┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

CASSIE WAS GLAD THAT it was a Saturday, the chaos of the night before still rang in her mind, a constant reminder that the universe wants her dead. She walked into the kitchen, aiming to get some Panadol or maybe a strong cup of coffee, anything to calm her roaring mind. Walking into the kitchen, she found Grace and the twins huddled around the Island with Kayla sitting at the table playing with her food. "What are you three whispering about?" Cassie asked playfully.

Cal looked at Grace, asking for permission to reveal her secret, she nodded. "Mum is throwing Dad a party, but we must keep it a secret from Kay and Dad."

Grace laughed, "It's not exactly a party, just a backyard barbeque between us and his friends."

Cassie grinned, "Oh, he will love that!"

"It's our job to keep-" Ben walked in the room, stopping Olive mid-sentence, she looked around, quickly thinking of a cover, "Kayla out of trouble!" Not the best cover. Cassie glanced over to her daughter, who was mindfully playing by herself, Kayla hadn't been much trouble lately.

Ben kissed Grace's cheek as he walked past, "You were out early-" Cassie grabbed her coffee and sat down next to Kayla.

She took a slip as she looked at Kayla's plate, she had eaten all of her bacon, leaving her toast and egg. Kayla leaned the two slices of toast together making a triangle, she hummed to herself as she played with her food. "Kay, what game are you playing?"

"Castles," she gleamed. Cassie continued to watch her in silence.

Cassie doesn't know how long she spent watching Kayla play, one moment she was watching Kayla play with her food, the next Olive and Kayla were cuddled up on the couch playing Mario Bros Racing together. She shook her head, trying to remember where her brain went, Cassie looked at her phone, she had zoned out for twenty minutes! Cassie's search for Panadol resumed as her killer headache reminded her why she walked down stairs. She grabbed two pills and swallowed them down with a sip of her coffee. "Cass," Ben whispered as he entered the kitchen, his voice low enough so that the girls couldn't hear him.

Cassie turned around, "What? Why are you whispering?" She asked, her head tilted to the side.

He shook his head, "Follow me."

Cassie followed Ben into the hallway, when she was out of Kayla and Olive's sight, Cal and another woman who looked like death appeared, "Who—"

"Cal, go."

"I want to help!"

Ben frowned, "Go and sit with your sister and cousin, Aunt Cass and I have handle this."

Cal groaned but left the hallway, leaving the three of them, Cassie turned to the woman, she looked Cassie's age and had pale skin with bags and bruises all over her, her eyes were a watercolour blue and her hair dark and curly, she wore glasses and sweats, "Who is this?!"

"Not here, I'll tell you everything in the basement."

Ben brought the girl to basement which was currently also acting as Michaela's room. The girl was limp, she was leaning onto Ben as if she might fall if she was left to stand by herself, Cassie looked around the room and grabbed out a chair, "Thank you," the girl stuttered. She looked at Cassie, her eyes wide and afraid.

"She's okay, this is my sister, Cassie. She's here to help."

The girl nodded, "My name is Autumn—"

Ben nodded, "Autumn Cox. From the plane, right? How did you find me?"

"I hear your name, like my own voice in my head and somehow I knew how to instinctively get here," Autumn looked at Cassie, she didn't recognise the blonde from the plane, "Is that crazy?"

"No— No, it's not," Cassie's voice was soft and warm, like the one she used when her students or Kayla on a bad day.

Autumn turned to Ben, her eyes began to water, her voice shaking as she explained herself, "It was like my subconscious was telling me that you could help"

"Maybe I can. Can you tell me what happened to you and the others?" Ben asked.

"They kept us hooked up to monitors. Took samples of our blood. They ran all kinds of tests on us."

Cassie looked at Ben, her eyes locking with his, Autumn is one of the missing passengers! Cassie realised. "Autumn, who are 'they'?"

"I don't know." Her voice was hopeless, "We were drugged most of the time. I finally managed to spit my pills out and escape when they took us somewhere in a van."

"Do you know where the others are?"

"I-I tried to remember everything I could. Um, there is a long road. And it's rural, there's no car noises. And it smelled like fertiliser. And a read door, I remember that!"

"The dairy farm," Ben muttered.

Cassie's eyes widened, "You went there?! When?"

Ben sighed, "When Cal was sick, I knew the experiments had something to do with Cal being sick so I got Mick to train them down, we were too late though." Ben explained to Cassie, suddenly Cassie felt bad for blaming Ben and Mick for leaving when Cal was sick, they were helping in a way that Cassie can never understand. Ben turned his attention back to Autumn, "You said you escaped from a van. Do you know where it was going?"

She shook her head, "No. Oh, God. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

The lady began to cry, her voice trembling, "Hey, hey, it's okay. You escaped, you don't need to be sorry," Cassie patted her back.

"It's okay. We just need to get you some help," Ben grabbed out his phone and called Michaela.

"Who are you calling?"

"Our sister, she's a cop."

"No! No!" Autumn exclaimed, her suddenly outburst making Cassie take a step back, "There were warrants out for my arrest when I got off the plane but the police who took me from the hanger were the ones who turned me over to them!"

"No, it's okay. Michaela's one of us, a passenger, and so is the doctor I want you to see. I promise you, it's okay." We're all in this together, you're safe now."

After Ben called Mick, he grabbed his keys, "I'm going to take Autumn to Mick and Saanvi, can you watch the kids?"

"I want to come, Olive is old enough to watch Cal and Kayla for a few hours."

Ben sighed, "Cass..." he looked at Autumn, "I don't want you to come, it's too dangerous, I don't know what we're going to do or how much we're going to find out but it's not a coincidence that Autumn came here especially not after I told you about the callings, the safest place for you is at home."

Cassie crossed her arms, "I don't need you to protect me."

"No you don't, but your daughter needs you to be here to protect her, if you die, trust me, you won't be able to."

Cassie thought about Kayla growing up without her, an orphan. Who would adopt her? Probably Grace, she's the closest thing Kayla has to a dad, or maybe Cassie's dad will take her. When Cassie was younger, her Aunt Nicole died and her parents took in Cassie's cousins for a few years. "Okay," she sighed, "But be safe, we don't know Autumn or if anything she is saying is the truth."

"She's hurt—"

"Ben! Be safe."

He nodded, "I will."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

MJ MOVED HER CEREAL. She looked at her phone, trying to decide whether or not to call Natty. Miss Stone said she would talk to them both on Monday but she knew that Natty deserved to know straight away, it was bad enough she slept on it. Christy and Amber looked at each other, their eyes having a conversation that MJ wasn't let in on, it wasn't that she cared. After overhearing that Christy and Amber were considering adopting MJ, her feelings for them became so cloudy that she tried avoiding them.

MJ was getting a sense of deja vu as Christy eyed towards her, echoing for Amber to say something. The last time they looked at MJ like that, Amber and Christy had told her to return to school.

"MJ, Christy and I have been talking—"

"Ah!" MJ cried as her head started ringing, her entire body shaking. A major migraine pounded her mind. It didn't feel natural.

"MJ! What's wrong?!" Christy jumped out of her chair and rushed over to her side, she grabbed MJ's hands, "You're shaking!"

"I'm fine!" She exclaimed. The high-pitched noise was still blasting in her mind. She took a deep breath as the ringing slowly tired, "I'm fine, it was just a headache."

"M—"

"I need to go," MJ grabbed her phone and headed to the door.

"Wait! Do you need a lift?" Amber questioned.

MJ shook her head, "No but how much is it for a train?"

Christy and Amber gave her a ten-dollar note, they said it wouldn't be that much but she should buy herself an all-week pass while she's there. MJ didn't know what she was going, she just went where it felt right, something in her just knew where to go, like a feeling of deja vu that got stronger the closer she got. It made no sense but she was in no mood to question the universe.

On the train, she spotted a familiar face, "Cal?" MJ asked as she sat down next to him.

"Let me guess, you got the calling too?"

MJ gasped, she thought that Cal didn't get callings. MJ noticed a sketch book in his hands, a drawing of a farm, trees and a red thing she couldn't quite make out, she looked closer at the red thing and realised it was blood, "Cal-" She looked at his face, his skin was pale and his eyes sunken, "You look like death!"

"They're experimenting on the missing passengers again, we need to get there soon!"

"Experimenting?" She questioned, Ben and Michaela hadn't said anything about experiments.

Cal nodded. As they sat on the train together, Cal filled her in, telling her about everything Michaela and Ben forgot to tell. As Cal told MJ about the experiments she came to a horrifying conclusion, she's not surprised anymore. With all the crazy things that has happened in the last month or so, she's lost the ability to be surprised. "So..." Cal started as he got off the train, "You've been having callings too?"

"Yeah, I've been helping your dad with them... I thought you didn't have any."

"I do, well kinda. My dad doesn't know."

"You're on a bus to find your dad because you had a feeling, if he didn't know before, he's going to know now."

"I know..." Cal hugged his sketchbook again.

MJ looked at the book, "What's that drawing?" She asked, her eyes focused on the drawing of a farm. He hugged it tighter.

"They're my callings, I— see things and I draw them..."

"Oh, cool. Can I see?" He shook his head.

"AHH," MJ's head rang again, the electric migraine starting up again as they got closer to the next stop, she took a deep breath, trying to minimise the pain in any small way. She looked at Cal, "Cal! Your nose is bleeding!"

"We're close!"

MJ nodded, she could feel it, each second that passed the ringing lessened.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

The ringing stopped but that wasn't the only sign that they were there. MJ's brown eyes froze as she saw a dozen police cars at the front of the warehouse, her mind telling her that going any farther was a bad idea but her body still doing so anyway. She looked at Cal, the boy didn't seem to mind the collection of police cars and just kept walking forward, his mind elsewhere. "That's my dad!" Cal exclaimed as he spotted a group of people, he ran forward, "Dad! Dad! I know where they are!"

"Cal! Wait!"

"Cal?" Ben asked as he turned around.

"They're still here."

Ben shook his head, his eyes filled with concern, MJ bit her lip as she watched, envy swelling in her mind, "Cal, what are you doing here? Where's your mum?!"

"I had to go, I left a note!"

Ben leaned down, holding Cal's shoulders, "No, you cannot be here, this is crazy— How did you even," he looked up at MJ, "Did you?"

"No! I took a train, I was already on it when she got on."

"No one knows where we are right now," Michaela said in disbelief.

"I knew! My drawings told me."

Ben checked Cal's temperature, noticing his pale state, "You're burning up."

"He had a nose bleed early too."

"No! No!" Cal exclaimed, ignoring Ben and MJ's concern, "You don't understand, we're supposed to help you find them," Cal pulled out a drawing of the warehouse, "They're right here!"

"Cal, we turned the warehouse upside down. They're not in there."

"They're right here!" He pointed at the blood on his drawing that MJ noticed early.

MJ looked around, on the drawing the blood had landed between two trees, it was a long shot but she heard and saw things that told her the future so who was she to judge. "Those trees!"

"Check between them!" Ben pointed at the trees MJ noticed.

"Seriously?" The guy who interviewed MJ asked, MJ gasped what was he doing here? Do Ben and Michaela seriously trust the man who kept them locked in a tent for 2 days?! When Vance and the police officers searched between the trees, MJ followed, her eyes glued on Vance and the large gun he was holding. Vance noticed and lowered the gun, his eyes fixated on the girl, "How's your friend going?"

MJ glared at him, "Good, why?"

He shook his head, "No rea—"

"We got something!" An officer called out.

Four or so officers stood in front of a small mental door, it had previously been hidden by a few trash bags and overgrown vines, clearly whoever put it there didn't want anyone else to find it. MJ walked up to the door, grabbing a torch off of one of the cops, "You're not going in there," Ben said as he grabbed the torch off of her.

"Like hell I'm not," she crossed her arms.

"It's too dangerous."

MJ shook her head, "I'm going, and you can't stop me."

Ben sighed, he looked at Vance, "Okay but stay behind me and Vance, if we see anything, one of the officers is going to take you out straight away."

MJ nodded, "Deal."