Missing [ST]

Ten

They hadn't exactly been subtle about leaving the house earlier that day.

Leah had pressed her ear against the door as soon as someone came thundering down the stairs. He had whistled, like he was intentionally getting someone's attention, but his loud voice was soon muffled by walls.

Movement followed not long after, a successful round up by the sounds of it, with one person hurrying past, then more lagging further behind.

"-be fine. Just...go with the flow."

"I know, I know."

"They just need to be back on good terms-"

Three recognisable voices fading in and out of Leah's earshot, and a snippet of their conversation in decipherable enough range.

The 'they' intrigued her because it had to refer to the final two of the group, and if her name assumptions were correct, then that was Joe and Tyler. The same two which she now believed were the ones arguing while she had slipped in and out of consciousness all those hours ago.

Leah was also more and more convinced that Tyler was the final man, and she suspected it was him in charge and had his friends pick up the pieces for him, those pieces being her since she had yet to lay her eyes on him.

A cheap move, a weak move, but it certainly tested loyalty and instated hierarchy within the group. They were values that appeared to be reaching their breaking point though, with Joe expressing his opposition, and they might well have been before she had ended up in this mess.

At some point, because her theories were getting her nowhere, Leah figured it was as good a chance as anything to see if she could pick the lock since she was alone.

This place was a considerable upgrade, as well as continuous behavioural changes, conversation, and hints of concern for her well-being, but she couldn't lose herself to the belief that this was just a wicked mistake and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, wherever and whenever that was.

Carrying an untreated head injury with shitty concussion, Leah still had no idea how, or what had happened to obtain it, or why she had ended up in her situation. It was all growing increasingly frustrating to live with, which was why she would try anything to trigger her faulty memory.

Searching the units was first. Then, every groove, every nook and cranny in every corner with an aim to find something that could be of use, but all she ended up getting was a tickly nose from disturbing dust, and fighting anger with herself for not having a hairband on her wrist, let alone bobby pins in her hair that she could use to pick the lock.

In a time of desperation though, a cloud of determination settled.

Leah stormed over and rattled with the handle, used her fingernails, and shoved her shoulder repeatedly into the door. When that didn't work, she slammed her palms until they were stinging like needles.

It was no use. It wouldn't budge.

She gave up, sore, back sliding down the door, and caught her breath that had quickened from her frustrated efforts.

Leah would try again, keep trying until she found success, but there was something in the back of her mind that told her to simply wait, and that maybe she really was here for a reason.

<>

"-and then Steven fuckin' dove head first into the ditch, y'know waist deep with nettles, and he had nothing but his underwear on!"

Matty let out a howl of laughter, slapping a hand on his knee. Joe was positioned on the other end of the curved seating booth, smiling away after retelling the teenage memory, and the trio was finished with a comfortably sprawled Steven who gave a shake of his head.