WILDly (11 page)

I thought about
the sun, all the facts that I had learned, and one thing stood out:
the sun’s gravity is so strong that it holds all the planets in the
solar system in orbit. It literally holds it all together. This
person was incredibly powerful.

I stopped in my
tracks and looked up at the sun. It felt wrong, the thought of the
sun being anything but good. I had always associated the sun with
good and warmth and life. Life on earth exists because of the sun;
how could it be bad?

But I trusted
Duncan. How did he fit into all of this? My guess was that he had a
link with Mars.

I was almost at
the dorm, when Benjamin came running towards me.

“Hey Benjamin,
what’s going on?”

“Hi, Val.
Something terrible has happened,” he gasped, out of breath.

“What, Ben,
what?”

“It’s Alex.
He’s gone.”

“What do you
mean gone? How can he be gone? He’s in a coma! It isn’t possible
for him to stand up and walk out, you know! Unless someone
kidnapped him. Oh. Oh no! Someone kidnapped Alex? Is that what’s
happened?”

He nodded.
“They’re getting serious, I’ll tell you that. Someone wants you,
and they are willing to stop at nothing.”

My throat
closed up with fright. “But, but... how is that possible? What
about Lisa? Is she okay? Wasn’t she with him?”

“Lisa is here
now, in her room, but in a state. She said that she had gone to the
hospital’s little coffee shop to get something to drink and when
she returned, he was gone.”

My eyes
widened. They could have captured her as well.

“Don’t panic,
Valerie, me and Wilfred will stay here: we won’t leave you. You
remain our first priority,” he assured me.

“When did all
of this happen?”

“About an hour
or so back. Lisa immediately phoned Peter and we all rushed there.
We looked and sensed all over the place, but he was gone.”

“Poor Lisa.” If
I knew Lisa, she blamed herself for this.

“Yep, poor
girl’s in a state. But listen, it’s not safe to phone. The
conversation between Lisa and Peter was definitely overheard.”

“Do you think
my phone is bugged...as well?” I asked. It felt more and more like
a conversation from some or other high-tech spy movie.

“Possibly. But
listen now, please, just take care of yourself. I’ll be around,
watching closely,” his green eyes were begging. He hesitated.
“Don’t go anywhere strange, keep close to the dorm at all times.
Promise me?” he insisted.

Why wouldn’t I?
I thought.

“Promise.”

***

Chapter 10 –
Into the lion’s den

Jennifer was
off during dinner: I could tell because she was quiet as a mouse,
which also made the atmosphere tense and the food tasteless.

“So, next week
is test week. How is your roster looking?” I asked in an attempt to
divert my thoughts and to draw Jennifer into a conversation.

“Fine thanks.”
She frowned and continued eating.

I ignored her
abruptness. “Well, mine is terrible. I have two on Tuesday and
three on Thursday. Can you believe it! Why they couldn’t space it
better, no one will know.”

Jennifer didn’t
seem to be listening. I took a bite and then tried again.

“How are your
classes going, Jen?”

She answered
the same as before. “Just fine, thanks”.

I didn’t
appreciate her rudeness and decided not to tolerate it. She
wouldn’t see the sun shining on anyone but herself. So I decided to
confront her head-on. “What’s going on, Jennifer?”

“Nothing,” she
replied quickly.

“It’s not
nothing. I know you too well. What’s the matter, tell me now!” I
demanded.

My stronger
approach had the right effect and she stopped eating and looked
down at her hands. “I feel like such a failure. I can’t even keep a
date, and you’re running around with
two
stunning guys!”

“I told you,
they are only friends. Friends, Jennifer. It’s a concept that you
don’t understand. A girl and a boy can be friends, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s
what Duncan told me over the phone as well,” she said bitterly.

I had forgotten
about Duncan and then remembered that I still wanted to phone
him.

“Did Duncan
dump you?”

“Yes, Val. What
else? That’s what ‘friends’ mean, you know?” she mocked me.

Her reaction
wasn’t an overreaction so much any more. “But why, what
happened?”

“He didn’t dump
me in so many words, but when I phoned him, a girl answered. She
said he didn’t want to talk to me and that he’d rather be my
friend. Then she asked me to leave him alone for her sake as our
‘friendship’ would only interfere with their relationship.”

“Oh, I’m sorry
about him, Jennifer. But don’t you mind him, there are more where
he came from. Don’t worry about it, be patient, you’ll find Mr
Jennifer soon enough.”

“Don’t
patronise me! You’re not the expert!”

I counted to
ten and then continued; the poor girl had been dumped and it
couldn’t be nice, especially not with the size of her ego and
image-awareness.

“You are on
campus, Jen! There are guys all over the place, swarming like bees.
And if you really want, I can set you up on a date with Wilfred?
You seemed to like him? He’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah, he is so
nice that he disappeared. I invited him to have dinner with me and
you tonight, and he simply didn’t show,” she said with a cracking
voice and closed eyes, as if trying to hold back tears.

I knew what’d
happened. Wilfred had gone to sleep as he had to do the night
shift. In the fumble with Alex’s disappearance, he’d forgotten
about Jennifer. Her bad mood made even more sense to me now, but I
couldn’t tell her the truth.

“He’s not like
that. I’m sure that there’s a very good explanation for all of
this,” I tried to calm her.

“Like what,
Val? He forgot about me, end of story. And you said that you met
him over the weekend. There’s no way that you can know him that
well by now,” she growled. Her voice was climbing and the senior
tables were staring at us.

“I really don’t
think he stood you up on purpose. But you can think whatever you
want.” I gave up. There was no convincing her.

She threw down
her knife and fork, jumped up and walked away from me.

I finished my
dinner under a stare of eyes. Then I collected the take-away for
Lisa before going upstairs. Jennifer’s mood was tiring and I put
her out of my mind. I’d spend my energy on Lisa instead; she was in
real need of support.

But I hesitated
in front of her door. I decided to phone Duncan first, there and
then. I pressed the green button with firm hands. It rang a few
times and then someone picked up.

“Bridget,
hello.”

Bridget? Had I
heard correctly? It wasn’t possible. Then that familiar voice came
again, the annoying, happy voice. It was a voice that I would never
forget.

“Hello?”

I immediately
pressed the red button. Bridget had Duncan prisoner.

Not him too! As
if it wasn’t enough that Alex had disappeared. Unless their
disappearances had something in common. Or someone in common.
Bridget? Bridget! Now there was a girl that I had totally
underestimated. So
she
was the one behind it all. She had
Alex and Duncan captured.

I phoned again,
but it just rang and rang.

I had to find
Benjamin, and tell him that Bridget was behind all of this. The
Reds had to rescue them, Alex and Duncan.

But I had to
warn Lisa first. I burst in through Lisa’s door without knocking;
it was an emergency after all. My entrance startled her awake.

“Noooo! Leave
me alone! Please, please, please! Leave me alone,” she screamed
hysterically, crawling into a bundle and covering her head with her
arms.

I realised the
poor girl was still in shock from the kidnapping. “Lisa! It’s only
me Lisa, it’s Valerie.”

She slowly
removed her arms and peeked through closed eyes at me.

“Oh, I’m so....
glad it’s you.” Her voice broke up and she started to cry. I bent
over to hug her, holding her until her sobs calmed down.

“These
kidnappings have me so nervous,” she explained. “I just fell asleep
for the first time in days, and it was the one nightmare after the
other.” Her eyes were as red as rubies, red and swollen.

“Oh, I’m sorry
Lisa, really sorry to wake you. But I need to tell you
something.”

“ Uhhhh. I’m
awake now. Go ahead then, as long as it isn’t any more bad news. I
won’t be able to handle it right now,” she said, on the edge of
another break-down.

“I have reason
to believe...” I couldn’t get the word out. Then I tried again.
“I’m sorry I have to tell you this. But... uh... it’s Duncan.”

“Duncan? Duncan
who?”

“Duncan, as
in... isn’t he Mars?” I asked, confused.

“No.”

“Is Alex then
Mars?”

“No,” she
smiled. “Alex is the sun. Didn’t I tell you this?”

The blood froze
in my veins. Alex the sun?

I swallowed.
Alex was the enemy. Alex was my personal enemy. I couldn’t believe
it!

Alex, who had
been so kind and warned me about the parking the very first day
that I arrived. It made sense then that he had taken me to hospital
and given me over to Bridget’s motherly care. Bridget was working
for the lot of them. Then he’d pretended to care about me so much
that he’d dropped everything and came looking for me, ill as a dog,
and listened to my entire story like... like a friend would. All
the while he was nothing more than ...than an
astronomical
fraud!

And that meant
so was Lisa. And the Reds. And they have poor Duncan captured! This
sly lot were good: they had managed to deceive not only me, but my
parents as well. They had me convinced, really convinced.

And to think
I’d almost spilled the beans in front of Lisa just now. Luckily I’d
discovered the truth in time, before they did something to Duncan.
And wasn’t that a clever trick, I thought, deceiving me into
thinking they were my friends and protectors. Classic, textbook
deception. The Reds had even let me phone my dad the day that they
had found me in the veldt. I had walked around campus with a sense
of safety, with the Reds following me, meanwhile they had been
spying on me. They had me captured, in a free sense.

Duncan didn’t
stand a chance against the lot of them; they were a team of stars
and red dwarfs. And they had been trained. And Duncan was probably
just a regular human or a weak planet.

I would
probably get over the deception of the Reds over time, I hadn’t
known them for long enough, except for maybe Benjamin. But I was
really hurt by Lisa. And really, really hurt by Alex. How could he?
How on earth could he?

A war between
anger and sadness brewed in me. I wanted to scream and cry at the
same time. I wanted to know how they could do this to me and keep
up the pretences so perfectly. But I had to keep it together, for
Duncan’s sake.

“Valerie? You
there? Hello?” Lisa asked. “I told you about Alex, didn’t I?”

I had to keep
up the pretence in front of her as well. Luckily I still had her
take-away in my hand. It gave me something sane to say.

“Oh, yeah. I
remember now. But here, I brought you dinner. Excuse me please, I
have stacks of studying to do. There’s a big botany test coming up.
By the way, I made you copies of my notes. I’ll bring them over if
you want?” I tried to hide the emotion I felt behind normal
stuff.

“Don’t worry
about it now. I’ll get them from you later. I’m going to try to
sleep again. The Reds promised to keep in contact. They’ll let me
know immediately if they find out anything.”

“Okay, see you
later then,” I added for the sake of appearances.

“Wait, what did
you want to tell me about this Duncan?” she asked.

“Uhh. It’s not
important now, you don’t know him. Don’t worry about it. Sorry I
woke you.” I didn’t wait for her answer and rushed out.

As soon as I
was outside, I flew across to Jennifer. Ronald probably knew where
Duncan was, and Jennifer would know how to contact Ronald. If I
could get to Ronald, I would be going in the right direction. I
knocked on Jennifer’s door and tried to enter, but it was
locked.

“Go away,” she
yelled.

Out of all
the times to throw a tantrum
, I thought.

“Jennifer, it’s
me, Valerie. Please open the door?”

I didn’t want
to sound too urgent as Lisa’s door was just down the hallway.

“I don’t want
to see you,” she replied.

“Jennifer,
please. I need to talk to you about something. Please open the
door,” I begged.

“No!”

“Jennifer, open
this door. If you are my friend and still want to be my friend
after today, open this door. Right now,” I threatened. I was
desperate and in a hurry.

There was
silence for a moment, then I heard the click of the lock and the
door opened.

“It better not
be about boys,” she warned. She had also been crying, her eyes were
still wet.

“What are you
mad at me for? I didn’t do anything to you! Or are you jealous?” I
asked her straight-out.

“Out!” she
screamed.

“Oh, calm down,
would you? I’ll go. But please help me out first. It’s a matter of
life or death,” I pleaded, friendlier towards the end. I had to
concentrate to stay calm.

“What do you
want?” she asked.

I couldn’t tell
her that I thought Duncan was in danger, because she wouldn’t help
me. So I made a little thingy up.

“I want
Ronald’s number. Do you have it?” I asked, pretending to be
hopeful.

“A matter of
life or death?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

“Okay, not life
or death, but your friend’s heart?” I played her in her own
language.