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felt let down.
    “ You’re so childish,
Kristi,” she chided herself. Her voice rang out abnormally loud in
the empty space. “What did you expect? A secret vault of
treasures?” She laughed at her own whimsical fantasies, but stopped
shortly.
    The light cast by her electro-slate
reflected off the shiny padlock hanging off a solid, wooden door.
The door embedded itself so deeply into the wall at the back of the
room Kristi would’ve never noticed it had the padlock not given
away its presence.
    She fiddled with the lock for a few seconds;
although Kristi wouldn’t call herself an expert, she did have some
experience with picking locks. She set down the padlock almost as
soon as she picked it up, though; she could tell there was no way
to crack the lock without the key. The intricate gears nestled
within it were so small and complex it would take her a good hour
or two to pick, and she didn’t have the time.
    Kristi swung her
electro-slate-doubling-as-a-flashlight around the room one last
time, making sure she didn’t miss anything else noteworthy.
    “ Didn’t see this either.”
Kristi knelt and peeked beneath the TV.
    A plastic case of some sort was stuck
beneath the TV, as if someone had hid it in a hurry. She tugged the
container out from where it was wedged. It was a DVD case. Nowhere
on the cover did Kristi spot the government-approved stamp on it.
In other words, this was an illegal DVD.
    The words, Phantom of the Opera, were boldly printed on the covering. Beneath the title was a
picture of some sort of a mask and rose. Kristi tested the title:
“Phantom of the Opera.”
    The way the name rolled
off her tongue brought Kristi a sense of satisfaction, unlike the
titles of the government issued TV programs: Explanation of the Elements of the Periodic Table for Level
Five Students, The Complete History of the North Region of the Past
Twenty Years, and The Channel of Weather Forecasts.
    Feeling a bit rebellious, Kristi removed the
DVD disk and inserted it into the designated slot behind the
monitor. Then she clicked “play” on the remote and the screen
flickered with words rolling across a black background.
     
    Kristi didn’t notice her
mouth hanging open when the movie ended
until she realized she was drooling. She
snapped her jaw shut, wondering, Did I
really just watch a fictional
movie ?
    Bleep! Her electro-slate vibrated, bringing Kristi back to her
senses. Crud. I completely lost track of
time . She flicked on her slate and picked
up the instafication.
    “ Kristi, where are you?”
Maria’s concerned voice pricked at Kristi’s guilty
conscience.
    She checked the time—it was already
seven-thirty; curfew was eight. Kristi quickly replied Maria,
“Sorry—I lost track of time; I’ll be home in fifteen minutes or
so.”
    “ Next time, leave an
electro-note for me if you’re going to be staying out later than
six.”
    “ I didn’t mean to stay out
past dinner. I’m sorry—bye.”
    Kristi muted the electro-slate and returned
the DVD into its case. After doing one last check to confirm she
didn’t leave anything behind, she stepped back out into the
alleyway and right into a pair of waiting arms.

chapter four
     
    [ Kristi ]
     
     
    “ Ahh—” Kristi let loose a
yell that was instantly cut off by a hand clamped over her nose and mouth, stifling her breath. The
next thing she knew, a brawny arm wrapped around her waist and she
was being slung over a shoulder with ease.
    Kristi’s heart pounded against her chest as
she tried to escape the steel-like grip, but whoever was carrying
her seemed completely unfazed by her thrashing and kicking. Her
screams were muffled by the clammy hand still glued over her
mouth.
    Kristi’s arms and legs eventually grew weary
and heavy with her fruitless struggles with escape. She willed her
entire body to go limp and tried not to vomit up the food she had
consumed earlier.
    The abductor began running at a fast and
steady pace through the empty streets; any