Invisible

Chapter Eleven: Missing

A few days had passed over, and there had still been no sign of Ryder. He had vanished out of nowhere, it had been so sudden. His mother had been the first to file a report, his friends going out to look for him as well. Still, nothing. Aria had immediately blamed Martinez, she had no doubt that he had something to do with her friend. He was the last one to see Ryder. Her heart sunk at recognizing the familiar pattern; Jacob had gone missing in the same matter, without a warning. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

"Aria!" Noah's sharp voice pulled her from her thoughts, her eyes snapping up to meet his concerned expression, "Do you have the notes for history, or not?"

She blinked a few times as her mind processed what had just been asked, shortly shaking her head afterwards. No, she hardly ever needed notes. Her memory could have easily been considered photographic, she was a genius; she had been told by multiple people, even the ones that she didn't know. Her eyes had narrowed on her friend behind her glasses, gritting her teeth out of frustration. Noah's behavior confused her to no end, and that only resulted in her fuming frustration. Ryder is missing, and he's worried about class?!

"How can you even think of school?" She questioned with venom dripping from her words, tucking a piece of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear, "Our friend is missing, and you don't even care."

Noah's posture had almost instantly straightened up, a dangerous glare being tossed in Aria's direction. His expression was tight with anger, she knew that the ravenette was highly offended by her choice of words. What made the case worse, was the fact that she didn't care. Their friendship had been strained ever since Ryder's disappearance, it was clear as day to any stranger.

"Yeah, let me whip out my superman cape and go looking for him," Noah spat with a growl in his voice, keeping his gaze on Aria, "Because, looking for him is so freaking easy! How dare you tell me that I don't care for him, you have no right. I could say the same thing for you, if you want to play this little game."

"That's enough, the two of you are worse than toddlers," Scarlett scoffed from her seat, pushing her tray of food away from her, "Not even breakfast is appealing... I don't know about you two, but, I'm really worried.. What if he's hurt?"

The thought of her friend being injured made her cringe, inhaling a shaky breath with a shake of her head. Aria pushed her own tray of untouched food away, staring blankly at it once she took her eyes off of Noah. A large part of her blamed Scarlett, she could have stopped him.

"You should have stopped him," She blurted out the words, not even regretting it, "You should have stopped him, he would have listened to you."

Her gaze remained on the food, feeling the heat of Scarlett's scowl set on her. She tuned out the angry words that were spewed at her, brows furrowing together in thought. If Martinez was the last one to see him, he has to have him. But, if he has Ryder.. Then, where on earth would they be?

"Are there any warehouses around?" Aria questioned, gaze flickering between the other two sitting at the breakfast table, "If Martinez took him, then he has to be hiding Ryder somewhere, right? He's married, so there's no way he would take him home."

"His house would be the first place that the department would check, since he was the one to take Ryder away," Noah pointed out, dropping his pencil onto his notebook, "There's an abandoned place at the very edge of the county, but, that's a two hour drive."

Aria felt her stomach turn upside down, heart sinking at the theory of Martinez taking her friend so far away. With traffic, that's almost a four hour drive away. This.. This is something that happens in movies, or a book. It shouldn't be happening to us, to Ryder. Her elbow lifted to rest on the surface of the table, hand covering her mouth to muffle a strained noise that bubbled in the back of her throat. He could already be dead. The sudden realization had hit her harder than expected, especially since it was so sudden. Her throat tightened as tears pricked at her eyes, ignoring the constant questions of concern coming from the other two.

"What—What if he's.." Aria couldn't choke out her muffled question, simply trailing off with another shaky intake of breath.

"We're all worried for him, but, we can't let those thoughts get the best of us," The other female hummed, placing a hand on Aria's shoulder, "We can—"

"You have no right to say that," She hissed out with a sudden burst of hatred filling her chest, quick to slap the hand away from her shoulder, "This is your fault! You could have stopped him! Should have stopped him!"

Aria didn't care for the shocked, or offended, expression that crossed Scarlett's facial features, lifting her light brown eyes to glare at the female. Grief had passed over, and it was now being replaced by a fiery feeling of detestation; if it weren't for being in school, she would have physically attacked this girl. She was the last of us to be with him, and she didn't even tell us he was arrested until the next day!

"You can't put the full blame on her! We could have stopped him as well!" Noah argued his point after a moment, "We're all to blame, not just her. We should have stopped when we had the chance, when he was off the medication."

Her lips parted to argue against his words, though she was stopped as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She closed her mouth as she pulled her phone out, giving one last glare at the other two. When her eyes finally met the screen of her phone, her surroundings went deathly silent. Her heart stopped as her stomach twisted with sickness, eyes widening at the disturbing message on her phone. 

"What is it?" Scarlett's voice broke the sudden silence her head had created, noise flooding back into her ears.

Aria didn't dare take her eyes off the screen of the phone, fingers gliding over the smooth surface. Her thumb punched in the passcode, immediately going to her messages. No, no.. Dear God, no... She tapped open the most recent message that had been sent, throat forming a lump. Her eyes scanned over the message multiple times.

Drop the case, or he'll end up worse.

Her gaze dropped onto the rather unsettling picture that was tagged from the message, a strained noise leaving her throat. It was a blurred image of a quite bloodied brunette, one hand tied to, what looked to be, a pipe of some sort. His posture was slumped, face hidden due to the fact that his head was lowered. His clothes were ruffled up, holding dirt and blood. Please, no.

"It's Ryder."