keeping secrets

MIA

It was lunch time and the boys sat in the courtyard waiting for mia. "I don't see her!" James said looking around.
"Me neither," Henry said standing on the metal picnic table.
" She wasn't in the cafeteria." Charlie and Henry said coming from the lunch room.
"Hey guys!" Lucus said walking over, "sup?" He asked sitting down on the ground
"You haven't seen Mia yet, have you?" James asked looking at him.
Lucus eyebrows furrowed in thought, "I havent come to think of it and I ditched second period."
"Maybe she with Marcus and cody? Or even raven?" Charlie said sitting down on the pincin bench.
"Maybe, hopefully she didn't get caught up with Easton again."
"No he's on probation right now, Martian put him on a temporary team , with how he's acting. So he's going to be out of the school for a few weeks I guess."
Daniel, Robert and John came over shaking their heads, "we went to her last class she wasn't there the teacher said she didn't show up."
Now they were getting worried. Marcus, Kody and Raven showed up but the girl wasn't with them. "She's not with you guys." The three boys shook their heads, "no , maybe we can call her." Daniel said picking at a pice of grass. "Good idea, anyone have her number." No's went around them.
"We can ask Owen or fin if they can see if she called out." Marcus said thinking out loud.
Agreements went around. Pulling out his phone Marcus hit Owens speed dial.
Owen answered on the second ring.
"Hey Owen, can you see if Mia bailey called in." Marcus asked looking up at the blue sky.
"She didn't come in?"Owen asked, there was something off about his voice. Marcus stiffened, the other boys noticed Marcus body language, something had happened but what. "put it on speaker phone," Cody said, Marcus did just that.
"Did you see the news last night?" Owen asked.
"I didn't, did you guys." Heads shook no.
"No we didn't."
Their was a big sigh and they could hear Owen say something to someone else. They heard a russle and than a "hello laddies, I've got some bad news for yea, the wee bird came into the ER last night." Anxiety raced through them, was she okay, was she hurt, what happened were the thoughts that went around. " Last night on the news, the camp Owen went to help supervise, well a few witness came forward and mentioned GHB going around and girls being raped....their was a video, a wee bird was..." Fin took a shuddering breath before he went on, "the wee bird was drugged and dragged off and raped." Curse went around, " what does that have to do with Mia?" James asked aloud.
"It was Mia." Fin answered.
The boys looked at one another.
"How do you know?" Cody asked,
" I saw her last at the ER I got called," came Fins voice over the speaker phone, "let me check to see if her d'a called 'er in." The line went silent a moment, "he d'int call her in. She has sib'ins here in the middle and elementary school and looks like a few of them in tue daycare as well. We'll be a'callin you back." The line disconnected.
"Her sibblings? I didn't know she had siblings," Charlie said looking at the others, they did t know either.

Fin hung up the phone and looked at Owen "should we be go'n and check in on her brothers?" He asked.
Owen nodded, there was no harm in checking on them, it was their lunch time but it would be easier to pull them from class. Once the bell rang for class and they were sure the students would be in the middle of their class work, did they call for Philip to come to the vice principal's office. Fifteen minutes later there was knock. A boy with light brown hair and blue eyes came into the room, he wore jeans and a sweater that read I do all Own stunts with a skateboarder falling off his bored.
"Did you sister stay home today?" Owen asked sitting behind his desk.
"Yeah, my dad dropped us all off, and said she would be picking us up at two. Fin looked at his watch, it would be two in thirty minutes. They nodded and sent him back to class.
During the next thirty minutes they worked I paperwork and had small discussions on the mission, when one fifty Rolled around they both grabbed their bags and coats and left the office. "I'll go see if she picked up her siblings from the day care," Owen said going in a different direction, Fin hobbled his way to the front of the school, spotting Philip with three younger boys. "Aye, she not here yet?" He asked standing next to them. "No, she's usually out here before us with our brothers." Ten minutes went by and Owen came carrying a little boy in his arms and a car seat carrier with a baby in it. Two other boys followed behind Owen, holding hands.
"How far away do you live?" Owen asked facing Philip, "bout 10 in car 20 by foot."
"Come, I'll give you boys advice ride." Owen said leading them to a van we kept at the school to use if we needed to to haul our team mates, Owen securely bucked the car seat and told the little ones to buckle up like big boys. The older boys sat I. Their seats and kept an eye on the little ones. Hobbling to the passenger side I got in.
Philip gave us directions and we ended up at a two story house. The boys filed out and Lip stuck the key into the lock.  "Come on in." He said leading the way and shutting the door.
The boys looked around the house for Mia. "I'm going to call the boys." Owen said going out side for a moment. "thanks for letting us in." I said, as lip went to the kitchen, I followed behind while the other boys stayed in the living room. A few minutes later the front door opened and Charlie came into the kitchen.
"moya malen'kaya ptichka," Raven said entering the kitchen behind Charlie, he frowned."what are you doing here l?" I asked.
"I called them to come
Over." Owen said looking at the boys.
"Ach, it's the wee birds not here." I said looking around the kitchen, it was recently cleaned, the smell of bleached filled
My nose.
Owen walked into the living room something seemed off, he just couldn't figure out what.
His eyes narrowed, taking in everything in the living room, moving to the couch he noticed a brownish colored stain on the cushion.
Owen left the living room, his eyes taking in everything. The house was very clean, nothing was out of place, the house smelled of apples, but the living room had a rusty metallic smell. His mind was going a mile a minute trying to piece together something important. Something had happened but what. Silently he went up the stairs, going to the first room he saw, the room was empty, imprints of a bedframe that was embedded in the carpet that was once there, and a empty desser sat on one of the far walls. A few pieces of trash lay on the floor, needing to be vacuumed. Someone had recently left this room, turning to the right he found a two little steps and a door, opening the door, He found a small room, a twin size bed was pushed up against one wall, with a red trunk at the end, a small bookshelf sat next to the bed, holding an old stereo and books lined the shelves. And to the left of him sat a lone brown dresser. The room was utterly clean nothing out of place, but apart from a bunk bed on the far wall and a crib pushed into the closet, the room was bare, it was impersonal as if nobody lived in the room.
Closing the door, He went back down the two steps and passed the first door he came upon, than came another door, next door He opened it, findding another bunkbed and another twin bed Closing the door, he pinched the bridge of my nose she mentioned  siblings, he forgot for a moment, Walking down the hall Owen found another door.
Owen was met with a clean bathroom, inside also smelled strongly of bleach he stepped inside and closed the door looking around, the rest of the house was perfect but something was off about the bathroom, looking around he found the trashcan tipped over, picking it up owen noticed tissue littered the floor from where it fell, picking them up that's when he noticed an off white cloth with splattered red all over it picked up dark red spots some small and some big he didn't think it was paint, it was when he was unraveling the cloth from the ball that it was formed into, it reviled an old shirt, it wasnt paint like owen thought, it was blood, he could see the blood splatterd across the back of the shirt. He dropped it to the floor,looking to the closed door. Mia had worn this shirt one day at camp. He picked it up the shirt again thinking.
Why? He thought, why was their blood on the back of the shirt? Owen thought about it for a moment, the smell of metallic down stairs, the bleach smell here in the bathroom quickly owen threw the t-shirt back into the trashcan. And quickly went down the stairs two at a time.
During that time I had gotten to know her, all I knew about her was she was smart, witty, and very shy and sheltered, but he thought maybe it was the way she was raised, thinking there were signs, signs that he had missed it all pointed to abuse, and now she was missing.
"Has she called? Or showed up?" Owen asked coming into the living room, his face scrunched up in worry.
"No," Philip Replied, she never leaves without letting us know.
"Is there any place we haven't looked?" Marcus asked coming out of another bedroom down here.
Philip thought moment, "the basement, we never go down their though it's u furnished and needs some work."