Since the Beginning

Good or Bad Surprises

{Jonathan's POV}
We had decided to go to London and meet Aster's dad. After checking out all the other clues in Paris, of course. (It took us the rest of the day) Grace is still stuck with her movie and Ashley decided to stay at home. Well, their home. So Gabe, Reagan and I are in a train to London early in the morning.

After the hours are done, we get off quickly and head to the police station to ask for directions. They lead us to a hotel where we meet up with Gabe's dad. "We've been tracking them for a while." A policeman says as we enter. "We found the car abandoned in the forest with no sign of anyone. We did find a trail of blood however. Earlier, we saw footprints but that's it. Nothing else. If there was anything else, we couldn't find it." he continues. Gabe starts toward his father and they hug. "We have to find her." He says. Gabe answer, "We will find her."

{Reagan's PoV}
I just watch sadly. We have to find Stella. No choice. I'm not giving anyone another choice.

"Can you bring us to the site?" I ask the police officer. He looks at me for the first time and grunts. He decided we can and so in a few minutes, we're speeding towards the site. We get out and start investigating. Ooh, I feel like a detective.

I look at the footprints. One pair seems to follow a make believe path that follows the road. The other all lead directly to the road from where we are standing. "Someone walked in that direction." I say. I look behind me where the tracks first started. "And I think this person is the one who's bleeding." I say. The police officer studies me. "We figured that out. And we followed it but it stops with nothing else. Like they covered up their tracks." The police says. I go to the spot and see he's right. The police are pretty fast when it comes to finding and investigating so it means that they truly can't find anything. But I'm not giving up. But how am I supposed to do anything when professionals can't? I sigh. Gabe and Jon join me. "We have to find her." Gabe says quietly. We nod in answer. The police ushers us back into the car. They spent all night and morning to look for her. Thankfully a few hours after lunch, they found these clues. But that's it. It's already night time. We had looked for clues in Paris but nothing came up. And now in London we can't find anything either.

Lord, please help us. If You really do care, show us. I mean- I'm sorry. I know You care. Just please help us. Amen.

We ride back to the hotel and eat dinner. No one talks. We just got here and now there's nothing to do. I feel hopeless.

A knock comes at the door. We got a room with 2 rooms inside. Pretty cool. I decided to text Stella and see if it works. But she doesn't reply. Well, it was worth a shot. Gabe ushers the guest inside. Well, 2 guests. "My name's Robert." He says panting. "I'm a hunter. I saw you all leave and ran to catch up then called a cab. This is my wife, Christine. Our home got burned down." He says with such a sad expression that I nearly cry. "Your girl was with us. But when a German guy came and we didn't give her, he burned the house down and we ran. Stella ran too. But I think he got her since she's injured and can't run well." He says. We all stand shocked. Gabe calls the police, I start crying and Jon allows the guests to sit down in the living room.

"What do you mean by injured?" Stella's and Gabe's dad asks. "She was shot." Christine says quietly. "I removed the bullet and helped stop the bleeding but according to her, well, it bled a lot before I tended to it." She says staring at her hands with sadness. "I'm so sorry for the loss of your home." I say sitting beside her. She smiles sadly. "We didn't have much anyway." Robert says putting an arm around his wife. We all stay silent and let the turn of events sink in.

Soon Gabe joins us and the police officers arrive to interview the couple. We too, listen to their story taking in every detail. I would've been so happy if that german dude never showed up so that Robert and Christine could still find us and return Stella.