Professor Layton: Conundrum of the Vanishing

Chapter Fourteen

When Byrne got back to the hotel, the first thing he did was pace. Everybody was spread out into rooms, each one in a room with a partner since the hotel didn't have enough space for all of them to have their own rooms. Since Bohimika was a rather small town, then not many people came to stay, which also resulted to the hotels being extremely tight and cramped when so many people stayed in them.

Byrne found a note on the ground that said that he was rooming with Minori on the second floor in the third room. Everybody had chosen their partners while Byrne was being emotional and drowning in his thoughts down at the docks, so Byrne was left with the shy girl nobody knew well yet.

Byrne didn't mind. He could pace anywhere. So when he got back in, then he walked through the door to his and Minori's shared space and began to pace the way that he always did when he was panicked. It was one of his nervous tics, so to speak. The second Byrne started pacing, you knew that he was worried or worked up about some thing or another that was going on in his life.

His pacing soon woke up Minori, who had previously been sleeping soundly. Byrne figured that Minori was a big of a light sleeper, as Byrne had barely been doing anything to wake her up. Minori sat up and rubbed her eyes, staring at Byrne. "Y-you're back..." Minori whispered. "I-I didn't know if you w-would be back so soon..."

"Can I tell you something without you freaking out, Minori?" Byrne asked, taking a seat next to Minori on her bed. "It's really important and I want to be able to tell you without you screaming and waking everybody up."

"Um... I think that you can tell me," Minori said, looking into Byrne's eyes. Her eyes met Byrne's, and for a second, he felt a little bit calmer than usual. Minori had a sense of serenity about her, which made Byrne's heart rate slow down to a regular pace.

"Okay," Byrne said with a sigh. "Fine. I'll go on and tell you. Foliis, Faith, and Fey... They were kidnapped while in the hospital on the neighboring island."

Like Byrne should have expected from somebody as nervous as Minori, she screamed. Her screech made Byrne flinch and was enough to make him fall down off of her bed and onto the floor. Minori stammered out what Byrne assumed was an apology through her heavy breathing and began to pace even faster than Byrne had previously been pacing. "T-this is really bad!" Minori exclaimed, gasping loudly. "They were really kidnapped?!"

Alex and Kurisu came running in. Alex was staying in the room to the right and Kurisu the room to the right (Alex having roomed with Toya and Kurisu with Theo), throwing the door open in the blink of an eye. "What's going on?!" Kurisu yelled out, glancing all over the room for signs of what had made Minori cry out so loudly.

Byrne sighed and gestured for everybody to have a seat on the floor as they streamed in. Byrne did a brief head count and eventually reached what he thought was their total. It was something around eighteen or nineteen, but he was too tired to fully register what the number really was. It was getting later by the minute, and with each passing moment, his mind grew more and more alert while his body went numb with sleepiness.

"Well... I guess I'll just tell you what made Minori scream while we're all together... I can't tell you guys to go back to sleep after you heard something like that... You're probably thinking that it's a really bad thing if it made her yell like that..." Byrne declared.

"Yeah. Go on. What's going on?" Chloe demanded. "You had better have interrupted my sleep for a good reason, you little piece of shi-"

"They were kidnapped," Byrne cut in before Chloe had the chance to finish her word. Byrne knew it was inappropriate, so cutting her off was probably best. "Foliis, Faith, and Fey were all kidnapped a while ago. It was probably about an hour ago by now... But they're gone. While in a hospital on the nearby island, something that starts with K, somebody snuck into their hospital and took them while they were sleeping like usual comatose people usually do when comatose..."

"I can't believe this," Roman whispered, his face going pale. "This can't be happening. Faith has to be okay. Faith is okay, right? Faith and her siblings... They're safe, right? They have to be safe!"

Sofia pulled Roman into a hug. She didn't say anything. She did nothing but stroke him and run her fingers through his hair. Her silence spoke volumes, and Roman knew it, even if he wanted to deny it like he was doing at that moment.

A buzz came from Byrne's phone. He frowned and turned it on. "You're... You're not going to believe this but... I'm getting a video chat from a random person I don't know... What if it has to do with the Dohim siblings being abducted?!" Byrne cried out.

Quinton tapped on the symbol on Byrne's phone surface that started the call up. Byrne and Quinton both crowded around the phone and stared at it as the screen changed to go from the screen of accepting a call to the one that existed when a call was in progress. A small white circle spun around in the center of Byrne's phone screen as the call processed. Byrne tapped his foot in impatience. In a moment like that, patience and waiting calmly weren't exactly his strong suits.

A shadowy figure came into view on the screen. "I assume that you're curious about the hostages," the person, who sounded to be a male, said. "I have them, but you're not going to see them any time soon, you hear me?"

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No lsg updates today bc I crave Zelda

I'll do some tomorrow I promise

-Digital