Chapter Twenty-Five

"One of the departments belonging to the Drozdovs family was attacked by the infamous group who name themselves 'The Strigoi'. Twenty workers were injuries, and sixteen were murdered. We will update the story when we get more information."

Dimitri switched the TV off in the common room with Lissa, Christian and Jill sitting nearby with other students who had all gone quiet. They finally heard the news that the Drozdovs were attacked at that Mia's mother was a victim. The group also found out from Tasha that Adrian stormed out the classroom upon hearing this, so right now Rose, Mason, Eddie and Sydney were trying to find the artist who disappeared.

The group had searched everywhere. Mason and Eddie scanned through all the classrooms and searched all the dorms while Rose and Sydney went to the forest to see if he was at the cabins. He wasn't, and when the four met up with each other they thought on where he could be.

"Eddie and I will go back to the dorms and see if he's gone back. How about you two go through the school again?"

"Sure. Call us if he's there." Rose took a couple of steps towards the school.

"As long as you call us if you find him." Eddie looked rather worried. Last time Adrian disappeared he ended up going to hospital. What if Jesse or Ralf found him?

"Where could he be?" Rose let out a worried sigh as she scanned the surroundings around her. Sydney stared at the sky, watching the clouds fly by then lowered her gaze across to the city, seeing the beautiful scenery ahead. She faced Rose.

"Did the school ever block off the stairs that lead to the roof?" The two kept their gaze before running towards those stairs.

Before Adrian turned up at school the roof of the school had access by everyone, and quite often students went up there to have a smoke in between lessons and during breaks. But after a group had a fight and a boy fell off the roof to luckily land in some bushes and only receive broken bones the roof was banned from student access. This was something that Adrian probably didn't know.

When they finally reached the roof Sydney ran through the door first, her heart racing and body hot from the running. A trail of smoke floated in the air from Adrian's cigarette as he sat against the wall, his head resting against it and looking up at the clouds. Sydney had an thought when she stared up at the sky; this sky would probably be a good portrait for Adrian to paint if he wasn't missing. When she then looked at the city she remembered the painting he done that he gave to Dimitri. The sky and the city both together, a perfect painting for Adrian. And the only place to have a really good view of the city was up on the roof, where the artist was.

Rose stood next to Sydney and sighed in relief. She pulled out her phone to dial Mason's number and walked down the stairs leaving Sydney standing there. The scientist slowly walked over to Adrian, who despite hearing his girlfriends' footsteps didn't move a muscle.

"What are you doing up here?" He didn't answer her. "You know being up here is banned. You're breaking school rules."

"Screw the rules."

"Adrian, why are you up here? Everyone's been worried sick about you, did you know that?"

Anger built up in Sydney. As happy as she was that she found her boyfriend, he ditched his last lesson by storming out the classroom, broke school rules by going up on the roof for a smoke and didn't bother telling anyone where he was. Everyone had been worried sick about him. And what was pissing her off even more was that Adrian wasn't talking to her, just staring at the sky.

"Why aren't you answering me?"

"Just leave me alone."

"What? Adrian! Rose, Mason, Eddie and I have been spending the past hour running around the school looking for you!" She walked in front of him. "Do you have any idea on how worried I-" She froze, seeing Adrian's face. Tears were streaming down his face and his emerald green eyes had no spark in them at all. "What...Adrian, please, what's wrong? Tell me." She knelt down in front of him.

"I..." he took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it across the roof, to then wipe his eyes with his sleeve. "I hate them."

"Hate who?"

"The Strigoi."

"Everyone hates them Adrian. They're murdering innocent people."

"You don't understand!" He raised his voice, making Sydney jump. Adrian still couldn't look at his girlfriend so looked at the ground, with his tears creating small puddles below. "They murdered my great-aunt, Sydney! In front of me! I was fucking ten-years-old, and I witnessed one of them stab her in the chest! Do you honestly know what it's like to see something like that? Not only do I have the memory of that, but I have a life-timing scar on my back as well!"

The scar on his back. That explains it. From the sound of it, Adrian was stabbed in the shoulder blade where the scar was. Sydney's heart ached, seeing her boyfriend in pieces like this. Small sobs left his mouth causing her to move in between his legs and wrap her arms around him, pulling his body into hers' so that he could cry into her shoulder. He reached his hands up behind her back and tugged on her school top, his tears now dripping onto her clothes.

She gave him time to cry out all his emotions. During the time Mason and Eddie arrived up on the roof to be shooed away by Sydney, so the two boys and Rose stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for the couple to come downstairs, close enough to hear what they were saying. Once he calmed down he explained his aunts murder to her, saying how he got stabbed after trying to defend his dead aunt. Sydney sat there and listened, shocked at what was being told. This could partly be the reason why Adrian smoked, drunk, broke rules and slept around; to get rid of the bad memories that no child should have.

The news on hearing about Mia's mother just pushed Adrian over that little edge.

"I need to find Mia." Once those words left his mouth Rose ran up the stairs and burst through the door as she heard what her friend said.

"Are you serious? Adrian, why do you want to see her? She got Jesse and Ralf to break your hand!"

"Rose." Sydney faced her friend, seeing Mason and Eddie walk up behind her. "Adrian knows what Mia is going through. He lost someone important to him because of the Strigoi. He's the only one who can help Mia go through this."

"But-"

"Let me do this, Rose." Adrian flashed a smile at him but it was obvious that he was still upset over this. "I want to do this. I know what she's going through. She should have a shoulder to cry on, and despite our relationship I want to help her get through this."

"Fine."