Alright, thank you turquoisesunset for reviewing! I hope all of y'all like this chapter! This takes place about a month after the last chapter. I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer!
A private plane touched down next to the biggest mansion in the city, possibly even the state. It was beautiful, with high towers that looked like they belonged in a storybook and even gardens, all to support the idea that this man was a king. And the princess in the plane wanted nothing to do with it.
The tall brunette climbed out of the plane, getting only a few seconds of time to think before her father swept towards her. "Katherine, darling!" he said in his smooth 'business voice'. "How are you, sweetheart?"
"Fine, Dad," Katherine sighed. This was probably the most direct attention she'd probably get from her father for the majority of spring break, but she wished he'd just go back to ignoring her.
"Nunzio will deliver your dinner at six tonight. I have a meeting, so I can't eat with you, but I hope we can have a chance to eat breakfast together again." Katherine nodded as her father swept away, walking back towards the house. That meant Katherine had a few hours of precious alone time before having to deal with her father. If he really cared, he wouldn't have sent her to some old-fashioned finishing school to "learn some manners and prepare for college" instead of the creative arts school she wanted to attend for her senior year in high school.
Katherine pulled her suitcase through the house to her room. It had been painted white at her request, and was filled with books and book posters. She carefully took her prized possession- her old computer- and placed it on the black painted desk. Only a few more weeks, she thought to herself, flopping onto her bed. Then school will be out for good and in a few months I'll be at my college. She wanted to attend Creative Arts and Sciences University, a school in Maryland that had arguably the best creative writing and journalism program in the country. She was sure she'd get accepted, but it was a little nerve wracking, waiting for an answer.
The rest of the day passed slowly. Katherine mostly worked on the book she was writing about the Newsboy Strike of 1899 until her father's servant arrived with a cheeseburger from the best restaurant in the city. Katherine climbed into bed around ten, and was settling in for a good night's sleep when she heard the sound of voices talking faintly from down the stairs.
Her eyes shot open. Her father usually went to bed around nine, and unless that had changed in the past three months… something wasn't right. Katherine silently opened her door and crept down to where the noise seemed to be coming from, her father's meeting room. Peering through the tiny crack between the door and the wall, she saw her father sitting around a long table with his associates, Wiesel, Hannah, Bunsen and Seitz. While they came over often, they never came by after seven.
"Did you find them?" her father asked, his voice low. Wiesel nodded.
"Yes. I found them in a library, not far from the area where we think they're staying. We think they come there every day, which'll make our lives easier." Pulitzer smiled.
"Good. Next time those kids come, make sure you catch at least one."
"But they're kids!" Hannah suddenly protested. "We can't just kidnap them! Think of how upsetting that'd be for Katherine-"
"Katherine is not a mutant!" Pulitzer exploded. Katherine shrank back. Her father was annoying, yes, but he'd never been scary before. He took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes. "Besides, we're doing the kids a favor. It can't be very pleasant living on the streets, they'd be happy to have a roof and three meals."
Hannah frowned before nodding slowly. "Alright, just tell your people to be careful, Wiesel. I don't want any kids getting hurt." Wiesel shrugged.
"I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises." As he said that, the old man was standing up and walking towards the door.
Katherine still had many, many unanswered questions, but could recognize that it was probably time for her to leave. She raced upstairs to her room, shutting the door behind her and diving into bed. Who were the kids that the adults were after? Why were they after them? Did her father really mean that it didn't matter if they were hurt because they were mutants? Katherine knew Pulitzer hated them, but that seemed a little bit extreme. Katherine couldn't fall back asleep, instead listening to the faint voices drifting up from the meeting room and wishing she knew what they were saying.
Around midnight the voices trickled off, and at about 1 a.m. Katherine decided she was going to figure out what was going on. She crept down the stairs again, and saw that the meeting room light was off, implying that it was empty. That was good. What was not good was the locked door. Katherine sighed when she realized there was no other choice: she walked straight through the door.
Katherine turned on the light to make sure that the room was, in fact, empty and started rummaging around looking for something. A folded sheet of paper sitting on the otherwise empty floor caught her eye. It looked like it had fallen out of someone's folder and they had forgotten to grab it on their way out. Katherine picked it up and unfolded it onto the table. It was a map of the entire city, with notes and circles drawn in random places all around it and notes scribbled on the margins- names and addresses. Something about the way most of the names had lines through them and circled places had check marks in the center made Katherine's skin crawl. The only circle free from any markings was a small circle around a tiny dot marked "World's Library" in nearly microscopic letters. Didn't Wiesel mention something about a library?
Katherine made her decision as she stared at the markings. She was going to help these kids she didn't even know. She had no idea who they were or what they did- heck, she didn't even know if they were murderers. But they were mutants, and for some reason her publishing-giant father wanted to catch them and didn't care if they got hurt or not. Katherine was going to find out why.
Silently she rolled the map back up, turned off the lights, and snuck through the door and back to her room. She pulled out her phone and entered the name of the library into the Google Maps before setting an alarm for six o'clock before crawling into bed to try to sleep. She was going to find out who the kids were if it killed her.
When she woke up, it took her a second to remember why she was up at six a.m. on a break. Her next thought was 'what if all of the things that had happened last night had been a weird nightmare?' But the GPS coordinates in her phone suggested otherwise, and she had to find out. She got dressed, grabbed a granola bar and snuck out into the garage to grab her car.
Even though it was still early, there were a few cars in Katherine's rich neighborhood, and even more once she arrived in the actual city. The drivers weren't as crazy as they'd get later, so the drive to the library was uneventful. The library wasn't even open yet, and Katherine began to wonder again whether or not she was crazy. But she sat in the car, playing on her phone until the library opened at eight. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to be besides dealing with her father.
Around eight-thirty, Katherine walked into the library. The librarian behind the front desk smiled curiously at her. The library almost never had anyone come in before nine. Katherine sat down on a beanbag chair near the young adult section and waited.
Around nine, more people actually entered the library-a group of kids. They were full of energy, which was mostly muted once they entered the library. The librarians all smiled when they walked in, a much bigger reaction than what Katherine had gotten. Were these the kids that Pulitzer was after?
The rest of the morning was… boring. Wiesel didn't show up, no one used their supposed mutations and the kids just kinda… sat around reading. It was odd. Katherine wondered why they were there. Didn't they have school? And even if this was their spring break, why would so many kids just… go and read? And not even fantasy or sci-fi either: textbooks. It was a mystery, but not one that was any of Katherine's business. Or at least, none of her business today.
Around eleven-thirty-ish, Katherine gave up and walked out of the library. She was halfway across the parking lot to her car when she saw it: Wiesel's car. Behind it were three police cars.
Katherine ran back inside and yelled, "All of you need to leave!" The kids looked up at her, confused. "Why?" a brown-haired boy asked. "And who are you?"
Katherine could hardly breathe, and maybe she was overreacting and that these boys were the ones who did bad things and the cops were legitimately concerned, but she doubted that. Maybe it was just the number of mystery books she'd read, but she was pretty sure something bad was happening. "Trust me! A man who wants to catch you is leading a bunch of cop cars this way!"
The kids didn't look any less confused, except for the brown haired boy and a dark-haired boy who looked apprehensive. "Who's leading the police?" the dark-haired boy asked. Katherine shrugged.
"Um… his name's Wiesel and he works for Joseph Pulitzer I think-" The name Wiesel seemes to get all of the kids attention.
"Alright, we gotta go!" the brown haired boy said, looking like he was about to start screaming. "Everyone out the back exit! Get out as quickly as possible!" All of the kids started rushing towards the back of the library.
"I'm really sorry about all this, Ms. Gray," the dark-haired boy told the lady behind the desk. She shook her head.
"Just… be careful David. I don't know what's going on with you kids and don't really want to, but as long as this library's open, you're always welcome here." The other librarians nodded as all the kids raced out of the library, Katherine following after a few seconds of indecision.
The kids came out in an alley, and they kept running until they reached an old factory about a mile away. That was when the kids seemed to remember Katherine was still there, and glared at her accusingly. "Why's she here?" grumbled a younger dark-haired boy. The sentiment seemed to be echoed by most of the others.
Before Katherine could say anything, a boy with thick glasses interrupted her. "Ok, so Race and Jojo, go get Jack and Albert from work. Stay together." Two boys nodded before darting away. "The rest of you go inside. Elmer and me will wait with this girl-"
"Who said I wanted to stay here?" Katherine asked, glaring at the boy. She hated it when people tried to tell her what to do. "I just wanted to help you out, I don't even know who you are!"
"I'm sorry, but we got some questions we gotta ask," the glasses boy said firmly. "You show up, followed by cops? We gotta know what's up."
"This is kidnapping!" Katherine couldn't believe it. She does something nice for some strange teenagers, and now they're holding her hostage? This was not how she was expecting her spring break to go.
"It's just until Jack gets back," the glasses boy promised. "We'll let you go then." Katherine laughed as all but the glasses boy and a blond kid walked around to the back of the factory. This was why she wasn't nice to strangers.
Was that a good way to end it? I don't know, but I don't know when I'll have more free time to work on this in the immediate future, so I wanted to get it out there. Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review! Later, potaters!