Kingdom Keepers: Next Generation (Unfinished/Unedited) *Republished

Chapter 16: Meeting an Ally?

Lucas' POV

"They should be here by now!" Eli said, impatiently. I was currently sitting in an orange chair in the lobby of the Polynesian next to a fountain with several plants and a tiki man. Eli, however, was pacing. I knew Sofia, this is the first place she would head. She was crazy about cool water stuff.

"They'll be here soon." I said. To be honest, this was just me hoping everything had worked out. I had no idea what had happened to them. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder just above where my tee shirt was. This had been going on since the bus ride. It had been slowly getting sharper and more painful as we arrived. As if on cue, I saw two people walk into the lobby: Emma, her hair now down and Alex, who had sunglasses on. I felt relief and then I realized Sofia wasn't with them. They came over to us.

"It's about time!" Eli said, finally sitting down. Emma gave him an exasperated look and rolled her eyes, while Alex looked around, making sure we weren't being overheard.

"Where's Sofia?" I asked.

"We don't know." Emma said, glancing a look at Alex.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Eli asked.

Emma and Alex launched into an explanation about Sofia going ahead, Kylo Ren, and Emma's acting. It was such a Sofia thing to do.

"Nice!" Eli said to Emma. She blushed.

"It was actually not that hard, just turned on the waterworks. Like I did for the school musical last year." She said.

Another burst of pain from my shoulder made me grab it. Emma saw the expression on my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's nothing, just my shoulder." I explained.

"Let me see." She said. I decided not to argue. I pulled up my tee shirt to reveal a dark circle that was lightly bleeding in the center.

"OMG, Lucas!" Emma said.

"You never got hit by anything." Eli said.

"You're right," I said, realization coming to me. "I never did."

I felt everyone's confidence slipping. Sofia wasn't coming.

"Needle?" Alex said, still examining my arm.

"Looks like it." Eli said.

"Sofia was wearing a tank top."Alex said.

"What do we do?" Emma asked.

"We can't stay here for long." I said.

They all looked at me sympathetically. I looked away, towards the fountain.

"We can't go home." Alex said, breaking the silence.

"Why not?" Emma asked.

"We don't what happened to our parents. They could've been captured, which means we aren't safe at home. Uncle Oliver has all of the kids, which means that they are fine. We need to get somewhere safe." He responded.

"How much money do we have?" I asked.

Everyone checked their pockets.

"15 bucks." Eli said.

"25 and 15 cents." Alex said.

"I have $5.75" I said.

"My mom handed me this before we ran." Emma said, pulling out a credit card.

"Sweet!" Eli said.

"Should we stay here?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," I said. "If Sofia does come, she will come here and we'll be waiting for her."