THE MERCURIAL ??

It had been two days since they all had gone into hiding at the northern areas at a hidden castle like mansion in the northern areas filled with snow. Iris along with all her friends, her mother, aunt were there. Arthur's family were also present though he was not here. No one had brought any phones through which they could be tracked, only Luke brought his untraceable Laptop setup and Lucy's usb that was a copy of Iris's usb. The only problem now was that he had forgotten the laptop's charger back at his place. And that charger wasn't available in the only nearby town.

"We shouldn't contact Arthur, George, Logan or Merrick or anyone who's our family."

"Then does anyone know someone whom we can contact?"

"I know."

Luke responds to Lucy's question

"Although I don't know if she can help us or not but I will still ask."

"Good, Then go to the nearby town right now and contact her. Tell her to be careful to not get stalked."

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now. When did you expect to go?"

"But it's snowing so much outside!"

"Don't complain. It's your fault for forgetting the charger in the first place."

"Then will I go alone?"

"I can go."

Iris offers but Lucy shakes her head

"No way. You shouldn't show your face at all in public for a while. It's best to stay put."

"Then Ella can go."

"Eh? Why me? I don't want to. It's freezing."

"It's not that cold. Don't be like that."

"It's fine, I can go alone. Give me the car keys."

Luke starts wearing his thick jacket over the warm clothes he was already wearing. Lucy hands him the keys.

"Wait for me..."

Ella calls after him, also wearing her coat and muffler.

They then drive to the nearby town which was a small place with only a population of total 2000 people. Luke goes to a public phone booth and dials a number. After talking to the person, he goes back inside the car because of the cold.

"She will bring it. But it'll take her five hours to reach here."

"Five hours? So, do we wait till then or go back?"

"Obviously we go back."

Luke drives back to the mansion but before they could even leave the town, they stop because the road gets blocked by all the snow fall.

"Great. Just great!"

Ella rolls her eyes in annoyance

"Hey, I also do not like it but what else can I do?"

"Whatever. How long will it take to clear the roads?"

"I just asked one of them and they said two to three hours."

"Oh that's more great!"

Ella remarks sarcastically

"Look, I am sorry for getting you into this place. But you shouldn't have come if you're going to complain."

Luke mutters in annoyance

"....I am sorry. It's just that I have been really annoyed these two days. And the only reason I came with you was to get out of that house, it was starting to become boring. No one even bothered to bring any card games or board games which we could play."

She pouts after apologising

"You must miss home."

"Yeah and Mark too. I haven't talked to him in two days. I wonder how he is doing."

Ella replied. They were sitting in the car, talking while thinking of what to do. Mark was Ella's boyfriend since three years. Though they were also high school classmates.

"I am sure he is fine. Don't worry, this all will be over soon and you'll get to meet him."

Luke had developed a liking towards Ella when he first met her but never expressed his feelings because she was happy in a relationship and he didn't want to ruin that. That is why he always kept these feelings to himself, no matter how much sometimes it would hurt. Though he had noticed that slowly he had become used to hearing and seeing Ella with Mark. He didn't mind them as much as he used to hate it in the beginning.

"So, what now?"

He added

"Hey, can we go somewhere to eat? I am hungry."

Ella's stomach starts growling before she could finish her sentence. She shyly smiles while putting her hand on her stomach. Luke laughs and replies,

"Sure. I am also craving something warm in this freezing weather."

He turns the car around back to the town and stop by a restaurant that was luckily still open despite most of the shops being closed. They quickly get settled down after ordering.

"Hey, who is this person you contacted?"

"Just someone I know."

"Your girlfriend?"

Her face lits up in excitement

"No. She is.....I don't even know if I should call her a friend or not. We are rivals I guess."

"Then why would you ask her for help? Will she even do what you ask?"

"Yeah, she may act all proud and say some things but she doesn't really mean them. She is not a bad person."

"Is it someone we know?"

"Penelope."

"Oh that rude girl who is with you since middle school!"

Luke nods at her comment

"I didn't know you were in contact with her seeing how you two are always ready to kill each other when you would run into one another."

"We aren't that much in contact. She messaged me a few days ago. She was in the other team which was allowed to stay after the speech. She told me how she and her team doesn't like what they're doing and how they only knew about the illegal shipping part but not the cruel killing part and everything. They all want to back out but are afraid of getting killed. She wanted to know what our tasks were but I lied to her saying how he is just making us ship some things. I can't tell her about our plan so easily."

Luke explains

"Then....wouldn't that make her have more chances of getting followed?"

"Nah, She's a clever girl despite what I say when we argue. She knows what she's doing. I trust her."

Ella's lips curl up into a smirk at Luke's sudden honesty,

"Have you ever said that to her?"

"No, why would I?"

He shrugs in response, not noticing the tease behind Ella's tone

"Let's just eat."

Their food arrived and they both dived into eating. After which, they started roaming around the town and when they got tired, they went back into the car because of the cold despite the snow fall being stopped. They decided to wait for Penelope instead of going back because only two hours were left and it would take them an hour just to go to the mansion.