An Odd Sort of Magic

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone stared at Vanessa as if she'd grown a second head.

"Where, then?" Nick asked eagerly. He was bouncing up and down with excitment, and couldn't have been more than eight or nine.

"Well, I'm a little hazy on the details, but Ms. Shelling used to take me to this room. It's like, even below the basement. It looked exactly like you'd expect a castle dungeon to look like."

Jayan's heart swelled with hope. There was a chance of finding Drew! "So you think she's keeping him there?"

Vanessa shrugged, "I can't be sure of anything."

"Well that's just great," Beta rolled her eyes, showing a touch of her sarcastic side. Then she sighed, "well, it's the only lead we have.So how do we get there?"

Vanessa's forhead wrinkled up as she thought, "I honestly don't really remember. It was a long time ago. But I think if I got in the general vicinety, I'd be able to figure it out from there."

"The upside to all this," Rachel said, "is that you don't have to hide anymore. You've been exposed now. Everything's out in the open." She glanced at Jessica and frowned, "we know they're misfits. I don't now why you think we can't handle information as simple as that."

Jessica flushed bright red. Rachel kept talking, "I mean, seriously. What did you think, that we were going to be all predudice against them? That's just stupid. I mean, we're all in this together, right?"

Everyone stared at her. She frowned, "what?"

Finally, Beta spoke, "you talk more than Arianna. And that's saying something."

"She has a point," Jayan said. Vanessa nodded in agreement. 

"Speaking of Arianna," Beta said, "when are we going to get her? Knowing her, she's going to drive Kiya even more insane with her incesant talking."

Jayan bit her lip, "what with everyone here, I don't know how we'll be able to get Kiya back in. I'd suggest Beta sneaking her in, invisable. But Kiya won't just keep quiet. Someone, more like everyone, would hear her."

"I don't know either," Vanessa admitted, "there's got to be some way. But the most logical possiblity is to wait until Kiya is actually sane again. And who knows how long that will take?"

Things did look grim, from pretty much all angles. Drew missing, Ms. Shelling on the loose, and Kiya completely wacko. Yeah, not looking so good for the Underground. 

Jayan stood, "I want to go check on her." She turned to leave. No one moved to stop her. Jayan didn't really have to think about where she was going. She remembered how to get there from her first stay at the acadamy. And before she entered the yellow tranquility room, she knocked hesitantly.

Arianna peeked her head out, "Oh, Jayan! Thank goodness you're here! I was going crazy in there. You're actually supposed to be quiet!" 

"Just let me see Kiya," Jayan said quietly. Arianna's face fell.

"Oh. She's not doing so good." Arianna let Jayan pass her into the room. Kiya sat in the far corner, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth like a kindergartener. 

And her eyes... It was scary, the look in them. Jayan didn't have to know what had happened to Kiya to tell what was wrong with her. Kiya's eyes said it all. Jayan could see the despair, hopelessness, and sorrow. 

And it terrifyed her. But she knelt down next to Kiya anyway, "hey. You all right?" It was a stupid question. Kiya clearly wasn't all right. 

Kiya didn't make a sound. She didn't even look up. Jayan turned to Arianna, "has she been like this the whole time?"

Arianna shifted from foot to foot, "well, actually, she was yelling for the first few minutes. After that, she got all quiet and sullen. It was really freaky to watch."

Jayan took a deep breath, "Kiya? We're going to help you. Okay? We're going to get you back to the Underground-" 

Kiya jerked upright, eyes widening. "No!" she shreiked, "not them! They're traitors, every one of them!" She slumped back down.

"Did she do this before?" Jayan asked Arianna.

Arianna shook her head, "I didn't mention anything about the... well, you know what, before."

"I can hear you," Kiay muttered, "plotting against me, like Jasmine did. I'm not going to let you hurt me anymore." 

"Paranoid, isn't she," Arianna remarked.

Jayan shot her a glare, "not helpful." She stood, "I'm going back to the others. Vanessa thinks she has an idea of where Drew might be. I just wanted to check on Kiya." 

Jayan left the room. As she went, she heard Kiya barely whisper, "go back to your nest of lying traitors. See what good it'll do you." 

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"Wow, freaky," Rachel said when Jayan told them what happened.

Vanessa was frowning, "Kiya thinks everyone here is going to betrey her? And all because of Jasmine doing just that?"

Jayan nodded, "she nearly fell to pieces when I mentioned the Underground."

"It's not really the Underground anymore," Beta said ruefully, "Not now that Ms. Shelling knows about us. Now we're more like the Rebels."

"No more Star Wars for you," Nick joked. 

Jayan glared at him, "this isn't funny. We need to take action. Finding Drew is the most important thing right now."

"I agree," Beta said, "with Kiya 'out of comission', so to speak, we need to prioritize. And getting Drew back is definettly at the top of the list."

Everyone turned to Vanessa. "You are our best bet of finding him," Jayan said, "any ideas?"

Vanessa looked thoughtful, "well, we definetly should check out the basement. There should be a door down there somewhere." 

"Just one problem with that," Beta said, "the basement is huge! To you realize how long it will take to search just one area? Even if we had the whole Underground working with us, it would be-"

"Thank you for that happy thought," Jayan cut her off, frowning disapprovingly, "besides, we shouldn't tell the others about this." 

"She's right," Vanessa said, "between Kiya, if they even have a clue about that, and Drew missing, and Ms. Shelling taking off, and Jasmine betreying us, and-"

Again, Jayan cut her off, "get to the point."

"Well, it's just not a good idea. Moral is pretty low as it is. We don't want them to get their hopes up." 

"So what now?" Rachel asked.

"Now," Jayan said, sighing, "we start searching the basement for a door."