Meet me tomorrow at Riverside Park at 8:30 sharp.
Teddy couldn't sleep. He lay awake, staring at his ceiling, going over those sentences in his head.
I'll tell you everything.
Everything? He wondered. About what? What was so important that need to be said? And why couldn't they have just said so on the back of that picture? Why make him wait? Why make the words eat away at him? There were so many unanswered questions that made him nervous and sick to his stomach.
Including the whereabouts of your sister.
That final sentence crawled through his skin and made his blood run cold. Whoever sent him this knew where his sister was. They were probably in on it. Hell, they probably were behind the whole thing and this was just a ruse to get him out in the open. But he needed to know the truth. And he definitely needed to know where his sister was. For his sake, and Ashton's. The older lad had been camping out on their couch every since her disappearance, which was nearing week number three.
Teddy rolled over onto his side, picking up the photo. It was hard to believe that just last year he had a mother. That his sister was by his side.
Ara looked extremely happy in the photo. They were at the park; it was the day after school let out. Craig had gone away for the week. Teddy smiled softly at the memory.
FLASHBACK
"Fresh air," Ara mumbled, leaning back onto the grass. Teddy laughed.
"What? Don't you get enough of it at home?"
"You call that fresh air?" She opened one eye, and looked at him.
"I'm teasing." He grinned. She smiled back.
"No more school." She sighed. "That means two months of pure freedom."
"And by freedom, you mean hiding in our rooms, begging for school to happen, right?"
"Yep." She replied. "But hey, we get one week without Craig. So, we should do anything and everything we can before he gets back."
"Yeah, like eat." He exclaimed, clutching his stomach. "I think I've lost weight."
"You and me both."
The two teens laid back on the grass and stared up at the clouds, pointing at the various shapes in the sky. "That one looks like a turtle." Teddy laughed.
"No it doesn't. It looks more like a dragon."
"Does not."
"Does too."
"Does not!"
"What are you two arguing about?" They lifted their heads to see their mother, who sat down next to Teddy. She smiled.
"That cloud looks like a turtle." Teddy explained, quickly, pointing in the sky. Dana looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun.
"I see a lizard." She stated.
"Ha! I win!" Ara shouted, triumphantly.
"No you don't! She said lizard, not dragon."
"A dragon is just a really big lizard." She argued. "Right mum?"
"Let's agree to disagree." Dana laughed. She smiled at the two. "Look at you two. All grown up."
"Mum!" Teddy groaned. "Not again."
"But it's true! It seems only yesterday that your were just a baby, and now you're old."
"I'm not that old." Ara laughed. "I'm still young."
"Sure." Teddy teased. Dana pulled her camera out of her bag and looked to her kids.
"Smile." She said. Ara quickly scrambled forward, hugging Teddy from behind, catching him off guard.
"Smile!" Ara yelled!
END OF FLASHBACK
Teddy rose early the next morning, and dressed quickly. He didn't want Liam to know what he had planned for the day.
He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on, before tip toeing down the stairs. He had made it to the door when a voice stopped him. "Where are you going?" Ashton leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Out." Teddy replied, probably much to quickly for anyone's liking.
"Out where?" Ashton raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay . . . " Teddy sighed, and turned around to look at him. "Last night, I found a picture of Ara and I." He said.
"I'm not sure I follow." He mumbled, quietly.
"That photo I found, was in Ara's bedroom."
"I still don't follow."
"At our old house." Ashton coughed.
"What's it doing here?" He asked.
"That's what I'm going to find out. Someone left a message on the back of the photo, telling me to meet them."
"Teddy you can't just-"
"They said they would tell me Ara is." He cut him off. "I don't know about you, but I want my sister back." Ashton disappeared into the kitchen, and returned shortly afterwards.
"You're not going alone." He said.
"Ashton-"
"No. I'm not letting you go meet some crazed lunatic alone. Ara would have my head and you know it."
"Fine." Teddy huffed. "But watch your back. I have more experience with dangerous people."
"My dad was a dangerous man too, you know." Ashton argued as they walked out of the house.
"Fair enough, but how often did he bring his friends home?"
"Fair enough."
Teddy and Ashton walked in silence down the street towards Riverside Park. They didn't know what to expect when they arrived. They didn't know who this person looked like, or if they would even be there. Is this a trap? Ashton wondered silently.
This is a mistake. Teddy told himself. This was a bad idea. We should turn around and go home.
Ara is going to kill me if anything happens to Teddy. Ashton scolded himself.
They turned the corner and stopped outside the gate for the park. Their eyes scanned curiously around. There were children playing on swing sets and climbers, couples talking walks along the paths, and families having picnics. "What are we looking for?" Ashton asked.
"I have no clue." Teddy replied. "Look for someone who doesn't belong." Ashton nodded, but he couldn't find anyone out of the ordinary. "Maybe this was a mistake." He sighed.
"But it shows how much you care about Ara," Ashton replied. "That you were willing enough to come out here just to find some answers."
"Well of course I would. She's done so much for me, watching my back, keeping me out of trouble . . . hell, she did time for me." Teddy groaned, rubbing his face with his hand. "I just want to find her, and being her home. I don't want to find her dead in some alley way." Ashton grimaced at Teddy's choice of words.
"We will find her." He said. "Come on, we should get going."
But as they turned around, a child's voice caught their attention. "Are you Theodore?" Teddy spun around so quickly, his head hurt. He came face to face with a boy, no older than three. He had icy blue eyes, and blonde hair that kept falling in front of his face. He was clutching a letter tightly in his hands with his name on it. In what was unmistakably Ara's writing.
"Yeah," Teddy said, crouching down to the boys height. "Is that for me?" He asked, arm outstretched.
"Momma says you can't have it until you hear what she has to say." The boy said. He turned around, and began walking away. But he stopped and turned back to them. "Are you coming?"
Teddy and Ashton followed the little boy through the park, and down a path that led them out of sight from everyone else. "We're dead." Teddy whispered to Ashton.
"Yeah," he murmured.
Finally, the boy stopped walking. They were standing in a small clearing, surrounded by trees. Nobody could see them and they couldn't see anybody. "Alright kid," Ashton said. "Hand over the letter." The boy stared up at him with big eyes.
"Momma says you have to wait." He said.
"Yeah, well that letter is written to me by my sister, that much I do know, so unless-"
"Are you really going to threaten a three year old?" A female's voice asked. The little boy tore off quickly into the trees, and when he returned he was with a woman. She was blonde, blue eyes like the boy. Teddy recognized her instantly.
"You're, Clary." He whispered.
"Hello, Teddy."