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Twelveth

The cooks whipped me up a quick sandwich that I was utterly grateful for. Apparently I missed lunch, again. I took the sandwich along with an apple up to my room. I sat down at my desk and took a few more bites of my sandwich before I noticed. Where was my letter? I wiped my hands off on my dress and started opening drawers searching for my letter to Koontz. I thought I had left it right on top of the desk. Where was it?

A panicked sinking feelings came to the forefront of my emotions. This was possibly the worst thing that could happen. Okay, maybe that was a little overdramatic, but still, I didn’t want anyone except for Koontz to read that letter. It was private. I didn’t want anyone to know how I felt about Koontz. Even though I didn’t say that I still loved him, it was pretty clear that I still loved him.

Do I still love him? Ugh. Not now. I had to replace that letter. I searched all over the room, still mystified as to where it had gone. Letters don’t just get up and walk themselves to the post office. There was a soft knock as I was riffling through my nightstand drawer. “Come in.”

“Hey, Emmary. Can I talk to you?”

I looked up to see Addeck standing in my door way. Puzzled, I nodded, “Yeah sure.”

He took a few steps into my room and stopped at my desk, “What happened?” He gestured to all the drawers being opened and notebooks turned over.

“Oh, I can’t replace my letter to Koontz.”

“Oh, that? I came in here earlier looking for you and saw it. I assumed you were done? I already sent it to the post office.”

A huge weight lifted off my shoulders, “Thank God. That is a relief. I thought something had happened to it. Thank you for sending it in for me.”

Addeck smiled, “Of course. It should be there by tomorrow morning. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“Thanks, Addeck.”

He turned to leave, “Wasn’t there something you had to talk to me about?”

Addeck snapped and faced me again, “You’re right, thanks for reminding me. I was going to ask you if Hal has talked to you recently.”

I nodded, “Yeah, we spoke earlier today.”

He nodded, “Okay, did she seem weird or say anything off or anything like that?”

Besides her mentioning that she had something urgent to tell me? Or the fact that she’s in love with some guy who’s already married to his perfect match? I shook my head, “No. We just talked about the party last night.”

Addeck smiled, “Okay, thanks. I’m just a little concerned for her. You know, being her big brother and all, just want to make sure she’s okay.”

I nodded, “She seems happy to me.”

He gave me a swift nod as he turned, “That’s what I wanted to hear. Thanks, Emmary.” He turned to leave and I stopped him again.

“Do you know if there has been any new leads on my attacker?”

Addeck frowned, “No, they said they can’t do much if you don’t have a description of the guy. Unless you’ve remembered?”

I took a deep breath, “Um, yes, actually.”

“Really?” He stuck his hands in his pocket, “What did he look like?”

I licked my lips. “Well, I’m pretty sure that it was one of the guards that brought me here. His name was Captain Pike.”

Addeck gave a small smile, “I’m sorry, Emmary, but I highly doubt it was him. He is a highly valued member of our staff.

You must have gotten him confused with someone else. He has one of those faces, you know?”

I was about to say something to contradict him, but decided against it. “Yeah, must have been someone else then. Sorry.”

Addeck shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. It was a horrible experience, I’m sure. If you think of anything else, let us know.” He took a step to turn around and then stopped. “And I’ll put a flag on Captain Pike just in case. We want you to feel safe here, Emmary.” I nodded and he closed the door behind him.

It was a little comforting to know that Addeck was going to try to do something about Captain Pike. I was sure it was him. At the same time I was still suspicious that he had mentioned his name last night when talking to Vox. Then again, he had just said that Captain Pike was on staff here. It would make sense why he knew him.

I took a few bites of my sandwich before started to clean up the mess I had made. I placed everything back where I had found it. I had no idea that there was all this stuff in this desk. There were a bunch of miscellaneous cords and things that I shoved in to the bottom most drawer. I placed a brand new package of gorgeous inkwell pens and a stack of fancy stationary paper into the top most drawer. I put a skinny flat black thing on top of the stationary just as it lit up. My hand jumped away from it in surprise. What the hell was this thing?

I picked back up to see a light blue screen with white letters spelling out my name. I examined it before the light went out. I frowned, was it just some sort of fancy nameplate? With the Bly’s I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. I touched the screen and it lit back up. I touched it once more to see what would happen. The screen spoke to me in a soft female voice, “What would you like to search, Emmary?”

I screamed and dropped the device onto the carpet.

“Here are the results I got from ‘AHHH!’”

I picked up the thing again and saw that the screen had changed from to a list of results. There were videos of women screaming, as well as links to pages about screaming. This thing was so strange. I tapped on an arrow and it took me back to the original screen. The woman asked me the same question.

What did I want to know? Hmmm. I said the first thing I could think of . “Sector Three, please.”

The screen changed immediately to a huge list of sources with information on Sector 3. I clicked on the first thing and it showed me the whole history of Sector 3. Fascinated, I sat there and read the whole page, absorbing all the information I could. I clicked the arrow and it took me back to the list of things about Sector 3. The next thing I clicked on took me to a list of recent news articles. This thing was amazing, millions of sources of information just by asking for it.

I searched for Sector 16F and read through the history and various news articles. I even found a list of who all the kids my age were matched with and where. It was amazing. I found old lists of people that were matched with each other. I found the one from my parent’s year. I scanned the list, looking for my Father’s name, Arrik Eaton. When I found it, I clicked on his name and it brought up a picture of him and my mother as well as a small biography on each of them. Where they worked, how long they had been married, that they only had one kid, and that my mother had been originally from sector 3.

“What?”

“Is there something wrong with your search results?”

I freaked out a minute because the woman spoke to me again before replying, “No.” Then I stared at the screen for a few minutes, not believing that my mother was from Sector 3. I clicked on her name to get the rest of her information. She was from Sector 3E. Linley was the daughter of Yelda and Grayston Keelton. She was from Sector 3. My mother was from Sector 3. No matter the times I read it, I still couldn’t believe it. All this time and my mother never said a word.

“Search for Grayston Keelton.”

The screen changed to pull up a list of sources for the name of my grandfather. I clicked on his name to replace his biography. He was a civic engineer in Sector 3E and was married to Yelda Keelton, who was also from Sector 3E. They had three children, Marksus Keelton, Linley Eaton, and Emmary Keelton who died at the age of 17. Curious about my mother’s sister, Emmary, I clicked on her name. Her biography was much shorter than the rest that I had seen, and had her obituary attached. The picture of her was breathtaking. She looked just like my mother, except younger. I read about my aunt and found that she was my mother’s twin. Her twin. My mother had a twin who died at the age of 17 before she got to meet her match. My mother named me after her.

I stared at my aunt’s picture for a long time. My mother didn’t talk to me about much. She certainly never mentioned her life before Sector 16. I could only imagine how my mother felt being forced to leave all this technology and luxury to live in a place like Sector 16. At least when I left, I was fortunate to get an upgrade on living conditions. I imagined her reaction would have been like Felecity’s. But then again I couldn’t picture my mother throwing a tantrum like Felecity apparently did.

I noticed that there was a link to Emmary’s match’s biography, Clinson Vaughn. I clicked on it and it brought up a familiar face. I couldn’t place who he was, but there was a nagging feeling that I knew him. I stared at the picture for a few minutes. Who was he? How did I know him? I frowned as I stared down at the picture.

There was a slight knock on the door and turned to see Hal open the door, “Hey girl, just wanted to let you know dinner was ready.”

I smiled and stood. Was it already 6:00? I read the clock on the desk, sure enough it was. “Yeah.”

She looked at was in my hand, “Who is that?”

I looked at the picture, “My dead Aunt’s match that she never met.”

She smiled, “I see you found the Search Engine. Be warned, you could lose hours just searching things. I get sucked into the video vortex.”

I smiled along, “Yeah I just lost the whole day pretty much just looking up my family history.”

“Good choice. I used to do that, and then I saw how many creepy connections my family has to each other and decided that I didn’t want to puke over incest any longer.”

“Thanks for that imagery.”

“You’re welcome. Ready for dinner?”

I nodded and placed the Search Engine on the desk and followed her out the door. “Yeah. But can I ask you if you’re okay?”

She looked like she wanted to say something more than what she did, “Yeah.”

“Okay, cause Addeck asked earlier and it kind of worried me that he was worried.”

Hal rolled her brown eyes, “Ever since the whole thing with Yale, Addeck has been a worry wart. Don’t let him make you worry too.”

I smiled and nodded, “Okay.” I still had a nagging feeling that she wanted to say more. That for some reason she was holding back with me. Which I didn’t understand why she would do that. Hal pretty much told me everything, she was the closest thing I had ever had to a sister, and I liked that. I liked that we could tell each other anything knowing the other wouldn’t spill the beans. Of course I guess I didn’t tell her much, but I felt like I could trust her enough to.

Hal gave me one last smile before linking arms with me and walking me out the door. I would have to interrogate her later. She said she had something to tell me and I wasn’t about to forget that.