The One

Part 5: Close

 Lana

I wake up to someone nudging my arm. I let out a groan and turn away, towards the wall. "Leave me alone Gracie." I say pulling the covers closer to my chin. "Lana. It's me." my dad says. My eyes snap open and I sit up right away. How could I have forgotten? I look over at my dad and he's looking at me with worry and sadness in his eyes. "Come eat breakfast with us. Detective Ford is here." " Yeah, okay." I say rubbing my face with my hand. He pats my leg and gets up to leave, closing my door lightly. I grab some clothes and hop in the shower for a quick rinse off, not wanting to keep the others waiting for long. "Sorry if I took long."I say as I walk into the kitchen, braiding my hair back. My dad looks up at me, holding my mom while she sobs in his arms. "What's wong? What happened." I ask looking between my dad and Detective Ford. "Lana, you might want to sit for this." Ford tells me with sympathy in his eyes. "No....no just tell me what's wrong." He sighs before continuing. "The search party found...some...body parts...scattered throughout the woods in shallow burials." My mom starts to sob louder, and my dad hangs his head, closing his eyes. "Body parts?" I whisper. Body parts? WHAT THE HELL DOES HE MEAN BODY PARTS. I stumble back into the doorframe, holding onto it for stability. "It hasn't been confirmed yet whether or not it's your sister. As bad as it sounds there are still three other girls missing that we have to consider, so not all hope is lost." he says. I bring my hand up to my head, biting down on my tongue to keep myself from crying. In the background I can hear the TV going, reporting about the recent find by the search party. "...along with an arm. Police are working now to identify who it belongs to. We will keep you updated when we find out more. This is Jewel Roberts reporting from PineOak Park." "Lana? Lana did you hear me?" Ford asks, shaking my arm lightly. I shake my head. "I said that I may have found something that could lead to who took your sister." I turn my head towards him, trying to blink away the tears from my eyes. "What is it?" I ask as he steers me to sit at the table with my parents. "I was going through the picture I took at the lake. They were mostly just ariel so I could get a look at possibilities as to where your sister could have gone. I came across some pictures you took in the woods and I noticed a cabin off in the distance. Who does that belong to?" "It's Liam's cabin. He's staying there with his dad. Why do you ask?" "When we were at the lake that cabin was close to the area where your sister was last." "What are you suggesting?" I ask getting up from my seat. "I'm considering someone at that cabin as a suspect."

My breath comes out in white puffs as I trudge over to the front door of Liam's cabin. How is it this cold during the summer? I knock on the door and patiently wait for someone to answer it. After waiting for a couple of minutes I start to get impatient. I walk around the deck that wraps around the cabin and look into the windows, but it looks like nobody's home. I sigh in frustration. "Liam!" I yell. I walk around to the other side of the cabin and notice their cellar close to the edge of the woods. For some reason I feel drawn to it and start to walk towards it. "Lana?" a voice says stopping me in my tracks. I turn to face Liam's dad. I exhale, letting out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "Mr. Park, you startled me." I say bringing my hand up to my chest. "What are you doing here?" he asks stepping down from the porch. "I came to see Liam. I need to talk to him." "Oh, well you can wait inside if you would like. I sent Liam into town to get some supplies." "That would be great." I say smiling. I take one last glance at the cellar before I head inside. "Please, have a seat." he says as we walk into the living room, throwing a couple more pieces of wood into the fireplace. "I was heating up some water to make some hot chocolate. Would you like some?" "Yes, please that would be great." I say smiling. I take a seat in one of the bigger chairs that's placed in front of the fireplace. "Here you are." he says coming back a couple minutes later, handing me a steaming cup. "I hope you don't mind but I put some whipped cream on it with some marshmallows." "I don't mind at all. It's perfect, thank you." I say smiling. He smiles back and takes a seat in the chair next to me. "How are things at home? I'm sure it can't be easy." he says with sympathy in his eyes. "Yeah, it's definitely been difficult. I don't know if you've seen or heard it on the news but there were body parts found scattered throughout the..." I stop myself, my words getting caught in the back of my throat. Mr. Park stiffens in his seat, gripping his cup tightly. I take a deep breath and take a long swig of my drink, trying to distract myself from letting tears fall. The drink burns as it goes down. I exhale slowly, focusing my gaze on the fire as it whips around the logs. Mr. Park relaxes a little and puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it. "Don't worry. I'm sure your sister is fine." I smile at him and then focus my attention back on the fire. We sit silently for a little bit, just thinking as we take periodic sips of our drink. This is actually the most soothed I've felt in a while. As we sit there a familiar rumble sounds outside. "That would be Liam." Mr.Park says setting down his cup. "I'll go outside and help bring the stuff in." I say getting up from my seat. All of a sudden I feel dizzy and grab the chair for support. My vision starts to blur, and I blink multiple times bringing my hand up to my head. "Are you okay?" Mr.Park asks coming over to my side. "Yeah." I say as my vision starts to clear. "I'll be fine." I move away walking towards the door. When I get outside, I walk to the trunk of Liam's truck, where he's pulling the supplies from the back. "Hey." I say walking over to him. His head whips over to me and his eyes widen in surprise. "Lana. What are you doing here?" he asks dropping whatever he had in his hand back into the trunk. "I came here to talk to you." I say, clasping my hands together in front of me. All of a sudden the nervousness I was feeling a little while ago starts to come flooding back. Liam notices my uneasiness and walks over to me, placings his hands on my arms. "Is it about what they said on the news?" he asks, tilting his head so that he can look at me. I nod my head. "There's something else I thought you should know. My dad hired a private detective to investigate Gracie's disappearance and..." I shut my eyes, breathing in and out. "It's okay. You can tell me." he urges, rubbing my arms. I sigh before continuing. "He's considering your dad as a suspect, and he was going to alert the local police today." Liam freezes and the color drains from his face. "WHAT?" Mr.Park says from behind me. Liam and I both jump in surprise. "Mr.Park I'm sorry you weren't supposed to hear that. I didn't want to be the one to tell you." His face starts to contort as the dizziness from before comes back. He starts yelling something but I can't make out. It's like his voice is muffled. I feel myself start to sway and when I reach out to steady myself and grab onto nothing and fall to the ground. Someone, I'm guessing Liam, grabs my shoulder and places his other hand on the side of my face. Slowly everything starts to fade to black until...nothing.