Lucas was talking with his group of friends at his locker after school as usual. Coincidentally, they had all been discussing the amber alert that had gone out that morning on a girl named Skylar Matthews, whom they all knew or had heard of. For Lucas, the news was particularly unnerving, especially in light of what Alice and he and learned about Alice's father. Something was definitely not right. Surely, there wasn't a correlation... Right? If this girl had been abducted, her kidnapper must have been well aware that the news of her disappearance would get out and spread pretty fast. Was that a risk that Alice's father would be willing to take? No... He couldn't make assumptions. This could be completely unrelated. He was probably just being paranoid. Two times that week, he had dreamt of being captured by mysterious figures and being tortured. It was definitely unsettling and didn't help with his nerves.

"Wait, she's blonde, right?" someone asked.

"Yeah, pretty cute, too," someone else added.

Lucas remained silent as his friends chatted on about the subject nonchalantly as if nothing was wrong. He probably would be doing that too if he wasn't so on edge. He was getting close to being unable to listen to it anymore when Alice came rushing down the hall toward them.

 "Lucas? Lucas, I [i]really[/i] need to talk to you..." she said, flashing the boys a friendly but quick smile before turning back to him. "Please tell me you don't have plans right now..."

"I don't," Lucas answered her. He turned to his friends, all of whom looked like they wanted to burst out into sexual jokes or laughter.

"I'll see you guys later then," Lucas said. "Good luck at practice."

He turned back to Alice with a nod and began walking toward the front doors of the school. As they were walking, one of Lucas's friends shouted after them: "Have fun you two!"

Lucas wasn't expecting any fun. He could tell by her expression that she was just as upset as he.

"Is it about Skylar?" he asked in a low voice, looking down.