In The Blink Of An Eye

Not An Accident After All

My parents looked at me, and they both understood exactly what I meant, and they completely changed.

"You're absolutely right, honey. We're sorry. It's not that we're not happy for you guys. We just wish we could have been there for the special day," said my dad.

"Hey, don't worry. We're still very much having a wedding. I wouldn't miss the chance to wear a white wedding dress and have all my family and his family there. Never in a million years would I not want you there for my special day."

"Well, in that case, I think we have a wedding to start planning," said my sister, who popped out of her room.

She ran to me and hugged me as if I had been gone for a month. My daughter still wasn't with her, which now I was very confused about.

"Ummm, where is Lilli? I haven't seen her since I came."

"Lilli is at the park with Evan's parents. They should be home soon. Don't worry, they are okay, we just talked to them a while ago."

It's not like I didn't believe my parents or his parents for that matter. Of course I did. I wouldn't have left Lilli with them. But, they weren't used to being on the lookout for psychos at all times.

"I trust you, mom, I do. But I still want to call and check. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Of course, honey. Do whatever will make you feel better. I'm sure they would be happy to hear from you too."

So, I dialed Evan's mom's number and waited for her to pick up. It rang once twice, then five times, and ten before it went to voicemail. No big deal, they must have just not heard. I dialed again, and once more... no answer. I kept telling myself not to panic, but from experience of people not answering, it usually always was something bad that had happened. When they all saw that she wasn't answering, they all looked at me in hopes for my own mental sake, that she would pick up the damn phone.

"Let me try calling my dad," Evan said. "My mom was never good at answering phones anyway."

So I listened to him and let him call his dad. Even though based on my parents, my mom was always the first one to answer while my dad either had his phone somewhere that he couldn't seem to find to save his life, or had it on silent by "accident". I'm sure it was just a tactic to stop us kids and my mom from annoying him so much. I really hoped in Evan's case. His parents were the opposite of mine.

As his phone rang and nobody was answering, I was not beginning to panic. I tried so hard not to. I really, really did. But, it was nearly impossible. It was just something that was much stronger than me, and these emotions and feelings just took over me completely.

"I'm sure they are just preoccupied with Lilli and don't hear their phones," Evan said.

At this point, I was praying to God that he was right. But, deep down, I had a horrible feeling that it wasn't just as simple as that. It might have just been my trauma and past experiences, but I had this gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong. After trying another several times and still no answer, I was losing my mind. I began pacing back and forth while biting my nails to the point where they were down to my skin and nearly bleeding. "Please pick up. Please pick up. " I kept repeating to myself. I was now in full panic mode and about to hop in the car and go looking for them myself. I didn't even know where I would go or which direction to look for first, but I couldn't just sit around and do nothing while Mr. No Face Psycho might have already hurt them.

"Evan, we need to go look for them. I can't just sit around here any longer, " I exclaimed.

Just as I had said that, Evan's phone was ringing. I prayed to God it was one of his parents and that they were on their way home with my daughter and all safe and okay.