Cobalt

Part 9

STELLA

Quinn didn't show up to school the Monday after homecoming. Or on Tuesday.

I'd say his parents were starting to get worried now but they started to get worried once Megan and I showed up at their front door at 11:00 pm homecoming night, starting the conversation with, "Your son's been kidnapped."

We looked everywhere for him. We even contacted the police for help (even though they're too lazy to do anything thanks to Cobalt and the other superheroes) in looking for Quinn.

All of his friends and family were looking for him. Seeing that many people looking for him was... surprising. I don't think anyone realized just how many people cared about him. Some of them were kids he had tutored a few times. Others were old friends that'd realized they would regret not trying to reconnect if he weren't found. A lot of them were just people he had been nice to once or twice.

That's what Quinn does. He helps people in little ways. A compliment or a single tutoring session. Not much. Just a little something to make people realize they don't go unnoticed.

Today we were searching The northern quarter of Venus City. Yesterday was eastern. It was mostly in the woods around the outskirts of town. Sometimes we interviewed the public to see if they had seen the three supers or Quinn. We were up at the crack of dawn looking and we wouldn't be done until it was nearly midnight. That's how it had been yesterday.

I wanted to find Quinn more than anyone but I was no help when I could barely keep my eyes open. Leaving for some rest was the only option.

"I think I'm gonna go home and take a quick nap for a few hours then I'll be back to look for Quinn some more later," I notified the deputy that had been leading the search. She wore her dark black hair in a bun at the back of her head and a jacket with VCPD in big block letters on the side of the arm and across the back. She could stand to miss the next sale at Walgreens on blue eye shadow and box hair dye. 

"That's fine. Get some rest," she said. Lazy teenagers would rather take a nap than look for their friend, I heard her say after I thanked her.

I couldn't stop myself from replying, "I do want to look for Quinn. He's been one of my best friends since we were kids, but I'm no use if I'm about to fall asleep standing up."

Confused and irritated she said, "I never said you didn't." I was too tired to reply and turned away.

I passed maybe 10 people on the walk home, but it sounded like 50. Assuming it was from exhaustion, I tried ignoring it.

The things those people said were also pretty strange. Things people don't usually say out loud.

Is he going to call me back? Do these shoes look bad? Does she actually like me? I wonder what I'm going to make for dinner tonight.

No one ever really talks about their insecurities like that. On the street for everyone to hear. Except no one was actually saying anything. I could still hear a crowd of people confessing their darkest secrets and all their self-doubts, but not one pair of lips moved.

I had read somewhere that sleep deprivation caused hallucinations. That's probably what was happening.

After arriving and Jason's, trying to avoid him as I went up to my bedroom, and finally getting away from everyone on the street where I was completely alone, I googled it. My search bar read "How little sleep do you need before you start hallucinating?"

Apparently, hallucinations only came with extreme sleep deprivation. I didn't think 36 hours of no sleep counted as "extreme" considering at least one person survived eleven days without any sleep.

My search bar now read "What can cause hallucinations?" I skimmed the results, my eyes stopping on the word "schizophrenia."

Google was about to have to answer another question, "What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?"

After that, I spent hours typing new things in the search bar. Each one having a common keyword: schizophrenia.

I wouldn't have been so worried if it had just been today on the way home that it had happened. But as I kept searching I remembered so many times I heard someone say something and no one else did. At homecoming, I heard Quinn say something even though he was across the gym. Nova was constantly saying things about me and Quinn and then denying she'd ever said anything. Over the past couple of months, it had been happening. I heard things no one else seemed to hear. Personal things. Things people wouldn't say aloud for everyone to hear.

Eventually, even worry and curiosity couldn't keep me awake and I fell asleep with my laptop open on my lap.

The buzzing of my phone woke me up. It was a text... from Quinn.

"I'm fine. I'm a little busy right now, but I'm fine. Don't tell anyone I texted you. I'll let them find me later. I just didn't want you to worry," it read.

If I wasn't worried before a text saying, "I just didn't want you to worry," when preceded by a request to not tell people he's fine after being kidnapped, I sure was now despite his reason for sending the message.

I wasn't sure how to reply. Cool, It's not like I was worried if you were still alive. It's not like I 'm going crazy. And my first instinct definitely wasn't to tell you once I realized I was going crazy.

Don't worry. I didn't hit send on that one. "Oh, by the way, I realized I have schizophrenia while you were kidnapped," didn't seem like the thing you tell someone through a text message.

I typed many things in the response box then deleting them before finally settling on "K," and hitting send.