When she finally leaves, we sit down, and strangely we don't start talking just yet. As Jada pulls out the letter, our lunch spot fills up with the usual students. As they're busy bantering about American politics and test results and assignment deadlines, she finally flips over the page in her hands and puts it on my lap.
I squint and bring the paper closer to my face. There's the faintest pencil mark, and it reads:
N55
W3
I gulp, thinking about it for a second, then I look at Jada. After a little while, she finally speaks, "Do you know what it means?"
I shake my head. "No."
"Check if it's on yours."
I take my letter out and turn it over, and find that when I put it to the light of the sun and look closely, it has the exact same letters and numbers.
At once my head is swimming with thoughts. What could this mean? What could it all mean? Again, I feel like the answer is right in my face. I feel like whoever set this up, whether it be Ms K or not, was trying to tell the three of US something. Something important. Something about 'time to get going'. They're giving us so many clues, but I just can't see it. Our last hope is Jessie, and in my mind, I'm hoping she knows something more.
Once we catch her up on everything, we find she knows nothing else at all. We go through it all, my notebook, the texts between us and Drew, the code we found in maths. But no avail. Nothing comes to mind. Nothing at all.
"This is crazy," I say. "It feels...so...ugh!" I stir my cold pasta around the Tupperware container. "But, do any of you guys get this strange feeling of feeling like the answer's in your own brain, but wherever it is, you can't find it? As if someone locked certain thoughts in your brain?"
I don't realise I'm speaking out loud until I see Jessie staring at me, frozen, sandwich in her mouth.
"Ah, sorry. That's too intense."
"No. Maybe you're on to something here, Alessia." Jada says, packing up her bag.
"Well," says Jessie, swallowing the last of her food. "Whoever's doing it, needs to UNLOCK our brains. Like, as soon as possible. Before tomorrow would be good."
"Yeah, great."
"Hey, guess what guys?" Jada lifts her bag and shoves it high on her shoulder.
"I know," I sigh. "We're going to be late, if we don't leave RIGHT now."
"Affirmative," says Jessie.
All three of us, disappointed one more, head off to our classes.
∞
"Hey there, Drew."
Kevin leaned on the edge of a worn pole, holding his school bag on one shoulder and violin case in another, smiling at Drew as he walked past.
Drew gave a small wave back. "Hey Kevin. Wow, nice violin. Didn't know you played."
"Ah, nah, it's not mine. Its, uh..." he trailed off, looking away into the distance. Drew frowned and stared back, but he didn't have to wonder for long. For slowly, in the distance, he heard the voice too. A voice that was naturally high pitched and well...quite loud. It was getting louder, and louder. Or, Drew thought, maybe that's just how all female voices sound to me...
"Kev, Kev, KEVIN!" She ran up with utmost urgency. She's quite small when you first look, your usual Asian girl – you know, glasses, pin-straight hair clipped back perfectly, neat uniform. But do not be deceived. Whatever she can't express with her physique, she makes up with her boisterous, loud personality.
"THERE's my violin! Thanks for stealing it, Kevin. I would like it back now." She snatched it from him, and by the way he parted with it, he looked more than happy to give it back.
"You're welcome?" he huffed, hands outstretched, but she just shook her head.
"Maybe next time," she said. "Oh, hey Drew!" she gave him a little shove, which turned out to be a big one as she did it with her violin case. "Oops, sorry. So, how's it going! Ooh, how's Jada? How's she going? How are you two?"
"We're just fine," said Drew, suddenly confident. He looked at Kevin, smiling, but suddenly felt bad talking about it in front of the two of them. He knew they were having a hard time at the moment, with all the drama, and Kevin's disappearing acts every now and then. He knew Vera had every right to be mad, but if only she knew...
"Well, I guess I'll get going to class then. Bye guys," Drew nodded at both of them.
"Bye Drew!" said Vera, waving. He watched and listened as Kevin said nothing, looking down at his shoes. He looked away and started to walk off. When he looked back again, Kevin was gone, but this time, so was Vera.
∞
It's been 6 hours. 6 whole hours since I walked out of school, and nothing has changed. No new revelations, or discoveries, not even a little clue. My phone and iPad are both clear of any messages which means everyone is at this stage too. We haven't moved forward, not at all, and tomorrow is Friday. The supposedly big day, even though I don't even know what it's big for, and that makes me slightly (actually very) frustrated.
I'm supposed to be smart. Why can't I get it?
It's true - I gave up a long time ago. And now, I'm ready to hit the sack, but I decide to contemplate the situation one last time. No avail. Tired, both physically and mentally, I lay my head down on my pillow, flick off the lights and close my eyes, slowly falling into a restless sleep.
I feel great.
Not only on the inside, but on the outside as well. I'm talking, laughing and lounging, completely happy and stress-free. There's a whole selection of fancy food laid out in front of me, ready to be indulged. All my friends and family, everyone I love, is surrounding me, smiling. Everything looks white, kind of blurry and angelic, the whole room looking as if it's glowing with a brilliant radiance.
Everything is...perfect.
Then, a creepy feeling of déjà vu travels up my spine. I feel like I've been here before. I look around frantically, as if trying to figure it out.
And then, I realise. This is my dream.
"Who are you?" I shout out, without thinking twice, as the whole room falls into pitch black darkness.
The voice chuckles, but this time, it's clear and not muffled. "They call me the boy in the black cloak. I come in many forms. You should realise, I'm not too far from you every day. But you don't get it, do you Alessia? You don't get anything, even when it's right in front of you." He mocks.
My heart racing, suddenly panting, I turn around and run. Not falling down a hole this time. Not today.
I'm running for so long, into what seems like nowhere, into nothingness, but I keep running, running, running, not stopping. But at one point, I trip and fall onto my hands and knees.
I look up. It's no longer dark. I'm in my maths classroom, sitting on my chair, Mrs Mitzeegh in front of me, Jessie on my right, Jada on my left, and the rest of the class around me. Just like the usual set up. Mrs Mitzeegh is staring straight at me, looking into my eyes, as she says,
"No, I don't actually. But Scotland's a great place. Did you know that their national animal is the Unicorn?" She says, smiling sweetly, finally pulling her eyes off me and onto the rest of the girls.
"Really? No way!" Jada exclaims.
"Yeah, it's got a very rich culture as well. But no, I don't know this Mrs Butch."
I stop for a second, as if my brain and body just took a hard brake at a red light.
I gasp.
Then, my phone rings.
I jolt awake, to darkness again. Expect I'm not dreaming, I'm not in the room with the creepy boy, but in my own bedroom. As my watery eyes adjust to the light, I realise my phone is ringing next to me. I hastily pick it up, without a second thought.
"Hello?"
It's now when I wonder; why am I answering my phone, to an unknown number, at 2am in the morning?
"Hi. Is this Margaret Butch?"
I clear my throat. "No..." I trail off, wondering where I've heard that name before.
Mrs Butch. It's for Mrs Butch.
"Oh, sorry, this must be a wrong number then. Do you happen to know a Margaret Butch around you?"
"No," I explain. "Um, she's definitely
not here." I shake my head, as if the caller can see me.
"Oh ok. Well, she had a dentist's appointment at Glasgow Dental Clinic, but it's been two weeks since then and she still hasn't called to cancel or anything. But anyway, that's none of your business. Sorry for the inconvenience."
"No, that's ok." I say, then hang up.
I waste no time. I jump out of my bed and grab my iPad. The screen light is so bright that it burns my eyes, but I don't care. I open my messages and go on the #curryclub chat.
Me: Guysssss
Me: Are u awake? I just had the weirdest dream...
Jessie: OMG so did I
Jessie: was it about Mrs Mitzeegh on the day we first found out about the conspiracy?
Me: Yeah
Jada: I know where we have to go.
Me: I think we all do.
Jada: it's based off the coordinates that we got. Yes, those were coordinates. It directs us to a specific city, I just checked.
Jada: and Mrs Mitzeegh's been giving us clues from the very first day, when we asked her about Mrs Butch
Me: And in the morse code thing.
Jessie: ok, no one say anything about the location here. Remember what Damon mentioned earlier, we could get hacked or something
Me: Yeah. Ok, everyone go back to sleep, see you tmrw
Jada: gn8
Jessie: byeeeee :D
It's Friday.
After the last English lesson for the term, Jessie and I wait until every student is out of the classroom, so it's just Mrs Renee and us.
"Miss," I start.
"Any clue on the location?" She asks me first up without any sort of introduction.
I nod frantically. "We've figured it out."
Mrs Renee stops moving and slowly looks up at us. "How?" she says finally.
"Well," I start, looking at Jessie, "We think our Maths teacher gave us the majority of the clues and basically told us. And, my History teacher gave Jada and I a set of coordinates, as I realised late last night," I explain.
Jessie continues, taking a deep breath. "It's Edinburgh, Scotland."
She blinks, as if to register what we have just said. Then, she shakes her head, smiles and claps her hands. "Of course. Ah, of course it's in Scotland, both your Maths and previous English teacher was from Scotland, what could be more direct than that! And, great job with the decoding and picking up clues! That was great, girls. Wow. I mean, what you girls did in a week was more than what we could achieve in a whole year."
We gleam back at her. Yes, the curry club has succeeded yet again.
Mrs Renee wastes no time, I notice. "Alright, girls, now our next step is to physically go there. We can't really be sure of what we might find there, but it will be somewhere that both your English and History teacher is aware of and wants you to go to. So, I think it's not only a place that will hold the truth about this entire thing, or maybe lead us TO someplace like that, but it could also be the place where they might be held. You know, the kidnappers and the victims. Like what you guys saw in the dream."
The atmosphere changes from excited to serious in no time. What this trip could mean for us was too dangerous to deny. It wasn't going to be a school science museum excursion, that was for sure, but thinking about backing out now was too much of a ridiculous concept for me.
I look at Jessie and Jada, and, for some reason know they feel the same.
"Your call," Mrs Renee says. Her eyes dart from me, Jada and then Jessie.
Then finally, Jada answers first. "Heck yeah," she says, all sassy, and ends up full on laughing like I hadn't seen her do for a long time. We echo her laughter, and Mrs Renee does too, a little more dignified than the rest of us.
"That's settled then," she says. "It'll happen today, right here, in about, well, the time it takes for the others to get here.
Something dawns on me, and I waste no time to ask. "But, how are we supposed to go? I mean, we're travelling literally around the world - how are we supposed to tell our parents?"
She laughs this time, as I frown. It's not a stupid question, right?
Then, she says,
"We're stopping time. Big time."
∞
"So, what's the update? I've asked you so many times."
"I told you. They're going to Scotland today, by stopping time."
"And?"
"That's all." Drew looks up...to nothing. An imaginary presence before him, the only way to sense it is the darkness that it - no, he – brought with him. That's what earned him the name – black cloak.
But he was no longer afraid of him. Now that Jada knew about it all, there was nothing to fear.
Sitting on the bathroom floor made him feel icky, and he was sure Jada would be majorly grossed out if she saw him right now. Nevertheless, a sudden sense of confidence, and assurance ran over him, and he wanted to speak out.
He wasn't going to be controlled like this any longer.
"You know, they found it out pretty quick. What is going to happen to you now?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had made a big mistake.
There was an eerie silence that followed. Then, Drew felt in horror as his throat started to swell and close up, and his breathing got tighter and tighter.
"The CSS have got nothing on us!" The voice was so loud now, so demonic. Drew's heart raced, not only because of the lack of oxygen, but because he was scared again.
"They won't make it. Not until the end. And guess what – I didn't kidnap the girl for no reason."
"Stop," Drew manages to croak out. He's now lying on the cold tiles, forehead against the metal pipes, eyes watering. His vision was starting to blur, his head fogging up.
"Doomsday," says the voice, and then he's gone.
Drew gasps and opens his eyes to find himself on the ground again, but no longer in the bathroom. Outside.
He breathes heavily for a while more, trying to recompose himself after the incident, but notices as a dark shadow comes over him.
He looks up slowly.
"You all right, mate?" Kevin is towering above him. He outstretches a hand.
Drew stares back at him and doesn't say a word.
8.
The next few hours were the craziest I ever had, in my entire life.
Thankfully, we had not encountered any more armed men or any more attempts on our lives, but now Jessie, Jada and I were more on board with the entire thing than ever before. I mean, who could blame us – having our lives threatened was no joke. And then figuring out this really elaborate code or whatever it was – and of course, the fact that a trusted adult, our English teacher, believed it was true. All reasons pointing to the fact that, there is, in fact, a conspiracy, and it involves everyone that was there that meeting, plus potentially Ms K and Mrs Mitzeegh.
It was hard, yes, hard to admit that these armed men, these dangerous forces were from an evil organisation from the future. It was hard to admit that and not just blame it on bad security or just normal criminals who were enemies of the school. But, eerily enough, no one else had witnessed the incident – time was still stopped then. If these were normal people, they would've never been able to attack us the way they did.
In case you were wondering, the CSS did get to continue their story this week too (minus Lucy and Amanda, who just didn't want to meet us at school). Here's what they we knew about the 'conspiracy' so far (aka a short summary of our five-ish meetings that we managed to get plus the email we received from Amanda).
· This was not just some people from the future, but an entire organisation united on some common belief
· This 'belief' was not right or moral, as Amanda recalled (she couldn't recall WHAT the actual belief was though, which is kind of unhelpful)
· This 'belief' has led to some major policy changes in the future, that are also not moral, which is why supposedly why Amanda and Lucy fled
· There's something that they're missing, which they need from us in the past
· We have absolutely no
idea what that is.
· Some teachers at this school may know (which is where our story comes in) but, seeing as what happened last week with the armed men, it may not be completely safe to ask them. Besides, we're already working on a lead.
The Conspiracy Theory of June 17 Page 7