DUSK

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

^^^^^

"Em wake up!" I knocked continuously on her door and I was about to knock again when the door suddenly burst open and an angry Em stood at the door, her hair in all directions which to put it nicely looked horrible.

"What?!" she barked, yep, she was angry."

"Chloe's gone." I blurted out and held out the piece of paper I found on the fridge. In an instant, all sleep had vanished from her face and confusion had taken over.

"Crap, have you talked to Leo?" she asked, trying to sound okay but I knew what she was feeling inside.

"He should be getting back now." I muttered and as soon I said that, Leo appeared at the end of the hallway. "Emergency meeting in fifteen minutes," I said it robotically to which he only shrugged and walked past like we didn't exist. Sometimes I wish I could just strangle him or knock some sense into his thick head.

"I'll take a shower now." Em mumbled before closing the door. I sighed silently before walking to the living room and plopping down on the first couch before closing my eyes and trying to imagine how scared and stupid she must be now that she was on her own and against forces that she didn't even know.

"If the meeting is about me apologizing to Chloe—"he started but I cut him off.

"Chloe is gone. She disappeared right after you left and I was in the shower. She left this:

I've gone to make things right, Leo was right, everyone deserves a normal life and I'm the only one keeping you from that. Don't bother looking for me because you won't find me and it's probably for the best. Thank you for protecting me all this time Leo, Em and Ash; you are my best friends and I'll always love you guys and Leo should go and visit his parents because he needs to be re-united with them.

Leo looked angry and the incoherent curses he muttered in a low tone were proof enough but I knew deep down he was feeling guilty because of Chloe's letter.

"Stupid girl, she thinks it's only her mother when there's more enemies than she could imagine." He cursed out loud and run his hand through his hair. Emma was silent through all this and she looked sad.

"What do we do?" she finally looked up and met my eyes.

"Leo, looks like you're back to being behind the scenes, find her but don't contact her, just keep an eye on her. Em and I will contact HQ and see if they can track her using the satellite." I explained and Leo nodded once before he walked out with his hood over his head. I turned to Em who nodded and signaled to the phone. This was going to be hard.

"Ashton, this is a surprise, did you miss us already?" Mr Elroy's voice rang through the phone and made me smile, despite how I was feeling.

"Sir, I'm afraid they found us." I stated curtly and waited as we heard him mutter curses under his breath.

"Are the girls safe?" he asked, his voice was so full of worry that I internally cursed Chloe for this.

"Hi Mr E, we were safe" Em spoke, her voice cracking at the end.

"What happened to Chloe?" His voice came out without any emotion

"We had a bit of falling out and she knew the truth about this plan. She left and we don't know where to. Jared tried to track her down but he couldn't find her."

"Okay, we'll try to track Dusk using satellite transmission but I'm putting you on the first flight home which is in three hours. We need to re-strategize." He said; his voice dripping with authority and we both had to answer with a faint 'yes sir' before he hung up.