Chapter 7

“What do you mean,you can’t find her? They walked into the woods. They can’t be far. It’s only been two days.”

“We understand, ma’am,” the first cop says as he motions his hands downward, indicating for me to chill. “You need to calm down. We found a set of tire tracks on a dirt path leading out of those woods. The tracks end on the road so we’re matching the tracks as fast as we can.”

I’m spiraling. I’ve been going out of my mind thinking of anything that could help them find her. My hands are in my hair pulling at my dreads, and I’m pulling so hard hoping I can just pull out the information they need, but we did drugs. I won’t tell them that though. They’ll just discredit everything I’ve told them and completely stop looking.

The second cop butts in with, “Can you think of anything else that might help us find her?”

“He was tall, dark hair, blue eyes, and some tattoos that looked like lyrics on his bicep, and some butterflies leading up his arm.” I’m sure I look frantic to them. They’re only half listening to what I’m saying. “Her name is Skylar Viceroy. She’s about this tall”—gesturing with my hands in comparison to my height—“curvy, red hair, and she was wearing a crop top and a plaid skirt.”

“You’ve told us all this before.” He points to his notepad that just looks like chicken scratch. “You can’t think of anything new to add? Like maybe what he was driving?”

“I. TOLD. YOU. We were in line. There was nothing else. The guy was leering at us.”

“A guy can’t be a suspect for leering at scantily dressed girls at a concert,” indicates the first cop.

“Did y’all happen to take drugs? Does she have a boyfriend she could be staying with?” Thing Two pipes in.

I’m groaning inwardly at these cops. Why am I even trying to talk to these cops? They don’t even care that my friend is missing. “Are y’all just trying to find reasons to explain away the fact that I saw someone carrying her over their shoulder. IN. TO. THE. WOODS?”

“No, ma’am. That’s not what we’re trying to do.” Thing One does his annoying hand gestures again.

This time I outwardly groan because my friend is missing and instead of looking for her, they’re just standing here asking me the same questions over and over again.

“We can see that we’ve upset you. When you have more information to give us”—he’s holding out his card in between his index and middle fingers as if he’s seen it on shows one too many times—“give me a call.”

Rolling my eyes, I snatch the card from him. “Yeah, I’ll be sure to do that.”

I lead the two cops to my front door and hold it open for them to leave. I can’t believe they can’t find her. I saw her off in the distance being taken by that guy we saw in line. My gut feeling tells me it was him, but they can’t find someone on a gut feeling.

I was so close. I should have run faster. Striding over to the window to look out, I see them get into their cruiser and drive away. I let out a sigh and walk toward Skylar’s room.

I miss her every second she’s gone. We’ve been inseparable since middle school. Please, please, Skylar, come back to me. I’ve been sleeping in her room every night she’s been gone, waiting for the day she’ll come back. Moving her clothes we left on her bed, I curl up amongst her millions of pillows. She was always one to have all the pillows.

I can’t stop thinking about her. I just want her back. I never knew I needed her until now. I always thought she needed me, but I need her just as much. Her favorite stuffed bunny rabbit with its fangs and fake blood is stuffed between her pillows. She said she got it because it reminded her of her favorite book series, the Morganville Vampire series. The mad scientist would walk around with these vampire bunny slippers, and she thought it was the funniest thing. My heart aches at remembering her quirky book nerd self.

I grab onto the stuffed bunny, holding tight and smelling it to try and remember her scent. It’s only been a few days since she went missing, and I already feel like I’m losing every piece of her.

My phone buzzes beside me taking me out of my train of thought. Looking at the screen, I see a message.

UNKNOWN: Hey, baby, I miss you. Will you at least talk to me?

My phone goes off a few more times and I let out a groan. Not in the mood for games right now, I throw my phone across the room. Grabbing hold of Skylar’s bunny and pushing it against my face, I scream as loud as I can.