The Enemy's Face
Five days later, Aelita and Jeremie head out to run some errands in the town. Nathan still hasn't come out of his room except for classes and even after that he locks himself in. The others continue on with their lives not much affected by their friend.
"Okay so what are we getting again?" Aelita asks forgetting for the second time of the items on the list.
"Just some disposable cameras, a couple of sodas for the fridge, and your stuff." Jeremie sighed closing his car door.
The couple went in and out just under thirty minutes, though Aelita wanted to stay to get out of her dorm. So Jeremie reluctantly agreed to take her out to the movies. As they walked out of the store, an aged man bumped into her without a care in the world.
"Hey be careful sir?" she told him irritated.
The man looked to her and grinned evilly, his face had a scar on his right cheek. Only making him more repulsive, not to mention his long dark jacket and short hair that contributed to his nastiness.
"That guy gives me the creeps." Aelita shivered getting into the car.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he's one hell of creep in his soul. Forget about him and lets go." Jeremie said trying to hurry her up.
That weird guys imaged seemed all to familiar to her for some reason. His eyes checking her out in a perverted way didn't help. Something continued to plague her even throughout the rest of the day. Jeremie also noticed the discomfort within her, so he acted as boy friendly as possible and what better way to help your partner then with a few kisses and hugs.
"Thanks Jeremie." She told him as they walked out of the movies.
"You seemed troubled, so I thought….ehh a hug would do you good." He smiled to her giving another tender kiss on her cheek.
"Its like ever since I bumped into that guy, he left a shadow on me." Aelita returned to her troubled face again.
"Well I'm sure the guys back at school could clean you of that dark cloak." Jeremie told her, she nodded.
At the school the two walked into the library and found Kila and Odd and Ulrich messing around on the computers there.
"Hello Aelita, Jeremie." Kila greeted them.
"What's up Sci.!" Odd called him his new nickname.
"That stands for as?" Jeremie sighed.
"Odd means to call you scientist, so to shorten it its psy." Ulrich laughed.
"Alright, no that's a catchy name." Aelita chuckled.
"So what are you guys up to?" Kila asked.
"Oh just out and about." Aelita said and Jeremie picked up.
"Did some errands and we ran into a strange character at the store, the dude gave Aelita an uncomfortable feelings the rest of the day. So we're here to take away that shadow he left on her" Jeremie helped her to a couch.
"Don't worry Aelita, you'll run into those bad people every now and then. Hey go get some café late and come read my blog!" Kila offered.
"Sure, Jeremie do you want some too?" she asked him getting up.
"Ya, four sugars please." He picked up a magazine.
Aelita was at the coffee dispenser and found Guerrmo there as well. He had a book in his hand, something on physics or physiology.
"Hi Guerrmo, how goes the studies?" the pink haired girl asked.
"Oh hey, pretty good right now, Terra's helping me with the hard parts." Guerrmo told her taking a sip from his cup.
"Nathan's not joining you?" she inquired while she filled her cup.
"Haven't seen since the accident." The man told her.
"Oh…well I hope your studies have great results." She said cheerfully and walked off with her two cups.
By the time she got to the others, Jeremie had already got onto Odd's computer and helped him fix a word document he so badly messed up.
"See Odd, that's all you had to do." Jeremie gave back the controls.
"How was I suppose to know I had to save it under that specific file." The purple clothed young man replied aggravated as the computer made him look stupid.
"Don't worry Odd, not everyone's good at computers." Ulrich tried to cheer him up.
"I'll just put our cups here, I'm going to the bathroom be right back." She left them as Odd and Jeremie argued over the program.
She started to worry about Nathan, to much sulking will kill a person as far as her health class told her. So she went up the two flights of stairs and down a hall, till she came up to the one she wanted. But this time she entered without knocking knowing full well he may of locked it. Surprisingly it was open and she almost fell in trying to anticipate a locked door.
Inside, the dorm room looked virtually untouched save the empty cups on the dinning table. She closed the door gently and searched the room for Nathan, he was not in any of the rooms closest to her. Spending five minutes looking and she came across his bedroom, she found inside a boy curled up in his bed sheets like a child. Sleeping away the day instead of going out and doing something fun and sociable.
Aelita walked up to his bedside and gave a nudge. The boy shot up in shock and surprise and yet he managed to grab her by the throat like as if she was an assassin. His grasp was strong and Aelita couldn't get a word out as her hands attempted to give her air. His eyes that were just moments ago so small she couldn't see them now returned to waking normality and looked to her.
He gasped and quickly let her go, she fell to his bed coughing to clear her throat.
"I'm sorry Aelita forgive me!" he jumped out of bed and helped her up.
"What….has you….so…defensive?" she asked him coughing out a smile.
"I've gotten a vid tape from someone telling me they've seen the men around here again." He looked away, "The ones who took my sister, they said they're the ones who took Yunia's life because she was knowledgeable of their whereabouts. So I've been edgy, police know and are doing what they can for right now."
Then it hit her, that man she bumped into, his scar upon his cheek. That was his sisters mark she left for the trail.
"I saw them?" she gasped.
"What!" he yelled at her as his eyes opened very wide.
"Today, when me and Jeremie went to run some errands I bumped into one creepy man with a scar to his face." She told him, her grip on his left arm grew tighter.
"That means they're coming back to hunt…." He got up and looked for a shirt, "Aelita stay with everyone at all times, tell the other girls the same. No one is safe if they've returned." He instructed her and went out the room.
"Hey where are you going!" she said getting up and following him.
"To see a contact about them. What do you think I've been doing in my room?" he smirked to her before leaving.
He left the pink haired girl confused but now worried. She quickly left the room to the others, she had one heck of a story to tell them.