So hey everyone, sorry I haven't written in like a week. I split chapter thirty three and thirty four in half because it just felt right... so that's why this one is a bit shorter. This isn't the end though there's a few more after that.
Last chapter got so many comments... yeah that was unexpected wasn't it :)
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Rhett's road was abnormally quiet. The type of quiet where you can just tell something happened there not so long ago, and everyone is sheltering themselves away from the scene. In reality, it was mostly empty. Cars were gone from the driveways as neighbours were away for work, and curtains were closed, shutting away the outside light. Well, the lack thereof, as it was still dark, but the rain had cleared up so when Rhett and Charlotte turned into the street, the weather wasn't distracting their vision and they could both see the sight that made their hearts drop.
They could both see in the distance the same thing, and it's all their eyes could lock onto. The thing that they were running so fast for, in hopes of stopping, or at least not seeing at all. Only ten houses away, Rhett's ivory front door was swung wide open, and both went to the worst.
"Rhett, Rhett, he will be okay," Charlotte grabbed his hand as they slowed down and stressed, not fully believing her promise herself. Rhett didn't say a word, and one after the other they nervously walked inside the house. Mocha was lying asleep and untouched on the couch, and from a first glance, Link was nowhere to be seen.
Charlotte tightened her grip onto Rhett as he spun around aimlessly, hoping Link was safe, and everything was okay. But it wasn't. The television was still broken, the blankets remained piled on the couch, and the absence of Link was too real for Rhett to try and pretend otherwise.
"I-I thought I c-could trust him-" Rhett sunk onto the nearby couch, throwing his backpack away and covering his face with his hands. "- W-what if she really did come f-for him? We can't even begin to look anywhere."
Rhett wasn't one to cry in front of others if he could help it, but he knew Charlotte would understand why completely as his best friend had vanished out of thin air.
"Rhett, calm down, please," Charlotte asked him oddly calm. She placed her handbag upright beside Rhett's bag and knelt in front of him, making sure he was looking back at her and not hiding in his tears. It then hit Rhett where he was, and how full circle he had just come. He was sitting in the same spot Link was having his first panic attack, trying to hide the cigarette scent and repeating over and over what Christy had so evilly told him. And all Rhett wanted him to do was calm down. In that moment, the roles had switched, and Rhett realised Charlotte was now where he once was, and he was a nervous, terrified wreck.
"We haven't looked upstairs yet, let's just try," suggested Charlotte, and her convincing got Rhett up from his seat and continuing looking for Link. "His hearing wasn't very good at the hospital, and he had to have a lot of tests because of it. Maybe he hasn't heard us yet."
"Link, Linky, are you up here?" Rhett called out for the twentieth time, and failure soon showing up and making the search unsuccessful. Charlotte had no luck either, and she only had one more idea until they had to accept he had truly disappeared, and would be almost impossible to find.
"Kitchen - It's the last room we've not checked," she sighed. "Come on Rhett."
"He would have h-heard us if he was in there, he must have," Rhett replied. In his chest he felt the anger building up, and if there was one near, he knew he could easily smash another TV to the ground.
"There could be anything in there Rhett, any evidence he took anything-"
The two scrambled down the narrow staircase and into the kitchen, which was mostly how Rhett left it before he went to the coffee shop. The cupboards were closed, the empty mini wheats box was still on the side, but as Rhett looked elsewhere, Charlotte was drawn quickly to something left on the table which was nothing less than suspicious.
"I didn't know Link wrote this neatly," Charlotte said sarcastically, holding up a sheet of ripped notepad paper she found and inspecting the writing. The moment Rhett heard her speak he darted straight to the table, and snatched the note from her hands and reading it rapidly. Charlotte didn't have a chance to properly see, and she was alarmed by Rhett's sudden energy.
"T-that's Christy's writing, one hundred million percent Christy - oh my god..."
Charlotte moved the note so she was able to see it too, and unintentionally together they began to read the note left for them out loud. The words were scruffy, some misspelled, and all over the place but the point was still there, and painful.
"Rhett,
This time, it's a note for you. Great idea to leave the bitch home alone wasn't it, but I expected no less.
If you really want to know where he is, remember when you two were kids and played in the nearby forest every day? Link used to tell me all about it. Once, you left him while he went unconscious after falling. He was all alone, and guess what, he is again. Well, I'm here.
Also, I want to thank the hospital for teaching him to be so submissive. He just let me in, so clueless.
So, so clueless.
xx"
