Hyde and Josh enrolled into college. Finally.
They spent the year searching for Willem but they never found him. Anywhere. Hyde was never going to recover. He missed his little brother and it kept him up at night just thinking about that night and it was all his fault.
He was going to carry that guilt with him until he died. He knew he would. His dad finally talked him into moving on and going to school even though he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. Such as it was.
"Willem wasn't a normal kid but he didn't deserve any of this, Josh." Hyde stated, defending his little brother.
They were on their was to their freshman year of college. Hyde wasn't ready to let go of his little brother. He vowed to hunt for him in his free time.
"I know. He was a little too Goth for my taste but..." Josh sighed.
"I know Mom and Dad worried about him but that all stopped when he disappeared. I never will understand it. They use to pray for him and beg him to go to church and now that he's gone they don't really talk about him and Mom always looks..." Hyde stopped. There was only one word that he could use to describe her.
"Relieved..." Josh finished.
Hyde sighed. "Yeah. Relieved. I don't understand it. Every time I go out to look for him, Dad says something about a waste of time. I feel like I am being left out of something. I feel like they aren't telling me something."
Josh look out the window. He watched the city go by. "Yeah, me too. Your dad said we shouldn't waste our lives. I don't understand either, Hyde. I really don't."
He worried that Hyde's parents killed Willem or something. He couldn't see them doing that but maybe. It's always the person no one suspected. Josh went over that in his head for the past year.
"Man, maybe they're right. We're going to go crazy trying to figure it out. If someone knows something, they're not coming off of the information, Hyde." He was ready to move on but he knew that Hyde never would.
"I know. We're not any closer now than a year ago. I don't know what else to do but maybe I can find something in the city library. I can't just give up on Willem." Hyde missed his little brother.
"He was weird, Josh, but he didn't deserve any of this and he doesn't deserve for me to give up on him. Everyone else has."
Josh nodded. "We have to move on, man."
Hyde shook his head. He just couldn't. They were silent on the rest of the drive. Josh knew since he was in kindergarten that he wanted to be a teacher so that was what he was going for.
He was hoping to become a professor at college some day. He wanted to teach English and reading. He always loved the English language and he was hoping to spread that to children.
Teach them and watch them learn to read. Teach them the classics. The hardback books instead of all the online stuff. Josh wanted to show kids the thrill of holding a book in their hand and watching them fall in love with the characters.
Josh was a nerd but he was okay with it. His ex-girlfriend Fiona left for college after Willem's disappearance and never really talked to them again. That night ruined their lives. Josh spent a year trying to fix it, trying to change it. He hated to think about that night and constantly had nightmares about it. That night haunted them all.
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