Missing

Chapter 31

"What are you doing?" He asks with a laugh hinted in his tone. I can visualize his smile and blonde hair. I can feel his breath on my neck and his eyes on me the entire time.

"I don't know." I refuse to open my eyes.

There is ruffling then I feel Eldon leave. I think about opening my eyes to see where he is but I hear footsteps again. Someone drapes something over my shoulders. I recongnize the texture to be my jacket that I purposely left in my car. The same person sits down next to me and holds me in his arms. I my head on his shoulder. It's hard but comforting.

"Eldon." I whisper as the wind starts to pick up.

"Yes." He responds.

"Don't let go." I say in a dazed voice.

"Never." He promises then grabs onto me even tighter.

After an eternity, my eyes start to drift off and I feel myself getting tired. Someone laughs in the background then I snuggle even closer to him.
~~~~~
Bright light. Everything is red. I'm hot. Something doesn't feel right. But I'm tired; I don't want to open my eyes but something forces me to. The burning red fades into an ugly green. I'm in a room; it's unfimiliar. There is a small window with an old fashion air conditioning underneath it. The walls are wallpapered a puke green colour that is slowly fading. Something is supporting my head and covering my body. I'm in a bed. The thought jolts me out of my daze. The last memory I have is falling asleep with Eldon on the cliff.

I sit up quickly just to feel a rush of cold air on my back. Whatever clothing I had on before is now striped off me - other than my bra and underwear. I think I'm in a hotel room. Where else would the curtains look just like the blankets.

"What happened?" I mumble to myself.

The bright light is shines through the window. What time is it? I glance over an alarm clock that is placed on the nightstand beside me. 10:58. What time was it the last I was awake? I remember going to school before reaching Richelle's then the cliff. I've been away for roughly a day! My parents are going to flip.

I jump out of bed to realize that it's not just my lack of clothing that is causng my frigidness, the air conditioning is on. It's the middle of November, why the heck is there cold air blowing in my hotel room? Why am I in a hotel room? I start to look for clues of why I'm here. There is something on my bed though. A hoodie and sweatpants. Also sneakers that are placed at the edge of the outfit. At least whoever brought me here thought about me. I take the clothes and hurry to put them on. I find a bathroom in my room that is smaller than a washroom stall. In there, I find a toothbrush and toothpaste. Beside that is a hairbrush.

I blink at it but then realizing that I need to get out of here so I quickly run the brush through my hair then squirt the toothpaste onto the brush and force it onto my teeth.

As soon as I'm done, I rush back in the room to see what I'm missing but there is nothing there. The bed is made and the blinds are closed. Someone was in my room within the minute I was inside brushing my teeth. This is a trap, I have to go. But a thought occurs. If someone did want to hurt me, they would have already. I'm still fine.

Before I think another thought, I pull the door open and walk out. I bump into someone though.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Ms. Amanda." The person says. He pushing a cart that has food on it. I guess he is the guy who delivers room service.

"Amanda?" I ask. Is she the one that put me here? If so, where is Eldon?

"Isn't that your name?" He seems confused now.

"Oh no. That's, um...my friend. She checked in. Do you by any chance know where she is?" I need information.

"I just saw a girl running down this hallway in a hurry. She seemed to have come from your room." The man stutters as he points in the direction this 'girl' ran off in.

"Oh thank you." I say then try to queeze my way past the cart.

"Wait, what about your food?" He asks.

"Give it to, Amanda when she gets back." I snort then find my chance to push out of the way.

Once I've squeezed past the cart of food, I dart in the direction the man pointed to. The carpeted floors are awkward to run on and the fact that you can't hear footsteps are unbearable.

Soon, I find myself at an elevator. The white paint on the door is chipping away leaving a rusty red on the naked parts. There is only one elavator here. I'm starting to understand why Amanda brought me here. Now I just have to figure out the rest.

I press the down button and wait for it to come. While I wait, I hear voices. They are so low that I can't identify them but I can make out the words.

"I just saw her."

"Where?"

"Over there."

"Well, where is she now?"

"I don't know."

The hall this is curved, whoever are talking are around the corner. I'm not the one that is hunting, I'm being hunted!

Hurry up elevator! Hurry up! My prayers are quickly answered. The doors open and I run in. Then I close the doors to the lift by pressing the button and scurry to find the lobby button.

The elevator starts to go down and I let go of the breath I didn't know I was keeping in.

What do I do when I get down? I don't know what I have. There aren't any pockets in the hoodie nor the sweatpants whoever - maybe not so - kindly laid out for me and I am stripped of everything when I woke up. What do I do? Whoever this is will have enough time to get to the lobby before I can call a cab.

The lift finally stops and the doors stutter open. I push out of the concealed space before it can fully open. The lobby is just about as impressive as the rooms are. Instead of the green, it is replaced with a sickly salmon colour. It's small and has a small sitting area with two magazines that you can find at your doctors' office.

I rush up to the front desk that looks as if termites got to it. It has a gloss surrounding that makes it sticky when I place my hands on it.

"Where am I?" I gasp.

The person behind it stares at me in confusion.

"I'm sorry?" The lady behind the desk says.

"Where am I?" I repeat, not caring how silly I sound.

The women rolls her eyes then sees the worry in my eyes and nudges her head at something behind me. I turn quickly to see if it's pursuers.

"There's a map right there, look for yourself." There is a map posted on the wall beside the front door.

"Thank you." I spit out in a hurry, "And, um...can you call a cab?"

"Why?" She looks at me weird again.

"I need a ride." It's my turn to be confused.

"Your car is parked out front." The women holds out her hand to my shiny black car right outside of the wall of glass beside the front doors.

"Oh." I whisper then stalk up to the map.

It looks to be a nature map. It mainly shows forests and rivers, not highways and road names. Come to think of it, there are no roads. A big red dot it drawn in the midst of a deep forest located on the north-east side on the map and spans all the way to the middle. I'm in the middle of the woods?

I look back at the front desk to find the lady is gone. How will I even drive? I don't have keys. I still have to get away though. Get as far away from this place as possible.