Taken (On Hold)

Chapter 3

Oh. My. Gosh. This can't be happening. I've had nightmares about this. Maybe this is a nightmare. I pinch my arm hard, and wince at the sharp pain.

The red-haired boy chuckles softly. "You're not dreaming, Taide. This is real."

"How could this have happened?" Eri whispers. "Why us? Why were we Taken?"

"Well, seeing as nobody's ever returned from being Taken to tell the tale, I couldn't say for sure." Oh, way to be optimistic. Thanks for reminding us that we'll probably all die. "But the fact that we were all awarded yesterday seems significant. It means that whoever it was that Took us selected the top eighteen year olds in each sector. It was most likely intentional. I couldn't give a motive for their Taking us, though, whoever they are."

I stare at him. "How do you know so much?"

He shrugs. "Connaissance. We value knowledge, logic, deductions, and other things of that ilk." He acts like it's no big deal, but I can't help being impressed.

"So you just 'deduced' that we were all Taken?"

"Well yeah, pretty much. It's kind of obvious if you think about it." His words are condescending, but his tone is not. He's just unwittingly displaying his Connaissance traits.

"I'm actually kind of impressed," I say, but he's not paying attention to my compliment. His gaze is fixed on the other students lying in the sand.

"How interesting. There seem to be three people from each sector. That could possibly be significant as well," he notices with great interest. I wonder how he can tell that.

Doing a quick head count, I can't resist adding sarcastically, "There's sixteen guys and twenty three girls. Do you suppose that's significant too?"

He rolls his eyes. "That's irrelevant. There's a difference between utilizing logic and making random observations, you know. Sheesh."

"Sorry," I mutter, blushing.

A smile breaks out across his freckled face, revealing dimples. "Lighten up, I'm just teasing you."

How can he make jokes at a time like this? I glare at him, and he chuckles. "I'm Connor, by the way," he says.

A slow smile spreads across my face. "So you're Connor the - "

"And no," he interrupts, "I do not answer to Connor the Connaissance kid. Yes, there have been nitwits who tried to call me that."

I am about to respond - and deliberately call him Connor the Connaissance kid - when I hear a groggy voice calling my name. Amy Rose.

"Megan, what's happening? Where are we?" She sits up slowly, rubbing her temples.

I don't know how to tell her. I try to put on a brave smile for her sake, but I'm not sure it was too successful. "Um, this may come as a bit of a shock, so you might want to brace yourself." She just looks at me silently. "Amy, we - we've been Taken."

It would almost be comical to watch her reaction, if I didn't know I had taken the news the same way myself. Her blue eyes grow so wide I could almost see my reflection in them. As the news sinks in, all the color drains from her face, and she clutches my hand for support.

"Jen," she whispers, and I know she's reliving the horrible moment when we discovered our friend was gone forever, Taken.

"Jen?" Eri asks, giving me a quizzical look.

"She was a friend of ours," I explain quietly. "She was Taken two years ago."

"I'm sorry," says the Connaissance boy, and Eri nods sympathetically.

"We're going to die, aren't we," Amy Rose says hopelessly. It comes out as a statement, not a question.

"Naw," the boy answers. "We'll be okay." He smiles at Amy Rose. Guess he can be reassuring sometimes after all.

"Who Took us? What do they want?" Amy Rose asks quietly, her eyes wide.

He sighs. "Regretfully, I cannot answer those questions. I'm afraid there's not much for me to base my deductions off of with regards to either of your questions. I imagine we will find out, though."

He looks as if he's going to say something more, but then he spots someone a couple feet away, maybe someone from his sector. "I have to go." He starts jogging toward her, a pretty girl with long red hair. "Reagan!" he calls to her. We watch him go to her and wrap his arms around her.

"Hi, I'm Eri," Eri introduces herself to Amy Rose, breaking the silence that followed his departure.

"I'm Amy Rose," she answers with a ghost of her normal bright smile.

"I'm sure we'll be okay," Eri says lamely in an attempt to reassure my best friend. "Maybe if all of us work together, we can find a way off this darned island and - "

"Work together?" Amy Rose cuts her off with a humorless laugh. "Okay, I can see the Class B sectors working together, and possibly even the Class C sectors. But the odds of any Class A sectors working with other sectors is pretty much negative."

Right on cue, I hear her obnoxiously shrill voice piercing the air and breaking the calm. "What the heck is going on here?" Crystal demands loudly.

Pic of Connor on the side. I was too lazy to put his name on it.

-Lucia<3