Spy School Betrayal

Loosing hope

At 0245 hours Erica and I stumbled into a crappy little motel room. Apparently Erica's claim to have a place to stay had been a lie, or at least the place wasn't accessible at the moment. The lady at the front desk had been reluctant to rent a room to two teenagers but Erica dealt with this by telling her that her mom was out in the car with a terrible headache and had sent her and her brother in to get the room keys. Erica, being quite good at playing a sweet, charming teenager, got two room keys to one of the nicest avalable rooms. We had "borrowed" a parked car at the airport that the driver had abandoned to go pick someone up (this was against my will but you could just say Erica didn't care) and then we had driven until Erica could barely keep her eyes open, stopping for the night at the nearest motel. We headed to room 235 and barged in. The motel claimed to be top quality and comfortable for all your living needs. This was a lie. The room smelled of mildew and stale Cheetos and the sheets didn't appear to have been washed since the last guest. I was to tired to care though and crawled into the twin bed on the left side of the room. Erica, despite being exhausted, cringed in disgust at the grimy sheets. Finally she decided to just strip them off the bed and sleep on the bare mattress. It was cold in the room and I could see her shivering. I took off my sweatshirt and laid it over her, smiling slightly as she pulled it tightly around her.

"Get some sleep Ben. We have a busy day tomorrow." Erica whispered. 

"Goodnight Erica." I said, crawling under my own grimy sheets again.

"Night." 

***

I awoke to the feeling of being watched. I rolled over in bed and saw Erica sitting cross-legged on her bed, showered and dressed in her usual black outfit and utility belt watching me.

"And agent Ripley finally awakens." she said, amused. I checked my watch (my sense of time is usually off in the morning and saw it was ten in the morning.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" I yawned, climbing out of bed and clambering over to my suitcase.

"You just looked so peaceful." she smirked. I half smiled at her words, pulling a pair of black pants, a dark forest green tee shirt and a gray Nike sweatshirt out of my bag, slipping into the bathroom and pulling on the cloths, brushing my teeth and hair, gagging on the highly chlorinated water, and meeting Erica by the door to the motel room. She had our bags packed and stood impatiently waiting for me. We lugged the bags out to the stolen car and Erica and I hopped into the front seats. It was raining lightly outside, the sky was gray and it was chilly. Erica had pulled a thin, stylish black down coat over her outfit. 

"Where are we headed?" I asked her as she pulled the car onto the main road. 

"To Trixie's school. Now shut up- its hard to get use to driving on this side of the road." I sat in silence for about twenty minutes until Erica drove up in front of a large, gray castle like building that reminded me somewhat of Hogwarts from those Harry Potter movies my mom and dad had shown me. The gateway was arched by a large sign proclaiming: 

                                           WELCOME TO BROOK-MYER ACADEMY 
                                                FINE EDUCATION SINCE 1974

Erica parked in a nearly empty lot and the two of us started up a long muddy path in the rain towards the front entrance of the school. Even though we were running the muck was slowing us down and the path was long. It took us two minutes to slog up to the massive oaken double doors. We pushed through them into the grand main hallway, a large, cavernous stone room lit by candles and a dingy crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was like something from a medieval fairy tale book. Even Erica seemed slightly wowed by the beautiful stone building. To my right a door opened and a tall, prim woman with black hair tied up in a tight bun and pale skin that complemented her bright hazel eyes stepped out. She had a pointy nose and a twitchy, cold demeanor and was wearing a formal pleated skirt, white blouse and sensible shoes. Her eyes landed on me.

"Young man- I don't recognize you and I certainly don't think you go to his school. If I may ask what in blazes are you doing here, sopping wet and dripping rain all over my clean hallway?!" Erica stepped forward and the ladies eyes traveled to her, becoming slightly less stony. She nodded respectfully. 

"Miss Hale. I assume you here to talk about your sister?" Erica returned her stare and nodded as well.

"Correct. It's a pleasure to see you again Mrs. Pierce." 

***

Katerina Josie Pierce was the headmistress of Brook-Myer Academy. I quickly learned that like Erica, underneath her stony exterior she could be nice and even somewhat friendly. Not really but somewhat. Erica, Mrs. Pierce and I sat in her large office at a grand oak desk the principal of Spy School would have been jealous of. She had made Erica and I some hot tea and given us warm blankets to dry off with. We now sat facing her, swaddled up in the fuzzy blankets and sipping the hot tea.

"Kat- this is Ben Ripley." Erica said, motioning to me in introduction. Mrs. Pierce shook my hand and gave me a small smile. 

"Nice to meet you. Call me Kat. Your a friend of Erica's?"

"Yeah." I smiled at her respectfully. 

"A boyfriend?" Kat pushed. Erica turned the faintest shade of crimson and shook her head vigorously.

"NO! No. Just a friend." Erica said quickly, though she glanced at me when she thought nobody was looking with an unreadable look in her memorizing blue eyes. Kat raised an eyebrow but didn't push any further. "anyhow- we came to discuss Trixie's disappearance." Kat looked at Erica somberly. "what can you tell us?"

"Well, Trixie was last seen by her friend Evie, the small brown haired one. She said she saw Trixie sneaking out down the hallway last night and tried to go after her but Trixie was gone by the time Evie made it outside. We sent campus security out looking for her and plan to conduct more searches but other than that we don't have much else we can do." Kat took a sip of her own tea, then looked at me interestedly. "do either of you know what might have caused her to do this?"

"No." Erica said. "that's why we came to you."

"You have campus security?" I asked. Erica rolled her eyes.

"Its a private school in England you doofus. Of course they have security." this didn't really make a whole bunch of sense to me but I just shrugged and let it go. 

"So she just up and left?" Erica turned back to Kat. 

"Apparently so." Erica nodded slowly, concerned. 

"That's really not like Trixie." then she turned to me. "can I talk to Ben alone for a minute?"

"Go ahead." Kat stood up and left the room, calling back, "if you need me I'll be right down the hall. The door clicked and Eric was all business. She stood up and yanked me us with her, her eyes now crinkled with worry.

"Ben- the only explanation I think of for this is Trixie was coerced into it- probably by an enemy- maybe someone we've hurt looking to get revenge on me and my family. If I'm right they could be going after someone close to you soon. If we don't find my sister..." I put a calming hand on Erica's shoulder, though deep down my stomach was churning at the thought of what Erica had just said. 

"Don't worry. We'll find Trixie."

"How?" for once Erica seemed lost. "we don't know anything about this and for all I know I got it wrong. We don't have any clues and we don't have a place to start." it was the only time Erica Hale had ever seemed ready to loose it; the idea of her sister in trouble seemed to be chipping at her emotional barrier. 

"Shh. It's gonna be fine. Everything will be okay." suddenly Erica wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I could feel her heart beating with worry- worry that her only sister might be gone for good.