Revamped!

[You'll find out the reason why Scarlet is in France in a few chapters.]

A Study in Scarlet: Part Four

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

Between classes, Wolf stands outside the school currently halfway through a cigarette which he forgot about because his mind was too focused on Scarlet. Today's another day where he has no idea where she is, meaning it's another day where he has to try and fail to be calm. He didn't tell his mom because he didn't want to worry her or talk about it. He can't focus on anything like school because his mind would wander on his missing girl. She has to be fine, right? He wants to believe that she is but he can't convince himself. Wolf wants to think that if something bad happened to Scarlet, he'd feel it in his gut.

But he doesn't know how he feels.

He looks up for a second and sees Cinder approaching him. He says nothing as she leans against the brick exterior wall beside him.

"I thought Scarlet made you quit smoking," Cinder says.

"Nah, it wasn't much of a problem," Wolf replies.

"In that case, may I?"

Wolf hesitantly gives her the cigarette he already started, expecting her to take a puff and give it back to him. He's done that with people before. Instead, she rolls it between her pointer and middle finger before throwing it on the ground and stomping it, squishing it to a pulp.

"Hey!" Wolf exclaims.

"Those killed my mom and I don't want you dead too," Cinder tells him.

Wolf pauses. " … you don't get it."

"No, you don't get it. Those are a daily dose of your death. I know you miss and are concerned about Scarlet. I am too. Trust me, I understand where she's coming from with my whole Selene enigma. Time was cutting close and after so many secrets and lies, I needed to be able to show you who I really was and how I felt about it. When I told you about Selene, Kai's dad died so I understand where Scarlet's coming from."

Wolf doesn't respond to Cinder because he deeply processed her words. If Kai's dad never got sick, they may have never known about Selene Blackburn. And now, Wolf knows that he's madly in love with Scarlet although it only took her running away unannounced to make him realize that he knows almost nothing about her backstory. He knows the basics of her family plan and why she ran to Commonwealth but that was it. And it took her pregnancy scare and a letter from her father for her to spill it all out to him and the others. If those never happened, not only would Scarlet still be here but he wouldn't know those things. He would know nothing and still be in love with her.

Wolf thought Cinder was the vault of secrets but maybe Scarlet really was. Or realistically, they both are.

Wolf comes back to reality when he sees Cress approaching them. She swats away smoke the closer she gets to them.

"What are you doing here?" Wolf asks. Cress was honestly the last person either of them expected to see here during class time.

"My teacher thinks I'm in the bathroom so I'll be quick," Cress replies. "I have a textbook keeping the door open."

"Should I leave?" Cinder asks. She didn't even think of having a block to keep the doors from locking.

"No, you can stay," Cress says, pulling out her phone from the inside of her skirt's waistband. She looks up at Wolf. "I think I found Scarlet."

Wolf's eyes almost bulge out of his head at the sound of those words. Cinder looks at her with disbelief. It's not that they doubt Cress because she's scarily smart, but finding Scarlet at this point seemed like finding a bright red needle in a haystack. Still, Cress looks confident in herself even if her statement made it sound like only a possibility.

"What do you mean by found?" Wolf asks.

Cress steps over in-between Cinder and Wolf. She unlocks her phone and goes to that pre-downloaded app on most phones called "Find Friends". She explains to them that Scarlet may not be answering their messages, calls or going on social media, but her phone is still with her and it's still on. On the screen, there is a map and it shows her current location by a star on the screen and two smaller stars right next to her which are Cinder and Wolf. To show where Scarlet is, Cress repeatedly pinches inwards on the map, zooming out.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Wolf asks as he continues to watch Cress's screen. "And why are you going over an ocean?"

Those stars are more than dots of fake burning lights on the screen. Stars are powerful. They act as an identity marker within a map, locating you in time and geography. They're navigation tools.

"Aces…" Cinder mutters. "Technology is whack. Robots will take over the world."

"Starting with you," Wolf mumbles with a small laugh. Cinder jokingly kicks his calf.

"Here!" Cress says, showing them the small star with Scarlet's name and contact photo on it.

Wolf takes her phone to get a closer look at it. No other star was nearby. Because Scarlet is all the way in France. Wolf hands back Cress's phone to her and tries to think of a new plan. He has to give his friends some credit because the majority of their Scarlet conspiracy theories involved her going back to France. They didn't know why or if she'll come back.

He wished Cinder didn't ruin his cigarette.

"I'm heading to class," Wolf says, running off. "Crescent Moon, you're phenomenal!"

Cinder and Cress watch him run back inside the school. Cress is smiling to herself whereas Cinder is still baffled by Cress getting a location on Scarlet. Despite their different facial reactions, they both have a hunch on Wolf's plan and it's sure as the stars not going back to class.

"He'll go to France now, won't he?" Cress asks rhetorically.

"I'm 99% sure he is," Cinder replies. "Jacin has done the same for Winter about twice now and he's over the moon for her, so I can imagine Wolf doing the same for Scarlet."

Cress swoons. "How romantic."

"An ordinary man will do anything to save the woman he loves. For Scarlet, Wolf is extraordinary so even if he doesn't go to France - which is highly unlikely - he'll do something big. You were in that car chase."

"Does that mean you think Jacin is extraordinary? I mean, you did tell us about the beach fire and all that."

Cinder barfs a little in her mouth at the idea that she possibly gave Jacin an implied compliment. No matter how much she can tolerate the guy, she will never confess that she likes him in any way whatsoever.

"Don't worry," Cress says as she starts heading back to class. "I'll make it my personal mission to make you believe in fairytales."

-o-

Paris, France, The European Federation

In Émilie's room, Émilie and Scarlet stand and try to prepare the best they can for tomorrow. It'll be a big day for Scarlet since the rest of her life will possibly be decided and she might have to see her father again. (She's hoping the latter won't happen.) However, the girls don't know what to expect so they don't know how to prepare.

"I don't want to come across as weak," Scarlet states firmly.

"You're not weak because your heart is heavy," Émilie responds.

"Aces, am I supposed to have a lawyer?!"

Scarlet whines in stress as she falls back on Émilie's bed, letting her bright curls fly above and sprawl all around her. Émilie shrugs taking a seat on the corner of her bed to comfort Scarlet.

"Maybe it'll look better if you don't have a lawyer," Émilie suggests optimistically. "It might show how genuine your words are since nobody will tell you what to say. And it'll show your childlike innocence because you're too young to get your lawyer. Or maybe you'll get a government-funded one. But let's forget about lawyers now. Pretend that I'm the judge and make your case to me."

Scarlet nods as she gets up off the bed. Émilie scoots over to the centre of her bed and faces Scarlet, straightening her back to mimic a judge. Scarlet stands in front of her, keeping her composure in check.

"I don't know my father anymore and now I don't have it in me to figure him out," Scarlet confesses. "Why he did all this is beyond me. I don't even know why he brought a kid into this world if he and my mom never planned on being a part of her life."

There's a part of her that still hates her parents, that will maybe always hate them, but they're her parents, after all, and she doesn't want to hate them even more than she already does. Frustration overwhelms her. It rips her bones and overpowers her insides. No drug or drink could cure it. She always feels the need to do something bad or reckless, yet exciting. She always lacks air thinking about it. She wants to go, to run out the door, but she would only make everything worse.

"D'accord…" Émilie mutters, sensing how tough this is for Scarlet to do. "How about we pick an outfit for tomorrow? If you'll cry, might as well do it in style."

"If I'm heading for hell, might as well do that in style as well."

-o-

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

When Wolf came home from school, he had a rough copy of his plan to get Scarlet back. By that, he means that he knows he has to find her, but everything leading up to that point was just a big question mark. First, he needed to get out of his house for a few days straight. He wouldn't pull a Scarlet and leave because his mom would not only have a heart attack but hunt him down and drag him back home by his ear.

Lucky for him, he knew how to get permission. And for a bonus, she was already home.

"Hey, Ma," Wolf says as he walks up to her. He leans against the wall as she looks up at him. "Remember that upcoming field trip?"

"What?" Maha questions.

"That overnight school trip across town that's for the rest of the week. We're leaving tonight."

His mom blinks. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"You did," Wolf argues lightly. "You signed the form and everything. And then, you gave me your spiel about how travelling is the most important form of education."

"Did I?" She questions. Wolf nods, hoping his story plays through. "Huh, must have forgotten."

His mom casually shrugs before smiling at him. "Well, Ze'ev, I hope you have a fun trip. Have you already packed?"

"Uh, no."

His mom rolls her eyes before muttering something inaudibly in Hebrew. It's not like Wolf would've understood it if she said it at a normal volume. He smiles, knowing that he got one obstacle of his plan out of the way.

"You'd better bring something back!" She exclaims.

"You and me both!"

[And again, there's the future trio of Cinder, Cress, and Wolf. That'll be for another arc.

I'm going out of town for the holidays so just in case I don't update for a while: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!] [2020: I had a moment where I asked myself, where did I go? But then I remembered I went to Florida.]