The Side Character Club (TSCC) - Discontinued

In Which We Finally Rescue the Invisibles

We turn the corner and -

"OH HOLY - " Toast puts a hand on her chest where her heart should be and falls dramatically to the ground.

"Don't cuss," I say in habit.

Claire puts down her gun, and Ruby puts down her short dagger.

We ran to get a group hug in, smooshing each other to death and jumping up and down. I felt a tear dripping down my cheek and wiped it away discreetly. But then Lilith breaks the trance (if there even was one in the first place) and looks around in confusion.

"Why is nobody here?"

We all look around confused, well, except for the Invisibles, who casually brush it off.

"They kidnapped us, left us here, and then just took off. We got out of the bonds and everything but couldn't find a way out. There's nothing in here and we couldn't get the door open." Atalanta explains, gesturing around.

"They?" Zoe questions, putting her hand on her hips. We're all frowning, because they may be the start of the next plot.

Alex sighs and clarifies. "No, not like that they, more like a bunch of the usual kidnappers. Bulky men."

"CLICHE!" We all chime in unison.

Athulya frowns, "Okay, can we get out of here now?"

We nod and leave, shutting the door behind us and locking it.

We hold them close to us and we run swiftly to the nearby cars, silently splitting up and hopping inside.

"Oh gosh, you guys were taking a long time, I thought something had happened." Jason steps on the pedal and I take out my phone to hop on the Elite group chat.

Group Chat Snippet

Evelyn: hey guys umm i mean... nobody is chasing us so i don't think we gotta run or something

Lilith: and that's why we should run to the buffet and eat some yummy stuff before we get back to the academy

Aria: agreed

Ruby: idk do whatever you want and

Zoe: ???

Claire: ???????

Ruby: srry, jason just took a sharp turn

Aria: ofc sure 😏 u sure not something else

Ruby: ...

Claire: yeah, r u b y

Evelyn: guys i'm literally with ruby rn, they didn't do anything

Claire: ToT

Lilith: my jamma heart 💔

I shut my phone off, and Ruby gives directions to Jason to the buffet. Atalanta has an eyebrow up, but doesn't say anything.

"The buffet should be coming up soon," Ruby says, leaning back.

"So we're going to a buffet to celebrate...." Atalanta starts.

"Busting you guys out, of course." I say.

Atlanta stays quiet, and we turn, the buffet staring in front of us. Her brows suddenly furrow for a second, her eyes squinting to try to read the sign.

Gosh, this is so weird. We got them out of there and now we're going to a buffet. But here's the thing: when you're an SC, this kind of stuff becomes routine. The first time we all got kidnapped... traumatizing doesn't do the experience justice.

But after a while... it's hard to explain it... it becomes part of our lifestyle kind of. We just suck it up and deal with it. Not that that's a good thing, but... I hope you can understand.

We just deal with it in our own ways, I guess.

"Umm Athulya can't eat here..." Atalanta says, rooting me back to the annoying (but beautiful) thing known as reality.

"Why?" Ruby asks, looking up.

"Yeah, why?" Jason chimes in.

"She's vegetarian and I can bet there's nothing vegetarian in there." Atalanta explains.

We're all quiet, and then I get back on the group chat and we all agree to go somewhere else. The nearest vegetarian restaurant.

Vegetarian food... I wonder how it tastes.

. . .

It was good. Like heavenly good. It was ridiculously expensive, but it doesn't matter, because our mouths are happy and so are our stomachs after going through two full courses of meals.

Yes, two. Because they give so little food, we had to get more.

The Invisibles are walking to a police station (because we can't just take them back to the campus and everything otherwise that would be... weird, to say the least, and then we become suspects) and will have to act like they came straight from the weird place, but the rest of us get driven near the campus by the boys. We hop out and sneak back in, snuggling into our warm beds after we crawl back in our dorms' open windows.

It was fun.

But I just wonder if the Invisibles are okay, mentally.

You get used to the kidnapping, but every single time, it still bothers you. You don't really feel much of anything towards it after like the tenth time, but you still feel different. Isolated. Like nobody can understand you and they don't understand how weak you feel, how weak you are.

I think they will need a few months to fully recover, as we all do. But usually, by that time, we get kidnapped again.

It's not fun, sometimes, to be an SC. Underappreciated, not noticed. Getting kidnapped all the time isn't fun, especially when your struggles don't really matter after a while.

And now I feel depressed.

***A/N***

I feel depressed after writing that chapter.  I'm serious, I went all the dark side of being an SC on you guys.

AND YES, I finally busted you guys out of that weird place.

And a few things: getting kidnapped and everything is definitely not like the books.  It DOES leave an imprint, and I think that it really affects the victim.  Of course, this is fiction, and these people are like SCs that are AWARE of their status as an SC and have learned to deal with it.  In real life, ofc, this is definitely not going to be the reactions of victims, and I wasn't trying to undermine those people or discredit them.

I feel for all of those victims, and they'll be forever in our prayers!!!

AND GO CHECK ETERNAL FLAME BY rubyemmajameson OUT!!!  I was planning to make a bonus chapter in a few chapters to connect our stories as Aria is going to be part of the Eternal Flame cast... so goodbye Aria in a few chapters!!!  I luv luv luv the idea of Eternal Flame and I only see great things in the book so far!!!!

Yes, I know, your Laria hearts are breaking... well srry, but at least I updated!!!

OH AND I'M STILL WAITING FOR THE FANART MASTERPIECES AND YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES!!!!!!!!  OH and start tagging ppl ----->

I'm being annoying again.....

Cya,

writingshare123

Word Count: 1048

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