Forgotten (original version)

Chapter 3

I couldn't focus at all at school. My mind kept going back to the fact that my dad is dead. My mind wouldn't wrap around it.

"Luciana!" The teacher calls. Uh oh.

"Um, yea?" I asked him.

"What is the answer to this question?"

"I don't know, sir." I responded. I feel bad that I can't focus.

"See me after class, will you?" I sigh. Just what I need right now.

"Is everything okay at home?" He asks me after class is done. I shrug.

"Ok. If you aren't gonna talk to me I'm gonna have no choice but call the social security workers."

"Why would you need to do that?"

"Ms. Amunet, I've heard word that your dad has been physically abusing you." my heart stops. How could he possibly know that?

"W-who told you that?" I wonder.

"I've been told not to say." Great. "I'm gonna ask one more time. Are things ok at home or do I need to call authorities?"

"Well now that my dad's dead I don't see why you would need to do that." I stand up and storm out of the room. My whole body shakes with anger. I think I know who told him.

"Dani what the heck?! Why would you tell Mr. Reynolds about my dad?"

"I never said anything!" She remarks. Of course she would say that.

"Oh yeah? Prove it." She stands there with a look of betrayal in her eyes. "That's what I thought." I turn around and run home. I don't care that school isn't over yet.

I collapse on my bed and cry until my eyes are dry and I can no longer breathe. I start coughing and search for my inhaler.

"Come on, where is it?!" I ask myself, frantically searching for it. I searched everywhere. But it's like it disappeared. It was so stupid of me to come home alone.

"Luciana? Why did you come home so soon?" I hear my brother call from the door. He must've followed me. Thank the Lord.

I stumble into the room in a coughing fit, and Harry stares at me wide eyed. He leads me to the couch and brings me my inhaler.

"You dropped it when you were running out of school." He tells me. Of course I did. "This is why you can't be alone! What if I didn't follow you back?!"

"I'm sorry! I just- couldn't stay there."

"Me neither . . ." He admitted. "But we can't let mom see us like this. We need to be strong."

"Yea . . ." I mutter. I get so tired of pretending to be strong.

"Wanna go to the library?" He asks. My face lights up.

"Duh!" I jump off of the couch and drag Harry with me. Together we bolt out the door and run to the library, laughing as people stare at us like lunatics.

"Oh my gosh, you have to read Twilight!" I say with a grin on my face.

"Ehhhhh." He says, unsure. "What about sci-fi books?"

"Oh so you're into those kinda things." I tease. "If you're looking for sci-fi I recommend Dune by Frank Herbert. It's a good one." I recommend to him.

"Great." he says before he heads toward the sci-fi section. I know he doesn't really like reading. He's just trying to get my mind off of everything.

Before I can even pick out a book, everyone's phones in the entire library go off. I check my phone and gasp at what I see.

AMBER alert

Salem, OR AMBER alert

LIC/ Black Subaru

October 12, 4:13 PM

No one seems to care. They simply put their phone down and go back to reading. I, however, have a horrible feeling in my gut. I ran to find Harry.

"Did you see the AMBER alert?" I ask him.

"I did. I'm sure everything is fine." He assures me. But I shake my head. Something is off.

"Ok well, why don't we go back to reading, ok? I'll come with you. Everything is ok, Luciana. You don't need to worry."

I nod slowly. Why doesn't he get it? Something is very wrong. But maybe he's right. I'm probably being paranoid.

We go back to the romance section together. But I don't feel like reading right now. Instead, I pull my laptop out of my backpack and write a short story.

You know the feeling you get when you know something is wrong? I know it all too well. The sharp feeling you get in the pit of your stomach. And the spinning of your head. And the tingling in the end of your fingertips. If you can't relate you're lucky. You've never feared for your life. Or worried that one of your loved ones is dead, or hurt. You've never worried that everything and everyone you love is about to be ripped away from you. You've never experienced what it feels like to die but stay alive all at once. You don't know what it feels like to want to die, then feel guilty for thinking it. I hope that you've never felt this before. Because I certainly have.

Harry reads over my shoulder and shakes his head.

"I don't know how you can deal with so much alone." He admits. He was never good at hiding his feelings.

"Fine. We can go see if something is wrong." As soon as he said that, I jumped up and ran out of the library. Ignoring everyone telling me not to run in the library.

I run through the front door and ask Mom if she knows who got kidnapped.

"I don't know sweetie. Why?" She wondered. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I just got this weird feeling." She admits.

"I told you." Harry says from the doorway. "Everything is fine." The feeling still hasn't gone away though. It feels like when you know what you're trying to say but the words don't come out right. Or you're trying to think of a word and it's right there. Just out of your grasp.

"I guess so." I mumble. "Sorry I made you run all the way back here, Harry." I told him before I walked silently to my room. I close the door gently behind me, and fall to the ground. Why was I taking this death so hard? And then I realized.

"I have so many good memories with him." I whisper to myself. When I was six, I remember him pushing me on the swings, and dancing in my room way past my bedtime with him. I remember playing board games with him. He would let me win every time. I remember him squeezing me until I stopped crying the day after our dog died, and I remember the way he would tuck me every night and say, "I love you my little Snow White." before I fell asleep. That must've been months before Voletta died.

I pull myself off of the floor and force myself to do my homework.

"I have to be brave for mom." I remind myself.

I pull out my homework and start with English. The assignment is to write a short story about something that has happened to you.

This'll be easy. I think. And it was. I finish it within ten minutes and then pull out my algebra homework. As soon as I pull it out my phone goes off. I pick up the phone and it says:

AMBER alert

Salem, OR AMBER alert

LIC/ Unknown

October 12, 5:01 PM

I put my phone down and remind myself not to be paranoid.

"Luciana, come out here please." My mom calls. I do as she says and walk into the living room.

"What's up?" I ask. Her eyes are filled with tears.

"Dani has gone missing."