Final Story - 007

"Have you given up already, Chosen Child? You still have over four hours."

Yeah, that name definitely creeps me out.

After Tayla worked out that Kiss Duskdancer wanted us to find her, I called Kayla's phone to see if we could get more information out of her. We didn't have enough information to find her with what she'd already given us, so I had no choice but to call her to see if she would tell us where we can find them.

Of course, whether that's really what Kiss Duskdancer wants, and if she'll give us extra information, is all really just hopeful guesswork. Tayla made quite a leap to come to her conclusion about what Kiss wants. And even if it is what she wants, it's impossible to know whether she will give us any clues as to her whereabouts.

"No, I haven't given up. Just, I don't understand why you're doing this. What does it mean, that Kayla's 'services are required'?"

"I can't tell you that. I'm hanging up."

"Wait! Wait, just a minute."

I was trying to see if I could get any information without relying on Tayla's conclusions. To be honest, I'm not very confident that that's really what Kiss is thinking, but now I don't have any other choice. She isn't being very forthcoming, obviously. So, I have no choice but to bet on what Tayla managed to work out.

"You want me to find you, right? Because I'm the Chosen Child. So, tell me where you are, and let Kayla go."

…

…

…

"Was it you that worked all that out, or was it that little girlfriend of yours? Tayla, I remember, was her name."

"It was her," I reply honestly, "well, how about it? I'll come to you if you release Kayla now."

Kiss laughed, "of course I can't do that. Though, I assume you knew that already, Chosen Child. I can't tell you where I am either, but I guess I could give you a clue."

"Where are you?"

"You make your decisions quickly, Chosen Child. Let's see… that seems like a good hint. Though… no, I don't think it will be too easy. I'm in a place of spiritual importance within the city."

"Huh? There's got to be dozens of places like that within the city."

"I would wish you good luck, but you shouldn't need it. If you can't find me with that, then you aren't the Chosen Child."

With that Kiss ended the call.

"What did she say?" Tayla asked from beside me.

"She's in a place of spiritual importance."

I removed my phone from my ear, and sighed. A place of spiritual importance, huh? Churches are what I first think of, but there's dozens of those spread throughout the city. It would be impossible to check all of them. Mosques and synagogues would also fit that description, and that probably adds another dozen places to check.

And who's to say that it's a building? It could be a spiritual more in the sense of nature, couldn't it?

Well, compared to what we had to work with before, however, it's a much smaller scale. As far as we knew, any of the thousands of abandoned buildings and houses in this city, could've been where Kiss was basing herself. I still think it's very likely that she's in an abandoned building, but that still makes it difficult to find her.

There's a lot of abandoned religious buildings within the city. After all, so much of the city is empty. There's probably close to fifty such buildings.

Still far too many to check.

"Does the Mother's Order have places of spiritual importance?" I ask Tayla.

"No. All of the earth beneath our feet is equally a part of the Mother."

"Right…"

Sometimes when she says things like that, it's almost like Tayla's still a committed member of that cult. I know she isn't though.

The two of us once again tried to think of anywhere that they might be. This time, at least, we weren't completely grasping at straws. We had a lead, or at least, we had some clue as to where they could be. A religious building of sorts, and probably an abandoned one. That's what we were looking for.

Using Tayla's computer, we were able to work out that there was close to fifty such buildings. And we couldn't think of any way to further narrow it down. After all, maybe we were already assuming too much by saying it was a religious building. Kiss only specified that she was in a place of spiritual importance. That didn't necessarily mean it was a religious building.

Half an hour after I made the call to Kiss, we still had no idea where they were. It would be impossible to check all the abandoned religious buildings in the city, and even if we could, there's no guarantee that they're based at one of those sites.

Just stopping to think about all this for just a second, it doesn't make any sense. Why did Kiss do this? She never explained apart from what she said about Kayla's services being needed. Whatever that's supposed to mean. Nothing about this makes sense.

Come to think of it, how does Kiss know who Kayla is? She clearly knows who she is. She planned her kidnapping. It wasn't just random. I'm certain of that. Otherwise, Kiss would've been surprised when I called her the first time, but she wasn't. So, that means that Kiss knew who she was.

Did she do this to provoke me? Because I'm the Chosen Child? Maybe that's a bit shameless of me to say, but it really seems possible. I mean, why would she know who Kayla is otherwise? And just like Tayla said earlier, if Kiss didn't answer the phone when I called Kayla, we wouldn't have suspected a thing before it was too late.

So, even if it is impertinent or shameless, that's the only thing that I can come up with when I try to make sense of this whole situation. It's the only explanation that I have for any of this.