The Masqueraded

19

Bella Quinn knew something was wrong the moment she entered the house. Kira wasn't home and since her aunt and uncle were not in town for two days it would've basically just been her and Kira.

Except there was no sign of her.

The girl had come home after College and she had been reading a book comfortably snuggled up on the sofa when Bella had left the house.

It was past nine o'clock now and she hadn't come back from wherever she had gone off to after Bella had left. She noticed that Kira's blue coat was gone from the hanger. Which probably meant she hadn't headed out to somewhere close by. After everything that had been happening for the past few weeks Bella Quinn couldn't help panicking.

She climbed upstairs in short quick steps and reached the landing of the upper floor and looked about her. She took out her mobile and dialed Kira's number and kept it to her ear as she walked towards her room. The phone rang once, twice, thrice...

Bella stopped in her tracks at the threshold of her room and looked inside. Her large black eyes swept across the room swiftly once over. The detective narrowed her eyes. Something about her room was different. Kira wasn't picking up and she dropped her hand to her side as she breathed in, closing her eyes. She couldn't have a panic attack.

This was the part she dreaded the most about her job. A gut wrenching feeling started to nudge at her insides as she made her way into the room.

Having stubbed her toe against a pile of heavy duffel bags which were lying in her path she swore loudly. She stumbled her way through to the small storage cupboard at the end of the room.

The door of the cupboard was slightly open, which was very unlikely unless...

Falling to her knees in front of the cupboard she flung the short little door open. Everything inside fell onto the floor with loud thuds. Some were flung a few feet away. She rummaged through the boxes and bags although she didn't know why she even bothered to do that when it was pretty obvious that it was gone.

The big rucksack was gone.

She got up to her feet and dialed Kira's contact with a shaky finger. The back of her neck was sweaty now and that feeling she had frantically tried to repress for years resurfaced, pushing against her defence mechanisms.

So much for being the detective.

Her cousin wasn't picking up. She clenched her fist and then flattened out her palm to regain control and typed a text message.

Where are you Kiki?

Answer my calls!

Where are you?

Suddenly her ringing tone blared as Alan's caller ID appeared on the screen. She nearly dropped the phone in surprise but then held it up to her ear cautiously.

'Hey Bella', Alan's voice piped up from the other end. His voice sounded a bit cautious and it was enough to worry her. Bella willed herself to calm down before responding.

'Hey Alan. What's up?'

'Bella, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about and I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you this but Ruera called, uh- one of the five girls we have on the Cassie Rouge case, you know...' Alan Riviera said in a low tone, 'I thought I'd call you'.

'Thanks for calling me!' Bella's voice came out in a voice louder than she had intended, 'actually my cousin is not at home. I just got here and...and it's pretty late so I'm kind of worried...' her voice trailed off.