Sole City

The connecting threads

Chapter by: Kittensgirl412

Ethan's POV

I walked away from the two girls talking but was still listening to the two girls' conversation and heard Milo mention needing a buffer between me and her. Ah, if only she knew the true me, but I may never show my true self to her. Only River has seen my true face in the past, and to say he was surprised is a bit of an understatement. I looked at the lock which Milo had melted off and opened the door. I sat down at the computer where the camera feed was likely stored and booted it up. As the screen turned on I scowled, "Tch. Password protected. Any Idea's Milo?" I thought she might have a slight idea as to what the password might be. I saw her go into thought out of the corner of my eye. I just let out a sigh and hacked into the computer while she thought, "Nevermind, I got it." I told her. She looked surprised; clearly she didn't know I took computer classes and secretly sharpened my hacking skills while taking them. "How...?" Milo asked, and I rolled my eyes, "Why do you think River puts up with my shit? I get him the answer sheets for his tests, and he tolerates me. As simple as that." I could hear Milo rolling her eyes behind me.

I sighed and continued, pulling up the recording of earlier today and started with the principal's office, "First, let's see what happened in that office." I growled under my breath.

I watched and was appalled by what I saw: Lily walked into the principal's office, and was carried out by a bulky looking man, she was unconscious and from what I could make out, her eyes were void of emotion. I clenched my fist as I brought up the recording of the hospital wing for the new girl. "Here's the recording of the hospital wing." I told her, letting it play. On the hospital wing recording, we saw two men enter and approach the front desk, speak to the man at the desk for a moment, and walking into what I could assume was her sibling's room. The next thing we saw was all too similar to the office recording. The two men came out, one carrying her sibling, who was unconscious. I sighed, "There's a pretty clear connection between both kidnappings. They played out all too similarly." Milo nodded in agreement; the similarity was irrefutable. I checked the recording out front of the school, and that's when I saw something that made the connection crystal clear.

Within that recording, I saw both the new girl's sibling, and Lily, get loaded into the same car, and the car drive off. Only minutes later, I came out of the front of the school to wait for Lily. I pounded the desk, "DAMMIT! I must have just missed them!!" I growled in frustration. Milo quickly slapped a hand over my mouth, "Shh! Do you WANT to get arrested?" She hissed. I grumbled for a moment before falling silent again. She slowly removed her hand, and I looked over to the new girl. "So, the question now is: where were they taken? There aren't as many camera's out and about the streets...not sure I'd be able to find anything that'd say where they went...I can look though." I told them, both her and Milo nodded. I turned back to the computer and started looking at the camera reels, only to find that there wasn't much to go on. There were a few cameras that caught them, but no camera caught an end destination. "Tch, nothing. A few cameras caught the car going down streets...but no end location." I sighed, swiveling the chair around to face them again. "Now what?" I asked them. Milo went into thought, but her eyes lit up, clearly she had come up with something, "What if we check the road on the last street that the car was recorded on?" I nodded in agreement as I powered down the computer and stepped out of the office, the girls following. I smirked, "Sounds good! We'll do that tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I'm going to go get some sleep!" I told them as I broke the window behind me. I walked up to its edge and leaned back and let myself fall out of it. I heard Milo screech, "Wait how are we going to fix that?!" as I fell. I snickered as I flipped in the air and landed on my feet on the ground. I looked up and told her, "Simple! You don't! They can consider it our gift to them!" and ran off.

I had told them I was going home to go to sleep, but I instead decided against that and went to the last street the car drove down in the recordings and looked around. As I walked around I noticed an old bum in the alleyway nearby and approached him. He was asleep. Not wanting to touch him with my hands, I nudged him awake with my foot. He startled awake, "Huh?! Who's there?!" He asked, looking up at me. I looked at him and sighed, "Look, I just want to ask you some questions." I said. The bum smirked and shook his head, "I ain't answering unless you pay me." I sighed and flashed three twenties in his face. "This enough?" I asked. He opened his eyes a little wider and snatched the cash from me. "Hell yeah it is! Now what'd you want to ask, kiddo?" He chirped. I sighed and shifted my head from side to side, cracking my neck. "Were you around here earlier?" I asked him. He nodded in response, so I proceeded to take out my phone and show him a picture of the car that I had downloaded to my phone from that computer. He glanced at the picture. "Did you see where this car went by chance?" I asked him. He nodded, "Yeah, it passed by earlier today, took a left at the next crossway." He reported. I smiled and gave him an extra five. "Thanks, I appreciate it." I told him as I took off. I heard him call after me, "No problem man, you know where to find me if you need!" I smirked and kept walking.

I came up to the crosswalk and looked to the left and saw that the street was empty. I decided I'd done enough for one night and thought it best to head home for the night and rest. I was well aware I'd be coming back here tomorrow with Milo and that other chick anyways. I was getting cold anyways, so back home it was.

I snuck in through my backyard and climbed up to my window which I'd purposely left open. Clamoring through the window, I flopped onto my bed which was right next to it and sighed. We had a trail, but how long would that trail go for? Hopefully, it would lead us to Lily and that other kid.