What Comes After

e i g h t

Harper's POV

I stared down at Catie. She looked terrified.

"So, do you know where he is?"

Catie shook her head slowly, then pointed to the door. "They took him."

"What?"

"Two people came in, and three left. They took him."

"That's not possible. There must have been a third person who just didn't make any noise. He's got to be here somewhere."

"Well I don't see him. Do you?" she shot me a cold glare before running to the door, shouting his name.

"Shhh!" I hissed. Catie looked at me, expressionless, then carried on calling for Mike.

I sat down on a crate. Nikki walked over to me. She sighed. "This is crazy, I know, but you've got to be sympathetic. Mike has been Catie's best friend for years. He's stuck with her through everything - it's only natural. Plus, she's making sense – he's definitely not here, and he wouldn't have just left."

"What if he was having second thoughts about coming?"

"I told you. Best friends. He wouldn't have abandoned us, let alone Catie."

I slid down onto the floor. Nikki was right. He wasn't the sort of person to run away from an adventure.

Just then, I heard a familiar noise from the other end of the room. It sounded like... sniffing. And shuffling. But mixed together... snuffling?

"GARY!" shrieked Nikki. "I knew you were still here." She scooped him up and started rocking him gently.

I inhaled loudly, and brought out my notebook and the reporter's pen I always carry around. I started to write.

Mood chart

07/07/16

Catie

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I circled the 3.

Nikki

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I looked up at Nikki – she was singing "Break Free" to Gary. I circled the 9.

Mike

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I looked at the numbers for a bit, before drawing a question mark next to his name.

Tem

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I circled the 6, then closed the notebook. It was time to make a plan, and I wouldn't be happy until all four 10s were circled.

After, plans were my specialty.

Nikki's POV

I was hungry.

With all the drama of the situation, it hadn't occurred to me – I needed food. Did we even have any? Tem would. She was always prepared, right? I walked over to her. She was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. It was always obvious when Tem was planning. She would completely cut off from the rest of the world. I thought about tapping her on the shoulder, but I knew it wouldn't do anything, so I turned around and went over to Catie. She had obviously been crying – her eyes were red and puffy. She half-smiled when she saw me. I smiled back sympathetically. Looking back, I probably should have hugged her. Yeah, she could have used a hug.

Unfortunately I didn't hug her, so we both just smiled awkwardly until Tem jumped to her feet and exclaimed "I know where he is!"

Catie SpiderMan-ran over to her. "How?"

Tem shrugged. "I'm not really sure how I did it, actually. Just listen. We think that they took him, right? And even though it's illegal for him to get on here without a ticket, they can't kick him off the train because he's under 18. So, they're keeping him on the train. They wouldn't just put him in a seat, because that's basically giving him a nice ride that he didn't pay for. The train is pretty small, so with seats ruled off, there aren't many options for places that they could keep him."

She wrote "seats" in her notebook and crossed it out.

"They wouldn't put him in the kitchen or pantry for sure, so that's not an option."

She crossed them off and continued talking.

"The only other option is the couchettes."

Seeing my confused look, she said, "Sleeper cabins. They only use them on five-plus day journeys, and this is a three-day one. The logical explanation is that he's still on the train, locked inside one of those. He would be safe in there, and since he's a minor offender, they're allowed to keep him locked up."

She suddenly realized what she had said, and quickly corrected herself. "Don't worry, he's not going to jail or anything. Getting on a train without a ticket is pretty much equivalent to stealing a ticket, which is only a minor crime. Still a bad idea, but his worst punishment woud be a fine.

We have an hour until the train arrives in Rome. If we can pay the fine, he'll be free to go."