Prey.

19.

The car ride was complete silence. Damien kept trying to make conversation with everyone, but no one was paying attention. Ryan was ordered to be as far away from Neela as possible. He was in the very front seat while Neela was sat in the very back seat, between Evan and Ethan.

Once the group was at the shopping mall, it was visible that it was packed. Maybe Neela could stray away and eventually run away. Once she was let out of the car a big group of people came her way. She started to walk with them when she thought no one was paying attention to her. At this point, Neela is going the complete opposite way of the boys.

That was, until Sean grabbed her hand. "What are you doing? We almost lost you," he knew was Neela was trying to do. "You were confused, huh?" Sean felt Neela's fear, so he wanted to help her feel better. "Don't let go," a smile was able to be heard in his voice.

They got Neela a lot of clothes. She only wanted a few outfits, though. When she said she had enough, Ryan told everyone to wait in the food court while he went from store to store. There weren't that many people as they went to the food court, it would be easier to get someone's attention.

Just as Neela was about to stand, the voice came back, don't do it. Bad things will happen if you do it.

After an hour of Ryan running around, he finally came to meet the whole group.

The whole shopping day went well, the boys all helped her put her clothes away.

~~

Andrew was almost dead. His cheeks and eyes were sunken in. He had barely slept nor ate. The whole time, he laid on the couch, waiting for the police to call in him or something.

Andrew's phone rang, he slowly brought it up to his face to see the caller ID. It was his very close friend, it was like Neela's uncle. He answered the phone and said nothing, he just breathed. "Hey, you okay?" Andrew shook his head, knowing the other man couldn't see him. "I'll come over. Are you home?"

"Yeah," Andrew whispered and hung up.

Jackson came in about 30 minutes, he knocked and noticed the door was opened a crack. He opened the door the rest of the way and was shocked by what he saw. There was stuffing from the couches and pillows scattered all over the house. There was even shattered glass littering the floor and furniture.

"Leave your shoes on, there's glass." Jackson wanted to get Andrew out of the house to get his mind off everything, but nothing is okay. Nothing would get his mind off it. "Her fucking mother called. She tried to say that I'M a bad dad. She's such a cu-" Andrew got cut off by his phone ringing. "Hello?" He answered in an complaining manner.

"Andrew, we need you to come to the station. There's some new information we'd like to tell you in person." The officer on the other end was confused about the forces' new breakthrough.

When Andrew heard about the new information, excitement erupted in the pit of his stomach. Did a informant call? Did neighbors see something? Maybe they got a suspect? Maybe even an address? Andrew didn't know, but he felt that it could be a very important piece of information that would be vital in finding Neela.

Andrew ran out front to Jackson's car, Andrew's was in the garage and he was at no liberty to find his keys in his mess of a home. Andrew was close to taking pieces off the vehicle so he would be able to hot wire it. "What are you doing?!" Jackson yelled. "Police station. Now. Please." Jackson hurriedly made motions with his hands so Andrew would get up and into the passenger seat.

It took feasible five minutes for the two to make it to the police station. There was an officer waiting for Andrew at the front desk and the officer also allowed Jackson too, due to him being Neela's godfather. "When was the last time Neela was seen in the public eye by a large audience?" A question spilled from the officers lips, "when was the last time her records were checked?" So many more questions were asked as they were taken back to where more officers are, looking at many computers.

Andrew was sat at an empty computer. "Look, Neela Oh, no public records." A new officer tapped on to the computer screen. "No birth certificate, social security, nothing!"

This was impossible, "she can't be tracked anywhere?" Andrew asked saddened by this news. His daughter doesn't even exist anymore. "We're trying to get into contact with more stations around America, but there has been nothing so far."

"What have other stations been saying?" Andrew slowly stood from the chair to look at the officer. "Hard drives have been wiped clean, no information is stored." The officer took a deep breath in, "we can now for sure say that Neela was kidnapped. If we let the media have it, there will be more attention on it and the chances will be higher of us finding her."

The last thing Andrew wanted was to let the media have the story. Ugh. Just imagine the reporters outside his house everyday, asking the same questions. It would be on the news and websites everyday! "Cmon, Andrew. If the right journalist gets ahold of the story, we have her."

"But, she doesn't exist anymore. How will we be able to work with that?" This whole situation was confusing for Andrew, he just wanted it all to be over with. "You have countless pictures of her, our team has her DNA evidence, and you have some of her records. Just let the media do its thing and we'll get her back."

"Fine. Let them have it tomorrow." Andrew slowly raised his hands and started to walk to the back exit. "I'll come early in the morning to give you copies of her files and pictures."

The officer looked at the door as it closed and said to himself, "I'll do right by your daughter," Evan smiled to himself sincerely.