Hey! I told you guys I was working on another!!!! 

Okay, I know it's not a lot, but I have a plan for the rest of the story now!! Yay!!

Thanks to everyone who told me to keep going--I probably never would've picked this up again without you guys! And I know it's been forever and I'm a horrible person for giving up on this for a while, but this is at least a step in the right direction. 

Thanks again for supporting me. It means everything to me :)

And without further ado, Chapter 8!

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When I finally arrived back at my room, my thoughts had wandered from my roommates to the things I had just seen. So, when I closed the door behind me and saw Jax and Sophia standing behind me, looking relieved, I was completely taken by surprise.

"Oh... um... Hi, guys," I said, shifting awkwardly.

"What happened? Where were you? Are you hurt?" Jax demanded, stepping forward. Sophia seemed to sense my hesitation, though, and held her back with one hand.

"I dunno... I was running from the Evo, then I hid in a closet and after that, I went for a walk outside to clear my head," I said lamely. It's not lying to them, I reassured myself, and even if it was, it would be to protect them. There's nothing wrong with that.

Liar.

I shut down my subconscious, making a beeline for the bed.

"A walk?" Jax asked, outraged.

"Yes?"

"We were worried sick about you, and you went for a walk?!?" she snapped.

"Yes, I did. Listen, Jax, if I've offended you, I apologize. I really do. But right now, all I want is a good night's sleep."

A moment later, the lights flicked out, and muttering, I heard her slid into the bed next to mine. After a while, the black didn't seem quite so absolute as the even breathing surrounded me. I tried to figure out what it sounded like, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe one of those machines that monitors heart rate? Or waves at the ocean? No, not the ocean. That'd be louder. This is more like a lake.

When I finally slipped off into the cool blackness of sleep, it was to my imagination painting with swift, broad strokes, coloring the twilight lake with the mute moon and the tiny waves lapping at the shore, like the steady breathing of my best friends.

***

I woke to gray skies the next morning, the kind that seemed to stretch on forever and ever, like a heavy wool blanket that had lost it's color after many times in the wash. It was one of those miserable days--wet, but not raining or snowing, and that constant, cold howling wind that made the world feel like it had been frozen to the core.

I wondered if Maddie was giving Xander a cup of hot chocolate.

My daily routine hadn't changed in the slightest, but I found my mind wandering as I did laundry and remade impeccable beds for no apparent reason. I wonder what they're doing... Could I sneak up to take another look at Old World Relics... Are there other passageways we don't know about?

And that was just the beginning. My thoughts seemed to spiral, jumping from idea to even more ridiculous idea. I couldn't help but wonder, each time I passed anyone, if they were part, if they knew about the rebellion taking place right under their own eyes.

I needed to get them the file if I wanted to go through all the information they had on the Old World, so I tried to run through the twists and turns I had made, searching in my mind for the answer as to where I had been when I found the cabinet. It was no good, though--my adrenaline had been pumping, and I had been so focused on escaping that I hadn't paid the slightest attention to where I was or where I was going. I knew it was somewhere off the Grand Hall, but beyond that, my memory was a blur of frantic heartbeats and nameless hallways.

My chance to search for the Mystery Room, as I had come to think of it, didn't come till later, when Alex helped me finish my last room. It was a completely alien feeling, and without our banter to keep me entertained, the silence felt thick and heavy. When it was finally over, he left without a word, and I could only assume he had heard from Jax and Sofia what had happened. How that got twisted around... I could only imagine, but I remembered all too well the anger in Jax's eyes last night. In all likelihood, the version he heard was more along the lines of, "after we nearly got caught, Violet decided to ditch us and run off because she was feeling moody and she wanted us to suffer by not knowing what had happened". Which was of course not true, but in their minds, it was probably how everything came across.

I hated not being able to tell them most of all.

Still, I was glad Alex didn't want to tag along for my search, because it would've brought up a lot of questions better left unknown.

I turned down a dark, wood-panelled hallway, looking for an alcove with a door that had a circular, metal knob. I had been exploring for nearly an hour now, and had wandered up and down what felt like miles of corridors.

When I went to bed that night, the room wasn't silent--everyone was talking to each other, but no one mentioned me or even talked to me. It felt like I was inside a bubble, like there was a glass wall separating me from all of them, and no matter how much I yelled and hit the glass and did everything I could, they were getting further away.

I didn't say a word all night.