The Dark Realm

We're going on a trip

One week passed. Within that week the group of friends graduated Pinewood High. Thanks to Nate (his parents owned a large plane company called Perry Airlines) the group of friends were on a plane destined for Italy.

The plane's rows were in sets of two. Emily and Olivia sat behind Lilly and Luke who sat behind Michael and Nate. Jade and Tyler were across from Lilly and Luke.

Lilly smiled at her best friend who was currently asleep. Besides a little drool dribbling down his mouth he looked peaceful.

"Aw, he looks so cute when he's sleeping." Lilly thought aloud. When she had realized what she said her face started to turn a light pink.

"Did I hear correctly? Did you just say that you think Luke is cute?" Olivia said leaning over the seat.

"I-I uh never said that." Lilly's face started to turn redder. You have misheard me. I never said that."

"Sure you didn't." Jade joined the conversation. Lilly scowled, her face still a bright red.

"So what if I called him cute? It's not like it's a big deal." Lilly's voice was a slightly higher pitch, giving off the impression that she didn't believe herself and actually did think it was a bigger deal than she was letting on.

"You think Luke is cute? Are you blind? Look at him! He's covered in drool!" Michael laughed. Lilly's face was now redder than a ripe tomato.

"Hold up, Lilly thinks Luke is cute? I bet Luke will like that." Nate teased. Luke started to stir at the sound of his name.

"You guys are making a bigger deal out of this than you should." Lilly stated. Luke yawned as he woke up.

"What are we talking about?" He asked.

"Nothing!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Lilly thinks you are cute." Nate smirked. Luke smirked at his best friend.

"You think I'm cute?" He teased. His smirk had a hint of cockiness and a hide a hint of hope, but it was like Lilly saw this. She only saw her best friend teasing her. 

"You guys are really confused. I never said anything like that." Her friends raised their eyebrows at her.

"Oh look we're here!" Lilly exclaimed. She was right. They had landed in Italy. Rome, Italy to be exact.

"So it says here that the last person to have the ring here is Dante Santoro. Supposedly the Santoro family is supposed to live in this building right here." Nate said little while later. They stood in front of a large building that looked old and elegant.

"What do we do? Just go in and say 'Excuse me, but can we have that precious piece of jewelry that you've got?' I don't think that they'll go for it." Michael scoffed. Emily answered.

"No, I don't think that they'll go for that, you're right. I'm not sure what we can do. It's the best we've got though."

"Maybe we should come back later when we have a plan?" Luke suggested.

"Or we could see the sights as we think of something." Olivia chimed in. Lilly shook her head.

"As much as I want to look around, I also want to find this ring as soon as possible."

"Lilly, we don't have any ideas. I don't think standing here is going to get anything done." Jade said calmly. Lilly huffed.

"You're right, so let's get something done and move forward!" Lilly took a step forward and knocked on the large house's door.

A girl about their age answered. She had flaming red hair and dark brown eyes.

"Posso aiutarti?" The girl spoke in Italian.

"Uh... Hi? How do you say that in Italian? Salve?" Nate questioned. The girl nodded at this.

"Oh, you speak English." She said. "I'm Cecilia Santoro. May I help you with something?"

"Hi, I'm Lilly Parker. We were wondering if Dante Santoro was here?" Cecilia's welcoming smile faded a bit.

"I'm sorry, but he is dead."

"I'm so sorry for your loss." Lilly said trying to comfort the girl.

"It's fine. He died when I was seven so I'm kind of used to it." She still sounded a little upset. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Um... Maybe. Do you know anything about a ring of silver. It was donated to a museum." Cecilia looked shocked.

"Non parlo Inglese!" She said as she closed the door hurriedly.

"I think that means that she needs to use the bathroom." Tyler said. Nate face palmed.

"No, that is not what she said. She said that she doesn't speak English, you idiot."

"Hey, it's not my fault that I don't speak Italian."

"You never learned! How is it not your fault!?"

"Guys, stop it!" Olivia stepped in. "We have a bigger problem at the moment! Your lover's quarrel will have to wait!" Nate and Tyler looked like they wanted to say something about her statement but Olivia beat them to it. She held up her pointer finger.

"Nope, I don't want to hear it out of you."

"What are we going to do now?" Lilly asked.

"Well, we always could go to the museum where the ring is actually at." Jade suggested.

"What are we going to do there? Rob it?" Olivia asked.

"Oh yeah I like that idea. Museum heist it is!" Tyler exclaimed. The other guys all face palmed and Michael even slapped Tyler on the back of the head. Tyler started arguing with Michael and Olivia and Nate joined in. Lilly and Emily were trying to think of a plan. Jade and Luke just stared at their friends.

"Everybody just shut up!" Luke exclaimed. His friends just stared at him. Usually, Luke was one of the quietest and calmest people in the group (besides Emily). He rarely yelled.

"We need to think of something and everybody bursting out with random ideas at the same time doesn't help that much. Let's just calm down and brainstorm." Emily raised her hand.

"Emily, you don't have to raise your hand to speak." Luke stated.

"If we go to the museum and the ring is there then I know a way to get it. If it's not then obviously it's in a different place. I think we need to visit the museum just to see if it really got donated. I smell something fishy going on about the Santoro family so we should probably check." Emily stated. Luke nodded.

"That's actually not a bad plan. Alright let's go."