Missing

Chapter 25

I'm jolted out of my slumber. The words 'I don't know' ring in my head. I look at my surroundings. I'm in my car. The heat isn't on, so my hands are as cold as ice and I can see my breath everytime I breathe. My keys hang in the ignition slot, ready for me to turn it and drive. I look behind me to see the sun coming up. The other half of the sky that is in front of me is still pitch black. I must have fallen asleep in my car.

I pull out my phone to see what time it is. 7:58. I should get home before school starts, or worse, before my parents figure out I didn't come home last night. I quickly turn on my car. The gentil roar of the engine wakes me up and I feel cool air blowing in my face. The system must be as cold as I am. I shiver as I place my half frozen hands on the steering wheel, hopefully I will be able to drive properly.

I take a look in my rear view mirrors to find I'm still parked on Chloe's driveway. Why didn't she wake me up? Why didn't her parents? Probably because she never bothered with me after burning all her energy with Richelle and I doubt her parents will care if there is an unexpected visitor sleeping on their driveay. They aren't the most caring. 'Anything goes' is their rule. Besides, they are almost never home, their jobs are very unstable so they have interviews to go to nearly every weekend.

Chloe has been in masses of trouble before but after realizing no one bothers if she gets expelled, she turned into a poster child for heaven.

As I back out of the driveway, something moves in my left mirror. I slam the brakes and breathe. The person scared me.

"Emily!" A muffled voice calls my name.

I honk my horn as a response then realizing, this early in the morning, I probably just woke everyone up. It's bound time for them to get up anyways. If anything, I've saved them the time to go smack their alarm clocks twenty times before they actually wake up.

"Emily." Someone taps on my window. I roll it down to feel a big gust of wind blow on my bare shoulder.

"Amanda?" I croak at the figure at my window. My voice is dry and frozen, "What are you doing here?"

"Richelle told me you were spending the night on "Chloe's property,"" She makes air quotes with her fingers, "I honestly didn't think she would mean that so literally." Amanda looks around my car then at the the driveway I spent the night on.

"Well, it's not like I wanted to sleep here. I think I dozed off." I admit.

"Are you able to talk now?"

I look around my car then give myself a quick glance in the mirror. My vehicle is on the clean side but I can't say the same for myself. I haven't taken a shower for twenty four hours and the minimal amount of makeup I have on is starting to smudge. I don't think I had a good night sleep so my eyes look worse than Richelle's and my mascara is running off of my eyelashes. I look like a raccoon that spent all night looking for food, and not only did I not find any food, but I'm dog tired.

"Why not." Unwillingly, I unlock my car door and Amanda sneaks around to meet me on the passenger seat.

"I have proof!" She cries once I have successfully maneuvered off of the driveway.

"Proof of what?" I don't dare to look at my partner, with my luck, I will drive into a bus.

"Proof that it's Richelle." She shouts.

"What is it?"

"Where do I start?" She groans sarcastically, "She is loaded with insider information."

"Like what? I'm getting tired of guessing Amanda. Spill."

"Well, she has all these photos of dead people - and not just any people. People that have multiple stab wounds or bullets in their heads." I shudder at the gory details but Amanda doesn't seem to notice - or care, "And Michelle is the focal point of one of them. Well, her and the pool of blood she's swimming in." I start to feel nautious, "And there are all these other kids - I should add that they're younger - and they are all dead. Like, one of them, a boy was hung by his wrists and another had multiple deep cuts on her an-"