Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 5

Tyler POV

Two more days had passed. There'd still been no news from anyone.

Brendon and Sarah had called daily the minute they heard the news. They wanted to come back and be with us, but I told them with the press around, we didn't want them caught up in all this. They said that didn't matter. We'd been there for them when Jess was sick and had died, they wanted to be here for us. They came in on the Friday morning when Sam had been gone nearly a week.

Sarah and Jenna spent a lot of time together, mostly just crying together. Sarah listened to Jenna and didn't interject. Or just sat and held her while she cried. Brendon sat with me a lot. We didn't say much, but knowing he was there was comforting. They knew what it was like to lose a child. What they didn't know was how it felt to lose a child - but not know if she was dead or alive.

They helped Josh keep the household running, since neither Jenna nor I could manage to manage much more than breathing. And even that it felt like we needed to remind ourselves to do.

As the afternoon wore on, Jenna, Josh, Sarah, Brendon and I tried to find some way to keep ourselves busy. Something to distract from the emptiness we felt with Samantha gone. I couldn't play Fortnite. It reminded me too much of Samantha and how she'd been playing it with Brendon the weekend before she went missing. TV was nearly impossible since the big news and local news were covering the story and it seemed to always be on. And I couldn't concentrate on Netflix or any movies. Though Josh or Brendon seemed to cue one up, just to have some background noise that wasn't police radio chatter.

"What if we don't get her back?" I asked Brendon, out of the blue, tears springing to my eyes. I was surprised I had any left to shed. "What if she's gone forever?"

"You can't think like that," Brendon said. "Until you hear otherwise, Samantha is alive and you're going to get her back."

I shook my head. I wanted to believe it, but I knew statistics were against us. Against Samantha.

Jake came over again to see how we were holding up. He'd said it was good that we had friends around. He reminded us to try and stay positive.

Just then, Jake was called over by one of the officers and the two of them were in a whispered conference. I kept looking over and Jake kept looking over at us, nodding at the officer and then glancing over. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not.

"Um," Jake said, coming back over. "Can I speak with you guys in the kitchen? Away from the noise of the radios and phones?"

Jenna broke down into tears. I did, too. It couldn't be good news if he was asking us to go somewhere quiet. Brendon and Sarah looked at us and at Josh, at a loss as to what to do.

"Come on," Brendon said to me. "Let's hear what he has to say before we jump to conclusions."

He helped me stand up and literally supported me on the way to the kitchen. I slumped into a chair at the table. Jenna sat beside me and leaned into me. We were ready, we thought, to hear the worst.

"We have a lead," Jake said.

I looked up at him incredulously.

"What?" I said. "What do you mean? What?"

Jenna grasped my arm.

"We have a lead," he repeated. "A call came in to the hotline and the caller said he knows where Samantha is. He confirmed she was wearing a green jacket and that she had a red backpack with white straps and some drawings all over the straps."

I stared at Jake. Jenna's hand flew up to her mouth. Sarah grabbed her other hand.

"Is she alive? Is she okay?" Jenna asked.