Sooner or Later You're Gonna be Mine

Chapter 32: ........ (Part 2)

"I couldn't find anything. It was like she vanished into thin air. I'm sorry."

Noah looked at the picture that always sat on his desk, feeling the heaviness of those words hit him before he directed his blank stare to the faded ribbon he always wore on his wrist now. It wasn't her favorite ribbon, but it had been the first one Noah tied in his niece's hair and back then after it faded and he bought her newer and brighter ones, he couldn't find it in himself to throw it away. Now he couldn't even untie it from his fat wrist.

The phone call had been devastating, and it shouldn't have been. Noah should have seen the results coming a mile away. He'd lived in SURFACE CITY his whole life. Had seen the city at it's finest and at its worst. He had seen good people raise to the top only to be brought down in the most horrific ways by the people that ran this shithole down. He also knew that the innocent were the first to get picked off. He knew that when somebody went missing they stayed missing, but still he hoped.

Yeah, it was fuckin' stupid of him to hope that after a month of her being missing, Emmi would turn up somewhere safe and sound, but ....but-

He had only turned his back for a second. He was takin' her to school and he had forgotten his keys of all things! So he had gone back into his bar, and she had waited so patiently for him, as she always did, but when he came back outside, she was gone.

Panic. He always thought he knew what it meant to feel panicked but when he called her name, he learned that what he'd felt before didn't compare to the panic and fear he was feeling when she didn't answer. He searched for her and then he called up all his employees to search for her, closing his bar down for days, but when nothing came up, he called up the best private eye in the city, reopening his bar just to pay him.

Couldn't find a thing. Not one Goddamn thing ...well, that wasn't true. The detective did find one thing out: Emmi wasn't the only kid to go missing the last six months. Five more children had disappeared.

How? How can six children go missin' without a single trace? Noah thought, but even as he asked the question he knew the answer: because a lot people go missing without a trace that are never heard from again in this God forsaken city.

Like everybody else that vanishes into thin air, he knew why six children could easily go missing: because the people with enough power to make a difference just didn't give a flying fuck about anything but themselves. The bar owner knew how it went for most of these poorer families that have a family member suddenly go missing. If you're poor, the only resource you have besides yourself is the police and that group of useless fucks might as well be made of bribe money and slime. The investigations hardly, if ever, go anywhere and once a new murder or missing person comes up, the cops simply move on leaving the family to search for their loved ones. It seemed kind of stupid to think there should be some unspoken exception when it came to children.

Noah stared at the picture again. It was just a stupid, corny school picture of his six year old niece, showing off her teeth in a huge smile, a pink ribbon in her hair.

The fat man lifted the picture and smiled. Most days after Emmi came back from school, Noah almost always had to have her in his office as he managed his business. While he hated doing that, Emmi, sweet and patient Emmi, never seemed to mind as long as she had something to do Then again, there had been times when he came in during a slow business day to spend more time with her. He would see her sitting in his oversized chair, patiently waiting for him to come back.

Noah took a look around his office. He missed seeing toys and crayons on his floor. Now it looked too clean and bland. He missed having her show him crude and unrecognizable drawings of doggies, kitties, people and himself. He now wished he hadn't so thoughtlessly thrown them out after each day thinking she would make more later. He missed how she lectured him about eating healthier in that childish voice that always tried to sound more mature than it really was. Now he ate more than ever. Sometimes he couldn't stop eating.