Caine & Diana || ˢᵗºʳʸ ºf ᵘˢ

CHAPTER SEVEN - 235 hours, 4 minutes

Diana glanced at Jack, who was sat there, examining the gray letter box they had discovered at Sam's house. Jack kept turning it around, and running his finger along it. Diana sighed impatiently. "Are we going to open it or not?"

Caine, who was sat at the principles desk at Coates, rolled his eyes. "Who cares? It's a stupid box." He looked pointedly at Jack. "I need you to hack into this," he ordered, gesturing to Connie Temple's laptop, which they had also found at Sam's house.

Jack placed the box back down and Diana sighed, picking it up. She wondered what was inside, but she couldn't open it. It was locked. Too bad.

Still, Diana felt as if they were missing something that was in that box... Surely they should open it? Just to check...

Caine leaned back, letting Jack handle the computer. He looked at Diana, who frowned back at him. "You've got the town under control," Diana said, "so now what?"

"Now? We do nothing. There isn't any more to do." His dark eyes turned dangerous. "At least, there'll be nothing to do once Sam is gone."

"What's your big plan to take him out, then?" Diana asked wearily.

Caine tapped his chin and spun around in his chair. "We need someone close to him to help us."

"Astrid," Diana responded immediately.

"No, not her. She's got that freaky brother. Besides, she's too close to him. We need someone weak."

Jack peered up. "Doesn't he have that friend? The one with dark hair?"

"Quinn?" Diana frowned. She thought that was his name.

Caine sat up suddenly. "Yeah, Quinn. He's the one."

"Okay, great. We make Quinn join our side. How do you intend to do that? Go up to him and ask him to betray his friend?" Diana asked sarcastically.

"We'll just ask him to tell us where Sam is, and Drake will threaten to beat him up or whatever." Caine said strategically.

Diana waited, arching an eyebrow.

His mind reeled with thoughts as he continued, "Then you, Drake and one of my guys will capture him and bring him to me, so we can have a little talk."

Diana pursed her lips. She was coming, too? She didn't want anything bad to happen to Sam, not really. She knew if Caine found out about his powers there'd be trouble. Caine was staring at her intently, so she quickly masked her troubled expression and said, "Oh yeah? And what are you going to talk about?"

"How I'm the leader here, and how it's going to stay that way," he said firmly, sinking back into his chair. "Now go find that useful psycho Drake. I want him to patrol the area, check if anyone's, uh, disappeared."

"Poofed," Diana offered, thinking of Quinn again. That's what he was calling it - what everyone was calling it. When you turn fifteen, it's just...poof. Gone. Stupid name, really, Diana thought, but it made scary sense.

Caine turned to Jack, who was looking intently at Nurse Connie's laptop. "Hurry up and hack, Computer Jack. Be useful."

Jack nodded and scurried out the room to have some privacy. Diana looked at Caine again, who was chewing his thumb again. "Sam has to go," he muttered, running his hands through his shaggy dark hair.

"I'll get Howard or Orc to help me," Diana said, though she was unenthusiastic about the idea.

Caine shook his head angrily. "Not now. I have to...figure this all out."

"What?"

"The disappearance - poof, whatever." Caine looked agitated.

"We have time."

He scowled and stood up, glaring at Diana. "No. Not me."

Only a few days, Diana thought suddenly, remembering how close Caine's birthday was. Five or so days and Caine was gone. Their so called king would be gone, just like that.

Poof.