Most movies show a phone call late at night to deliver the bad news. Not late afternoon. Not walking out of the hallway to read the headline on your TV screen. No one expects a news reporter's voice to be the one to break the news.
BODY OF JAIMIE ANDERSON FOUND ON TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DISAPPEARANCE
Strong arms caught my body as I fell to the ground. Skylar turned around at the noise, her eyes were wide and her shaky hands were frantically trying to turn off the TV.
"Sweetheart?" Hunter kneeled in front of me.
"I remembered it was today, I mean you can't forget but I tried, Hunter I tried so fucking hard..." The tears were streaming down my face and Hunter pulled me to his chest.
Hunter's shirt was soaked through when he pulled back, "I thought there was still hope. I believed we would find her one day or she would just come back. I was so stupid..."
"You aren't stupid." Sky was rubbing my back, "You were hopeful. That's all. And there's nothing wrong with being hopeful."
"I need to know what happened." I finally managed to say. "I need to go back home."
I was already standing, fumbling for my keys and then walked over to my room to pack a few essentials. My mind was still repeating this words Body of Jaimie Anderson... Dead... Ten year anniversary.
"I'll take you, sweetheart. You can't drive in this state." Hunter's voiced snapped me back to reality.
"It's fine, Hunter. Just let me go." I tried to shove past him but he wasn't budging him. "Hunter you making me waste fucking time!"
"Let me just take you, Em. You can't drive like this. And especially not for so long. And you're upset, you'll be reckless." Hunter tried bargaining with me.
"Hunter," I ground out, "you need to move..."
"Emilia, please just go with him." Sky begged.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath then slowly nodded. Hunter took my bag from me and grabbed his keys while Sky shoved packets of chocolate into my arms.
"I'm sorry I can't come with - "
"Sky, I know how hard this is for you too..."
When Sky started crying, I cried even harder, "I'm being so stupid, I can't even handle this. I don't know how you're doing it. I'm so sorry, Em. Call me later please."
"Don't be sorry, Sky. I understand. I still love you okay?" I hugged her tightly.
"I'll check on your dad later on just to see if he's fine. I love you, Em."
"Love you too."
-
The first couple of minutes driving, I was still crying hysterically which only got concerned looks from Hunter. Eventually the tears run out and my breathing started to even out, only sniffing now and again. I had tried calling my mom but she hadn't answered. She must have been heart broken.
"You ok, sweetheart?"
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the headrest. "I should tell you what happened..."
"You don't need to. Not right now." He placed his hand on my leg and his thumb made patterns which lulled me to sleep.
-
When I woke up I felt sick. It was dark outside, I was in Hunter's car which was stopped outside some place. Something had happened and then the reality slammed into me making the tears start again. I had to open my door so that I wouldn't throw up in Hunter's car. The drivers' door opened and when Hunter looked at me he frowned and tried to pull me to his chest.
"Sweetheart... It's really late and I called your mom to tell her we'll only be there tomorrow." I saw the tiredness in his eyes and then he yawned. "Come on we're staying at this place for the night."
Hunter carried our bag to our room and I followed behind him. Once we got into our room I finally spoke, "I'm gonna need to sit down if I'm telling you what happened."
"Em, you really don't have to do this - "
"No, I do. Because I should have told you this ages ago." I walked over to the couch and Hunter sat opposite me.
I took a deep breath and tried to recollect all the pieces before starting my story. "My sister was care free. She was the life of the party; always celebrating something. She lived life and everybody loved her. She was ten years older than me. I'm her age now when she was... when she was kidnapped. So she would be twenty nine by now - " There were a few tears in my eyes but I stopped them so I could finish the story. "She went out one night. It was for Paul's birthday. They had dated before but when he told her he loved her, she decided she couldn't be tied down. But she went back to him. Paul told me they hooked up at that party and she told him she loved him too." I laughed at this. "But that was exactly ten years ago... today. My sister left his house and she was too drunk to drive so she decided to walk home. We only lived about fifteen minutes away from them. That's all her kidnapped needed to take her. Somewhere in those fifteen minutes, my sister was kidnapped. My mom and dad were still together then and they just assumed that she had passed out at Paul's house. But I think we all knew something worse had happened. They had always fought with her about her partying habits, although, she was responsible enough to never drink and drive or never accept drinks from strangers. After three days of calling a cell phone that was never picked up and asking Paul if he had seen her, my parents filed a police report. My sister was officially declared missing. Not the best thing when you're nine years old and you're trying to search every inch of your home and town looking for your sister. Walking into her room to find that it's empty. Sitting in front of an empty coffin after five years of relentless searching only to come out empty handed. Having parents divorce because the one felt that it was hopeless while the other felt hopeful. Seeing someone looking just like her and running up to them only to have your hopes shattered." I was crying by now and Hunter hand taken my hands in his, "There were no leads. Ever. Whoever kidnapped her did a bloody good job."
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And I'm back! I'm on holiday so should hopefully write a couple chapters since I know where I want to go with this story. Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy every chapter you've read and will read.
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