𝘓𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘓𝘰𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘢
𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦: 6:42pm
－ 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘦: 𝘔𝘢𝘺 14 2021 －
/ 𝙇𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙋𝙊𝙑 /
I had the first plane ticket back to California in a heart beat.
Jamir must've lost his damn mind to think he's going to break up with me after all the shit I shared with him? Nah, fuck that.
I even brought an engagement ring a week ago with the intention of proposing to Jamir on Christmas. I know that we've only been dating for a couple of months, but Jamir is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. He's the person I wake up next to every morning, and the first thing we do is laugh. I can't help but smile at the way he laughs and talks. Just being with him still gives me butterflies like it did the day I met him.
Jamir is more than just my boyfriend. He's the person who makes me feel alive. His eyes sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight, and his smile illuminates the darkest of rooms. The sound of his voice is like music to my ears, and his touch sends shivers down my spine. I love him more than anything in the world, and I can't imagine my life without him.
If something is wrong with Jamir, I need to know. I can't bear the thought of losing him. Someone must have made him say those things on the phone. The man I love would never want to hurt me. The man I love would never want to say those things. I just hope that he knows how much I love him, and that we can work through whatever is going on together.
Before I had stopped by at Jamir's house, I went to go stop by Nevaeh house. Me, Nevaeh, and Mariah still don't often get along at times. They still side eye me for the way I treated Jamir when we first met, but as times went on they slowly started to get comfortable with me. Even invited me over for a movie night once.
While standing in front of Nevaeh's front door, I rang the doorbell and was greeted by Nevaeh, who looked me up and down before running to hug me like something had happened.
"Latrell! I'm so happy to see you. Why haven't you been answering any of our messages?" Nevaeh yelled as I raised an eyebrow.
"'Our'?" I asked.
"Yes, our. Come inside." She pulled me in, and I saw Mariah and Jamal sitting on the couch. Mariah looked like she had been crying, and Jamal seemed distressed.
"What's going on?" I asked them.
"Jamir is missing. We don't know where he is, and he left his phone in his house, so we can't track his location," Mariah said with a quivering voice.
"Missing? When did this happen?" I said.
"Two days ago. He randomly sent us a message saying he doesn't want to be our friend anymore and that he hates everyone. Not even his mother knows where he is," Jamal said with a worried expression.
"We've tried looking everywhere, and we can't find him. What if he's... what if he's gone?" Nevaeh said with a teary voice.
"Don't say that!" Mariah cried.
"We can't just stand here and act like it's not a possibility that he's somewhere dead. And we can't keep sitting here crying over it either. We need to continue to get our ass up and search for him," Jamal yelled with a determined tone.
"Latrell, you know Jamir. Do you have any ideas on where he may be?" Mariah asked with a hopeful expression.
"No, I don't. I'm trying to think of something," I said, wracking my brain for any clue as to where Jamir could be.
"Well, do you remember what the last thing y'all talked about was?" Nevaeh asked.
"He told me that he doesn't love me anymore and that he was only using me to get over Daijon," I said, feeling a lump form in my throat.
"Daijon? Why would he bring that up? Jamir hasn't mentioned him in months. He's too scared to even say his name out loud," Mariah said, looking confused.
"What if?" Jamal began, his voice trailing off as he thought. "No, that can't be true."
"What is it? Tell us!" Nevaeh urged, her eyes wide with anticipation.
"What if Daijon really is alive and he's got Jamir?" Jamal said, his voice rising with excitement.
"Oh my god, that's crazy. Daijon's been dead for months, Jamal. You know that," Mariah said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, that's true. But what if he's not? What if he faked his death and he's been hiding out all this time?" Jamal said, his eyes gleaming with the possibility.
"Do you really think that's possible?" Nevaeh asked, looking at Jamal with a mix of fear and hope.
"I don't know, but it's worth looking into. Maybe we can find some clues about where he is or what he's been up to," Jamal said, standing up from the couch.
"Okay, let's do it. But where do we even start?" Mariah said, wiping away tears from her face.
"We'll start by going to his mother's place. Maybe one of us can talk to her to get more information on his death. We can make something up and say we're a friend of his who didn't have the mental capacity to go to his funeral," Jamal explained, his voice shaking with emotion.
"Me and Nevaeh will do it," Mariah said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah, if Daijon is alive and got Jamir, then I can't help but feel that this is our fault," Nevaeh said, her eyes welling up with tears.
"Don't be ridiculous. None of this is your fault," I said, trying to comfort them.
"But it is! We're the ones who forced Jamir to talk to Daijon! None of this would have ever happened if we just respected his feelings," Mariah cried, her body shaking with sobs.
"I was a jerk to Jamir back then. I don't blame you all for wanting better for him. If I was you, I would have done the same! But what you two are not going to do is blame yourselves for something you had no control over," I said, pulling them into a tight hug. "Now, we have to focus. We need to get him back home to his mother. To his friends. To me and himself as well."
"Latrell is right. Where does Daijon live? We need to get to his house as quickly as possible," Jamal said, his voice firm with determination.
"I know where," Nevaeh said, taking my car keys from my hand.
"Then take us there," I said, my voice catching in my throat. As we piled into the car, I couldn't help but think about all the times Jamir had been there for me. All the times he had held me when I was crying. All the times he had made me laugh when I was feeling down. And now, he may be gone. My heart ached with sadness as we drove towards Daijon's house, unsure of what we would find when we got there.
•🦋•
/ omniscient /
Nevaeh and Mariah knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman answered. "Hello, my name is Mariah, and this is my friend Nevaeh. We're old friends of Daijon, and we came here to talk with you about your son. I hope that's okay with you," Mariah said, and Daijon's mother smiled.
"Of course, come right in. I just made some sweet tea," his mother said, opening the door wide for them. "I never knew that my son had cute girlfriends. He mostly spent time to himself or with his basketball friends."
"Aww thank you" Mariah smiled.
Nevaeh and Mariah sat down in the living room as Daijon's mother handed them some tea.
"My memory is really bad, but if I'm correct, I didn't see you two at his funeral," his mother said, and Nevaeh and Mariah looked at each other, trying to come up with an excuse.
"We didn't come because...," Nevaeh paused, not knowing what to say.
"We didn't come because we couldn't accept that he was truly gone. Daijon was a good friend to us, so we decided that if we didn't acknowledge his death, then it would feel like he's still here. In the long run, that, of course, didn't solve anything," Mariah said, faking her sadness.
"I see... Well, what would you like to know? I love telling stories about my son. I do it to keep his name alive," his mother said with a smile.
"We just want to know how his mental health was when he was young" Nevaeh said, unsure of what to expect. It was clear by her facial expression that she had something important to tell them. They listened intently as she began to speak.
"Daijon was a troubled child," she began. "He had a lot of anger inside of him, and it would come out in violent ways."
Nevaeh and Mariah exchanged a worried look. They had known Daijon for years and had never seen this side of him.
"Daijon's temper was like a ticking time bomb," his mother continued. "We never knew when it was going to go off. He would lash out at anyone who crossed him, even his own family."
Mariah's heart sank as she imagined what it must have been like to live with someone like that. She had always known Daijon as a fun-loving guy, but it seemed that there was more to him than she had realized.
"We tried everything we could to help him," Daijon's mother said. "We took him to therapy, we talked to him about his feelings, but nothing seemed to work. He was just so angry all the time."
Nevaeh felt a lump form in her throat as she realized how much pain Daijon must have been in. She had always thought of him as a carefree guy, but now she saw that there was a lot going on beneath the surface.
"Things got really bad when he was a teenager," Daijon's mother continued. "He started getting into fights at school, and he even got arrested once for assault."
Mariah gasped in shock.
"The only thing that seemed to calm him down was by bringing him into a cabin that my family owns. He loved spending time there" She said.
"A cabin? When was the last time he went there?" Mariah asked.
"I suppose the week after he passed. He said he was getting ready to have someone stay in there with him," his mother said as Nevaeh and Mariah looked at each other in disbelief.
"And where is this cabin located?" Nevaeh asked.
"In Phoenix Valley," his mother said as Nevaeh wrote it down in her notes. "God, I miss my son so much. He had dreams and a future ahead of him. So many colleges wanted him, and so many girls did as well. What really hurt is that I couldn't even see my baby one last time as they never found the body."
"They never found the body?" Mariah repeated, and his mother nodded her head, now crying.
"Yeah, they never did," she cried. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can keep discussing him right now. It was nice to see some of my baby's friends stop by and ask questions about him. I really appreciate you both." His mother got up, opened the door for Mariah and Nevaeh, and expected them to leave.
"Thanks, Mrs. Harris. And I'm very sorry for your loss," Mariah said, expressing her condolences.
"Thank you. You two have a wonderful day. God bless," she said as they walked out of the house and got back into the car with Jamal and Latrell.
"So what happened?" Latrell asked, sitting up straight.
"They never found Daijon's body... he could still be out here somewhere. He could be the one keeping Jamir," Mariah said as Nevaeh put the directions to Phoenix Valley in the map.
"But the good news is that we might know where he may be keeping Jamir," Nevaeh said, starting the car up.
"Okay, so Daijon is keeping Jamir in Phoenix Valley," Jamal said. "What do we do next?"
"We need to come up with a plan," Latrell said. "We can't just go in there and expect everything to work out. We need to be strategic."
"I agree," Mariah said. "We need to gather as much information as we can first. We also need to know how many people are there in that cabin."
"And we need to be prepared for anything," Latrell said. "We don't want to be caught off guard."
"Right," Jamal said. "We need to make sure we have everything we need before we go in there. We can't afford to make any mistakes."
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Nevaeh asked.
"We'll start by gathering as much information as we can," Mariah said. "We'll talk to people in the area and see if they know anything. We'll also try to find out where Daijon's cabin is exactly located."
"Once we have that information, we'll come up with a plan to rescue Jamir," Jamal said. "We'll need to be careful, but we can't let Daijon get away with this."
"Agreed," Latrell said. "We'll do whatever it takes to bring my baby home."
𝚃𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍 ...
𝙴𝚡𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛/𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜
The final chapter is next.
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