Doc's eyes darted erratically around the room, eventually settling on bouncing between Kyle and me. He began, "It might be easier for me to tell you if I didn't have a knife held against my—"

I leaned in until I was mere centimeters from his face, then said flatly, "Tough shit."

He swallowed, leaning his head back against the wall with what seemed to be resignation. I moved with him, keeping the blade glued against the flesh of his neck.

"I don't know very much. They're going to give me a briefing when I return to the city."

"You'll have to do better than that," I said through my teeth. He gazed down at the knife as I sunk it into his skin, freeing a single drop of blood that quickly vanished under his shirt collar. "It's awfully optimistic of you to assume that you'll be going anywhere."

He inhaled sharply. "They want me to work on your case. All of you, I mean. To find out what really happened and what it means...for you and your friends, for all of us. This could have vast implications for humanity as a whole."

"What could have vast implications?" I shouted in his face, growing impatient. He made a poor attempt at suppressing a wince.

"The conclusion I assume you came to about those files . . . the word "abduction". . . it means exactly what you think it means. That's all I know," he said.

There was silence, then a clatter of metal on the floor. It took a moment for me to register that the knife had slipped from my fingers. At the same time, a pounding of heavy boots down the school's halls became audible.

For a split second, all three of us stood frozen, staring at each other with wide eyes. Then all at once, we lunged for the knife.

_____________

A/N: and thus concludes the continuing saga of chapter 10. Now that I'm back into the groove of writing, hopefully, subsequent chapters won't be split up like this.

Should I try titling chapters/changing the numbering scheme? I feel like it might be difficult to remember which chapter is which or where you left off if it's all just roman numerals.

Somehow this story ended up being featured on the front page, on Wattpad's Hidden Gems list. It jumped about 4000 reads in something like a week, which I never, ever expected. I am eternally grateful for all of your support—every read and vote and comment.