A World of Stars ➳ A Zodiac Story

Chapter Twenty-Two: "One by One"

  The eight remaining kids didn't leave Sagittarius's room until 3 o'clock in the morning, frantically looking for something, anything, that would help them with where their missing friends were. Gemini had slowly dissolved into tears, bringing everyone else down with her too. As they finally trudged back to their rooms in the early morning, they each glanced behind their shoulder every few seconds, knowing that none of them were safe anymore. Aries sat down on her side of the door and placed her head in her hands, sobbing quietly.

• • •

  The next morning they all sat in the kitchen brooding. Nobody spoke, they were all trying to think of anything that could help them with finding out where the others were. Leo groaned, "I wish we could talk to Orion or Phoenix, we could have asked them what to do!" They all nodded sadly,

"How do they expect a bunch of teenagers to defeat a master villain?" Cancer cried, banging his hand on the table in anger, everyone looked up. "Does anybody know anything about what happened?" They all turned to Capricorn, who sat with her eyes trained on one spot on the floor, trying to avoid their prying eyes. She looked up to see everybody watching her and she exhaled loudly through her nose.

"I honestly don't know, I went in and they weren't there, I looked around the room and saw absolutely nothing, the sheets were completely tidy, it seemed as though nobody had even touched them," she explained as the others nodded in understanding.

"Are you absolutely sure that you saw nothing else?" Taurus probed further, Capricorn started tearing up,

"I'm really sorry, I swear," Taurus placed a hand around her shoulder, but Capricorn shrugged it off, getting up from the table and pushing her plate away, "I'm not hungry,"

"I'm sorry Cap! I didn't try to offend you!" Taurus apologized, standing up as well. Capricorn waved her off rudely,

"Yeah, well then I guess you have a natural talent" she snapped. Everyone exchanged looks,

"What's up with her?" Leo whispered to Aries, receiving a death glare from everyone, including Aries. He chuckled awkwardly and hid his face behind his hands, "Whoops?"

"Look, I swear, if I knew anything, I would tell you. I mean, you guys are my best friends," Capricorn said, looking around at all their faces. Leo stood up, his chair toppling behind him.

"I have an idea! The kidnapper always shows up when the people were in a room with the door closed. So I simply have to sit in my room and the kidnapper will come!" Before anybody could object he had already bounded up the stairs and they heard the door slam shut.

"It's not going to work," Pisces said, continuing to eat.

"Definitely not," Taurus agreed. They sat in the living room on the couch, looking at the TV as Gemini absentmindedly flipped through the channels. The news came up and Scorpio sat up straight,

"Wait, stop here." As they watched, they saw a news reporter standing in front of their school, or the school that they went to for barely a month. Behind her stood Orion, who fidgeted with his hands.

"Here we have Principle Orion of Nova Institute of Astrology. Following these past few days, twelve students have gone missing from their dorms. They disappeared after the curious incident of an earthquake that struck this area only." The news reporter turned to Orion, almost stuffing her microphone into his face, "What is your take on this sir?"

"We are doing everything that we possibly can to find these children, and we want to reassure the parents by telling them that we will find your children," He nodded, showing he was done, and the news reporter turned back to the camera and began talking about something else. Scorpio turned to the others, "Liar!" He hissed through his teeth,