A/N: Well hello there! The first chapter of my first fanfiction I decided to publish is here! :) It's a little long, since here you find out something about every character,as well as how they get to the Digital World... See for yourselves! And you know, any review would be appreciated! Feel free to let me know what do you think about it, and write any suggestions! Ty! ^^

*flashback*

A tall, black-haired girl in her middle teens was sitting at her computer in a dark room, mummbling something to herself, highly concentrated on something happening on the screen. According to a pile of books on her desk and all around the room, she was keen on graphical designing and computer animation.

"Yeah... Just a little bit of this here... Add yellow, probably some depth... Perfect! And now, for the final touch..."

For a moment, you could see a ray of light flashed from something like a dagger. But then it disappeared.

"It might seem ridiculous... But crazy enough to work...", she continued to type something hastily on the keyboard, then leaned back in her chair, waiting for something.

Minutes passed, but nothing happened.

"As I suspected... Of course it didn't work! Oh well, it was worth trying..." , she let out a little laugh, as she closed all windows on her desktop, turned off the computer, and left the room.

*end of flashback*

It was a hot April night. Layla was sitting on a small rock near her house by the sea, her feet dangling above the water.

Easter holidays seem to be really boring this year, she thought to herself, as the wind was tangling her long, blond hair. It was a bad idea to come here before summer. The water was too cold to swim, the streets were empty since no tourists came here in this early part of the year, none of the clubs worked. She was bored to death. Relaxing in the nature, far away from the rush of the big city, could be great for a day or two. But to spend two weeks like that... It was getting almost unbearable. "Oh well", she thought, "if I survived these ten days, I will somehow manage the next three... Might as well call Lori, to see if anything interesting is happening up there while I'm away..." she stood up and went back to her house, to give her best friend a call.

"Where are you taking me?", Daniel asked as his friend was pulling his hand, hurrying somewhere. "Shhh, be quiet and you will see", she placed her finger over her mouth, as they continued to run across the park, around the small church, and down the grassy lane. "It's my secret place. And you should feel honoured to be one of the rare to whom I've shown this place.", she smiled. "Yeah right, you feel so important, Miss I-Am-The-Best-That-Ever-Was?", he teased her. She just laughed, placed her arms around his shoulders, and kissed him. "That's not a way to talk to Your Majesty."

"Do you see a royalty around here? I don't."

"Yeah, must be blinded by my awesomeness."

"What would Dalinda do if she could see us right now?"

"Don't worry, I have always been good at hiding", Laura responded as she let go of Theron and stared into the distance for a moment. Dalinda has been one of her best friends for the last four years. Being too shy, and kinda conservative, she didn't really have luck with boys, neither was she interested in it very much. Until this guy, Daniel appeared. Very tall, musculative, three years older, with his black hair and seductive deep dark eyes, he was just what it takes to win Dalinda's, until then cold, heart. Since Laura was a really great friend, she used to hang out with both of them, trying her all to make them hook up and finally see Dalinda as a part of a happy couple.

Only that the fate didn't want that to happen. Being wild and free as he claimed himself to be, Daniel wasn't interested in Dalinda's calm, tranquil, fine life. He prefered life full of going out, drinking and adventures, with wild, crazy, open-minded girls,

Exactly the type Laura was.

And she wasn't immune to his charms either. Immature, unrestrained, still stuck in her fifteens even though she was almost twenty, Laura couldn't hide the fact that she was so infatuated with Daniel, who she claimed to be her new best guy friend, for long. After he broke Dalinda's heart telling her almost rudely that she's so not his type, even though Laura knew Dalinda would kill her if she knew what's going on, she couldn't resist the smell of the forbidden fruit. And so they were here, sharing something more than a friendship but less than a relationship, something undefined, recklessly and carelessly running through the life, living for today, not having time to think about tomorrow.

"You there Your Majesty?"

Laura looked up at her boy. He cocked his head to the side, looking at her with a somewhat seductive grin. Yeah, Daniel was definitely a right choice. So tall, strong, 23 years old, she felt safe and protected when she was with him. Even though she would never admit it to Daniel, she thought that she found everything in him. A best friend, a sweet and hot guy, a brother she never had. He had just finished his studies, and was taking his time until he finds somewhere to work, spending it with his friends, drinking, partying, or hanging out with Laura.

On the other side, Laura was a 19 year old girl, with sometimes a little bit tomboyish attitude. Long, really long black hair was falling down her back, she hasn't cut it in a long, long time. Bangs covered her forehead, she cut them by herself. Yes, she loved experimenting. A lot. Not only with her hair, but altogether in her life. Below her long bangs, big green eyes sparkled with a michevious glow. Snake's eyes, as her mother used to say. She inherited them from her father, as well as her good mathematical abilities. Still a student, Laura was studying computer programming, but she seemed to be more interested in drawing and arts, since she always carried her notebook with tons of her artworks. Every time something important happened in her life, she had to express it through a drawing. Childish and reckless, since she was younger she always used to get into all sorts of troubles. She liked the smell of danger. Which was exactly what she was doing right now.

"Yep, sure I am!" She snapped out of her thoughts. "Come on, let's go!" And not so hastily as before, she continued to lead him to her "secret place".

On the other side of the town, two girls were having a cup of coffee in a small caffe.

"Look! Over there! The one with the white shirt and baggy jeans! Just LOOK at him!"

"What, the one next to the small fat guy? What about him?"

"That's the hottest guy from my hood, the one who moved into my building two months ago! Isn't he absolutely GORGEOUS?!"

"Meh. He's fine.", the girl said indifferently as she picked up her cup to drink a little bit more coffee.

The one who was so excited about the new neighbor guy snorted at her friend, and continued to infatuatedly stare at him. Her light brown hair fell gently on her shoulders, highlighting her nicely shaped face, and two big, enamoured brown eyes.

"Will you stop acting like an obsessed 14-year-old?", her friend snapped at her, getting slightly nervous.

"Oh come one, Dalinda... Why are you always so serious? Because one guy screwed up your love life once, doesn't mean you have to scatter everyone else's romantic dreams!"

Dalinda looked a little bit offended by those words. "My love life isn't screwed up. I do not depend on one guy. And I don't give a damn about that jerk."

"Yeah right. Oh look, he's leaving! Don't leave, sweety! Don't... Aaaaahh! He looked at me! He smiled! Did you see? Did you see that?!"

"He probably recognized his obsessive fangirl from the sixth floor. Come on Tara, let's go! I don't want to miss my bus."

"You're such a partybreaker." Tara stood up as she followed her friend toward the cash register. The guy who was working there smiled at them.

"You girls again?"

"Pleased to see us, Julien?"

"Never been happier. Two double Espressos, as usual?"

"You know your most faithful guests very well, Julie!"

"You two could be the mascots of this place. That will be 200 dinars, please."

"Here you go. Keep the change. By the way, do you happen to know something about that tall hottie who left this place just five minutes ago?", Tara said as she was giving their favourite waiter money.

"The one with a weird tattoo? Never seen him before."

"Aww, that's bad. You see, he moved to an apartment in my building recently and..."

"Tara, if you two would stop chit-chatting, my bus won't wait, you know?"

"Partybreaker." Tara mummbled under her breath. "OK Julie, so I guess we'll see you soon!"

"I have no doubt. Bye!"

Tara gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, as Dalinda just waved nervously, and they hurried up out of the caffe, towards the bus station.

"I wonder why is Dalinda in such a gloomy mood these days", Tara thought as she looked at her friend, who was sitting opposite to her in the bus, watching through the window, her hand on her cheek. They were both best friends through the whole high school, together with the third one, Laura. Hating the stereotypical, fancy girls, they had there own "team" and circle of people, and they were inseparable. Dalinda, the serious one, with her hair in no style, just naturaly falling down her shoulders, and dark brown, now worried, eyes. Dressed as if she intended not to allow curious eyes to see what has the nature given to her, pretty clumsy and acting uninterested around the boys, she was kinda like a mother to the group. Then there was she, Tara, the girly one. And finally Laura, the crazy one. It wasn't uncommon to see herself or Laura in a shitty mood, all sad and gloomy because of love mistakes. But for Dalinda... it was a new thing. She has never seen her like that. "It can't be that that guy Daniel could be such a great influence to her mood... or can it?"

"Dalinda...?"

"What?", she didn't even look up from the window.

"Thinking about him?"

"Me? No! No really... I'm just worried about something at the college... We will have some tests next week... And I'm not really ready,yet... That's all."

"Hmpf."

"What?"

"You sure?"

"You don't believe me?"

"No... It's just that, you have been acting really weird since that misfortunate event with Daniel. I have never seen you like that."

"I'm just tired and worried about my obligations... Really."

"OK, if you don't wanna talk about it... Fine with me..."

Dalinda didn't even answer.

And as the bus was turning into the night, Tara was trying to think out a way to cheer her friend up. But she wasn't good at cheering people up when they had love problems. No... the clown, that was Laura's job. Little did she know...

Vick has just finished his training, and was heading towards the changing room. This has been an exhausting evening. He thought that their trainer has gone mad. As they were closer to the date of the local basketball cup, the old guy was more and more nervous. We MUST NOT lose it this year, he repeated training after training. If we continue in this tempo, Vick thought, we will lose not only the cup, but our minds as well. That guy is mad, definitely mad, and that's the reason why our team is breaking up. Many his teammates couldn't stand the trainer's bad attitude.

As he passed by the bathroom, he couldn't help but take a good look at himself in the mirror. Being born as an only child of rich parents, he grew up to be spoiled and very narcissistic. He admired himself. Not that he didn't have the reason. Perfectly shaped body, muscles sculpted by years and years of strenuous trainings, 6-pack that was clearly showing under his shirt. Face of a model, dirty blond hair and blue eyes just like his Russian mom, and skin tanned by hours of playing basketball in the sun, he was an every girl's dream. "Just a son-in-law every mother would like", those were the words of many his ex-girlfriends' mothers. And there were lots of them. He couldn't settle down with one girl; he wasn't really fond of committment, but why should he, if he could have any girl he lays his eyes upon? Many of his so-called "friends" and teammates didn't like him, because of jealousy or simply because they didn't like his spoiled and self-oriented attitude. But Victor had a kind heart. He just realised life is much simpler and easier if he doesn't show it.

As he finished admiring his gorgeous body and finally entered the bathroom, he joined the line for the first free showering cabin. He noticed something strange in the air of the bathroom, and it wasn't the smell of sweaty sportsman's bodies, or stinky legs. It was more like a mist of some kind. But it didn't bother him much, since no one seemed to be noticing it. Guys were talking about the today's training, measuring their muscles, bragging about their girls or making plans for tonight. So he assumed that it must be a little bit bigger amount of steam than usual, coming from the hot water in cabins.

When one of his good friends, a small dark-skinned guy called Johnny, got out of the cabin on his left side, and passed by Vick giving him a slap on the shoulder, Vick decided to take his chance and take his place in the cabin. Ignoring the annoying looks of other guys who didn't like him not waiting for his turn, he entered the left cabin and closed the door behind him. The water was refreshing, just what he needed after that madness called the training. He washed every part of his body with special body milk, feeling refreshed and reborn. But as he wrapped his towel around him and took his clothes to get out of the cabin, he noticed something weird. All the people from the bathroom, the whole row of angry and tired teammates waiting for the refreshing shower after the training, were gone.

There was just that same weird mist lingering around the room.

And for the first time in his almost perfect, protected life, it gave him shivers.

The moon was slowly rising above the old fortress in the biggest city park. He could see the light of it sparkle in her deep blue eyes. Yes, many girls used to gather here on Friday nights, to enjoy listening to his songs. Even now, as he was sitting on the wall with his guitar, he could see few of them enthralledly looking up at him, waiting for the next song to begin, some of them even ignoring their boyfriends, who were his good friends, for the moment. But only one pair of eyes was of his concern, only one smile could light up his friday evening more that the whole moon and sun altogether, and she was down there, smiling gently, swaying slowly in the rhytm of a sad song he was playing.

"Who are you keeping

The ducket around your neck for tonight?

And does my name still open

The door to your heart?"

"Tarek, that was so great", she said as he was packing his guitar, preparing to leave for the night bus. Many of his friends with their girls have already went home, the weather was starting to get cloudy and cold, moon was now hidden behind the blanket of heavy, black clouds. It was obvious that the storm wasn't really far away. He didn't even notice how and when she approached him, so it startled him a little, when he heard her voice right next to his ear, and smelled the gentle smell of her her, brushing his cheek.

"Umm, thanks." He could feel a slight blush spilling over his cheeks. What he also felt was a sudden strike of courage. And for the first time, he felt it has finally came the time to ask her. "Hey, do you wanna... go get a beer or something? I am sure lots of caffes in the center are still open..."

"I'd love to, Tarek... but not today... you see, I have already arranged something for tonight and..."

"Hey, honey! Sorry I'm late" a deep male voice interrupted Angela in the middle of her explanation. "Hello there, Tiger! Been performing around for the crowd again, he-he?" He mockingly laughed as he kissed Angela. Tarek recognized him. It was the football player who lived near his block, as stupid as he was hot. He could never imagine that this type of a worthless person could attract someone as smart as what he was thinking Angela was. Al right, he was hot, he had a lot of money, but that was all. No high school, not a smallest trace of intelligence. A guy that laughed at his own jokes, thinking he's the coolest person on the planet, and constantly disrespecting the others. Tarek couldn't hide his little dissapointment in Angela.

"Sorry Tarek, I have to go. See you around soon." There was a shade of sadness in her eyes.

"Bye."

"See ya, Tiger-boy! Meow! He-he!" Laughing at his own "wittyness", Angela's boyfriend put his arm around her shoulders, and they left.

Tiger, yeah right, Tarek thought as he was heading slowly towards the bus station, pulling his guitar behind him. The rain hasn't started yet, but for him it felt like there was a small rainy cloud above his head, pouring only over him. Tiger. They better have given me the nickname Pussycat. There was no spectacular story about bravery and strenght behind how he got that nickname. He got it in primary school, when he once accidentaly laid on a freshly painted bench, resulting in black stripes all over his arms and legs, which he couldn't completely remove for weeks. He has always a restless, michevious, kittenish kid, the one who could never come home after hanging with his friends without a scratch or a wound from falling from a tree etc. Even now, when he was 19 years old, he still had the looks of an overgrown kid. It's not that the girls didn't like him. Even though he was kinda short for his 19 years of age, he had black messy hair, playful brown eyes, a little bit girly huge black eyelashes and a cute michevious smile. That boyish look was what attracted many girls. Nature has also blessed him with a great voice, and a talent for playing the guitar, so he couldn't really complain for his lack of love life. But the problem is, that appearance of a cute teenager boy didn't attract the girls he liked. He wasn't interested in childish, younger girls, who would obsesively be all-fangirly around him, and scream and faint when they hear him sing and play. He've had enough of 5-years-youngers. She wanted a serious, smart, commited girl. The kind that Angela was. But those kinds of girls weren't attracted to childish boys like him. They liked older, sophisticated, well-off boys, who could give them safety and protection. Which was what he couldn't offer, no matter how hard he tried.

Girls today like assholes, and I'm gonna have to become an asshole if I ever want to fit into all this crazy world shit, he thought as he entered the empty bus and placed his guitar on the last back seat.

"Here we are!", Laura announced, as she pulled Daniel to the entrance of, what seemed like, a small cave.

"What the hell is this place? How did you find it? Doesn't it say "Entrance forbidden"?", Daniel looked around the entrance. The left side, from which they came from, was clear and unprotected, only with bushes and trees through which they had to come through in order to get here. But on the right, going all way next to the small stairs and a wall above, was a metal, spiky fence, with a sign with a skull which clearly said "High voltage - Do not enter, entrance forbidden".

"Who cares? Come on, let's go!" Pretty excitedly, she almost skipped like a child to the entrance.

This was the entrance to the so called "catacombs". The underground labyrinth of paths which conected two biggest city parks, going all way below the surface of the city. Used in war battles many centuries ago, now they were still under research, of course forbidden for any side visitors. It was suspected that somewhere down there exists a forgotten tomb of warriors that date all the way back to Roman era. But nothing was still found and comfirmed.

Laura discovered this few years ago, while playing hide-and-seek with her little cousin, who came to visit. Even though the existence of those "catacombs" was an open secret, people avoided that place, giving it a wide berth. She never shared this with anyone, except Layla, but they didn't have the courage to explore the place alone. Until now, there hasn't been a person confident enough to go with her inside.

But when she met Daniel, all her doubts were gone.

"You coming?"

Daniel sighed and went after Laura. He took a good look of her. Even though the weather was suddenly turning bad, and the storm was about to approach, Laura didn't seem cold at all. April this year was much hotter than average, temperature going even over 30 degrees, so she dressed like it was a middle of summer. Very short black shorts and black no-shoulder top, together with her black long hair, gave her a little bit dark, gothic look. But Laura was far away from gothic. Smart girl, he thought, as he was sweating so much in his dark blue jeans and black long-sleeve shirt. "I should have brought something lighter to wear, it's freaking hot down here!"

"It's because of my presence!", she teased him, as she kissed him again, with a little bit sly look on her face. Crazy girl, he thought. Crazy, crazy girl. I am really starting to get attached to this kid in front of me. And it scares me. Oh god it scares me.

Daniel's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud song. A hit from the 80s, "Girls wanna have fun", by Cindy Lauper, to be precise. As the loud female voice was singing about her wish to be wild and free, he realized it's Laura's phone. "This place is giving me creepy thoughts", he thought.

"Hey look, it's Layla!", Laura stopped the song and answered the phone. "Hey sweety! What's up? Everything all right down at the seaside?"

"All fine! Even though I'm a little bit bored. No one's here! It's like a city of ghosts!", Layla had to talk louder, trying to prevail the sound of crashing waves, which has now become much stronger. As it seemed, the sea storm was approaching. "Is your Mister Best-Friend there with you?"

"Yep, and guess where are we!", Laura sad in a sing-song voice.

"Oh God. You didn't take him..."

"Ye-es I did!"

"Laura! You're taking your so-called boyfriend to the catacombs! Are you crazy? He will think you are nuts!"

"Don't worry. It's nothing he doesn't already know", Laura laughed. She was right. She has heard from Daniel that she isn't normal for sooo many times.

"Don't come crying to me when he just runs away from you thinking you're a psychotic bitch!", Layla joked. She missed her friend. Everything was just twice as boring when they were separated.

After a little bit more of chatting and sharing the newest gossips, Layla hung up. A small rain has already started. But, it felt refreshing to hear from her best buddy. Even though they both had their own group of friends, no one was ever so close like Layla and Laura. Not even Dalinda and Tara. Layla kinda disliked those two. Not out of jealousy, she just thought they were not good persons. But that didn't interfere her and Laura's friendship at all, she didn't let it. With a smile of her face, giggling about something funny Laura picked up about some guys they both knew from their college, she decided to get back into the house, before the heavy rain starts to fall. But then she noticed something. Something was missing. Her eyes widened as she ran her hand across her hand, and noticed that her favourite amulet necklace wasn't there.

She started to panick. It was a gift from her first and only true love, a boy who passed away in a plane accident. That was a reason why Layla was so afraid of planes, flying and heights in general. She thought that she must have dropped it near that stone where she was sitting a little while ago. She just prayed that it hadn't fallen in the sea.

The rain was getting heavier, thunders were raging in the sky. Sea storms could possibly be the scariest things in the world, if you're left out in the chaos alone. "I have to find it", Layla thought, as she struggled to reach the stone. The waves were crushing so ferociously onto the rocks, it was grim. But the necklace was nowhere to be found. She leaned carefully over the rock and looked into the sea. In this horrific atmosphere, she could almost see the red flickering of her butterfly-shaped amulet in the waves. "Optical illusion", she thought. "It can't be that I have dropped it down there. It must be somewhere around here... but what if... aaagh... AAAAAAAHH!"

At first she thought it was just a little bit of water that splashed over her after a crush of a wave.

But then, a gigantic wave, the biggest one that she have ever seen, that she hadn't seen any alike even in a movie, rose up high above her, smashed onto the rock with it's whole strenght, and dragged Layla down in the depths with it.

As she lost her balance and could feel herself falling down wrapped in ferocious waves of death, the last thought that formed in Layla's mind was "Afraid of the heights, but finished so low", before she lost her consciousness.

"See ya soon, hun!", Laura said as she hung up. "Poor Layla. Alone in the seaside town, with a shitty weather where she can't even take a swim. So, are you following me?"

"Everything for you, Your Majesty", Daniel joked, as he finally entered the deep and dark tunell of the catacombs.

"I have to be careful. It's very dark here, and you know how clumsy I am." Laura was moving carefully deeper and deeper in the tunnel, holding onto the wall with one hand, with Daniel's hand in the other.

After a minute or two of their moving in silence, they both were startled when her phone started ringing again.

"Oh God that shit scared me to death!" Daniel was pressing his hand over his fastly beating heart. "Who is it now? Layla again?"

"I-I don't know...", Laura sounded confused. "It says 'hidden number'... Why would someone call me from a hidden number at the moment like this?" She was starting to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right here. "And... how is there even signal down here?"

"I don't know... My phone doesn't have any signal", Daniel said as he picked up his phone out of his pocket. "No network", the screen said. "Why don't you answer it?"

With her hand shaking a little bit, Laura pressed the answering button. "H-hello?"

And with that, almost as she triggered something, a weird noise could be heard from above them. Then the ground started to shake. "This is so scary! No one is on the line! I can't even hear anything..."

"Forget about the call, run!" Daniel pulled her hand and started running back to the entrance. But then something made him freeze in his place. The ceiling of the tunnel has started to fall apart, stones and small rocks falling, blocking the way out. "How unlucky must we be that the horrible earthquake, from all the moments in this world, had to start the very moment we entered those tombs!"

"Don't just stand there, run you fool!", Daniel turned around again and started pulling Laura by the hand, deeper and deeper in the darkness.

After about fifteen minutes of running in horror and complete darkness for their bare lifes, which seemed like fifteen hours to them, Laura and Daniel could see the light at the end of the tunnel, right in front of them, a small hole becoming bigger and bigger. "We are under the big park already?", Laura said, panting and heavily breathing. She was running out of strenght to even move anymore, hardly trying to catch her breath. What none of them has noticed is that the rumbling sound of sliding rocks and the earthquake itself have completely stopped. "You think it's safe?"

"Don't ask now, anything is better than this deathhole, just withstand a little bit more, just those few meters!", Daniel, still terrified, picked Laura in his arms, as he jumped outside into the light, and they both fell and rolled on the wet, soft grass.

As Julien was moving chairs and tables and preparing to lock the caffe, he was thinking about those two girls with whom he had a little chat just a little while ago. His most faithful customers, the taller one said. Yeah right, I think they have come to this place more than even me, he smiled as he was locking the caffe door and putting a big padlock. They could really make good mascots of this place. That crazy girl, Tara, with all her crushes and obsessions toward tall, musculative, oftenly asshole guys. But it wasn't Tara that was interesting to him. It was the other girl, the hater. The one who seemed so serious, with serious problems with the whole world. Really, what could her problem be?

Julien passed the empty streets and went to catch the night bus on the bus station. Everybody was in the clubs, heavily partying, or at their homes, getting drunk with their pals or enjoying sweet romantic times with their significant others. His thoughts came back to Dalinda. Julien had a habit of analysing people's mind. This year he was working many small jobs, like waitressing or helping old people, in order to get money to pay himself psychological studies next year. Ambitions, ambitions. Yes, he was kinda poor currently. But that certainly wasn't that girl's problem, he thought. All of Dalinda's things were designer clothes, from newest sneakers she was wearing, to the rose buttoned sweater and silk scarf with blue-green floral motives she never used to take off her neck. She wasn't really ugly, that wasn't her problem either. Straight brown hair cut strictly, a little longer than shoulder-lenght, perfectly parted in the middle. Dark brown eyes without much makeup, mouth that tried to stay serious but oftenly couldn't repress a smile, a little bit bigger but not ugly nose. She looked average. But yet she seemed so unhappy about herself, or the world itself.

It would be really interesting to get to know this girl better, he thought as he entered the night bus on the nearest station. It was empty, he thought at first, as he went to sit in the back. When he settled comfortably on two of the seats in the back, he noticed that he wasn't alone. On the very last seat, lost in his thoughts together with his guitar, sat a teenage, probably 15 year old boy.

The bus moved slowly down the dark and deserted streets, the rain was starting to fall down window glass. What a depressing atmosphere, Julien thought as he looked at the boy again. The boy seemed to have fallen asleep. I just hope he doesn't miss his station, Julien smiled to himself, as he took out his mobile phone to check the newest messages.

Suddenly, the bus stopped, in the middle of a dark, unlit street. It wasn't a station, or a semaphore. It just stopped all of a sudden, in the middle of, as you could say, nowhere. At first Julien thought that they came to a station, then he noticed there was nothing, not a sign outside the bus. Then he thought that there has been some kind of a breakdown. He decided to go to the driver and check. "Silly boy", he muttered as he passed next to the boy with the guitar, who was still sleeping. But as he reached to open the driver's cabin, he realised something that made a drop of cold sweat slide down his neck. It was empty.

He didn't even manage to put his hand on the handle of the cabin door, when the vehicle made a sudden move, almost like it jumped. Then it started to go reverse, rapidly. Due to inertion Julien flew to the back of the bus. The vehicle was speeding more and more. He crashed onto the back window of the bus with all his weight, and then everything went black.

"What's with Laura?", Dalinda asked Tara as they were getting off the bus. "Why couldn't she go out this evening?"

"She had... other plans.", Tara answered. She remembered what has Laura told her earlier that evening. A story that she and Layla briefly made up before her date with Daniel. "She went to some party with her friends from the college. As I recall, it's somebody's birthday. And there's gonna be a lot of cute guys there" she giggled.

"And the two of us, of course, weren't invited."

"Don't be such a grumpy. Dalinda! Of course we weren't invited. Do we know those people? No. Why would we be invited to some random guy's birthday party?"

"Laura could have brought us with her..."

"Or maybe not. Hey, did you hear that?" She pulled Dalinda's hand, making her stop.

"What?"

"Footsteps."

Dalinda turned around, there was nobody back there.

"You're halucinating.", she said, with a slight tremble in her voice. "Come on, let's hurry up, I don't like being alone in the dark streets for long." But then there was a sound of footsteps again. Tara and Dalinda speeded up. The footsteps speeded up too. Now they were running. They could hear it closer and closer. "Run Tara, run!" The two girls ran but now they were sure, they are definitely being followed. "Quick. let's hide somewhere!" They turned left at the corner of the street, and entered a small, very dark narrow street. The footsteps slowed down for the moment. "He must be wondering which turn did we take. Quick, let's hide here!" Dalinda pushed Tara into the small, dark passage corner, behind some trash cans. Tara went to the back, while Dalinda went back to the front, to check if whoever was after them is still following them. "It seems we lost him", she whispered. "But I don't know if we should wait a little bit longer before we show up back there... Tara?" There was no answer from the other girl. "Tara, don't scare me like this", Dalinda said a little bit louder. She slowly started to sneak towards the back of the passage, where she supposed Tara still was. It was completely dark, so she had to be careful about her every step. "Tara, are you alri..." Dalinda's voice trailed off as her right foot stepped onto nothing and she fell into a chasm. All that could be heard was beeping of a mobile phone.

"Where could have they all disappeared? Can't be that I have spent so much time inside, showering... Couldn't have been longer than fifteen minutes...", Vick was asking himself. Could he be wrong? Could he have lost the track of time, due to tiredness and strenuous training? "Maybe that crazy man came here while I was in the cabin, and called them all out on the terrain to tell them something, or even make them do some extra exercise. I wouldn't be surprised", he thought, thinking about their trainer. Yes, it must be it. It's the only logical explanation he could think of right now. Shaking his head to get rid of the extra water on his hair, he went to pick up his clothes from the cabin side, ignoring the sound of his phone receiving a message as he was putting on his jeans shorts. It was getting really hot and steamy in here, he had to leave this place as soon as possible. He put his backpack over his shoulder and grabbed the door handle. But then, another nasty surprise was waiting for him. It was locked.

No matter how hard Vick tried to open the lock or even break the bathroom door, there was no effect. The steam and the mist in the bathroom was becoming denser and denser. He was now sweating heavily. "Help!" He shouted. Nobody heard him. "Somebody help me!" No one came. "Get me out of here!"

But there was no way out. Since the bathroom was in the middle of the building, there were no windows through which he could get out. No windows at all. Just cold, stone walls with tiles, now getting hotter and hotter. It was becoming harder to breathe, the heat was completely getting to him. Getting dazed by the heat and steam, slowly losing his strenght, not even being able to agonize over the lock anymore, he slided down the wall, and passed out.