New Beginning (Pearlshipping-AshxDawn)

Chapter Sixteen

Ash was currently at the police station, showing Officer Jenny the mysterious note that had been sent to him. Dawn had wanted to go with him, but Ash had to remind her about what he had told her.

"I should go with you." Dawn said, walking behind Ash as he headed towards the door.

"Dawn, you can't. Remember what I told you? The Elite Four suspect that whoever is behind the disappearances is succeeding because the may have spies posing as regular people across each region."

"But-"

"If these people knew that you know anything about what has happened, they would kidnap you, too…or worse. I can't put you or the kids at risk like that. I'm going alone." Ash said, leaving quickly.

"This is the first time that the kidnappers have left any sort of clue behind. All of the people who disappear vanish without a trace." Officer Jenny said as they looked over the note. "It's handwritten, so we can analyze the handwriting to determine who wrote this."

"It's strange. Whoever wrote the note should have known that the police would be able to trace it back to them. Why make such a big mistake like this? It's also the first clue after all of the kidnappings that they've done. They wouldn't be so foolish to make a simple mistake like this." Ash said as he stared at the note.

"The only explanation is that they WANT us to find out who wrote this note…but why? Why would whoever is behind the disappearances want themselves to be found out?" Officer Jenny replied. It was a mystery, alright. "Ash, as soon as we find out who wrote this, I'll let you know. Oh, and the international police are helping to investigate this too, since the disappearances are happening in every region."

Two weeks passed after Trey's disappearance. Isla had yet to return to school, since she was so emotionally distraught because of her brother missing, but her friends made sure to visit her almost every day and brought her homework to her at her house so that she wouldn't fall behind.

Alex, Julia, and their friends were outside, waiting for everyone to arrive before heading inside. To their surprise, they saw a familiar car pull to a stop at the curb and the passenger door opened and out stepped Isla.

"Isla!" they cried, running over to her and hugging her. She had emotionally recovered enough to be able to come back to school, but she still wasn't smiling, because her brother was still missing.

They then all walked into school and towards their classroom.

"Hey Isla, you and the girls should come and watch our next hockey game after school today." Alex said, thinking of an idea to help cheer her up.

"I'm not sure…I don't really feel up for it." she replied quietly.

"Oh come on, Isla. It'll be fun and exciting and just the thing to cheer you up a little. I'll even score a goal just for you. I promise." Alan said.

"...Okay, I'll go."

Sure enough, during the game, Alan controlled the ball on his stick and ran towards the goal. He faked a pass to Anthony and shot the ball, sending it towards the goal and into the net.

Alan smiled and pointed up at Isla in the bleachers and winked at her, as if to say, "That one was for you."

Seeing this, Isla smiled, the first real smile she had smiled since Trey had vanished.

The girls saw this and talked quietly among themselves so that Isla wouldn't hear.

"Alan actually made her smile again." said Julia.

"Well, ever since Trey went missing, he has been her most supportive friend." Grace added.

"Out of the guys, at least. I wonder if maybe…" Melissa trailed off.