A Friend For Ransom

Where's Elliot?

"Ellie! Ellie, dear!" Mom called from the door. "May I come in?"

I sighed. "Fine!"

She went in and frowned as she saw my face wet with tears and eyes swollen from crying.

"What's wrong, hun?" She asked leaving the door slightly open.

"I-it's a friendship issue."

"What, might I say, is that friendship issue?" When I wasn't looking, a hand crawled in holding a cellphone.

"I screwed it up Mom! I screwed it up!" I sobbed. "It was all me!"

"Why? What did you do?"

"Margaret noticed that I keep on following her around and always go blank when I see her or talk to her and stuff like that." I explained between hiccups. "And now she got mad at me and avoided me throughout the rest of the day."

"Oh, dear. It's good to be protective for a friend. But that's too much."

"I know. I-I just wish I can do something about this. I was the one who--" I gasped as I looked out the window. It was only the roar of the thunder. "Woah, that's a really big storm."

"I'd better check the news. I hope your Dad's gonna be alright." She said heading out the door. The hand disappeared. "Get cleaned up, sweetie, dinner's almost ready."

"I love you, Mom!" I rushed to Mom and landed in her arms.

"Oh, I love you too."

In the meantime, Elliot stood next to the door, holding his cellphone. "I'm gonna help Ate Ellie! With my secret plan! Phase 1 properly executed."

I then heard footsteps and a door bang. *gasp!*

"Ellie, did Elliot go out?"

She then let go of me. "Oh please! He wouldn't be that dumb to go out in this storm!" I then paused to think. "ELLIOT!"

We hurried downstairs to see if he was there. But the living room was empty. I pushed the front door open. Elliot, soaking wet, was struggling through the storm holding his little blue umbrella.

"Where is he going?" I mumbled to Mom. "Hey, Elliot!"

He faced me with surprise and started to run. We ran after him. But as we ran further, it became really hard to see anything. The wind pushed us back. The floor became slippery. I saw Elliot slipping and tumbling. He then turned right and disappeared.

I stopped in my tracks. "Why are we stopping?" Mom asked.

"He vanished!" I searched the area, or at least whatever is in my sight. "I can't see him!" We yelled his name another several times.

I headed to Margi's to see if he was there.

Little did I know, Elliot was shaking himself dry on Margaret's porch. He then looked up.

"Ate Margaret's home!" He then gasped as he spotted two figures moving closer and closer to him. "I need to hide from them!" He jumped off the porch and hid in a bush nearby.

I stepped onto her porch and reached for the doorbell. I hesitated. Remembering how our friendship ended was a disaster! She wouldn't even want to see me after that. My mind told me not to, but my body told me to just do it.

I turned around to face my Mom. "I don't think Elliot is here, let's just go--"

Mom then put her arm out to stop me. "We could at least ask."

I sighed. There is a chance that she's seen Elliot go by.

"Okay! Here it goes!" I pressed hardly on the doorbell, thinking that I broke it. I waited a couple of minutes until I saw the curtains jerk shut.

--------------------------------

"Oh-no! Ellie! What is she doing here?!" Margaret mumbled.

"Ate Margaret?"

"Y-yes?" She asked, leaning to hide the window.

"Who is that?"

"Oh, Cal! Joe! You gotta hide downstairs!" Her eyes filled with worry.

"Why?"

"Just go... hide!"

The two little figures ran off, leaving two band-aids and a strip of bandage on the couch.

Should I tell her?

The doorbell rang again.

I'm so upset thinking that she's thinking I don't like her.

The doorbell rang for the third time.

"No! I shouldn't even tell Ellie!" She whispered, forcefully.

She frowned at me. "Oh, it's you."

"Look, I'm sorry. We just came by to ask if you've seen Elliot."

"No, I haven't." She was about to close the door when I put my hand in front

"Is there anyway to fix this?"

"N-no. Th-there isn't." She then slammed the door at my face.

Weird. She's usually very polite and calm.

As weird as this is, I still hung my head, on the verge of tears. "She's still mad at me."

"Don't worry, hun." Mom said. "We'll find Elliot and find a way to mend this."

"Okay." I said, walking with an umbrella overhead. "Let's search for Elliot."

The rain started to pass as we started towards the police's post.