Chapter #8 - Joley

"Cinnacreme, anyone?" Biana rushed into the room where Joley had rejoined the twins, who were still captivated by their experiment. But they perked up when she offered the familiar sweet drink. "Thought I'd carry on the tradition of serving it at sleepovers."

All three of them happily accepted the mugs. "So I assume there's no luck with finding my parents," Joley stated, which broke the temporary cheer.

"No, but I promise— we're working on it." She placed her manicured hand on Joley's and squeezed reassuringly, briefly blinking in and out of sight. It was a nice gesture, but being an Empath meant she could feel the doubt laced in the words.

Biana got up and left, leaving her alone with Walt and Axel.

"Sooooooo," said Axel, sipping his cinnacreme, "if this is gonna be a sleepover, whatcha guys wanna do? We can take a break from the Great Eye Color Mixeroo."

"Truth or dare?" Walt suggested casually.

Joley knew that nothing good came out of that game, but she needed a distraction from her worries. "Sure."

Axel clapped his hands together. "Great idea! I have a great dare for Joley. She just needs to—"

"I have a better one," interrupted Walt, shoving him away. "Okay, so, you know how Dad made that funny loudspeaker thing so he can announce things throughout the house? Joley should go to it, and announce... let's say a curse word in ogreish."

She laughed. "Okay, I'll do it."

His brother pouted. "I liked my dare better." Knowing Axel's mischievous nature, Joley was thankful she didn't have to hear the end of what he was going to say.

The boys got into a playful battle and she crept out of the room, going down the now-dark halls once again.

"Two lefts, then go into the room on the right," she murmured, knowing where to find the loudspeaker by heart. But suddenly, there was a noise.

RUSTLE.

She swiftly turned around. "Hello? Anyone there?"

Silence.

When there were no more noises for an entire minute, she continued walking. It must've just been nothing.

RUSTLE.

Or not.

Finally, she got to the room and leaned towards the bronze colored loudspeaker. Joley began to channel her Polyglot ability to announce the ogre curse, but her mouth barely opened before two arms grabbed her shoulders.

"What are you doing?!" she screamed, squirming to break free. Whoever the person was, their grip was tight.

A blindfold was suddenly pressed against her eyes, and Joley couldn't speak. She was frozen with fear. Was she being kidnapped, like her mom and Dex were those years ago?

"She's the last one, I believe," said the strangely nasal voice— like they were sick, or at least trying to sound sick— of the person who was gripping her. Joley decided to call him Flu.

"Good," another person whispered, his voice far less distinguishable— almost unnaturally bland. He'd be Enigma. "You can probe her memories when we get there." Flu must've been a Telepath. "I can't believe they actually have kids helping them with the HRP."

"Well, in all fairness, it was kids who defeated the Neverseen."

"Teenagers," he corrected, and Joley could feel her registry pendant being ripped off. "And they barely stopped them."

"Touché."

She felt a whoosh of wind as Enigma quickly whipped around— though it was hard to tell with the blindfold. But did that mean he was a Guster? "We promised we wouldn't sedate anyone, but did you remember to plug her ears?"

"No..." admitted Flu.

"Idiot! She can still hear us!"

Two pieces of who-knows-what material were stuck into Joley's ears, and whatever they said after that became muffled noise in the distance. The last thing she remembered was crying for help before light whisked her and the kidnappers to somewhere she had a feeling she did not wanna go.