Trust - Lucas Sinclair

The Case of the Missing Lifeguard (Part 3)

"Do you guys hear that?" Will asked the boys sitting at the table. "It sounds like...thunder. But, no, wait. That's not thunder. It's...a horde of juju zombies! Sir Mike, your action."

Lucas looked over at Mike, who was clearly not interested in playing the game. Mike looked back at looked and sighed. "What should I do?" He asked.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders, not really into the game. "Attack?"

"Okay, I attack with my flail," Mike said, rolling his dice.

"Whoosh! You miss," Will said. "Your flail clanks the stone, the zombie horde lumbers towards you, and..." He rolls the dice before continuing. "the juju bites your arm. Flesh tears! Seven points of damage."

"Oh, no, my arm," Mike sarcastically grabs his arm and looks at Lucas. "Lucas, look, my arm."

Lucas let's out a small chuckle as Will focuses his attention on him. "Sir Lucas, the zombie horde roars! Do you fight back or do you run?"

Before Lucas could get his answer the telephone rung making Mike and Lucas look at each other.

"No!" Will stood up from the table, trying to get the guys' attention. "It's a distraction! A trap. Do not answer it."

Lucas and Mike completely ignored him as they got up from the table and Mike ran after it.

"El?" Mike asked as he picked up the phone. The other two boys stood in silence as they waited to hear more of the conversation. "No. Sorry, not interested." He hung it up and turned back to his friends. "Telemarketers."

"Maybe you should just call her," Lucas thought aloud.

"We can do that?" Mike asked with his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"I mean, I would do that if me and Nikki were fighting," Lucas shrugged, trying to help his friend.

Mike nodded. "Okay, but what would I say?"

"You'll say nothing!" Will hit his staff on the floor, gaining their attention once again. "The Khuisar tribe still needs your help."

"All right, then," Mike sighed as he thought of a way to finish the game quickly. "I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus, and saving the Khuisar. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar."

Lucas lifted up his hand for a high-five from Mike. "Victory."

"Okay. Fine," Will said, his demeanor completely changing. He took off his hat and robe, and turned off the music he had on. "You guys win. Congratulations."

"Will, I was just messing around," Mike said, feeling bad. "Let's finish for real. How much longer is the campaign?"

"Just forget it, Mike," Will snapped at him as he gathered his things.

"No, you want to keep playing, right?" Mike asked Lucas who nodded his head.

"Yeah, totally."

"We'll just call the girls afterwards."

"I said forget it, Mike, okay?" Will yelled. "I'm going home."

"Come on, Will," Lucas tried to stop him before he got to the stairs.

Will pushed him out of the way. "Move!"

Lucas watched as Will went up the stairs then disappeared with Mike following his trail. He didn't know what to do, so Lucas decided to stay in the basement to see if Mike would come back with Will.

He sighed and sat on the couch, rubbing his eyes. He knew they just made things worse. He just hoped everything would work out in the end.

***

"Excuse me," Max gained the workers attention at the front desk of the public pool. The girls took off their hoods of their raincoats that were dripping with water from the thunderstorm.

"No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike," one of the workers said, not even looking up from his magazine. "And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted go climb a tree."

"Yeah, we don't care," Max rolled her eyes as the other worker glared at her. "We're not here to swim."

"Or get electrocuted," Nikki added from Max's right side.

"We found this," El held up the bag they found.

"Does that belong to anybody?" Max asked.

"Oh, yeah," the guy nodded but stayed with the same monotones voice. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," Nikki said.

"You could," the guy looked at her. "Except she's not here. Bailed on me today." The girls looked at each other, knowing something was off. "What is this? You girls want a reward or something?"

"No," Max shrugged. "We're just good Samaritans."

Nikki was the first one to notice that El had turned away from the desk and started to walk towards a bulletin board. She nudged Max slightly and nodded her head to her sister.

"What is she doing?" Nikki asked as El stopped at the bulletin board.

"Maybe she found something," Max replied starting to follow the girl with Nikki by her side. They stopped beside El and looked at a picture of a person she was looking at. "Heather. Do you think you can find her?"

El turned back to the workers who were too busy talking to notice El snatch the photo from the wall. She grabbed Max's hand and started to led her to the empty locker room with Nikki speed walking to keep up with them.

Usually Nikki would say that El shouldn't be spying on people. Especially when she is getting the sick feeling she was having in that moment. But another part of her knew that spying on them would lead to something they need to know. That was the only reason she helped Max set up for spying on Heather.

Nikki turned on all the showers while Max duck taped a pair of goggles she found.

The three girls settled down Max and Nikki both on benches as El sat between them on the floor. She put the goggles on and the only thing that could be heard for a while was the showers.

"What do you see?" Max broke the silence.

"A door," El replied quietly. "A red door."

Nikki felt her stomach dip. Oh no.

Within a second, El started to whimper. She threw off the goggles and gasped.

"What happened?" Max asked, putting a hand on El's shoulder. "El!"

Nikki could see the freight in her eyes. "It's okay, El." She tried to comfort her sister. "It's okay."

Authors note
Wow, another long time since I've updated but here I am. I was up very early this morning so I got a lot of writing in. Hope you guys like this chapter and hopefully you guys won't have to wait so long to get the next chapter.

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️