Elli wished she had said no to the permission slip.
Rachel dreaded any time spent with her family.
Cal had just gotten away.
•
•
•
And then the lights went out
"Now if you look to the left you'll see another piece of history here in the city. Did you know..."
Elli sighed as she walked down the roads of the city. She had to admit, when she had first heard of this field trip a "Historical Walking Tour of the City" wasn't exactly what she had in mind. It wasn't anyone's fault, the city was industrial, it had always been industrial, it wasn't exactly equipped for tourism. Unless you wanted to see another *exciting* factory. Most of the kids had yawned out, the only one who seemed actually engaged in the tour was the overly-peppy tour guide herself.
"Fun fact," she said with a faked smile on her face, "back in the day, this building was highly rumored to be haunted."
"Don't think I didn't see what happened back there." Elli jumped as Leslie appeared beside her. She had to admit, the young girl was kinda creeping her out, she was so mysterious, so closed off. Elli wondered what kind of secrets she could be keeping. Not to mention the whole thing with the homeless man and the business card. She could feel it's weight, heavy in her pocket.
"I saw what happened, I don't know why you're denying it."
"Huh?" Elli knew exactly what she was talking about, but she would rather play dumb (not that it was that hard).
"Hello?!" Leslie threw her hands up in exasperation, "the hypnotized hobo that approached in the parking garage, the one that no one else seemed to notice, is everyone in this city blind?!?"
"Shh" Elli pressed a hand against Leslie's lips, "you want the whole daycare thinking I'm crazy? Keep quiet we'll talk about it later." Elli stepped away from Leslie who, mildly annoyed, lowered her voice to a whisper.
"Whether you accept it or not something fishy is going on here, and I intend to get to the bottom of it." They walked a little while without talking. Eventually, Amelia stopped her and said something in sign language.
"What...you...talking?" Elli translated the ones she recognized (which wasn't many) Leslie sighed, "what were you guys talking about." Amelia smiled. It was one of the things Elli appreciated about Amelia, less was more. And even though Elli hadn't been able to learn sign language, Amelia didn't blame her for it. At Least, Elli didn't think Amelia blamed her.
Elli felt something tugging at her, she turned to see Leslie pulling the KnOT card out of her pocket.
"Hey!" Elli snapped at it, but it was to late, Leslie scurried out of her range.
"I wonder what it means. KnOT is obviously an anagram of some kind, and the circley thing is their logo. But why is the O a bunch of arrows?"
"What? How did you know that?" Elli snatched the card back, it still just looked like a bunch of nothing to her.
Leslie rolled her eyes, "oh please, that was easy. If you didn't figure that there's no way you'll solve this without my help."
" -and if you look to the right, you'll see the biggest library in the city. Full of billions of books and historical documents. Better yet it's open to the entire general public!"
A wicked smile spread across Leslie's face. "Open to the entire general public did she say."
"Oh no," Elli stepped back, "there is no way I'm abandoning our group."
"Please," Leslie blew a piece of loose hair out of her face, "like you're so intrigued by this anyway. No one would even notice we're gone."
Elli looked at Amelia, she just shrugged, she was smiling. "Okay. But don't think this means I trust you."
The three girls ran up the steps. *************************************
"Look at this," Elli sighed, weaving the KnOT card through her fingers, "we were so concerned about what it said on the front, but what about what it says on the back. We will find you if you don't recycle. A bit daunting isn't it."
Leslie shrugged, scanning the pages of the dusty book she had opened, it read Symbols of the Past, Present and Future. To be honest Elli, wasn't really sure how much help it would be, how much help anything would be. Amelia nudged her and pointed to a picture in the history book she had propped open, it was a picture of protestors outside what appeared to be a groundbreaking ceremony. It wasn't that special, there had been a lot of civil unrest about the pollution when it had first manifested itself as a major issue, but on written on one of the signs held proudly in the air was the same word, KnOT.
"Look here," Leslie slid her book onto Elli's lap, "that circle of arrows in the O; it's a 21st-century recycling symbol."
"And this," Elli said, grabbing Amelia's book, "it says KnOT is the name of an old civil rights group, The Knights of Terra" Elli thought about what it had said on the back of the card, "so what, hostile hippies reveling in the good old days?"
"Something like that." Leslie translated from Amelia's signing.
In the blink of an eye, the lights flicked off in the library. Elli blinked as she tried to adjust to the darkness, she grabbed Amelia's hand, and felt Leslie grab hers.
A flashlight flicked on in the front desk, "I think we blew a fuse," the pretty librarian shouted, "if you could all proceed to the exit orderly." A murmur spread through the darkness. A couple people laughed, Amelia led as they walked out of the building. The outside world was blindingly light, cars honked, bill boards flashed, people milled around.
Then all of a sudden, everything went silent.
That's when the screaming started, like dominos falling, lights flicked out. Gunshots resounded through the city. Screaming and crying and yelling and pleading.
And then everything went dark.
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