Our plan was simple, almost too simple for a mission this important. Chloe was the distraction, whose job was to get into a fight with Beatrix so bad that the Headmistress had to leave her quarters. Evelyn was the lookout, who waited near the Headmistress’ door in case she came back. In that case, the code word was “butterfly.” Violet and I had the job of breaking into the Headmistress’ room and finding anything that could remotely relate to the kidnappings. Everything was set. Minutes before our plan was about to begin, I said a quick prayer, almost trying to convince God that what I was doing wasn’t a sin and to please not have me end up in hell. The dinner bell rang suddenly, and I knew what that meant for us: showtime. Violet met me at my door, and we waited for the signal that we were good to go. Suddenly, a loud scream echoed through the halls, followed by the crack of a body thudding on the floor. “Chloe’s done her job, now it’s time to do ours,” Violet said, then we broke out into a sprint to get to the Headmistress’ quarters. We met Evelyn there, where she was nervously fidgeting with her fingers. “Are we really sure we want to do this?” she asked. “It’s not too late to just turn back and ignore this plan.” “Do you want to find out the truth or not?” Violet asked back. When Evelyn nodded, she said, “Good, now let’s go before we run out of time.” Evelyn quickly wished us good luck, and Violet and I dashed to the door of the Headmistress’ quarters. Violet took out the hair clip from her hair, then jiggled it on the doorknob. “What’s that supposed to do?” I asked. “I found one of the Shadows reading a book, and when she left I looked at it,” Violet began to explain. “The person in the book used a hair clip to unlock the door when it’s locked.” I scoffed. “That’s never going to work.” Suddenly, there was a click. Violet smiled, turned the doorknob and the door swung wide open. “Never going to work, right?” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just try and find some evidence, ok?” We crept into the room and lit a torch so we could see where we were going. The Headmistress’ room was big, so there were so many places to start. “Let’s start with her side table,” Violet suggested. “We’ll look from there.” I nodded in agreement, then we both headed to her side table. It was mostly normal, with a candle and a Bible on it, but there was a single piece of paper on it. It had a bunch of random combinations of numbers and words on it, all ending with either the word “lane,” “avenue,” or “drive” on it. At the bottom of the paper, there was a quick note: ‘Next Full Moon: August 14th.’ There was also a reminder: “Remember to bring lethe moon drops” “Doesn’t that look a whole lot like the combinations on your necklace?” Violet asked. “They really do,” I responded. “Could this have something to do with the kidnappings?” She rolled her eyes. “Of course, it has something to do with the kidnappings. We need to keep looking for more evidence like this!” “And what does it mean by ‘The Next Full Moon?’” I asked. “What does that have to do with anything?” “Girly! Do you not remember what you told us!” Violet exclaimed. “You said the next kidnapping would be on the full moon.” I gasped. “You're right! And today is August 1st. We only have 2 weeks left!” “Then we better find more evidence, now,” Violet demanded. “And what’s a lethe moon drop anyway!” “I have no idea, but we best get a move on it.” We departed from her side table and headed for the Headmistress’ working table. On the table, there were a bunch of newspapers that looked not more than a few weeks old. “Let’s read a few of these,” I suggested. “Maybe they might have reported on kidnappings?” I sat down and quickly began reading the newspapers. Violet and I were both shocked to see that there were tons of reports of missing girls that matched the descriptions of all the girls that were in the facility! When Violet saw one, she froze in her tracks. “What? What’s wrong?” I asked. She slowly turned the newspaper with a trembling hand, and I saw the headline: “The Next Victim: 1 Year Old Violet Jackson Has Been Kidnapped. Eye color: green. Hair color: blonde. If you have any information on this kidnapping, please contact 1-800-KIDNAP.” “It’s true then,” Violet quivered. “We all really are just kidnapped, children.” “Let’s see if we can find any more newspaper articles on anyone else in the facility.” And sure enough, we did. Willow, Hazel, Ava, Penelope, and a bunch of other girls from the facility had their own newspapers with missing reports. Even Chloe had a newspaper, with the details of her light brown hair and her blue eyes to a tee.
“How do you think Chloe will react when she sees this?” Violet asked. “You know how intense and emotional that she can get sometimes.” “Honestly, I have no idea,” I responded. “I don’t know how anybody could ever take news like this lightly.” “Yeah,” she said. “It’s really hard to accept someone we’ve known all our lives, really, we don’t know!” I nodded. “Do you think that there is anything else that we could find? I mean we found out when the next kidnapping would be, and now we know that the girls here have been kidnapped, although we don’t know why Evelyn doesn’t remember anything…” I kept rambling on and on, but I didn’t notice Violet staring at 1 specific newspaper for another 2 minutes. “Eliza? You may want to come to see this…” she said. I walked over, expecting to see another missing person’s report, but instead, I found something that really set in this information: my report. My curly hair and big brown eyes were matched perfectly, with the words, “BREAKING NEWS: Next Girl was Taken! President Alicia’s daughter Eliza Reynolds has been kidnapped! The President is offering $1,000,000 as a reward for any information on the whereabouts of Eliza.” President’s daughter? Me? What is a president anyway? It seemed important, but I’ve never heard of one. My legs began to feel like noodles, weakening until I almost fell. Suddenly, we heard the sound of talking outside the door. “So Headmistress, what’s your favorite animal?” I heard Evelyn say. “I like BUTTERFLIES.” Violet and I looked at each other. “butterfly” was the codeword that meant that the Headmistress was coming! We quickly ran out of the back door, but not before taking a few newspapers and a copy of the Headmistress’ note. As I dashed out the door with Violet, I could tell we both had the exact same thought. “What comes next for us?”
