The Night He Went Missing

The Night He Went Missing (Excerpt)- Short Story

Okay guys, I'm not sure if I'm really going to make this book so I'm writing this little excerpt kind of thing first to see if you'll like it. Vote and comment of what you think. (It could become my first work if you like it!)

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I remember the night he went missing. The nightmares were coming back and I had trouble sleeping. It was following me again. The beast. It’s back. I couldn’t escape its grasp. I was trapped in a continuous cycle with no possible way out. Before I knew it, he was gone with the screams I woke to, for what I thought was forever.

It was the day of the midsummer festival. Tourists were everywhere and once again, I felt alone. The crowds were getting bigger by the minute and in a flash, I was in the middle of chaos. I only had one job for the night. I was assigned to manage the food and drink stall with Kelsey, who by the way was nowhere in sight.  I did my job absent-mindedly, recklessly spilling drinks every minute or so.

 My eyes wandered. In the distance, I could see a mother getting angry at her 5 year-old son. There was constant bickering coming from a couple, who, from what I could see were about to break up. That was when I saw him. He was standing there, looking right back at me. I could not believe what I had just seen. What were the possibilities that he would appear here, the place where I last saw him exactly a year after he had magically disappeared? I felt tense as he smiled and walked nearer. I felt as if my heart stopped beating and my breath came in shallow gasps.

He drew nearer and the feeling of ecstasy changed into dread and uneasiness. What if it was really him? What if it wasn’t him? I would definitely feel embarrassed. I was …... confused. I was about to call him but stopped myself at the last second. Before I knew it, he was standing right in front of me.  I was speechless. All I did was stare into his deep green eyes and that was when it all rushed back to me.

“If you’re just going to stand there all night, why’d you come?”  He cocked an eyebrow. “I’m Allison. Wanna dance?” she asked him with a big grin on her face. It was the night of Founder’s Day Ball and the night was coming to an end.

He inclined his head. “Darren. I’ve never met you…” he had a mysterious way of confirming his statement. She took his hand in hers and pulled him onto the dance floor. His face betrayed a hint of amusement. He had never met a girl as straightforward as she. And he liked it. They waltzed with such grace that everyone stared at them in awe. When the song ended, the magic died and she suddenly felt self-conscious. He looked into her eyes but stood without emotion.

What he didn’t know was that she developed a new understanding of herself, forever founded and never lost, ever.

“Helloo…?” I blinked and everything snapped back to focus. The clarity stunned me and for a moment, I squinted. “Hello? Excuse me? May I have a glass of lemonade?”

A blond haired boy, about twelve, was standing right in front of me. He looked at me like I was crazy. I lazily said, “Here you go, sorry for the inconvenience.” I forced a smile. “That would be a dollar.” He handed me the money and abruptly left, feeling satisfied.

I knew he was here. I saw him with my own two eyes. How could he have disappeared? Darren. From the first day I met him on that dance floor, I was enchanted. He was… different. I opened a side of him no one ever came to know about. Until the day he betrayed me and vanished with the wind leaving the stars overlooking the empty street.

If only he knew how much it hurt me. I didn’t think he was capable of making that much pain. It pains me not to know the truth about why or how he left. That made me thinking. How did he really leave that night? I always thought that he left because he never cared. But now that I thought about it, there is no concrete reason to all of his doing.  So I was determined to find out the truth in all of this.

That statement consumed my mind. Every time I tried to distract myself, I find myself thinking about him again. No matter what I do, he’s always there, in my mind, haunting me. I walked around all day like a zombie, doing everything for the sake of it. By the time night came, I was restless. So all I did was lie down for a moment before falling into a deep, deep sleep.  That was where he haunted me for the second time, in my dreams.

My mind was full of puzzle pieces.  I was standing in a blank white room and puzzle pieces were everywhere; on the ceiling, the floor, my left, right. Each puzzle piece showed me a vision with him. There was one of Darren and me the day after we met. I was standing in the sidewalk waving at him while he was boarding the bus. Another showed us together in the benches, sitting side by side on our first picnic together in Wellington Square. He was laughing. I remember that day. That was when he first opened up to me. There was also a piece showing the day his pet Labrador died; the first time he showed me he was indeed capable of breaking down. All thoughts like those scattered amongst the walls of the room.

I carefully looked at each piece, admiring it carefully. All those times were the best of the nineteen years of my life, when I felt the most alive. It almost made me feel lucky that I had introduced myself to him when I first arrived in town. Oh how those moments passed. It made me wonder why he left without saying goodbye. What was so important that he wanted to hurt me so badly?

I quickly shook off that feeling. This was a good dream, where I was supposed to relive all those beautiful memories that have passed me by. But I was wrong. It came again. It started with a hiss.

Allisssssonnnnn….. Allissssssonnnnnnn. It started from the middle. The black hole erupted and it came back once again. Heeee is doooomedforeverrrrrrr. Annnd there is nothing you can do to ssssssstopittttt… It smiled and cackled with amusement.

The creature was 6 feet long and was shaped like a dragon. On its head were two large horns, almost covering the sight of its pointy-shaped ears.  It had human sized teeth, only sharper. It could slice a cow in two, I thought. It had scaly skin and claws instead of hands. And its tail was covered in spikes, each one longer nearer to the tip. It scared the hell out of me.

I covered my face for I knew what would happen next; the pit where I would fall into. But I was wrong again. For in the place of that pit was a vision. A vision far worse than any pit could be, it was a vision of Darren. He was lying on a concrete pavement, lying dead. Blood was dripping from his stomach and his green eyes were now a deep blue. Across him, a girl was crying, her hands covering her weeping face. When I looked closer, that was when I realized, that girl was…me.

I screamed. It wasn’t just a scream; it was an ear piercing, and glass shattering scream. Although I woke to the day, I was scared. I dressed up quickly and went to his old apartment since he had no family. I knocked on the door. A brunette answered the door. She had dark makeup on her face and was holding a bottle of liquor in one hand. She was drunk. 

“May I help you?” she asked me with a slight look of confusion on her face. She struggled to stand upright. 

“Ummm…” I was speechless. What could I say to ask her about a boy who lived here a year ago?

“Yess?” she asked impatiently.

“Do you know a guy named Darren? He lived here a year ago…” I was unsure of what else to say.

“Nope, I never heard of him. I just moved here. Bye.” She slammed the door on my face.

Now what? I thought as I walked down the street that leads back home. He’s gone, and I’m stuck. I don’t know what happened to him, or what I can do to find the truth. What really happened to him?

I cherish the fact that I once had him but terrified that he appeared later, only so many days after I promised myself that I stopped caring.I didn’t want to find out, or do i? If I do and I find out he’s dead, I’ll be heartbroken and will regret that I didn’t make him stop going. And if I don’t, this question will linger, haunt me, and make me feel uneasy for the rest of my life.

Now, I will be haunted with this feeling of insecurity for the rest of my life. Is he really dead? Many people will think that it’s a love story going on, but it isn’t. It’s a mystery. And maybe one day I’ll be the one to solve it.

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So what do you think? Please vote if you think I should make a book based on this and comment about what you'd like it to be like :)