When Mica and Hugo got up, they were still alone in the house.
Since his mother wasn't there, Mica made a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast right after getting ready for school. He thought about calling her, but that meant having to search through the mess in his room for his cell phone to find the number, and he didn't have much time. Besides, if she wasn't there, it meant she was still at the police station, trying to get the police to pay attention to his father's case.
“Mica, I don't think I should go to class,” Hugo said as he ate a little.
“I was thinking the same thing. But I think not showing up will only make you look more guilty.”
“More?”
“You know what I mean.”
They finished eating without another word, and when Mica got up from the table and left the dishes in the sink, Hugo made up his mind.
“I'll go. I'll see how things are, and if anything happens, I'll leave before going into the classroom. It's not like I can go home either... We don't have English today, right?”
They left the apartment in silence and walked the route they had taken every school day for the past nine years. The difference was that every one of those times, they had spent the walk talking about video games, TV shows, books, or movies. This time, worry was the protagonist.
Mica turned to look in another direction every time they approached a bus stop, afraid of finding a familiar face among the posters of the missing. Hugo, for his part, looked back whenever he heard a vehicle stop behind them, expecting to see a patrol car.
They walked like that for fifteen minutes, until a girl ambushed them at the corner where they always met Cat.
“Are you Sarah's squires?” she asked bluntly.
She was short, with tan skin and short, somewhat messy hair. She wore normal clothes instead of the school uniform someone her age was supposed to be wearing at that hour on a weekday. However, her outfit—a skirt over a pair of jeans, a yellow jacket, and hundreds of multicolored accessories such as bracelets, necklaces, and hair clips—made it clear she was a year or two younger than them.
“You don't have to answer. It's obvious,” she continued when the boys were left dumbfounded by her introduction. “One of average appearance, staring blankly into the void of his existential crisis,” she began, as if reading from a mental note. “And the other, redheaded and chubby-cheeked, with a constant aura of stupidity. You are definitely Micheleangelo and Hugo.”
“Hey! Who do you think you are, calling someone stupid?” Hugo protested. “You're just a kid!”
“María,” the girl introduced herself, ignoring Hugo's angry tone. “I'm Sarah's knight. A pleasure to meet my inferiors... I suppose.”
“Your inferiors!? Are you hearing this girl?”
“Did Sarah send you? Do you know where she is?” Mica asked, doing his part to ignore his friend.
“Obviously I know where she is. And you're going to follow me. It's urgent that you meet with her.”
Without waiting for further instructions, Mica changed direction, which María took as an affirmative answer and continued leading them in the opposite direction from where she had appeared.
“My dude, are we really going to follow this complete stranger?”
“We wanted to talk to Sarah, didn't we?” Mica reasoned. “By the way, María, we need to find Cat and...”
“I already took care of Catherine, Jacob, and Tomás,” she replied without looking back at them. “They were the first ones. I only had to call them on their cell phones. For some reason, you two don't have one. So I had to come find you. Good thing my master knows everything about you and was able to tell me where and when to find you.”
“Your master?” Hugo asked.
María sighed dramatically before adding:
“She also told me you're idiots.”
They continued through the city, heading away from the school without even thinking about missing class. The streets were crowded with young people in uniforms laughing with their friends as they walked and adults hurrying to get to work. Everything seemed so contradictory to Mica. His city was being battered by a wave of disappearances, and they had just been dragged into a war between people with paranormal powers, yet the rest of the world continued acting as normally as ever.
Ten minutes later, they passed near the residential area where Cat lived, and twenty minutes in, they were on a street parallel to Tavern. After thirty minutes, they entered an area of low-rise buildings, only four or five stories tall, that wasn't particularly known for its peace and security. They walked a couple of blocks, and without warning, María led them into an alley between two stores. At the end of the alley, the rest of the Adventurers' Group was waiting.
“Finally decided to show up,” Jacob greeted them, half his face covered in bruises, his left arm wrapped in bandages, and his right hand resting over the area of his side that had suffered the worst wound. He let out a pained expression as he turned toward them.
“My dude, you look terrible. Shouldn't you be in the hospital?”
“I should. But I'm not going to let you face whatever comes next alone. My conscience wouldn't let me rest if I found out you all died because you didn't have your strongest comrade with you,” he replied to Hugo before turning his attention to María and frowning.
“Cat, how are you holding up?” Mica asked, turning toward his friend while Hugo continued his conversation with Jacob.
Cat gave him a shy gesture, but didn't get the chance to say anything before Rose appeared behind her with her usual bright smile.
“Mica! How fortunate that this time you're the one coming to me instead of the other way around. Should I feel flattered?” she greeted him, and Mica immediately became embarrassed.
“Who is she? What is she doing here?” María asked in a rather forceful and authoritative tone, worthy of her
master
.
“María, this is Rose,” Cat introduced her, still reserved. Much shyer than Mica had ever heard her. “Sorry I didn't warn you, but she's someone we can trust. She's also part of the Adventurers' Group.”
“Sarah didn't tell me anything about her...”
“I don't think she likes her very much,” Hugo interrupted. “In the only session she was in with her, Rose kind of... overshadowed her.”
María shot him a hateful look that immediately wiped the smile off Hugo's face.
“Don't put it like that, silly. I didn't overshadow anyone,” Rose defended herself. “Sorry, María. It's normal for him to exaggerate a little.”
“Still, you have to admit she's more than useful,” Tomás added. “Especially now. When we can enter a Dimension, she'll surely be able to heal Jacob.”
“Besides, you're not in a position to judge one of our own,” Jacob intervened. “If you really knew Sarah as you claim, she would've told us about you... At least to Tomás and me.”
“Mmm,” María judged, rolling her eyes after briefly showing some hesitation on her face. “Sarah doesn't need to tell her squires anything.” She then proceeded to carefully observe each member of the group, except Hugo, whom she blatantly ignored. “And as for you,” she added, pointing at Rose. “If everyone accepts you, fine. At least for now. Then my master will decide what to do with you.”
“Uh... thank you?” she said, puzzled but without losing her smile.
“Very well, now that that's settled,” Mica intervened. “Tell us what we're doing here. Where will we find Sarah?”
“My master lives on the next street after leaving this alley,” the girl began explaining. “But we can't just approach her, and she can't come out to see us either. The police have been surrounding the building for a couple of days. All because of an accusation made by her mother. And even more so now that she's a suspect in certain disappearances.”
“The police know she's the one making people disappear?” Hugo exclaimed.
“No. Because she didn't do it,” María declared, turning furiously toward Hugo. “They suspect she's guilty. Listen to the word I used: Sus. pect... And I wouldn't find it strange after the biggest loudmouth and idiot among you told the police everything.”
Hugo went pale at the statement, especially because everyone turned to look at him.
“In my defense, they're probably looking for me too.”
“They're looking for all of you,” María said. “Or at least they're aware of who you are, and they won't hesitate to arrest you when you get close.”
“Then how will we get to Sarah?” Mica asked.
“The same way we got into the school,” Cat said, then shrugged after suggesting it.
“But Cat can't talk to Rini anymore,” Tomás added. “So how?”
“Mica can do it!” Rose exclaimed.
Mica, for his part, took a step back, unable to hide his agitation.
“It's true, my dude. That's how you escaped the school last night.”
“N-No... I wouldn't know how to do it... If Cat fai... If what happened to Cat happened to her. What can you expect from me? Wouldn't it be better for Sarah to do it?”
“Catherine was attacked by the Hunter,” María began explaining, holding the attention of the entire group and increasing their nervousness with those words alone. “Just as Sarah was attacked before. You can't expect Sarah to use her Dimension to come here alone when you can use one to go to her. There are more of you, and you've already survived an ambush. Even when you didn't have me.”
“Impossible,” Mica said. “Cat had to explore the school and carefully measure every step to navigate the Dimension. I couldn't do that. Not to mention I have no idea where Sarah is.”
“That's not how it works,” María said, and before finishing her explanation, she approached the end of the alley and gestured for Mica to follow her. “It's not like I know how myself. I don't have an Angelino yet, but my master told me about it.” When Mica reached her side, she pointed toward the building at the end of the block, which indeed had two patrol cars parked in front of the entrance. “Fourth floor. The top one. It'll be easy if you visualize it. You can make us go up to this building beside us and then cross from rooftop to rooftop with some kind of bridge or something. We only need to reach that building.”
“Sounds easy, my dude,” Hugo added, approaching from behind them without them noticing.
“If it seems so easy to you, you should do it yourself.”
“Unfortunately, I don't have an Angelino either. The only ones with such powers are Cat and you, and Cat...”
“I don't know if I can say I still have Rini...” Cat said sadly. “She hasn't answered me since the school turned into a nightmare. And I can't open my Dimension either...”
Mica's heart tightened when he heard her speak like that, but it hurt him especially when he saw her eyes well up with tears after finishing the sentence.
“Okay,” he said. “I'll do it... We'll go see Sarah and sort all of this out.” Then he turned to his friend and spoke softly. “Cat, you don't have to worry about anything. Tolmoch assures me that Sarah's Angelino knows a lot about everything that's happening. Surely he'll know how to get Rini back.”
Cat, dejected, nodded.
“Very well. Squire Mica, open that Dimension and let's get this over with,” María ordered.