Absent

Sixteen

Kirstie's P.O.V
A month. Mitch had been gone a month and there was still no sign of him. I had looked everywhere. I even prayed with Avi's friend Kevin. But he was no where.

"Where the hell is he!?" I had screeched one time, throwing the closest throwable item, a stick Avi had been playing with, then set down, across the room.

Immediately, Avi stood and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close and I broke down.

"Why did this happen to Mitch? Why did he have to get kidnapped?" I grabbed fistfuls of Avi's purple shirt with a green Yoshi on the front, my head on his chest. He hugged me close and let me cry, kissing the top of my head.

"I don't know, beautiful, but we will find him, no matter how long it takes." He promised.

The days after turned to weeks, then months.

Nine months had passed and I sat at home, staring at the box I had wrapped for him. He was eighteen today. Was he even alive to celebrate? Did he even know?

I didn't leave my room. I didn't eat, didn't speak to anyone other than to an imagined Mitch. I saw him, in my mind's eye, sitting there, leaning back in my desk chair, complaining about how there were no cute boys, or that the cute ones were straight, or not his type, or complete and total Asshats.

"Happy birthday to you, Mitch, wherever you are. Know that I will never give up on you, not until I know what happened to you." I whispered as I fell asleep.

Two more months passed, and the news blew up.

"Local Arlington Officer, Joe Widla, has been found dead, after a reported beating and shooting. There was footage of this caught, though the faces are unclear."

They played the footage. They weren't lying when they said the faces would be hard to see, but it seemed that, instead of the murder, the camera was focused on a house. In one of the windows, a boy appeared, the right side of him covered in what appeared to be bruises. His hair was a long mess, two different colors. Something about that boy looked familiar, but I couldn't figure it out. Couldn't put my finger on why, but he did. I didn't know anyone with hair that was half blond, half dark brown. Immediately, all eyes must have gone to the fight, if they weren't already, at that moment because there was the sound of a gunshot. When I looked up next, the boy's was moving stiffly from the window.

Why did he appear so familiar? What was it about him? Was I the only one that noticed the boy?

"Police have been sent to the near by house, where reports of abuse have been. As seen in the video, a boy appears to be in that house. The police will try to remove him from that situation." The lady smiled, as though she were talking about nothing more than a boy was stuck in a tree, not a possibly dangerous situations.

"No one knows who this boy is, nor how he knows the man in that house, but we will be returning him to who ever he belongs to the moment we get him out of there and treat him for his wounds." It was an older man. His hair was falling out and he was willowy. "He may have information as to who the killer is."

With that, the news story changed.

I turned off the TV. I hoped they got him home. I hoped that there was a family there to welcome him, just like I would be for Mitch. I would not give up on him. Even at the cost of my relationships with everyone I knew. I would not forget Mitch. No matter what.

The next morning, I turned on the news, just to see if something had updated. They ran through everything, then the story I have been looking for showed up.

All information was the same, but this time, it was the chief, telling us that, when they stormed the house, there was only one man, passed out in a chair. "The boy is no where to be found, and the man has been brought in for questioning." He reported. "We will keep looking for this boy." With that, I snapped of the TV.

Who knows where that boy was. Who knew how much pain his family was in because the police couldn't save the boy.