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  She trudged to the bathroom and turned on the steam-powered jets. The pounding water massaged away her tiredness. Citrus scented bath foam rejuvenated the spirit and once she’d toweled dry her dark, wet hair, Kristi began to ponder what to do with the rest of her day. I suppose I could go revisit the hidden room in the wall. After all, it isn’t everyday something interesting like this happens. I would be dumb not to make the most of it.

  She exited the bathroom and dug her bag out from underneath her bed. Then she hunted around the house, packing anything she felt that she should include on her mini excursion.

  “Water, granola bar and electro-slate,” Kristi said, counting each item on her fingers. “That should be all I need.” She pulled her drawstring bag closed then headed out the door.

  There was an air of stillness on the streets during this time of the day. The adults were at work, the younger kids had their extra curricular lessons and the older kids were usually off doing whatever they did with their free time. Many teens liked to visit the indoor surfing complex, although Kristi never discovered why being chased by a wall of water while crouching on a Plexiglas board was considered fun.

  She traced her path back down the alley, making sure to be wary of the electro-slate bandits. Kristi skipped around a puddle, not wanting to get her new sneakers muddy. Her peripheral vision caught something reflecting off the puddle. Looking down at the tranquil water, she spotted something that shouldn’t be there. Beside her stood a furry creature.

  Caught off guard, Kristi almost stumbled into the puddle. She caught her balance against a solar lamp and looked around. A spotted tail slid behind a bush. Warily, she shuffled towards the barberry shrub, keeping an eye out for any movements.

  A pair of gold eyes peeked out from behind the bushes. A few seconds later, the tops of two tawny fur-covered ears emerged from the upper portion of the plant.

  “Where is your owner?” Kristi asked the creature. “Are you a lost droid-pet?”

  The upper half of the animal emerged from behind the bush. The droid was a leopard bearing a magnificent, glossy pelt. Exotic droid-pets cost a hefty amount of points, and the owner was probably worried about the leopard.

  Kristi lowered her voice to a soothing tone. “Come here, let me take you to the lost and found center.”

  The leopard inched towards her, but paused halfway. Its ears twitched back and forth, listening to sounds too subtle for the human ear to catch. Then it turned its back on her and bounded away, melting into shadows as fast as a sonic-plane.

  The droid-leopard encounter took up more time than Kristi liked. She had a bit over half an hour to find the room, explore it and return home. Curfew wouldn’t be enforced for another couple of hours, but none of her family members knew where she was going and Kristi didn’t want them to worry about her if she didn’t make it back before dinner.

  She broke into a faster pace and located the alleyway where she had almost gotten robbed. Kristi checked her surroundings; she was alone.

  “I didn’t notice the indent in the wall before,” Kristi murmured.

  One of the terracotta bricks looked like a giant had come along and decided to prod that one brick inwards. Kristi touched the palm of her right hand against the sunken brick, not sure what she expected to happen next. As before, bricks pivoted away like dominos knocking into each other in order to form an entrance about three feet in diameter.

  Making sure her electro-slate was set to flashlight mode, Kristi stepped into the room. The bricks immediately spun back into their original position, sealing off the chamber from the outside world.

  The TV, Kristi noticed with interest, was actually plugged into an outlet. Curious to see if it worked, she tentatively pressed the power button. The screen glowed to life. The words “insert disc” flashed on the display. No film of dust coated the TV, suggesting it had recently been used.

  Odd, Kristi thought. Whoever was using this TV was watching a DVD. I can’t think of anyone who would go through the hassle of attaining a DVD when you can get all the channels on an electro-slate.

  Thinking there was nothing of interest left in the room, Kristi prepared to leave. She didn’t know what she had anticipated to find in this secret room, but she felt let down.

  “You’re so childish, Kristi,” she chided herself. Her voice rang out abnormally loud in the empty space. “What did you expect? A secret vault of treasures?” She laughed at her own whimsical fantasies, but stopped shortly.

  The light cast by her electro-slate reflected off the shiny padlock hanging off a solid, wooden door. The door embedded itself so deeply into the wall at the back of the room Kristi would’ve never noticed it had the padlock not given away its presence.

  She fiddled with the lock for a few seconds; although Kristi wouldn’t call herself an expert, she did have some experience with picking locks. She set down the padlock almost as soon as she picked it up, though; she could tell there was no way to crack the lock without the key. The intricate gears nestled within it were so small and complex it would take her a good hour or two to pick, and she didn’t have the time.

  Kristi swung her electro-slate-doubling-as-a-flashlight around the room one last time, making sure she didn’t miss anything else noteworthy.

  “Didn’t see this either.” Kristi knelt and peeked beneath the TV.

  A plastic case of some sort was stuck beneath the TV, as if someone had hid it in a hurry. She tugged the container out from where it was wedged. It was a DVD case. Nowhere on the cover did Kristi spot the government-approved stamp on it. In other words, this was an illegal DVD.

  The words, Phantom of the Opera, were boldly printed on the covering. Beneath the title was a picture of some sort of a mask and rose. Kristi tested the title: “Phantom of the Opera.”

  The way the name rolled off her tongue brought Kristi a sense of satisfaction, unlike the titles of the government issued TV programs: Explanation of the Elements of the Periodic Table for Level Five Students, The Complete History of the North Region of the Past Twenty Years, and The Channel of Weather Forecasts.

  Feeling a bit rebellious, Kristi removed the DVD disk and inserted it into the designated slot behind the monitor. Then she clicked “play” on the remote and the screen flickered with words rolling across a black background.

  Kristi didn’t notice her mouth hanging open when the movie ended until she realized she was drooling. She snapped her jaw shut, wondering, Did I really just watch a fictional movie?

  Bleep! Her electro-slate vibrated, bringing Kristi back to her senses. Crud. I completely lost track of time. She flicked on her slate and picked up the instafication.

  “Kristi, where are you?” Maria’s concerned voice pricked at Kristi’s guilty conscience.

  She checked the time—it was already seven-thirty; curfew was eight. Kristi quickly replied Maria, “Sorry—I lost track of time; I’ll be home in fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Next time, leave an electro-note for me if you’re going to be staying out later than six.”

  “I didn’t mean to stay out past dinner. I’m sorry—bye.”

  Kristi muted the electro-slate and returned the DVD into its case. After doing one last check to confirm she didn’t leave anything behind, she stepped back out into the alleyway and right into a pair of waiting arms.

  chapter four

  [ Kristi ]

  “Ahh—” Kristi let loose a yell that was instantly cut off by a hand clamped over her nose and mouth, stifling her breath. The next thing she knew, a brawny arm wrapped around her waist and she was being slung over a shoulder with ease.

  Kristi’s heart pounded against her chest as she tried to escape the steel-like grip, but whoever was carrying her seemed completely unfazed by her thrashing and kicking. Her screams were muffled by the clammy hand still glued over her mouth.

  Kristi’s arms and legs eventually grew weary and heavy with her fruitless struggles with escape. She willed her entire body to go limp and tried not to vomit up the foo
d she had consumed earlier.

  The abductor began running at a fast and steady pace through the empty streets; any normal person would have to either be insane or suicidal to roam the backstreets so close to curfew time. No Perfect would risk being caught by the curfew patrols.

  The pavement bounced up and down from Kristi’s point of view, making her feel dizzy. The hand suffocating her breaths didn’t help with the situation.

  “Cah ye mo ye han?” Kristi tried her best to mumble her words coherently. “Can’t breh.”

  Her kidnapper didn’t remove the hand, however the hold over her mouth loosened a bit, enough for her to breathe more comfortably, but not enough for her to scream for help. Something cold and sharp pressed against the side of her cheeks. Kristi leaned her head away from the object; it was a gold stud earring.

  Several minutes passed, the person carrying Kristi decelerated to a slow jog, then to a walk and placed her on the ground after ripping the drawstring bag off her shoulders.

  Kristi braced her arms against a damp and moldy wall to steady her shaky legs and rebelling stomach. Her captor remained at a distance far enough to avoid being splattered by puke in case Kristi’s stomach decided to empty itself, but still within grabbing distance. Kristi finally assessed her surroundings once the world stopped spinning enough for her to find her balance.

  Four bare walls of an abandoned building closed around her; the ceiling sagged dangerously low. If I was to jump up, Kristi contemplated, I bet I could touch it. Not that that would do me much good.

  A man stood guard by the entrance; aside from the tattoo of a flock of raven trailing up the side of his neck, the man looked inconspicuous. He didn’t have a memorable face nor wore clothing that beckoned attention.

  Another guy, who Kristi automatically assumed to be her abductor, was going through the contents of her drawstring bag. He wore a black shirt and ratty jeans; several gold hoops looped through his earlobes. Kristi counted nine cuffs in total and wondered whether the man’s ears got tired from bearing the weight of the jewelry.

  The man looked up from her bag. “Nice electro-slate you have; latest model with all the newest updates.”

  She recognized the raspy voice as the same one she heard while eavesdropping from behind the brick wall. They were the electro-slate bandits.

  The man wearing the black shirt spoke again, “Thought you could make a fool out of me, didn’t you? Boss demoted me to rank two after today’s incident.”

  The guy with the raven tattoo ground his teeth and spat on the ground. “Rank two,” he said to himself. “That’s a rank for newbies, not someone like me.”

  The kidnapper continued on, as if he hadn’t heard a word the other man had said. “Boss doesn’t believe me when I told her there was a secret room in the brick wall. But I saw you escaping into a hole in the wall with my own eyes. Now she thinks we’re going mad. Right, Steph?”

  Steph nodded his head in agreement. The way Steph looked at black-shirt-guy with reverence and followed his every move reminded Kristi of Glenn’s followers. Naturally, this observation promptly made her dislike these two men even more.

  Kristi removed her hands from the wall. Testing to see if she could walk on her own, she took a small step. Her head felt a bit woozy, but other than that, she felt fine.

  “Take my electro-slate and my backpack if you want. Can I leave now?” Kristi took another step towards the exit.

  Steph perked up and cracked his knuckles loudly, daring her to make a dash for freedom.

  “No.” Black-shirt-guy threw down the drawstring bag with disgust; apart from the electro-slate, nothing else in the bag was worth any value on the black market.

  “Can I see the slate, Wilson?” Steph asked.

  “No.”

  Black-shirt-guy now had a name: Wilson. This insignificant piece of information lent Kristi a small scrap of knowledge.

  Wilson stalked over to Steph, clutching the stolen electro-slate in one hand. “Grab me some ropes. And be quick about it.”

  Steph beat a hasty retreat, muttering under his breath, “Don’t want to make Wilson mad—he blinded his last offender.”

  So, Kristi thought, Wilson’s temper is something to be reckoned with, a trait that probably often gets him what he wants. She was not at all comfortable with this arrangement; being alone in an unfamiliar room with a cruel man made her squirm anxiously.

  Wilson slammed the door shut then booted a rickety folding chair into the middle of the room. Rust covered its metal edges.

  “You,” Wilson brusquely pushed Kristi into the chair, towering over her. “Tell me how you escaped us today.”

  “There was a hidden room behind the wall.” Kristi couldn’t think straight enough to even consider lying.

  “I already know that. Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me how you got into the room.”

  “I’m not sure how I got into the room. I just kind of slid my hand over a section of the brick wall and a gap opened—”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Wilson said. The edges of his lips pulled backwards tightly, permitting his two silver tipped canines to show. Kristi involuntarily shuddered; his teeth reminded her of vampires. Wilson leered. “Tell me now or—”

  “I got you the ropes,” Steph cut in.

  Kristi let out a sigh; she was certain whatever Wilson’s threat was, she didn’t want to hear.

  Wilson snatched the ropes from Steph and tied Kristi’s hands behind her back.

  “Don’t try to lie to me,” Wilson growled into her right ear. “Steph would be more than happy to knock you around a bit. So here’s the deal. I ask you the questions and you answer truthfully. If I like your answer, you’re safe from Steph. If I don’t like the answer you give me, you’ll be hurting for a few days. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” Kristi whispered.

  “Good,” he grunted. “Did you use a special key to get into the hidden room?”

  “No.”

  “Then how did you pass through the wall?”

  “I touched the wall.”

  “Do you really think I’m stupid?”

  “No.”

  “Tell me the truth if you know what is good for you!”

  “I did.”

  “Don’t sass me. I had my gang try getting through the wall and that included searching the wall for any hidden levers. How do I get into the hidden room within the walls?”

  Kristi debated whether she should lie and please Wilson or continue telling the truth. She kept silent. Technically, she wouldn’t be lying if she didn’t say anything; not that lying to someone as vile as Wilson bothered her. Kristi refused to admit it, but she was too scared to speak for fear of infuriating Wilson.

  “Answer me, ignorant child!” Wilson snarled.

  She said nothing.

  Wilson let out a yell of frustration.

  She said nothing.

  “Speak!” Wilson got a bit red in the face.

  She said nothing.

  Wilson’s face took on a dangerous hue.

  She decided she better say something. Kristi tried to string together some words, but was too terrified to articulate any comprehensible sounds. Wilson mistook it for defiance and kicked the chair Kristi was sitting on.

  “This isn’t over yet,” he said. Menace laced the edge of his tone. “We’ll finish this tomorrow.”

  With that, he roughly shoved Steph aside and stormed into a different room. Steph bolted the door to the warehouse, followed Wilson and turned off the sole bulb lighting, plunging the room into darkness.

  Kristi experimentally tugged on the ropes binding her wrists, but they were securely knotted. Exhaling, she wondered how exactly did she land herself in this predicament. She had received more than she bargained for by going back to the hidden room.

  Kristi spent the next two hours searching for anyway to escape, but was unsuccessful. Eventually, her eyelids drooped with exhaustion and she muttered, “This is going to be a long night” before easing her way into
an awkward sleep.

  chapter five

  [ Troop ]

  Troop switched his electro-slate into sleep mode, not wanting to continue the pointless argument with Jennifer. Once she set her mind on something, nothing could change her mindset. With no annoying instafications to bother him, Troop’s thoughts wandered to the topic of the upcoming VicDay.

  VicDay—short for Victim Day—was a day of entertainment for some. For others, it was a day of humiliation. Troop had established VicDay a few years ago to secure his position on the social ladder. Once a month, members in Troop’s circle would cast names of students who had in one way or another crossed paths unfavorably with them to be their next target. The purpose of VicDay was simple: to send a clear message to everyone warning them not to upset Troop and his crew.

  Richie Honston was last month’s victim. He had been caught kissing Darrel’s girlfriend. As a result, Troop had sent Jack, the school’s chief hacker, to hijack Richie’s electro-slate. All the answers of the test Richie submitted for the next three days were misordered, thanks to the virus Jack had implanted. Richie was expelled from Ludus High due to the five F’s he received on his test. A Perfect failing a test was frowned upon. A Perfect failing five tests in the matter of three days was unacceptable.

  “Maya,” Tompkins said. “That’s the name of the girl who I think should be the next VicDay target.”

  Troop completed a double-handed 360 on his snowboard then replied, “Did Jennifer set you up with this?”

  “Yeah. How did you know?” Tompkins cleared a wide gap jump, catching a lot of air as he did so and obtaining a smattering applause from his peers.

  Not to be outdone, Troop flawlessly completed the same jump with a midair corkscrew. Darrel let loose a wolf whistle and shouted, “I rate that a ten out of ten.”