Music & Monsters [Camp NaNo July]

14

Casey’s POV

        Three days. They’ve been gone for three damn days. 

        I felt my eyes tearing up, my throat starting to swell as I tried to choke away the salty droplets. As much as I tried to fight it, I was starting to lose hope. 

        My head bowed, I moved silently through the halls, my body seemingly numb. It was as if I was on auto-pilot, my body driving itself as it navigated its way towards my classes. I stopped trying to pay attention all together, and Red was more than worried about me. 

        It didn’t exactly take long for news to get out that they had been kidnapped, and there were rumors that I had something to do with it. Without my ipod, I couldn’t even block them out either. 

        I rubbed my face with my hands once I had sat down at my desk, mindlessly staring at the wall. There’s no point in being here, not without them. I bit down on my lip, the urge to scream and cry welling up inside of me. 

        So many thoughts ran through my mind, most of them involving me throwing a tantrum. Yet the rational side of me kept me in check, telling me that it would do no good. 

        I just can’t do this though, not when they’re missing and I’m so scared. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself. If I kept freaking out, then  the voices are bound to show despite the fact that I’ve been steadily taking my medicine. 

        The teacher walked in, casting a pitying look towards me. As if she was trying to apologize for all my problems. 

        I averted my eyes. 

        I don’t want to deal with you, any of you. 

        As soon as the teacher began to drone and babble, I could feel myself completely losing it. I couldn’t stand being in there any longer after a few minutes, and decided to just pack up my stuff and leaving. I’d rather be out and looking for my boys than stuck in this classroom pretending to listen to who knows what. 

        “Um, where do you think you’re going Casey?”  my teacher asked, blinking at me in surprise at my sudden actions.

        “Anywhere but here,” I replied before stepping out of the classroom completely, allowing the door to shut behind me. 

        As I predicted nobody came chasing after me, threatening to give me detention. In a way that made me sad because that meant everyone knew of my problems and basically pitied me for it. On the other hand I get a lot of free passes. 

        I’d still rather have my boys back though. 

        My boys… thinking of them brought a sad smile to my face, and the blossoming hope that they were okay. 

        I decided to walk home, my steps slow and trailing as they met with the sidewalk. The walk was pretty silent, considering most people were still in school and work. I only passed by a couple elderly women who were out for a stroll, animatedly chatting to one another. 

        I actually caught a couple of snippets, deepening my sadness. 

        “Did you hear about those poor boys who were kidnapped?”

        “Oh yes, I hope they’re found soon!” 

        “I heard from Marge that the search wasn’t looking so good. You know her son is a polic---“

        I couldn’t stand to hear anymore, so I took off running, my shoes slapping the pavement. 

        Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. Please let it not be true, please let them come back soon. 

        Soon enough I was doubled over in my yard, gulping in large amounts of air as I tried to brush the stray strands of sweaty hair. It was gross. This is why I didn’t exercise, but clearly I should. 

        I knelt in the grass, my hands grasping at the thin green plants. Tears that had been building from my sprint came bursting out, and I let out a strangled cry. 

        “Dakota, Ollie, Nick, where’d you guys go?” I sobbed. I flipped over onto my back, my blurry eyes staring up at the sky as tears rolled down the sides of my face. 

        I didn’t care that I was in my front yard for everyone to see. I didn’t care that I looked like an absolute lunatic. I just wanted them back. I didn’t know how much they affected me until now. 

        “I let people in, and they end up hurting me. The only people I’ve let get close in years and they go and disappear on me.” A dry chuckle left my lips because what are the chances of that happening? I know it wasn’t their fault but that didn’t make me hurt any less. 

        I curled up in a fetal position on my side, my eye level with the blades of grass. 

        “I really miss you guys…” 

***

        “Casey? Oh my god, Casey!” Someone violently shook me, and I jolted awake. 

        Rubbing at my eyes, I looked into the worried face of Red, her green eyes large and wild. 

        “Red?” I croaked out, my throat scratchy. “What are you doing in my house? How’d you get in?”

        She gave me a weird look, her features creasing. “Casey… we’re not in your house, I found you passed out in your front yard.” After looking around, I realized she was right. By the way the sun was still somewhat high in the sky, I assumed it was just after school got out or something close. “God Casey, you scared the hell out of me. After you didn’t come back to your locker after school I started getting really worried. I thought you might have been k-k—“ Red’s lip trembled, and my eyes widened, my mouth forming an ‘o’. 

        “You thought I was kidnapped?” Red nodded slightly, her eyes now becoming glassy. “I’m so sorry for worrying you,” I apologized quickly, feeling guilt eating away at me. “I left school early because I just couldn’t sit in those classrooms anymore. Him not being in my classes was really getting to me, you know?” I explained, trying to pull my lips up into a pitiful smile. She nodded again. 

        “Yeah I get it. I’m just glad that you’re okay though. And when I saw you just lying there..” I gave her a hug to let her know I understood what she was trying to say. “I even sent you a few texts, but you can just ignore them now… I was just scared when I sent them so they might be a little.. crazy.” Letting out a light laugh, Red played with the ends of her hair, the green starting to fade. 

        At the mention of the texts, I pulled out my phone, curious to read them. 

        But what I saw when I unlocked my phone shocked me, and caused my heart to pound. 

        New message: Dakota

        Fingers trembling, I went to my messages, ignoring Red’s concerned cries. 

        Dakota: hey Casey, sorry for the little disappearing act haha. We’re fine, but can you meet us at the park tonight @ 8?

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Okay, so that happened. Sorry for serious lack of updates, there's literally not a day that goes by without me thinking of writing. I've just been too busy :\ 

And this story is happening faster than I thought, soon it'll be over and I'll be writing for NaNoWriMo haha. Yet I still have no ideas on what I'm going to do so there's that... Oh well. 

What did you think? I'm going to try and update more frequently but school is just getting tougher and tougher so we'll see how that goes...

au revoir for now