The Differents | ✓

T W E L V E

I looked at Sniper in surprise. His expression told me he knew as much about it as I did. Turning back to the librarian, I asked him, "Wait, you mean the book was taken, like permanently?"

He looked exasperated, and nodded slowly as one might do to a child who didn't understand the simplest of things. "Now, if you'll be so courteous as to let me do my work, I would truly appreciate it." And he turned around and ignored us.

"Well, what now--" Sniper started, but was interrupted by the speaker in the wall crackling to life. We turned our heads to it, waiting for what it would say.

"Attention, students and staff: we will be having a mandatory assembly outside in the field in half an hour. Students are expected to be on their best behaviour and to be outside their first class of the day in twenty minutes. Again, this assembly is mandatory and everyone must attend. Thank you."

I huffed. Everything today seemed to be getting us further and further from our goal. I turned to Sniper. "See you later? Maybe we can work on the... project later today."

"Sounds good." He gave me a small smile and headed to the doors of the library for his first class. I hung back for a moment, watching him walk away, and felt guilty of losing the map. Maybe we would actually have a stronger plan if I hadn't lost it.

My Instructor led us down the hall, quickly filling up with other students going to the field. We turned a corner and stepped into the courtyard. The air was still chilly but it was significantly warmer than a few weeks ago, and it was raining less often. As we passed under the gate that started the path leading to the field, I noticed small flower buds starting to emerge from the branches of the trees above us. Spring was coming, slowly but surely.

Arriving at the field, we were directed toward one of the corners. A small wooden stage was set up there for outdoor assemblies, and a crowd was already forming below it. Instructor let us loose with instructions on where to meet her after the assembly, and so I went to go find Sniper. I located his messy auburn hair off to the right and eased through the crowd to stand next to him. "Hey."

"Oh, hey," he said, noticing me next to him. "Any idea what we're supposed to be doing?"

"No clue. I just hope this will be quick so that my legs don't go numb from standing."

"Ha, me too."

A man walked up onto the stage with a small microphone and tapped it to get everyone's attention. "I know that many of you have places to be and things to do, so I will make this quick. Today we discovered a traitor in our midst."

Murmurs and whispers circulated around the crowd and I broke into a cold sweat. Had they somehow found out about our plan? My breathing quickened and I grabbed Sniper's arm. Looking at his face, I noticed he looked completely calm, but his face was ghostly pale.

"They can't possibly know," he whispered. "How could they have known?"

"The map," I said, and felt ready to vomit. "The Mask must've shown them the map. Sniper, what will they do to us? Will we be killed?"

"Calm down; we don't know for a fact that they know about it."

"Well who else could be marked as a traitor?" I whisper-shouted, my muscles tightening, getting ready to run.

"Arthemis, calm down. Stop jumping to conclusions," he forced through his teeth. "And anyway, it isn't us. Look."

I looked up at the stage, where two Masks were dragging a person behind them, their face covered with a cloth of some sort. The person was writhing around and trying to break free of the ropes that tied their wrists. The two Masks dragged them to the centre of the stage and tore off the cloth, exposing the person's face. My knees buckled.