"What?" Jackson snapped. "Come off it, bro. You won't keep me here just because you want to have fun. I don't want to have fun. I want to go back to my room and study. Why are you doing this?" "Why? Do you have a test tomorrow or an assignment you want to submit?" Nathan asked with a clear drawl now appearing in his tone. Jackson's face was folded into multiple lines of anger. "I don't have to be doing all that in order to want to get the hell out of here.""Well, then there is no need to rush, man," Nathan said. There were signs of laziness all showing themselves in his tone. "Here, take a drink. You will forget all your worries in no time."It would be an understatement to say that Jackson did not trust Nathan. In his mind, there was nothing at all he had for the blond-haired one other than pure mistrust. But seeing that Nathan had gotten himself drunk and had let his guard down a little bit, a different voice was now brewing inside of Jackson's chest. The thought that maybe Natha

Luke stopped walking, perturbed by Isaiah's new behavior. His mouth fell open. "Isaiah, is that you?" He asked, apprehensive of the idea that he would get an answer. And that answer would decide what would happen to their friendship."It's me," Isaiah said, not turning around to look at his friend, but just stopping to stand before him, with only his back being seen by Luke. "It's your friend. Isaiah Bradley. I am just better now. I just have a better idea of what to do and how I am going to do it. You do not need to fear. Neither do you have to grumble."Luke tried to steady his breathing. "Okay. What do you intend to do now? It's night. It's dark. And I don't even know where we are right now. How do we leave? I thought the plan was to leave by sunrise in the morning. This is nowhere near sunrise.""Trust me, Luke." Isaiah turned around to smile at the boy. "All those fears of yours would be blown into the wind in very little time."Luke stood back and wondered what it was that Isa

Nathan was not scared. Far from it. There was severely little that he thought Isaiah could do to him that could ultimately hurt him. The only reason he did not want to admit it was that, to him, everything was a game, a riddle to be solved by no one else but him. And no other reason than to prove to himself that he was ultimately the smartest person he knew.And now that he was staring Isaiah in the face, sitting right close to him, he could only burn with all the rage and jealousy that had been scarring the inside of himself for all this time. He could not let Isaiah win. Already he had won the attention and love of their father, and so he would not give him the one thing that he prized himself so much for having."And why is that a problem?" Nathan asked his half-brother. "Why is that the most important thing to you today?" He looked at Jackson, whose eyes were already glaring glaciers of ice at him. "Do you approve of this? He comes back after a few days of us worrying sick over h

Jenny knew. She knew instinctively what Isaiah was trying to say. She knew that it was in many ways connected to what happened in the museum. So she was different from Jackson. Jackson wanted to know the truth; she, Isaiah, and—if his behavior is anything to go by—Luke knew. She wanted to know the whole truth. Something she believed only Isaiah knew and was hiding for a grand number of reasons. So she was not angry as Jackson wanted her to be. And this made him angrier. "I can't believe you both," he said. "Why am I the only one acting sane? Why does it feel like you all secretly think I am mad?" He casts his gaze at Luke. "You have a wound on your throat. Does it stop you from speaking? I was expecting your voice to speak to be the loudest about this, but now you have also become quiet?"Luke continued to be quiet. The rage that exploded in the boy's face, for a moment, almost seemed as though it would break the glasses that framed his face. "Say something, Luke. Please. I feel

Isaiah smiled. It was a wry smile. Jules turned around to look if by chance he was smiling at someone else. He was not. He knew what she meant, but from his point of view the words seemed to hint at a whole other meaning. One that had nothing to do with Jules but had everything to do with the friends that he had left behind."What are you smiling at?" She asked, shivering from how weird and out of place the smile was to her."Oh, nothing," he said, his eyes landing upon her and in that moment something inside of her shifted uncomfortably. "What do you want?" He asked. His voice was heavy with intent and seriousness.Jules stuttered, moving backwards for a bit. "It's just that... I have missed you." She lifted herself like a schoolgirl, placing her elbow softly on his chest."He stared at her with a robotic grunt. "What are you doing?" He asked. His voice seemed to fill her up with electricity."Don't you miss me too, Isaiah?" He asked. Before he could reply to her, she interrupted him