URIAH

Comprimising

Chapter 4

I stare at the paper sitting in front of me. It just looks like a plate of words, all jumbled up in my head. My dad is on the phone with the precinct. We've reported her missing the moment we saw Rosa downstairs, but they were supposed to call us in later. I guess that's what this phone call is.

Rosa is still downstairs being consoled by my mom. Nathan is running around the neighbourhood and Ben is in the living room making calls to everyone she knows asking if they've seen her. Maisley is sitting beside me at the kitchen table and my dad is still on the phone.

"You wanted to go with him, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I tell Maisley without lifting my eyes from the paper. "But I'm a noticeable target and I had this talk with Nathan at the funeral and forcing him to let me go with him would go against it, so," I babble.

"You had a talk?"

I look at her confused at to why she is.

"Why is that weird to you?" I ask sounding harsher than I meant to.

"It's not weird," she says intimidated. "But I just want to understand relationships."

I sigh." In a relationship, you cannot have your partner be your third parent. But, they're still your partner. You have to believe in a same mindset even though you don't do everything the same way. That's why I had a talk with Nathan. He asked some things from me and asked some from him. Today, me letting him go off alone, is an example of how I complied with him."

"Oh," is all she manages to say out loud. I'm sure it's a weird concept for her to see me with someone else. It's a weird one for me too; having Nathan.

"The police are asking us all in the precinct," my dad says walking out the hall towards the table.

"Can you get everyone here?" he asks me.

"From the palm of my hand," I tell him pulling my phone out.

I send a text to Nathan, Ben and my mom that they have to be in our kitchen in 10 minutes.

Surprisingly, not a minute later, the front door unlocks. I jump off my seat and a sigh of relief escapes my mouth when I see Nathan come inside in one piece.

"How did you read my text and get here so fast? "

"What text?," he says taking his shoes off.

He was already on the way anyway.

"Nevermind. So? Nothing?"

"I ran around the whole borough and nothing suspicious came up. This doesn't make sense. They have to be somewhere close."

I get closer to him, because I feel that he needs it. I hug him and let go when Benito comes down the stairs and our moms come up the other flight. My sister comes out of the kitchen beside my dad.

"What's wrong, sir?" Nathan asks.

"Officer Rogers just called and said that we have to meet them at the precinct. He won't be in charge of Violet's case exactly, but is controlling the whole search for the kidnappings so I think he'll be there."

"Then let's go," I say taking my shoes from beside the door and putting them on. I'm halfway down the front steps when I hear people actually following behind me.

I don't know why I'm in such a rush. Maybe it's because someone that was just like a sister to me has just disappeared and I feel like this is the calling for the next part of this unfinished journey. At the same time, whenever I was the most nervous, I'd walk slower and move slower and I'd always be stuck in my thoughts that were ever so rapid.