Combined

Chapter 1

She switched on the vacuum and the motor started up, making a loud rumbling noise. This was what Jayna had to do once a week since her parents were barely ever home to do it. She didn't really mind it, she could just blast the music on her Bluetooth speakers and no one would tell her it was way too loud and that she had to turn it off. She started her usual routine: first the kitchen (the dirtiest floors in the house due to obvious food reasons) then the dining room, the living room, the bathroom, and finally the bedrooms on the second floor.

Seven songs through her playlist and she had finally finished all the rooms on the first floor. It was time for the struggle up the stairs, vacuum cleaner in hand. She wasn't what you would call "muscular" or "strong". She could barely even hold open a heavy door or open a water bottle on her own, it was embarrassing at times. And for some reason, her rib-length curly black hair always got stuck around the doorknobs, which was starting to get old, really old, but that was beside the point. She hauled the machine up the top and final step, just before tripping on a fold in the carpet and crushing her pinky toe in the process.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit..." she dropped to the ground, cradling her foot in her arms. This too was getting old. She had to be the clumsiest person alive, she thought to herself.

Jayna stood up, recovering quickly from the little incident. She had to hurry, her parents would be home anytime now. And they wouldn't be very pleased if she wasn't finished with her chores yet, especially her mom who claimed the noise enhanced her migraines. She rolled along into her parents room. She once joked that the picture of it could be on the cover of a house furniture magazine, which resulted in a look from her dad.

She switched on the lights and started to clean. She noticed the corner of what seemed to be a white cardboard box poking out from under the bed skirts of her parents bed. Why would her parents have a box under their bed? Christmas was still four months away, and even if it was Christmas gifts, her mom always hid the gifts on the top shelf of the closet behind all the stacks of old baby clothes. She knelt down and shut off the vacuum. Cheek brushing the rough carpet, she reached under the bed and slid the box along the floor in front of her. The box looked totally ordinary, why would it be under the bed? Their were no markings or stickers to indicate what was inside so she lifted the lid delicately, hoping to not damage anything inside. She was suddenly hit with the smell of printer ink and old paper, familiar to her since her grandfather was the owner of a huge newspaper company in Virginia. She took the lid off completely and found a stack of old papers, yellowing with age.

It explained the smell, she thought.

Jayna ran her fingers over the dates of the newspapers on the top of the stack ...August 12th 1987, November 19th 2002, May 7th 2006...then the titles. "Girl went missing last night after leaving house for bike ride", "After ten years of searching missing teen still not found", " Appeal launched for missing fifteen year old girl.".... She picked up a few papers to get a closer look at the pictures, but dropped them as soon as she saw the photos. She knew these girls, these people...She recognized their faces. Jayna recognized them because the same face stared back at her every morning in the mirror of her bathroom. These faces...that face was hers. She tipped the box over, spilling it's contents on the floor and spread them out. Headline after headline had to do with disappearances, photo after photo was of her. She heard the creaking of footsteps on the stairs. She gathered up the newspapers in a stack and chucked them in the box, closed the lid and slid it under the bed right before the doorknob turned.