Chapter 17: (October 25)

The smell of rain and dead leaves surrounded Lito as he walked down the stairs of his House, wrapping a large cashmere scarf around his neck. Where he was from, there rarely was a chance to wear winter gear, so he took this opportunity gladly. Perhaps it meant that this year he would change for the better?

Signing out at the Administration building, Lito hoped not to encounter a storm on his way to town. Leaving through the gates, he turned right on a sharp fork in the path, which took him away from the ocean and closer to the small, forested area between the school and the highway that ran through Hoyvik and beyond.

He felt empty, somehow, as he passed the highway and continued on to a smaller road. There hadn't been many opportunities to meet with the other seven. He wondered if they still would have become friends if they had never been connected. Will and Riley were always spending time together, bringing a peace and calm to Lito's mind. Nomi was busy with her non-sensate friends (as well as her computer), when she wasn't helping the two decipher their bizarre tarot card mystery. Sun was quiet and not much company in the first place, unless she was being followed around by the ever-talkative Capheus. Kala was always studying, and Wolfgang… well, he was always gloomy and brooding. Looking around his mind subjected one to the same feelings of self-loathing and anger that he felt. Lito hated to admit this to himself, but the first time he'd met him, he'd secretly thought he was attractive.

"Thanks," came a boy's voice, not far down the street.

Lito nearly walked into the stop sign in front of him, turning around to see Wolfgang quietly coming up on his side. "Dios mio, you know what I was thinking?"

"Yes. So can the others. " Wolfgang smiled knowingly, looking down at the ground in contemplation.

"It's not true, what they say about me."

Wolfgang stopped in his tracks and looked up at him, his brow furrowed. "Why do you lie?"

"I don't know. Because it's how I protect myself. Because lying is easy, and it's what I do."

The other boy watched him carefully, and then walked back down the street after a few seconds, leaving the connection as Lito turned around.

The Post office was close to him now, a few cars parked in front of it. Down a block or two, he could see a group of college-aged men leaning against an old storefront, talking loudly in what he assumed was Faroese. They turned to look at him, and he quickly entered to avoid their gazes and the cold mist of rain that began to fall.

Inside was only slightly warmer, and Lito rubbed his hands, wishing he'd brought a pair of gloves. Walking up to the counter, he tried his best to communicate with the woman working there about a package that hadn't been sent to the school on time.

"Rodriguez?" she asked in a slight, Faroese accent.

"Yes."

She left the room for a moment to find his mail, and then came back with a small box.

"Sorry about the delivery wait. Probably a mistake. You from Spain?"

"No, Mexico."

She stopped writing in a ledger-like book, and looked at him as if he'd said he was an alien from Mars.

"But I'm studying at the international school."

"Ohh…" she nodded quickly and went back to writing. He placed an envelope on the table to send, and traded in a few kroners when she asked for him to pay. Looking in his wallet, he noticed that the large sum he'd had at the airport was getting small.

"Do you know where I can withdraw money?" he asked the woman, gesturing to his wallet.

"ATM around the corner." She tilted her head and motioned to the left of the building.

"Thank you." Lito placed the package under his arm, shouldering the door to leave.

Heading left, he found the ATM and placed the box down to swipe his card. As the kroner flipped out of the machine into the slot, he heard a crunch of boots on wet gravel, and turned around as someone jumped him, throwing him against the brick wall. It was foggy and it happened too fast, however, so all he could see was the looming fist as it swung upward and made contact with his jaw. The sharp pain blinded Lito, and he ducked as he heard the whistle of air as another blow came towards him. The man-he assumed it was a man by the silhouette, though Lito's vision was tainted with spots of black- cried out angrily as his fist met the wall, a loud crack splitting the air.

Another of the men grabbed Lito, but the third, somewhere near the ATM, yelled loudly, "Leave it, go!" in a Faroese accent.

The second man's grip on Lito loosened suddenly, and became dead weight as he dropped. Lito turned, wondering how his assailant had been knocked to the ground. His vision adjusting, he felt Wolfgang connect with him.

"Behind you, move!" he commanded, and struck one of the men in the face with a backwards blow, taking him down with a hard kick in the abdomen.

The one near the ATM ran at him, knocking him onto the pavement. They rolled sideways into a dirty puddle, spraying the muck everywhere. Wolfgang kneed him in the stomach and rolled back, striking him in the face with the heel of his boot. The final man slumped to the ground, unmoving in the dirty street water.

Lito's eyes widened at the destruction around them, recognizing the men as the group outside the post office. "That was amazing!" he exclaimed, looking up at Wolfgang in frenzied excitement. "I mean, that was just…" he moved to pick up his kroner from one of the fallen attackers, stashing them in his jacket pocket. The box, leaning against the wall, was not damaged in the least, and Lito picked it up as well. Turning back to Wolfgang, he asked, "How… how did you do that?"

Wolfgang shrugged lightly, not bothered in the least by the three people he'd just seriously injured. "Fighting is easy," he replied slowly, as though coming to terms with the statement. "Fighting is what I do."

/

Kala looked up at the small window in the storage room, her heart beating as though she'd just run a mile. The only object visible through the glass was the line of ground that met the base of the sill, and a small sliver of gray sky. It rained nearly every week now, and she missed India's heat and cloudless days.

"Don't worry, Kala. Winter vacation is just around the corner. You'll get to visit your family soon."

Kala turned back and nodded at Riley, who sat at the table with Nomi and Will. Amanita was there too. Today was the first day they'd all met again in the basement, and they were gathered around a box Nomi had received from a "friend."

"What does this do?" Amanita asked, picking up a small, metallic-looking rectangle. "Never mind. I probably wouldn't understand it anyways."

"Who did you say your friend was again?" Will watched the box suspiciously; as though he were afraid any second it would explode.

"His name's Bug. He owes me a few favors… Took a hell of a lot of explaining to the Prefects when they found it."

"Wait, Bug? Is it because he, like, hacks and listens in on stuff?" Amanita's grin grew larger and she rummaged further through the box; picking up items and tossing them back inside with intense curiosity.

"Well actually it's because his first name is Burgess, but it all worked out in the end. Anyways, I'll have everything we need to decrypt where Kala's digital card was sent from, and track down the number to the place."

Kala pushed a crate aside and sat on the edge of the table. "How long will that take?"

"Who knows? This person isn't that good with technology, but they were good enough to password protect the location the text was sent from. So it might take some time until I can-." Nomi paused and stared at the tarot cards lying on the table, her eyes widening in realization.

There were eight in all, as Lito, Nomi, and Wolfgang had received theirs earlier that month.

"Guys… lay out the cards for me…" Nomi searched around the storage room, her hair whipping back and forth as she moved quickly among the shelves.

"Wait, what? Nomi, what are you looking for?" Amanita held up her hands, and looked at the other three. "What is up with her?"

"Found it, okay." Nomi was back with a pen and a new stack of paper, folding one piece horizontally. "Go, go, what are you waiting for? Read the circled letters aloud."

Will grabbed the cards and flipped them over so that the titles and the picture were face up. He took Kala's phone and placed it alongside the rest. "Okay," he began, "here are the letters: A, V, T, I, E, S, another I, N, H, another A. And that's it. Wait, there are numbers written here. Looks like a 22 and a 24…"

"Frea-ky," Amanita said in a sing-songy voice, grimacing at the cards.

Nomi finished writing and set the pen down. "So I guess someone is trying to contact us. But why with tarot cards? That's got to be the slowest and most cryptic way ever."

"Well, we don't know what those letters mean. They could be anything." Will frowned, looking at the meaningless word.

"Yes, but I'm nearly one hundred percent sure that it spells out a place. It's just like an anagram, guys. We can figure this out." She looked at their blank stares and sighed. "Or we can go online. I'll cross check it with Google. I can't believe I didn't see this before until now."

Will smiled and grabbed his coat from where it hung on a shelf. "Thanks a lot, Nomi. I'm going to go find if someone has a detailed map of the island they can give us. Riley, are you coming?"

"Thanks for making me feel like Velma!" Nomi yelled after the two, her voice strained.

Kala tilted her head and stared at Amanita, who was sitting in one of the foldout chairs and cackling loudly. As the three girls packed up the box and computer, the door to the storage room opened suddenly, and a Prefect stood at the entrance. She crossed her arms and looked around the space with a sweeping gaze.

"Okay, everyone out, it's not time to fool around in here. Get back to your Houses. Nomi, what are you doing?" she asked, zeroing in on the table.

"Nothing. Just a tarot card reading. We're practicing for Halloween."

The girl stared at her for a second; nodding her head slowly like they were all crazy. "Right… I'm giving you five minutes to clean up. Don't let me catch you down here again," she added, looking pointedly at Amanita and Kala.

Amanita raised her hands in mock surrender. "No problem." Waiting until the girl left, she turned to Nomi and smiled, clasping together her hands. "Can I please have that box of stuff Bug sent you? I mean it's not like you even need it now. The fortune teller gave us the location anyway."

Nomi hoisted the box up into her arms, and looked at Amanita skeptically. "How do you know it's a fortune teller?"

"It's kind of obvious. Those cards look like they were specially handcrafted. And I'm no detective or anything, but of all the things a fortuneteller would use to send a message, tarot cards are probably up there on the list. You said it yourself. This is cryptic. And if there's one thing fortunetellers love more than drama, it's that."

Nomi shook her head, unconvinced. Opening the door for the others, she muttered, "Yeah. Try finding a fortuneteller in the land of sheep."

/

Lito returned to the school around two in the afternoon. Opening the door and placing the package in his dorm, he walked down the stairs again to the living room, and was met with Hernando.

"Oh my God." The boy placed a hand to his mouth in shock. "What happened to your face?"

"What?" Lito touched his jaw and winced, remembering the heavy punch that had taken him down during the fight.

"Your face…someone hurt you. Come here." Hernando walked to the kitchen, and Lito reluctantly followed. Sitting him down on a bar stool, Hernando went to find a Ziploc bag. When he returned, he filled it with ice cubes, and pressed it against Lito's jaw.

Lito shuddered and gazed around the room, hoping no one would show up. Even though he was just tending to his bruise, it felt intimate and secret.

Hernando smirked and shook his head as he passed the bag to Lito. "Are you going to relax, or no? You need to stay calm if you want me to help." He leaned back against the counter, watching him with a reserved look in his eye.

Lito sighed, and felt his cheeks and ears tingle as he blushed. "I know. Thank you for this."

"Don't worry. It's nothing." Hernando stayed for a moment, then thought better of it and left.

Glancing over, Lito noticed Wolfgang sitting in the chair next to him, shaking his head.

Lito turned away, trying to avoid another pitying glance. "Don't look at me like that. You lie to the people you care about too." He waited for Wolfgang to speak, to blame him or even laugh at him, but he was gone, and Lito felt more alone than ever.

A/N: Another fight in this chapter because why not? Apparently this is the longest chapter so far in Sense Teens. Hmm... I was so excited about where the story was heading that I literally wrote this chapter from the day I published the last chapter to the next day. And then I edited and kept writing for the rest of the time. Also, I've been listening to a lot of creepy music as inspiration, because Halloween is coming to the Board next chapter! This is my first "Holiday special." It may have two parts, or it'll just be really long. Besides this, I'm also thinking of having three more Specials throughout the story: Thankgiving, Christmas or New Years, and Valentine's Day. I just love the idea of having a holiday as a chapter theme. Also, thank you to whomever sent the Guest review from yesterday. It's great getting feedback about the story. And yes, I AM SUPER EXCITED ABOUT SEASON 2. YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW HARD IT IS TO CONTAIN THIS EXCITEMENT. Anyways, next chapter coming on the 15th. I may move the update to a different time as people go back to school/work (including me). But for now it's the same. I hope all of you have an awesome rest of the week!

~C.o.D.