By Chance

ch 24 part 2

Raven

I sitting on our couch watching TV after school. Bethany comes through the front door and walks to the kitchen. I hear the refrigerator door open and close. She walks back to the living room, sinking into the seat beside me. She sighs. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Nothing, just a boring school day." She says frowning. "What are we watching?" She asks. I change the channel. "Nothing just seeing what's on." I say. She nods looking out the window. She seems distant. The situation clicks. This is the day before she goes missing. I've said all this before. We've acted this out before. I try to open my mouth to say something but it's like it's glued shut. "I'm going to my room." She says getting. I nod unwillingly. She walks up the stairs. I'm screaming mentally helplessly trying to stand and beg her to do something different. To be careful or not go to school. Anything to prevent the enviable. Then the scene goes black. I try to stop it to warn or anything thing but it doesn't work. The last thing I hear it the sound of her bedroom door shutting.

I'm sobbing by the time I realize it's over. The dream, the memories. Gone. I sit up in the darkness with my head in my hands. I should of done something. The way she was acting wasn't right. She loved school. I should of asked more question instead of letting her go upstairs. Maybe I could of done something. Hot tears run down my face. I try to muffle the sounds with my hand so I don't wake up Gabriel. I look at the clock. 5:47. I wipe my eyes and sigh. 

Its to late to go back to sleep I might as well get up. Slowly I get up swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, cringing when i makes a loud creaking sound. I walk quietly to the doorway. I freeze when Gabriel shifts to face the other way. He stays still. I sigh relieved. I walk down the stairs, making sure not to put to much weight on one foot so the steps don't make noise. I walk into the kitchen stumbling around until I remember that there's a light switch on the right wall. My toes curl at the coldness of the tile. I notice a bright yellow note stuck to the fridge.

Dear Gabriel,

       I've left for California, I'll be back in three weeks at the least. You know the  credit card number, so use that. Your 'friend' can stay as long as she needs so don't worry about that, shes a very nice girl.

                                                                                                                                                 Love,

                                                                                                                                                          Mom

I smile at the last sentence. I walk into the living room thankful for the carpet. I grab my phone off the coffee table. I slid my finger across the screen unlocking it. 1 new message. I tap it. An unknown pops up, below it says 'next time you wont be so lucky'. I swallow hard and turn it off, setting it back down. 

"What'd it say?" I spin around. Gabriel stands behind me. I glare at him. "Seriously, you didn't have to scare me." I say frowning. he shrugs. "I thought you'd hear me coming." he says. I roll my eyes. "Your kidding right, your the most silence person I know. how could expect someone to hear you." I say walking into the kitchen. he follows. "Sorry. I didn't think it would scare you." He says. I walk quickly across the floor hoping into the bar stool, trying to avoid as much contact with the floor as possible. "Circling back to the first question before you freaked out, what did the text say?" he asks walking around the island, leaning on it and facing me. I bite my lip meeting his gaze. "Nothing." I say quickly looking away. He hands out a hand turning my face forcing me to look at him. "It was something." He says frowning. I sigh. "It said next time i wouldn't be so lucky." I say looking down at the counter top. he glares at the wall behind me. "Its the gang that kidnapped Bethany. How did they get your number?" he asks. I shrug. "Its not like I keep it secret. a lot of people know my phone number, it could be anyone." I say finally looking up at him. His electric green eyes meeting mine. 

"I'm scared." I blurt out. "I'm scared that they're right. that next time I won't be so lucky and they get me." I whisper. "I'm scared we wont be able to find Bethany, that we're just going in circles looking for clues that aren't there." "You have nothing to worry about." he says wiping a tear that falls down my cheek. "We'll find her, were almost there. And you have nothing to worry about, I wont let them get you. Your safe." he says. I realize how close we are. I think he realizes it too, but neither of us makes a move away. He leans in slowly, and kisses me hesitantly. When he pulls away, worry fills his eyes. But I smile. His worried look disappears and is replaced by a smile. 

"Come on love birds lets go." I jolt away looking at the doorway. Cole's standing there with an arrogant smirk planted on his face. I glare at him which just make his smile wider. "Ever hear of knocking genius." Gabriel says leaning off the counter and standing at full height. Cole shrugs and walks furthering into the kitchen. "So I went through the footage we found yesterday, and it turns out that we found a girl but the mega pixels are so bad that we cant see her face very clearly, most likely its Bethany but we don't know. I'll explain more when we get there, com on." He says walking out the front door not waiting for us to follow him. Its tempting to just stay here and see how long it takes him to realize that we're not following him, but I'm to excited to see the cameras. I smile, trying to suppress the  hope exploding in my head. Calm down Raven, he said it might not be her. But he said he was pretty sure. I walk out to the car with Gabriel following close behind both of us smiling.