"Ah!, Who…who… who's there?…" She stuttered as a fresh wave of dread washed over her
"Don't be scared, I'm not the enemy"
the voice said,
"T..t..then how?…why are we here?.." Nora asked as she pressed herself to the wall and peered into the darkness trying to make out the form of the person addressing her.
"Even I cannot remember how I got here or what our purpose is here"
"Our?"
Nora asked
"Yes, we're quite a handful here, girls say hi"
Different feminine voices from different areas of the darkness whispered their greetings, on hearing their voices, some fear was alleviated from Nora and she breathed a small sigh of relief knowing that she was not alone.
"What's your name?"
The voice asked
"Nora….Nora Barkley"
she replied
"Mine is Katie Kriss, you can call me KK" she said softly,
"Don't be scared love, you're not alone, we just have to stick together if we're gonna survive this".
***
It was already dark when Steve and Grandpa Matt arrived at the tenement at Lion's boulevard, none of them had spoken a word ever since and Grandpa Matt was really focused on trying to solve Steve's obvious lack of talent in Mana cultivation.
As they were about to enter the main door that led to the stairway of the tenement, Steve heard something and turned in the direction of the sound, Grandpa Matt noticed that Steve had stopped and turned to ask him what was wrong but stopped when he saw him looking at the figure of someone sitting at one corner of the steps, with knees hugged tightly to the body while shaking gently, Steve could hear sobbing sounds coming from the person.
Before Grandpa Matt could say anything, he moved towards the person but on reaching there, the person he saw filled him with so much apprehension that if he hadn't been seen by the person, he would've turned back and left, it was Fiona.
As he stopped in his tracks, she looked up at him and the look in her eyes disoriented him, he had never seen this look on Fiona before, the ever so bubbly eyes that never seemed to have known any pain looked up at him and all he could see was sadness.
"What's the matter?…why are you crying outside by this time of the evening?"
Steve found his mouth saying the words without consent from his brain, she turned to look at him and there was the briefest of pauses as his eyes held hers.
'Man….why did I say that?, I'm a total stranger to her, did I expect her to even talk to me?….'
He spun the words in his head as he chided himself for trying to be nice to someone who supposedly hates him.
"Uwaaah!!"
She cried out loudly with more tears streaking down her face as she stood up, hugged Steve and held him tightly while sobbing and muttering some incomprehensible words.
"What on Earth?….is this really the Fiona I know?, What could make her cry like this?.."
Steve thought and shook his head as he patted her back gently while she cried.
***
There was a bright light and Nora suddenly jerked up from her slumber, immediately, she instinctively rolled over to KK's side and sat up.
Now that the room was illuminated, Nora could observe the room properly. The room was very large and circular in shape and the walls looked like they were made of solid stone, the floor was made of concrete and the only entrance and exit she could see was a dome shaped door that looked like it was made of iron.
She suddenly noticed that she had been untied, she sat up and flexed her hands while writhing her fingers to get rid of the stiffness. Looking around, she realized that there were about twenty young ladies like herself but she could not recognize any of the faces. On looking up, Nora realized that the source of the light was not ordinary, floating above their heads was a circular mass of light energy that was as large as the tyre of a tractor.
'Something is really weird here'
she thought as she stared curiously at the light.
Now that she could see properly, she looked over at KK, she saw that KK was a beautiful lady with light natural blonde hair who looked like she was in her mid 20's with soft honey brown eyes that sparkled with the reflection of the light that shone above. Her skin was extremely fair, white and flawless, and her legs were long like that of a model, she was just elegant and breathtakingly beautiful. KK noticed her stares and smiled at her,
"I'm a model"
she said in her soft voice as if she had read Nora's mind.
A noise suddenly came from the door and it startled Nora, she turned to look at it just as some masked men all clad in black overalls barged into the room. They were about six in number and Nora noticed that some held guns while others carried boxes that were the size of coffins.
'w..w..wha…what is going on?'
Nora thought,
"Do they want to carry someone away in that box?….What… what's happening?" She asked KK as she shifted closer to her,
"Don't worry"
KK said reassuringly with a tight smile, "They're just here to give us some clothes and to let us out for a bathroom break".
Nora didn't say anything else but rather sat quietly with fear as her eyes darted from one masked person to the other.
***
"…..So your friend has been kidnapped and the police are yet to make any leads on the case?", Steve spoke softly but firmly as he served Fiona a cup of steaming hot coffee. She gave a small nod, both in reply to the question she was asked and in appreciation for the coffee.
They were all seated in the Heracles' living room, now that they were in an illuminated place, Steve could see her face properly, the bright and beautiful eyes were dull and swollen, probably from all the crying.
"Don't worry my dear, I'm sure they're trying the best they can to find and rescue her"
Grandpa Matt chipped in.
Bursting into a fresh bout of sobs, she said,
"I just finished speaking with her yesterday evening and we both left for home, we were supposed to go on an outing today but she didn't show up, after dialing her number several times and going to her apartment, I realized that she wasn't around so I called her parents only for them to tell me that she wasn't there too. They don't even know that she's missing, they'd be heart broken if they find out".
The way she broke down in front of the Heracles was heart wrenching. Steve took a deep breath, walked up to her, sat down and put his arm on hers and told her in a very soft and comforting voice,
"Don't cry, your friend will be fine…",
Then he turned to Grandpa Matt and asked,
"Grandpa, is there anything you can do?"
Grandpa Matt suppressed a sigh as he glanced from Steve to Fiona and back. He had left the detective job a long time ago but something about this case was making his cells shiver with excitement.
"I'll try to help, but I doubt my efforts will be much since the police are already on it"
he said while trying to hide the excitement in his voice.
"Thank you so much sir!"
Fiona squealed in excitement,
"thank you!".
"It's nothing…"
He replied.
After some time, when Fiona had calmed down, she thanked them and left for her flat. The living room was silent and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the news reporter on the TV,
"….tension amongst the young ladies in the city as yet another young girl has been kidnapped making it the twenty second mysterious kidnapping case in the past two months. Nineteen year old Phoebe Cavendish has reportedly gone missing since her family said she failed to return home after leaving home in the morning, all attempts to know about her whereabouts have proven futile as…."
"Mysterious disappearances don't happen in this city without a fiendish reason behind it"
Grandpa Matt said blankly while staring at the TV.
"Grandpa, could it be the fiends?"
Steve asked, the excitement evidently building up in his voice.
"Most probably, they have begun to make their move, faster than the council predicted"
Grandpa Matt said in a determined voice and turned to face Steve.
"If you are to face these fiends, you need to train harder, we must awaken your Mana as soon as possible. From tomorrow, we're gonna practice twice as hard...".
The door suddenly flew open and Alex walked in, everyone suddenly went wide eyed as they saw the state that he was in...