Paralogues to the "The Hybrid Incident" stories.

Better Hide! P1

(A prologue to the events of THI.)

Ten years earlier…
“How are you, Miss Predge?”
The young woman waved at him. “Well enough. But don’t call me that. I’m head of the company now, remember, Caimjhan?”
The man by the name of Caimjhan bowed. “My apologies. I still haven’t gotten used to the… concept, I should say, in the few hours since your father passed.”
“See to it that you do… and on that topic, he’s nearly gone. I think I’d like another. Can I trust you to cancel my homeschooling courses and enter me into the nearest school?”
Caimjhan nodded. “Consider it done. And what of your… more recent scientific endeavors?”
The woman’s eyes widened. “What of them? I expect that they are proceeding as expected?” A faraway look glossed over her eyes. “After learning how amazing it is to become superior… I will continue… to bring that power to others… if at all possible.” She turned back to the man. “Of course, if we are successful, you will be added to the number of those empowered. You have served me well, and now we are transitioning into a different sort of service…”

***

Five years earlier…
Abria turned her head at the knock against the door.
“Miss Predge? You have a visitor waiting in the foyer. He says that he believes this his matter to be urgent, but he will not describe what he intends to discuss.” The servant bowed apologetically.
“Thank you, Caimjhan. Inform him that I will be with him shortly. However, I do believe that I asked you to stop calling me by that title over five years ago?” Abria’s eyes flashed in mild annoyance.
“I will inform him, Miss Predge, and I do admit that I have failed to accustom myself with calling you by your proper title.”
“Do, and know that the only reason I allow you to continue to slip is because of the service you continue to provide me.” Abria waved her hand, dismissing her personal servant.
After waiting an appropriate amount of time, she picked herself off of her seat and strode confidently to the foyer, finding the man waiting.
“Ms. Predge, I—” the man, clearly flustered, began before composing himself and trying again. “I have a rather disturbing matter to discuss. I am from the school board, a head teacher myself, and I want to ask you about your involvement in the disappearances of students from our facility. You’ve been seen escorting some of our students to your own home, have you not? Can you inform me of where said students have gone?”
Rather blunt, isn’t he. How problematic. “I do not know where they went from my home, after I granted them the immense pleasure that I am capable of giving,” Abria said enigmatically.
The man startled back a moment at this statement, then pressed his attack for answers. “You say that you do not know where they are, or where they went. Can you give us a tip at where they might have gone from your house?”
He suspects something. “I have no more to say. Can you find your way to the door?” Abria gave a furtive look at the clock sitting on the mantle.
A distant scream seemed to come from below them. Abria knew it wasn’t any of the supposedly missing students, but nonetheless, she couldn’t take any chances now that the man was a witness.
At the end of the day, barely any evidence existed that might lead to finding the man.

***

Present
Edward had began the day the same as every day, grabbing his books from his locker for his first class of the day, when he turned around to go to class and was face-to-face with his best bud, Larry.
“Woah, dude!” he said. “I knew we were friends, but I didn’t think you’d want to take it to the next level!”
Larry glowered at him. “Shut up, that used to be funny before we got to high school. Now listen to me: you’d better hide your sorry butt somewhere no one else will go, because—”
“Why?” The question jumped out of Edward before he could stop it.
“Because Abria is out searching.” He said it like it was a death sentence.
“So?” If she was searching for another boy to take home with her, there were tons more other boys in the school that were much more handsome and muscular than Edward was. He hardly had to worry at all that the mysterious, rich, alluring girl that had been in high school for over ten years in a row might decide to take him home.
“So, she’s searching for you, numbskull! Why did you think I’d be warning you?!” Larry pulled Edward’s things from his arms and dumped them back into the locker. “The word has spread around, and now just about any other guy would turn you in to her, because from the sounds of it, she’s going home with someone, whether it be you or not. But that kidnapper wants you specifically, for some reason.”
Edward sighed. “I told you man, she doesn’t kidnap people and hold them hostage, she takes them and sells them on the slave market! After all, you don’t hear any rumors about ransom money, and how else is she so affluent?”
His friend crossed their arms. “I still stand by my theory. And she wouldn’t get that much money from the ‘trade. But I guess the only way for you to find out would be to go along with her and learn for yourself. Speaking of which, you might want to get moving. Word is probably spreading about your location right now.”
Edward realized how right his friend’s latest statement was. Already, many boys were pointing him out, keeping track of his movements.
They didn’t hate him, per se, but they didn’t care, either. He couldn’t blame their logic either, that if they turned him in, they had a certain shot to staying free for at least a day, probably a week or two.
He walked down the hallway quickly, and then put up his hoodie and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible.
Edward zigzagged and weaved through the different hallways, hoping to lose anyone trying to keep track of him. He madly ran through the school until he had an epiphany: Abria couldn’t go into the men’s restrooms, could she?
He made a few more passes down the major hallways to confuse anyone keeping tabs on him, then slipped into one of the lesser-used restrooms and locked himself into a stall.
He hid there for what felt like hours, during most of which he wished he’d grabbed his watch before he’d panicked.
If only…
And who knew if he’d be safe after school, anyhow? She might just take someone home as a placeholder and get him tomorrow.
Better to stay and take a chance though, than to find out what happens to the guys she takes home.
Sometime after that, with the usual various small-bladdered freshmen coming in every so often, he heard running footsteps, and assumed that it was merely another guy holding it in for too long, until he heard stall doors slamming open.
He quivered and decided that now, when he knew he couldn’t, he really needed to use the toilet behind him.
A boot hit the door of his stall with a thunk, the latch holding—barely.
Two hands wrapped over the top, and with a grunt, a head popped up too.
“I found ‘im! He’s in here!” the boy shouted towards the entrance.
More footsteps.
The boy sticking his head over grinned at Edward. “This is gonna happen one of two ways: either you come out of there, or we’re coming in. And if we have to come in, it’s gonna get messy.”
Edward meekly unlatched the lock on his stall, and the boy roughly pulled him out.
Then the others summoned by the boy’s call dragged Edward out of the restroom, and continued to pull him along the hallway.
After several minutes of what surely would wear Edward’s shoes down severely, they stopped in front of a classroom door. The boy who’d found him knocked, and the students in the class all looked. Edward could see the delight on Abria’s face when she saw him.
Behind the window, Abria raised her hand. Edward could see her mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear her through the glass. She grinned at the teacher—who must’ve been somewhere out of the field of view—, stood up, and came to the door. One of the boys let go of Edward and opened the door for her.
“We found ‘im,” the boy said dumbly.
“I see that. Thank you for finding him for me.” She closed the door behind her and counted out a few hundreds from her purse for each, everyone but Edward.
“It was no problem, Mrs. Predge. So long as you keep our parents employed, we’re indebted to you.” The rough-looking boys stuffed the bills into their pockets and sauntered off.
“It’s not their fault, you know,” Abria addressed Edward, clasping his hand in hers. “They only do this knowing that with their fealty, they won’t have to spend a night with me in my bedroom.”
A cold chill swept up and down Edward’s spine. She—he was going to be a—she would make him—
“It’s not what you think, of course.” Abria rolled her eyes. “You silly boys always take that explanation the wrong way. Some even get excited about the prospect. And before you start getting your hopes up, I’m a virgin and I plan on being so for a very long time.”
She started pulling Edward along. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“To my house, of course.”
He spluttered, “You can’t—you’ll be—how do you think—?”
“I can leave at any time I want to. I’ve given enough contributions to this school that they’d let me do just about anything I wanted here. Though it’s a bit too close to my research facility for me to just call in subjects from the student body. No, I have a more… personal reason for taking boys like you out of class.”
She experiments on people?! Edward nearly flipped. Who was this girl, really? And why wasn’t he feeling any angst towards her taking him home? The thought only brought him calm, like he was relaxing on his back out in nature.
“Come on!” Abria nearly pulled him off his feet when he slowed to think.
“What’s the rush? Stop going so fast!” Edward tried to dig in his heels to slow down.
“The sooner I get home the sooner I can eat!” She pulled him off the ground and slung him over her back.
He had no choice but to wrap his legs around her, piggy-back style, or face his arms being torn off. “Hey! Stop! But why can’t you just eat the cafeteria food?” He remembered that every time he’d seen her, she’d always sat at lunch without buying or bringing any food.
“That stuff tastes disgusting. Worse than manure, I don’t know how you eat it. Honestly, I’d much rather eat manure myself—roll in it, even—before I’d come close to bringing that ‘food’ to my mouth.”
The bell rung for the end of the period. Students flooded out into the halls.
“Eww, what’s he doing?”
“What a pervert!”
Many of the girls that they passed had some remark against his moral integrity.
The boys just gave him pitying looks, hiding the relief they felt inside. The same look Edward always had given to whomever happened to be Abria’s most recent choice.
“Can’t you let me down?”
“You wouldn’t move fast enough. This way is faster and more efficient.”
He sighed. It was hard to keep focused near Abria. She had a relaxing aura, like flowers. He leaned his chin on her shoulder. Who cares what the others would say anyway? It’s not like they were helping in the slightest.
He slowly drifted off to the bouncing of Abria’s step…