My head hurts so bad. I was lying in my bed. What had happened last night? Rosalina's head popped up.
"For someone with a concussion, you seem pretty fine." She said.
"What?" I asked.
"Last night, you tripped on some old instruments that spilled out of the closet and hit your head pretty hard on the floor." David said, waliking in, followed by Josh, Qaasim, and Thomas.
"What?" I asked again.
"Janice is Rosalina's grandmother. She lives in North Korea, 3 miles north of the airport. We're heading there in six hours." Qaasim said.
"why?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbow.
"Alex is somewhere in between the airport and my grandma's house. There are four abandoned house in between. We have all spring break." Rosalina said.
"wait I was out for three days." I asked, amazed. I was welled with pain.
"Chill down. You bag is packed, tickets purchased, all you have to do is get dressed." Rosalina said.
"House 1,2, and 3 all have recently been sold to different homeowners. Houses 1 and 2 have been unboarded. That leaves 3 and 4 could be a possibility." Qaasim said, reading off his tablet.
"Wait, you guys aren't messing with me, right?" I asked, climbing down from my top bunk.
"No. We realized what jerks we were, and are truly sorry." David said.
"That night, when you got knocked out, before you woke up, we heard screams." Rosalina said.
"But the thing is, it was in our heads. It was piercing, and scary." David said.
"And high pitched and sqeaky." Josh said.
"It was Alex." I said, walking into the bathroom.
The trip took 25 hours. We left at 9 pm. We landed the next day at 10 pm.
"Gram lives here, and the houses are here." Rosalina said, gesturing to her map.
"Thats about a five minute walk to house three, and two minute walk to house four." I said.
"Nat, have you ever seen the man before?" David asked.
"Once, the night it happened. And I saw his face when he snatched up Alex." I said.
"Okay, try to remember his face, it'll help us." We walked up to house #3. David knocked and we all put on innocent smiles. A man answered the door.
"당신은 무엇 을 원하세요 (What do you want?)?" He asked in a scruffy voice. I couldn't move, I could barely breathe.
"우리는 당신이 우리의 친구 를 본 적이 있는지 알고 싶어요 (We wanted to know if you've seen our friend.)" Rosalina said. She showed him a picture of Alex.
"내 인생에서 본 적도없는 걸 . 이제 미국인 형편 , 달아나 . (Never seen him before in my life. Now scram, you lousy Americans.)" the man said, shooing us away. He closed the door.
"So Nat?" Rosalina asked.
"Tha-that was hmmm." I said, muffly and long.
"Okay, next step. We have located him, know all we have to do is find away in, and get Alex." Rosalina said.
"I think, for the rest of the trip, would should gather some more information. Then on the last day we get Alex and get out of here." I said.
"Why can't we get him now? We know where he is." Josh said.
"Because if we get him now, that man can take him back and take us too." I said, getting upset.
"But why don't we just-" Josh said.
"Josh, he's not your brother, he's mine. " I snapped.
Josh took a step back. I started walking away in anger, in a different direction, unaware of where I was going.
"Nat, you can't just wander off." Rosalina called, a few steps behind. I didn't answer. I just walked faster.
"Nat, do you even know where your going?" She asked, now running to keep in in pace. She grabbed my arm. I turned around and the most unlikely but best thing happened: she kissed me on the cheek. I froze.