The Mystery Hunters

Chapter 9- Like Fireflies in a Jar

Aubrey's eyes were filled with anxiety and obvious fear. She started pacing around and mumbling to herself in what seemed like French.

"Aubrey?" I asked uneasily. But she didn't hear me.

"Aubrey?" I said louder this time. "What do you mean, it's still happening?!"

"Qu'allons nous faire? Pourquoi n'avons-nous pas encore résolu cela? C'est impossible!" Aubrey rambled on in French.

Thankfully I had taken a bit of French in 6th grade, and thanks to that, I was able to figure out the gist of what she was saying. How has this not been solved yet? This is impossible! That's what I thought she was saying at least.

"Aubrey!?" I yelled at her.

Finally, I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. She looked at me and I saw tears in her eyes. I sat her down on the bed carefully.

"Aubrey," I started gently. "You need to explain. What's still happening, what hasn't been solved, and what's impossible?"

Aubrey took a shaky breath and looked at me. "For the past several years, people have been disappearing. It seems they're just all of a sudden gone without a trace. Almost like they've never existed. It's really strange. No one else can remember them, except Mystery Hunters."

The room felt very cold all of a sudden. Unexplainable disappearances. Was that what happened to Riley?

"The Academy's students have been trying to solve this mystery pretty much since it started, but no one's gotten even close. We've gotten no clues, except for the fact that all disappearances seem to have been somehow close to a Mystery Hunter. For example, Matthew's girlfriend disappeared one day, and he and I were the only people to remember anything about her. Everyone else acted as though she'd never existed, even her family. He locked himself in his room for a week and didn't come out until I made him. Countless other Mystery Hunters have had this happen. People close to them keep disappearing, but somehow, it's never any actual family members. We think it has something to do with the power they radiate onto the people near them."

"What?"

"Well, pieces of our power are absorbed by those around us, but only those really close to us, and not enough that they ever gain any power or abilities, but if that were the case, why aren't our families disappearing too? Since they're human, you'd think they'd be the first to go, seeing as they're the people closest to the Mystery Hunter. It's very puzzling though. No one's had any luck besides that, and no one knows what to do. Good thing I don't have any non Mystery Hunter friends, huh? But still, others are losing their loved ones, and there's no explanation."

A part of me wanted to believe that's what happened to my friends, because it'd be proof it wasn't my fault they stopped talking to me, but I knew if that had actually happened, it meant they were somehow in trouble, or worse, dead. I didn't know what to think about all of this.

"Kim?" Asked Aubrey quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I answered without really thinking.

Aubrey didn't seem convinced, but she let it go this time.

"We should probably get to bed, Kim." She said.

"Yeah." I said dully.

The two of us changed into our pajamas and got into bed. Aubrey had let me leave the window open. I couldn't really sleep that night though; these thoughts were rushing through my head at full speed, faster than a race horse going for the gold. All of a sudden, I had a goal. I hadn't really had a goal or purpose in a while, nothing I was really working towards, but I knew this was important, and I had to do it. I was going to solve this mystery. I had to find out what happened to Riley, and Jordan, and all the others that disappeared. I was going to solve this mystery.