Left Behind (Completed) *editing*

Chapter Eighteen

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Dylan's Point of View

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The sunlight faded and darkness took over the streets. It was getting late and Valerie was still out there. I remained determined to find her but I could see that Colin was losing momentum. We had pulled over some time ago because he didn't want to drive anymore. Now he sat in the passenger seat, resting his head against the glass of my car window and appearing bored. It wasn't hard to understand where his loss of drive was coming from. We had scoured the town and checked every place she could possibly be only to turn up empty handed. Out of desperation, we even recruited Riley as part of our search team but he wasn't able to find her either.

My heart grew heavy with each street I drove down. I was sure we had literally been everywhere. At this point I had simply resorted to double checking. I repeatedly had broken into her old home and I was trying it again. There was no way I could rest until I found her. My car glided down the hill until we reached her house once more. I parked to the side, shutting my car off and trying to be inconspicuous as I tiptoed to the back door that I had broken into before.

"I don't know why we're coming back here again," Colin whispered from behind me. I fumbled with my wallet , finding the card I used to break in before.

"She's got to sleep somewhere. She still has a key, right? She'll come back here eventually," I figured anyway. The door opened for me and I tiptoed in, shushing Colin. The first time we had snuck in here, I located a flashlight by the kitchen sink. This time I left it by the door so I could grab onto it easily. The electricity had been shut off and I didn't want to walk around in an unfamiliar dark house. I knew from the first time I was in here that the living room was entirely trashed and that was something I hoped to walk through safely.

"Check the bedrooms out?" I asked Colin.

"Yeah but then I need to go home," Colin reminded me. We were cutting it close to breaking his curfew. Only one hour left and if he didn't make it home by 11:00 sharp he'd be in deep shit. As much as Colin griping about being grounded forever would be entertaining, he was doing me a favor so I couldn't let him go down for being out too late. I hummed softly as I swung each bedroom door open and shined the light in. Each room was only filled with abandoned furniture and vacant otherwise. Valerie wasn't here.

"This is bullshit," I muttered. Colin pulled the flash light from my hand so I let my grip on it go.

"Got an idea. Is there anyway you could track her cell phone?" Colin asked.

"I probably could... but she left it at your house," I admitted.

"Well that doesn't do us any good. Maybe we can go back and get it? See if she told someone where she was going?" Colin suggested, twirling the flashlight around.

I pressed my back to the hall in the hallway, heaving a loud sigh. I leaned forward, resting my hands on my knees. This really was bullshit. I'd never been frustrated in my whole stupid life. "Nope. She cleared everything from that phone before she left." Colin laughed for a moment. I'm glad this is funny. I'm not amused.

"She would delete the contents of her phone. Wouldn't she?" Colin said, with great sarcasm. He paced back and forth through the hallway with the flashlight before his face turned pale and he entirely froze. "She was here," he said, making a hand motion that indicated I should come check out her bedroom. As I peered through the doorway, I noticed two bags sitting on her old bed that weren't there before. As I crept towards them, I knew they were the bags she had used to pack all of her clothes. I scattered over to her closet, sliding it open. Where was she hiding? Was she still here?