The heartstopper

Chapter 38

It was roughly two hundred and fifty-two hours into the Paris trip when Elle and Tao had last seen each other. Tao had left the girl's room to go back to his shared room but according to Isaac and Charlie, he didn't return.

It was roughly two hundred and fifty-three hours into the Paris trip when Nick disappeared from his friends. He, Charlie and Isaac were walking to the elevator, being split up briefly as a group of people blocked their path. Charlie and Isaac had swerved to the left side while Nick, being closer to the right, went right. When they went to connect back up as a group, Nick was nowhere to be seen.

Tara and Darcy answered after the first text to their group chat, neither of the two boys had been seen by anyone since approximately an hour prior. Elle knew that Tao's phone was on the verge of dying, but Charlie and Isaac knew that Nick had his phone, as he'd taken it off of the charging port as they had previously left their room.

After not returning their messages, the squad met up in the girl's room, Tara and Darcy having run there from their previous location, the fitness room. Neither one of them were working out, although they did briefly attempt to make use of the leg press, not changing the weight from what it was previously set at, which was probably heavier than they were.

They didn't waste time in finding Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq, hoping that they could be found before it was too late.

"Where was the last you saw of them?" The one teacher asked.

"Tao and I were in the room I share with Tara and Darcy, he was heading back to his room," Elle explained, her arms crossed against her chest for comfort.

"We were walking down the hall but got split up," Charlie answered, sorrowly. He'd only taken his eyes off of him for a mere second before he was gone.

"Okay, we'll report them both as missing, wait in your rooms and don't try to find them, leave that up to the police," Mr. Ajayi warned. Hiding in their rooms hadn't kept people safe so far, but it was better than being out in the open.

"But we need to find them-" Elle countered, if they waited too long, they'd never be found.

"Yeah, we can't leave them!" Darcy chimed.

Mr. Farouq sighed, "If we could, we'd be searching for each and every one of our students right now but there are some things that you've got to leave up to the police," If he had it his way, and same for Nathan Ajayi, they'd be tearing down doors in search of their missing students.

Elle, Tara, Darcy, Charlie and Isaac went back to the girl's shared room, sticking together for the rest of the day. Security was searching for them, they'd already been spending their day searching for other missing people, it was a wonder how so many people couldn't be found while under the roof of the hotel, but it was a large building.

Apparently, just that day, they'd found three people who'd been pronounced missing and they had little to no injuries, the only injuries they held were scratches or bruises from escaping. Each of them had said that they were locked in a different hotel room but didn't get a description of the capturer. The person behind it never spoke, and stayed right out of their eye view, even though they were hiding their appearance with the use of a disguise.

People were crying. Their friends had been missing for not even a complete hour yet and they had no hope that things would turn around. Their biggest regrets had been not mentioning Imogen's disappearance sooner, not realizing that maybe she wasn't with her friends and that she could have actually been missing.

They didn't want to make the same mistake with Nick and Tao, they couldn't. They'd all been crying, that was quite clear. Charlie felt horrible. He couldn't lose his best friend and his boyfriend, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Nick, the rugby star who he sat next to in form, who he'd say 'hi' to as they'd pass in between classes. The guy who had gotten into fights with his friends to defend Charlie, who'd then abandoned his friends for Charlie. Nick, the boy who Charlie loved.

Then there was Tao, his friend who'd protected him from bullies, come up with different insults to shoot back at those who'd try and make fun of him for being gay. Tao, who'd been there through thick and thin and protected and supported his friends no matter what.

They all felt as if their worlds were falling apart, it might have been falling apart. It was all just a huge nightmare.

They stayed in the room as their teachers told them to until they got tired of waiting. Who's to say that they were looking for their friends? Maybe they wanted to go on a walk, and just happen to stumble across their friends who were very much alive and uninjured. They weren't going to split up, so they stayed in their group of five.

As they walked past random doors, they didn't hear any cries for help, nor did they hear any noises at all. Those in their rooms were silent and those out of their rooms were mostly on the main floor.

They passed a door on the third floor that was being invaded by cops. It didn't seem like a regular room search, it seemed like they were trying to bust someone but it also didn't seem like anyone was inside. They continued past the room, not wanting to be caught being nosy and get into trouble.

Things were burning into crisp as they walked helplessly through the structure. How is anyone supposed to be found in this mess? It was hard to walk through for all of them, breathing was even harder. It felt like weights were seated on their chests, weighing them down.

Charlie couldn't help but wonder if Nick felt that way. He wondered if he was scared, or if he was alive at all. Maybe he was safe, or maybe he was sleeping and this was nothing but a very realistic nightmare.