Mortalis || irwin

[ 5 ] 2014

[ 5 ] 2014

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"The owner of this house is Cole Hood."

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Two more weeks passed without any of them hearing anything from Calum. For those two weeks, Harley with Andrea and Niall showed up at his house, everyday without fail, only to find it completely empty. The front gates were now padlocked and from the outside, she could see it was bare inside his house. Niall and Andrea thought to give up after the first few days. It didn't look like Calum was coming back to Sydney, and according to the letter he left behind for them, he didn't want to be found. Everything indicated he had made the decision and left on his own account. But Harley thought there were too many strange things surrounding his disappearance, or his decision to leave.

If he had left on his own, why didn't he take any of his belongings? 

After seeing the way he had left everything behind and was sending others to move his things, Harley almost felt like he left without having the chance to take anything. It was almost like he was running from someone. Harley doubted that Calum could be so upset and hurt that he would decide to leave.

She also thought it suspicious how the movers told her he was planning to sell or rent the place, and the fact that they hadn't seen Calum in person. He had merely called them asked them to move his belongings without a very good reason. That Harley knew of, she thought he would never rent, much less sell, the house. It was passed onto him by his grandfather, it had some meaning to him and his family. There were dozens of important books and artifacts in it as well. It was strange to her that he hadn't taken any of them, or that he was having it sent to a warehouse where it would be abandoned.

At St. Genevieve's, everyone went about their normal lives as though he had never existed.

Calum wasn't a very popular student to begin with. His only real friend was Harley, and perhaps there was a small chance that he was missed on the soccer team because of the position he held. But he was easily replaced when it was known he wouldn't be returning. Now when Harley stayed for cheerleading practice which took place on the south lawn, the soccer boys trained at the other end, led by Dirk Van Rankin who had been co-captain and was recently promoted.

He was also taken off the class rosters for attendance, his name was no longer called in each of Harley's classes. It was truly as though he no longer existed at St. Genevieve's.

It angered her that they had all forgotten him so easily like he was dead while she still hoped he would come back. She never forgot about him, and she feared that wherever he was, that he would be in trouble and may be needing her help.

Harley felt like she wasn't doing enough to find him.

What more could she do?

She was only seventeen.

It was a Friday after school when she tried to ask the administrators at St. Genevieve's about Calum. She knew that whenever someone transferred schools, they would provide the address of their new school so the former one would send over their files, and permanent record. If anyone at St. Genevieve's could let her know where he went, it was the people who worked in the administration office by the exit of the school. 

Harley had been lucky that practice had been cancelled that afternoon, the cheerleaders and the basketball team were all planning a fund raiser at a burger place to gather money to get varsity jackets for the fourth year students. They were extra special jackets, as Cindy put it, that would let the rest of the school know who the athletes were, as though everyone didn't already know. The populars had a way of always getting noticed by the rest of the student population. Harley said she would catch up to them in the afternoon, since she claimed she had some errands to run and they would be there for hours anyway. Cindy was very understanding, as captain of the cheerleading squad, and told Harley they would be waiting for her at the burger place.