DYSTOPIA (henry danger)

THREE

❝ Who said you were in charge? ❞

IT WAS EARLY IN THE MORNING, the sun only just peeking over the horizon of Dystopia. Normally, on a day after their usual long nights, none of the trio weren't up and adam until at least noon. Despite this, Charlotte was wide awake. The purple-haired girl sat across from three large screens, her eyes scanning over various information about recent events that had happened in the past three days. It had been three days since the hostage situation, three days since Charlotte, Henry, and Jasper had seen five hostages wrongfully murdered. Since then, the girl had barely slept at all. Every time she closed her eyes, the morbid flashbacks were all that she saw.

The worst part about this? Since the hostage situation, the disappearances around the area had started. First, it was one victim, and suddenly, upon refreshing the page, there were six.

She wanted to find exactly who was doing this and end it as soon as possible before there were six more. The whole thing infuriated her, and for the first time since arriving in Dystopia, she truly missed home. At home, people didn't die in front of her, and kidnapping happened once in a blue moon. Charlotte hoped they were kidnappings, because if more were dead... No, she couldn't think like that.

Another horrible thought that crossed her mind was the connection to the two events, and how quickly the disappearances had started, directly following the hostage situation like the second verse of a song.

The girl took a sharp breath inward, her fingers quickly clicking away at the keyboard in front of her. It wasn't long before every news article about this 'Crucible' person covered the screens. There weren't many, but there were enough. The article's dates were all fairly recent, and each had death plastered all over them. She'd learned quickly into her digging that whoever this was, they weren't forgiving at all.

Charlotte desperately wanted to crack this case wide open, find out where these missing people were, and wake the team. That's what she wanted. Whoever this person was, they were also clever, escaping the sight of police by a longshot. Every time. The only reports that had come out were from witnesses, who claimed he wore a sort of robotic-looking suit, oh, and that it was a he.

"Damnit." She muttered. Assuming the Crucible had done this, there were no leads at all. No fingerprints at the last places the victims had been seen, no traces of footprints or people that could've been around. They were simply diagnosed as any other missing case in Dystopia, yet Charlotte couldn't let it go.

"This guy again?"

Charlotte jumped, snapping her head around to see Jasper. He stood a few feet behind her, rubbing his eyes, but not from sleep. The boy seemed to be agitated, and judging by the bags under his eyes, he hadn't gotten any sleep either. "Hey, it's just me, jeez."

"Don't sneak up on me like that." The girl took a breath in of relief "Did you get any sleep?"

Jasper shook his head.

That boy got the least sleep out of all three of them, surprisingly. Since his part of the job consisted of Jasper going to sleep, when he actually went to grab some shut-eye, his dreams were filled with nightmares and memories from his prior fights. He'd woken screaming more than once, and part of Charlotte wished he would just learn to fight in his waking hours.

"So, what's up?" The boy asked, putting his hand on the back of her chair.

Charlotte took a deep breath, exhaling through her nose and leaning forward. "Well, these kidnappings. They all started directly after the hostage situation."