This can’t be happening. “Jace where are you going?” dad followed me out the door.
“I have to go find her, she could be hurt. I can’t...”
I ran to my car not knowing where the hell I was going, only that I couldn’t sit there and wait while she was out there, alone and probably scared.
Jared jumped into the passenger side when I turned the key in the ignition. “Where are we going?”
“I’m going to retrace her steps. Did you guys call her friends?”
“Yes, but none of them saw her after the game and we all walked back to the lot. Belle and Cassandra drove in with Tammy and you know the cheerleaders always ride together after the games.”
“So, no one knows where she could’ve gone? None of the other cheerleaders saw or heard anything?”
“The cops were going to question them after they got a list from the coach.”
“And she didn’t say anything about going anywhere? Of course she didn’t. She would’ve told me if she was going somewhere.”
I sped through the streets while calling her phone over and over again.
By the time two hours had gone by, I felt like I would go mad. We searched the field over and over again and the surrounding area to no avail.
By the time we got back to her parents, there was still no word. The cops had questioned everyone they could think of and no one had seen anything.
The girls had been so excited about the big win that no one really paid much attention to who got on the bus back.
Plus, it was a known fact that though it was school policy for the players and the cheerleaders to travel in separate buses, sometimes some of the girls snuck on the bus with the guys. So if someone were missing, no one would’ve thought much of it.
Mom and dad had shown up at the Claiborne residence while I was gone, and dad gave me the news that he’d already called in our security team.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here dad. This is fucked, she can’t be gone; if somebody hurt her dad I’m...”
“Shh, careful son.” He looked pointedly across the room at the cops like I gave a fuck.
I paced back and forth in the foyer feeling my heart like a dead lump in my chest. For the first time since I can remember, I didn’t feel invincible.
I was scared out of my fucking mind. This was the worse thing I’d ever felt, more so because another possibility had begun to occur to me.
“Dad is this about us? Did they take her because she’s mine?” “No son, I don’t think so; I have people who keep on top of things like that and there haven’t been any rumblings.”
“I gotta go. I can’t stay here.” I found myself running out of another place. I needed to go where I’d been with her last, to feel close to her there.
Why couldn’t I think straight? At a time like this, when I needed to focus I couldn’t. It was the not knowing that was killing me.
If I had some direction, I could go from there. But there was nothing. I sucked in my breath and closed my eyes. I needed to get ahold of myself, and fucking think.
I called Belle and asked her and the others to come over.
I needed to know what her last words were. What she was thinking before she just disappeared off the face of the fucking earth.
At home, I tried to find her scent on my pillows and my sheets. I’d had her there only a few hours ago, how could she be gone?
By the time her girls showed up, I’d pulled myself together. I had a board set up with all that we’d learned so far.
Dad had called and given me an update and her mother had finally called to talk to me. No one knew anything.
“Thanks for coming, I know you talked to the cops but I need you guys to tell me what you remember about the last time you saw her.”
They were understandably upset, but they put their heads together. The bell rang off and on all night as the news spread.
I went out on another search with the guys while the girls stayed back at the house, until there was no light left and we returned.
Mr. Claiborne had called a press conference for the next day to ask for the public’s help, and I had gone into my trust to double his reward amount.
I didn’t have any words for anyone, so most people just left me alone with my own thoughts
“Did anyone see Mandy after the game?”
That brought a hush over the room, but I could see that they weren’t really that surprised.
I had more reason than most to suspect her though, and if it turned out that she had anything to do with this, I’m really going to kill her.
My eyes fell on Cassandra and she too looked like her mind was heading in the same direction.
“Actually, I did see her with Liz and some of the others getting on the bus. They were kind of loud so you couldn’t have missed it.”
“Thanks Tammy.” I still wasn’t sure though. It was the only thing that made sense. Sian hadn’t just disappeared and the only known enemy she had here was Mandy.
I knew a little of what she was, had learned almost too late what I had let slither into my fucking life, but I didn’t think her evil ran to this.
I can’t and won’t accept that Sian was somewhere that I couldn’t reach her. Until my heart told me different I would not believe that she was really gone.
We were actually going to be spending the night together for the first time; I’d squared it with her dad.
Even though he wasn’t too pleased, in the end he’d agreed that he’d much rather know where she was, than to be left wondering and worrying. Now this.
The phone never stopped ringing, or the doorbell going. I almost lost my shit when I heard one of my guys arguing with someone at the door.