Ethereal

Chapter 22

I looked everywhere.

I denied it, and I denied it again, but being stubborn wasn't changing a thing. My house was empty. I turned the place inside out, looking in every god forsaken crevice there was. Not even the attic and basement went unchecked.

I looked beneath every bed and behind every table or countertop. I looked in the closets, my fingers desperately skimming the wood for hidden doors, as far-fetched as that sounded.

I ran down to the cliff, but found nothing but frost. Nothing disturbed the ground or the silent air.

I called everyone's phone. I called both my house and his, earning myself four very distressed people; JoJo, Lil, Jackson (Sock's dad), and Laura (Sock's mom). None of them seemed to have any clue where he disappeared to.

So I sat down, on the edge of the cliff, alone.

The night was cold, but I didn't move. I shivered and I trembled until the vibrations shook my soul, until I couldn't feel my hands or feet and my limbs were stiff. The wind touched my face, which was wet from tears I barely knew were falling.

I knew the police had been called. I knew they were doing everything in their power to figure out what happened back at my house.

So I sat, and I replayed the dragon's words in my head over and over until they were burned into my memory.

"You have to remember yourself. More importantly, you have to remember me."

But as hard as I tried, I couldn't remember.

The sun rose eventually. However, even as it stretched across the land, warming the air and melting the frost, I remained cold.

Cold and empty, and without a form of comfort.

~

The next morning, I was still numb, but it wasn't from the cold.

A barely audible, raspy, "Hey," was all I said to my dad. I hadn't seen the guy in years, and I'd missed him more than I could imagine, yet hey was the only word I could muster.

I pretty much stayed in bed all day, sleeping and wishing to every good thing I could think of that this was but a hoax and a really random coincidence. Yet, even my mind, graping for any hope there could be, refused to believe it.

I begged that blue-eyed dragon to return to my dreams and expand further on what she said.

But it never happened.

It was then, I realized, that I was truly alone.

Alone, not only physically, but also alone at heart.

~