Much to my own fraudulency, I’m the root of it all.
My thoughts the only thing keeping me company now. My opinion much like my logic. Exiled.
The room fell into a censored silence for a while after that. The only sound other than the impatient taps of my fingers is the short, clipped conversations between Eli and his dad. They lead to absolutely nothing.
A shadow casts itself over the room and it only maddens me that much more. It’s a reminder that another day is starting to settle, and we aren’t any closer than this morning. Another day she’s still missing.
Finally, Sgt. Daniels says the pair of words that have my heart pounding. Ricocheting inside my chest like it’s been jump-started with a pair of jumper cables. Brought back to life with the surge of a thousand volts of electricity.
“Got her!”
Air whooshes my lungs before they collapse.
He found her. He found Princess.
My feet move on their own accord and before I even know what I’m looking at, my face is plastered to his screen. Same as everyone else’s around his computer.
I have that rushed hyperventilation of someone who’s won the lottery. My prize knowing she’s safe and alive.
Always her. That one fact everlasting… even if she is no longer mine.
The fuzzy black-and-white footage starts to play, and I don’t dare blink. Refusing to miss anything.
More time passes and nothing happens other than the ordinary and my agitation grows. There’s nothing here other than everyday people loading on and off some buses.
Then my world shifts as my throat locks. My ribs scream at the suffocation, but I can’t let go because my hold, like my breath, is locked.
There she is.
Her hoods pulled up, shielding most of her face. Luck on her side. The cameras at her back helping conceal her. Much to my annoyance.
Rory’d been doing a good job, if not for the blonde wisps that poke out the sides after a soft breeze pulls out of nowhere. Her hold tightens along the drawstrings and that’s when I see them.
Those pearly silvered eyes coming into full focus. Even on a muted monitor, they shine. There she is, there’s my girl.
I don’t know if I’m more relieved or angry.
Comforted in the fact that soon we’d know which bus she got on. But enraged because I’d been the one to drive her away like this. The one to force her into taking such drastic measures.
She disappears from the frame and a growl rumbles deep from my throat. “Where is she?”
“She went into the bathroom. There aren’t any cameras inside.”
Hedging closer, I watch. My agitation grows as more and more people that are not her exit.
Seconds turn into minutes and minutes feel like hours. What is taking her so damn long?
My fingers twitch, drumming along my arm as I stand to my full height. It’s either this or pace and there isn’t a chance in hell I’m taking my eyes off the screen so tapping it is.
Come on, come on…
Abram points to the screen. “There!”
My insides reinflate.
Rory walks out. Her head is bent down this time as she comes back into sight. The move obviously intentional as she tries to shield her face from the camera. Her profile concealed by her hood before she disappears once again, hopping onto a bus.
No one says anything the entire time. Watching, fully focusing until her vehicle pulls out. As soon as the bus is gone, I feel as deserted as the now emptied terminal stall.