Forced to Become

Prologue: Missing

"Come on! It's not like your parents have been keeping you stuck inside, bored out of your skull," I said, my frustration with my parents leaking out. "Once your folks think you're in bed they'll never check again. Then you can come over and we'll hit that next level together! What do you say?"

Nathan's voice when he answered me was hesitant, yet I could catch the underlying excitement that meant he might agree. He only lived three blocks away. We had a blast when I snuck over to his place last month after he got grounded for a week. It had been an adventurous, intoxicating high, sneaking through the neighborhood, entering his room through the window. I figured he owed me one.

Tonight should be no different than any other night. The fact that I was told I had to stay inside, and therefore safe, left me feeling antsy and confined. My mom was being paranoid about the news stories of two teenage boys who had gone missing in recent months. Two boys, two months, to be exact. And right now would be the perfect timing for boy number three during the third month.

We just came from doing some volunteer work with the police, going door to door to ask people if they knew anything that would help. My dad decided to haul his own teenage son, meaning me, around while interviewing people, and I convinced Nathan to join us. My dad figured it just might make people more sympathetic, and cough up more information than he had gotten by himself when he had tried in uniform. It didn't do any good. No one had any information.

We finished the night with a rally to increase public awareness, but that got rained out before it barely started. We dropping Nathan off on the way home.

I spent my last three weekends unable to do anything fun. The straw that broke it for me was when my mom wouldn't even let me go just a block away to shoot some hoops earlier in the day.

"Jason, there is no way you are going anywhere near anyplace that young boys normally hang! That's an open invitation right there for whoever is nabbing these boys. No sir, young man, you are staying put; safe and sound," she had admonished.

It made me want to growl in frustration. I took to pacing my room when my dad stuck his head in and told me to call it a night. "Just humor your mother for once, ok, Jase? Lose the attitude or you'll be grounded for real."

Like there was a difference?

I plopped down in the stuffed gaming rocker my parents had bought for me last Christmas, trying to distract myself. That's when I had the brilliant idea to call Nathan.

"What the hell," he finally said, "why not? You only live once, right, Jason? I'll be over in a bit."

I couldn't help grinning as I headed to the kitchen to stock up on snacks, bluffing my parents into thinking I'd come to terms with their overprotectiveness. Getting back to my room, I turned up the music a bit so my parents wouldn't hear me open my window. Sticking my head out of the window for a moment, I relished the feeling my rebellion caused within me. I was even enjoying the darkening night, despite the drizzling spring rain and the slight chill in the late evening breeze.

I was practically chortling with glee as I set up the game. Figuring he should arrive any minute, I brought up the last save point Nathan and I had reached. I sat back in satisfaction, reviewing the posters on my walls. I never could decide on a favorite, always debating between the Joker and my current favorite band. Nathan always chose the poster with guitar chords.

I grabbed my new electric guitar, strumming a little without the amp turned on, waiting for Nathan to show up. He was going to freak when he saw my new guitar; I'd promised him he could have my old acoustic if my parents got me an electric. I got bored with the guitar while waiting.

An hour passed, and I was beginning to get worried. I tried calling him. It went straight to messages. This uneasy feeling took up its abode in the pit of my stomach. Nathan was only walking three blocks, for Pete's sake! That wasn't enough time or distance for anything to happen, was it? In our little neighborhood?

I finally closed the window, deciding Nathan either chickened out and didn't want to admit it, or he got busted by his parents and they took his phone and turned it off.

I wouldn't allow myself to believe my parents might have been right, and something had happened to a solitary boy out on the street, in the rain, at night...

... because of me.