Project C

Project C

Book 1 :Missing children

Contents

1. Who’s missing? … p 1

2. Planning, Then Action! … p 3

3. Rage

Who’s Missing?

Ring!!!!!! The bell rang and children rushed to get out of their school for spring break. But not all kids were happy about freedom. Jackson, a boy with red - ish brown hair, and eyes the color of sapphire, and Madison, a girl with blonde hair, with eyes the color of rich hazelnut, slumped behind. They were severely upset. Well, the first reason was that their video club turned to an utter flop. And second reason is that one person did not at all seemed to have cared about their meeting. At all. And she, practically was the most important person that the meeting needed. Bobbi was the teachers’ pet. And only the kids had felt her real side. Mean girl. But somehow, Jack and Maddie had her agree to come. And she dumped them. In fact, she was absent, entirely. So, they both were raging about it.“She just ditched us like that!”muttered Maddie.“Now we’re done. I can’t believe we even trusted her”added Jack. Anyways, they were walking (at a surprisingly slow pace) to Maddie’s house. “Maybe she fell sick.”said Maddie. Jack sighed. “This once, only this once, I will be accepting it. But if she was present at school-“Jack trailed off.

The next day, Maddie came to Jack’s house. “Let’s talk to her about yesterday.”he said.

“Sure.”replied Maddie. “Wait.” “What?” “You have her number?” “ Oh, yeah, I got it from Mila. She has a kinder heart. Way more kind than Bobbi’s,”answered Jack. He called and put the phone on loud speaker. “H-Hi?”said a very weak voice.

They both instantly knew something was wrong. And since they care about people, they decided to ask what had happen. “Oh, um hi. Is everything Ok? We just called to talk to Bobbi,”said Maddie. “What do you want?!”asked the voice, sounding even more terrified. “Oh no! Please don’t take us wrong. We just want to talk to her about our video club incident. Not to threaten or hurt.”assured Jack.

“Hmm…”said the voice, a bit more relaxed. “I’m Madison,”said Maddie. “And I’m Jackson. We’re her classmates. And, um, who is this talking??”asked Jack. “It’s Bobbi’s mother.”she said. “ It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs.Randal.”said Maddie. “Is everything OK? You sound a bit…. startled.”said Jack. “Bobbi’s gone.”she said, sadly. Their hearts sank.”Gone?!”they both said, terrified. “ No, not gone. Well, she’s missing.”said Mrs.Randal. “Did you complain to the police? ‘Cause we haven’t heard the news.”said Jack. “She’s gone missing day before yesterday. On Thursday.”she said. “But she was at school that day.”stated Maddie.“Who said she wasn’t there in the morning. She left and never returned.”

There was an eerie silence after they said goodbye. “She went missing?”revised Jack. “Huh? That’s why she didn’t come yesterday. And, you know the towns’ police. They never take anything seriously.”said Maddie. “I know. I mean, we can’t just let this go out the other ear. We gotta take action.”said Jack. “Wait, are you saying that we have to take action to save a person, that we are literally enemies with?!”exclaimed Maddie. “Exactly what I’m saying.”said Jack. Maddie sighed.

“Whatever we’ll do, is the right thing.”he said. “Well, yeah, the right thing for the police to do!”she replied. “And who’s the person that said police don’t take anything seriously?”said Jack, smiling. “Alright, fine!”said Maddie. “K. Same time tomorrow?” asked Jack. “Yup.”replied Maddie.

Maddie thought about Bobbi all day long. ‘Who would want to kidnap her’ or ‘Did she run away??’ She was completely stumped. But Jackson was on to something. ‘Wait, I know which pathway she takes to go home. And there definitely a camera there. If we can see the footage, then we could check if she got kidnapped in that place.’ He thought. He kept that thought to himself, and decided to tell Maddie the next day. When Maddie came, he didn’t tell her immediately. They sat in his room for sometime, until Maddie broke the silence“I dunno why, but I’ve been thinking about Bobbi’s disappearance all day long. Somethings off about it. I think it’s the fact that it isn’t even on the news. Did they tell the police??”asked Maddie. “Should we check the news?”Jack asked. “Let’s give it a try.”replied Maddie.He switched on the TV, to see a picture of Bobbi. And on the top of that picture, were the words in big letters MISSING:

Roberta (Bobbi) Randal

Planning, Then Action!

“Now the police actually have to do something.”said Maddie. “Oh, yeah. Yesterday, I came up with something that could help this case.”said Jack. “What is it?”asked Maddie. “You know the pathway we take home, right?” “Yes,” “So when you go to your house, I need to walk a bit more until my house comes. And that’s the same path that Bobbi takes to get home.” Jack explains. “So, what’s your point?”asked Maddie. “ On the way, there is a camera that captures a 360 degrees view of the place.

So if Bobbi had gone missing while she was walking home, then we could see who took her.”said Jack.

“Ok… but what if she had gone missing somewhere else?”asked Maddie. “How ‘bout we give this one a chance?”asked Jack. “Then how will we access the footage?”countered Maddie. “That’s when the action comes. So, we tell our parents that you are going to stay over at my house for a sleepover.” “OK”

“Then, when everyone is sleeping, we’ll go out.”he said. “Hey, remember, we’re high school seniors, not action movie Sherlocks’.”said Maddie. “Chill! I’ve planned it all out. Even the attire!”said Jack, holding up two black tight suits and two black masks made of cloth.

“Fine. But if we get caught, it’s on you.”said Maddie. “I can live with that.”said Jack. “So you told me how we’ll reach the camera, but how will we see the footage in it??”asked Maddie.

“Remember, I’m a bit better at the stealth and athletic sort of stuff, and you’re a bit better at the computer and hacking type of stuff.”said Jack. “Ok, I guess I can figure a way to get it. But we have to get to the footage before the police do.” “Only I and Bobbi’s mother know the way she takes home.”said Jack. “Alright, so, did you already tell our parents about the sleepover?”asked Maddie. “Oh, um, not yet.”he said. “Then what are we waiting for? C’mon!”exclaimed Maddie. They rushed down the stairs and stumbled to Jack’s mom. “You children having fun??”she asked, looking at the smiles on their faces. “Yeah.”said Maddie.

“Um mom?” “Yes,” “Can Maddie stay over. Like, for a sleepover?”asked Jack. His mom looked unexpectedly surprised. Maddie and Jack shared the “Are we sure about this?” look. But when they looked back at Jack’s mom, she was smiling quite happily. “Sure, oh, did you guys plan this just now? If so, then Maddie’s parents don’t know. I’ll call to check.”said his mother. “Phew, for a second I thought she was going to say no.”said Jack, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. “I’m just glad she agreed.”stated Maddie. “Your parents are OK with it. They said you can come or stay here whenever you want.”said Jack’s mother.

Maddie looked at Jack with a wide grin. Jack smiled back. That means that they could do their investigation a lot. While Maddie was taking a short trip to her house to get the sleeping stuff, Jack thought about where the footage center is. The closest one to them was less than mile away.

It was about a fifteen minute walk. But he couldn’t think how. If they wandered around the neighborhood with the phone in their hand, and wearing black tight suits, people might spot them and think they are the kidnappers that took Bobbi. If they wore normal clothes, then the kidnappers might spot them and think “Hey. Why not two more children to take?”and just snatch them away. But out of the two options, the first one is the safest. Even if people think they are kidnappers, they can’t fully see their faces under the masks.Jack & Maddie are fast runners too.

When Maddie returned, all they need to do was wait and improvise their plan. A few hours passed by and Maddie figured out the way to hack into the footage centers videos. “Ok, I think I’ve got it.”she said. “Cool. The only thing we need to do now is get some info, and use process of elimination.”said Jack. They went online and looked at the most recent news. Jack was thinking about how they’ll manage to not get seen, so he decided they’ll be out at midnight. Maddie agreed to that. “The most recent kidnapping case happened when we were young.”said Maddie. “But I thought the guy was taken into custody,”replied Jack. “Yeah, that’s what I don’t get.”said Maddie. “Oh wait,”said Jack. “The same dude got released recently. A day before the disappearance, on Wednesday!”said Jack. “But the dude’s house was searched, and nothing suspicious was found.”said Maddie. “Hmm…”thought Jack.

“Wait, which police officer searched his house?”asked Jack. “His name is Dexter Krill. He came with some others too, just in case something happens and there needs to be eye witnesses.”said Maddie.

“Is there any history on the lead police officer?”he asked. “Well, only that he had also lost his child because of the same criminal dude, but he still has all his children with him after they found him.”replied Maddie. “I’m guessing that he has a sort of grudge against this criminal?”said Jack. “Yeah, probably.”replied Maddie. ‘But why would they let a police officer that has a grudge on the criminal go and search the same criminal’s house?Wouldn’t they suspect him to do something bad to the criminal?’ Maddie thought.

It seemed as if Jack was thinking the same thing. He took a quick glance at the clock. “I guess we could do this later.”said Jack. Maddie looked at the clock too. It was 11:58 . “Alright kids, time to go to bed!”exclaimed Jack’s mother. She came in the room. “It’s getting late and I haven’t noticed the time. I promised your parents that you’d be in bed by nine, Madison.”said Jack’s mom, sighing. “Sleep tight kids.”she said, switching off the lights. “Goodnight.”replied Maddie and Jack at the same time.They pretended like they were sleeping, and when they were sure she’d gone to her room, they got into action.

Jack went into a separate room while they changed, and when they came out, they barely recognized each other. “Dude, you look like you could snatch me right of the street!”whispered Maddie. “And you look like you’re working with me on doing that,”snapped Jack. “Alright, let’s get goin’,” said Maddie. They snuck into the dark kitchen, filled with the gleaming moonlight. Once they entered the hall, they had to make sure not to step on the creaks. But that wasn’t easy for Maddie, because she didn’t (at all) know the house well enough to know where every single creaky and not creaky wooden boards were. So she accidentally stepped on the creakiest one in the whole entire house.

CREAK!!!!!!! Jack slapped his forehead. They waited for something to happen, but nothing did.

‘Phew’ thought Maddie, realizing she had been holding her breath.

Once they got out, all they needed to do was to lurk in the shadows until they reached the footage center. “I think we’ll have smooth sailing from here.”whispered Jack. “But just to stay on the safe side, try not to make any sounds, and don’t even think about stepping in the light.”warned Jack.

Maddie glared at him. “Sorry, I know you aren’t stupid, but… well, we’re about to break into a place that has a lot of security, and you’re about to break into a computer to see some locked footage. We’re breaking the law Maddie, and that’s a lot.”said Jack. Maddie sighed. “No hard feelings. I can understand. Well, I’m doing it too, ya know.”assured Maddie. “Alright, let’s start.”said Jack.They walked close to the buildings, the grass and bushes could help them hide. The trees that lined the pathway also helped to prevent most of the streetlights light. Once in a while, they’d stop and look at Jack’s phone to see where they are.

But something unfortunate had happened during one of their breaks. Jack forgot to off the speaker on GPS, and it said “ Take a right on Murphy drive.” And unfortunately, there was a man across the path on the other side of the road. They didn’t know what he was doing at this time of night, but he seemed to have heard the sound and looked pretty startled. “Who’s there?”he bellowed. None of them answered. Jack felt his heart pounding in his chest, and Maddie felt like her heart was in her throat. The man reached for his right pocket, but took his hand out empty. He searched in the other one. Nothing. He grumbled something and turned to his car. Maddie and Jack took that advantage and sprinted to the corner of the block. The man turned around, this time with his phone in his hand, and they watched (from the safety of behind a bush) as he shone the light at they spot that they used to stand at. He mumbled something about ‘stupid cats’ and headed to his house. They relaxed.

After that, nothing really happened. Unless you take the fact that Maddie had tripped over rat pretty seriously, nothing was interesting. When they finally reached the footage center, they were terrified. “You ready?”whispered Jack. Maddie swallowed hard. “Ready.”she whispered back. Jack nodded. “Just follow me.”he said. He snuck behind the building, and Maddie followed. When he went to the edge of the building, he glanced over his shoulder. A guard with a flashlight was facing the opposite direction. They snuck behind him, but they had no way in. The door was locked. Jack knew he could pick it, but if there was such heavy security, there definitely will be an alarm going off. The only option was to pick pocket the guard and steal the keys. And Jack knew only pure thieves would do that. He took a deep breath, then decided what to do. If he got caught, he’d be going to jail. He leaned forward, close enough to the pocket, and as quiet as he can, he put two fingers in the pocket and searched in them. Maddie stared at him, absolutely terrified. Then…

BINGO! Jack tried his best not to pull the keys out fast, and trusted himself enough not to make any clinking sounds. Once they got it, they let out a breath.

Jack immediately opened the door, sure to not make any sounds, and stepped in. After they were in, Jack closed the door (also slowly and quietly) and they let themselves breath. “Were you crazy!? I never knew you know how to shoplift! When did you become a criminal!?”asked Maddie, clearly freaking out. “Whoa! Keep it quiet! Ok, fine, confession time, I do know how to do all the ‘mischievous’ stuff, but I returned the keys!”said Jack. “What? When?”asked Maddie. “Right after I opened the door.”he pulled on his pockets, and patted them. There wasn’t any sound, but Maddie wasn’t convinced. She gave him the ‘Death Stare’ and he had to give in. “Alright, alright. Fine.”he said, as he lifted his right hand with keys in it. Maddie was still flabbergasted. She saw that hand a second ago, and could have sworn there was nothing in it.

“Can we get going? There are still probably cameras in the footage center.”said Jack. “Are you going to return the keys?” “Maybe. I dunno. Could be a free pass to a restricted area.”he said, flashing her a smile. Maddie rolled her eyes. “Oh look, there is a map. Why would they even need it?”wondered Jack. “Eh, who cares. It helps us.”said Maddie. They stared at it for a while, and eventually figure out the viewing center was at the 3rd floor. They quietly stalked through the hallways, which was hard because they saw a lot more people than outside and they had nowhere to hide. “Look, there’s the locker room!”said Jack.“What about it?”asked Maddie. “I bet there’s faculty clothes there. We can disguise ourselves.”said Jack. “Good idea.”agreed Maddie. They quickly threw on the loose suits, but kept their masks.

They quietly made their way to the elevator, and pressed 3rd floor. Once they reached it, a man was sitting in front of the screens. “What now?”whispered Maddie. “I got this.”replied Jack. “Hey dude, take a break. We’re here.”said Jack, sure to sound cool. “Oh, thanks bro.”said the man, as he got up. “ What’s with the masks and who’s she?”he asked, pointing at Maddie. Maddie thought they were cooked, but Jack said,”Oh,I got a bit of the cold. And her? She’s an intern. I have no idea why she’d want this job. Well, she wore the mask to be on the safe side.”said Jack. The man bent toward her. “I think you’d prefer another job, but, your wish.”he said, as he walked out the room. After they were sure he was gone, they relaxed. “I think you should be an actor when you grow up.”joked Maddie. “Whatevs, I don’t think you need to hack. The footages are all here already.”said Jack.

“But I may need to unlock a password to go to Elmer Street’s camera.”she said. “Alright, hurry up!”said Jack. “On it.”replied Maddie, as she started to type.

Meanwhile, the screen manager went downstairs to get some coffee, but then bumped into the actual person that was supposed to take over after him. “John? I thought you were on shift.”the man said.

“Wait, I thought you were there already.”said John. “Who is there, and why’d you let them in?”asked the man. “Oh no. IT’S A BREACH!!!!!” yelled John, as he pressed the lockdown button.

The speakers immediately said “ LOCK DOWN. BREACH DETECTED.” Over and over again. By that time, Maddie had already looked through the footage. “Bobbi didn’t even come to the street.”said Maddie.

“Oh shoot.”said Jack, when the lights went red and the speakers screeched. “Hurry! Check the schools footage!”yelled Jack. Maddie immediately typed the cameras name, date, and day, and there it was. There was Bobbi. And there was a man beside her. But she didn’t notice. The man bent over and whispered something in her ear. Bobbi hesitated, but followed him to the car anyways. They can’t see the mans face, because he was wearing a cap, and the car was barely visible. The nameplate was, though.

They didn’t have time to do anything else though, because the doors burst open and faculty and police officers were there. “Now hold on a sec.”said a police officer. “They aren’t adults, they’re high school seniors! Teenagers broke into the center? What type of high level security would be open to teenagers!?” One of the officers quickly snapped a picture of them. “Why are you here? What are you doing.” “Uhh… Nothing you need to worry about.”said Maddie, as she quickly pressed a button that shut down the entire system. She seemed to have hacked that at the last second. They ducked under the officers’ legs and quickly took off. “Hey we have some questions!”shouted the officer.

“Ha! And we’d stop for that?”sneered Jack. It was pitch dark, so they bust out using Jack’s phone.

But luckily, they had their masks on when the picture was taken, so they can’t figure out their identity.

The police stumbled out after they had left, so they were safe.That night, they slept like rocks, and didn’t wake up until 12:00 PM. Maddie yawned when she woke up, and her whole body ached. Jack woke up with the same groan of pain. “Is it me, or did we run so much yesterday my legs and brain aches?”asked Jack. “I don’t think it’s you.”said Maddie. Her eyes widened. “We got the footage!”she exclaimed. “Oh yeah! By the way, how did you hack so fast at the end, and make the whole thing shut down?”asked Jack. “Yeah, I did it before we looked at the footage. You were looking at the stuff around the room, and I had to code it quickly.”said Maddie. “You’re a pure genius.”said Jack. “So, you still have the keys?”asked Maddie. “Yep. I kept it in a safe spot.”he said. “Children! Time for breakfast. Oh and Maddie, your parents are taking a little time over here, about 3 hours or so.”said Jack’s mom. Once they got ready, they came downstairs. And they were welcomed by the sweet smell of waffles with chocolate syrup. “Geez, you two slept like babies.”said Jack’s mom as she handed them their breakfast.

While they were wolfing it down, their fathers put the news. Maddie and Jack turned pale. “Breaking news everyone! There was a breach at the footage center 1:00 in the night. The police claimed that the intruders were teenagers, and that they were checking some footage. One of them snapped a quick picture of the kids with masks on. The brown haired boy seemed to have taken charge of breaking in and disguise, also exceptional at acting. The girl seemed to be and expert hacker, and managed to shut down the whole system with a single button she had coded.” Jack and Maddie liked the way the new reporter had complimented them, but right now, they made themselves criminals. But luckily, the police don’t know their names, or their complete appearance.

Rage

“Oh dear! There seems to be more and more bad things happening by the second!”exclaimed Maddie’s mother. But suddenly, all eyes turned to Jack and Maddie. The mothers looked worried, but the fathers… seemed to have suspicion on them. Maddie’s dad cleared his throat, her father was a police officer though, and Jack knew his mother was a living lie detector. If they joined forces, Maddie and Jack would be mice being chased by lions.

“The kids on the TV, have similar eyes, and hair colors as you guys. Do you have anything to say?”asked her father. She tried her best to stay calm. Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Maddie’s father shushed him. “I think you are good at lying, but my girl isn’t.”he said. All eyes turned to her. Jack depends on her to get them out of this situation. “Dad! Are you serious! You think a daughter of a proud police officer would sneak into some random place at a random, time!?”she yelled, realizing she was standing up.

Everyone looked surprised, including Jack. No one expected her to lie so well. Jack’s mother stared at her for a while, then sighed and said, “Hmm… I can’t believe we thought these kids would do such a thing! They both get amazing grades, and have no reason to break into a footage center.” Jack and Maddie were excused from the table, and when they got to Jack’s room, they sighed in relief. “I’m guessing I’m not the only actor here, huh?”teased Jack. “I can’t believe my father called you a liar! You’ve never lied to any of them! Sure, to that screen manager dude, but not to them!”exclaimed Maddie. “I think it’s because he knows we were the ones, but I’m glad you lied so convincingly.”said Jack.

“Ok, what happened already happened. Anyways, we figured out that Bobbi wasn’t kidnapped on the way home, but at school. But what made her want to go with a complete stranger. Did he blackmail her?”asked Maddie. “I dunno, but I feel like we’re in a race with the police. They might’ve seen the two footages that we have and have a free head start.”said Jack. “I’m pretty sure I deleted the two footages from browser history, but they still might have a chance of seeing it.”said Maddie.

“Hey! I think I managed to capture a vid while you were playing the school footage!”said Jack. He took out his phone, and Ta Da! They had a copy of what they had seen. But the thing was, the footage was a bit blurry, but blurry enough to cover the nameplate. Once they noticed that, they decided to let Maddie hack the phone to make it more clear. Although the final result was still a tiny bit blurry, they can spell the name tag out.

They wrote it down on a piece of paper and stared at it for a while. The nameplate showed this: P F c 18862. “I don’t think this is a real nameplate.”said Jack. “I may be able to search the governments list to see if it’s there or not, but most likely no.”said Maddie. “Hopefully yes.”said Jack. He made sure no one was near the door when she had started to hack. It took her a while, but she eventually found the match. “I can’t believe it’s here.”said Maddie. “Wait, are you sure? Check again.”replied Jack. She reread the numbers and letters. “Yep.”she said. “Huh, that’s weird. Could that man be her family member?”wondered Maddie. “Then she’d probably recognize him and greet him.

She also hesitated before getting in the car.”said Jack. “And her mother would’ve known…”added Maddie. “First of all, I wonder how stupid she must be to get into a stranger’s car.”said Jack.

“He might’ve blackmailed her. There could be many possibilities.”stated Maddie. Jack nodded. “But she didn’t look scared.”said Jack. “He probably told her a lie,”said Maddie. “I still feel like the released criminal had something to do with this.”said Jack. “I still remember how much convincing it took for Bobbi to accept the meeting. So then the man had to lie something. Something strong enough for Bobbi to follow him.”said Maddie. “Is there any way to access the recently released criminal’s files?”asked Jack. Maddie hesitated. “Well, there is… but his files are only in the FBI’s documentaries. And if we go to FBI level, and we’re caught…” Jack knew what she’d say next.

‘They were going to be dead meat.’ “But they can only track us if we go on this computer. If we could go into another one, then the FBI would go to that location and we wouldn’t get caught.”said Maddie.

I just wonder how many times we need to break the law to help Bobbi.”said Jack. “If we were FBI agents, then all of this wouldn’t be breaking the law. It’d be doing what you’re supposed to do. So we are unauthorized FBI agents.”assured Maddie. “I’m pretty sure that high school seniors aren’t old enough to get a job at the FBI.”stated Jack. “But I’m pretty sure 17 year olds do know how to play pretend.”said Maddie. “Fine, so when are we going to the library?”asked Jack. “What’s the time?”asked Maddie. “Exactly 12 hours after what we did yesterday,” said Jack. “I think it is safe to go. But we do need to convince our parents to let us out after the talk,” said Maddie. “Let’s just try,” said Jack. They went downstairs to find their parents still on the break in fact. “Umm.. can we go to the library?”asked Maddie. All of them hesitated, but if Maddie’s father said yes, then that was it. They were free to go. “No.”he said. “Come on dad! Just the library. It’s not like anyone would kidnap us!” Maddie tried. He shook his head. “When I mean no, I mean no Madison.”he said, sternly. She gave Jack the “Why are you so quiet? Try something!” look. Jack sighed. “Why are you so anxious, Mr.Wilson? There isn’t anything to worry about. The kidnapper out there already has his little prize. They have no reason to want us. And whatsoever, I wouldn’t let anything happen to Maddie, if that’s your concern.”said Jack, in a tone that was even more firm. Maddie was shocked.

She only heard the soft side of Jack. She wondered how he would be if he actually was MAD.

Maddie’s dad looked taken back. Almost afraid, as a matter of fact . “Ok, fine.”he said. “Under one condition,” “What?”asked Jack and Maddie at the same time. This time, Jack’s normal tone came back.

“You have to be back before dinner.”he said. “OK,” said Jack. He quickly grabbed Maddie’s hand and rushed to the door. “Bye!”she said. Once they were out of the house, they headed for their bicycles. “I never knew you had that tone of voice.”said Maddie. She got onto her bike, but Jack stopped. “Do you really think breaking into the FBI’s most highly secret files will help Bobbi, or make us look bad?”asked Jack. “It would mostly just make us look bad. Oh my! I almost forgot, the FBI doesn’t handle missing children. They aren’t allowed to handle it. CARD has to.” “Card?” “That means Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team.”said Maddie. “So currently, CARD is the one that is handling this situation?”asked Jack. “Probably,” responded Maddie. They just stayed there in silence for sometime. Maddie got off her bike. “Let’s just walk,” she said. They were just admiring the flowers on the branches when someone caught Maddie’s arm. She stopped and looked back. There was this man, he was wearing a black coat, and had a tie. He also had sunglasses on. “Uh… Jack?”she said, unsurely. He turned around. “Who are you?” Jack asked. “The question is, who are you?”asked the man. Maddie struggled for the man to stop holding her hand. “Let go of her.”ordered Jack. He obeyed.

“Sorry ‘bout that. I can’t see nothing,” he responded. “Are you b- I mean, visually impaired?”asked Maddie. The man nodded. They both were unsure about who this dude was. “You two look like the ones on TV…” said the man. Now Jack knew he was lying. “Run!!!”he yelled. Jack grabbed Maddie’s hand and sprinted in the opposite direction at full speed. Once they were sure the man was nowhere to be seen, they noticed they had ran to a place that they didn’t know. “Jack, what was that? I thought he can’t see,” said Maddie. “No, he was lying. He said he can’t see anything, but then he said that we look like the teens on TV. How does he know how we look like if he’s blind?”reasoned Jack. “That doesn’t mean he wants to harm us…”said Maddie. Jack sighed. “You’re not getting it. Why would he need to pretend to be blind if he doesn’t want us to think he was innocent,” explained Jack. “Oh…” said Maddie, starting to understand. “OK, by the way, where are we?”asked Maddie. They took a look around. “Uh…” “Are we lost!?” “Probably,” said Jack, sheepishly. Maddie whined. “We are going to be so grounded, I think we’ll be grounded in heaven too,” she complained. “I guess, we have to find some-“ ‘CRACK!!!!’

They froze. Then, a sudden rustling sound came, whatever was there, started to go in the opposite direction. “What was that?”asked Maddie, whispering. Jack shrugged. Suddenly, a white blur leaped out of the bushes and latched on to Jack’s face. “AH!!”yelled Jack. He pried of the creature, and once they got a good look at the white fur ball, they figured that it was an unusually fat cat.

Jack let go of the cat, and it seemed to like staying around them. Maddie leaned closer to look at Jack’s face. He had a thin -but deep- gash from the top of his left eyebrow, down to the beginning of his left cheek. “Now you look like a gangster,” joked Maddie. “Ha! Wanna take a look at your right hand?”pointed out Jack. When she looked at it, there were four gashes (again) by her wrist.

“Oh Come On!!! Why the right!!”she groaned. Jack picked the cat up, who was now relaxed. He looked at the collar. “Where are you from, you adorable white demon?”said Jack, mumbling to himself. When he took the collar off, clutching the cat even tighter so so it won’t go running off, he saw that this cat was a service one. It was for blind people. He saw a button on it, and curiously pressed it. It beeped,“Don’t try to find her… you’ll end up in BIG trouble,” it said, in a high pitched and eerie voice. “It is a service cat… is that guy trying to threaten us?? If so, how does he know where we are?”asked Maddie. “And you think I would know the answer to that? Do I look like I can threaten you?”said Jack, sarcastically. “Um… Duh! Your cut makes you look… I dunno, deadly,” said Maddie. Jack rolled his eyes. They decided to keep the collar, and decided to release the cat.

“Ok, so… before this catastrophe, we were talking about what we can do to find someone to help us find our way back,” said Jack. “ Cat — astrophe,” joked Maddie. Jack scoffed. “Let’s get out of here so we can get back to our parents,” said Jack. “Can we keep him?”asked Maddie. “Keep a cat that was sent by the man that threatened us to stop our investigation or else? Yeah, sure, as long as you want to go missing like Bobbi did,” said Jack, sarcastically. “You made your point,” agreed Madde, as she placed the cat down. “But… how will we explain our wounds to our parents, do we just tell them the cat story?”asked Maddie. “Yeah, I guess…” replied Jack. They found a lady walking her dog nearby, and decided to ask her they’re way around. She screamed when she saw Jack. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just thought you were going to snatch me away like that Randal girl,” she said. “What scared you?”asked Jack. The lady pointed to Jack’s face. He touched it, then winced. “Oh, right, that,” said Jack.

“Anyways, how may I help you?”she asked. “Um, can you tell us the way around to Murphy Street?”

Maddie asked. “Sure, follow me,” said the lady, as she started to lead the way. Maddie walked beside Jack, and noticed his cut was deeper than it had appeared. “Is your eye, ok?”she asked.

“Well, to be honest, it hurts. But I can see everything fine,” he replied. “Why?” “Well… Oh my!”exclaimed Maddie, when she started to notice how much it was bleeding. “You need to see my mom, she’s a nurse, and your cut is bleeding heavily,” she said. He reached for the cut, then saw a lot of red on his hand. He turned pale, and stared at is for a long time. Maddie thought he was scared of blood, but she doubted that when she saw that he didn’t blink, and he turned almost white. “Here we are!”said the lady, snapping him out of his daze. She turned around. “Oh dear, you need to see a nurse,” she said, imitating Maddie. They thanked her, and headed down the street.

“What was that?”asked Maddie. “What was what?”asked Jack, trying his best to stop his voice from quavering. “Well, you creep me out. The first reason is that your whole eyeball is red from the blood, and I think you see red now,” said Maddie. Jack nodded. “And the second reason is that you turned as white as a ghost and stared at your hand so long without blinking. Like you were traumatized by blood. Would you fancy explaining that to me?”she asked. Jack turned pale again, but this time he did turn white. “Hey, are you okay? I didn’t mean to bother you,” she said. “No, it’s not that,” he said. “It’s just that… I… I’m… I… it’s hard to explain now. I tell it later,” he said. If there was any color that was whiter than white, then that was his skin color right now.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way. Once in a while, Jack’s eyes would roll back, he’d steady himself from swaying, then start walking at a slower pace than usual. This kept happening until he was so slow, that Maddie had to force herself to stay beside him. But the most disturbing part was the eyes and his skin. The blueness in his eyes were the lightest shade of blue there could be, and he turned pure white. Maddie didn’t know if that was possible, or if it was because of how dark it was outside, but he was that color.

She felt surge of relief when she spotted his house. Right now, Maddie was helping Jack walk, so he won’t sway until he falls down. His eyes were barely open, and there was blood streaming down his face, causing a puddle of it on his light blue shirt. If anyone spotted Jack at a distance, they would surely think that Maddie was helping a dead corpse learn how to walk. She picked up her speed and rushed to the door. It opened before she even rang the bell. Jack’s mother gasped. “Mom-,” Jack wheezed, his voice raspy. Then he fainted. No, that wasn’t the right word. He collapsed. Both fathers carried the limp body to the couch. “My sweet BOY!!” Jack’s mother cried. “What happened to my sweet boy,” she asked, quietly. Maddie didn’t know how to respond. She definitely knew that losing this much blood would make a person feel weak. Jack just… collapsed. But she knew this wasn’t about the blood. There was something else to it. “Mrs. Williams, I - I’m sorry,” she whispered. “No honey, I know this isn’t your fault, I just would like you to tell me how this had happened, that’s all,” assured Jack’s mom. “We were missing how we used to play, and we got bored of the library, so we started to run around, and Jack was it during tag,” lied Maddie. Mrs.Williams was to sad to lie detect again. “And we got so carried away, we ended up in a place we didn’t know where. So we were talking, and we were near the shrubby places,” said Maddie, starting to tell the truth. “We suddenly heard something in the bushes, and a white cat jumped onto Jack’s face. It caused a big scratch, and while we were struggling to get it off, I got hurt too,” said Maddie, as she pulled up her sleeve, revealing the four gashes she got.

“So this was a cat attack?”asked her mom. Maddie nodded. “So I need to get you both disinfected,” she said. She went over to Jack. “But why did he fall? Too much blood loss?”asked Maddie. “And he turned so pale. And he stared at his blood for so long. And he said he can’t explain why. And his eyes changed color. And-and-and-,” “Maddie,” said Jack’s father, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She relaxed a bit. “I know all of you are hiding something about Jack. He’s the my best friend, and not to mention my first and only friend I’ve had in my life. I need to know the reason behind this,” said Maddie. Her dad sighed. “Maddie, we don’t know if you can take it in. When you guys first started to know each other, and had playdates, which was three years ago, Jackson’s parents told us something about him, and we took a lot of time getting over it. At first we even considered to keep you away from him. But he changed, and let the past be the past. But if he hasn’t told you yet, then he isn’t ready, and that means you aren’t either. We don’t want to tell you. We’re afraid he might lose you, too,” he said. “Too?” She looked from face to face of all the adults, each of them nodding when she looked at them. “I’ll stay beside him for the night. Right here,” she said.

She thought her father would argue, but instead, he asked Jack’s parents if they could stay here too. They all agreed on Madison’s parents staying in the guest room, and Maddie herself to stay beside Jack. Once her mother had disinfected and bandaged both of them, she gave Maddie a goodnight kiss threw her a pillow, and they all turned out the lights and headed upstairs.

Maddie stayed awake for sometime. Then drifted of to sleep beside him. The next morning, she woke up to find Jack staring blankly into the ceiling. “Thinking?”she asked. He jumped. “Sorry if I startled you,” she said. Jack shook his head. “I’m supposed to be sorry about what had happened yesterday. I must’ve startled you more than anything,” he apologized. “To be honest, I thought you were going to die,” joked Maddie. A shadow darkened his already disturbing expression. “Is there anything I could do to help?”she asked, noticing the change. The shadow shifted from anger to grief. But it all passed by as quickly as it came. “You wanna help?”he asked. Maddie nodded eagerly, desperate to do anything to make him happy. He smirked. “Then make me breakfast, and lunch, and dinner,” he teased. Maddie rolled her eyes, and she nudged him. “Better just to give you sedatives,” she said. Jack chuckled. Maddie prepared herself for the worst as she asked “You haven’t told me why you did what you did yesterday. I asked the parents, and they all said you weren’t ready to tell me.” The shadow came over him again, but this time, darker. She wished she couldn’t admit it, but he looked almost… murderous.

“Oh trust me, it’s quite a disturbing story,” he said grimly. Maddie stared at him, thinking about what to say. She got even more uncomfortable as she noticed the edges of Jack’s lips started to turn into a smile. ‘Why would Jack smile at this so called disturbing story?’she thought. He looked at her and stopped his developing smile. “Sorry. Are you getting uncomfortable?”he asked, as she shifted in her seat. She shoved the thought away and decided to change the topic. They still had research to do, and it wasn’t going to finish itself. “So, I’m pretty sure the research is getting done by itself?”she said, sarcastically. “Oh, right. I forgot about that,” he said. Once they got fresh, they headed upstairs into his room. Jack looked at the mirror. “Wow, you’re right. I do look like a gangster,” he said. “Don’t you think the release of the criminal is more than just a coincidence?”Maddie asked. Jack nodded. He looked over her shoulder as she typed into the criminal website, which didn’t need hacking. “Hey, wait a sec. Scroll back up,” said Jack. He found something that they could relate to. There was a picture of that criminal. He didn’t look like the guy that tried to trick them, but both of them had a resemblance. But Jack couldn’t put a finger on it. “What is it?”asked Maddie. “Dude, I’ll refuse to believe you’re that blind. He’s holding a white fat cat, and it has the same collar as the one that did this,” he said, pointing to his scar.

“Huh? Are you sure about that?”asked Maddie. Jack shrugged. “You know that isn’t a proper answer, right,” said Maddie. “Let’s just say… 50 50,” said Jack.

“Hey, but there can’t be too many coincidences at once. There has to be a link. Like how that man knew we were trying to search for Bobbi,” said Jack. Maddie slowly nodded. “How about we search who that guys family is. Maybe there could be someone we saw before,” suggested Jack. Maddie searched it up, but nothing cam. Those things were confidential. “Shoot!”said Maddie. “Probably because if someone got their child kidnapped, they might threaten his family members,” said Jack. “Most likely,” agreed Maddie. They heard the parents’ doors open. “We’d better get goin’ so they don’t think we’re suspicious,” said Madde. They went downstairs and found their parents leaning on the kitchen counter. When Jack’s mom saw him, she immediately rushed to him and gave him the tightest hug in the world. Jack thought she’d choke him to death. “You almost gave us all a heart attack yesterday!”she yelled. “Yeah, sorry,” he mumbled. While all the other parents took turns hugging (and not to mention shouting at) him, Maddie saw his eyes. There was a hint of betrayal, and sadness. She figured it was because the parents told Maddie that Jack did something, which he would’ve told later.

“Um, you kids could go upstairs. We have something to discuss…” said Jack’s father. All the parents shared a nervous look. Jack mumbled something about dumb private talks and trudged upstairs. Maddie followed him.

Once they were up and alone again, they went right back to work. “Oh, I forgot. We can’t access those files,” said Maddie, reminding herself as much as Jack. “Is there any way you can hack into it?”asked Jack. Maddie nodded, then got to work. Once she got those files, they carefully looked at the pictures of them. “Hey, doesn’t this guy look like the one?”asked Maddie, pointing to a guy with similar brown hair, skin color, and facial features. “Yeah, he does,” confirmed Jack. She hacked deeper, and got the personal info about that guy. “He lives near us…” she said. Jack squinted at his address, then his eyes widened. “This guy is Bobbi’s neighbor!”he said. “What!?

Does that mean he could’ve kidnapped her?”asked Maddie. “We don’t know for sure…” said Jack. “After yesterday, I don’t think our parents will ever let us go out again,” said Maddie. Jack rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. Let’s let this go, and work on it tomorrow. We deserve a break,” pleaded Maddie.

“Fine”mumbled Jack.

They rushed downstairs. By that time, the parents were done talking, and looked better, unlike before.

“Hey, you guys had a long day yesterday. Wanna have some fun?”asked Maddie’s mother.

“Yeah!”exclaimed Maddie. And she was pretty sure she was (excluding the parents) the only one saying that. Jack was just there, standing. The tips of his lips were up, but he wasn’t smiling, though. The rest of the day, Jack’s mood got progressively better. And it exceeded better too! They watched a movie, and ate popcorn while doing that. They played video games after that, and decided that Maddie’s parents would cheer on Jack and Jack’s parents would cheer on Maddie. By now, they were playing a card game, and Jack needed to drink water. So Maddie’s father offered to go upstairs and hand it to him. Maddie’s father reached Jack’s room, and took a friendly look around to search for his bottle. But something caught his eye. The computer was left on, and he saw a black screen with coding language on it. He knew that touching other peoples stuff without asking them wouldn’t be the best idea, but he did it anyways. He went to browser history, and looked at what they have searched up. His heart dropped when he found out. From 2 days ago, Maddie had typed a full code into how to hack into the centers’ footages, and how to shut down a building entirely. He immediately looked around the room, only to find more proof that Maddie and Jack were the ones that broke into the footage center. He saw plans and sketches of the footage centers blueprint, and how to break in. He also saw the attire they were supposed to wear during the break.

He was just as surprised as much as disappointed, sad, and angry. He stormed downstairs with the computer, and the drawing. “WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THIS!!!” Jack and Maddie turned around, really confused. When they noticed what he was talking about, Jack’s cards dropped to the floor, both of them becoming extremely pale. They just stared, as the other parents rushed up to see what he had found. Both the dads’ turned red with rage, and the mothers became white.

“Sh-she lied to us,” whispered Maddie’s mom, looking at her. Jack’s mind went blank. Should they run? Should they tell the truth? Should they hide? He didn’t know what to do. But Maddie seemed to have chosen the first option. She grabbed Jacks hand, so tight, it felt worse than pain. But Jack didn’t complain. She slowly arose to her feet, feeling the adrenaline rush through her body. They took a few steps back. She looked at Jack, who was just staring into pure space. “Jack!”she whisper-screamed. He blinked, snapping out of his daze. They ran to the porch, where everything was twilight. There was a thick forest ahead, since Jack’s mother was a vet, and liked to let animals have their free time (within the fence). The parents came rushing out. “Jack, I can’t believe you-“ Jack’s mother sobbed. “Maddie, I-I have no words. You lied to us. You committed a crime. And now you’re wanted. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE SERIOUSNESS OF THIS!!!!”yelled her mom. Their fathers fumed with rage. “YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER DO IT AGAIN JACK! YOU BROKE YOUR SANITY ALONG WITH OURS. NOW YOU’VE BROKEN OUR HEARTS!!!!! WE CAN’T AFFORD TO HAVE TO KEEP ON FACING THIS-“ Jack’s father stopped himself before he can say anything that could cause permanent damage. More like Jack’s mother stopped him.

Now it was Jack’s turn to rage. His cheeks turned crimson, and she didn’t know if this was possible, or if it was because of the darkness, but she was positive she was Jack’s wound start to bleed again. But it was more than anything she saw in her life. In a matter of seconds, blood covered most of his left cheek and reached his ears. “You PROMISED-PROMISED that you would never EVER lift that topic again! And I could’ve made us rich. But you deserve to be poor! You’re just scared that people will start gossiping about it again!”he yelled. This was the first time that she’d ever seen Jack raise his voice. He sprinted into the thick forest. Maddie was just stuck there. Her legs refused to move, and she looked at her parents. Her mother looked like she was about to cry, and Jack’s mother covered her mouth, fat tears gushing down her face. His father sank to the floor, whispering something about the greatest mistake they’ve made in their lives. Maddie was having a fight in her head. If she chose to stay with her parents, then there was a pretty high chance that she would never see Jack again in her life. A memory came flooding back to her. At school, the day Jack moved there, she was still 14. Everyone nicknamed her “The Blonde Dork” or “know it all.” But when she’d first saw Jack, she was determined to make him her friend. When she sat with him at lunch, she heard whispers about the incident or dangerous boy. But she ignored it.

She simply refused to back down. At first he’d ignore her, and slowly, they started to talk. Now, they were each others best friend and only friends forever. Eternity. Forever and ever. She new which option she would take. She also knew, she will not regret it.