ONE LASTING NIGHT

two: girl gone wild

"Em,"  I rolled over, still half asleep.  "Em."  I groaned.  I sat up and leaned over to my nightstand, turning on the light.  "Ow!"  I hissed at the change of light.  I had to blink a few times before focusing, and then looking around the room.  "Em?"  I whispered, making sure not to yell.  I got out of bed and walked downstairs, deciding to ignore the fact that my best friend was missing.

She could have just gone home?

On my way to the kitchen, I walked past my moms room.  It was dark, but I couldn't make out a body.  I peeked my way in, just to find out my mom was missing, too.

"'What the.."  I mumbled slowly as I backed up in fear.  Taking no second to think about any logical answers, I ran upstairs and picked up the phone, immediately dialing my mom.

"Pick up, pick up!"  I frantically mumbled.  Once the call went to voicemail, I called Emily, who also did not answer.  Not knowing what to do, I called the only other person I knew.

I paced back and forth in my room, thinking about what was happening.

The one and only, AspenBeckett.

"Hey, Flo!  You know, I-I can't really talk right now."  A voice spoke over the phone.

"What?"  I said, confused.  "Pen, it's 2am, what else are you doing besides sleeping or talking to me?"

Me and Aspen have been friends since Preschool.  We met on the first day, and we immediately clicked.  Probably around 2nd grade, I started to develop a crush on her.  It hasn't gone away since.

"Okay, yeah.  What do you need?"  Aspen sighed from the other side of the phone.

"Have you seen Emily?"  I asked her, nervously biting my nails.

She paused.  "Emily?  Weren't y'all having a sleepover?"

"Yeah, we were!"  I yelled.  I raised my arms in frustration, even though nobody could see it.  "But now both her and my mom are missing."

Someone moving could be heard over the phone, although it seemed like I only heard it.  It was odd, but it was also late, so maybe I was just hearing things?

"Flo, I don't mean to scare you, but my parents are gone too."

My heart skipped a beat as she began to talk.

"I woke up and had to grab something out of their room but when I walked in, they weren't there!"  Her voice slowly picked up pace as she talked, showing how panicky she was getting.  Showing how real this was.

I put down my phone and slowly let my eyes take in my room.  Everything from the little coat rack by my door to my salt lamp on my dresser, which I had just turned on moments prior.

I froze.  Am I hallucinating?  Dreaming?

My eyes landed on a crumpled up piece of paper that I am almost sure wasn't there when Emily and I went to bed.  I got up from the bed and walked over to the table which held the paper.  I picked it up, internally gasping at what I read.

"Hey, Aspen?"

"Yeah?"  A muffled voice called from the other side of the phone call.

"I just found an SOS note.  It's in Emily's handwriting."

The phone hung up, so I assumed that meant Aspen was coming over here.  I froze.

Oh my gosh, Aspen is coming over here!

—
   
Aspen and I sat on my floor, attempting to analyze the piece of paper.

"Did you call your parents?"  I asked Aspen, looking up from the paper to look at her.

"Yes, of course, it was the first thing I did.l  She replied.  Yeah, Okay, it was a stupid question, but I don't know what else to do.

"No answer?"

"None at all."

I sighed, bringing the paper closer to my face.  What I saw caught my attention, and apparently my face caught Aspens.

"What?"  She eagerly questioned.  I moved closer to her and brought the paper up between us.  I lifted the paper in the air, just enough so it hit the light, and so it revealed something.

Aspen laughed,  "No way Emily did that."

I looked at her,  "I taught her this trick in Elementary, I used it for test answers."  I paused,  "I still do."

"Of course you do."

I squinted my eyes, carefully reading the note and studying every corner of it.  Finally, after what seemed like hours, I caught something.  I grabbed Aspen and stood up, immediately dragging him outside.

"Where are we going?"  She questioned.  I looked at her, then back down at our hands.  A hot feeling rises in my cheeks as I quickly unclasp our hands.

"Well,"  I awkwardly cleared my throat.  "You know that abandoned hospital?  It's somewhere downtown, near that drug store."

"Yes, I do.. No thanks to your description skills."  Aspen joked.  I lightly hit her before I continued talking.  "That's where she is."

Aspen, who really didn't understand, just nodded so the conversation could end.  It was a comfortable silence as we started walking, we both had a lot on our minds, and we both just needed a second.