Missing

Chapter 13

"No, no. Stop. I'm going to be sick." I cut Richelle off just as she enters the gory details. Just yesterday, I was in Michelle's house, and today - from what my partner just spilled - it is covered with blood and- I can't think about it.

"Sorry. But this is just going to get worse." Richelle says.

I close my eyes, trying to block out every image of a not-alive Michelle.

Breathe. Come on Emily, breathe. I can't breathe. My lungs aren't big enough. I can't breathe!

"Can you open a window!" I scream.

Richelle looks at me in horror but then sees my face. From her reaction, I don't think I look too well. She leans over her desk to crack open the window in front of it.

"Better?" She asks.

"Yes. Better." I feel air going down into my lungs and circulating my body again.

"I think we need to find Michelle's-" Richelle starts.

"No way!" I cry.

"Why not?" Richelle stands up. Even though I am almost four years older than she is, I am only half an inch taller.

"Because - and I mean this in the nicest possible way - Michelle isn't going anywhere, whoever killed her probably has her in a river and what do you think people will start anticipating when we go around looking for dead people?" I shriek, "We should be looking for Riley. And your friends." I add at the last second.

"How do you know that?" Richelle questions.

"I'm guessing."

"Well, do you have a base for the guess? I think the person is hiding the bodies. Where could someone drive with a dead body in their trunk? Not across the border and definetly not around this area here. There are police men on every turn!" Richelle cries.

"So, what are you saying?"

"It's false evidence."

"What is?" I'm more confused than ever, "Why didn't you say this earlier?"

"You asked for facts, not theories. And I'm only making sense of it now."

"What are you making sense of?" I feel a chill run through my body.

"No one can ever walk through this place with a corpse. Too many people watching. This person killed Michelle and took her blood and planted it in her house. They also stole some stuff to make it seem real."

My body temperature drops ten degrees.

"I can't talk about this, Richelle." I cross my arms and turn around so I don't have to look at her crazy - yet freakishly logical - face.

"I don't blame you, but you can't ignore it. You can't walk home one day and pretend your sister is safe in her bedroom doing homework just the same as I can't wake up in the morning and call up my friends to ask what they are doing today. It's right in front of us, Em. Even if we don't talk about it now, we'll have to face it some time." Richelle makes a point, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to get out of it.

"So what do I do?" Tears well up in my eyes, giving me another reason not to turn around.

"I don't know." I think that's the first time I've heard Richelle say she's resigning to something, even for an instant.

"Do you have any leads?" I ask. My voice is trembling.

"No. But I will find one."

I laugh. I laugh hard. So hard that I can't feel the heavy tears stream down my face. So hard that I don't remember turning around. It's a mocking laugh. I'm teasing Richelle. I don't know why. I feel defeated but I still continue to laugh in her face.

"What are you doing?" Richelle asks.

I calm down but the mocking smile doesn't disappear from my face.

"So I'm suppose to put my trust into the hands of a thirteen year old? If anything, I should be turning you in for hacking into confidential police files. How do you even know how to do that?" I must look crazy. I feel crazy. I think I am crazy.

"Stop it!" Richelle snaps. If I know anything is for certain, she has a back bone, "Ugh! Just stop it! Go back to school or I will be telling your principal that you ditched school to help me solve a murder! And just so you know, my dad's a detective. I'm not hacking into anything. This is his computer. And if you tell anyone about it, I swear, it will be the last thing you say. And you're not the only one that is grieving about Michelle. I dance with her. She taught me how to do an arieal. If anyone should be breaking down it should be me-"

"Then why aren't you?" I scream back at her.

"Because I has a sense of self regulation. I understand you're upset but I'm more affected in this than you are. All of my friends are gone, my dance partner is being buried. Your sister is still alive and breathing."

"Don't say that!" I yell at the top of my lungs.

Richelle walks closer to me. Our noses are a matter of millimetres away.

"You are lucky my mom isn't home." She says in a low whisper, "Get out of here and don't come back. Oh, and if you think I'm going to help you anymore, you're wrong."

I stand there, watching her as she drifts back to her computer.

"I said, get out!" She screams one last time.

I walk out of her room and slam the door. I do the same to her front door. Once I'm out, I scream. I don't care who hears me or who drags me off into a mental facility. I'm angry. The truth is, I need Richelle's help. She is smart - crazy smart - and I don't think I'll be able to handle myself without someone to talk to.

I throw myself into my car and I drive. I don't know where I am or where I'm going to end up but I don't care.

Get me out. My mind keeps telling me. Get me out.