The corridors of the school echoed with hurried footsteps. Devin and Lucian darted from hall to hall, calling out in rising panic.
"Anastasia!" Devin's voice cracked. His chest tightened as he tore open another classroom door—empty.
"Patricia!" Lucian bellowed, fists clenched. The silence gnawed at his nerves.
By the time the evening sun dipped below the horizon, their search had become frantic.
Meanwhile, Elise clutched her phone on the school trip, staring at the screen. Call after call rang into nothing. Her fingers trembled. "They're not answering, Davon… Anastasia, Patricia—they're not picking up."
Her chest tightened with dread.
Davon's jaw tensed as he tried Patricia's number himself, only to be met with the same dead silence. His stomach dropped. "This isn't good."
When they returned to the campus that night, Elise rushed through the courtyard, scanning every face. "Please, has anyone seen Anastasia or Patricia?" she asked, voice breaking.
A timid voice spoke up. A girl from their class. "I—I saw Devin and Lucian earlier. They looked… worried. Like they'd lost something. Or someone."
Elise's breath hitched. Her hands covered her mouth. Lost someone…
The thought slammed into her like a blade. Her voice trembled. "No… no, it can't be. They've been kidnapped."
Tears streamed down her face as she collapsed to her knees. Davon caught her, wrapping his arms around her trembling form. "We'll figure this out, Elise. I won't let anything happen to them."
But what Elise didn't know was that, far from the courtyard, Devin and Lucian were already moving in silence.
They had found Anastasia's phone, cracked and dirt-stained, abandoned near the gates. And next to it, smeared faintly along the ground, was a trail of blood.
Lucian's voice was low and dangerous. "They've been taken."
Devin's eyes burned with fury, but his tone was cold. "We follow the trail. No one lays a hand on them and gets away with it."
Without a word to anyone—not even Davon or Elise—they disappeared into the night, shadows chasing shadows, their rage guiding every step.