|Mianite| The Missing Woman

[Chapter 50] (Declan's PoV)

[Author's Note]

The last chapter got such a great reception that I decided to publish this chapter a few hours early. I love reading your comments so much, and even if I don't reply you should all know that they make me smile like complete idiot, so thank you all! I always love hearing what you have to say.

[Declan's Perspective]

I awoke to a chilling silence.

"Alva?" I called out hesitantly. Unable to see in the almost absolute darkness, I felt the bed beside me. I could not hear her breathing and felt no one beside me.

I sat up and turned on the lamp, looking to where I knew she had fallen asleep.

No one was there.

I went to nervously scratch my arm as I had been doing since I met her and found that it no longer stung to touch. Eyes wide, I rolled up my sleves to look.

My skin was returning to a healthier color and there were no longer scars running from my shoulders to my wrists.

"She will never love you back if I make you hideous," Mianite's words echoed through my mind.

Alva.

She was gone. She was not in bed where she had been when I fell asleep.

My arms were healing and I did not have nightmares when I slept. He had found another way to get to her. This was an exact repeate of what had happened when the taint nearly killed her.

But it could not be that this time; all of the taint had slowly died out after Ianite had gone.

Mianite had found someone else to kill her.

It was the only explination that made any sence. I grabbed my coat and ran for the door as I pulled it over my arms.

Alister was back, and he seemed friendly with Alva. Perhaps she trusted him. I should have known better than to leave them alone together; it had only made her trust him even more.

But had he not gone missing in The Nether looking for Guard Tom?

I ran through my house, calling out her name. None of the lights were on in other rooms and she did not answer.

I stepped out the front door into the chilling night air.

"Alva?!" I was growing frantic. From my front step I could see that lights were on at Tucker's, Jordan's, and James' houses. Tucker was the closest to me and the least likely to slam the door in my face when he saw it was me, so I ran towards it as quickly as I could.

The only thought that ran through my mind was that I had let Alva die. She had been taken right out from under my nose. Alva died on my watch.

I could never forgive myself.

How could Mianite do this to her? To us?

How could a girl that had been dead for ten years be so important to him? Be such a big threat?

She was dead.

And it was my fault.

"Alva?!" I called out again at the top of my lunges as I entered the courtyard. I banged on the front door, waiting for someone to answer it. "Tucker?! Tucker, is Alva here?! Please, open the door!"

After what felt like hours of banging on the door I finally heard footsteps come downstairs. When the doors opened I was somewhat surprised to see Sonja behind them.

"What is it now?" She asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

"Have you seen Alva?" I asked her franticly.

"Alva?" She asked. "No, but Waglington was here earlier. I think Tucker left with him."

"But not Alva?" I asked, growing increasingly worried. "Why did they leave? Is something wrong?"

"Waglington seemed worried about something, but if Tucker honestly thought it was a problem he would have woken me up too," Sonja said reassuringly.

"But Alva is missing," I tried again. "She didn't wake me up or-"

Sonja cut me off. "Look Dec, I'm sure she's fine. Why do you think something happened to her?"

"I-I.. I just..." I didn't know how to explain to someone, who was still half asleep, that I was worried that my girlfriend was dead because my god, who had been tormenting me with a curse, suddenly lifted it just as she dissapeared from right under my nose.

"Go to sleep Declan," Sonja said, turning away, "it's late."

I ran back in the direction of my house. If Tucker had gone off with James then there was no reason to check his tower. There was only one visable room with a light on, and they were very clearly not in that room. And if they were in the basement, they wouldn't have heard my knocking.

So instead I ran towards Jordan's house. He was the last person in the area that might know where Alva was.

The only thing that kept me from breaking down in tears on the run over was the small hope that she might still be alive somewhere.

But Jordan did not answer his door. His lights were off and his front door was locked. I did not see anyone move through the windows.

I called for him and Alva before sitting down on his top step and crying.

It had been ages since I had allowed myself to cry like this. No one had let me while I was in training and I felt so unattached from anyone since then that I had never felt the need to. It felt cathartic.

I wipped my eyes and ran back towards my house.

"Alva?! Alva! Where are you?! Please, answer me!" I called her name again and again, and when I got back home my heart nearly stopped.

"Declan?!"