troubled (m.c.) REVAMPED

Twenty Three

Michael's POV:

I joined the boys outside on the porch.

"Why the fuck are we all standing around?" I said in frustration as I ran back into the kitchen to grab a torch.

I was unsure of how long I would be in the forest for. I mean, we were planning to go into the forest today anyways, but not under these unfortunate circumstances.

I sprinted straight into the forest, followed by the boys. We all started shouting her name.

"Alisha!" we all echoed each other.

"What are we supposed to do if we can't find her?" I heard Luke ask quietly.

"We'll find her," I said, adamantly.

"But if we don—"

"We will!" I yelled stressfully, "She can't have gotten far, we weren't too far behind her when she left."

I continued to peer around anxiously.

"Come on Alisha, where did you go?" I muttered to myself.

Once we find her, I'm not letting her out of my sight again.

Seconds turned into minutes; minutes turned into hours and still there was no sign of her.

"Mike..." Ashton said, "We're gonna have to call the Sheriff, we need a search party. Especially if she's in a vulnerable mental state, we can't find her on our own."

I sighed in frustration, "Alright."

"I have no service in this dense forest so I'm gonna run out of the forest quickly and call 911. Stay right here — all of you," Ashton said sternly.

Calum and Luke nodded.

Once Ashton had left, I'd continued to walk.

"Mike, don't be stupid, stay here," Calum said, "What good are we if we can't even find each other, let alone 'Lisha?"

"Shut up Calum," I said.

"He's right Michael," Luke piped up.

"You shut up too," I said loudly, "I don't know if Scottie and his assholes still are in this forest or not."

"What!?" they yelled.

"You mean you don't know if they left or not?" Luke shouted.

"Ashton said they ran toward this forest — how am I supposed to know if they left or not!?"

"This is fucking ridiculous," Calum said as he threw his arms up in the air, "Stop fucking walking Michael. We're in this mess because of you, you're only going to make it worse if you keep walking and Ashton can't fucking find us."

I stopped in my tracks.

"All our lives you have done nothing but fuck things up. Fuck things up and make us look stupid! I'm not gonna let you do it anymore, not today!" Calum bellowed at me, "We're gonna go back to where we were, and wait for Ashton."

I felt enraged. I was shaking with anger.

But he was right. I do fuck things up, and Alisha's safety is on the line right now. I need to stop being selfish right now. This isn't about me anymore. This is about Alisha now.

"Okay," I sighed in defeat.

We backtracked to where we were when Ashton left and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Before we knew it, it had gotten dark — and Ashton still wasn't back. We switched our flashlights on and continued waiting.

I got up and started pacing back and forth.

"What's taking him so damn long?" Luke asked rhetorically.

Calum shook his head as if to say "I don't know".

More minutes passed.

"Search party's here!" Luke yelled as he saw flashlights in the distance.

The Sheriff department arrived with their K9 unit.

Ashton ran to us, "No luck yet?"

"None," Calum said.

"Almost the entire Sheriff's department is here. Let the search party commence," Ashton said.

"Mike," Sheriff Massey called to me.

"What now? I've done nothing wrong!" I said in exasperation.

"You're not in trouble, son," he said, "Tell us where we need to go and we'll cover the largest search area that we physically can."

I was taken aback. Alisha's safety was in my hands. I cannot fuck this up.

"Okay," I said, "By the time we'd followed after her, she hadn't been gone long. We lost a bunch of time whilst waiting. This forest is basically a maze, we need to get as far and as wide in as we can. We need to cover the inside of the forest. Alisha was in a state of hysteria, she wouldn't have known where she was going."

Sheriff Massey nodded, "You heard the boy, go forwards into the centre of the forest and fan out. Cover as much ground as you can clearly see. Let's find this young woman!"

The department got into their positions and began walking forthright.

"Sheriff!" I called out.

He turned around.

"Thank you," I nodded, "The boys and I will drive Luke's car around the outskirts of the forest and see if she's walking along the roads anywhere."

"Take a radio, we'll contact you if we need you and vice versa," he chucked me a radio and nodded, "We'll find her, son."

I turned to face the boys, "I hope you've all got your running shoes on because we're sprinting back to Luke's car now."

They all nodded in unison at my orders, and with that, we turned and began running back to the cabin.