After I pulled up to our school parking lot and parked the car, my sister got out and went to find her friends. I locked the car and started to head to my first period class when I saw three familiar faces that I haven’t seen in months.

Vincent Alarie and his twin brother Nathaniel Alarie along with Elena Merceri were making their way to the school.

It seemed that I was not the only person to notice this since every student in the vicinity stopped and stared at the trio like they were some sort of newly discovered creature.

The reason for such a reaction was obvious. The last time anyone had seen them was in a mall together in late June and according to the security footage they seemed to have vanished into thin air.

This strange case of disappearance sparked many discussions online and even made it to the national news. Officially, it was ruled out as kidnapping. The internet, however, had much more unrealistic theories such as being spirited away, being transported to another world, and falling into a space-time rift to name a few.

In the end, no one figured out what happened to them which is why their sudden reappearance has drawn so much attention.

The reason I was also staring at them was a little different from everyone else’s. The four of us were what you would call childhood friends and I was extremely worried when the three of them suddenly disappeared. Therefore, the moment I got over the shock of seeing them, I immediately started sprinting towards them.

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Vincent was the first one to notice me approaching but before he could even greet me, I tackled all three of them into a hug.

“Holy shit I’m so glad you guys are okay!” I yelled as tears started forming in my eyes.

“I was so worried about you guys. What happened? Where the hell have you guys be–” I noticed the look on their faces and realized that now was probably not the time nor the place to be bombarding them with questions.

“Well never mind that. Welcome back!”

“Thanks Wren, and sorry for worrying you.” Said Vincent who was finally able to get a word in after I had calmed down.

“We’re fine Wren, in fact we’re better than fine.” Said Nathaniel who had an excited look on his face.

“What do you mea–”

*cough*

I turned towards Elena and before I could even say anything she leaned close to my ear and whispered.

“We’ll fill you in on the details later. Just… Just not right now, okay?”

She shared a look with the other two which made me even more concerned, but I kept quiet for now since I knew they’d tell me later.

“Well anyways, we should probably head to class. Oh wait, you guys know what classes you have right?”

“Yeah don’t worry Wren, we got our schedules.” Vincent said as he showed me his schedule on his phone.

“Ugh, can you imagine how much catching up we’re gonna have to do? It’s already mid October.” groaned Nathaniel, his shoulders slumping and his expression turning gloomy.

*whack*

“Ow Elena! What was that for?!”

“Come on Nathaniel, is schoolwork seriously your biggest concern right now?” Said Elena, crossing her arms.

“Did you forget that as far as everyone else knows, we “mysteriously disappeared”? I can’t wait to be bombarded with questions by all our classmates and teachers.”

“Anyways, Wren, meet us after school. We have something to show you and we’ll also explain what we’ve been doing for the past few months.”

Just as she finished, the bell rang and we all hurriedly started heading towards our classes.