The Lost Girls

Chapter 9

I woke up at ten the next morning to the angry buzz of my phone under my pillow. Still half asleep, I cursed quietly to myself when my hand flew out clumsily and knocked it onto the floor. The buzzing continued louder against the hardwood, and I had to lean halfway out of my bed to fish it off the floor.

"Hello?"

"You beat up the town florist!" Heather barked in my ear, making me wince.

"That's not the whole story." I hedged, rubbing my eyes wearily. The light that came from behind my curtains was grey, telling me that the day was cloudy.

"Well you better tell me the whole story because you and Cristian are the talk of the town right now." She hissed in response. I could practically hear the steam coming from her ears through the phone.

"It's kind of a long story..."

"Good thing I'm on your doorstep." I could hear the icy smile in her voice. "If you don't come down in two minutes then I'm breaking in through the window."

The line went dead with her threat, and I sighed as I looked at my phone moodily. An angry Heather was never a good start to the morning.

I trudged down the stairs, wondering if she really would break the window, and peered down to see my beautiful best friend glaring at me through the glass. Her arms were crossed over her thin chest, and although I couldn't see her legs, I had a feeling a foot was tapping impatiently.

When I opened the door, she pushed past me before whirling around to glare some more at me.

"Spill." She commanded coldly, her chin lifted haughtily.

I sighed and obeyed. I told her about how I'd spent the day with Cristian, and how we'd ended up in the parking lot eating fast food. I explained the weird exchange with David Milne and the dark car, and how we'd followed both of them to the empty warehouse parking lot. Her face grew horrified as I told her about the kiddie porn, and how I'd flew over to him in a rage.

"Oh my gosh." She whispered when I fell silent.

"Yeah." I shuffled my feet awkwardly. It was weird recounting the events from the night before to her in the front hall of my house; it felt like I was telling someone else's story. The darkness from the previous night and all the pain and rage that had come with it felt alien in the bright hallway.

For once, Heather seemed to be at a loss for words. She stared at me with wide eyes, all of her anger and haughtiness draining out of her like water.

"Are you okay?" She asked me finally, her voice soft.

I nodded. She'd been asking me a lot lately. "Yeah, I'm fine. I barely got any hits in, but you should see Cristian. His knuckles were super bloody and cut up when I stopped him."

Heather looked queasy at the thought. "I think I'll pass, thanks." She hesitated. "But are you sure? That must have been a lot to go through, I can't even imagine it."

I shrugged, my eyes sliding away as I remembered the raw rage that had pulsed behind my eyes after I saw the picture. The disappointment when I found out Milne couldn't have taken the girls had been even worse. "I'll live." I said simply.

Heather stared at me for another moment before striding away from me, tossing her long golden hair out of her face before pacing back. "What's going on, Zoe?" She asked, her eyes piercing deep into mine.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that everything's been going to hell lately." She replied. Her face looked strained. "First that Casey girl, then Amanda's cousin, and now...." Her hands had been gesticulating wildly, but she seemed to deflate as she processed what had happened to Cristian and I.