Unwritten Pages

Chapter Forty-Seven: Searching

     “—that is the end of the note. And if anyone has information on this person, please remember to call our lines. Any tip will help whether it be anonymous or—”

     Arianna clicks off the television. It turns black as the face of the policeman disappears. Then she turns and looks at all of us. “We could have done some super cool sleuth work, you know? It'd be super cool and we'd all walk around in detective suits and we'd be like 'have you seen this person' to everyone.”

     I wave her off. “You'd prefer to put yourself in danger?” Arianna gives a fake scowls and flips me off. I pretend not to see the last part.

     I look over the papers in the hands again. I had photocopied them before I had given the official copy to the authorities. Now I reread it again.

     Hey, this is Winter.

     If you're reading this, then...I'm already gone. I think it's better this way really and you can't change my mind about it because...well... I'm dead.

     But it feels weird writing that because I'm not, you know, dead yet.

     But enough about that. I need to write about what happened that day. You'd probably be expecting it, for the people who've read my journal. I mean, it was probably so obvious. And I'd been too blind to see it because I trusted the wrong person.

     It started... It was simple, really. I had been heading home from art class on Saturday, May, 26th. That date was when...everything changed. I'm not trying to sound cheesy...but it was how I saw it. It's how I still see it now and that's why I'm not afraid to take my life.

     I was walking home by myself. It was light outside. I wanted to take a short-cut today because I didn't feel like walking so far. I cut through the alleyway. I usually didn't cut through this place because it was...well...creepy, to say the least. But today was an exception. It was quite sunny outside and I thought it would be a good idea. Feel free to call me stupid.

     And there, I found...Aiden.

     You know, the boy from my art class. He was just crouched in the alleyway and he looked horrible. He hadn't been at art class today so he must have been in the alleyway the whole time. He had his back to me and was rocking back and forth and muttering words under his breath.

     I approached him and his head shot up instantly when my foot made noise on the concrete.

     I asked him what was wrong. I was concerned about him. Aiden was a good guy. I didn't know what the hell he was doing, curled up in a tight ball in a dark alleyway.

     He told me not to ask and to come back here at night. He said he couldn't tell me because THEY were watching. I didn't know who THEY were. I didn't understand but he sounded so worried and freaked out that I agreed to come back later.

     He gave me the time which was late at night. Actually, more like early in the morning. My parents are strict so I doubted they would let me go see Aiden. So I waited. I waited until my parents were asleep and then I snuck out.

     My parents didn't even know I left the house. I thought I was so clever. So very clever.

     I went to the meeting place that Aiden arranged for us. It was around two in the morning by the time I got there. He wasn't there. Big surprise.

     I...was stupid. I started to call out his name and I would probably draw attention to myself to the thugs who would walk by. But it wasn't them that I attracted...