Mine - Vance Hopper (The Black Phone)

- Foreign feelings -

Marilyn and her father sat at the police station, waiting for the detectives to come back with hopefully good news.

Casper hadn't returned home the other night. Both Marilyn and her father had brushed it off as Casper always stays at a friend's house without telling them.

But he's been gone for two days and two nights. And with a kidnapper on the loose, the family should've been more concerned.

Marilyn stares out the rain streked window, her knee bouncing up and down as a thousand different questions  cloud her mind.

Where is he?

Is he okay?

...did the grabber get him.

The sound of the door opening has both heard snap towards the sound.

A dark man with grey hair walks through the door, another detective with pale skin, mustache and a receding hairline following behind him. 

They stand infront of the girl and man with saddened looks over their features.

"We asked around. The last person to see him said that he'd been spotted approaching a magician...?"

The last word of his sentence was told as a question, the story didn't make any sense.

"So thats it then. He's missing?"

The detectives nod and Marilyn feels as if a storm cloud filled with every stage of grief rains through her.

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

And acceptance.

He was gone. No questions asked.

There wasn't anything she could do to change that.

Marilyn just sits there, numb as her father yells at the detectives. All sounds were muffled and she felt as if she was drowning. With no one there to help her.

+++

Marilyn didn't go to school for the next few days.

People questioned her disappearance, some growing worried that she got taken.

It wasn't until they spotted flyers for her missing brother hanging around on fences and poles.

Which is why she was getting all these looks as she walked through the school halls.

People sent her sympathetic stares and small smiles as she made her way past them.

It was annoying. People she had never met had sent her their sympathy and it made her feel pathetic.

Opening up her locker, shes met with a photo of her and Casper smiling. They were probably eight in the photo.

Smiling, Marilyn remembers laughing with her brother all the time. Even after the two had their sibling fights, they always made up.

And now he's gone.

"Oh! you're back." A happy voice says and Marilyn turns to see Robin standing behind her, a smile on his face.

"I'm back." Shes smiles.

Robins gaze saddens a little, he was friends with Casper, the two had pranked Marilyn a few times in the past. Even got into a few school rumbles together.