Just the Beginning

52

MATT

It's been a few hours now, nearly 7pm. The sun set a couple hours ago and the snow came in early. I've been a bit worried ever since. She isn't answering texts, calls ring and ring but go to voicemail. I remember her and Jada always sharing locations so I make my way to Chase's room and knock. I'm sure she's still here, his mom isn't home and she said her mom is on some out of town trip for work.

"What's up?" Chase asks through the door.

"Hey man can I come in? I need to talk to Jada."

"Yeah whatever man."

I open the door and walk in, shutting it behind me.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you have her location on your phone?"

"I mean...," she laughs, "I'm sure she's fine. She's basically moving in with her mom-"

"They don't have anything to move," I shake my head, "they have bags of clothes in her car. That's it. Something is off. I can feel it. Please, Jada, can you just check it and tell me?"

She looks at me for a few seconds but does as I ask. I watch her eyebrows furrow.

"What?" I walk towards her, "what's wrong?"

"It-it shows her off the road?"

"What?" my heart drops and I pull her phone from her hands.

"Hey!"

"Wh-why?" I zoom in and out and it's as clear as day... wherever she is, she isn't driving. "I have to go."
"What?" Chase asks, "you can't go out in this.What if it's just a glitch? It could be."

I shake my head some and take a picture of her screen with my phone. This way I don't forget where she's at. "It's like a 20 minute walk there," I say, already having made up my mind, "I'm going." I walk out of his room and back to his sisters, well mine as of now but you know. I put on a pair of long johns and a few extra shirts. I grab a backpack just in case and stuff a blanket in there. This way if I still get cold, I can also use that... and forbid this from happening but in case they're hurt, they may need it.

"Dude it's like negative ten outside right now with the wind," Chase walks in, "seriously, don't go out there. I'm sure she's fine."

"Chase, you know I love you man, but I need to go. Right now." I push past him, walk down the stairs and right out the door.

Immediately my face is hit with a blast of wind carrying snow the size of a golf ball. I pull my hood up over my head and pull my shirt to cover my nose and down. I start to make my way across town. There are several accidents along the way, it makes for a bad feeling.

My phone starts to ring, Chase.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Jada said her phone just died or something. The location went away. Hadn't moved but it's not showing anymore."

"There's a lot of accidents out here man."

"How far are you?"

"About 5 minutes or so," I sniffle, "coming up on it soon."

"Okay, let us know how it goes."

"Will do. Thanks man. Talk soon." I pull the phone back and hang up the call. I take a look at the picture again, checking the cross roads. "Okay," I say out loud, "I need to go down... Boyer which is... two signs down. Left. That's a main road though, why is she in the grass on the side?" I continue. It's freezing outside. The sky is black, no moon shining, just dark clouds, high winds and lots of snow. I make the turn and look down the street. I see a stop light but no car.