The Red Witch - The Black Phone

Missing Again

It had been a month since Griffin went missing. The police announced that he was probably dead but they didn't find a body, only his bike. They had advised us all to mourn our loss. Giving their condolences and swearing they would never let something like it happen again.

How naive I was to believe what they had said...

I remembered I cried every day for weeks. I even went over to Ms. Stagg's and asked if there was anything I could do for her. She only closed the door in my face, screaming for me to leave. That broke my heart even more than it already was.

I never got over Griffin's death, he was my best friend, after all. But I did learn how to cope with it, unlike Ms. Stagg who never talks to anyone anymore. I mean, who could blame her? She lost her one and only son and now had no other family.

In all honesty, there was a sad irony to the situation. Griffin and I had always been invisible. But now all the kids in school knew who he was and by association, me.

After I went through all that grief bullshit people talk about and learned to accept what happened to Griffin I start hanging out with Billy Showalter more often than I usually did. We walked to school together every morning, unless he wasn't finished delivering papers.

We also hung out at his house almost every day after school. Playing with his golden retriever, Elvis. Watching scary movies. Playing board games. And ironically listen to songs by Elvis Presley. I even got to know his little sister Laura and his mom and dad. Not to mention, sometimes I went with him to deliver papers.

Sometimes hanging out with Billy took my mind off Griffin. But other times hanging out with him reminded me of the friend I lost.

"Amy!" Billy whisper-yelled from where he sat next to me in last hour English class.
"What?" I whispered back, still trying to pay attention to the teacher.
"Do you understand what he's talking about?" Billy interrogated me like I should have known.

"Do you not pay attention?" I quizzed, sliding my notebook across the table for the boy to study.
"You know I suck at English," Billy whispered back, looking over my notes. "You have really neat handwriting, by the way." He remarked, glancing up to make sure the teacher wasn't watching.

I rolled my eyes not bothering to respond to his comment and instead trying to focus on what the teacher was saying. But instead, I ended up zoning out, only being pulled back when Billy shook my shoulder rather aggressively.

"Did you not hear the bell, carrot top?" He quizzed, using that stupid nickname I hated.
"No. No, I didn't, paperboy." I shot back, making Billy roll his eyes as I grabbed my supplies and followed him out the door.

As we walked out into the hallway I was immediately run over by none other than Pinball Vance Hopper. He didn't even bother to apologize or help me up before he scrambled away.

"Amy are you okay?" Billy questioned, worry engraved on his face as he offered a hand to help me up.
"Yeah," I said, accepting my friend's help. "What the hell was that all about?" I questioned, glancing off in the direction Vance ran.
"No idea," Billy said, looking in the same direction as me.

I hummed calmly but my eyes widened as I realized me and Billy were still holding hands. He must have noticed too because we made shocked eye contact and pulled away at the same time. Embarrassed blushes flushed across both our cheeks.

Sure, Billy and I were close. But not close enough to hold hands in like a joking friend way. That was something stupid me as Griffin would have done...

"You think people would start noticing the giant warning sign on my head," I said jokingly to break the ice, referring to my bright-ass, curly red hair.
"Doesn't help that you're wearing a white flag," Billy added as we started walking again, pointing at the white bandana I always wore.

"Hey. Don't disrespect the bandana." I said, half-joking and half being defensive. Billy held up his hands in surrender as we stopped by his locker. Which was far away from mine.
"What's it for anyways?" He questioned. "I never see you without it."

"It was my mom's," I explained, adjusting my satchel on my shoulder.
"You never talk about your mom much," Billy said shyly, closing his locker. "Come to think of it you don't talk about your family at all."

I shrugged. Not that I didn't like my family or whatever but they just weren't all too interesting. My uncle was secretive and my dad was a little... kooky but I still loved him. And like I said, I don't remember my mom.

"They're not really that interesting." I confided in Billy. "My mom's never been in the picture, at least I don't remember her much. And my dad's just not been right since." I explained. Billy nodded. I could tell he didn't know what to say so we both just kinda stood there awkwardly. At least until I noticed Gwen waving at me in the thinning crowd.

I waved back at the girl before she started walking up to me. Finney following behind her like a lost dog.
"Hey, Amy." Gwen greeted. "Hey, Billy." She added after a moment of thinking about his name. "Sorry to pull you away from your friend but I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight."

I glanced at Billy, who lightly smiled, basically giving me his permission to go.
"Sure." I smiled, looking down at Gwen who was a foot shorter than me. She smiled back, giving me a look that said, "hurry up" before walking a few feet away to wait for me.

"Sorry, she's uh..."
"Outgoing," Billy suggested.
"I was going to say, has no filter. But yeah, that works too."
Billy and I stood awkwardly for a moment, both of us trying to figure out what to say next.

"Bye." We said in sync, making us both chuckle.
"I'll see you tomorrow, carrot top." Billy joked as we both started to shuffle away.
"See you tomorrow, paperboy," I said back, rolling my eyes.

If only I knew I would never be seeing my friend, Billy Showalter again. At least not face to face...

I walked up to Gwen and Finney but I was surprised to see Robin Arellano as well.
"You ready?" Gwen asked.
"Yup," I said simply, sticking beside the girl as we finally started to leave school. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious as to why the Robin Arellano was joining us. But I knew he was friends with Finney so I didn't really think about it too much.

When we arrived at the Blake's residence the boys and girls went their separate ways. Me and Gwen were in her room, talking about girl stuff, boys, and school. Really anything we could think of before a sudden knock on her ajar door caught our attention.

"Amy." Gwen's dad said. "The phone's for you." I nodded, standing from Gwen's bed. Assuring her it was probably just my dad wondering where I was. Gwen followed me out of her room, through the living room, where Finney and Robin were watching a movie, and into the kitchen.

"Hello, this is Amy," I said into the phone as I picked it up. I heard my dad's voice on the other end, his tone was sad, confused, and scared. What he said felt like a punch in the gut. I could just feel the pit in my stomach growing larger and larger.

I hung up the phone, Gwen giving me a confused look as she saw the expression on my face.
"What's wrong?" She asked, I could hear the movie in the other room stop. "Amy, what's wrong?" Gwen questioned again.

My voice broke as I spoke, and my heart shattered again. "Billy Showalter was just reported missing," I said, glancing around at Gwen, her dad, Finney, and Robin. A single silver tear rolled down my cheek.