Collection of Weird Dreams

Ria is Missing

I drove up to the apartments, expecting Ria and her duckling to be at the window upstairs. Her window was empty, there wasn't even a light on. The garage door opened, and I parked my car inside, wondering why it was so quiet. Usually Immanuel was having some type of party at this time of day. Maybe my noise complaints finally did some good. I walked up the spiral stairs to my apartment, put my stuff down, and then went right across the hall to Ria's apartment.Knock Knock

"Ria, are you there?" I say. I wondered for a second if she was out and about in the city but then I remembered it was her spa time. She would never miss out on her pampering time. I half expected Leyla to be there with her, painting each other's nails, but Leyla was out on a business trip for her Photography company. I waited a couple more seconds, but the door didn't open. Not even a sound came from telltale movement inside the apartment. I take a breath and I try the knob. The door opens, and the apartment is empty. No sign of life anywhere.

"Where did she go?" I mumble to myself. Perhaps she had a business trip? Yes, surely it must be that. There's no way she's been kidnapped. Or brainwashed. That only happens in dreams and movies.

Immanuel comes around the corner and sees me snooping around in Ria's room. I tried to hide, but he saw me anyway.

"Victoria, is that you? What the heck are you doing in..." He hesitates for a second, "...Ria's room?"

"I'm, uh... looking for my car keys?" I say, and I immediately curse myself out in my head for the stupid excuse.

"Mhmm. Where is she anyway? I haven't seen her at all today." He says. I try to think of any plausible answer, but none work. Obviously, she's missing.

"She's... missing. We need to find her."

"Oh, in that case, I'll alert everyone else." He rushes off, and starts to go downstairs before stopping again, and coming back.

"I'll alert everyone downstairs, and you can tell everyone upstairs." He says, and rushes off once again. I sigh. We're on floor 2 of 5. Of course I get the most people to tell. I don't even really know most of them!

Over the course of the next few days, my classmates went out on several search parties. The first destination was to the local spa. Grace and Sayumi volunteered, but they found nothing. No one there had even heard of anyone named Ria. The next few search parties came back with the same result. Nothing.

When everyone came back from their search parties, they seemed a bit different. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but they seemed hollow. Empty. No emotion. I chalked it up to sadness at the fact that we couldn't find Ria. But oh boy was I wrong.

The next few weeks went by with still no word of the missing Ria. We checked every place in town, every place except one: The abandoned gas station and supermarket on the outskirts of town.

"There's no way she'd be there," I say. "She'd be freaked out just by the look of the place, not to mention all the spider webs and whatnot."

"But we still might as well check. Then we can check off every place in town, and know for certain that she's not here." Peyton said. Aidan, Leyla, Wesley, Andrew and Peyton all volunteered to go on this search party with me. If anything, I trusted them more than the people who already went on a search. All of those people felt empty. It felt wrong. I didn't trust them, so there was no way in hell I was bringing them with me. The only people, normal people, left were them. I had no choice but to take them with me. (Which isn't all that bad. It could be worse and I could have Kaylee and Rylan with me)

The next day we went out on our journey to the outskirts of town. Everyone brought their own cars for whatever reason. We could've easily carpooled and saved a ton of money on gas, but I guess that didn't concern anyone at the moment. Once everyone got there (We had to wait an extra hour for Wesley who managed to get stuck in traffic at 2 in the afternoon), we went inside. The interior was nothing special, but it was pretty big. I could see the areas where things like a coffee station and the little tiny cashier booth used to be at.