Fake Smile: A YouTuber Fanfiction

Chapter 9

It was the second last day that Jared was going to be in the same state as the rest of them, and, as expected, Austin was going to visit Jared first thing in the morning. He entered the hospital and went over to the lady behind a desk to alert her that he was going to see Jared.

"I'm here to see Jared Knabenbauer." Austin said.

"Oh, are you Austin Hargrave?" She inquired. Her eyes were expressing a sad, sympathetic look, which confused Austin.

"Yes." Austin answered.

"I was going to call your house later, I'm sorry to tell you this but....Jared disappeared last night." Austin's eyes widened and his mouth was slightly agape.

"What do you mean he disappeared?" Austin interrogated, his tone expressing his distress.

"When a nurse came to check on him this morning his room was empty, we looked all over the hospital for him but he was nowhere to be found." She informed.

"Th-that can't be....why would he...." Austin trailed off, mumbling to himself. Then he suddenly darted down the hallway of the hospital, running to Jared's room. He opened the door frantically and when he looked inside the room, he was devastated to find that it was empty.

"Jared......." Austin said in a voice barely above a whisper. This isn't real, it has to be a dream. He thought. Then he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around to see the nurse.

"Where is he!?" Austin exclaimed. "He couldn't have just disappeared, there's no where he would go! He wouldn't just leave! Where is he, what did you do with him!?"

"I'm telling you, we don't know where he is or what happened to him." The nurse replied, remaining calm despite Austin's accusing tone. "But we're doing everything we can to find him, we have police searching for him as well."

"This is all just a trick! Jared wouldn't just disappear, there's no reason he would! If he did I want you to tell me where he would've gone or what could've happened to him!"

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing else I can tell you but what's going on. Jared is gone, and we don't know where he is. The most we can do is search for him and hope that the worst fate possible did not befall him." Austin didn't say anything in rebuttal this time. He just stood in silence, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, still refusing to believe this would happen.

"Just look around Austin, Jared isn't here, that's all the proof you need to know he's gone. Now you can continue living in denial about it and keep shouting at me, or you can accept it and do something about it. It's your choice." Then with that, the nurse left the room.

With those words Austin felt himself deflate a little as his shoulders lowered. He looked around the empty room, noticing that on the desk beside the bed was the scrapbook they had given Jared was still here. He picked it up and looked at the cover.

"Then why? Why did you leave? And where did you go?" Austin wondered out loud, his voice breaking. Then tears started to sting his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Austin began to walk home after hearing the devastating news of Jared being missing. He didn't know what to do, it didn't seem real, it didn't seem like Jared really disappeared. But mostly because he couldn't understand why Jared would be gone.

Why would he leave? I hope to god that he didn't do anything.....like that. Austin thought, thinking about the conversation he had with Jared about a week ago, where he told him about his occasional suicidal thoughts. Austin shook his head No, no, he couldn't have done anything like that, he knows how devastated we'd be if he did that. And he was perfectly fine yesterday, he was happy.