Trapped By My Fears

Bad News

Once I had finally eaten and showered, it seemed that the world was slowly coming back into focus. Instead of hearing the sound of rushing waves and screams, I finally heard the soft singing of my phone on the dresser.

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I reached out and picked up my phone. 1 text from my mother, 2 notifications from Netflix, and 6 missed calls from my best friend Andrea. With a small smile, I leaned back and pressed the button to call her back.

I stared at the ugly picture that I had for her as I waited for her to pick up the phone. We really managed to capture the pure love of our friendship by showing each other our ugliest sides.

The picture that I was looking at had been taken from the downward angle at our junior luncheon. Andrea had a triple chin and the ugliest smile. She looked absolutely stunning. Not to mention how gorgeous her lashes looked from this angle.

When she finally picked up I was greeted with, "Finally! Do you know how many times I've called you Ila?" The grin on my face continued to spread as I chuckled at her nickname for me. When we had met as toddlers she couldn't say Isla; instead she would say Ila. The nickname just stuck. Even after all these years.

"Hello to you too Drea." I said with a slight roll to my eyes and an amused snort. "What was so urgent that you had to call me back to back 6 times?"

Andrea staid quiet for a moment too long. "Drea? Is something wrong?" A gentle sigh could be heard and a few rustling sounds. "Yeah. I'm coming over to your house to tell you now. You should hear it face to face."

The tone in her voice had me worried. If happy go lucky Andrea was concerned over something then it must be huge. "You know the special knock. I'll be waiting for it. I'll see you when you get here."

                                               ...

It felt like hours before I heard the gentle rapping on my door. 3 hard knocks quickly filled by 2 quick tapping sounds. In my rush towards the door, I got tangled in my sheets and almost fell face first on to the floor.

"One moment Drea!" I called as I struggled against my soft captors. A few seconds of struggling and I had finally broken free. Padding over to my door, I threw it open and was quickly pounced upon by Andrea.

"It's about time! What took you so long to open the door?" She laughed. I would have laughed with her if it hadn't have sounded so forced. "My evil captors didn't want to set me free yet again." I said with a wistful sigh. Hoping that the theatrics would keep Andrea from noticing that I was trying to gauge her feelings. Something was very wrong.

Andrea gave a short nod and glanced at my sheets with a small smile. "Almost face planted into the floor again?" I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "What? Me? Never." I knew she was amused by the sarcastic tone in my voice. "Now lets get into the important stuff. What happened? You seem really off Drea."

Andrea fidgeted from side to side as she tried to think about what to say or do next. The air around us went from joking to unsettling. It was rare for Andrea to run out of things to say. With a sigh, she moved over to my bed and plopped down. "Sit next to me. You're going to want to sit down for this."

Andrea patted the bed next to her and I gingerly sat beside her. She took a few deep breaths before looking out my window towards the sea. "Ila? Are you still deathly afraid of the sea?" Andrea's question caught me off guard as I followed her line of sight.

"Yeah. I mean... I can look at it now without having a melt down but it still bothers me to go near it. Why?" Andre shifted and bit her lip. "Well I have something to tell you but you can't tell your mom yet alright? My father doesn't know that I overheard him in his office."

When Andrea mentioned her father I got worried. He was the chief of police. Whatever she had heard couldn't be good. Especially considering how nervous she appeared to be right now. "What did you hear Drea?"

Andrea was playing with the friendship bracelet on her arm as she finally managed to get the words out of her mouth. "It's about your father Isla. He's gone missing."

I stared at her with wide eyes as I tried to register what she had just said to me. My father was missing?  I tried to ask her questions but it felt like I couldn't breathe. Everything was becoming fuzzy and muffled before the world around me went dark.