The Cracks in Perfection

The Dark in the Night

Chapter 31

Morgan

After Seth left, I noticed that the jeep was already in the driveway, meaning Mallory had arrived home before me. When I went inside, the house was chaotic.

"Morgan!" Mallory ran towards me, still in her prom dress. Her hair was no longer pinned perfectly to the side, instead it was now in a high pony tail, her blonde curls spiraling out of the back of her head.

"What's going on?"

"We've checked everywhere, the whole house, the garage. Parker's missing." My heart fell to my feet and I put a hand to my stomach to make sure the food that was in there stayed there.

"What?" I asked, my mind reeling. No, how could he be missing?

"His bike isn't in the shed either, Morgan what are we going to do?" Mallory was crying and I pulled her towards me. Charlotte paced into the room while on the phone.

"The police are already out there... if you must... we don't have much space left...whatever Hank, our son is missing... alright." She sighed and hung up the phone.

"Mallory, your father is coming to look for him." Charlotte didn't look much better than Mallory did. Her face was long and her eyes were red and puffy. I pulled her into a hug.

"Can Morgan and I go out looking for him?" Mallory asked pleadingly.

"The police said to stay at home in case he comes back," Charlotte replied solemnly.

"Graham and Mia can stay here, the more people out looking for him the better!" Mallory stormed out of the house. I followed with the keys in my hand. She was sitting in the driver's seat already, so I gave them to her after getting into the passenger's side.

"Crap, what was he thinking? He could get kidnapped! Or hurt!" She slammed the steering wheel three times and went silent. The car was running, but she didn't move to start driving.

Finally my sister sighed and then backed the car out of the driveway. I stayed silent.

***

"Is Parker here?" I asked through small sobs the minute the door opened. After spending about twenty minutes slowly driving through our neighborhood, Mallory and I started coming up with places Parker might have run off to. After almost an hour of searching, it was beginning to seem futile and I couldn't hold my tears back. Mallory had stayed silent while I cried and she drove to the one house we had left to search.

"No, what happened?" Seth's face fell immediately. He was still in his tux.

"He ran away, and we have no idea where he went. The police are searching and we've been going through town. They told us not to, that they'd handle it, but he's out there all alone and I thought maybe he liked it here, so maybe he came here and I just don't know what he was thinking-" I stopped with a sob because I knew I was rambling and Seth stepped forward to wrap his arms around me for a hug.

"I'll come look too, okay?" I nodded and stepped outside while he ran in quickly and came out with his car keys.

I told Mallory that I'd go with Seth and that she should check around the park. We hadn't gotten to that part of town yet.

"Where should we go?" Seth asked once we were in his car.

"Mallory and I checked most of this side of town and I just told her we'd check his school."

"Okay, same school as Liz right?" I nodded and we drove there in silence. He kept the speed at 20 miles per hour, just in case we saw him biking on the side of the road or anything. When we got there, I got out of the car.