably HAD hung out not too long ago, but that Lana had probably been there too. Since they had starting going out, it'd been nigh impossible to separate them at any given time.

He sat down on the couch next to me and slung his backpack off his shoulders. "Did you finish the Algebra homework? I was almost done with it, but I was having some trouble with problem 22...." He trailed off awkwardly, it had obviously become clear to him that I didn't really care much for the homework. "Or, you know, we could just hang out. It's not that important." He shrugged, starting to put the assignment back into his backpack. 

"I'd like that, yeah. It's been awhile since we just sorta hung out." I said gratefully. 

"So what do you wanna do? Video games or something?" Trevor asked, with a vague look on his face. He had never been as much of a gamer as I was, preferring instead to immerse himself in books, or, more recently, immerse himself in conversations with Lana. I couldn't really fault him for that.

"Um, actually. " I started nervously, making the split second decision to tell him what was going on, or at least a part of it. "I need your help with something, or maybe your advice."

"Yeah, sure. Fire away." Trevor said amiably. 

"This sounds weird, but; I think my mom has been kidnapped. Or rather, mom-napped." I dug the note out of my pocket and showed it to him. He snatched it out of my hand and read it, with an intense look in his eyes. When he had finished, he looked up at me with a shocked expression etched into his face. I knew I had some explaining to do. The problem was, I didn't understand any of it myself.