Kings Gambit

Chapter 6 - The Meeting

I slowly moved my body. It ached with pain—my brain racing with thoughts.

"I had an encounter with Matt?.. Why didn't I recognize him?" I patted myself on the cheek. Why did I remember that now anyways?.. Is it because of Matt? Or was that incident related to why I'm here?  I couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling. "And what is this, The Machina? Why did I seem so familiar with it? Are they related to my situation?" I continued to question to no avail. Nothing was coming to mind.

With a sigh, I remembered George's announcement, "I suppose I should head to the dining hall." I stretched as I calmed myself down from that horrid dream. I got dressed and opened the door out into the central hall's top floor.

Making my way to the dining hall door down the stairs. I walked in, noticing that I was one of the last to arrive, besides Jasper and Tyrone.

"Good morning! you look like you just woke up from a fifty-year coma." Claire joked, leaning forward with her hands behind her back.

"She's right. You look even more dead than before." Leo joined in with a smirk.

"I just had a rough sleep," I replied solemnly. My eyes trained on Matt. "Where's Tyrone and Jasper?" I continued.

"Jasper could be anywhere, but, weirdly, Tyrone isn't here," Angel replied.

"When's the last time you guys saw them?" I asked.

"This morning, with you," Isabelle answered.

"That's strange. Hasn't it been a couple of hours?..." Willow asked quietly. An eery silence filled the room.

"Don't tell me.." Angel clamped up. We all knew what she was thinking.

"Should we conduct a search?" I suggested taking a leadership role. But as panic started to rise, the door swung open.

"No need. Sorry for being late." Tyrone reassured as he stood at the entrance with Jasper. I sighed in relief.

"Where were you?" Tristan squinted his crimson eyes with suspicion.

"We were worried.." Claire looked away, her cheeks red.

"Just looking around," Jasper put his hands behind his head. His eyes yellow.

"Is that true, Tyrone? I can't trust words from a known liar," Annie asked.

"More or less," Tyrone responded cryptically.

"Well, no damage done. All of us are accounted for now." George smiled.

"I guess," Elizabeth mumbled, still wary.

"So why did you drag all of us here?" Matt impatiently asked.

"Well, getting right to the point,  it's more or less a check to see if everyone is doing fine. I think we should do this once a day just to be safe. Other than that, we could talk about everything we discovered while searching here." George explained.

"So it's a roll call?" Elizabeth responded.

"Exactly, it could be dangerous if someone does, unfortunately, get murdered, and we don't realize until days later." George sighed anxiously.

"I don't see any problems with that, but who made you in charge?" Leo replied.

"I don't see anyone else volunteering," George responded swiftly. Leo smirked.

"He's a politician; after all, it's only fitting." Jasper smiled.

"Thanks for understanding. The first thing we need to discuss is any new information anyone might have learned." George moved on.