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The next day was just as Amber feared: for the entire day of class, Blake was not present. It worried the classroom greatly to the point where the only topic floating around was where Blake could have gone. Some speculated that it had to do with her meeting with Aria, since apparently Cor Fortium's Angel was also absent. Layla and Amber quietly ate their lunches at their usual spot, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.
"You guys worried about Blake too?" Layla recognized Daniel's voice as the boy approached them, hands in his pockets. His eyes were heavy with black bags and his movements were sluggish; signs of stress and worry on top of sleep deprivation. Amber sighed, placing her lunch plate to the side and standing up in front of Daniel.
"Yes we are; we're her friends," she stated calmly, "How can we not be worried after the stuff we found yesterday?"
"I know. That's why I came to talk to you two," Daniel continued. Layla looked up in interest, and even Amber looked intrigued. Having gained their attention, Daniel explained himself.
"We don't have enough to really say anything to the police, so I asked my dad to get me in touch with a private detective," Daniel was saying, "I told the guy to look into Aria, and he got back to me saying that the girl was reported missing from her family in another state. In other words, the Aria we know wasn't brought her out of her own free will. Apparently, according to his findings, the private detective mentioned a name that was placed as Aria's guardian; a girl our age named Melody." Amber and Layla exchanged nervous glances at one another. This information was beginning to leave a bad feeling with them both.
"So I had him look into this Melody person, specifically what ties she has or had to Blake," Daniel continued, "Interestingly enough, they attended the same middle school at one point, but what bothered me was that there wasn't anything else found about the connection between the two. The only other thing that seemed interesting was that the school administration helped to rush her transfer to a different school. Keyword here is rushed."
"You think that Blake was trying to get away from this Melody?" Layla summarized, to which Daniel nodded firmly. Everything was still confusing for them, but at the very least there was some backstory that they could lead on. The only big question that remained was why Blake felt the need to get away from Melody as soon as she possibly could.
"When school ends today I'm going to talk to the private detective again," Daniel spoke up suddenly, "I'm thinking of having him try to track down where Melody's location is as of late. The best case scenario? We have Blake's location through finding Melody."
"How will we get to Blake then, assuming we find her?" Layla asked. Amber looked over to Layla with slight confusion. It should have been obvious that Amber could go in with her aura activated and save Blake while Layla could keep watch outside. Daniel placed a hand on his chin, lost in his thoughts.
"Well, I'm not sure about Melody, but I know Aria," Daniel mused aloud, "If she happens to be in the same location - which I'm almost positive is the case - then we will need to devise a way to distract her and see if she can reveal Blake's location for us without Melody noticing." Amber formed on "o" shape with her mouth as Layla finally looked over to her. Layla knew that it would be necessary to have Amber save Blake, but with some information about how to get to Blake would be nice as well.
"Well, when should we head out to save Blake?" Amber asked, standing up with her empty lunch tray in hand.
"Tomorrow, at best," Daniel replied immediately, "I'll come to you two at lunch when I feel we're good to go." At the sound of the bell ringing for the end of lunch, the three parted ways, each determined to find Blake and help her out of this situation.

Echoing through the dark room, the crack of a whip clashing on human skin followed by searing pain across her body left Blake in a constantly dazed state. The pain impaired her reasoning and judgement and being crucified in a similar fashion to Jesus wasn't helping matters either. Her torment had been going on for an hour now, with her eyesight taken from her via blindfold and her shirt stripped from her, leaving her in only uniform slacks and her bra. Blake had managed to keep her silence as to rob Melody of the satisfaction of hearing the screams she wished to let loose for every time the barbed whip struck her and tore at her flesh.
"You will come to love me eventually," Melody had said while tying Blake up to her cross of torture, "A few sessions of persuasion to break your spirit and you will soon become mine through sheer broken spirit." It was one thing to hear about what would be happening; it was a completely different beast to be suffering through it. Melody had been cracking her barbed whip at her body for a full hour without rest now, and it was taking a very heavy toll on Blake. Fatigued and in excruciating pain, Blake could only pray and hope that she would pass out so that she would had a blissful second of rest. Knowing Melody, however, that kind of hope was a dream that would never come true. Aria was constantly by her side hoisting buckets of cold water in the very case that Blake decided to pass out from exhaustion. Blake had already bitten her tongue so much from keeping herself silent that she had already begun bleeding from her mouth from biting down so hard. The anger and pain that Blake felt was so strong that she had barely noticed until Melody stopped her whip suddenly.
"Oh dear, now we can't be having that," she said, her fingers grazing the right side of Blake's face where a thin stream of blood flowed out from the corner of her lips. Melody wiped away the blood in hopes of stopping the flow, noticing that Blake's lips were sealed shut. With a bit of prying, Melody opened Blake's mouth revealing a pool of blood from the wound she inflicted on herself. The blood drizzled down and splattered onto the floor below Blake, revealing a deep cut in her tongue.
"So that's why you've been so silent, my dear. This was preventing you from screaming my name," Melody smirked, "No need to worry though; the bleeding will stop eventually anyway. And so will all of your reasoning when I'm done with you." Blake felt soft lips touch right below her lips where her blood had flowed out of her mouth and heard a moan of delight shortly after. Melody's footsteps trailed behind her, signaling the start of another round of the whip.
Please, don't come here, Blake desperately prayed to her friends, don't come here if you value your lives.

"Blake," Amber gasped suddenly as she and Layla were packing up their things to head home for the day. Layla took notice of it immediately, hiding her surprise so that other students wouldn't suspect something.
"Amber? Something wrong?" Layla asked, not bothering to look up. She already knew that something was wrong, and she knew that Amber would freeze up whenever her name was mentioned. But she had to play the part, otherwise the other students would wonder if they knew anything. Right now, that attention wasn't needed, especially when it had to do with Blake.
"This time yes. Something is definitely wrong," Amber said in a hushed tone, realizing that other students were staring at her from her outburst. Layla eyed her skeptically, wondering what could be much worse than their nightmares of finding Blake dead.
"For a moment I felt as if Blake was saying something to us," Amber explained herself, keeping as quiet as she could, "Like as if she was trying to relay a message to me."
"You're probably hallucinating and just really worried for Blake. There's no way something like that can happen," Layla brushed off. But for you two, it's possible, she finished mentally. She leaned over to Amber's ear and whispered, "It may be possible since you two are connected in a sense because of your tattoos. Keep that thought in mind for later when we rescue Blake to test that." Amber nodded in agreement, all the while hoping that she was really just hallucinating. When she sensed Blake's supposed message to her, it felt as if Blake wanted them to stay away. There's no way I can just do that; that would mean abandoning Blake entirely, Amber justified herself, I can't do that, especially after everything we've done together so far. Layla had just finished packing when she heard a rumble from the distance. Upon turning to the window to see what it could be, she noticed something that she wished wasn't real at that moment. A horde of Ires were causing chaos just a few blocks from the school, and it didn't take long for the other students to notice that same disturbance. Amber picked up on it too, looking to Layla. The two of them quickly gathered their things, blessing their luck that school was already over, and raced towards the Ires' destruction.
"What's the plan now? Blake isn't here so I can't use her aura to fight with you guys," Layla shouted as she and Amber raced to the scene.
"What you can do for now: help the police with crowd control," Amber shouted back, activating her aura and surrounding herself with it, "This horde isn't as big as the first one we faced, so I can handle it. If you feel as though you need to fight back, let me know and I'll think of something." With that, Layla watched as Amber dived head-first into a group of Ires, disintegrating them with a quick flick of her wrist from the force of her aura whip. Layla smiled as she watched Amber rush and tear through the ranks of hundreds of Ires in quick succession, controlling their advances with nothing more than a flick of her wrist and a zing to her step. This same person was known to be goofy and playful, yet here she was being strong, reliable and protective. Layla played her part just as well, helping to control the crowds and helping police with calming everyone down from their panic. There were a few instances where she noticed Ires coming too close to the citizens, but due to Amber's watchful eye, not a single Ire could even touch any person. Since this attack was indeed a smaller herd, Amber was able to dispatch them within an hour without much trouble. Eventually, Amber managed to clear the area of Ires and began to retreat to a nearby alley. Layla, who kept watch of Amber throughout the entire ordeal, followed shortly after making sure that everyone was safe and taken care of by police. As Layla approached the alleyway Amber hid herself in, she noticed a trail of blood leading from the accident to the alleyway. Fearing the worse, she rushed inside following the blood trail back to see Amber covered in cuts and bruises with a long gash on the back of her uniform. Through the chaos of the battle, Amber failed to notice the deep wound until she had reached the isolation of the alleyway.
"Amber!" Layla called to her friend, finding her collapsed towards the back of the dark alley. Amber was breathing heavily, but still alive nonetheless. Layla immediately thought about the blood trail and quickly moved to help Amber to her feet.
"We need to get you out of here," Layla whispered to Amber, supporting her upright, "We gotta get you medical attention and fast. The blood trail you left behind means that the gash you have on your back is a deep one. Come on!" Amber didn't bother with an answer, too tired to really do anything but to breathe and struggle to make her way out of the alley. Some nearby policemen noticed the two girls walking out of the alley and assisted them into reaching an ambulance to take a look over Amber's wounds. The two of them gave the story that they were around the area after school was let out and Amber had shielded Layla from a lot of the destruction that happened around them. Their story was rather convincing, as other injured people could confirm how the destruction had left them with similar injuries. Thankfully, the doctors managed to patch up Amber well enough, and her injuries didn't require her to stay overnight at the hospital, allowing her and Layla to return home to the dorms.

Returning to the dorms was supposed to be as simple as going straight to their room. However, when the incident was seen all over the news, Layla and Amber found themselves surrounded by fellow students who asked about the incident. Layla and Amber were able to placate most of them with the same story as they told the police officers and doctors at the hospital, but there were some that were curious as to Amber's supposed bravery for Layla.
"Oh my God you're so amazing Amber! You shielded Layla from the debris getting yourself hurt!" one of the girls commented with a squeal, "Aw I wish I could meet someone like that! Layla you're so lucky!"
"What are you talking about? We're just friends," Layla said with a laugh, "We've been friends for a long time, and I wasn't watching where I was going so Amber saved me. That's all that happened."
"Y-yeah. We're just friends," Amber supported with a nervous laugh. How the hell did they think that? Layla wondered to herself, that's just ridiculous. She gave a sigh and tugged at Amber's arm towards their room, announcing that Amber needed her rest. With the crowd of girls finally dissipating, Amber and Layla finally arrived at their room. Tired from the days events, they let their minds wander to the one thing that really concerned them besides Ire attacks: Blake's safety and where she could be.