He had gone back to the store a thousand times. The parking lot was always empty. The store was in a small town. Really small, actually. The convenience store was the only place you could get food within a 10 mile radius, but that didn't change the fact that it was almost always deserted. It took its home next to a few acres of forest, and then the road wound its way up to a small downtown center. The sleepy town had an unspoken curfew of approximately 9PM, though no one cared to admit it.
He had developed a routine of showing up at about midnight each night. He didn't stay long, because he needed to sleep for school the next day. He would've been up past midnight anyways. More than he cared to admit it, he played their conversation over in his mind when he paced the empty parking lot. If anyone drove up, he would leave, for fear of them thinking he was a 'loitering teenager up to no good'. She didn't seem to mind, though. It seemed pretty pointless. He was beginning to think it was all just a dream, but he came anyway.
One day, a rotten Tuesday of some sort, he pulled up as usual. There was no human in sight. But, when he made his way to the back corner of the lot, he noticed a large stone. Underneath the stone was a newspaper article that had been clipped from several weeks ago.
15 YEAR OLD GIRL MISSING: LAST SEEN EVENING OF MARCH 12
His heart pounded. It was her. She was missing. Her name was Ryn.
He skimmed briefly through the rest of it. He turned it over.
2 words, written in sharpie:
FIND ME
and a smiley face.
