Diana Hargrove has gone through enough tragedy for three lifetimes, yet she still has an affirming smile on her face. She's lived and travelled all over the world, but the last straw that broke the camel's back, brought her back to her hometown, Cre...
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𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 | 𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦
There's that moment when you can start hearing the things around you, but your body still feels asleep. I can hear my phone vibrating underneath my pillow, but I don't have the strength to open my eyes and greet the day.
Normally, early mornings are my favorite time of the day.
However, it's Christmas Eve and I don't have anything to do except getting ready for tonight.
Christmas Eve morning used to be reserved for watching Devyn in a charity cheerleading tournament and running around the track to raise money for charity. Everyone in town used to raise money for the less fortunate. It's still a worthwhile cause, but many people can't be outside in the freezing cold, so early in the morning.
My gifts for everyone are already wrapped. I forced Emi to stay at the house until after midnight, because I needed everything wrapped. And I needed her OCD to wrap them perfectly.
I had presents for mom, Nonna, Emi, Jayden, Seth, and Adam and Tatiana Russo. That's not including the small gift I got for my art teacher, Andrew, since the man is a walking stress case. He deserves at least one present for his hard work.
After feeling like my head was on a vibrating pillow, I woke up and looked out the window. It's not snowing, but there's frost covering my window.
I got out of bed and stretched out my body, ready to start the day.
However, my body went rigid when I looked around my room. I wake up early to work on my art, but right now, all my art supplies are missing! Did someone steal all my stuff? Did someone break into the house and steal all my art supplies?
I'm in the middle of the most important art project of my life. Both for school and personal use. I have two important projects to do.
All my stuff is missing.
"Mom!"
I start checking every room on the second floor. Mom's bedroom is empty. Nonna's bedroom is empty.
Did they get abducted? There's no way a middle-aged woman and an elderly woman would be abducted! It's Christmas Eve, how could they leave me home alone? We don't have church until midnight.
"Mom! Nonna! Where are you?"
I ran downstairs to open the front doors. Both cars are in the driveway. They have to be in this house somewhere. There's no way they went for a walk this early in the morning when it's this cold outside.
Why is this house empty?
It's absurd that mom and Nonna wouldn't be in this house. No matter what, they always tell me if they're leaving. Sometimes, my mom even leaves a note to let me know where she's gone.
