The Night They Went Missing

Breonna

Wind brushed through my hair from the open car window. She lived further away than I thought and wasn't near any of the colossal buildings. Driving down the road between acres of fields with animals grazing the emerald grass, the rain had stopped from earlier this morning; now the sky was menacing and still dark with no sunlight able to pierce its way through the grey clouds.

 There wasn't many cars on the road and soon there was none at all, after I took a turn off the main road. The car bounced up and down on the rocky path that my car was only just able to get through. Overgrown bushes brushed the side of my car, poking inside through the open window.

 As the narrow path came to a wide opening, a small cottage could be seen behind a large tree with pears on. The cottage had pink, yellow and white flowers around the wooden fences. It was built out of wooden panels with two small windows at the front. The door was painted white with a blue outline. Unlike other cottages, this one had two floors with a petite balcony on the side, which I imagine would lead from the bedroom. Two plastic chairs were placed outside one of the windows with puddles of rain on the seat from last night's storm. I would imagine this place was beautiful in the warmth of the sun, but right now it felt bitter and isolated from the world.

 Stepping out of the car, my shoes clicked against the stone path and opened the gate to reach the door. Knocking twice, I waited and waited before knocking again.

 Then, the door opened and a woman with short black hair and blue highlights stood in front of me with paint on her face and hands. She was a small woman with a round figure and had freckles on her face underneath her blue eyes. An apron was tied around her body, which was also covered in different colours of paint.

 "Hi, my name's Aura, and you must be Breonna. George called me earlier to let me know you were coming and explained what's been going on. Please, come in. Oh, and sorry for the mess. I had just finished doing some painting."

 Her voice was low, and she beckoned me to follow her into the house. I was glad she knew what was going on instead of me having to say that her sister was a friend of mine.

 She led me into a kitchen with cupboards painted sea blue with a wooden worktop that ran along the edges of the kitchen. A door, that seemed to lead into the garden, separated the worktop to a sofa that ran around the edges of the left-hand side with a large wooden table placed in front, like the corners you would see in a pub. Like the rest of the kitchen, the sofa was also blue. The sofa rested against the left-hand side wall with panels of windows running along it. Paintings of flowers, animals and buildings hung on the walls of the kitchen.

 "Please take a seat. I'll make us a drink." she said as she pointed to the sofa. 

 After she rushed around the kitchen with trembling hands, I began to think that people in this family couldn't have a stable hand. She soon joined me with a cup of tea and smiled weakly.

 "Thank you." I said as I took a sip of the tea. For me it was a little bit too sweet, but it was the thought that counted.

 "Gorge told me about what happened and how Tanisha said she was staying here. I still can't believe she's missing."

 "Do you have any idea why she would say that she was staying here? Any idea why she would lie?"

 Shaking her head, she responded, "No idea. This isn't something she would do, but then again after the accident she was never the same." 

 Running her fingers through her straight hair with the blue highlights, it made me wish my hair was as perfect as hers. Thoughts like this often happened when asking questions, as I constantly wished I was as good-looking or as confident as everyone else. Sadly, I wasn't even if I made it seem like I was. Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked back at Aura as she sipped a cup of tea of her own.