Demi.
"C'mon baby, don't be scared."
Jessica's beautiful voice echoed throughout the rose maze. She had ran ahead of me and disappeared in the confusion.
"Jess, honey, what if we get lost?"
I whined and I heard her chuckle travel with the wind and surround me. I tried to follow the sound of her voice but it seemed to only lead me to dead ends.
"Babe, where are you?"
I asked as I spun in confusion. Every path seemed identical to the other. I caught glimpse of what I assumed to be her body, scurrying through the maze.
"I'm right here sweetheart."
Once again, her voice travelled with the wind and I frantically tried to catch up with her.
"But I can't find you. Wait for me."
I yelled, and I only heard the echoes of my own voice. I started to panic as the maze seemed to get darker and more deserted with each passing second. I started running until I heard her yelling for me.
"Demi?..."
"I'm coming baby. Just tell me where you are."
"Demi? I need you."
Her voice was a lot more worried and that got my heart racing even more. Cold sweat covered my body as I weaved my way through the maze. I don't know how it happened but I tripped over my own feet. The darkness closing in as I lay there on the cold ground. The more I tried to get up, the heavier my body felt.
"Demi, help me please."
Cold sweat covered my body as I woke up from my nightmare. I haven't had much sleep since she disappeared and if, by any chance, my eyes would shut, I would wake up in hysteria.
I hopped out of bed and made my way downstairs just as I did on every other night. At this point, it was routine. I got myself some warm milk and popcorn and sat around the kitchen island. After nine months, you would think it'd be easier to live without her but the only thing that got easier was me attempting to cook for myself. Each day it became harder to accept the fact that I might have to move on, that there's a greater possibility that she's not coming back and that I'd have to carry on alone.
The cops had considered this a cold case about two months ago. They virtually gave up after the information Jess gave on the call yielded no results. They even tried to convince me that it was all apart of my desperate imagination but I know that it happened. When I heard her voice, everything was right in my world for those 47 seconds. My imagination would never play such a cruel joke on my heart.
The official start of my day was punctuated by my phone alarm going off. Today was extra special since it was Jasmine's 19th birthday. She was the one most affected by the entire situation. Gone was the outspoken, sarcastic and feisty Jasmine I had grown to love. Instead, a quiet, withdrawn soul inhabited her body. All she ever did nowadays was write and lock herself in Jessica's old room with Izzy. Susan wasn't taking things too well either. She worried so much and lost so much weight she ended up in the hospital too many times to count and she was hopped up on so many prescription medications, she hardly ever reacted to anything.
We were supposed to meet later on for Jasmine's birthday dinner. I was anxious thinking about her gift. It was initially from Jessica. She had made a down payment on it a little before she disappeared. Jasmine had been ranting about that X6 ever since she first saw the commercial and she was determined to get it for her. I had finished paying for it and it was all ready for Jasmine.
