Notes

CHAPTER FOUR: Anonymous Ally


It's been about 2 days since we've told Lewis, and we've carried out our plan, Lewis still hasn't been able to find where the trackers are, but Angel's done with the rope and I have gathered at least some information, yesterday I heard Father talking with Sister and Brother inside Father's room, I was lucky to not get caught, they clearly didn't know that they knew.


YESTERDAY


"So, regarding the next shipment?" Brother's voice was heard through the thin door.

"The next shipment... yes, It'll be, like usual, two months from Liam's shipment," I flinched at the mention of his name.

"Have you passed on the information to HQ?" HQ? So they have headquarters, and are clearly able to contact them somehow..

"Do not worry Brother, you know well Grandma is aware of everything," 'who is 'grandma'?' "So, who will be next?" I gulped, it was about 2 months from Liam's shipment, and I had a feeling Sal was right and it was gonna be Ali.

"77194, her scores are only average, so unfortunately for her, she'll be next, too bad, she was a good kid," I suddenly heard Sister's voice, "Father, we haven't addressed the main issue here," my heart raced, 'she can't be talking about the others knowing the truth right? I was sure they're clueless'.

"Of course, Sal," my eyes widened, 'Sal?! Why are they talking about her?' "She sure put up a fight with that game of hide-and-seek," he lightly chuckled, "Well, from what Rosa said, Sal didn't go near the gate that night, she got lost in the forest-" Sister voice cut him off, "What if she lied? What if Sal knows?"

Father sighed, "Iris, dear, you know Rosa, she wouldn't lie to us, and maybe Sal did go to the gate and they're just not aware of it, consider that, Rosa did say she'd try to find out, we'll meet here tomorrow night, I've already told her, I'm positive she wouldn't do anything behind my back," 'You're too trusting and careless, Father.'

"Of course..." she sounded so... sad, I felt kind of bad for her... I heard footsteps getting closer and I ran back to my room, slowly crept to my bed trying to not wake up the others.


BACK TO THE PRESENT


Now, I was with Lewis at the wall waiting for Angel, suddenly we saw him run towards us, "Hey! I'm here," we went straight to sharing the information we had so far, first was Lewis, "Sorry guys, but I have no idea where the trackers might be so far..."

Angel suddenly pulled out a rope made entirely from tablecloth, "Look, I got the rope,"

I was the last one to share, "It'll be in January... Alyssa is next, I also found out they have headquarters which they're able to easily get in contact with, they also mentioned... someone, they called her, 'grandma'- now don't ask why because I have no idea, also... they're getting close, Father suspects Sal, but he doesn't suspect you guys, he thinks Sal might've gone to the gate and we have no idea..."

"He doesn't know? That's good..." the rest of the conversation was just about how to improve the plan, that night I went to bed early, hoping to maybe take a nap before having to go report to Father, I noticed a letter under my pillow, barely just visible, whoever left it really did a bad job hiding it.

It didn't say who it was from, I read through it: 'the trackers are behind your left ear'.

I reached for it, and felt a small bump, it was true, I kept reading through it, 'there's no way to destroy them, if you do HQ will be informed, so you might have to deactivate them or cut off your ear'.

My eyes widened at the statement, 'cut off my ear?' I continued to read through it, 'behind the gate, there's only headquarters, so if you tried to go through the gate, you'll be killed, those demons eat you for the sake of their own survival'.

I couldn't believe my eyes, 'Only kids who are 6 and over are able to be shipped out, be careful, that's all you need to know'. That's where it ended, it wasn't signed and I had no idea who it was from, it was rather from Sister, or Brother, only caretakes posses such information, and they're the only ones apart from Angel who know that I knew.

I waited until it was finally play time, we all met up near the wall as usual, I pulled out the letter which I kept hidden up my sleeve, and I told them about everything I found on it.

"Behind our ears?" Lewis and Angel both reached up to their ears and informed me that it was there.

"So those- 'people' aren't even human, they're demons..." I almost forgot Lewis didn't know about the demons.

"And behind the gate all that we have is headquarters, so our only way to leave," Angel looked up to the wall, "It's the bridge."

"Lewis," he turned his attention towards me, "Can you still find a way to deactivate the trackers- or get rid of them?" He hesitated for a second, "Well, I can try, but I might not be able to, it's be easier if we could just get them out and then break them, but considering what the letter said we might have to just cut it off..."

"We have to cut off our ears?!"

"Maybe just part of it, but we can't risk trying now..."

"Well we can't risk trying outside- failing- and then getting caught!" The conversation went back and forth until we heard the bell and headed back to the house. The good thing was that now we have an ally, and more information.