Max sat at his desk grading his student’s recent assignment. A calm quiet was settled over his office, just how he liked it. It was a rare moment of peace. A knock on his door, however, broke through the calm. “Come in.”
A boy sporting short black hair with a blond streak walked in. He wore a worried expression, fidgeting with his hoodie strings nervously. “Good evening Jay. What’s wrong?” He cleared his throat, “Did Tony check back in with you?” Max shook his head, “No, but I wouldn’t worry too much. I let him have till sun down.”
Tony had asked permission to train in the forest, past the fence. Max agreed, thinking it was a good idea and a good way to train his and his siblings’ powers, as they are more nature based. It can be hard to train those types of powers within a classroom setting.
“It is sundown. It’s after sundown. He hasn’t come back yet, or texted. I’m just starting to get a little worried.” Jay wasn’t one to often admit when he has nervous, always playing some kind of disinterested act he always put on. Max looked out the window. It was dark out, darker than he expected it to be with still no word from Tony. Or any of them. ‘That’s odd.’ Tony wasn’t a reckless or rebellious type of person.
“I’ll look into it Jay. I’m sure there’s an explanation.” He assured. He got up and accompanied Jay out of the building and towards the dorms, splitting off to look at the fence boarder.
Looking out into the tree cover, he couldn’t see anyone in eyesight. He cupped his hands, “Tony!” He called out, “You need to head back over.” The forest was still. There was a slight wind that rustled the leaves, but other than that, it was dead quiet. “Now Tony!” He yelled again, a little more apprehensive. Still, nothing happened.
Max took a breath and used his powers, searching for his student’s brain waves, or any psychic links. He was able to search out of 3 miles, but found nothing. “Shit.” He muttered to himself and turned back to the dorms, rushing into the building and up the stairs until he was outside of May and Nya’s shared room.
He knocked on the door and was greeted by his red headed student. “Hello, Max. What’s going on?” “Is Nya here? Has she messaged you at all?” May looked confused, “No. She’s with Tony as far as I’m aware, and she left her phone here, why?”
Max didn’t want to cause any unnecessarily panic to his students, though he was starting to panic a little himself, so he tried to stay as calm as he could. “Tony hasn’t come back yet, so I’m seeing if any of the others have returned.”
“It doesn’t sound like any of them to stay out this long, especially past the fence.” May commented, “Are they at the dining hall, or library?” Max sighed, “I haven’t checked yet, but I wanted to check the other’s dorms before we went crazy with a search party. I know he planned on inviting all of his siblings.” May’s face shifted to a concerned look, “I could check the other dorms for you, and Zach is roomed with Brady. You would be able to check the other places around campus.”
Max thought it over for a moment. He didn’t want to worry his students, but he knew that it would take mush longer if he tried to check the whole campus by himself. He really wouldn’t mind the assistance either. “Alright, but I would rather you look around campus. I wouldn’t mind you calling your brother either. Try using the buddy system when you search so no one else goes missing.” She nodded and tapped on her phone, dialing Brady.
Max made his way down the hall and knocked on another of his student’s doors. This time, Jamien opened the door, “Max, hi.” She sounded surprised, “What do you need?” “Is Jordan back?” He asked. “Um, no. I’m not sure where she is.” Max started to get a little more worried, as it was completely out of character for Jordan to slip away. ‘Unless they didn’t slip away. Not willingly.’ He thought, ‘Maybe they’re not even on campus.’
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May called from her door, “Brady hasn’t seen Zach since breakfast. No word from him either.” Max nodded and she ducked back into her room. Max turned back to Jamien, a million things going through his mind, solutions trying to piece together, but a little voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Jamien!” Julia whipped around the corner and ran over to Jamien, wrapping herself around her older sister. She was wearing her pink pajamas, looking like she was just about to go to bed. Max could see that she was breathing hard, tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. She looked seconds away from a full breakdown.
Jamien was doing her best to try and calm her sister, comforting her by rubbing her back and asking what’s wrong. Max got down to her level and twisted his head until he could see her eyes. “Julia?” Jamien tried to tap her shoulder. She didn’t react.
Max put a hand on her shoulder and spoke softly, “Julia, what happened? You know we can’t help if you don’t try to calm down and tell us what’s wrong.” She took a big breath and wiped her now crying eyes. She spoke very quietly, as if her voice was made of glass, “Vess isn’t back yet, and I’m scared. I don’t know where she went, and she’s not in the room. I don’t know Tony’s phone number.” Max got a twisted feeling in his gut. Vess wasn’t allowed to be out of the dorms after 7pm, and even if she was, she wouldn’t have left Julia alone for this long.
Max stood back up and addressed Jamien, “You keep her with you, in your room. Try to get her to sleep, but don’t worry too much about it.” Max turned down the hall, “May! Have your brother check West campus with you.” He took out his phone and looked through his contacts, deciding on Frankie’s.
“Frankie, I need you to take Jay and search East campus for any sign of the Ellet clan.” Her voice answered in a confused tone, “They all disappeared? As a whole?”
“I’m not sure, but I need you to look for them. If you find them, send them to my office.” He hung up, after getting conformation, and turned back towards the red-head’s room, “You hear that May?” She nodded as she headed to the stairwell.
He looked back to Jamien and Julia, mostly talking to the latter, “We’ll find them. There’s no need to worry.” He directed more attention to the older of the two, “Do not spread any of this information around just yet. I don’t need any rumors getting started.”
Jamien nodded, pulling her younger sister inside and softly closed the door. Max pulled a hand through his hair and made his way back to his office on foot.
He walked past the night security and walked the bright halls until he found his office, stepping inside and clicking the door closed behind him. He paced the room, thinking of what to do next. The last thing he wanted to do was cause any unnecessary panic for the students and staff. There’s no doubt that the school would go onto a lock in, if not locked down.
However, the longer he waited to report them as missing, the more time was being wasted. The longer he waited, the more trouble they could be in. He felt torn, unsure of the most efficient method.
He decided to write up a search and rescue plan in case they weren’t on campus. He sat at his desk and put on some instrumental music to work in. The normally calm quiet of his office was no longer calm or peaceful to him anymore. It just reminded him of how the dorms were 5 students emptier.
After about a half hour without any updates from either search party, Max decided to call up Frankie again. “How is the search going?” He tried to remain hopeful, but the voice that answered him was tinged with worry.
“Not good. They aren’t in the labs or dining halls. We’re making our way to the stadium now. There’s been no sign of any of them.” Max sighed, “It’s alright. I’ll call back in about a half hour.”
His leg shook as he dialed May’s number. ‘Please have good news. Please have found one of them, anything.” Her sweet voice answered simply, “Hi Max.”
“How is your search going?” He heard her sigh through the receiver, “I hope the others are having better luck than us.” Max felt his anxiety build.
“Have you found any of them?” “No. Sorry Max.” He sunk in his seat, listening to May continue, “We just finished the gym and are about to check the library.”
Max glanced at the clock, bright numbers showing 10:36pm. “I’ll check back in at 11. Thank you.” He hung up, dragging a hand down his face and taking a deep breath. He couldn’t just stay in his office while his students searched the dark campus.
He walked back to the fence line, and looked past it. Teleporting to the other side, he looked around for any sign of his student’s presence. He walked the path they should have taken before coming to a clearing roughly 50 yards. From the fence. The ground was torn up in some areas and in other spots there was piles of mud. Looking west, Max spotted a small stream, just a few feet away. The moonlight was perfectly illuminating the area.
Max went to look closer at the river area bed, but stopped in his tracks when something caught his eyes. Something to his right reflected the moon’s light directly into his eye. He walked closer to it, finding the source to be a hat with a buckle at the back. He brought it into the clearing more to see it better. It was a red baseball cap with a metal buckle.
He recognized it. “Zach’s hat?” He muttered to himself. Alarms blared in Max’s head. Zach would never leave his hat alone in the lab, or the dorms, never mind the middle of the forest. That was the final straw. Max ran back to his office to call his student’s searches off. He has waited long enough.
He marched into the office building, going right past security, and went straight into the head principle’s office. The older man looked at him surprised. Max slammed his hands down on the desk, unable to contain himself, and looked into the man’s eyes.
“I need to report 5 missing students.”