V e l v e t V e s t s

00:09

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Karl

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I don't know what it was that made me go see Reed after my trip to the bathroom. Maybe it was because I haven't see her all day and since she was so preoccupied with Ghost that I just let her be. But she was my twin sister, my only other half and the one person I couldn't function without. So maybe I wanted to just see her before I had a good nights' sleep, kiss her goodnight and catch up with her in the morning.

Or maybe the urge for the trip to her room was something else all together.

I slowed pushed open her bedroom door and peaked my head in. It was pitch dark inside and I had an internal debate whether to put on the lights or just see
Reed with my nonexistent night vision. Whilst tip toeing to the edge of her bed, I noticed something strange. As I got closer, I realised the bed wasn't so occupied and that Reed was missing.

I frowned at the empty bed that was illuminated by the small moonlight, peaking from between the curtains.

She couldn't be in the bathroom since I just came from there...

I reached over her bed and put on her bedside lamp. Parts of the room came alive at the small light and my eyes instinctively landed on the pile of envelopes that were carefully placed on her bedside.

With dreaded thoughts lingering in my mind, I picked up the envelopes and my stomach dropped at seeing four letters addressed to four different people.

Everything happened too fast after that as I quickly touched the bed and realised it was semi-warm.

She couldn't have gone too far.

Shit shit shit.

I raced back to my room and roughly went through my jeans pocket and rang up Ghost. Whilst having my phone pressed to my ear, I ran to my parents bedroom and knocked on the door furiously.

"MOM! DAD!" I screamed, kicking at the door for them to wake up. Just then, Ghost picked up his voice and his grouchy voice told me I just woke him up from his sleep.

"It's Reed. She's gone to-" I didn't even finish my sentence before Ghost hung up on me. I looked up and saw that my dad was at his door and he was staring at me with wide eyes. Mom was behind him and her mouth dropped open.

"The river, near there. She can't go anywhere else." I said and quickly turned on my heel and raced down the stairs. I didn't think to put on my jacket, nor did I think to change out my shorts. I put on my shoes and ran out the front door, jumping over the neighbours fence to get to the other side of the road much quicker.

I ran past the trees, jumped over bushes and even tripped over something hard. A sharp pang of pain shot up my leg but I did well to ignore it and carried on running to the river bank.

As I got closer, I saw a hunched over person at the edge of the river. A few feet behind him was Reed's wheelchair.

My eyes dropped at the sight in front of me and saw a young boy, probably around my age, holding Reed's head in his arms.

"Is she--?" I started to say, my eyes locked on her limp, pale body. I couldn't tell if she was breathing or not but she was soaked from head to toe. The boy had taken off his jacket and draped it over her cold body, in hopes of restoring some warmth to her.

The boy looked up at me. "She needs a doctor. Now. Before it's too late."

Just then, several running steps came from behind me and I craned my neck over to see Ghost, Nate, Mom and Dad all running towards us. Ghost was the fastest and he came crashing down next to Reed, grabbing her body from the boy and crushing her into his chest.