Asleep

30 Where Is She?

Nora~~

"I still can't believe you quit." Tye holds the door open for me, and I step into the lobby of Radia's office building. "Charlie didn't have me come in today."

It's odd to know that after forcing Charlie out of my life I'll still have a connection to him.

"What was the fight about?"

"It's probably better if I don't say." I send a text to Radia that we're in the lobby.

Tye smooths out his copper red t-shirt. "I thought there was something there between you two."

Radia texts that we should tell the security desk our names and that they'll send us up to her.

"There definitely wasn't." I pocket my phone. Even if yesterday before everything happened, I felt him brush his fingers against mine after my own had touched his. It was an accident. On my part and then his.

There had always been something about Doctor Pace that made me wary—anxious. When Charlie's fingers touched mine, I didn't feel restless anymore.

We arrive on the fourth floor just as Radia walks past the elevators. She stops, her cheeks flushed.

"I'm so sorry, but I'm going to be a little bit longer. People already went home for the day and something came up last minute that we need for the website tomorrow. There's an empty conference room you can wait in."

She shows us the way, and I steal peeks at the cubicles that are mostly empty. A few are filled with their owner hunched over a computer. Radia never got to give me that tour for which I had come the other day.

The conference room is small—only seven seats—and cold. Before Tye and I are in our seats, a woman comes to pull Radia away.

Ever since yesterday when I was on her couch, I've been fighting the desire to lie down, but if I do, I'll be occupied with only my thoughts. I spent today cleaning Radia's apartment just to keep distracted even when what felt like a weight settled over my body, urging me to sit down.

"Are you and Radia a thing now?" I ask to take my mind off the heaviness.

He shrugs, scratching at his neck. "I don't know what she wants."

An hour later Radia comes into the conference room. Tye and I stand but she waves at us to sit down. "I don't know how long I'll be here. You should go ahead and eat."

"Let's order in then," Tye says. "If that's cool."

Radia's phone dings. "Yeah, that works." She takes a second to read the message. "I'll take whatever you think I'd like."

Once she's gone, Tye and I order from the noodle place Radia and I went to. I give him Radia's order from last time, and when it arrives, Tye heads down to the lobby to grab it.

Immediately, I realize I should have gone down instead. Without Tye here to distract me, gravity seems to press harder on me.

I rub my arms to get rid of my goosebumps and then let Radia know over text that Tye went to retrieve the food. I set my phone on the table and burrow down in the chair, trying to relax.

That little girl has been trying to plague my thoughts as much as Charlie and Doctor Pace have been. I don't who she was. It's possible she's no one. Maybe she's only something caused from the trauma I endured yesterday.

Someone shakes me, and the room goes dark.

"Nora." Tye's voice is frantic, high pitched.

I crack open my eyes, not realizing they were closed to begin with. Tye's crouched in front of me.

"What?"

He lets his head fall forward, his forehead nearly touching my knee. "It was like the other day when we couldn't get you to respond, except this time your eyes were closed. I was about to yell for Radia. What were you doing?"

I hold up my hands. They look normal, unlike me who's sitting here staring at them. "I responded the moment I heard you."

"No, you didn't. What were you even thinking about?"

I was thinking about the girl, about Charlie. I have no memory of Tye calling out for me more than once—the time I responded—but after zoning out at Tye's apartment, I'm inclined to believe Tye over myself.

After telling him what I can remember, he transfers the takeout from the carpet to the table.

"Did you tell Radia the food's here?"

"Yeah," I say, checking my phone. She hasn't answered.

Tye pulls out both of our food containers, and we decide to start without her. She'll probably end up taking her food to her desk anyway.

I'm halfway through my container when a man, his tie loosened and shirt untucked, knocks on the open conference room door.

"Hey, have you seen Radia?" he asks.

Tye swallows his food. "Not in over an hour."

The man frowns. "I sent her downstairs to grab something but that was half an hour ago."

"I'll check if you'd like." I do my best to mask my anxiety, but all I can think is that maybe I wasn't enough for Pace.

The man tells me he'd appreciate it and that he had her go to the third floor.

Tye and I head down there, taking the elevator. When the doors open on the third floor, the lights are off. It's not until we step out that the lights turn on.

Not a good first sign.

This floor is an open layout. No cubicles. From first glance, we're the only two people here if the lights are automatic.

"Radia," I call out.

Silence.

Tye and I walk the floor. In the back corner, we find a desk chair in the walkway. Tye pushes it under the nearest desk. He has to swivel it to go around a memo pad that's face down on the floor. I bend down to pick it up, setting it on the desk just to give my hands something to do—something to stunt the dread growing in me.

Tye flips it over.

I lean over his shoulder, squinting.

Find Raymond, N. He's the

That's all.

"Where do you think she went?" Tye pulls out his phone and holds it to his ear.

"She wouldn't have left this building without telling us unless it was an emergency."

         Tye's face turns ashen, his phone slipping from his ear and hitting the floor. "Her number's been disconnected."

The dread overtakes me as if it were roots. My legs tremble, and I sink to the floor to avoid falling. From what I know, my number didn't get disconnected when Pace was holding me. Radia and Tye didn't mention trying to call me though.

"If she did come to this floor, security footage should have picked it up," I say, and he nods.

"And this?" He points to the memo pad.

"The footage could show us if Radia left it."

I don't know if I want it to be from her because that could mean she was taken since whoever wrote it didn't have time to finish it, but that N glares at me like it's being branded onto my skin, and I don't think I can doubt who the message was intended for.

Count those fingers.
~Mikaela