Star Drifting

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE STAR

Edited 9/10/2024

"So what now?" Brinette's soft face was contorted to a new expression that matched the quiet shakiness of her voice. One that only amplified the fear in the room. To see the colorful and bubbly turned to gloom was a reminder of our respite.

The four of us had moved out to the girl's dorm the day after Mayor Brandt's announcements. Thankfully, it was now the weekend, so we didn't have to deal with classes in this state of funk. We still had our 'punishment', but that was the least of our concerns.

There was silence among us as we sat, leaving the four of us to consume the information we received. While this new threat was more towards my friends, I couldn't help but feel that aching concern within me. The closest to me, the only people I really know, the last bit of family I have since everything disappeared in my mind, they were being hunted like some A-list danger to society. Bri, the innocent and shiny; Viva, the brains and reason; and Leo, the sturdy and loyal. To our enemies, they were just anomalies.

"We need to figure something out fast," Viva said softly, her past rushing through her words like a river. She was already typing away on her laptop, her notes app open. Normally, she would close up to Bri whenever I had the pleasure of coming over, but now she was at her desk, lost in thoughts, while Bri's heels replayed the same up-and-down motion across the room.

She had started biting her nails again.

"Well..?" After no one responded, she stopped typing and turned her wheeled chair to face us.

"Ok, fine, I'll start. Clearly, we're in a time crunch." She crossed her legs, her eyes deadpanned in our general vicinity. Despite the strength in her voice, her eyes had a shimmer of light. The slick clearness seemed to gradually overtake the dark amber of her iris. Even now, when we had all fallen to our sadness, she feigned strength.

"...What do they even want?" Leo began, "With us, I mean. There has to be a reason he's so obsessed. Aside from the bullshit that is 'I'm the mayor, and I protect this place', there has to be more to it." I hadn't even noticed that Leo was next to me from how quiet he had been since we got here. The two of us were leaning up on Viva's headboard. While he was still, his legs straight down and arms crossed over his chest, I was on his left, my legs crossed and hands fiddling in my lap.

I never really considered us opposites, but I see it now. His eyes, hair, and even skin were all darker than mine. His now short curls were just as different as my longer tied-back locs. I was tall, but he was taller, I was emotional, and he was like a steel wall. And, of course, I was gay, and he was straight. We're like black and white. It pained me to think of all the ways we were different. But that did nothing to limit the curiosity he peaked in me. Our closeness only proved that opposites attract.

"Yeah, I share the sentiment. Nothing really hits me as to why this is such a big deal here. But, if I made those devices around here and they caught elemental activity, I would be curious too." Viva turned back to pick up her laptop and then turned it to us to see better.

It was a black-and-white mapped layout of the school, with the only pop of color being various corners circled in a red stroke.

"These are the locations of the trackers Mayor Brandt set up around the school." Viva turned to point at the red spots on the image.

"Holy shit, how did you get that?" Bri stopped in her tracks, looking closer at the laptop.

"They're sensor activated. So...I mimicked the sense of one of us using magic on this board. Click this button, and it will ping at all the triggers. They will then ping back due to being activated, and I was able to track them down. It did take some process of elimination, but I was able to whittle down these five to seemingly have trackers in the cameras at these spots." Viva casually explained her ingenuity.