*Roman POV*

A full week has passed since our rescue. Each day, Logan comes home looking more and more anxious, which is concerning, seeing he rarely shows emotion so visibly.

"What's wrong, Specks?" I finally ask one day.

"Anx accompanied me on your rescue mission, and he is yet to return to school," Logan says.

"Maybe he's just injured? Or he got sick?" I suggest.

Those options aren't really better, but they give Logan to contemplate other than the scarier alternative. 

"I doubt it, seeing as he hasn't returned any texts or calls," Logan says.

He isn't making it easy to look on the bright side. Patton's better at doing that than anyone. Even if there really isn't one.

"Kiddos? Is everything ok?" Patton asks, walking into the room.

Even though he's been through as much as me, I still feel like I need to protect him from knowing more worrying stuff. Logan, however, doesn't.

"Anx is still missing," He says.

"We need to go looking for him then," Patton says.

Not a question, a statement.

"Not in your state, you shouldn't," Logan says.

"I can. I feel better and I'm just a little bruised now," I say.

That's a lie, but still.

"Falsehood. Patton is still very hurt, and you were injured worse than him," Logan says.

"Doesn't matter. I'm going out there," I say.

I stand up, and Logan pushes me back down.

"No," He says.

"Look, were you like this when we were missing? I'm willing to bet you were searching every day," I say.

Judging by the look in his eyes, I'm right.

"So we need to search for our friend now," I say.

With that, I get up again. 

"Patton, you might as well join us," Logan says.

Logan leads us through the park and to the woods where he says we were last time. We check the old treehouse. It looks like it's been abandoned. We move on to the rest of the forest. It's fall, so things aren't easily disguised by leaves. Still, if there were any other mysterious treehouses in this forest, they're very well-hidden.

As we're making our way back after a few hours of searching, we stumble upon another person. Half their face is covered by a mask, but I can tell they're happy to see us. But not in a good way.

"Oh great, I found you. Time to get my rep back," They say.

"Reg?" I ask, recognizing the voice.

Reg is part of the slightly less popular rival group at school. The whole 'popularity' thing seems so silly now. 

"Oh look, the prince has a brain," He says.

I see him pull out a knife. Why do people have a vendetta against me? And the others, of course, but I'm always the first target.

I expect him to leap at me, but instead, he dashes to a tree, picks up a branch, and before I know it he knocks out Logan. I forgot Reg was one of the best guys on the track team.

I leap at him, but he simply dodges. I grab a sharp rock nearby and throw it at his face, nailing him in the cheek.

"Patton, run!" I shout.

I am not letting him get hurt again.

Reg and I get into a half fight, half wrestling match as I try to disarm him. I don't know when Logan's gonna wake, but I am getting him out of here no matter how long it takes.

Eventually, he grabs back his knife. I'm not quite sure what happened next but it hurt. 

---

"Roman, I swear to god if you don't wake up I'm going to slap the-"

My eyes flutter open.

"What the hell happened to you?" Mom asks.

I look around. I'm back home, and in my room. Patton's sitting in the corner, clearly intimidated by my parents. I don't blame him.

"You owe us a long explanation," Dad says.

"So how much do you know already?" I ask.

I'm in for a long night. 

*J-Dee POV*

Virgil hasn't shown up for school for a full week now. He hasn't responded to any of our texts or our banging on his window. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

"Boys, get back to work. You're on guard until midnight tonight," Our boss says.

We're on call right now. It's after school and Remus and I are wandering the woods.

"Fiiiine," Remus says.

"Yes boss," I say.

We don't really have a choice here. She controls this whole school now that the Lights are gone. She's kinda our leader, and kinda our boss. Like if Heather Chandler was an even bigger pain.

We go up to our ditching treehouse, where we moved to after the rescue. Boss was not happy about that.

"Have you heard anything from Virgil today?" I ask.

"Not a thing. You were with me all day, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. But do you think the Lights did something to him after they escaped?" I ask.

"Probably. You know how they can be sometimes," Remus says.

Our mystery hostage is awake but doesn't say a word.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk here," I say.

"Who's he gonna tell? Besides, I haven't told you about my new prank food," Remus says, pulling out a bottle of paint.

He squirts it into his mouth. 

"Oh god," I mutter, smiling a bit.

Remus is ridiculous sometimes. 

"Do you want to go get some actual food? Our shift doesn't officially start for another hour, Reg is just being lazy and not showing up," I say.

Remus nods.

"Stay here," I tell our hostage.

We climb out and go to my house to get some food.

When we return, he's gone. I check the time. It's Reg's shift, so he'll get blamed for this. Good.

"Well crap," I say.

"Eh. Now we don't have to be on duty. Let's call Bossy Bish and tell her what happened," Remus says, pulling out his phone.

"What did you two do?" She asks.

"Relax, it wasn't us this time. Reg let him escape while on duty," I say.

"I'm going to kill him for this! Find him before he can alert the cops! Kill him if you have to!" She says, hanging up.

"Ooo! Yay! Permission to murder!" Remus says, grabbing his mace.

"Remus no-" I say, but he already jumped down.

There's no stopping him now.

---

We searched all night but found nothing. 

At school the next morning, Remus and I are happy to see Virgil again.

"Hey V. Where've you been?" I ask.

"You know exactly where. I heard everything, Janus," He spits, walking off.

What.

Oh J, you have no idea. Also, the Lights should probably find out Virgil's name soon. At least officially. I don't know why I feel like doing Virgil's name reveal in any book. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading and feel free to leave any thoughts or feedback in the comments. Have a wonderful day/night you magnificent peep!