The plan

The sun was shining brightly at us in the backyard after Syllia had left. Nobody had spoken after she left. I saw something on the ground that Syllia had dropped and studied it, then put it in my pocket. My dad was the first to speak up, "Let's head inside and talk about this,"

We followed my dad to the dining table and sat down. I thought back to the conversation with Syllia, "Syllia won't be easy on us."

"We can't let anyone we know get hurt because of us." I said, "We don't know what she would do with Maylin."

"A plan," My mom said, "We need a plan to solve this."

"I'll call Matia over, she might be able to help."

Matia sat down at the dining table with us, we quickly told her everything that had happened.

I got a notebook out and started writing down all of the potential options that we could think of. An hour later, I was still scribbling on sheets of paper. I had a pile of papers in front of me, but nothing stood out.

An idea popped into my head and I started writing.

Matia leaned in to look at what I was jotting down. "You are going to meet Syllia while I get Maylin, that's your plan?"

"Yeah, I thought maybe we should just stick with something simple. That way no one gets confused and it's easy to accomplish. If I am nice to her and befriend her, maybe she will agree to stop. Meanwhile you go get Maylin back." My parents waited for directions. "Mom, Dad you guys should stay home and stay out of Syllia's way. Matia and I can finish this."

"I can't let you go out there. What if that girl tries to hurt you?" My mom asked.

"Your mother is right. I'm not leaving you along with Syllia."

"Dad, she's not going to trust you after what happened before."

"Then, let me follow you to Syllia's house. You can go in on your own, but I'll make sure you are safe."

"That's too obvious, she will suspect someone is following me." I looked at my dad, he seemed to be thinking,

"Follow me." He got up and headed to the garage.

He walked to an old bag and patted the dust off, then opened it and dug around for a bit.

Finally, he pulled out a spray canister and handed it to me.

I wiped the metal outer shell and read what it said. "PEPPER SPRAY."

"Just in case that girl does anything to hurt you." Dad laid his hand on my shoulder.

My mom and Matia had been talking in the corner for quite some time and they started to head up the stairs together.

"What are you doing?" My dad and I asked in unison.

"We've got it all mapped out. Matia is going to figure out where Syllia has been these last few days and we'll start checking for Maylin."

"There is one major problem, though," Dad said. "How are you supposed to go find Maylin if we don't know where Syllia lives?"

I took out the object I picked up after Syllia had left. It was an Apple watch. I hooked it up to my phone and pressed the mapping tool. We could see everywhere she had been in the last twenty-four hours.

"Dad and I will go to the location she went to most," I said. "Mom, you and Matia check anything that looks like it could have a holding pen for Maylin in it."

Everyone seemed to agree on this.

I gave the order, "Let's move out."