Ivana

Part VI

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Dear Jenna,

I met someone today. I was finally able to confide in someone other than you. I decided to give it a try after talking to him. Good-bye.

Yours truly,
Raysa

I let my eyes scan the crumpled piece of paper for the fifth time. It wasn't making any sense. All I could grasp from the situation was that Raysa had been writing letters to someone named Jenna for about three months now.

I glanced at the diary on the table to my right. I recalled all that I'd read in the last three hours and sighed. Three agonizing hours of hearing her cry her heart out for her sister.

Ivana shifted next to me on the bed, snuggling further into the pillow and mumbling her sister's name for the seventh time that night. I eased back onto the headboard, thinking about a million possibilities of Raysa's whereabouts, sipping my freshly brewed cup of tea. 

Raysa was suffering from depression. And a hell lot of it. John, their father, would drop her at school early in the morning and she'd take the bus back home. She had a habit of stopping at the central library before returning home at around seven in the evening. She wrote to that woman or man everyday about her deepest, darkest fears. She'd rewrite the contents of the letter in her diary every night, or maybe the other way around and then post it the next morning. 

I almost fell off from the bed in fright when I heard shuffling to my right. I let out a relieved sigh when I saw that it was Jordan. He gave me a brief glance before he started flipping through the diary with a frown on his face. 

I resumed my thoughts, only to be interrupted by Jordan muttering profanities under his breath. I couldn't blame him though, I almost had the same reaction.  

"She's fucking suicidal." He muttered, finally putting it back on the table and pushing it a bit away from him, for safety measures. I sighed dejectedly.

"I can't get any idea as to where she might be." I muttered, frustrated, and set the now empty cup beside the diary. Jordan threw a puzzled look at me. "That's what the detectives are for man." I gave him a flat look. I wanted to help them as much as I could. I shifted in my position and went through all the facts again.

Today had been the same. But the only difference was that the contents of the letter had changed. And so had the length. While all the previous ones were long and she'd poured out all her feelings in them, the last one was brief. To the point. She'd found someone else to share her feelings with and swiftly cut off all her ties with Jenna. But ending a relationship after pouring her heart out to someone for months in such a manner, at such a young age, was what terrified me.  It made my earlier assumption all the more wrong. 

And the lack of Jenna's address wasn't helping either.

"Anything new?" I questioned. But a shake of his head was all I got in return. They'd been at it for hours now; scouting the area and trying to track down her address. I stood up from the edge of the bed and stretched. My muscles ached and I wanted nothing more than to lie down on the bed and drift off into slumber. But then my gaze landed on Ivana and I realized that few of the coming nights would be the same. With a shake of my head, I made my way out of the room and was immediately greeted by the grim faces of John and Mr. Winslow, a close friend of John and also the detective in charge of the case. 

They glanced at me in surprise and I offered them a tiny smile. 

"Didn't sleep, kid?" John asked, raising a blonde eyebrow at me. I merely shook my head, taking a seat beside them on the couch.

The ringtone of my phone broke the silence that was starting to get on my nerves. I hastily picked it up, surprised upon seeing that it was my mother. I had told her that I'd be a bit late.

"Did something happen?" I questioned right away after picking the call. I heard her sigh at the other end of the phone. "She was here-" I almost stopped breathing,"-wasn't she?"

"Yeah," I replied running a hand through my blonde strands, messing them up a bit more,"yeah." I didn't want to tell her, but I had to say it. "Aunt called." I heard her sigh again and I wondered for the thousandth time how much more of this could mother take. There was always a limit for everything, and Aunt was very close to reaching hers.

"I'll handle it." She replied, and I imagined her pinching the bridge of her nose, stressed out. "Okay," I replied quietly, exhaling through my mouth.

I was pretty sure that this much of stress was not healthy for an eighteen year old kid.

Mr Winslow got a call a moment later, and promptly went out of the room with John right behind him.

"Okay honey," came mother's voice from the other end of the line,"Be safe and sleep tight."

"Hmm," I nodded absentmindedly, watching as a small figure wrapped up in blankets appeared from the room and started walking towards me. Then it stopped midway, as if debating over what to do, and finally settled for leaning against the doorway.

I smiled at her and shook my head as she scrunched her nose up in an entirely lovable manner and rubbed her eyes. "You too, ma." I mumbled, feeling a bit lighter than before, before ending the call.

I leaned back against the couch, making myself comfortable as Ivana shifted in her place, crossing her arms and clutching the blankets in one of her hands.

The next few minutes were blissful to say the least. We just stared at each other, with me feeling content just being in her presence.

Then she blinked.

Ivana's eyes widened a bit as it finally registered to her that I had been talking to my mother.

"Apologize to her for me?" She grimaced."Or better yet, I'll do it the next time I see her." She nodded to herself after a moment, as if deciding that that was the best thing to do. I merely hummed in return, closing my eyes. God, her voice was soothing.

"Cody?" She called out tentatively after a minute of, no doubt, staring at me and I resisted the urge to shiver as I felt her eyes on me. I opened one eye, waiting for her to speak. "You okay?" She asked.

I cracked a smile at her,"I should be the one asking you that." She gave me a small smile in return, shaking her head.

"If you guys are done then excuse me while I go try to obliviate this part from my mind." Jordan snapped, appearing from behind Ivana," Forever." He finished, giving me a half-hearted glare.

But before I could throw a retort at him, frantic shouts coming from the outside made the three of us glance at each other and run towards the front door.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. I was right about my initial assumption being wrong.

Raysa wasn't kidnapped, she'd run away.

But something at the back of my mind told me that there was a lot more to this.

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