Missing

Chapter 1 The Farmhouse

 I finished my essay and was about to turn off my computer when I got a call from the sheriff's station. "H-hello"? I say wondering what I did this time. "Hello Rayan, this is Sheriff Darius, Darren hasn't come home since last night. I called to ask if he is with you or if you know where he is since you two are good friends." "Sorry I don't know where he-" the old farmhouse, he's at the old farmhouse I suddenly realize. He always liked it there for some reason. "Rayan? If you know where he might be you should tell me. If I know Darren well enough he's bound to be scheming something wherever he is, trying to cause as much mayhem as possible," Sheriff Darius says."No sir I do not. I just thought he might be at Woodvalley park. He was there the last time I talked to him," I say. "Okay thank you for the information. Don't hesitate to call if you have more information." Okay, sir, good night. I hope you find Darren soon." "Goodnight Rayan, I hope so as well," he says in a tired voice. I start heading outside as soon as I hang up. No way I'm staying here while my best friend is missing. He would have done the same thing for me if I was in this situation.

This place is creepier at night. Parts of the wood on the farmhouse is lying on the ground, tree branches covering parts of the roof, paint peeling off. It feels like I'm in a movie right now. "I should have brought my jacket," I say to myself as a cold wind brushes past me, sending shivers down my spine. Well, here goes nothing I guess. As I open the creaking door I hear a humming noise, as if something is powering down. Walking towards the humming noise, the floorboards creaking against my weight, I hear footsteps hurrying out of the room. "Hello?" I say as the footsteps come to an immediate stop. Then, all of a sudden the footsteps start closing in on me at a quickened pace, startling me. My first and only thought after that was...RUN RUN RUN RUN. I bolt out of the door without looking back. After about three or four minutes I stop running trying to catch my breath. Questions upon questions were flooding my head, who was that guy? what did he want, did he... did he have anything to do with Darren going missing? I need to get back home, I'm not staying here. Before I knew it I was already running back.

Staring at my ceiling, the same questions I had before were still on my mind. Who was that? Did he have anything to with Darren? All questions that can't be answered. Well not right now at least. One thing is for sure, that's the last time I go there at night.

The next thing I knew it was morning and my alarm clock was going off. Don't know when I fell asleep, but it's 1:30 pm. I forgot I'm supposed to be helping my dad fix up his old beat up Ford Mustang Boss 429. For some reason, he thought it was a good idea to buy it at a charity auction. That piece of junk can barely even start. Hard to believe that it used to be blue. After what happened last night, I don't even want to get off this bed, let alone help him fix up that stupid rust bucket. Guess I have no choice though, otherwise, I'll have to endure one of his lectures again. Man, I'm starving. I could eat a whole cow right now. When I open the fridge I find it completely empty, except for a few leftovers. Where's the rest of the food? As I'm rummaging through the fridge to find something to eat, I hear my dad calling me through the window. "Hey, Rayan! Over here!" He yells. Great, just great. Not only do I have to work in this scorching hot weather, but I'll have to starve as well. "I need you to help me take off these brake disks, they just won't come off, it's like it's been glued on or something," he says with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Remind me why you bought this again?" I ask while walking towards the jacked up car. "Why did I buy this? Just look at this baby! It's a work of art I'm telling ya. Can't believe it was being sold for so cheap too. Who would want to throw away such a beauty." He says while looking at the car with pride. Jeez, I can't imagine why it was so cheap, it cant be the fact that it's a rust bucket or anything."Alright, where do I start?" I say in a tired tone. This is going to be a long day.

"That's it we're almost done now, once we finish this last brake disk replacement you can go play games or something. I'll finish the rest of the fine-tuning." He smiles after seeing the gleeful smile I have from hearing this. GROWL. Dad looks at me and then bursts out into laughter. "Ok ok you can go, here's a $20, grab something to eat while you're at it." He barely manages to say in between laughing fits. "Thanks...bye!" I say and immediately break into a sprint. All I can think of is food at this point, seriously you have no idea how hungry I am. I walk into Kingsize and the sizzling grease smell from the burgers hits my nose. Drinks are spilled all over the floors and tables, there's not even one clean table here. Well, I guess this means I'm ordering takeout. I step up to the cashier and order a quarter pounder with a large drink. I take a bite of the burger as I'm leaving and it's amazing. Not better than my dad's burgers of course. Nobody can beat my dad's burgers.

As I'm walking I forget which way home is since I rarely come around this area. I decide to go back to Kingsize. Well, that was the plan, until I came across the park me and Darren used to play at when we were kids. Everything is the same. Not one thing has changed since the last time we came here. Great, I've been trying to forget about this whole thing with Darren and I just had to get lost here. Well, the farmhouse is close by so I guess I'll just go there again. This is after all how we found the farmhouse to begin with. We were playing tag or something but went too far. We ended up finding the farmhouse but instead of telling our parents we chose to keep it our little secret. To this day they still don't know about this place. I'm glad we didn't though, otherwise, they would never allow us to go there again.

Why am I even going back? What's wrong with me? Maybe I should go back I think while walking. I should go back. No, I should keep going. I mean the guy who chased me isn't going to be there right? I'm going back and before noticing it, it was a little too late for that. I had arrived at the farmhouse. Wait...who's that walking in the distance? I walk closer to get a better look at whoever is there. I stop dead once I realize who it is. Darren?! I start running towards him yelling to get his attention. "Darren! Darren stop!" I yell at him, and the second he hears my voice, he breaks into a run. Why's he running away from me?! I run faster, not caring about my lungs burning inside me. I catch up to him and tackle him to the ground. "GET OFF OF ME!" he yells while struggling to break free. "Not until you tell me what's going on. Do you have any idea how worried everyone is?" "I'm calling the sheriff," I say while pulling out my phone. "No! Stop!" he screams while struggling to break free. "Hello, sheriff I found Darren."

After they're done interviewing me, I walk up to my dad's half repainted mustang, where he's waiting for me. "What happened? Why did I get a call to pick you up at the police station?" He asks me. "I found Darren at the farmhouse running away. They just wanted to ask me a couple of questions." I say. "Farmhouse? You mean the one you guys always play at?" "How did you know we go there? Since when did you know?" I ask him with surprise. He knew all this time? "Don't worry about it," he says and gets into his car. When I get into the car, I can't believe what I'm seeing right now. The interior is completely redone. "When did you finish the interior?" I ask him. I did it a while ago. You didn't notice? Anyways what did they say about Darren?" He asks me. "He was running away. They won't tell me anything else," I say. "Dad..dad are you eating a pickle?" I ask him with surprise. "What? I'm hungry and there's nothing else left in the house. Plus I had to leave in a hurry because I got a call to pick up a certain son of mine from the police station. By the way, you're helping me finish spray paint the car," he says.