The Edge

Arian: Part Five

Of course, when he finally got up the nerve to leave his room, the others were having some kind of family meeting.

Not everyone; Tola wasn't there, and neither was Luca. But that was still far too many people in the same room, and two of them would probably dummy-slap him on sight.

Great.

Arian ducked back into the hallway and pulled out his phone. After some quick deliberation, he texted Adoette. Msg sent: hey can I talk to u alone?

Msg received: Doe a Deer: hang on

He heard Adoette excuse herself, mentioning something about getting another tablet. If it had been anyone else, that excuse would've sounded fake as hell, but she had at least five of the damn things. She was on her phone when she entered the hall; Arian caught her attention with a quick psst and a wave. She sighed and shoved her phone in her pocket. "How long have you been listening?" she asked.

"I actually wasn't. I wanted to talk to you alone."

"Well, make it quick. I really do need to grab another tablet."

"Okay, so." Arian had to speed-walk to keep up with her. "About that guy in the hallway...no, listen, I really hadn't met him before the hotel, I swear..."

"I hear a but, and I don't like it."

"But, he hadn't recognized me on accident. He'd met Cassandra."

Adoette stopped and punched him. Pretty hard, actually. "And you didn't think you should tell us that, dickhead?!"

"OW! Not until I looked into it!" Arian hit her back, though she dodged it enough to keep him from hitting as hard. "Everyone is still pissed at me. You know they wouldn't just believe me if I lead with that!"

"...fine, fair." Adoette started walking again. "What'd you find?"

"She was on a forum dedicated to that radio station. It has a whole-ass fan club, and it looks like she and the others were trying to find the guy who runs it. Look..." He passed her his phone and the little mini-presentation he'd prepared. "...I put together the weirdest bits."

Adoette barely slowed down as she rapidly flipped through the slides. Arian had known her for a good chunk of his life, and he knew her gifts let her speed-read, but it was still a bit unnerving to watch. A part of him was still convinced she was faking it, specifically to brush him off. She wasn't doing that today, though; after a pause, her eyes defocusing as she went through what she'd speed-read, she looked just as disturbed as Arian felt. "Okay, that shit's weird."

"Right?! It's like a borderline cult on there."

"Why would Cass want anything to do with this?"

"No clue. I could've asked, but I figured I should focus on locating her. We can always ask in person." He had a lot of questions for Cassandra once they found her. The radio station thing was actually low on that list, weird as it was. "If I had to guess, she heard something on the thing that spoke to her personally and then fell down the rabbit hole trying to figure it out? A bit tin-foil-hat-y, but she hasn't exactly been exhibiting regular Cassandra behavior since she left."

"Yeah, true." Adoette rubbed her eyes. "Did she mention the guy who runs the broadcast actually like, talking to any of these people directly? And I don't mean the advice section at the end, I mean verified one to one communication."

"Nah, he sticks to himself. I doubt he knows about this forum...or maybe he does and that's why he's who the fuck knows where. If I had a crazy fanbase like this, I'd run for the hills."