ENG - My best friend's sister ᵐᶦᵏᵉʸ ˣ ᵒᶜ

95

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

I listen to this video over and over again, and then it hits me like a blow. "Mikey," I suddenly shout as I rush towards him. But he doesn't react, neither to my call nor to the shaking of his shoulders.
Stressed, I sigh and hold the video right in front of him. He doesn't seem to understand at first, but when he realizes that the person in the picture is my sister, his eyes start to glisten with tears again. I can literally feel the pain and fear welling up inside him.
But I understand him.
Her voice sounds hoarse from crying, tearful and incredibly fragile, and she is trembling all over. If I hadn't known the content of the video, I would probably be just as overwhelmed by pure helplessness. But at this moment, I have a slight sense of hope.

"It gives us a clue. It's a coded message," I explain to him, his blank stare still fixed on the screen. "She mentioned our father, but we don't have one," I start to explain as I look back at the video myself. "When we were kids, we used to send each other encrypted messages because we thought it was funny. At some point I said that if there was ever an emergency, for whatever reason - and this is definitely one - she should signal it to me by mentioning our father. The father we don't have," I continue. "She'll tell us where she is, I'm sure of it."
Finally, there's a reaction from him as he lifts his head and looks at me in disbelief. "Then what are you waiting for? Decode it," he says suddenly, breaking his hour-long silence. I nod and watch the video countless times, writing down her words word for word in a note-taking app. As I copy them down, I think again about how exactly we did this when we were children. After all, it was years ago.

Mikey sits close to me as we sit on a staircase, and I can feel his expectant gaze on me as he waits for me to find the solution. But for the life of me, I can't remember exactly how we did it when we were kids.
"So?" Mikey finally asks impatiently at some point, causing me to tilt my head back with a sigh. "I don't remember," I confess and stand up.
"Then try harder!" he suddenly shouts at me, grabs me by the collar and shakes me. His frustration grows, as does mine. "I'm trying!" I shout back and grab his collar too. We look at each other angrily.
"Obviously not good enough!" he continues to shout, and it eventually ends in a fight between us. He throws a frustrated punch at me and I counter with a punch as well. It goes on until we're both lying on the floor breathing heavily. Mikey and I look at each other, our gazes filled with a mixture of frustration, disappointment and helplessness.

With a heavy sigh, I straighten up and hold out my hand to Mikey. He grabs it and I help him to his feet. Our eyes meet again, this time no longer full of anger. We don't have time for arguments, we both realize that.
"Give me a minute to think," I ask Mikey and sit down on the floor. I stare at the notes I've made, trying to remember how we used to do this as kids. It's like a puzzle, with the pieces slowly starting to fit together in my head.

After a while, I lift my head and look at Mikey. "I remember," I say quietly. "You can do it! So? Where is she?" he asks after crawling towards me.
"Wait, wait," I say and continue typing away on my phone. The code is actually pretty simple, but what more can you expect from children? Something highly complex?
The first word of the first sentence, the second word of the second sentence, the third word of the third sentence and so on. That also explains why she talked so strangely pompously. So I remove the superfluous text until there is only what is really important: I can only see the top of Tokyo Tower from where I'm standing. I hear water.
Mikey reads the sentence out loud once and looks at me in confusion. "Then let's get going. We have to search the water," he says determinedly and stands up. I look up at him and nod. The hint is vague, but she probably has no other view from her position. With what she's given us, we can definitely narrow down the area.

After we have gathered again and narrowed down the perimeter, we set off and search all night long. We search countless houses, but nowhere do we find any trace of her.
At some point we find a house, a hut to be precise, which looks as if it might collapse at any moment. The closer we get to the hut, the louder the voices become. It sounds like someone is partying, the music gets louder and louder, and so does the sound of people laughing, which sounds drunk.
"Have you heard what the boss did to the girl? He's certainly going to kill her," laughs one of these people. Before I know it, Mikey is already running at this guy, and everyone else who has been following us is charging after him.

Mikey reaches the guy who said those words first. His fist hits the guy with such fury that he goes down before he even realizes what's happening. But that's just the beginning. The others who have followed us pounce on the rest of the revelers and a fight breaks out.


Meiyo POV

Outside, all I can hear is the loud commotion and people shouting. It seems to go on for an eternity as the noises gradually become quieter and the shouting dies down until it is completely silent. The silence that follows is almost deafening. Suddenly the door is wrenched open and my heartbeat accelerates as I flinch in fright.

In the darkness, I can't immediately make out who is entering. "Mei," a familiar voice whispers my name and when I realize whose voice it is, I burst into tears. It feels like a flood of emotions is washing over me.
I immediately feel two warm arms wrap around me and hug me tightly yet gently. The familiarity and warmth of the embrace make me feel like I'm finally safe again.
"Mikey," I whisper barely audibly and have never been so relieved to see him in my life. "I'm here now," he whispers back, and I can feel his whole body trembling.

"Mikey, have you got her?" calls the next voice, which I can recognize as my brother's. When he sees us, he comes towards us too and takes me in his arms, along with Mikey, because he doesn't want to let go of me. "Thank God," he says, relieved.
Kenny is the first to regain his composure. He removes the restraints from my body and puts his jacket around me.

The relief of seeing them again overwhelms me so much that my body finally gives up and my eyes go black.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

small note!
 In the message from Meiyo I actually thought about the fact that it makes sense. But in my mother tongue, German xD
That's why it's possible that what's in the text doesn't make sense when translated. (If someone seriously makes the effort to check that xD) I was just too lazy to rewrite it so that it also makes sense in English
So Sorry ♥