'Yes, that was spot on! These goats in Morocco actually climb trees and will casually stand there eating fruit as if it is totally normal. But I guess to them it is,’ he smiled.

Leo was happy with most of his timetable, but his eyes were drawn to a scribble in the top right-hand corner.

Find Libero

‘What is this?’ Leo whispered to Kaira, but she was already distracted by the appearance of the second question, and upon seeing it, so was Leo.

What is formed when electronically charged particles from the sun combine with various other gases?

‘Hopefully question two will be easier for the young scientists among us!’ Mr Delph said, as hands shot up all around the room. ‘I see our scientists have come out in force - if you’ll pardon the pun. Dorian, I understand that you are taking chemistry this year. What might the answer be?’

‘I believe you’re referring to the Aurora Borealis, sir,’ Dorian said, matter-of-factly.

‘Excellent, excellent!’

Mr Delph threw a golden sweet towards Dorian, who snatched it from the air as a picture of the Northern Lights flashed up on the screen. Leo and Kaira deflated, so Leo distracted himself by grabbing one of the textbooks from the outside of the room and flicked through it.

‘Yes, as Dorian correctly stated, the answer is of course the Aurora Borealis. Or, as you probably know it, the Northern Lights.’

Leo found himself on a page titled, ‘The UK’s Lakes’, which featured pictures of different landscapes and diagrams on how lakes form. He looked at a picture of a peaceful lake that was bordered by hills. The hills themselves were covered with tall, dark green trees and small patches of light grey rock. But, over the tranquil scenery was more scribbled writing.

 Find Libero

 Leo flicked through the rest of the pages in the book and found that it had only been written on this one page. He took another textbook off the side and flicked through to find that it also had the same thing scribbled on the very same page. Just that page. He looked at what was written underneath the picture:

 The Lake District National Park

 ‘You can see this phenomenon in various parts of the world, sometimes even as close to home as Scotland. Now, finally, my last question before you begin your year.’

Mr Delph’s words had become background noise to Leo as he brought up the third question.

‘What animals can turn their heads a massive two hundred and seventy degrees?’

‘Easy!’ shouted Bailey, bringing Leo back to the real world as her hand shot into the air.

‘Now most of you should get this one. Nevertheless, just because it’s slightly more well-known than the others, that doesn’t make it any less of a phenomenon.’

Hands reached towards the ceiling as little whines of desperation escaped Leo’s classmates.

‘I thought as much. Tell you what, to make it fairer I will pick a name randomly from the register.’

Mr Delph closed his eyes and dramatically swirled the paper version of the register on his desk before he slammed a finger onto a name.

‘Leo. Where are you? Ah, with Dorian and the rest of course,’ his murky blue eyes met Leo’s. Before answering, Leo looked around the class and found all eyes were fixed on him, and he automatically lowered his body a few inches to try and get out of view.

‘Uh, isn’t it an owl?’ Leo questioned, his voice shaking slightly under the pressure of answering.

‘Bravo, Leo. The last sweet is yours!’

Hands fell from the air as quickly as the sound of disappointment went up into it, and Mr Delph changed the slide to show a picture of an owl.

‘There we have the great horned owl, capable of turning its head two hundred and seventy degrees! A skill that would make it a lot easier to keep an eye on you lot.’

The whole class laughed. Everyone except Leo, that was. Mr Delph threw the last sweet in his direction and it just bounced off his chest as he stared transfixed at the screen.

There, projected in front of him were the very same eyes that had stared through him the day Rewan had torn through his town. Those same eyes that had followed his brother like a predator on the hunt. Those eyes that had then appeared from the centre of a tornado. They appeared smaller on the screen, but the vibrant, blazing yellow was as unmistakable as it was unforgettable.

‘Leo, are you ok?’ Kaira’s voice sounded distant as she took his hand, ‘you’re shaking!’

Sure enough, as Leo looked at his hands, he saw them trembling in hers, and felt how cold they were against the warmth of her skin.

‘What’s wrong?’ Bailey asked, hopping out of her chair.

Leo looked at the class to find that all eyes were back to being fixed firmly on him.

‘Everyone back to their tables. Have a look at where you need to go first period,’ Mr Delph ordered, as he made his way towards Leo and knelt beside his chair. The return of his smile proved to be short-lived as it was replaced with a look of concern.

‘I’m fine, sir. Don’t worry.’

‘I get it, Leo. I thought it was too early to bring everyone back to school after what happened. Before everyone's been found. Before anyone has been found,’ Mr Delph allowed himself a deep breath, ‘I’m so sorry about what happened. If there is anything I can do to help, please just let me know. We’ve plenty of sweets at the ready if you need them. Just take the week a day at a time, and soon enough it’ll be half term and we can continue searching.’

Leo nodded, unsure of what to say, and still aware that even though the eyes of the class were off him, everyone’s ears were still perfectly tuned in to what was being said.

‘There’s a good lad,’ Mr Delph placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder before whispering just loud enough that only he, and probably Dorian, could hear, ‘never give up hope, Leo. We will find them. We just need to keep believing.’

As Mr Delph stood up, the bell rang to signal that it was time for the first lesson of the year.

‘What happened?’ Kaira asked as she stood up.

‘Look at this,’ Leo pointed at the words scribbled in the textbook and on his timetable.

‘That’s odd,’ Bailey said, leaning over Leo’s shoulder, ‘what’s a Libero?’

‘I don’t believe it to be, a Libero, as much as, what is Libero,’ Dorian interjected, ‘Kaira, can you look it up?’

‘Yes boss,’ Kaira saluted, and then reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone before searching for the word, Libero.

‘Tell me that I’m right,’ Bailey said, her dark skin glimmering in the rising sun.

‘Unfortunately, Mr Know-it-all is right. Libero is the Latin translation for freedom. Specifically, it means to set free, to deliver or to liberate,’ Kaira read, before looking up to find Leo beaming at her, ‘what? A moment ago you looked like you’d seen a ghost. Now you’re creeping me out with this weird grin thing you’ve got going on.’

‘This could be it,’ he said, excitedly.

‘This could be what?’

‘This could be the answer. The answer to where everyone is. The answer to getting Sam back.’

‘Right …’

‘Um, Leo. You don’t think you’re reading a little bit too much into this, do you?’ asked Bailey, hesitantly.

‘This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it! It has been cropping up everywhere. It is everywhere!’ Leo indicated the textbooks in front of him and opened another to the same page, again revealing the same words.

‘I don’t know, Leo,’ Kaira said, just as Mr Delph came over to them.

‘Time to go kids,’ he said, ushering them towards the door, ‘have a good first day back.’

As they reached the door, they all looked at where they were heading first.

‘Please tell me I’m not the only one with Mrs Tiburtoro?’ Kaira exhaled.

‘Don’t worry, I’m with you,’ Leo said, unenthused by the idea of having to sit through Maths rather than come up with more theories about what Libero meant.

Besides the usual terror and unease of a Mrs Tiburtoro lesson, the rest of the day went by with Leo in a hopeful daze. One that was constantly met by an unsure look from his friends. So much so that he did not speak about it until at last Kaira brought it up on the bus journey home.

‘It was just a word, Leo. I have never known you to pay attention to anything written in a textbook, don’t get your hopes up and let this be the first time.’

Leo knew that it was an incredibly thin lead, but he did not understand why they were not as excited as he was about there finally being a semblance of a lead. He had worked all day on the beginnings of a plan, and they had paid it no more thought than the anxious ones he could see on their faces.

‘You’re literally on the edge of your seat, Leo,’ said Bailey, ‘it could have just been a misprint in the book and Mr Delph has just amended it.’

‘No,’ Leo said firmly, ‘it’s been following me everywhere. Find Libero. It feels like something is pointing us towards where we need to go. I think this is where we’ll find Sam.’

Leo looked hopefully at his friends but was met by blank and almost sheepish expressions.

‘Maybe it is. But what if it’s not?’ Dorian said, falling back into his seat as the bus pulled away, ‘I for one have never seen the word anywhere else.’

‘Maybe it’s not meant for you to see it. Maybe it’s meant for me. It has been everywhere that I have. Scribbled on pathways, written in books and on my timetable. I even saw it spray-painted onto that abandoned house on the way in.’

‘So, you’ve seen a word in four places. What are you proposing we do after seeing this one word a few times?’ asked Dorian.

‘It’s going to sound mad, I know it is, but it’s the only lead we’ve had since Rewan. I think we should go to the Lake District in half term.’

Leo’s friends looked anywhere but his eyes. Even Kaira, who he could always count on as the one person to have his back, averted her gaze. He dropped into the bench as his previously soaring heart sank back to the pit of his stomach. He knew it was going to be hard to get them on board. But he did not know what else there was left to do that had not already been done.

The branches that clattered against the roof brought him out of his torpor and drew his attention outside. The abandoned house was about to come into view, and Leo’s heart began to race. He knew that although none of them had said anything, his friends would be looking for the same thing he was.

Long brown grass covered the front garden, separated by weeds and rusting car parts that had been resting on the lawn for as long as Leo could remember. Window frames filled only with shards of glass were adorned with white paint that fought to peel away from the house’s rotting corpse.

Leo scanned the house for the word he had seen scrawled across the legions of graffiti that gave the house colour. But, as the bus drove slowly past, his heart sank again. It had gone. As the bus turned a corner and the house disappeared, he found his friends looking at him with pity etched onto their faces.

‘It was right there!’ he exclaimed, holding his hand aloft in the general direction of the house, ‘what other choice is there?’

‘Every choice,’ Kaira said gently, meeting his eyes for the first time since they had boarded the bus, ‘you know my head isn’t in the right place for us to go halfway across the country. I need time.’

‘We don’t have time. We’ve no idea what’s happened to them!’

‘We’ve no idea if this is what happened to them either.’

‘Then let’s find out.’

Bailey and Dorian exchanged a knowing glance that Leo caught from the corner of his eye. The hope he had allowed himself to fleetingly feel was replaced with the all too familiar feeling of hopelessness.

‘I’m sorry, Leo. You know we’d support you through anything …’ Bailey started.

‘Just not this,’ murmured Leo, his hands forming fists in his lap as he tried not to say anything he would regret.

Silence on repeat was the soundtrack between the four of them during the final leg of the journey. The screaming of the other children as they threw things out of the windows, or their muffled laughs as they pulled faces at their phones gave Leo something else to try and focus on.

‘Will you still be going tonight?’ Kaira asked Leo as the bus pulled up to their stop.

‘We don’t all have a choice,’ Leo snapped back with more venom than he had meant.

‘We’ll see you there. I’m sure the rumours aren’t true,’ Bailey smiled, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

Tonight was another meeting in the square. The meetings had been arranged as an opportunity for people to give updates on their searches and to provide a bit of hope for those who needed it. But as the weeks passed without a shred of solid evidence, more and more people were failing to show. What was meant to be a show of solidarity now served as a reminder of how many had given up. The rumour Bailey was referring to was that today was going to be the last meeting, and that it was time that everyone tried to come to terms with what had happened.

‘They can’t stop looking. They can’t give up hope,’ said Bailey.

‘Why not? We have.’

Leo picked up his bag and powered through the students who were waiting to get off the bus, not slowing down until he reached his home.

Having thrown his bag onto the stairs, Leo slammed the door shut and slid down it until he reached the floor.

No-one was home.

His mum was at work and his brother missing.

He was alone.

Leo allowed one solitary tear to escape his eye, but after that one had fallen, another soon followed. Before he knew it, Leo was curled up on the doormat and sobbing freely.

Angry tears had been the first to fall, but after he had forgiven his friends, every other thought overcame him. He thought first about how selfish it was for him to expect his friends to just drop everything and come with him because he had a hunch. Then, thoughts of his mother swirled in his head. He thought about how he should have been there for her more, how he should have done more to make sure that she was ok rather than the other way around. But finally, his biggest sobs had been saved for the thoughts that had haunted him for weeks.

He should have saved his brother.

He could have forced his way a little harder to get to him.

He could have somehow jumped up and forced Sam down as the tornado took him instead.

There must have been something more that he could have done. But he did nothing, and now he was here alone.