missing | gilinsky

prologue

March 24th, 2015

Mom clapped her hands and did a little dance. "Blow them out, Jack!" She was smiling so wide you'd think she had just won the lottery. Jack, on the other hand, just scowled. His arms folded across his chest, jaw clenched. "Hurry up!" Mom repeated. "They're melting!" With a sigh, he leaned over the counter and blew out his birthday candles. The flash of a camera went off the second Mom not-so-gently pushed me at my brother, who stood stiff next to me. "These are great," Mom cooed, scrolling through the pictures she had just taken. "Here, Nadia, take one of me and your brother now!"

    "Okay," I agreed. I walked toward her as she handed me her silver Canon PowerShot, scurrying over to where I had just been moments before. "Smile," I said, holding down the button on top of the digital camera. I took a few pictures then looked back through them, deciding which ones were to be kept and to be deleted. Jack was frowning in all of them, but Mom was glowing.

    "Are they good?" Mom asked. I nodded, placing the camera down on the counter next to the vanilla cake. I took the candles out of the top, placing the waxed nineteen on the side of the container. "Great!" She clapped. "Now who wants dessert?"

    "Not me," Jack muttered. "I'm going upstairs." Mom's smile faltered for only a quick second.  Of course Jack didn't even notice. He stopped noticing around five months ago, when Dad got into the car accident.

    "Well alright, if you change your mind you know where to find us." Mom knew better than that though. As if he would change his mind. Jack would rather spend the rest of his life in jail than eat his own birthday cake with us. Without having said anything else, Jack walked up the stairs toward his room, leaving Mom and me in the kitchen.

    We each ate one slice of his birthday cake then spent the rest of the night watching TV together. Jack stayed in his room doing God knows what. It was a night just like any other – until morning came around.

After Dad passed, Jack started telling me whenever he was sneaking out. He would tell me where he was going and who he was going with, when he'd be back. It was sort of an unspoken rule between us. But when I woke up the next day to find Mom frantically looking through the house for any sign of him, I was clueless. Did he forget to tell me? Or did I not remember him telling me? Sometimes he'd come in my room at four in the morning and tell me he was leaving, but I wouldn't even remember because I was so out of it.

    I climbed out of bed and down the stairs. Mom was searching the basement. When she came back up we locked eyes. She shook her head and sat down on a stool in the kitchen. I bit my lip, trying to think of where he could be. Nothing came to mind.

Mom and I went through his room to see that all his stuff was gone. His walls were bare from all the posters that once decorated every inch of white, his drawers were empty except for the mounds of dust that had collected in them overnight, and his closet was clear of all his personal belongings. Nothing was left. Not even stupid silly things like a piece of gum, or the dumb football he never played with that he kept on his dresser. Even his alarm clock was missing.

"He has to be here," I assured. "If not, he probably just went to Sam's house." Sam Wilkinson was one of Jack's best friends. They did everything together. Went to all the same parties, hung out with all the same people, dated all the same girls, and did all the same things.

    "Good idea." Mom nodded her head and walked over to the yellow phone that hung off the wall. She dialed what I assumed to be Sam's home phone number, and waited for someone to pick up. I took a seat on one of the stools and waited as well. The phone rang about five times before someone finally picked up. "Oh!" Mom said, surprised. "Hello, Lori." She let Sam's mom speak for a little bit before asking her if she'd seen Jack. Her face dropped as Lori spoke. That told me what her answer was. No. "Okay, well, thank you anyway." Then she hung up.

    "He's not there?" I asked just to make sure. She shook her head confirming my theory. "That's so weird." Where else could he be?

    "I know." Mom closed her eyes and sat down next to me, burying her face in her hands. "I don't know what to do." I placed my hand on Mom's back, trying to comfort her. "Sam said that he has no idea where he went."

    "He'll show up," I told her. "You know how he is."

    "He's probably getting into all sorts of trouble," Mom said. She was right. Ever since Dad's accident Jack had gotten to be known as a troublemaker in our little town of Omaha, Nebraska. I could name three illegal things that he most likely had done by now. 1. Breaking and entering, 2. Stealing, and 3. Underage drinking. Mom had a right to be worried. Hell, I was worried too.

    "He'll show up soon enough." At the time, I believed he would. But as the hours went by and Mom got more and more anxious, I was starting to think that maybe he wasn't coming back. Not that day at least.

    When it hit the twelve hour mark that he hadn't shown up, Mom wanted to call the police. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they couldn't really do anything since he was nineteen, although I think she already knew that.

    So she called them and that's exactly what they said. "We're sorry, ma'am, but now that your son is an adult, there's not much we can do. Call us in a few days if he's still gone and we can file a missing person report. We'll call you if anyone comes in with anything." Nobody was going to come in with anything.

The look Mom had on her face when she hung up the phone made me want to find Jack just so I could scream at him. I was positive that he had run away, all of his belongings were gone, so the thought of him being kidnapped didn't even cross my mind.

"Don't worry, Mom, we'll find him," I said. "And when we do I'll be sure to kick his ass." Mom smiled at me but I knew that she was still really upset.

That is when I made it my personal mission to find out where the hell my brother went, and that is how all of this crazy shit started.

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hello beautiful people! thank you for clicking on this story and if you made it passed this first chapter props to you. let me know if you enjoyed it or if you think it needs some work, feel free to leave comments and to vote if you like! chapter one will hopefully be coming soon.

- gilinskyshigh