chapter 4

“Relax, Benny. We’re just having a few drinks. In fact, Mindy was about to leave if you’re staying.”

“It’s Mandy,” said the girl.

“I’m not staying,” said Ben, stuffing his things into his backpack.

“Really, now?” Malcolm beat Ben to the doorway, where he regarded Felicity with a smirk before clapping Ben on the shoulder as he passed through. “Look at you, big man on campus! Good job, buddy. Proud of you.” The tone of his voice clearly suggested he thought Ben was about to get some.

“It ain’t like that, man. We just finna have a few drinks, that’s all.” He didn’t want his time spent with Felicity to result in her getting an ‘easy’ reputation.

He packed a backpack with a change of clothes and some toiletries, and together, he and Felicity dipped. They couldn’t reach Felicity's room fast enough. Once they were there, Ben placed his bag on the floor next to the extra bed and palmed the remote. “Let’s watch TV,” he suggested, thinking that would be a good way to wind down.

As soon as he turned on the TV, though, a news anchor, a generic blonde woman, started rattling off the details of a recent string of disappearances. “...bringing to 32 the number of young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 missing from the Northwest coast since January of this year. Each missing person was either a registered or speculated superhuman, and local officials have not shared details of the ongoing investigation. With so much mystery surrounding the disappearances, some news outlets are beginning to speculate on the possibility of state involvement. Gerry, what’s your take?”

The screen split, and showing a balding Black man in front of a microphone. “Well, Brenda,” said Executive Correspondent Gerard Williams, “Supers have always been subject to discrimination, be it from the police or civilians. These disappearances might be unexplained, but they have serious implications."

"Let's not watch TV." Ben reached for the remote.

"Wait!"

Felicity rolled over in bed, opened her laptop, and ran a few searches. "I've been following this story."

"Me too, me too...it's so depressing. Sometimes too depressing to hear about. But you gotta admit, it feels right now like any of us might be next. What you got?"

She handed him her laptop. He scrolled the list of names of missing people. The first thing he noticed was that he didn’t recognize any of them. He knew the names of pretty much everyone who went to Bellvue except for the freshmen, even if nobody seemed to know his. Their powers were varied: a telepath here, a super-strength wielder there. One-handed, he copied and pasted one of the first names on Felicity’s list, Gina Flowers, into Google.

Gina’s blog was the first result. Ben clicked on it and looked at her profile picture. Gina was a thin, dark-skinned girl with her hair in long braids, wearing a Rivington cheer squad uniform with one arm slung around the shoulders of another cheerleader, a familiar Asian girl with her black hair in low space-buns. “That’s Chloe next to her,” Ben muttered. Scrolling through her page, he came across a worried thread of comments:

January 10 3:55 PM Chloe Nguyen wrote: Girl where are you? I didn’t see you in class

January 10 6:44 PM Chloe Nguyen wrote: I’m at dinner if u want to join us. Nate is wondering where u are

January 11 3:16 AM Chloe Nguyen wrote: ok you’re starting to freak me out. Are u ok?

January 11 1:06 PM Chloe Nguyen wrote: WTF? I can’t hear u at ALL

Ben went down the list of missing people in a similar fashion. The ones who disappeared in late winter all had similar worried messages on their pages. Then in Spring, the pattern changed. The kids who dropped off the map then had status updates about how they were dropping out to go to work, or embarking on international travel.

The kidnapper, or kidnappers, were getting smarter over time.

The most recent victims were absent from social media entirely, but of the ones who still had profiles up:

“They all went to Rivington.”

Ben looked up at Felicity. “Do you think...do you think those kids who transferred in from over there just came cause they wanted a change of scenery? Or did they have to escape something?"