Wow...I've never sumitted three chapters in one night before. I hope that makes up for my lack of writing over the past week...

Disclaimer: I dont own Elad.

Chapter Fourteen

"What?" Genesis asked gob smacked.

"There's no one here." Aly said while walking toward him.

"Are you sure?" Zack asked.

"Well...we didn't see anyone." She mumbled.

They spent the next twenty minutes exploring the town, but they couldn't find anyone. Nothing was broken or ruined, everything looked peaceful enough. Exactly like it usually would on a normal Wednesday afternoon.

"This is creepy..." Neru said while clinging to Aly's arm. "Where is everyone?"

"Who knows?" Genesis sighed while sitting down on a nearby seat. He turned to Zack and asked, "Do you think this is what happened to Banora?"

"I...I guess...nobody would kidnap people from such small towns right? And I doubt that they just left..."

"Well, where did they go?!" Genesis cried angrily.

"Maybe...we should ask them?" Zack looked up towards Sirhc, Neru and Aly.

"What? Why are you looking at us?" Sirhc said nervously.

"Well, strange things have been happening lately...maybe it has something to do with you guys. I don't know, I'm just guessing..." He explained.

"Maybe he's on to something..." Aly muttered.

"Orlando!" Sirhc cried out, realising what Aly was talking about.

"Who's Orlando?" Genesis asked. He recalled the girls mentioning him earlier on.

"We'll explain later!" Aly called as the three girls ran away towards the jungle.

"Uh...wait!" Zack called, but it was too late-they were already out of view.

Once the three girls entered the jungle, they kept running. They had no idea where they were going, but they could sense that someone was calling out to them. And they knew straight away who it was.

They finally reached a clearing and sure enough, Orlando was sitting down on a fallen tree, looking at them calmly.

"Orlando! What's the big idea?!" Aly cried angrily.

"It's good to see you again."

"Where are the townspeople?!"

"Ah...yes. You are not the only ones capable of travelling between worlds..."

"Are they in our world?" Sirhc asked.

"Did you send them there?" Neru questioned.

"No, I didn't. The gate is fragile..." He murmured.

"What gate?"

"So much to learn, so little time..." he chuckled.

"Stop playing games and tell us the truth!" Aly growled.

He raised his finger to his lips-making them quiet-and smiled. "Not now. You need to return home right now..."

"What? Home?"

"Yes. I hoped you enjoyed your time here..."

Aly wanted to yell at him again to explain what he was on about, but the ground gave way and they fell, once again, into the portal.

When Neru opened her eyes, she found herself in her music classroom. She looked around, only to see her teacher and classmates going about their business and doing their work. She turned around and met the confused gazes of her friends.

"That wasn't a daydream..." She said quietly, pleading silently that they remembered too.

"No it wasn't." Sirhc agreed softly.

"Yeah, I remember it all clearly." Aly grinned.

"But...we're back in the classroom..." Neru murmured.

"Look at the clock." Sirhc ordered. "I remember that when we saw the explosion, it was 2:00pm, but now it's 2:12pm."

"We've been gone 12 minutes?" Aly asked. "It was more than two days over there!"

"Orlando did say there was a time difference..." Sirhc said.

"But it's still been 12 minutes and no one in this classroom is acting like we were gone!"

"It's magic, Aly. Maybe he altered their memories or something...he can freeze time, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember..." She muttered.

Neru sighed unhappily. "Why did he take us home again? It seemed like a pointless visit..."

"I'm sure that we'll go back again."

"Yeah...I hope so."

"Me too."

They spent the rest of the lesson discussing different possibilities about why he sent them there and what the 'gate' could be before the bell went and they had to go home.

Neru was silent the whole car trip home and she even ignored her brother annoying her when she got home. All she could think about was the recent events that had taken place. And she felt very exhausted, so she was glad to curl up in her warm bed and fall asleep.

As Aly's alarm clock woke her, she was grumpy for two reasons.

One, she still felt completely drained and hadn't slept very well. Two, she didn't have any dreams at all. Not one.

Grumbling, she got out of bed and made her way downstairs, eating a quick breakfast and getting ready before being driven to school.

She waited at their usual spot before Neru and Sirhc turned up, both looking kinda glum.

"Not one dream..." Sirhc said sadly.

"I don't think I can concentrate on school today..." Neru complained.

"Yeah...it just seems kinda boring..." Aly agreed.

"But...those townspeople are in our world...shouldn't we look for them?" Sirhc said thoughtfully. "And remember why we first went to that town?"

"Oh yeah, there was supposed to be someone else there that was from this world!" Neru exclaimed. "What do you think happened to him?"

"Orlando didn't explain anything..." Aly muttered.

"Since when does he?" Sirhc sighed.

Aly was about to reply, but the bell went and she headed to her form class, waving goodbye to Sirhc and Neru as she did so.

She entered her classroom and sat down in her usual seat, staring out the window. She didn't look up until her teacher introduced the new student.

'It's odd to get new students this time of year...' She thought as she looked up. When she saw who it was, she nearly gasped.

It was Elad Naltur, one of her friends out of school. Well if you could call them friends.

"You can sit next to Alyat Ezor." The teacher instructed.

He smiled at her as he sat down next to her. "Hey. Long time no see."

"Don't be silly. We saw each other like two days ago."

"It seems like a lot longer..." He said mysteriously.

"Huh?"

"We need to talk. But not here."

"Right...I did tell you, didn't I?"

"Yes. I know a lot more now too."

"But how?"

"Not here."

"Uh...right."

"We'll talk during lunch?"

"Okay, sure. But how come you transferred here?"

"It seemed like a good school." He shrugged.

"Yeah, sure."

The bell went shortly after and Aly headed to her next class, which was I.C.T. Neru and Sirhc were waiting for her there. They exchanged greetings and made their way inside the classroom, sitting at the back so no one could overhear their conversation.

"I need to tell you guys something." Aly said while turning on her computer.

"Yeah, what?"

"You know how Orlando was threatening me and stuff?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I knew this guy from awhile back. His name is Elad and he's a little weird. Not in the bad way, just weird as in he's obsessed with magic and that kinda stuff. Like overly obsessed. I met him at this shop that he works at. It sells everything you need to know about demons and magic and stuff like that. I went there cause I wasn't sure what to do about my problem. I couldn't talk to you guys, cause Orlando said that he would hurt you. Anyway, I asked him about that kinda stuff and he got curious. I just wanted information, but I figured that he might be able to help me, so I told him. He believed me and helped me. I had this awesome plan figured out and everything, but then things went differently to what I had expected. I also kind of get a lot of things that are going on now because he helped me."

"Wow...I can't believe you told someone else...I guess it doesn't matter though..." Sirhc said.

"Well...he kinda just transferred to our school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We're gonna talk at lunch...I think he knows something else as well."

"Well, we're coming with you. I want to talk to him to!" Neru said happily. Another new friend was always good news.

"I've got a strange feeling..." Sirhc muttered. "But it's not bad...I don't think."

"You've always got some strange feeling or something Sirhc. What's with that?"

"Um...I don't know?" She laughed sheepishly. But Aly was right. Before something big happened, she always got these strange shivers. It creeped her out.

They talked until the lesson ended and they headed to the next-English.

English seemed to drag on forever in Aly's mind. It was a simple lesson, but both her and Neru were quiet the whole way through. They both had too much on their minds. Aly couldn't wait to get out of the classroom and speak to Elad.

What could he possibly know?

As promised, this chapter has more plot.

And Elad finally appeared! Yay!

I hope it was better than the others. Please review. xD