Page 67 of Monster's Mystery

“I thought I might go to the office and see whether he went to the medical wing,” Bruce signed back.

“Great idea. I’ll also check with Professor Dunlop,” I spelled out his name, “and see if Aiden was caught out of bed after hours. He should know that Aiden’s missing anyway.”

Bruce agreed. “And what if we don’t find him?” He chewed on his lower lip. “How long can he be away from you?”

“He was struggling after a couple of months this summer, but we had video calls. I don’t know how long he can handle without regular contact.”

Bruce put his hand over mine and squeezed before signing, “We’ll find him. We’ve got to.”

I took courage from him and nodded.

The class felt longer than usual. After practicing more Aquan, we compared our star charts. I swallowed down my tears when I saw Aiden’s precise handwriting marking out the complex mathematics that covered our chart.

Bruce whistled. “He really knows his math, doesn’t he?”

I appreciated the present tense.

“I assume so. Physics is really not my strong suit. I’m not entirely sure where he was going with this one, and we didn’t have time to finish it and then write it up.”

“It’s okay. Here, he’s calculating using the horizon and Sigma Octantis.”

I wrinkled my nose. “That sounds weird. I’m so used to using the North Star in my charts.”

Bruce chuckled. “As are all we northerners. As for the write up, just focus on the differences between now and then and word-vomit onto the page.”

It was my turn to chuckle, although it didn’t sound very cheerful to my ears. “Thanks, Bruce. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d be fine,” Bruce said, brushing off my compliment.

After class was over, and I’d managed to finish the star chart report with a lot of help from Bruce, we walked slowly behind our classmates to the main floor.

“See you in the cafeteria?” Bruce asked. “You’ve got a bit more to cover than me.”

“Yeah, although if you happen to see Professor Dunlop in the office, you can talk to him instead.”

Bruce nodded. “We got this.”

I trotted down the stairs to the basement again, this time entering the library and heading straight for the restricted section. I was once again relieved that I had the pass as a TA that let me into the banned area without any trouble. I heard nothing in between the stacks on my way to the hidden corridor that housed my study room.

“Hi, Darragh,” I called out to the portrait when I entered. “Have you seen Aiden?”

“Not without you,” Darragh replied.

It was a fair enough answer. It wasn’t like the portrait had any concept of the passage of time.

But it still hurt. I hadn’t realized how much I had pinned my hopes on finding Aiden here.

I sank into the desk chair and burst into tears.

“Hey, now,” Darragh said soothingly. “This isn’t like you. Why did you think Aiden might be here?”

Through my sobs, I managed to convey the entire story to him, including my fears that Aiden had been kidnapped like the other beasts.

Darragh kept silent through my explanation. “It does sound bad,” he allowed. “But you must keep faith. Whoever is taking these people seems to be a decent sort, returning the ones that aren’t needed. Maybe Aiden will be one of those.”

“And what if he isn’t?” I demanded. “What then?”

“You’ll have to go find him.”

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