The Lost Girl

Chapter 4: Almost Gone

Quinn's POV

I was making Ben late for the play.
"Quinn, are you ready yet?!" Ben shouted. I couldn't work up the nerve to shout back.
"Quinn, come on. I'm leaving without you," Ben called out. I freaked out and scurried out of the bathroom while still getting dressed. I slipped and fell. Ben rushed over and helped me up.
"You didn't have to rush that much," he said as he made sure I wasn't badly hurt.
"Sorry," I said. Then Ben pulled me into a hug.
"Don't be," he said. "Oh, crap. Quinn, we better go or we'll be late getting to the theatre."
I turned and grabbed the notepad and pen and turned to go out the door.
"Got everything?" Ben asked. I nodded and we were off to the theatre.

Once we got there, Ben sat me in the dressing room with some school pamflits. He had told me to look through them and figure out which ones seemed intersting to me. I was almost done going through them when two people came into the dressing room with Andrew.
"I think she's in here, but I could be wrong. Sometimes they're inseperable," Andrew said as they walked in. I froze with a pamflit in my hand. "Oh, look, there she is."
"Hello, Quinn. We are from social services," one of them said. The person was a woman and she didn't look that friendly.
I thought you weren't going to take me away. I wrote.
"Don't you talk?" the other asked. I looked at Andrew as if he could save me from this situation.
"Uh, she just isn't used to you yet. She only talks to a few cast mates as it is. And one of them is one of the two that found her," Andrew said.
"Is she scared of everything?" the lady asked.
"You could say that, if you don't want to get to know her that is," Ben said from the doorway.
"Who are you?"
"Ben Fankhauser. I'm the one that took care of her last night. But who are you two?" Ben said.
"I am Elaine Burkhart, and this is Jeff Brady. We are from social services," the lady said.
"Whoa, you said that you wouldn't take her away if we took care of her. She's only been with us for one day," Ben said. Elaine held her hand up and he stopped talking. I could feel that Andrew and Ben were holding their breaths.
"We are only here to build a file on Quinn. We just want the basic information. Can you do that without protesting?" Elaine asked. Ben nodded and came up me.
"Quinn, I know this is a lot right now, But can you please talk to these two? They won't hurt you. They just want the basic information. The quicker you tell them, the quicker it's done," he said. I nodded and turned my attention to the two social workers.
"Can one of us stay here?" Andrew asked.
"Fine," Elaine replied.
"Okay, first question. What is your name?" Jeff said. I looked at them then at Ben and then at Andrew.
"Quinn," I replied.
"What?" Jeff asked. I didn't say it loud enough. I turned to the pad of paper and wrote it down. "Okay, Quinn, what is your last name?"
I don't know. I wrote. Elaine and Jeff looked at each other with a look of disbelief and relief. Something like they'd found their missing kid and then learned that it didn't remember them. That's when my mind started to relise that they did look and sort of sound familiar. Only I couldn't place it. Ben must've picked up on this because he got me out of the dressing room as fast as he could.
"I'm sorry, I have to take Quinn somewhere. It's important that she gets there right away," he said. Then he pulled me to my feet and dragged me into Kara's dressing room.
"Oh, hi, Ben. Hi, Quinn," she said.
"Hi, um, there's not much time to explain, but can you watch Quinn while I try to get rid of two people? It's really important," Ben said.
"Of course. What's wrong?" Kara replied.
"I'll let Quinn tell you. I have to go. Make sure no one that isn't a cast or crew member come in here," Ben said. Then he left me there with a confused Kara.

Ben's POV

I was too frantic to explain anything to Kara. I had to get those two out so Quinn could finish looking for a school.
As I was going back to the dressing room, security was dragging the two social workers away.
"What happened?" I asked Andrew when I got to the room.
"Well, after you left with Quinn, they started to make me suspicious. So naturally I questioned them on social work. I happen to have already given social services everything they needed to know without dropping in, so I questioned them on that file. And those two had no idea what I was talking about, but they were trying," Andrew said.
"And then you called security?" I asked.
"Yep, and then you came back. Hey, wait, there is a social worker coming by tomorrow," Andrew said. He looked like he'd drifted off.
"Why?"
"To make sure she's settled in I think."
"What was all the commotion?" Ben Cook asked as he came out of his dressing room.
"Not much. Just busted a couple phony social workers," I replied.
"Where's the girl?" he asked.
"She's with Kara. Why?" I replied.
"Maybe there were more," he said. That really got me thinking. If Quinn was kidanpped but managed to escape somehow, then her captors would be looking for her. And maybe she made the news with being adopted by us.
"I have to go," I said. I took off running as fast as I could.
When I got to Kara's dressing room, Kara wasn't there, but Quinn was.
"Where's Kara?" I asked her.
"I'm right here," Kara said behind me.
"Why was Quinn all alone?" I asked. I was still thinking abut what Ben Cook had said.
"I knew I'd be right back. Plus Jeremy is across the hall. He would've come in to check on her if I wasn't back. Why are you so worried?" Kara said.
"Ben heard what happened and thought that there could've been more people involved with it. He suggested that they were after Quinn," I replied.
"I'll be fine," Quinn said. I turned to look at her.
"How comfortable are you to go to a public school?" I asked her.
"Ben, I don't think a public school here will give her the help she needs," Kara said.
"You're right, Kara," I said. I sat down next to Quinn. She scooched closer to me.
"Oh, we have a show soon. We better get ready," Kara said.
"Yeah, you're right. Come on, Quinn," I stood up and grabbed Quinn's hand. Then we hurried over to my dressing room.

After the show, Quinn, Andrew, Jeremy, Kara, and I went to go grab something to eat. We only had a limitted time between shows that we couldn't even decide on a place to go. So we ended up on Quinn's choice. The diner we took her to when we found her.
While we were there, my phone buzzed again. I answered the same phone call I'd been getting since we found Quinn. I was starting to wonder if the police were even trying to do something about it. But something felt off about this one. It was from Ben Cook's phone. But then I told myself that nothing could be wrong at the theatre and thought nothing of it.
But when we were walking back to the theatre, something caught my eye. A bright shiny object in an alleyway caught my attention. But as I started to move towards it, I realised that it was a trap.
"Guys, I don't think the streets are safe anymore," I said.
"Oh stop being paraniod, Ben," Jeremy said.
"I am not paraniod. I almost walked in a trap," I replied. Quinn walked up to me and held my arm.
"Did anything else happen?" Kara asked.
"Yeah, back at the restraunt I got the same weird phone call I've been getting since we found Quinn. Only this time it came from Ben's phone," I said. I looked at all their shocked faces.
"Do you think he's pulling a prank on you?"
"I don't know. If he is, it's one sick prank. If he's not, then boy do I hope he's alright," I said.
"Yeah, I second that," Jeremy said.
"What if they're still at the theatre?" Kara asked.
"Then we'll go a couple blocks away and call someone at the theatre that I can't make it back in time, or whoever stays with Quinn," I said.
"That plan sounds solid," Jeremy said.
"I hope it works," Kara said.
"Me too," I replied. I looked at Quinn. She was clinging on tight to my arm.