Chapter 28- Loose

Yshmael's POV:

"Oh my God! Where's that girl, really? Of all times, she really chose to disappear at this moment!"

I frowned when I heard that loud voice from a group of students. I know some of them, Rona who is always with Maelanie and Primo Seo who is one of the exchanged students and also their friends. There is another man and woman in their group that I do not know but I am also sure they are both exchanged students based on their uniforms.

They were all restless and I saw a few more times as if they were looking for something around.

"President..."

I immediately turned to Veronica, the secretary of the Student Council. "The students and the visitors got out well in the buildings. Everyone is already in the field. The police have also started to enter and they are looking for the possible location of the bomb. The professors said that they will take care of the area, as long as we keep the students and the guests stayed here."

"Everyone is here too and no one was injured or what. It looks like the drills helped us a lot." Kylie, on the other hand, suddenly appeared from nowhere.

I want to close my eyes due to frustration. So much headache for this day!

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I just nodded and walked away from them a little while looking around.

It's been twenty minutes since we received a message that a bomb had been planted in one of the classrooms.

The faculty quickly panicked and immediately commanded us, the student council. All students and visitors evacuated the buildings and gathered here in the field.

The police also arrive with the experts when it comes to bombs. There are also many scattered policemen with K9 accompanying them around, even inside of all the buildings. Firefighters are also standing by in the parking lot and there are also a medical team waiting in every part of the field.

I want to shake my head with what is happening. The light and jolly aura earlier immediately disappeared and was replaced by fear and anxiety. That  is simply because of the message we received.

I really have a strong feeling that this bomb threat is just a false alarm.

I am sure there is another motive behind it. Who is as crazy to attack at this time and place? I am sure everyone knows that the response of every unit and people needed in such situations here in Hespheria will be quick. Such a move is stupid. Attacking Saint Augustine is impossible.

My head ached at the thought of the possible motive of the sender of the threat. I know there's one. Did I miss a thing?

"Aronzaga."

I quickly turned to the owner of that voice. I saw Primo Seo, and those who were with him earlier were also behind him.

"Yshmael..." Rona seems so hesitated at approaching me.

I raised an eyebrow at them. "What is it?"

They even looked at each other and whispered. It seems that they did not plan to approach me but they also seem to have no choice.

"It's about Maelanie..." Primo uttered.

My chest immediately throbbed at the name they mentioned. That's why there seems to be something missing earlier. I don't see her here.

"How about her?" I tried to stay as calm as I can. I even wanted to shout at them to tell me what happened to Maelanie.

"She's missing." The other guy answered. "We've been looking for her everywhere but we can't find her. She's nowhere to be found."

"She left the dorm earlier because she said she was going somewhere but I had not seen her since before. We also looked for her immediately when we found out about the bomb threat but we did not find her". Rona explained.

I didn't listen to anything else they would say. Bomb Threat. Those two words are enough to make me nervous.

I immediately grabbed my cellphone and fiddled with it. I'm tracking her, I installed a tracking app on her cellphone without her knowledge.

Damn it! Maelanie, where the hell are you?! I almost threw my cellphone because it were slow to load.

The icon loading cycle seems to be years. I think it also took about one to two minutes before the app opened and a map, the location of the school, appeared on my screen. It means, she's just here inside the academy.

After a while, a red circle appeared on the screen, on the eastern side of the school and began to blink.

"She's in Building 3."

"Building 3."

Primo and I looked at each other as we told Maelanie's current location.

Surprisingly, he knew the place while only a few students has the guts to go there and non-students of the school could not go there. It's one of Saint Augustine's rules.

I'll explain later. "He said softly and left quickly. His friends also followed him. They hurriedly mixed with the students.

"Veronica." She looked at me. "I just need to fix some things. Cover me for a few minutes." I told her and immediately followed Primo.

I quickly overtook the still crowded people.

I ran towards the eastern part of the school. Even though I don't want to admit it, but I am really afraid of what might happen to Maelanie. As I looked at Building 3 my chest gets heavier.

That's why there seems to be something wrong earlier.

Now, I’m sure there really isn’t a bomb at school. It was all planned. The bomb threat is just a distraction so they can have time to do their plan with Maelanie. And I do not know why they are interested with Maelanie. Or what she has and what she did to be targeted like this.

I even caught up with some of Primo's friends at the entrance of the building.

"Where is she?" Primo immediately greeted me.

I just shook my head and showed my cellphone. It died and I could not open it.

Primo closed his eyes and I could see the annoyance in his face. "Look for her on the other side, go with them, Roleen." I even heard Primo tell his friends before running up to the stairs.

I quickly followed him. I don't know if he has an idea of ​​what is happening to Maelanie but I'm sure he also knows something. He was so obvious.

We reached the second floor at the same time. We don't need to talk anymore. We immediately headed for the stairs and went up to the third floor. Like the second one, we quickly searched the whole floor, fortunately there were no rooms so we went straight to the fourth floor but like the previous ones we don't see any trace of Maelanie here.

Panting, I looked up to the fifth floor. I feel tired but I have a stronger desire to find Lanie so I just took a few steps up the stairs.

"I'm going to the other side..." A crash interrupted what I was about to say.

Primo and I looked at each other before quickly running to the source of the sound. The floor was too big so we still had a hard time finding what we are looking for.

"Upstairs!" Primo shouted.

I immediately looked up and there I just noticed the mini floors connected to each other.

I could also see how the hand of an unknown person strangled Maelanie's neck.

We rushed towards them. We ran up the stairs that would take us to the mini floor.

"Lanie!" Primo shouted.

I called her name too, "Maelanie!"

We caught the attention of the person holding Maelanie. His whole body is covered with clothes and all I can see is his eyes. The familiar chocolate colored eyes. His eyes turned to me and even though the black cloth covered half of his face I could still see him smirking at me.

"No!" I acted quickly.

But it's too late. He pushed Maelanie down the stairs.

And when I thought I was late, Primo quickly passed me by. I could think of nothing but to push the man up until he could reach Maelanie.

I fell to the floor, on the other side of the stairs due to loss of balance.

But I can still see how Primo almost threw his body just to catch up with Maelanie. The man succeeded in holding Maelanie. He hugged her tightly, and I could clearly see how his hand protected the Maelanie's head.

Primo was not able to balance himself. They both fell and rolled down the stairs.

I heard a loud bang. Along with the shouts and cries of their other friends that I did not realize was following us.

I forced myself to stand up and attend to the two.

I saw Maelanie sitting beside the unconscious Primo.

Maelanie's crying, while dumbfounded looking at her palms full of blood.

Blood from the head of the still unconscious Primo.

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