Stockholm Syndrome

two

- Louis -

"She's gone." Are the last words I could wheeze out. The last words before I felt dead again. My body lifeless and broken. I couldn't feel anything. Not my muscles, not my bones, not my veins, not even my heartbeat. All the feeling just dispersed and disappeared in a matter of seconds. That's all it takes -- seconds -- for someone to just die.

My mind wasn't wrapping around this. I read over the handwriting one last time. The black scrawled ink just sits there, staring at me, mocking me. I couldn't seem to find words or my voice or even thoughts. My head clouded with a deep fog. My body possessed itself to move forward. My feet shuffled me over to sit on the edge of Andrea's bed; on the edge of where she was laying less than twenty-four hours ago.

"What?" Niall snapped, his tone stunned with the edge of anger. I listened as his feet stomp over to the doorway where Paul stands. I looked up at him through watered eyes. My mouth parted and a hard lump knotted deep in the back of my throat. I wanted to puke.

I glanced once more down at the little slip of paper. The note with handwriting scribbled on it that could've been written by a third grader. I read it over, checking three times to make sure I read this right or it was just my panic and anxiety making me feel this way. I read it over carefully, hoping it's just a small note saying Andrea's at the store and she'll be back in an hour. But no, I was wrong. "She's gone." The words blew from my lips again.

"Let me see that." Niall demanded, trudging over and snatching the paper. He lifted it up to his eyes as my face dropped into my hands. I let out a couple tears but didn't sob. Niall roared loudly, stomping around the room. I heard doors flying open and things being knocked over.

There were four types of mixed emotions in the room, each person displaying a different one. Paul was the stunned, questioning one that doesn't know whether he had heard me correctly or not. Niall was the burning anger that didn't believe it so he's trying to find her by tearing through everything in the room. I am the heartbroken, upset one. The one that's lost and confused. The one that didn't want to believe this but sees it as I might have too. The fourth emotion? Fear. That radiated off of all of us.

"She's not missing, Louis." Niall barked, and I heard the tantrum stop. I raised my head, wiping the few stains of tears from my cheeks, and find him standing upright in front of me. "She's not. We'll find her easy. She's not missing, she's just hanging out with a couple strangers and we're going to pick her up soon." He was trying to make it sound better but, to be honest, it just sounded worse.

"H-How are we supposed to find her?" I croaked, my voice barely even there -- it was like a whisper.

"Louis, they wrote this note in their own handwriting. It's easy to have this scanned over and find out who it belongs too." He pointed out, handing me back the paper. At this point, I don't think he should be giving it to me because if I looked at that thing one more time, I was going to shred it and then we won't be able to even start Niall's idea. "Paul, go call the boys and the cops. We'll need them-"

"No," I stopped him, wiping my bloodshot eyes. I could feel the puffiness getting to them. My entire face was about to swell up. "We can't tell the others."

"Why not?"

"We have already made the news enough times in the past two months, I don't want anymore stupid rumors spreading around." I tried to explain, just remembering all the nasty things people were already saying about Andrea and I's relationship. People would probably say she's a gold digger, stole a couple thousand, and ran off. But I know Andrea. She would never do something like that.

"So how do you plan on doing this then?" Paul joins in, stepping into the room. He took the paper from my hands and analyzed the sheet carefully.

"We hire one of those private detective people." I said, the small glimpse of hope bringing me to my feet. I looked over at Niall who stands there with his eyes fixed on the floor and runs a hand through his hair.