Black

Part 21 The Blue pulse

The weather had already been turning bad and the radio broadcasted the weather forecast of heavy snowfall in next few hours. Dr. Elena turned off the knob of radio in her car and rested her head against the steering wheel. She had come from the house of Dr. Lloyd witnessing the gore sight at his manor; the dining area to basement was filled with the blood of his own daughter and those notes left for him didn't help his troubled mind and heart for his daughter. Police carried out their investigation at his house and Lloyd burst out at the officer for he had been negligent towards his duty of finding a serial killer. What grieved Lloyd most that her daughter was nowhere to be found and he couldn't hope for her girl if was alive or not. Dr. Elena pulled the key out of the ignition, picking up her documents folder and stepped outside of the car. She stuffed her hand in the pocket to retrieve a key unlocking the door of her house to find his son and Jennifer sitting on the couch. She closed the door behind her removing her coat in the warm atmosphere of her house and walked to meet them.

"Hello, Brooke!" She took Jennifer's  hand in a firm shake though with a forced smile.
"How are you feeling now, Brooke?"
"I'm better, thankyou"
"Aren't you guys getting late for school?" Elena looked at the time on her silver wrist watch and back to the children.
"We were just leaving...", Ryan noticed the worry lines that etched on the forehead of his mother and asked, "Mom, are you okay?"
Elena shook her head sparing a glance towards Jennifer's direction and back to her son.
"Is everything alright?" He questioned his mother again who looked pale for some reason and he touched her forehead to check if she had fever.

"It's about Lloyd's daughter." Elena told them but not daring to speak further to upset her son who was a close friend of Fria. Besides, Jennifer's condition didn't allow to break any such kind of news to her. Even though Elena wasn't a psychiatrist herself, she knew the effect of  post traumatic stress on mind and as a doctor, she never had allowed to reveal this type of news to her recovering patients.

"Fria? What happened to her?" Ryan's brows furrowed at the mention of her name. Elena's eyes again fell on Jennifer's anxious face and she, as if on cue tried to excuse herself from the room to give privacy to the family.

"She's gone missing." The words rolled out of her mouth much faster and audible enough for the Jennifer to hear.

-
Amber trudged back inside her room after
taking a nice hot shower to relieve her numbed limbs from the cold. She stood in front of her wardrobe and pulled out her dirty brown jeans, black tunic and red long sleeved shirt. Her dark circles were going worse around her eyes given each night of insomnia with bare sleep of hardly an hour. She blow dried her hair and applied a light make up on her pale complexion of face to look healthy enough to leave the house. She put a brown leather jacket on her body checking in the mirror if she looks presentable enough and grabbed her bag before going downstairs. She bid her mother goodbye not bothering for the breakfast and left the house to her school. She plugged the earphones in her ears playing her music list and decided to walk to the school enjoying the smell of snow in the air. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her coat, wearing gloves had never been her one thing and she forgot her scarf in a rush to leave for school. Amber, the bad habit that would be death of her one day that she never goes back to retrieve whatever she forgets at home. She sniffed her nose and twenty minutes of walk led her to the school building. She met with Ryan and rest of the girls in the yard of the school talking to each other.

"Hi, guys!" Amber barely raised her three fingers that were holding onto the strap of her bag. She looked at their faces that were searching each other's faces and Amber quirked her brow at Haley who was fidgeting with her cellphone.

"Care to tell me what's going on?" She shifted her entire weight towards Maria hoping that girl would answer the reason of their silence.
"Fria's gone missing." Her tone was cold and distant, not that she minded it otherwise but perhaps given the cold attitude of Maria, her tone served her right in revealing the news to her.
"What?" Amber spat back in surprise looking from Maria's to Ryan's solemn face wearing a blank expression and she wondered if she could only read his thoughts given with the eyes he looked back at her.