The handle to your apartment jingled and then the door swung open, revealing Remi. "Where have you been?" you asked curiously.

"Talking with someone," she responded curtly.

You frowned at her tone and watched as she walked past you to her room, "something's wrong. That's what you've been thinking about, right?" you asked her solemnly and she stopped walking, "the mall, the article, Arlo..." You sighed when she made no attempt to elaborate, "Isen's been tracking down something too." She was still frozen in the hall, "ugh, fine." You snapped and turned away from her, "let's all keep (y/n) in the dark. She lives under a rock anyway." You muttered darkly to yourself.

The room fell silent again and you turned away from Remi back to your notes seeing as how the conversation wasn't getting anywhere. "I'm sorry." You glanced back in surprise to see Remi still in the same place as she was before, you assumed she had gone back to her room. What shocked you even more was the tears that were starting to form, "I, I don't know what to do. Arlo was keeping secrets from me and I'm scared!"

You panicked when you saw her start to break down and rushed out of your chair to give her a hug, "it's okay Remi! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!" you told her in a soft voice and you held her close, as if the tighter you held her the safer you'd be, "we'll get through this together. You're not alone, you have me, Isen, and Blyke. I promise."

You heard her sniffling, but she seemed to have calmed down a little, "thank you."

You smiled reassuringly, even though she couldn't see it, "of course."

"I think I'll go to sleep," she mused aloud and you stepped back to release her from the hug. She looked uncertain as she glanced to the side, "I need more time to mull it over."

"Can we talk tomorrow?" you asked, "all four of us? It'll be easier to think about it when we can brainstorm and bounce ideas with each other."

She nodded, and she seemed to have steeled her resolve a bit, "yeah."

You gave her a soft, caring smile, "sleep well."

She glanced over your shoulder to the table of notes, "still doing homework?"

"Thinking," you explained as you also glanced back at the nest of papers you had built on the table.

She sighed, "yeah. It's hard to not do anything else." She gave you a wave before she entered her room and closed the door with a light snap. You went back to your work and sighed before sitting heavily in the chair. What was happening? Was this the start of something huge?

☆☆☆

"Have you guys seen Isen? Like, at all?" you asked Blyke and Remi as the three of you left class for the day.

Blyke shrugged nonchalantly, "probably doing his reporter snooping again."

You frowned at this, "how are you unaffected by everything!" you snapped as you stopped walking and threw your arms in the air with exasperation. While Remi, Isen, and now you, were busy trying to figure out what in the world was happening, Blyke was acting as if it was another normal day. Which kind of infuriated you, because something big was happening and he was willing to turn a blind eye to it.

"Woah," he put his hands up and his eyes widened in shock, "what happened?"

"Not here," Remi put a hand on your arm and started pulling you away from the main area where tons of other students were also leaving the school. She quickly led the three of you away from the school and into an empty park a couple blocks away. It was a neat little place with benches and trees, like a normal park, but it was dead empty. There wasn't a person in sight.

"What's gotten into you two," Blyke frowned as he looked at you and Remi, "why'd you drag me here?"

You opted to ignore his question in favor of asking your own, "does Isen know where we are?" you asked Remi who nodded, "and is he coming?" you had tried contacting him multiple times during the school day via text, but he didn't respond to any of them. It worried you, it was like he disappeared off the face of the planet.

"Yeah, I am." You looked to the voice of who just spoke up and saw it was Isen walking towards the three of you.

"There you are!" you couldn't help but shout, "I thought you disappeared off the face of the planet! You could've at least sent something back!" you were upset, yes, but mostly you were worried. What if Arlo had gotten to him? You remembered Isen telling you about how he was threatened with a fork.

He had the decency to look a little sheepish as he apologized, "yeah, sorry about that."

Blyke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "are you guys done yet? What was it that we had to walk blocks from the school to talk about?"

"You really haven't noticed it?" you looked at Blyke nervously and bit your lip.

His eye twitched, "of course I haven't! Stop dancing around the topic!"

You glanced at Remi and Isen, "I think they know more about what's happening than I do. So it's probably best if they explain."

Both of them nodded before speaking at the same time, "Ember." "John."

"What?" the three of you looked at each other in bewilderment. How had you all gone down different paths?