Vocaloid Actors (Book #1 of Vocaloid Actors Trilogy)

Chapter 14

I bring my knees up and place my book behind them. I start to read my book, trying to block the sounds of splashing and laughter from the pool.

A sudden movement I can see in the corner of my eye brings me out of the daze caused by my book. I can hear footsteps, so I grab my crutches and head back to the locker room. I try to place my crutches as gently on the floor so I don't attract their attention. I hear a gentle clicking, and turn the corner. Someone dashes out of sight, and I see Rachel and Louis's locker swinging open.

I frown before going to their locker and looking inside. There are their bags, I look inside both briefly. Both front pockets are open. 'We'll be putting the bands in the front pockets,' Rachel's voice echoes in my head.  I check the front pockets and gasp as I notice their bands are gone.

That unknown person must have picked the lock and stolen them. I look in Rachel's coat pocket and notice her purse is still there. That's odd, who would go to all that trouble to pick a lock to take something that shouldn't mean that much to them. It can't be another Vocaloid Actor as we all own one and understand the implications if they get lost.

I frown again before Mind-Messaging Rachel and Louis.

Me: 'Hey, you two, someone has just taken your bands!'

I don't receive a reply, which is expected. I hear a squeal and a loud splash from the pool. I head back and notice a bit of commotion at the pool. I see Rachel under Louis's arm. What happened?!

"Rachel stumbled and fell backwards into the pool knocking herself out," he explains, when he sees me. "I jumped in to save her."

He lays her on the side and starts CPR. He looks very worried, eyes flickering around. That reminds me of something. He looked exactly like Rachel did two weeks earlier when she told me Maryann and Lucy's bands were missing.

"Wait, you didn't experience the same thing Rachel did, three weeks ago, did you?" I ask, and he looks around worriedly. "Calm down, we don't want you to faint like she did, I don't know what happened! I can only tell as you are acting the same as she was, two weeks ago!"

"Yeah, I did," he sighs. He looks down and gasps in relief. I look down and Rachel's eyes flicker open. She sighs before twitching like Louis is, her eyes flickering.

"Are you telling the truth?" she asks me.

"I'm afraid so," I say, and tears start to leak out of her eyes. She grasps her locker key before pulling it off her wrist.

"Can you re-lock our locker?" she asks, giving me the locker key.

"Did someone get into the locker?!" a teacher asks. "Was anything stolen?!"

"Yes, I noticed them! I never saw who it was, as they disappeared before I got a look at them. Two things were stolen. I don't know what it was, it looked like two scrunchies and they are apparently very important to Rachel and Louis."

"Not those?!" Rachel says, feigning panic, which to be honest, isn't that hard in this present situation. She gives me a wink.

"We really need those back!" Louis says, playing along.

"We'll have a look at the security camera to see who it was," the teacher says, helping Rachel up, as she was still lying on the floor.

"Can we come as well? We may be able to identify them," I ask, looking at Rachel and Louis.

"Y-yeah," they say in unison, their hands shaking.

We all go to the security room and we ask the person on duty to show us the camera footage from then. It shows a male picking the lock. Unfortunately, as the locker was quite low, his head was bent over hiding his face. He opened it, rummaged in the front pockets of the bags and took the bands, before making a run for it. I appeared a minute later, where I checked the locker before I reacted with surprise.

"What were you doing?" the teacher asked. I admit it was suspicious, I looked through the locker after all.

"I was checking to see if anything was stolen," I say, "I reacted with surprise as I noticed something was missing!"

The security guy checked the camera above the door next where the guy run past and out the door.

"Wait a second, rewind that," I say, as I noticed something. Judging by the shocked looks on Rachel and Louis's faces, they saw it as well. He rewound it and I said "Stop!"

The face was revealed briefly, before he noticed the camera. I look closer and gasp as I recognised him, and I clutched my crutches tighter, my knuckles turning white.

"I know who that is," I say, and turn to Rachel. "Don't you?"

"Y-Yes," she said. "That's Ellis!"

The teacher frowned, before taking a closer look herself. "He shouldn't even be at the leisure centre in the first place, he's grounded."

That's true, but considering how he just picked the lock on the locker, he probably found a way to escape the house. I mull it over, before I get a revelation.

I close my eyes briefly sending a Mind-Message to Rachel and Louis.

Me: 'I need to talk to you in private! Can you come with me?'

I open my eyes and turn to Rachel and Louis. They gave a little start and then nodded to me. I went to leave the room, and the teacher asks "Where are you going?"

"Rachel and Louis need to change back," I lie smoothly, checking the cameras where I noticed everyone getting out of the pool. "And I need to go to the bathroom, before taking this extra sweater off and grabbing my stuff from my locker."

They let us go, and I went to the changing rooms, slipping into a unisex cubicle to talk to them both.

"I need you two to tell me what happened in the Vocaloid World before all the bands starting disappearing," I plead, needing to know whether my theory is correct or not.

"I-I," Rachel says, before shaking.

"I promise I won't tell anyone," I say, making eye contact with her and grabbing her hands.

"W-we were threatened to n-not tell," Louis says, shaking even more than Rachel. This must have been eating them up.

"Y-you know how I-I tensed up when E-Ellis looked at me," she says. "H-He was the one to c-come to the V-Vocaloid World."

"H-He threatened us, and w-we were f-forced to give up the s-secret about V-Vocaloid Actors," she says, before relaxing. It must have been a relief to finally get this out.

"Please don't tell anyone!" Louis says, his voice shaking, and I nod.

At least we know who's been taking the bands now.