The Journey (completed)

One

• g a b r i e l l a •

Mason was right.

Charlene was nowhere to be found. Luke and I had searched for her literally everywhere but nada, no signs, nothing. It was like she just vaporized into the air and Luke was getting more worried by each second passing.

We got into his car (have I told you he owned a jeep?) after looking for charlene in downtown. "Where are we going to now?" I asked, putting on the seat belt hastily.

"To my old house. You sure you want to join me?" Luke asked for the 100000th time.

"I'm positive."

"What about work? It takes about 2 hours just to get to my old house and if charlene's not there, I won't even stop trying to find her."

"Luke!" I sighed, annoyed. "How many times do I have to tell you that I. Want. To. Find. Charlene. Too?" I narrowed my eyes at him, he stared back and we had a staring contest before I (obviously) won and we drove off.

The ride was pretty much silent, I guess luke was to engrossed in his thoughts.

"Are you sure it was your dad that took her away?" I asked, breaking the silence that had fallen upon us.

"Who else?" He honked and cursed at the slow car in front of us. "I can't believe I was stupid enough to let Mason watch over her."

I sighed and put my hand on his hand that was gripping the steering wheel tightly. "Luke, it's okay. This isn't your fault and we're going to find your niece, alright?"

"Except it's not okay. Charlene's with my dad, for God's sake." He turned the car abruptly into a narrower road.

"You have to calm down, Luke."

"I can't." He said, his fingers kept on tapping the steering wheel. "How could Mason not even hear a noise? He should've at least heard the sound of door opening or something."

"Doesn't charlene have a phone?"

"Don't you think I would've phoned her if she did?" He said, snappy. "This isn't making any sense."

I huffed and looked out the window. How could Charlene just be gone in just a blink of an eye? Luke and I was just making out and the day was perfect but then BAM. Charlene was gone. Luke freaked out. And then somehow I was heading to his old house now.

Lost in thoughts, I didn't realize Luke had got out of the car until he slammed the door close. I looked at my surroundings and realized we'd arrived to a small neighborhood with a tiny road that could only fit a car. Luke was already on his way toward a small, white but dusty house so I quickly got out of the car to follow him.

As I got closer to the house, I was convinced that it was just an abandoned house. The walls were mostly covered by cobwebs and the wild grass outside the house was freakishly tall, some of them actually reached my hips.

The guy in front of me opened the old wooden door which made a cracking noise as it opened. I frowned as I looked around, there were even more cobwebs in here (if it was even possible). I crinkled my nose as I sensed an awful smell, God, the smell. I think the owner of this house doesn't know how to open the window and let the fresh air in.

There were a round shaped wooden table along with some wooden chairs surrounding it at the corner of the litte room we were in, beer bottles scattered on top of it.

"Doesn't seem like anyone lives here." I voiced my thought.

"The lights are on, my dad lives here." He said, barging into other rooms in the house and groaned frustratedly when he found no one in there.

I walked toward the window near the wooden table and pushed it open, yelping in surprise when a glass bottle fell off of the table behind me and broke into pieces. I must've accidentally hit the table with my hip.

"You okay there?" Luke came back to the what-was-supposed-to-be living room. "We've got to go now, gabriella. Nothing's in here."

"No, luke, wait. Come here." I said, walking closer to the table and pushed the scattered bottles away. "There's something- Careful there!" I warned Luke as he walked closer. "There's a shattered glass on the floor."

"Nothing's in here, abby. We have to go."

"No! Come here and look closely! There's a.." I bent down and narrowed my eyes at the letters carved on the table. "Address. There's an address."

Luke immediately walked toward me and looked at the letters on the table. "How could this be here?"

I shrugged. "Want to try to go there?"

"I don't know where that is.." He murmured to himself. "Whatever. My dad has to be there, let's go." He said before walking rather eagerly to his jeep. I rolled my eyes before following him.

It was 10 pm, so the roads had got quite emptier with just a few cars here and there. Luke took the chance to drive like a mad man.

"Did you live there?" I asked.

"Yeah. But when my mom was still here, it was a lot neater and it actually looked like a normal house. Not like a house that has been abandoned for eternity."

Silence fell on us as we sped on the road.

"Luke, I think we need to slow down a little bit." I said when he accelerated even more.

He blew out a frustrated breath. "You're kidding. Charlene's somewhere out there with my freaking dad, I don't know her condition- if she's hurt or not, and you're telling me to slow down?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I just don't want us to crash and die."

"Well, I told you you shouldn't have come." He shot.

I shifted in my seat and folded my arms across my chest, glaring at him. "Why do you keep snapping at me?"

He bit his lips and gripped the steering wheel tighter, not answering my question.

"I'm just trying to help here. I know you're dead worried about Charlene, but it's not my fault she's nowhere to be found now."

He still refused to answer me, so I sighed and looked out the window. It was getting darker outside by each second passing and I didn't even know where we were, or where we were going to. Luke was trusting his gps to get us to the address and I didn't know how long this would take to get there. I grabbed the hoodie I had brought earlier from the back seat and used it as a blanket as I snuggled in my seat.

Luke sighed beside me. "Go sleep, hun bun."

"Wake me up when we arrive there?"

"Okay." He murmured, and it was the last thing I heard before I drifted off.

*

First chapter. What do you guys think? Nothing happened in here but something is going to happen in the second chapter, something... Interesting. Anyway, did you enjoy it? I hope so!

So what do you think happened? How could charlene just be gone like that? Tell me your theories!

Don't forget to vote, comment, and thanks for reading! Xx