Turn for the Worst

Chapter 22

"Is everything ready?" Mary Margret asks Mother Superior at the tent and tables they've set up as a home base for all the searchers. Several of the sisters were manning the tables that had bottled water, granola bars, trail mix and fruit on them, as well as backpacks and maps of the city. There were also tables with hundreds and hundreds of fliers with Emma's picture on them for the people to hand out as they went.

The entire group had set up in a local park that was close to the bars where Emma was last seen. Ruby and the other close friends of Emma were going to be group leaders, organizing any volunteers who came into groups and leading them on a search of the cities, going through neighbourhoods, forested areas, downtown, other parks, down by the harbour and so on. There were even some news cameras set up to capture the event for TV.

"Yes, I think so," Mother Superior says, standing up from the registration table. She looks over at the heavily pregnant teacher. Mary Margret leans on the table carefully, trying to keep her baby bump supported. "You've done an amazing job, Mary,"

"Thank you,"

"I'm sure when we find Emma, she'll know that you love her so much,"

Mary Margret swallows hard and wipes away a few tears. Mother Superior puts her arm around her.

"She will be found; I have faith in the Lord that he will guide us to her,"

Mary Margret smiles and hugs her friend tightly.

"I hope so,"

David is instructing all of Emma's friends on how to keep a group together and make sure they search thoroughly.

"Remember to keep track of everyone in your group, we don't want any more missing people,"

"We will David, we promise," Ruby says.

David goes over to Leroy, who has a few cadaver dogs with their trainers ready to go with the groups, to talk to him about the organization of the search parties. Each animal was trained to sniff out certain scents and the trainers were given an article of Emma's clothing to get their dogs on the trail.

Killian stands by, happy that he was released after security cam footage cleared him of any suspicion and proved his alibi. He was very worried about what might happen during this search. He was praying that they didn't end up finding Emma's body or anything like that, but he was so grateful that Mary Margret put everything together. It was a testament knowing about how many people cared for Emma and would do anything for her. He had only known Emma for a few months, but he knew that she was loved and well-cared for, even though it wasn't in the most traditional sense.

Henry walks up to one of the tables, with Violet trailing him.

"Who's this Henry?" Mary Margret asks.

"This is Violet, one of my friends from school," Henry explains. "She managed to get a bunch of the swim teams to come and help."

"Oh that's wonderful, thank you so much, Violet, it's lovely to meet you," the teacher says, holding out her hand. Violet happily accepts it.

"Thank you very much, I want to help Henry as much as I can,"

"Well just sign here and we'll have you put into a group,"

Violet does so as Henry stands by. Killian moves closer to the Lad, knowing exactly what was going on.

"She's quite the beauty, isn't she?" Killian whispers.

Henry turns bright red and steps away from Killian.

"She your girlfriend then?" Killian says, raising his eyebrow.