Soul Quest

Chapter 22

Liv

Time - February 13, 2015

Place - Forest Hills High School/ Laith's house

Queens, New York

"If patience is worth

anything, it must endure

to the end of time. And

a living faith will last

in the midst of the

blackest storm."

- Mahatma Gandhi

I had expected the days following the blow up at Laith's house to be an omen of dreadedEVENTS to come. Ironically it was quite the opposite. Despite Shy's threat about things not being over the situation seemed toLEVEL off. Things remained very quiet at Forest Hills High and in the city through out the passing month. Shy's followers followed his lead just as Laith's supporters looked out for him. The breaking news seemed to be contained to ordinary human tragedy. No shells had been recovered to our knowledge. I should have been happy about the break from the nightmare that was my life. Why wasn't I? Why couldn't I get rid of this nagging feeling that all hell was about to break loose? My companions were on edge too. They didn't speak about it but I could sense it. We sat at the lunch table rambling about the Valentine's Day dance. The dance is tomorrow night.

"My momOFFERED to cook for us before the dance." I attempted in an excited voice.

"Really... That would be great." Amber smiled.

Everyone else seemed to like the idea as well.

"What's on the menu?" Ray wondered.

"What ever you guys want, I guess. Do you have anySUGGESTIONS?" I asked.

We spent half of the lunch period discussing the pre-dance dinner menu before I noticed that Laith and Drue had not arrived yet.

"Has anyone seen Drue and Laith?" I said as ISCANNED the cafeteria. There was no sign of them anywhere.

"I saw them headed to the office between fourth and fifth hour." Jedd answered.

"That's right. They've been calling kids into the office all morning and they never return to class. Does anyone know why?" Amber asked.

"I saw three cops standing around in the parking lot when I came in late this morning. I think it was some time during second hour. You don't think Laith got into it with Shy again?" Ray said nervously.

The entire lunch table's focus snapped to Shy's table. He was missing along with half of his cult, including Melissa. As a matter of fact half of the freshman class seemed to have disappeared.

"What is going on?" Amber whispered as she nervously twisted a strand of her long black hair between her fingertips.

The bell would ring in a few minutes so we carried our trays to the back of the cafeteria. As we returned to our seats we were intercepted by Ms. Sprenkle. What happened to her? She looked awful.