Her Guardian Angel

12.BEAU

It is hard to fall asleep knowing that Emma is not safe. David is staying in the house tonight so we can go look for Emma first thing in the morning. Sadie snores lightly beside me.

At 3 am, I know I’m not going to fall asleep. I climb out of the bed and walk to the kitchen. David is sitting at the table look at Emma’s phone. “She isn’t going to call her own phone when she probably doesn’t have a phone with her,” I tell him. He looks up startled. “Can’t sleep either,” I ask sitting across from him.

“No,” he says laying his head on the table. “I just need to know she is safe.”

“David do you think we should go to the police,” I ask after a few minutes of silence.

“Probably,” he says. “I know Emma would rather us not though. She is afraid the bullying at school will get worse.”

“Since I asked her out I think the bullying has stopped. No one really pays attention to her anymore,” I say.

“Well this could be bad for her. If the police find out everyone at school will find out. Then they might start noticing her again.”

I shrug not sure what to say next. “I would never let them hurt her,” I say after a minute.

David doesn’t reply. “Should we take your sister home,” he asks.

“Yes but she says she wants to help.” We sit in silence for a little while. Then I hear movement in the living room.

Sadie walks into the kitchen after a second. “Beau, can we start looking for Emma now,” she asks. I chuckle.

“We are all awake now.”

“It could help us find her faster. I just don’t want one of us to fall asleep at the wheel,” David says.

“Maybe we should take one vehicle and if one of us feels sleepy we will switch drivers,” I say.

David likes this idea. We all walk to different locations of the house. I let Sadie get dressed in my room first and then I change. When we are all ready, I grab the keys to my truck and climb in the driver’s seat. We used a lot of David’s gas yesterday so today we will use mine.

“Where should we start,” I ask David. He has lived with this monster for most of his life so maybe he will know where he took her.

“Let’s drive by the house first. I don’t think she will be there because that is too obvious but I want to check. I have a spare key. He won’t even know I was there,” he says.

Then he gives me directions to a house in the outer parts of the town. Trees surround the backyard of the house. I turn the headlights off as soon as we near the house. I shut the truck off next to Emma’s blue Chevy. David gets out and walks to the door.

A minute later, he disappears inside. “Beau, can we turn the lights back on? I’m scared,” my sister says. I wrap my arm around her shoulders.

“I will when David gets back. I don’t want Emma’s dad to wake up and find us out here.”

A few minutes later I see the door open. David walks to the truck empty handed. “Dad isn’t home. He may have gone back to where he is keeping Emma after the storm passed.”

“Great,” I say and back out of the driveway.

We drive until sunrise. Sadie has fallen asleep and David is now driving. “I have no clue where else she could be,” David says. We have gone to a few different creepy places where people could hide other people.

“I think we should get the police involved. We aren’t going to find her if it’s just us,” I say.

“You’re right,” he says. We drive to the police station and tell the whole story to a male officer. Then we are transferred to three more officers before a female officer sits us down in her office.