Up in the Stars

Molten

His heart twists painfully in his chest.

Theodore had failed her.

He had promised to protect her, to cherish her and keep her safe.

She was the most important thing in his life.

And he had sworn he would do everything he could to keep her.

But their violence, their mistakes-

He had failed.

Theodore struggles to breathe.

It seemed as though the oxygen had been sucked from the air.

He stares down at her face, the crack tearing her down the middle.

How badly he wished he knew where she was.

So he could find her.

So he could fix things.

Setting it carefully back onto the mantle, he turns back to his friends.

His brothers.

"I understand your grief, Dante, but throwing a tantrum is not going to help us find her." He cannot keep the exhaustion from his voice.

It is all he can do not to throttle the other man.

The lack of control over the situation keeping him on edge.

"Yeah, like your useless phone calls are helping any. We need to be out there searching! We could have chased after them!" Dante bursts angrily.

Theodore barks out a humorless laugh.

"Just go searching blindly? We have no idea where she went. The security footage was cut off the second she finished playing! Instead of running around aimlessly, I've made sure that every television in America is showing her photo. Alex has scoured every inch of her phone for clues. And all you've been doing is acting like a damn child!" He roars, gesturing to the shards of glass.

Alexander sighs, standing from the couch.

He walks to the corner, drowning out their argument.

Her cello is propped against the wall, abandoned.

She had left it behind.

Just as she had left him behind.

He runs a hand across the wood, brushing gently across the strings.

Imagining her own fingers doing the same.

"Stop. We must work together if we're going to find her. Fighting accomplishes nothing." Alexander turns back to them.

Dante deflates, rubbing a tired hand down his face.

"She's been gone for over 48 hours. What do we have so far?" He sinks into the armchair.

Theodore sits stiffly in the other one, grabbing his phone from the coffee table.

"She left the auditorium in a dark vehicle, heading south. As you pointed out when you took stock of her room, Dante, she had packed a bag of belongings prior to the Winter Gala. It's clear she's been planning this for a while." He lists solemnly, nearly choking on the last sentence.

God, what had they done?

Dante hums, gripping his head in his hands as he thinks.

"We know she couldn't have done this alone. With the cutting of the lights and cameras and the get away car, she had to have had help. Like we've already guessed, it was probably her friend Emilia. Her phone has been offline since an hour before the performance which solidifies that theory, but it means we can't track her location until she turns it on." He checks his watch.