First Lead

As everyone exited their abode and made their way to the Citadel, there was a lot of murmur and excited chatter. People talked about their favourite and who they thought was going to win the competition.

But amidst all the talk, there was something else going on in the background. There were school security and the military moving around the premises, even though they tried their best to keep it to its bare minimum. People could definitely see that the security had been beefed up.

Except the school officials, there were only a few people who knew what was going on. Of those two people, one was walking to the Citadel, walking along with him was Chuck who was busy chattering away. He paid next to no attention to what Chuck had to say.

Derek was lost in deep thought, thought of what was going to happen if he was found out to have been on the scene of the incident.

But it was just as Maya had said, he wasn't even a suspect. They would be trying to monitor people with higher power levels and not nobodies who were in first year. But still he felt he had to be cautious, one couldn't tell what could happen at any moment.

"Hi, and welcome to the second half of this year's competition." Nicki shouted in a high pitch into the mic. The cheers rang out all around the Citadel, the excitement from having to watch the outcome of today's events distracted the audience from the fact that Drake did not stand up there on the stage with Nicki.

However, three people realised and were very well aware of his absence. Derek used his eyes to scan the arena but there was not sign of Drake anywhere around.

Not that he didn't believe what the girls had said, but he wanted so badly for them to be wrong, at least about this.

"The school will be implementing a curfew for the next few days, the curfew is going to be active from 11pm. Students of the school and visitors likewise are expected to comply with the curfew" Nicki further announced.

"Now, without further ado, we are going to call out the remaining four contestants in the competition."

The screen which had been off since the hall got filled suddenly lit up and one after the other, the image of the last four contestants appeared.

First was the Rockefeller who took the top left box, the next to be shown was Max. It was only from his name on the screen that people could identify him. As well as Edward, no one had seen Max before today.

People could only wonder where the strange faces were appearing from. People just concluded that he was probably a protege from another family that had been hidden in the shadows up until now.

The heads of the families on the other hand equally wondered who he was, they felt like he was an ace up the sleeve of one of the leaders. As if they had all gotten the thought at the same time, each family head looked around, trying to steal a glance at each other.

Slowly, the screen changed and shuffling on the screen were the pictures of the four contestants. Slowly the shuffling came to a stop and the pairing had been made.

Darla was facing Max and Edward was facing the Rockefeller. There were murmurs in the audience after the pairing had been done.

The newly birthed Edward fanbase were not satisfied with the turn of events, they felt that Edward had been thrown with every tough opponent in the competition. Since the first had tried to kill him, the second was from the big five and the third was Nathaniel, from the big five and the latest, was also an offspring of one of the big five.

They wondered why he hadn't just been paired with Dax so they'll have an Astor face off in the finals. Some on the other hand had already idolized him, they felt like he could handle whatever was thrown his way. His fanatics were already sure he was going to win the fight, they only wanted to see what trick he would pull this time.

The three contestants gingerly entered the stage from different angles. The two fights were going to take place at the same time. Because it was a survival match, people had assumed it was going to last long which was why the two matches were allowed to go on at once even though it the semi finals.

The audience couldn't complain, since it was just two matches it wouldn't be hard to follow the both fights with their eyes.

The contestants had entered the stage, Max was on the screen but he was not on the stage. Some officials could be seen looking around trying to find out if he had gotten carried away and didn't notice he was up.

"Maybe he overslept" Derek heard someone say

Recognizing the voice, he turned around and saw Maya munching on a snack while waiting for the fight to begin. He could not wrap his head round how the girl was always able to appear everywhere without restriction.

She was in the area reserved for Derek's school, but no one seemed to notice that her her grey sweat shirt did not match the blue which almost everyone from his school wore.

He stared at her for a second and his focus returned to the stage at the front.

"Is Max in the building" Nicki announced through the mic. A few people could be seen making moves to identify his location.

Meanwhile Derek was in deep thought where he sat, since Dax was one of the contestants that no one had seen or heard about before he wondered if his absence had anything to do with what had happened the previous night.

Turning once again to look at Maya, he could see she was deep in thought too. He wondered if she was thinking what he was thinking too. The moment she turned and their eyes met, his thoughts were confirmed.

'Do we have our first lead' he asked himself