Run Away (An Academy Ghost Bird Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Twelve

     Everyone jumps to their feet, a chorus of male voices call out in urgency.
"Why are we still here then?"
"Do you think she's hurt?"
"If those assholes have done something to her..."
"What's the plan?"

     Mr. Blackbourne raises a hand to call everyone to order. Silence covers the room once more. He points to Luke and Gabriel.
     "First, I need to know where Miss Sorenson currently is. Mr. Taylor, I want you on the roof checking upstairs. Start with her bedroom since that's where the message was left. Mr. Coleman, check the downstairs. I want to know every person in that house and where they are." Luke and Gabriel both nod. Next he points to Victor.
     "Mr. Morgan, we still have cameras pointed at her house, I need to see the surveillance footage for the last eight hours." Victor nods.
     Mr. Blackbourne looks around the room at his team. "I will need to call this in to the Academy for back up. I want to take every precaution to keep Miss Sorenson safe. No one," he looks at Luke and Gabriel, "I repeat, NO ONE, will proceed without my authorization. You will collect intelligence and report back. We move forward together, no one gets to play hero. Is that understood?"

     In unison, all their voices rise, "I am willing and I will obey!"

Luke

     Gabriel and I approach the house, or what we both have code-named Hell. Most of the lights are on, we can hear a stereo and television playing. I give Gabe a two-finger mock-salute in farewell and run across the yard to the back of the garage, where I got up last time. I take my running start, jumping off the side of the house and fly to the garage roof. I work my way around until I'm in front of Sang's window. I see the coded message she left us written on the window pane with a permanent marker. The curtain is thin and the light is on, so it's not hard to see in. 
     The room is distroyed. You can't even see the carpet for all the debris.  The mattress is hanging off the bed frame, sheets ripped away. The attic door has been knocked open, the bookshelf on its side and books are on the floor in pieces. Her closet is open, there are clothes scattered throughout the room.
     There is something off about the window, I look closer and see long nails have been driven into the sill. I won't be able to use this window for entry this time.
     I don't see Sang. I ignore the mess and search around the room but unless she's turned into paper or a dust bunny, she's not there. The curtain keeps me from taking any clear pictures with my phone so I mentally catalog everything I see.
      I move on, there are two more windows upstairs; a bathroom and her sister's room. Taking a shortcut over the top of the roof, I move to the back of the house. The bathroom light is off and it is silent inside, I peer in but there is no one there. Moving onto the sister's room, I look inside. She's inside laying across her bed picking at her nails. A stereo plays music. The room is messy like Sang's but this has less to do with destruction and more likely because the girl is a slob. No Sang, though.
     I finish and meet Gabriel back in the woods and we walked together back the Nathan's.

Victor

      Shortly after orders were issued Gabriel and Luke left and I ran out to my car to grab my lap top. I'm glad I hadn't had a chance to take down the cameras yet. I set up at the dining room table and pull up the feed starting eight hours prior. Mr. Blackbourne finishes up a phone call and comes to stand behind me to watch the video footage.
      I fast forward until about two hours into the footage when we see Sang's tiny figure walk up to the house. She stood in the driveway with her arms folded across her body, facing the house. She seemed to be summoning up all her courage because suddenly she dropped her arms to her sides. Her hands were balled into fists and she stood straighter, pulling her shoulders back, before taking a deep breath and walking into the open garage and disappeared into the house. We sped up the video slightly and watched in silence waiting for another clue.
      Suddenly we saw an older woman, probably her mother, walk outside dressed in a bathrobe that billowed around her as she walked. She stomped to the shed near the back yard and threw the door open. The angle of the cameras didn't allow us to see what she got but she soon walked back to the house with something clutched in her hands. We watched and waited. Then after a moment there was movement at an upstairs window.
     Sang's room.
     The curtain was wretched to the side and we could see the woman still held something in her hand and moved around the window sill. Her face was furious, she kept moving her mouth as if she were talking to someone in the room. After a few minutes she left the window and moved the curtain back in place. We fast forward the footage and saw the return of Sang's father and sister to the house. The sister got out of the car and walked inside but the father pulled back out of the driveway and left again.
      Finally we reached some footage from about an hour ago.
      "There!" Mr. Blackbourne pointed to the screen. "Take it back. Look at the window."
      I did as he asked. We saw the curtain move. We watched as two tiny hands appeared. Reaching up from the bottom of the window. They grasped a marker between them and slowly began to trace lines on the window pane creating the message that Sang left for us to find.
      "Did you notice her hands?" Mr. Blackbourne asked. I rewound the video and zoomed in, focusing on the window. Her tiny hands appeared again. With the picture now zoomed in, I noticed her hands were bound with a rope of some kind. She grasped the marker between her shaking palms, her hands positioned like a prayer, each stroke of the marker slow and deliberate.

      Luke and Gabriel came in the back door.
      "What do you have?" Mr. Blackbourne asked them.
      "Downstairs was clear. Sang was no where in sight. I spotted her mother in the master bedroom, asleep. All other rooms were empty." Gabriel reported.
      "Upstairs was a mess, Sang's room was trashed but I didn't see Sang. The sister was in her own bedroom." said Luke. "One other thing though. The window to Sang's room has been nailed shut."
      "That explains her mother's actions on the video feed." replied Mr. Blackbourne.
      Luke nodded, "We'll need a new point of entry, most likely downstairs somewhere. The upstairs bathroom is too small and I'd probably give her sister a heart attack if I used hers"
      "What else did you see in Miss Sorenson's room?" asked Mr. Blackbourne.
      "Furniture was knocked over, clothes and books on the floor." Luke answered. Mr. Blackbourne seemed lost in thought for a moment. He touched the corner of his glasses and pursed his lips. "What is it?" asked Luke.
      "Mr. Morgan and I just reviewed the video surveillance. When Miss Sorenson wrote her message on the window her hands were bound. I suspected she was still in her bedroom, but perhaps she was moved. She has to be somewhere in that house." Mr. Blackbourne extended one long finger and rubbed beneath his jaw, trying to work out the puzzle.
      "Maybe she's hiding." I offer.
      "Yes, perhaps." He agreed.

      There was a single knock at the door, followed by three fast knocks and then two slow knocks. Mr. Blackbourne straightened and looked at all of us.
Random. Academy.
      "Looks like the cavalry is here."

North

      We all gathered in the living room now joined by Dr. Roberts and two other Academy members I've worked with before; Axel Toma and Marc Weiland. 
          Mr. Blackbourne filled them in with everything we knew, including Sang's ghost status. The men were surprised and a little bit in awe about this. But they agreed that if we wanted to maintain her ghost status, we didn't want to call the authorities unless we absolutely had to.
     Victor had an idea based on some of the information he found on his first search into her family. Specifically about Mrs. Sorenson. We used this information to come up with our new roles. 
     Our plan was simple: We needed to create a diversion, find Sang and get her out. Between the twelve of us, we should have no issues. Some might call it over-kill, we call it being prepared.

     "Do we all understand our roles?" Mr. Blackbourne asks the room. A chorus of affirmatives answer.
     "Alright, gentlemen, let's take our positions." says Dr. Green
     "Let's go pull Sang out of Hell." Gabriel adds.