STAR CROSSED 2.0

FACING THE TRUTH

"What are we gonna do? I mean, after... This." Drake was seating next to Roman who was driving Emery's car through downtown and towards Grayson's parents'. The car back seats had been pulled all the way down to accommodate the boy's body whose face and part of his upper chest were covered with Julia's jacket.

"I... We'll go back to The Sector and talk to my mother." He was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, his sight fixed on the road ahead.

"WHAT?! That's your plan? You're actually thinking of going back there?" Drake had raised his voice and turned to him. "You CAN'T be serious."

"Look, I need to talk to my mother. I think she knew something about what happened." He ran his hand through his hair, closed his eyes tightly and frowned his forehead.

"If we go back, we might get caught by Trags." Drake sat straight back again. "Roman... If we get caught I won't be able to rescue Taylor wherever she is..." and with that the Atrian looked through the window and into the city. Silence filled the air in thecar as they passed through town.

Everybody was starting to realize something was wrong. Cars were still stopped in the middle of the road. People coming back from the sleep provoked by the Suvek.

"We are here." Roman pulled over in front of the big mansion which would no longer be home for their friend.

---

"Are you sure about this Emery?" Julia was walking behind her friend.

"Look, I'm positive Taylor was going back to her house right before the Suvek went on." Emery was convincingly explaining herself while going in the opposite direction from the Atrians.

"But what are you gonna get from that? We know she's not there... Right? She can't be kidnapped in her own house, can she?" Eric was right behind the girls.

"Guys, I know she's not there. But if we follow her last steps we might find out something about what happened to her.

With that said she turned back again and continued walking. They were passing by groups of people who were gathered together talking in concerned whispers. Some others were not that quiet and were yelling furiously. One of these individuals shut up the moment his eyes were set on Emery and immediately approach the friends.

"Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you pretty girl." The man was wearing working clothes and had a nasty scratch on his forehead. "I've seen you hanging around with those freaks" he grinned. A few others started paying attention to the words exchange and even three other men joined him in molesting the youngsters.

"I don't know what you mean by that" Emery determinedly said without even looking at the guy and continuing her way.

"Not so fast pretty girl" the guy put his arm across the friends' way blocking their path. They tried turning back but the other men have surrounded them. "I'm pretty sure your boyfriend and his people were the cause of all of this" he stated very close to Emery's face.

"Hey that's enough!" Eric stepped forward intending to go between the two but one of the men grabbed him from behind.

"Let him go!" Julia screamed, but as soon as she tried to reach Eric another man took her by the arm making her face him. "Hush, hush, Atrian lover..." he whispered into her face. They were so close she could tell he had had a few drinks already.

"You bastards!" Eric yelled fighting against his captor. This struggle was just what they men had looking for in the first place because the one that had taken Julia punched Eric in the stomach.

"Stop it, right now!" a strong voice commanded from behind them.

Mrs. Benton was accompanied by a man in a military suit holding a large weapon. If his voice had not been enough to persuade them from continuing the fight, the sight of this would very much have been.

"Gentlemen, leave these kids alone, disperse at this instant or there'll be consequences" he commandingly stated.

The men released Julia and Eric and went in opposite directions while muttering. The man who approached them in the first place looked defiantly at the soldier and faced Emery again and whispered "This is all their fault and they're gonna pay for it".

"I said, Leave!" the soldier took a step forward, held his gun and pushed the man with the back of it, away from the girl.

He put his hands in his pockets and walked away, not without looking back one last time at the girl. Emery was still processing his last words when Mrs. Benton moved toward them.

"Are you alright, guys?" She put a hand over Eric' back who was bended over and pressing his stomach. Julia was leaning over him.

"Yes, thank you very much Mrs. Benton. We were lucky you and... your friend appeared just now" Emery pronounced these last words looking a bit suspiciously to the soldier who now had stepped back and was guarding the woman's back.

"Oh," the teacher said looking back at his companion, "this is Lieutenant Crawford. He picked me up from home and drove here because I forgot something here after I woke up from the explosion."

Emery thought Mrs. Benton was stared at her with far too much curiosity?

"Where you there when..." Mrs. Benton started, "...when the Suvek went off?"

Before Emery even had time to reply she heard Julia's scream.

"This is Taylor's necklace!" she was no longer helping Eric and run toward the middle of the road where she kneeled down and retrieved something from the floor. A few feet away from it, there was the car, black and consumed now into its chassis.

"It is" said Emery who was now next to her and was holding the necklace herself. When she raised her sight, she saw Mrs. Benton bending down and take something from the floor of an alley just behind where they had been standing seconds ago. When the woman turned around, the friends saw their teacher carrying a cell phone and putting it into her pocket. Emery had a terrible thought and run toward her teacher.

"Mrs. Benton!" the woman, who was already leaving with her guard turned at hearing her name, "If that's where you lost consciousness" Emery said pointing at the alley with her head, still holding Taylor's necklace, "you must have seen Taylor when you woke up. This is hers and we believe that over there is her car." Julia and Eric were standing next to it.

"I'm sorry Emery, but I didn't. When I opened my eyes that red car was already burnt and I could not tell if there was still someone inside..." In her words there was no concern about the well-being of the driver; they felt to Emery rather empty, as scripted, as a lie. She was tightly clinging to the pocket of her jacket.

"Thank you Mrs."

"Does she know something about Taylor?" Julia asked as her friend made her way back to them.

"Of course she does." Emery was determinedly and fiercely looking right into her friends' eyes. "That car was new. It had been a present for her birthday but never got to drive it. Mrs. Benton said that when she opened her eyes this red car was already burnt"

"So?" Eric asked clueless.

"So, even without having seen it before Mrs. Benton knew exactly what color it was."