"yes, why?"
Brac is now sweating, the tension hurts his brain.
"well that explains how you summoned the chains," Hudson said, he is trying to figure out something.
"what? It happened automatically. I haven't done anything."
Brac seems confused.
"now let me tell about myself. I was in the jail for a year and a half. There is many horrifying creatures. The place is something beyond our understanding," Hudson said.
"there is some people I survived with. There were colonies and groups amongst us. Though they didn't tell me much, treating me like an outsider. The only thing I know is they are not from our world. The logo on my hand was the sign of our colony 'Tear of sun'. The ponds were made by the people of many colony. But the one that you found was ours."
Hudson looks at the cup of coffee while sun rays beamed the table.
"What do you mean by 'not from our world'?"
Brac continues, "And Neon was also there?"
"What? you serious? If Neon was there with you why you two didn't leave that place together?"
The seriousness can clearly be seen in Hudson's eyes.
"we weren't together all along. Some monster chased us and we quickly got separated."
Brac said as he starts to drink his cold chocolate milkshake.
"Hudson look we have been friends together for a long time. We should help Neon."
Brac continues, "And we should do something about the jail otherwise more like us will suffer."
"mm. Now that you say I can try helping you to get for our friendship's sake. But first we have to go to his house to confirm … I don't care about more people suffering. I am not that hero kind of a guy. We should quit thinking about jail and live a normal life."
Hudson said as he finished his coffee and stood up.
"hold on let me finish first."
Brac chugs all the milkshake in one go.
"ah brain freeze."
"wanna go or not!" Hudson shouted while moving forward.
"yeah let's go."
Brac said as he starts to follow Hudson.
-At Neon's house-
Brac rings the bell at Neon's residence.
The door opens, a middle-aged brunette woman standing in front of them.
"Oh Brac and Hudson it's you guys. Come in."
The gentle lady welcomed them.
"Aunty we are in a hurry, is Neon home?"
Hudson got straight to the point.
"oh, ok. Yeah he is upstairs."
The lady smiled at them and went back to the kitchen after closing the door.
They are climbing the stairs slowly. Brac is behind Hudson as they stand in front of Neon's door.
Hudson grabbed the handle and opened it.
As they enter they discover that nobody else was there.
"huh, just what I assumed."
Brac sighs to himself.
"But why would his mom say he is upstairs?"
"This is the memory manipulation of the jail. As you said you don't remember how you got in jail. Your memory was changed by the jail. Same goes for my mother. She didn't know her son was gone. This happens to all the people who know you. But how come it didn't work on us?"
Hudson said looking at Brac.
"Yeah it happened with my mom too."
Brac could relate.
"so now how can we save Neon?"
"hold on let me check."
Hudson starts to search for something.
"what are you looking for smartass?"
Brac notices the diary on the desk.
"hey look what I found. there's Neon's diary."
Brac gently grabs the diary and shows it to Hudson.
"oh yeah he writes diary every night. Let's see when he last wrote. This could let us know when he went to jail," Hudson said as he tried to take the diary from Brac.
"hey! is it okay to go through someone's diary?"
Brac takes a step back.
"Are you kidding me? Do you know how dumb you sound? Besides we are also his best friends. First we need to save him and that's what matters now."
Hudson shouted and snatched the diary from Brac.
"let's see what he has written."
Hudson slowly opens the diary, flips to the last pages, and starts reading.
He finds out another fate waiting for them.
It is mentioned that somebody is following one of their friends—Coarto.
Neon had noticed it for some days.
Before reading the next lines, Neon's mother calls them.
"Are you guys done?"
"yeah aunty we are gonna head out now."
Hudson hides the diary under his shirt.
"Let's go now."
Brac walks out of the room.
They went to a grassy field where kids are playing football at a distance.
Hudson sat down and sighed.
He opens the diary again.
"Coarto is missing for the past couple days. I am worried for him. There are also rumors spreading about a group kidnapping kids. But who are they? Who would kidnap teenagers like us? There must be someone behind it."
Hudson reads out loud.
Like a chain of fate—if one danger goes, another knocks on the door. And they were no different.
Brac is under tension as he looks at Hudson with worried eyes.
"what! Coarto is missing too?"
Hudson remained silent.
Coarto Sabastian is a well-known sports kid in their school. He is from another section. So it's normal they didn't know he was missing.
"we have to make a plan," Hudson said calmly.
"Let's go to the police station first!"
Brac raised his voice.
"we will, but not today. I'm tired. I'll go home, rest, and maybe make a plan."
Hudson starts walking away.
"Eh, hey wait—you can't just leave!"
Brac shouted, disappointed.
"I'll call you tonight. See you around, big boy."
Hudson kept walking, looking back with a slightly happy smile.
Brac sighed.
His stomach growled.
Suddenly a ball came flying toward his head.
"Aah, my head!"
Brac is dizzy.
"heyyyyyy!"
A kid's voice came from a distance.
Brac passed the ball back and started walking home.
While crossing a bridge, a girl passed by him.
He didn't notice until she called out.
"hey, is it you Brac?"
Brac looked back. It was a girl from the same section as Coarto.
She's wearing a long skirt and a white t-shirt, her hair dazzling white.
"O Arina. What are you doing here?"
Brac asked.
"umm… I was looking for Coarto. I couldn't find him anywhere."
Arina looked down.
"oh, well I was too. why were you looking for him?"
"he is not attending classes. He's not even home. And there are rumors about kidnappers. I'm worried."
Arina hesitated.
"oh let's look for him together then. That would be safer."
Brac offered.
"hmm.. sure."
Arina nodded.
After searching in suspicious places, they saw a policeman with his bicycle.
"Hey, kids. You shouldn't be walking here. Don't you know there's an amber alert?"
The policeman shouted.
Brac and Arina looked at each other.
They understood.
The policeman offered to drop Arina home.
They parted ways.
The weather turned cloudy as dark clouds covered the horizon.
Brac walked home carefully.
"Mom, I'm home."
He entered the house and closed the door, removing his shoes.
His mom was standing right in front of him.
"what took you so long? do you know how worried I was?"
She shouted.
"sorry."
Brac said lifelessly and went upstairs to his room.
In the dark room, Brac sat alone on his bed.
He sighed and dove into sleep.
The clock ticked.
"Oh, I slept."
Brac moved the pillow and looked at the clock.
It was 10 PM.
It's raining outside.
His phone rang.
"oh it must be Hudson."
Brac reached for the phone.
He picked it up.
"hello Brac."