“You’d think there would be at least one decent thing on,” Sean muttered under his breath.
I rolled my eyes, barely paying any attention as I stared out of my dorm’s window. My parents hadn’t called with any news on Serenity so far, and I could only hope that that meant she was home and safe. However, a feeling kept nagging at me that said she wasn’t safe. She wasn’t home.
My hand twitched toward my cell phone. For the past hour I'd been deliberating on whether I should call my parents or not. I'd already tried Serenity’s cell phone, but she hadn’t picked up—it went right to voicemail. Dead, most likely. But calling my parents was a different matter. If I called them and she wasn’t there…
I was scared. I was scared that if I called my parents, my nightmare would become a reality.
“Skylar, are you sure you’re okay?” Sean asked, glancing away from the television for a moment and looking over at me. He frowned. “Why don’t you just call your parents? They’ll tell you if she made it home or not, right?”
I chewed on my cheek for a moment before replying. “I don’t know how I am right now,” I said truthfully. “But, if she wasn’t okay my parents would tell me. I’m sure of it.”
Sean stared at me for a few moments before looking away, beginning to flick through channels again. “I know that you’re scared,” Sean said slowly. “I’m not that stupid. And I also know denial when I see it. It’s not going to do you any good, Skylar. Just call your parents, okay? You need to know.”
I was about to respond, but suddenly a flicker on the TV caught my eye. “Wait,” I said, holding up a hand as though that would stop Sean from changing to another channel. “Can you go back for a minute?”
“To which channel?” Sean asked.
“Thirteen,” I muttered.
Sean complied, and I sat up on my bed, hands curling into tight fists. It was the Channel 13 news. Usually I wouldn’t care at all about the news and would immediately block it out. However, tonight was a different story. What they were talking about made my blood run cold and my heart pound harder in my chest. I couldn’t breathe.
“The local police are trying their hardest to find several missing teens tonight,” the anchor woman said, her voice devoid of the proper emotions that I thought she should be feeling. “So far, it is reported that at least seven teens have gone missing over the course of the day.”
Sean and I watched with wide eyes as photographs popped up onto the screen with names written underneath them. Most I didn’t recognize. A Valarie Brown, a Coden Dhodary, an Annabeth Blake. One of the girls, Rosalie Parker, didn’t look like she could be more than twelve. However, there was one photograph that held my attention, that made my stomach hurt and my head ache.
“Oh god,” I whispered.
A photo of Serenity stared back at me, a bright smile on her face. It was her school picture from the beginning of the year, I barely observed as I gaped at the photograph in horror. I remembered Serenity complaining about how much she hated the shirt, but our mom forced her to wear it anyway because it “looked great on her.”
“Skylar,” Sean said softly.
I barely heard him. My entire concentration was on the photograph of my sister before me. If Serenity’s picture was there, it meant she was missing. It meant that she wasn’t safe. It meant that she, like these other teenagers, was probably in danger.
Oh god.
“These children are located all around the state…” the anchor drawled.
As she listed out the teens’ last-seen locations and their descriptions, I fell back on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. I felt like my heart was stuck in my throat, like I was going to suffocate. All I could see was Serenity’s smiling face in that picture. What was the last thing I'd said to her? Would I ever talk to her again?
“Skylar.”
I glanced to my right, facing Sean as he stood up and wrapped his hands behind his neck. I sat up, putting my head between my legs as I struggled to breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe.
But I couldn’t. Not when my sister was missing. Missing.
“Oh god,” I whispered again. “What if she’s dead? What if she’s dead?”
Sean sat down beside me, placing a hand on my back. “Call your parents,” was all he said, but I could hear all of what Sean was feeling through those three words. He was just as scared for Serenity’s life as I was. “Now.”
I nodded and stood up, fumbling for my cell phone in my pocket. Sean stood up as well, his own phone in his hand. I barely paid any attention as I flipped open my phone with shaking fingers and struggled to dial my home phone number. Serenity, my mind whispered. God, Serenity, please be okay. Please.
As I hit the final digit and brought the phone to my ear, I could hear Sean murmuring in a tight voice, “Cassidy, baby, I need you to come over here as soon as you can. Something terrible has happened.”
A pause as his girlfriend answered.
“It’s Skylar,” Sean said softly. “His sister is missing.”
Sean said something else, but I didn’t hear because suddenly my mom was on the other end of the line. “H-hello?” she breathed, her voice thick with tears.
“Mom,” I whispered.
“Oh god, Skylar,” my mom whimpered. “I meant to call you. It’s Serenity, she—”
“I saw the news,” I replied, my voice shaking.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out like that.” My mom paused, and I instantly knew that she was crying. “Oh god, my baby….She didn’t come home and at first we thought that she was just running late, but she would never be this late…and—”
“I’m on my way,” I said. “Everything will be all right, Mom. We’ll find her; I promise.”
“Okay, honey,” my mom replied, her voice so soft I almost didn’t hear it. “I love you. Please be safe.”
“I love you, too,” I said. “And I will.”
With that, I hung up the phone, threw on my shoes, grabbed my keys, and rushed out of the room without a single look back.
