Camellia Flower ● E.D

Chapter Fifteen ; A letter

The words hit me like they had been fired from a gun.

Ethan's missing.

I looked down to see I was still wearing his white shirt from last night, and then looked frantically around my room to see if he might have left anything else.

Then I looked back up to Dad, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN HE'S MISSING?" I shouted. I was too frantic to be crying, at this point I just want to know what happened.

Dad took a deep breath in and sat beside my bed, "Security footage shows he broke out of isolation last night at about ten o'clock, but at two o'clock this morning it shows him stealing one of the jeeps in the car park, and simply driving away."

My mouth dropped. I had no words. Ethan took what I said about running away seriously? Part of me was happy he got out, but the other half was on the verge of tears, why didn't he take me with him?

I checked my phone, it was 4am. My head started spinning as I stood up from my bed, I held onto my bedside table to stable myself.

"We need to find him", I breathed deeply, "I need to find him".

"We've called the police and they're on their way", Dad sighed, "but you have to tell them if you know anything". I looked at Dad and he stared back at me and nodded at Ethan's shirt I was wearing.

Fuck.

How did Ethan get out of my room without me noticing? I literally fell asleep tangled around him.

'I'm not leaving'.

Ethan's a liar.

He left me here.

Dad stood up as his phone rang, "Here? Okay, I'm coming", he replied. He put his phone back in his pocket and walked briskly to my bedroom door. "The police are here", He said. I jumped and rushed to put on some clothes when Dad stopped me, "I'm going to see them, you're staying here".

Em. No.

"What?", I said taken aback, "I need to find Ethan".

My Dad rolled his eyes and left the room, I kept on Ethan's shirt, put on a pair of leggings, a hoodie and a pair of trainers. When I walked out of the cabin I was suddenly hit by the cold breeze whipping me through my clothes.

"Dad!" I shouted at his figure walking quickly out of the cabin area. He stopped and turned around to wait on me, I ran and caught up with him. We both ended up running to the three police cars situated outside the camp.

A lady with curly blonde hair cut into a bob came up to me, "Hello dear," she said with a welcoming smile.

"Hi. Have you found Ethan?" I asked impatiently.

"I'm afraid not", she said with a pout. "But it would be very helpful if you could sit inside the car and answer a few questions for me".

I nodded and she led me inside the police car, warm air was being blasted and the radio was playing very quietly. "Now", she said pulling out a notepad. "I understand you and Ethan had a relationship?" She asked.

Suddenly the whole situation came piling down on top of me. I slapped my hands into my face and started the waterworks, I could feel my cheeks going a flaming red colour and my whole face screwing up. "I'm- I'm sorry", I gulped through a tear.

"It's okay love", she said, she rubbed her hand up and down my forearm, "there there".

"Yes, yes we did", I sniffed.

"And when was the last time you seen him?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, this is the question people always fuck up on. But I need to find Ethan, even if that means getting in trouble.

"A few hours ago. About one am", I sighed.

The woman looked at me strangely, "Where did you see him?" She asked as she scribbled in her notepad.

"He came to my cabin, he told me he wanted to see me before he was being taken away", I said as I rubbed my wet face with my hoodie sleeves.

She scribbled down in her notepad again, "And do you recall him saying anything that might link to where he is? Did he mention anything about running away?"

I thought for a second. Yes. "I joked about taking a jeep and running away, I didn't think he would really do it".

"Okay", the woman said, she scribbled in her notebook for the last time and then looked back up to me smiling, but she seen the sadness in my face and frowned with me. "We're trying our best to find your boyfriend", she paused, "We will find him", she promised.

She promised.

No one keeps their promises anymore.

My hands were shaking inside my hoodie as I opened the police car door again, I was bombarded by the reality of what was happening. Men in officer uniforms were swarming the area, talking to police. Others were leaving the gate of the camp in jeeps to look for Ethan.

It suddenly started to rain, pelting down droplets onto my head. I pulled up my hood and ran, I didn't know where I was going, nor why I was running, but I was running somewhere as fast as I possibly could. My hands were still shaking in my pockets and I could feel my hair turning damp at the rain even though my hood was up.

It was just a matter of time before I felt my face screw up and tears roll down my cheeks. I reached the cabin, but I kept running, through the clearing, then I realised I was running to the treehouse. I trodded through the nettles that were sticking up and pushed tree branches out of my way.

The tall tree that held the treehouse was standing before me, only then did I realise, I can't fucking climb this shit. That wasn't going to stop me trying though. I grabbed onto the branches that were poking out, and hauled myself onto the tree, shifting my feet from branch to branch.

My foot slipped off the branch as it broke, "fuck!" I cursed. I was still determined to get to the top of this damn tree.

I kept climbing, I felt my hands grazing because the branches were hurting my hands. My feet were sliding off the branches left, right and centre, "fuckkk" I said every time.

As I reached the top of the tree, I gripped my hand onto a wooden plank and hauled my whole body over it, I rolled onto the wet planks and sniffed, wiping my eyes. I crawled to the sheltered part of the tree, away from the rain and sat myself down against it, "why didn't you take me with you?" I whispered into the rain.

The only noise was the rain pelting off the wooden planks and the faint murmur of Officers and police officers frantically talking about Ethan.

I swung my head back against the tree and closed my eyes, my fingers roamed the rough planks until they hit something sticking up in between them. I opened my eyes and landed them to where my fingers were fumbling with something in the plank.

It was a piece of paper, that had been folded up neatly. I picked it out and held it in front of me, Camellia, was written in scribbly writing on the front. I wiped away a tear that rolled down my cheek as I realised it was Ethan's terrible hand writing. Quickly, I unfolded the paper and held it in front of me, took a deep breath and began to read.