Misfortune ( Lin Manuel Miranda )

Chapter 4

The minute Vanessa picks up Lin's phone an overwhelming fear blooms in the pit of her stomach.

Lin wouldn't just leave his phone on the ground.

Her breath catches as she spins around and rushes towards the door, unlocking Lin's phone. She quickly looks for who he was last on the phone with- Jon.

She dials his number as she makes her way back towards the room she left to go find Lin.

"Hello?" Jon asks with a light tone after the third ring. "Jon! It's Vanessa, please what did Lin say to you when you were on the phone-" she splurges out, her words leaving faster than she can think.

"Woah, calm down, Vanessa, what's wrong? I called Lin maybe 20 minutes ago, but he never called me back, it was kind of important. Is everything ok?" Jon asks, concern laced in his voice.

Vanessa doesn't respond, hangs up and runs the rest of the way back to the room.

"I don't know anything yet, really, but I think Lin's missing. Is there anyway we can look at the cameras?" Vanessa asks no one in particular quickly, out of breath.

"Um, I can look for one of the stage managers to see if they or someone they know can get you to the cameras." A woman replies, standing up.

"Thank you so much," Vanessa says, trying to calm herself down. "The rest of you, can you just look around the theater for me? To make sure he came back in and to make sure I'm not overreacting?" Vanessa says, trying to make a joke to lighten the atmosphere, but the possibility of Lin being missing hangs heavy on everyone in the room.

The woman leads Vanessa to one of the stage managers while the others split up, doing what Vanessa asked. The stage manager brings her to a room filled with many screens, a man sitting in front of them all.

Vanessa explains that she needs to see the hallway that Lin went down, and the time he went down it. It takes a bit for the man to locate exactly what hallway Vanessa is talking about, but when he does he rewinds to the time Lin walked out.

He pops up on the screen, and goes out of the door, propping it open. Lin moves just out of shot outside. "Do you have a camera outside of that door?" Vanessa asks.

"No, I don't." He replies apologetically. Vanessa watches as he speeds up the tape to when Vanessa comes into view, and panic returns to her chest- Lin never came back in.

"Call 911." She tells the stage manager, who promptly pulls out her phone.

"Can you check all the other entrances between 11:30 and now for me please? Just see if he came back into the theater." Vanessa says, worry evident in her shaky voice.

Vanessa sits in the chair next to the man, leans back only to have realization hit her.

"Wait, do these videos have sound?"
"Yes they do."
"Can you please go back to when Lin went out of the door, and play the video from there, please."

The man does so, and turns the volume all the way up. Vanessa watches with searching eyes and ears straining. And then it happens.

The screams. His screams. His pleading for help. The hallway remains empty as his terrified voice fills the air.

Tears instantly spring to Vanessa's eyes and flow freely down her face, "No, no, no..." She whispers to herself, her chest burning and head pounding as she clutches Lin's phone harder in her hand.

This can't be happening.

"The police are on their way, Vanessa." The stage manager tells her, putting a hand on Vanessa's shaking shoulder.

All three of them stare in disbelief at the screen as Lin's screams are muffled, then stop completely. Vanessa is shaking in her seat, her breathing labored and stomach sick as she thinks about Lin, and how no one came to help.

Kind of a short chapter, sorry guys. More coming soon<3