Lost (The Secret World Of Atlantis)

Prologue

Two figures are walking down the paved sidewalk that evening. Their faces cannot be seen. It seems as if the street lamps are turning away from them, because the light never reveals their identity.

They pass one of the local high schools, one that they've been hanging around a lot lately. But it's not the school that is in their interest. They are looking for a girl. And they've been looking for a very long time.

Their footsteps echo emptily in an abandoned underpass, a shortcut to a dormitory for high school students. Going past a park, the light still doesn't seem to touch them. They are moving forward like shadows. Soon they reach a tall iron fence, like one that usually surrounds graveyards. The main door is sealed shut, with two cameras guarding the entrance. They pass by, stopping a few yards further and two street lamps nearby suddenly go off.

A nosy old lady living across the street, peeps through her window, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. She doesn't care about the broken street lamps, because this happened every once in a while and she was used to it. While she observes the part of the street that isn't covered in darkness, the figures climb across the railing undetected and land softly in the grass.

They spot another set of cameras and do their best to avoid them, while focusing on their destination. The third window from the left on the fifth floor. That's where the girl was. It was time to bring her with them, without alerting her roommates. A difficult job for ordinary people, however, they were quite extraordinary.

The most difficult part of their quest begins with climbing a tree by the building. Their hands and legs move effortlessly across the bark, reaching the top branches in a matter of seconds. From there, they need to get on the building. By climbing the tree they skipped two floors, but they needed to climb three more.

Luckily for them, there was a gutter right next to the tree. But they could only hope it would carry the weight of them both. One of them decides to test it alone. They climb up slowly, without any quick movements and steadily reach the fifth floor. That's when they step on the left, where a narrow continuous ledge decorates the building. They wait for the other one to join them, meanwhile carefully counting how many windows they have to pass to get to the right one.

When they're both finally standing on the ledge, they start moving towards their final destination. Silently, they pass the first window, where the light is still on. Stepping on a broader ledge, they notice some girls in the room, all glued to their phones and they are oblivious to the two figures outside their window.

They step further on, passing a couple of windows more, where all the students are already sleeping. Slowly approaching the third window from the left, they stop right before stepping onto the broader ledge. There is no second chance with this. And they know it very well.

The leading one slowly leans to the window, to locate the girl. Her roommates are all in their beds, some of them on their phones, some are fast asleep. But one bed is empty. The girl isn't there! Suddenly they lose their balance and the other one swiftly pulls them back.

"Careful, sister," a deep voice grunts in the darkness. "What's the matter?" he continues worriedly when he sees the look on her face.

"She isn't here," she answers stiffly and he sighs deeply, staring into the darkness below them. "It's Thursday, she should be here, unless ... Oh, bollocks, we forgot she has a shift every other week on this day." He starts to make his way back, when his sister stops him.

"What are you doing?" she asks in confusion and he gives her a reassuring smile, as if nothing were wrong.

"I'm going to get her," he says, then dives down without a second thought. His sister groans in annoyance. Does he want humans to spot them? He spreads his feathery wings, to land softly on the ground, then looks up at her. She can't see anything but darkness below, but she knows he's looking at her. And she is well aware of what he wants.

She takes a deep breath and jumps. In a few seconds she spreads her wings too and steps onto the lawn effortlessly. Her brother smiles excitedly and they hide their wings without saying a word to each other.

Suddenly a light appears in a nearby window of the building and they make a run for the railing, while avoiding the cameras. One of the broken street lamps starts to flicker as they climb on the other side, revealing a glimpse of their silhouettes.

The old lady across the street notices the flickering. She glances through the window and sees two people climbing over the railing. She immediately makes her way outside, to inform the dormitory that she saw students sneaking out. But as she opens the door of her home, the figures are already long gone.