Chapter Three: Where Did They Go?
Sky gazed out the window of the large ship that the specialists had boarded, overlooking the land as it passed his gaze.
As soon as the tall red house had disappeared behind them the guys had started talking at once, mostly Mr Spitter about how rude they had been and how he didn't get why everyone loved them. But the guys had been nicer about the whole thing.
They were each a bit stunned at how much the girls had changed. Even though they didn't seen each of them they could at least notice how much more grown up they were, aside from Musa throwing out their teacher. They seemed more serious, less carefree about everything.
Now that they were safely in the air they were all quiet. Thinking about what they had seen on their short but interesting morning visit to the Winx Club. These thoughts of course brought back other thoughts, like when the girls had disappeared in the first place, especially that week just after when everything had gone to hell.
Everything's gone to hell! Sky thought that morning after the Prom. What was I thinking kissing Diaspro!? Bloom will never forgive me, she'll hate me, and she'll leave me!
He sat in his room head in his hands cursing himself when a knock came to the door. Sky wanted to tell the person to go away but knew that would be impolite of a prince.
He stalked to the door slowly and opened it to see Brandon and Riven on the other side. They looked as they always did but today there was something different about their expressions. They looked slightly worried, if you had been a stranger you wouldn't have noticed the change but Sky having been their friend for years noticed right away, his senses kicking into alert and muscles tensing for bad news.
"Sky have you seen the girls this morning?" Brandon spoke, trying to keep his voice light, Riven stayed silent.
This was something Sky had not being expecting. "Ah no, haven't seen any of them since yesterday morning"
There was a short pause "Weren't you with Bloom last night at all" Brandon asked confused.
Crap! "Nope I got...distracted" I should be punched really hard for that. Maybe I can pick a fight with Riven later.
Riven rolled his eyes and stalked away without a word "He's no help at all"
"Why what's happened?" Sky asked confused now.
Brandon looked from Riven's retreating figure to Sky with worry.
"We can't find the girls anywhere"
Of course no one was really that worried that first day about the girls, they all assumed that they had gone into Magix for breakfast and went shopping as they often did and just forgot to meet the guys that morning.
But as the next day came and the calls from the guys were met with more voicemail and silence they all decided to go pay them a visit. They had knocked on their dorm door for ages and finally tried the handle. It was unlocked, a strange thing for the girls to do (On Stella's way out that night she had not locked the door but kept walking).
They knew it was wrong but went in anyway. The place looked as it always did, clean but with some stuff littering the place, smelling of perfume and hairspray. The girl's belongings were all there as well as their phones and purses but no girls.
Pushing aside their worry once more the guys left and went back to their own school. A few more days passed and the teachers noticed that the girls had missed all their classes. Miss Faragonda had called each of their parents and had come away with no news of them, she then called the guys and they had explained what they had found to her. When Miss Faragonda was listening to the account of the girl's room she felt a twinge of panic creep down her spine. What if something had happened?
And so the search began. It was a small search to begin with but when the days passed and they came up with nothing, the girl's parents each got involved along with the Magix police force. Searching the schools and city and any place the girls might have gone, the TV stations got word of the search and festered on it, blowing it out into a major story of the girls being kidnapped or murdered. This caused the public, the families and the guy's great panic and now the quest to find the Winx club spread into a worldwide search.
Months passed and finally rewards were put up by the girl's parents, people came in with information that amounted to nothing. Each person in Alfea was interviewed of their whereabouts that night, if they had seen the girls.
Facts were found but no leads as to where the girls had gone and why. It all seemed that the girls had just disappeared into thin air.
The guys went into a lonely depression. Why had they not been able to see if anything was wrong? Why had the girls left them? These questions were asked but no answers were every found. More Months passed and those months turned into a full year. The world mourned the loss of the girls, finally assuming that they were dead and never coming back. The guys never gave up hope though. They fought the rumours and kept searching in every way.
As time went on some of the lives of the people changed, the School and Alfea and Red Fountain combined into one great big school. The whole place was remodelled and made a fantastic school for fairies and soldiers alike. Of course the girls and guys dorms were separated for obvious purposes and everyone stared to be happy again, the families of the girls never found closure but were able to slowly move on as time went by. The one year adversary of the disappearance was made a remembrance day where the school would gather in the great hall, set flower and other things by a large photo of the girls as a group and a short twenty minute movie would play about how the girls had come to Alfea, saved the world and changed all their lives. The guys passed over this day as zombies, trying to block out the sympathetic looks and whispers.
'That was one of the girls boyfriends' they'd say.
Or 'they will never move on poor guys, they must have loved them so much'.
And then over time the guys moved on. Slowly coming out of their shells again and being the men their parents had raised them to be, picking up on their training and putting all their emotions for the girls into battling monsters.
Little did they know that the girls on some far planet were doing the exact same thing.
Time passed as another year went by and life ticked on as usual as if it were a giant clock, always moving forward and never stoping for anybody.
Two years had passed.
A new semester had begun and Alfea (They had kept the name when the schools merged) was just starting a new school year, everyone happily filing into the grounds with all their luggage and belongings, meeting up with old friends, making new ones and ready for another last year at Alfea.
"It's not too late to turn back" said a stressful looking Stella, seeing all the people walk and drive into the gate of the new school, well new to them.
She was seated in the front seat of a long black Hi-top car (Those really long limo's at resemble a truck) with a shiny 'W' plastered onto the hood and rear.
The girls had dreaded this day for ages. Out in the woods they were safe from other people stares and words but not here. They were exposed and naked for all these people to see, figuratively of course.
Musa's drove the car in long black skinny jeans and a red sleeveless coat that came down passed her hips, it was decorated with army pads and buttons all over it. She worse long black running boots that came up to her knee's with her long black hair out and straight, with fingerless gloves. Musa wanted to keep people at arm's length today and her outfit spoke the words clearly 'Go away'.
Stella wore a long sea green dress made of light material that stopped at her ankle at the back and thighs at the front, with shin high brown boots and a brown headband. With a darker green coat that was long sleeved and stopped below the breast bone. Her hair was lighter and curly now, falling in waves to her hips.
Techna was dressed in a purple knitted jumper that was wide around the shoulders and went to her fingers and almost to her knees with dark blue jeans underneath. Her pink hair now came just passed her shoulders and was thin and straight.
Flora wore a baby pink dress and white pants with a nice see-through jacket of white netting. Her hair was now like Stella's, long but wavy instead of curly.
Layla wore Blue jeans with black boots that made it too her ankle and a long white top that flowed and hung in some bits at the bottom, with a lime green het on, bangle on her wrists. Her hair was pretty much the same, maybe a bit shorter.
Bloom had on a navy blue dress that reached her mid thighs with a black coat over it that reached her ankles, her fiery red hair reached passed her hips and set of the blue nicely.
For all the girls looked beautiful they could not hide their nervousness. Valtor had said after their training that they would move to another house in the forest just outside of Magix, a little too close to home but they were careful never to go near Magix or Alfea, they didn't want to see anyone they knew. It would be six months of doing their first ever missions that finally Valtor had said they were ready to be on their own. They were shocked of course but agreed anyway. But when Valtor had handed a registration form for Alfea to each of them they had lashed out, yelling that they didn't want to go back and refusing to go. Valtor had expected this and told them that it was the only way they could complete their next mission. They had fallen silent.
Nothing was to ever come in the way of a mission to kill someone, nothing at all. And if Valtor said it was the only way to complete it then they had no arguments.
It wasn't until they had reached the gate of the new Alfea that they truly knew what it was they were about to do. They were going back to their old lives of friends and classes. Their families would be notified and would come running.
They weren't scared, only wary of how the day would go. Valtor had set down some ground rules, they were not to tell anyone of what had happened in the last two years or that he was alive, they were not to leave Alfea or their home until he said so and lastly they were not to go running back to their boyfriends. That last one hurt the girls the most, though they would never show it.
And now they just had to drive into the place and it would be done.
"But it is too late to turn back" Techna muttered quietly from the back seat, with their excellent hearing they all heard her of course but did not reply.
Musa took a large breathe form the driver's seat and drove forward without a word. As the school came into sight all the girls mouths dropped, it had changed so much, it was no longer the pink and purple circular building they remembered but a huge cream and brown brick fortress. Trees and benches littered the front as students made their way up the stone steps at the entrance. All the girls had studied the map of the new place in case they needed to make a mad dash.
Musa pulled the car up into the parking lot. Even though ships were easier to fly and get around in they did take up a lot of space so some people had just driven to school if they lived out of it, as the girls did now.
The girls thanked god that the large limo/truck they were seated in had black tinted windows so they could observe the people and not be seen. They sat like that for twenty minutes, seeing old friends and new people that they would have to meet. At one point Flora saw Miss Faragonda on the front stone steps.
She looked older and more tired than two years ago but never failed to have that welcome smile on her face. Miss Griselda was herding people noisily into the school, directing them to places. She looked the same as ever.
The girls were a bit unsettled at seeing Red Fountain guys in the same school as them but they would get used to it.
Bloom sighed one last time and straightened her dress and coat and said "Ok lets go"
Each girl paused, nodded and grabbed their suitcases from the ground and one by one each slipped out of the car.
They had expected that the crowd would rush as them as soon as they stepped out but they just stood in front of the large black car and nobody notices them.
Valtor had taught them to be unnoticed when in a crowd and they were using that to their advantage at this moment. People passed them by as they stood out in the open, laughing and talking to their friends.
The girls felt a wave a relief that their skills were working and looked at each other and smiled "see we're fine" Flora said happily.
She spoke too soon.
A girl who had passed Flora as she said this glanced at her. The girl took in the six girls, thought for a moment as she walked then stopped dead in her tracks.
The Winx girls saw this and froze.
The small brown headed girl slowly turned and started at them in horror, mouth open and eyes wide. She then seemed to take the biggest breathe ever and yell something that maybe the entire school heard.
"IT'S THE WINX CLUB!"
Each and every person out the front of the school went silent and turned and stared directly into the eyes of the six girls who had frozen in shock. People who were inside came outside, cars and ships stopped moving behind them so their drivers could stare at the girls.
Musa who had thawed out enough to lean over the Stella and whisper.
"We should have faked a sickie and stayed home"
When she said this everyone else seemed to thaw out and start shouting at them and running up to them. Phones were pulled out and people pointed at them.
The girls upon seeing what was happening made a mad dash in their designer boots evading people arms and shouting and ran head first into the school doors and into a side closet that they observed on the map earlier.
Miss Faragonda and students yelled after them as each of them squeezed into the small closet and locked it behind them.
Out of breathe and panicked the girls yelled at each other.
"We're screwed" Musa yelled first.
"We'll never get out of here alive, it's hopeless!" Stella yelled back at Musa.
"Maybe we can make a run for the car and get out of here!" layla suggested.
"The distance between the car and us is covered in crazy people who want to hug and welcome us back, it's a death trap!" Techna threw back at Layla.
"Well how do we get out of here?" Flora cried.
"Does anyone have any bombs?" Musa asked drily.
"Musa!" The group shouted.
"Wait! What about that?" Bloom pointed to a medium sized vent above their heads. There was a short silence as the girls looked at each other.
"Where does it lead?" Stella asked in the back of her mind worrying about the mess the Vent will cause to her dress.
Techna pulled out her digital map of the school and studied it on her hologram phone.
"It seems to lead to an upstairs bathroom on the second floor"
Musa sighed in relief "Good I need a cigarette"
The specialists had seen the girls as soon as they had stepped out of their car. They were seated at a table near the doors of the school and watched as the girls had stood there for a bit and then exchange a word with each other.
They had also seen the small girl with the brown hair scream at them and every person in the yard turn to the girls.
It wasn't until the girl had screamed 'It's the Winx Club' that the guys fully comprehended what that meant. They were back.
They stood right there in the front of the school looking at people with shocked expressions and then in a moment when the crowd rushed them did they run away.
The girls had run right passed the guys with their shocked expressions, not even being able to speak. Only Sky was thawed out enough to slightly reach out and touch Bloom's hand as she ran by quickly. She didn't seem to notice him.
'He saw me! He reached out to me!' Bloom thought as she stood by the bathroom window and the girls chatted around her. A small dull ache started in Blooms chest as she thought of that last night when she had seen sky and Diaspro together. She loved him then and she still loved him now.
Sky stood at the window still trying to imagine what she had thought that first day. But it was impossible, he never could tell what she was thinking until she said it or did something about it.
He had missed Bloom so much and he had thought she would never come back.
He was startled out of his retrieved when his phone rang. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the noisy thing. When he saw the caller ID a wave of guilt passed over him. He pressed the answer button and pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hey" he said nicely.
Diaspro's voice sounded on the other end of the phone.
"Hey baby, I've got good news. I've finally set the date for the wedding! In Three months we'll be Mr and Mrs Sky of Eraklyon!"