Vanished

Fear

10 years earlier.

I heard the yelling before I even opened the door. It was no secret that my parents fought. My brother and I were quite aware, even though they thought they hid it well.

Newsflash. They didn't.

It was, however, unusual that they screamed at each other. From what I could tell from the outside, it was one hell of an argument.

Billy would've dropped my brother off already, so he should be home somewhere. I didn't hear him, but then I didn't expect to. He was probably in his room with his door closed and headphones on. But I doubted that drowned out this sound.

I sighed and let my head hang for a second before I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and reached for the handle of the front door.

Based on the shouting I'd heard from the outside, I had expected to walk into something bad, but that was nothing compared to the actual nightmare I found once I got inside.

The living room was turned upside down. All the blinds on the windows were closed, and the furniture had been pushed and stacked to the side of the room. In the middle of the empty space stood a tall, muscular man with a clipboard. Two other men were in the process of removing the art that decorated the walls and packing up my mom's books.

I couldn't see my parents, but I sure as hell could hear them.

"Mom," I shouted, in an attempt to make my voice louder than everyone else's.

"Hey." My brother stepped into the living room from the kitchen. From the look on his face, his red-rimmed eyes, and the people present at our house late at night, I'd already figured out what was going on. It was the worst-case scenario.

Again.

My shoulders dropped and all the excitement I'd felt when me and Ellie talked about the week leading up to our graduation earlier just evaporated.

"Where now?" I asked because there was no reason to ask why. I already knew that. 

My brother didn't look at me as he said, "Portland."

"Maine?"

He shook his head slowly and kept his red, watery eyes away from mine.

"Oregon."

All the energy left my body. I slumped down on an empty dining chair like a deflating balloon. I barely noticed the men that moved into the kitchen and began to empty the cabinets at a very efficient pace.

"Seriously?" Not only did we have to move, but we were going across the entire country. That meant I wouldn't even be in the same time zone as Ellie. Oh, my god! Ellie...

I got to my feet instantly and cleared my voice. "How long do I have?" I asked.

Before Alex had a chance to respond, a federal agent stepped into the dining room and my stomach dropped. If they were in the house, it wasn't just urgent; it was dire...

"We leave tonight," my brother responded before the agent got a chance to. "As soon as possible. They've already started to pack up your room."

As much as I hated the idea of someone going through my stuff, there were more pressing things. I had to tell Ellie.

"Tonight?"

He nodded, a gloomy expression on his face.

"But..."

"No buts, Austin," my mom snapped as she hurried into the living room to add something to the growing pile of suitcases near the front door, which I hadn't even noticed until that point.

"Mom..."

"Please go pack up your clothes. We have to leave for Orlando within a couple of hours."

A couple of hours...

"Orlando?" Alex asked.

"It's safer than Atlanta," the Federal agent responded.

"But what... what about Ellie?"

I could make it to her house and back if I hurried and still have time to at least look over my room.

My brother looked away from me, and my mom didn't even bother to respond. She just turned around and hurried back down the hallway.

"Mom," I yelled as I followed her to her bedroom, taking in another federal agent at the end of the hall and additional people going through and packing things in both mine and my brother's room.

"Go pack," she called over her shoulder. "We have to leave as soon as we can."

"But I need to say goodbye to Ellie."

She swung around, her eyes blazing. "No, you don't. What you have to do is go into your room and pack up what you need for the next couple of days that we'll be on the road.  Everything else will be shipped."

I wanted to argue, and I tried to say something, but she wasn't having it. She shoved me toward my room. "Go pack!"

No. No. No. NO. NO.

I didn't want this. I liked Willow and the friends I'd made, and Ellie. Especially Ellie. Moving meant having to make new friends and trying to fit into a new school...

Ah, fuck. I'd miss my high school graduation. And what about college? Mine and Ellie's plans...

I felt a glimpse of hope. If I could just let Ellie know I had to leave for a while but would see her at Georgia State in the fall, it may be okay. I could do a few months without her if I had to. As long as she knew I didn't leave her on purpose. That I didn't want to.

That could work.

I took my phone out of my pocket and was just about to press Ellie's name when I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and found the tall man with the clipboard peeking down at me with a sorrowful expression. "It's not safe, son," he said.

"But..."

He didn't understand. Nobody seemed to understand.

His big hand squeezed my shoulder. "You need to give me your phone. You'll get a new as soon as you get to Portland."

"What? No..."

He dropped the grip on my shoulder and held his hand out for my phone. I didn't want to give it up, so I hesitated. I could feel it buzzing with incoming text messages and alerts.

"It's serious, Austin. You know that," he said as his dark eyes held mine. "You got almost two years here in Willow, but it's not safe any longer. This location has been compromised. It won't be long before they find the house."

I heard what he was saying, and it was even more disturbing than last time, but I didn't want to listen. I just didn't want to...

This could not be happening again.

"But my girlfriend," I tried to explain. "She won't understand. I can't just leave her. I have to say goodbye."

I searched the man's face for some kind of sliver of hope, but there was none. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Austin, but you know the drill. It's not safe."

"But," I tried again.

His stern gaze held mine, and then he dropped the bomb. "Do you want the men hunting your father to find her?"

It was like a bucket of ice cold water was dumped over me. It stabbed at my skin and penetrated its way into my chest, where it froze everything. I knew we were in danger. I had known that for years, but I hadn't realized that Ellie could be in danger too, for just being with me.