LAMIAE

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO: IN THE TRAP

They were on the bus for about half an hour. Dagmara had the opportunity to see that side of Kielce that she had not had the chance to visit yet. It was different from the one she moved around. More modernized and populated by residents, it looked like it was located in a completely different part of Poland.

"He got up," Dagmara muttered to Arleta, although the girl probably knew exactly where the block called Northanger Abbey was located and knew which stop to get off at.

Nikolai didn't look back, which made Dagmara feel relieved. The bus stopped a moment later, the doors opened automatically and a few people got off, including the three of them.

"Okay, I won't help you with this," Arleta grumbled, crossing her arms in protest.

"You don't have to, I didn't ask you to come here," Dagmara whispered, afraid that Nikolai would hear them.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened. After a few meters, he looked back. His first reaction was astonishment, maybe even disbelief, then anger.

"What're you thinking?!" he asked in a sharp voice. It was the first time she heard him speak so seriously to someone and she was a little scared.

"I need to see Alan," she explained her behavior with the only argument she had prepared.

"Do you think I'll take you there?"

"I think you should, since I'm already here," she was starting to get irritated that everyone was treating her like some sort of child. She had never felt the fact that she had gone to school a year earlier in her whole life, only here, in Kielce, others kept showing it to her.

"He won't be happy to see you," Nikolai said in the same unpleasant voice, and she shrugged.

Now that she was closer to Alan, it didn't even occur to her to back out. It was the only chance since Alan didn't show up at school, at the residence, anywhere. It was as if he had disappeared from her life, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth. As if everything that could help her piece this puzzle together had been pushed away from her.

"Whatever you want to do, we have to do it quickly," said Nikolai, and then he really hurriedly moved forward towards the apartment blocks.

Nikolai was still only wearing his jacket, but unlike her, he wasn't trembling. She, no matter how warmly dressed she was, was shaking every few seconds, and her tremors became even more intense when she stood in front of the gate leading to the thirty-two-story building.

Luxury block is the perfect term to convey the seriousness of the colossus. Even before the caretaker let them into the building, she already realized that Alan's parents must have had millions to build something like this. The parking lot itself, located on the left side of the building, was of a decent size, and the cars that were parked spoke for themselves: Ferrari, Lamborgini, Aston Martin... Somewhere further away she saw a Jaguar and a Porsche.

"Still want to come in?" Nikolai asked, looking at her carefully.

"I have to," she replied, trying to smile, which turned out grotesque, because only the corners turned upwards, the rest of the mouth didn't even twitch.

She had just realized that she might have figured out why Alan was absent from school - maybe he just needed to take care of his parents' business for a while? But wasn't he too young for that?

Nikolai entered the code into the intercom and then let the girls in first. He followed them right after and led them to a room which, as Dagmara concluded, was used to receive guests because it resembled a reception. The boy asked them to wait for him there, and he agreed to bring Alan.