Unsung Requiem by C.L. Stone

A Due

(Intended as a duet; for two voices or instruments)

Sang

Eventually the streets changed from commercial buildings to older colonial homes, and we ended up in narrow alleyways near the market buildings of downtown Charleston. The air was crisp. The sky was overcast but no rain.

The moment we parked, North sent word of where we were, and minutes later, Kota and Nathan arrived, along with Mr. Buble in Mr. Buble’s car.

We were doing something together?

Mr. Buble rolled down Kota’s window so we could talk. “We’ll take Miss Sorenson from here. Will you be heading back to Summerville?”

“With a stop at the school,” North said. “Still working on something.” It was all he mentioned, not volunteering any more. He glanced at Nathan. “Shouldn’t you be at your house? We’re supposed to go monitor. I thought you were there.”

Nathan shrugged lazily. “There’s a seventeen-hour flight before I even have to worry about him getting home. The police are done. Now I can’t be by myself waiting there.”

“We have to team up at all times,” Kota said. “That includes Mr. Buble now. So we’ll need Nathan here for now.”

Mr. Buble motioned with a wave to me. “Then let’s get on with our part. I don’t like doing things so far from the rest of group at this point, but let’s get this finished and we can clear the docket a little.” He motioned to North. “Maybe you two can go pick up Mr. Blackbourne’s car, too. The BMW was given to the dealership they’d bought the new car from. It’s waiting there for now.”

North nodded shortly. It was something important we needed to do. Clear the docket.

Like the theft. And Erica. And where to live.

I got into the back seat of Mr. Buble’s car with Nathan, but Mr. Buble didn’t drive anywhere. Instead, we waved goodbye to North and Silas. The parking spot was just outside of some shops downtown. I wasn’t sure of the location, as the area wasn’t totally familiar to me.

“The task is simple,” Mr. Buble said. “There are two separate runaway teens that have been spotted in this area. They run from adults in general. They’ve left multiple safe homes and foster parents. It might be they won’t trust you either, but more likely younger people than any adults. We’d like to eventually get them into secure housing, even if they prefer to be on their own.”

“What do we do if we find them?” Kota asked.

“You’re only here to locate them, and if possible, tag them. They’ll be joined later by other Academy teens who live on this side of town, those who might be able to get information and convince them to move in to one of our secure locations.” He showed us pictures on his phone, one of a girl, another a boy. They were school pictures, each looking bored or irritated and half smiling at some cameraman. They were young, perhaps twelve or so. “They’ve been seen together, so it’s likely they’re looking out for each other.”

“Then we locate and tag,” Kota said. “It seems simple.”

“If you can get a tracker on one or both, we’ll have done enough to allow others to follow up later.” He leaned over Kota and opened the glove compartment, taking out two small, individually wrapped packets. Inside each packet was a very tiny black dot.

“This is a very simple ping back tracker,” he said. “The teenagers seem to stay downtown, so it’ll be straightforward to keep an eye on them. Get it in a pocket, in a bag, anything, and we can find out where they might be staying for now.”

Kota nodded. “Got it.”

Mr. Buble checked in with me for confirmation. I only nodded.

“Do your best,” he said.

My heart was pounding at the thought of what we should do. One job after another. How did they keep up with everything that went on?

“He’ll probably want to keep an eye on us when possible,” Kota said to me after we reached the sidewalk and started away from where Mr. Buble and Nathan remained, parked and waiting. “But I told him we’d probably pretend to be out on a date.”

“Oh,” I said, realizing he was walking very close. “Should we… does he…” I wanted to ask if Mr. Buble knew yet. “What happened with Lily?”

Kota hesitated, his green eyes blinking rapidly a few times before he responded. “Victor… kind of has a plan. I’m waiting to hear back. I’m not sure though.”

Victor? Sometimes being in such a large group, it was so hard to keep up. I tried my best. I reached out, gave his hand a gentle squeeze and tried to show some confidence. “We trust Victor, don’t we?”

He shared a light smile and his eyes lit up at my touch. “He gave up this job he was going to do with you to go sort it out and check with Mr. Blackbourne. You know, early on he sounded a little… jealous about everything. Or he sort of did when I talked to him about it.” He sighed. “Funny how we all did, in our own way. After I found out… it took a lot of talking to them to figure out how I even felt about it.”

I wished I had some sort of response for him, but I wasn’t sure how to make it better. At times, I felt guilty for how this all came about.

We continued to walk downtown. We didn’t really have a direction. We were just told to keep an eye out and try to find two people. I tried to keep their picture in my mind, looking at everyone we passed, hoping we’d get to them quickly.

After a minute of waiting to hear him continue and he didn’t, I brushed my fingertips against his arm, trying to be encouraging. “I feel like I was constantly worried about… you. Them, too, but you mostly. I wasn’t sure you’d even try. And I’d understand if you didn’t want to…”

He smiled a little. “I like that you’re more open now. Before, when… I guess it was new and everyone was unsure, it was like you held back. A lot. And now you’re different. You’re more you. And I like it.”

My cheeks heated. I wanted to float as we walked, although I was more doing my best to avoid sidewalk cracks.

For a couple of blocks, we continued, circling an area downtown where there was a mix of older homes, and then crossing the street near a church and finding ourselves on a street with more small businesses built into the old homes.

After walking another block, he stopped shortly, taking his phone out. “Point,” he said.

I tilted my head at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Pick any direction.”

“Any?”

“Trust me. We have to walk the city anyway, let’s make it a little fun. We don’t get out much.”

I guessed that was true, but I didn’t understand what he meant. “Where?”

He smiled, and then jerked his head outward in a motion to direct me to look around. “Randomly. Just point.”

I bit my lip, unsure.

“Here,” he said. He held out his hand, I snagged it, and he drew me in close.

His other hand closed over my forehead and swooped down in a motion. “Close your eyes if it’s easier. Now point. Oh wait.”

He started spinning, in a slow motion, with me beside him on the sidewalk. It was a bit dizzying but he was careful.

“Now point,” he said. “Anywhere. Tell me where to stop.”

“Stop,” I said quickly, feeling like I was about to tumble. I pointed outward. He stilled me quickly, so my pointing finger was stretched out toward the city.

“Stay still,” he said.

I opened my eyes, and he held out his phone. He checked the screen. I peeked over his shoulder as he opened up a map. He zoomed in on where we were, displaying an overhead view of downtown Charleston.

He double-checked our actual location, the street name on a sign next to us, and then again looked at the map, adjusting it to the direction I had pointed.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” he said.

“It is?” I asked.

“Haven’t been there yet,” he said. He grasped my hand, and he lunged forward down the sidewalk, aiming us in the direction I’d pointed. “Come on. There might be one starting soon.”

He seemed so happy we were doing this together. Was this an Academy job or were we out for the day? It didn’t seem to matter to him. The feeling was catching. I wanted to do a good job, but he seemed confident.

We ended up on a street with an open-air market. It was later in the afternoon. The winter sun was already starting to lower itself a bit, but the stores around the market were open, welcoming what few visitors were walking the streets this late January day.

The open-air market was sort of familiar to me, as we’d been on this street before. This time, instead of heading into the more familiar indoor mall that was nearby, he led me toward the market itself. We passed sweetgrass basket weavers sitting on the front entrance, displaying their wares. Occasionally people would stop to look at them. There was a candlemaker near them, creating a blend of sweet and smoky fragrances that hung in the air.

Kota circled them. “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said. “We’ll do what you pointed out to do, but it’ll give us a chance to blend it a bit.”

Kota followed a sidewalk between the open market and a stretch of shops running parallel to each other along the road. There wasn’t much traffic, and many people walked through the street as much as they did the sidewalk. It amazed me that while it was cool outside and the middle of the week, people seemed to be out and about.

Kota stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and read from a sign just outside the door of what seemed a discreet spot between a sweet shop and a bar. If he hadn’t stopped, I might have missed that it was an additional location, and not just part of the sweet shop.

“Next one starts in ten minutes,” he said. “Looks like we just made it.”

“We’re in time for what?” I tried to look around him to read the sign, but he opened the door too quickly and ushered me in.

The building had an open lobby, with a bunch of shopping displays along the walls, Charleston tourist shirts, hats and other items in prominent view. However it didn’t have a feel of a shop, more like the items were secondary.

A long, wooden booth was the center of attention. Attendants were behind it wearing matching T-shirts. Kota approached to talk to them. “We’d like the early jail tour,” he said.

The girl behind the booth nodded. “Forty dollars,” she said.

He pulled out his wallet and fished out two twenties and passed them over. The girl issued him a couple tickets.

“Your tour guide is getting ready,” she said. She motioned with two fingers to another door, smaller, to the left. “There’s a group over there waiting. Stand with them. He’ll be there soon.”

We went through the smaller door, and we ended up in the alley where others stood by waiting.

I stepped up beside Kota. He reached for my hand, encircling my fingers with his as if to warm them. I held on, leaning closely into him. I inched up a little to whisper to him, “What’s this?”

“There’s a ghost tour that wanders through the city a bit and then into an old jail… And then maybe a dungeon.”

My eyes widened. “A dungeon?”

He smiled. “It used to be.” He squeezed my hand once. “You’re not nervous, are you?”

I wished I could have said no, but I felt a little awkward standing with the others in our group for this tour. However, I thought it would be even more awkward if it was just Kota and me and the tour guide. At least we blended in.

He was right. It was a great way to move slow through the area, keeping an eye out for our targets and not look totally out of place.

And I’d never been a part of a tour before.

He leaned in, his lips finding my ear. “I’m a little nervous, too. I’ve never been to one of these. But last I heard, they only have one person out of every group get eaten up by one of the ghosts, so our chances are pretty good.”

My mouth opened up in shock. Kota was always so serious and steadfast that it seemed impossible it could have been anything but the truth. I realized a moment later he was kidding. “Kota!”

He grinned big. “Don’t be nervous. I won’t let them take you.”

I scrunched my face, not believing I fell for it for even a second. This didn’t feel anything like an Academy job at all. However, he was right.

“You haven’t done this before?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “I don’t get many days off. But when I do, before we got too busy, I’d come into the city and just finding something to do. Usually my mom dropped me off, you know, before I learned to drive.”

I flinched when he mentioned Erica, but it seemed like he wasn’t worried about anything. I tried to just seem surprised by what he said. He was left alone in the city? “She left you here? And you went around? By picking at random?”

His cheeks bunched up at his big smile. “Random is the best way. You get to experience something new.”

“How do you know if you want to do it?”

“I don’t. But I should at least give it a try.”

“What else have you done?” I asked. As we talked, I took glimpses of the others in our tour group, a set of four older people, maybe early forties, a different older couple with white hair. All of them were dressed casually, for a day out and touring the downtown area. We were the youngest by far.

He shrugged. “I took one of the cooking classes, learned how to do a backflip from some random guy at the park. I learned to play chess this way, too. They were playing outside a shopping center and I just asked the guys to show me how.”

“You play chess?” I asked, but before he could answer, he got cut off by the tour guide clearing his throat behind us. I shook, surprised and scooted back to give him room to address the group.

I only half listened to the tour guide and what he was telling us about where we were going, some history about Charleston, etc. I might have been more attentive if we weren’t out here for a purpose. From where we were, in an alley between shops just outside the tourist company office, we had a good view of the open market. I wanted to be sure to earn this favor this time.

In fact, as the tour started, I lingered at the back, tugging at Kota’s arm. He got the gist, hanging back away from the others but still following along, whispering to me, “You okay?”

“Just getting to the back of the group so we can keep an eye out,” I said.

He nodded and held my hand, and we followed the tour. Kota occasionally asked a question to at least pretend we were really here for that.

Part of me worried I wouldn’t remember what the two teenagers looked like. When I saw anyone around that was young, I scrutinized them. However most, if any, were with an adult and likely not who we were looking for.

An hour later, with no luck on our hunt during our tour, we were standing in the middle of a dark room down in what I thought was a basement level in a Charleston building. It used to be a courthouse or something. I was mildly paying attention to the tour guide describing the history. It was an interesting space, bricked with low ceilings and the air was thick and smelled of wet dirt and moss.

We didn’t need to be in this building to do the job we were set to do, but it was the last little leg of the tour before we were done.

“We’ve been all over,” I said to Kota. “I haven’t seen them.”

“Yeah, we should check inside some buildings,” he said. “I’ve been trying to think where I’d go if I’d left home… at least during the day.”

“Where would you go?”

He smiled. “Probably the library.”

It made sense.

The tour guide directed us from room to room, pointing out the jail cells. He told us a story about a prisoner’s death, and then how later people heard whispers and felt chills and ghostly images appeared in the mirrors. I eyeballed a few of the tourists. Some had their phones out, cameras ready and were taking random pictures of the jail cell, flash going off even after he warned a few not to use their flash.

“Would anyone like to step inside?” the tour guide asked. “Just to see what it was like?”

Kota inched down to whisper to my ear. “Want to?”

I thought about saying no, to let someone else do it, but there was a giddiness in Kota’s eye that told me he would like to try it. “Okay,” I said, catching his excitement. We were already here, might as well do the ending. I was critical, assuming the lights would go out, maybe they’d say ‘boo.’ Even if I’d never been on a tour before, the setup was too obvious.

Kota beamed and tugged at my hand. He leaned in again and whispered against my ear, “We’ll do it together.”

We entered the dungeon, along with a couple of other people. When we were together inside, the guide closed the dungeon and then took out a large key, locking the door.

“Imagine sitting in there for days on end, only to come out to face getting hung from the gallows.” The tour guide opened his eyes wide, enthusiastically wagging his head as if it was a scary idea to him.

I stood closer to Kota, feeling a little squished inside the space and trying to not touch the walls or anyone else.

Kota bent his head, his lips brushing my ear. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

He released my hand to put a palm against the middle of my back. He started rubbing in a small circle, encouraging.

The lights overhead went out. I pushed up against him, feeling my head against his shoulder. My side was pressed up into his, hip to hip. My arm wrapped around his waist. He wrapped his around mine.

My heart was throbbing. I knew it was going to happen, and I was still wigged out, waiting for a brush of someone’s hand that wasn’t Kota’s… why did we have to take the haunted tour?

Others around us were giggling. “Just a minute, folks,” the tour guide said, although I thought he sounded like he was fibbing. “Must be a little short in the electric lines, I bet. These buildings are pretty old. Just stay still.”

I sucked in a deep breath, exhaling out. In the dark, Kota’s lips found my ear again. “I bet someone’s going to jump out and yell boo.” That made me smile. I expected the same thing.

Somehow holding on to him this close made the anticipation exciting instead of scary. And in my secret heart, I wanted to hang on to him like this, even without it being too scary.

A scream erupted from inside the jail cell. Lights flashed and then a low red light remained, illuminating the area. At first, all I saw were the others inside the cell with us pressed up against the bars. Movement of shadows and flashing lights in front of us made me pull back.

Kota never hesitated. He stepped forward just enough to provide a small barrier between me and the spook that had scared everyone.

Peeking around his arm, I caught a glimpse of a gnarled skeleton. Flashes from Nathan’s horror movies came back to me. My fingers tightened against Kota’s arm until I felt my nails digging into his skin. A scream was choked up in my throat, but I couldn’t utter a sound. It was pretty scary.

Kota’s fingers eased under mine as they clawed his arm “I’ve got you, sweetie.” The only way I felt better, though, was when I was pressed up as tight as I could be.

His heart beat quickly.

He kissed close to my ear at my cheek. “You’re okay.”

Kota always managed to be soothing even when things were scary.

And then suddenly, those lights went out again, and I heard Kota gasp, but my eyes hadn’t adjusted yet.

And then I saw it, too.

A glowing Volto mask, dead center, stuck to the bars of the jail.

I swallowed hard to not cry out, grasping again at Kota.

Was Volto here?

A minute later, the light went on again, the normal overhead one, and the tour guide laughed. “Pardon our friend here. He’s not too happy with visitors. You can come out now. I hope you didn’t mind our little joke.”

Most everyone else laughed. Kota tried to crack a smile.

If it hadn’t been for the mask, I might have laughed with the others.

It had to be a coincidence. Had to be.

The tour guide was saying goodbye to people as they exited, collecting tips from people as they left and were shown the exit to the jail. Kota had us wait until the others were gone before approaching him.

The tour guide was in jeans and plain black T-shirt with some band emblem on the front, so faded it was hard to make out which one. A name badge was the only indicator he was the tour guide. Dark hair, dark eyes, maybe late twenties.

“Nice touch with the glowing mask at the end there,” Kota said. “Where’d you get it? I wouldn’t mind getting one.”

“Funny enough, that’s a new addition,” he said. He turned, calling to someone we couldn’t see at the moment. “Hey, where did you get the mask?”

A woman appeared, so similar looking to the tour guide that she could have been a sister. She beamed at him. “Just got it. Someone came by at the start of your tour, said they loved the jail, happened to have it with them, thought it’d be a good touch. So I tried it out.” She went over to it, still hanging on the jail wall and pulled the mask down. “Right at the end… it’s a great touch. More ominous than the surprise scare we do.”

“Who was it?” Kota asked. “Did he… she… say where it came from?”

She shrugged. “Some teen boy. I think. He… or… should I say they? Was wearing a hoodie so it was hard to tell, you know. Had a voice that could have been anyone.”

Great. Didn’t see, could have been anyone’s voice.

We didn’t have much to go off, and asking any more questions might make it look really suspicious on our part. The mask itself was like a dozen other masks Volto had left for us before, his calling card.

We had to leave the area, just in case. We were on the far side of the open street market. We had to walk through to get to where we last saw Mr. Buble and Nathan.

Quickly, Kota tucked into an alley, away from people. The alley had a few trash containers but was otherwise empty.

He held me by the elbow. “Did you see anyone in our group?”

I recited to him the collection of the people in the group. “No one we’d know.”

“Thought I’d at least check,” he said, though he seemed to hesitate. “Maybe there’s some video footage somewhere.”

“But it’s still a long shot.”

He breathed out slowly and nodded. It could have been a huge coincidence still.

Just like Erica…

Kota lowered his head glumly. “Can’t even get out to do anything anymore…”

I gently put a hand on his arm. “Kota…”

He looked at me, his green eyes flashing with some light behind the glasses.

Slowly, he raised a hand and cupped my cheek, gazing at me.

“I don’t want to let him ruin…” He didn’t finish.

He leaned in.

He kissed me.

My heart raced. It had been so long since Kota kissed me.

He lowered the hood of my own hoodie, away from my hair.

I worried, temporarily, about the bruises at my neck. Would he see?

But I kissed him back.

He shifted, and my brain at first thought he was moving in to insert his tongue in my mouth like some of the others did.

So I poked my tongue out, too.

Until I realized he had really meant to pull back. At least until I did the thing with my tongue.

When he sensed it, he stopped. Then he lowered his head and kissed me deeper.

And his tongue darted out of his mouth, finding mine.

His arms surrounded me. Held me. Maybe he meant to do this quickly, but one small move, and he was willing to linger.

If we weren’t in immediate danger, then…

I wrapped my arms around him, too. Somehow the thrill of being scared made it far easier for me, more comfortable for me, to press my body into his.

He held me close, and his tongue traced at my lips. He kissed me again hard once, before he backed his head up and whispered. “Sang…”

I didn’t have a voice. I knew he was likely saying we should go. That we shouldn’t linger in an alley when Mr. Buble could come along looking for us. Or someone else…

I knew, and yet I didn’t want to let go. It was getting harder around them to be so conscious of people watching.

Despite my desire, I relented. Silently, I followed Kota out. I had my head down as we walked for a minute, hanging on to the moment we shared.

Maybe we should have been more worried about Volto, but Volto… he got in the way so often. We were doing normal things and he still showed up. We did Academy things, he showed up.

So what should we do?

Kota elbowed me gently just as we were crossing the street to head into the market building.

I looked up, first at him, but he wasn’t looking at me.

I followed his gaze, spying just inside the market, right at the two teenagers we were supposed to be looking for.

They were young, with jeans and T-shirts and jackets where the backs of them looked dingier than the front. Their shoes were worn and dirty. Their eyes were droopy. Tired. They looked on at a candy cart, as if wanting to buy some but unable to.

Kota started toward them, stopped and then looked at me. “Hey,” he said. “You… you should be doing this.”

“What?”

“Offer to buy them some candy,” he said. He handed me the two tiny trackers and then took out some cash from his pocket and handed it to me. “You have to earn the favor, remember? I have to watch.”

He was right. It had to be me. I was realizing how much I relied on them. But if I was going to be a part of the Academy, I needed to be active and try to help. Did I want to be in this or not?

I wanted to help. I could have been these two teens. I could have been on the street, just trying to get away from my own parents. They didn’t know who to trust, and I had felt the same for so long.

I tried to not think about what I was going to do. Thinking too much made me nervous. I moved first, toward the candy stand.

The two young teens stood by. The girl walked around the candy display, out of sight from me. The boy lingered, looking longingly at everything. He had short, curly brown hair, shaved close to his head and such big brown eyes with the white part so striking, it reminded me of anime eyes.

He was standing closer to the display, sometimes handling the packaged candy.

Ready…

I thought he was ready to steal it.

Except there were workers behind the table of the displays. There were other booths nearby in the outdoor market, some without customers on this slow day. Anyone would see them.

I had to jump in or they’d get in trouble for stealing.

I came up behind him and quickly reached for the bag of candy just next to the one he was hanging on to, a bag of chocolate covered almonds.

“My favorite,” I said quickly with a forced chuckle.

He stopped what he was doing, retracting his hand. “Sorry. I was just…”

“Do you like these too?” I asked him. Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think too much. You’ll only get nervous.

He nodded shortly, but he started to back off, as if to get away.

I picked up two bags of the almonds, and with cash in hand, I showed the closest worker behind the table the candy and the money. “Can I get these two?” And with a quick move, I reached back, taking the boy by the elbow and tugging him to stand beside me. “For me and my friend here?”

He stood where I asked him too. I don’t know if it was because I was older… he had to be only twelve or thirteen.

And I kept the emitter in my palm, until I thought of something.

When I got the bags of candy back and the change, I had the emitter in my palm and wrapped it in a dollar bill with the rest of the change. I placed both the last of the money and the candy in his hands, both bags.

He appeared stunned. “What are you doing?”

When I was sure the worker who had given me change wasn’t listening any more, I turned to him. “What’s your name?” I asked in a whisper, trying to seem mysterious.

“…Kyle,” he said. His voice was hoarse.

“Kyle,” I said. “I’ve been watching you. You and your friend.” I hoped this worked. “I think you should join us. Or you’re going to get us caught.”

He seemed surprised. “What?”

“We work these streets,” I said. “And you’re going to mess things up. How well do you know this area?”

“Lived here my whole life.”

“Then you might have seen my friends. We help each other. But we don’t get caught. You don’t want to go to jail, do you?”

He shook his head.

“Then if you want to join us. Tonight at 6 pm.” I made up the time randomly. “Over there,” I pointed at the jail where we’d just been. “In front of it. Meet them there. If you want to stay alive.”

And I walked away. Slowly. But I did.

“Meet who?” he asked.

Without turning around, I said, “You’ll see.”

And that was it. I hurried along after that. I didn’t immediately see Kota. Technically we weren’t supposed to split off but he was likely watching from just enough distance.

It wasn’t long before I got to the road across from where the market was and Kota angled up beside me.

“What did you do?”

“I put the trackers in the money. He’ll put it in his pocket and hang on to it… and will likely buy food or something else, but with two trackers in there, one will likely fall back into his pocket and stay there.” I told him the story of what I said to him. “So he either has the tracker for a while, or he gets very curious and goes to the meeting spot. Someone needs to be there at six.”

He chuckled. “Why all the mystery?”

I beamed a bit. “I think I saw it in a movie once. Makes it more likely he’ll show up right? And convince his friend?” I was smiling, but inside I was trembling like crazy.

How did I do that? It was so quick. I didn’t have time to think about the consequences. I’d thought about other times, when I had more time to think, and got so nervous. My bravery seemed to come in waves, spontaneous.

When we left the market building, we made a dash toward where Mr. Buble had parked.

He was inside, monitoring his phone but perked up when we came close. He unlocked the door for us to get in.

“What happened? Did you find them?”

“We found them, plus other stuff,” Kota said, but told him about the kids and then quickly about the mask at the end of the tour. Then he looked around the car, confused. “Where’s Nathan?”

Mr. Buble frowned, nodded in a direction.

Nathan was in sight, under a tree in the shade.

Talking to two people. At first, I didn’t see who it was because Nathan was in the way.

And then he turned a bit, looking off at the distance. Not at us.

But when he moved, we could see and I was surprised to recognize them.

Jay and Karen. I hadn’t seen them in a while. At the school, when I was going lately, I was in the principal’s office with Mr. Blackbourne. Jay still had a shaved head and looked like a teen version of Vin Diesel, but now he hadn’t shaved in a day or two and there was some shadow… or dirt, it was hard to tell from the distance. Karen’s pixie cut hair was hidden under a rainbow beanie.

The two were standing close together, like they’d been together.

They were supposed to be in school.

Technically, so was Nathan.

Kota scooted down in the car a bit lower. I did, too, instinctively following his lead.

“Did they see us get to the car?” Kota asked.

“I don’t think so,” Mr. Buble said. “It’s why he shifted his stance. Nathan blocked the view a bit.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kota asked.

“They’re far enough away and Nathan was distracting them.”

They were a distance, but we could still recognize them. If they looked this way, toward the car, it was likely they would recognize us.

Jay was wearing a hoodie.

Kota beat me to it. “Is it too much of a coincidence that he’s wearing a hoodie and the person that gave the mask to the tour group was wearing one?”

“We’ve an instance of probability,” Mr. Buble said. “What do you know about him?”

Kota scooted himself up a bit more in the front passenger seat, relaying the past year. Jay didn’t seem like a bad guy.

And then there was Karen beside him. Volto often said he worked alone… but he sometimes had people with him.

It was just weird that those two in particular were around.

“We don’t know who it could be,” Kota said. “But it’s likely it would be someone we went to school with. Volto often focused around the school. And he didn’t show up until we started going there.”

“Karen was with me in the football stands when the smoke went off… months ago?” I said. “Back when Volto first started.”

“So Karen couldn’t be setting off smoke in the stands if she’s in the mix,” Kota said. “I mean… maybe she could have remotely… I don’t know, though.”

Mr. Buble motioned toward Karen and Jay. “If it is either of them, it’s very irregular behavior to be here and to be stopped by one of you in the middle of the day like this. However, we should consider every possibility. Maybe it is time to work out a suspect list, perhaps after we’ve managed to secure a safe residence, we’ll move on to suspect timelines.”

Nathan continued to talk to Jay and Karen for a minute before he waved to the two and they moved on, away from us. Nathan pretended to go the other way, waited, still within view of us, and then slowly, when it was clear Jay and Karen were gone, turned back and got into the back of the car with me.

He leaned back, blowing out a slow breath. His broad chest lifted and fell. “I swear I thought she saw you two coming up. I hope I distracted her. I mostly didn’t want her to think we were all out here today.”

“What did you talk about?” Kota asked. Mr. Buble started the car and was already pulling around, going away from where Jay and Karen had been walking.

“It was kind of awkward at first,” he said. “I didn’t even know they knew each other. Karen tried to say they just bumped into each other and were out the same day, but it was kind of obvious after a bit they were together and had planned to be out.”

“Out of school,” Mr. Buble said.

“Yeah,” Kota said. “And at the same time while we can’t prove it, the Volto mask…”

Mr. Buble frowned, and shook his head some more as he drove. “We should do a thorough details check: school and after school schedules, timelines, abilities, perhaps a residence check.”

“On Jay?” I asked.

“On both of them.”

I held on to that hope, that one of them would prove to be Volto. As selfish as it was to think, as much trouble as Volto might be in if we figured out who they were…

Anyone but Erica. Anyone else… to me, it was a relief to think it could be anyone else.