Invictus

Chapter 10: Donnie

When I arrived at the cul de sac where Donnie's house was I saw a squad car in the driveway and panicked. At first I thought they might be looking for me, so I waited out of sight by the neighbors house till the officer left. Once he did, I went inside.

I found Karen and Donnie's dad, Mathis, a big burly black man, sitting anxiously on the couch. Mathis was a tough looking dude, tattoos on his arms and muscles everywhere, but even he looked distraught.

Karen had tears in her eyes. Mathis held his wife tenderly and kept reassuring her that everything was going to be alright.

After a few seconds of standing there I got the courage to ask them what had happened.

"Donnie still hasn't come home." She said quietly, trying to talk through sobs.

"I'm sure he's fine." Mathis whispered to her.

Karen turned to me, "Have you heard from him Zeek?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"He'll be alright, he probably just off with some girl." Mathis's attempt at suppressing his wife's worry seemed to be more for him than for her, he didn't look well.

A terrible feeling began to rise up from the pit of my stomach. I walked into Donnie's room and shut the door.

I hadn't realized that it had been nearly twenty four hours since I'd last heard from him. I'd forgotten about him with all the bonfire shenanigans.

He'd never taken that long to respond before. His parents were technology Nazi's and so his phone was one of the few connections he had with the outside world. He always kept it close whenever he could and never missed a text or a call, especially from his parents. Doing that would mean he would risk losing it for a few days as punishment or worse, indefinitely.

Any reason why Donnie wouldn't notify his parents of where he was, or me, weren't good.

I couldn't explain why, but a small part of me believed that Donnie's disappearance had something to do with me. It was a long shot but I still couldn't shake the feeling.

I would soon find out that my gut reaction to Donnie's disappearance was right.