Release My Soul

Hopeless Dream

Ariadne

    Jacob’s fist beat on the wood door of Ivy’s house. The sound echoed around the quiet neighborhood and I knew that no one was going to answer the door. Ivy’s mom and dad were never home even before she had been kidnapped and there was no way they would come home now that they thought there was no reason to.

    Sighing, I pulled my keys from the pocket of my sweater and pushed Jacob out of the way, unlocking the door. “There was no way anyone would answer,” I said, nudging the door open.

    “You don’t know that,” he said, but wasted no time entering the house ahead of me.

    “Yeah I do. Ivy was my best friend remember? Plus, you know that her parents were never home. I don’t see why they would come back since she isn’t here anymore.”

    “Whatever,” Jacob muttered, “Where should we start first? Her room?”

    I hadn’t been in Ivy’s room since the last time all five of us had hung out here and I didn’t know if I would be able to handle being in her space without her there, but I knew that this needed to be done and I was the best person to do it.

I nodded in answer to Jacob’s question and led the way up the stairs. I couldn’t help imagining what Ivy had gone through that night. It had to have been scary, especially with no one there to help her.

Stepping into Ivy’s room was like a stab in the heart. Everything was in the same place. As always, her books were scattered throughout the room, although the rest was surprisingly neat. Her bed was made, thanks to her parents, and her clothes and shoes were neatly arranged in her closet. Everything just felt wrong. Ivy hadn't been fond of clutter, but she had everything the way she liked it, arranged for convenience. Ivy’s parents, as well as the police in a way, had ruined that after her disappearance.

I fought back a wave of sadness and moved farther into her room. Jacob had already moved towards Ivy’s giant window and was looking out over the yard. I didn’t know what he thought he would find there but that wasn’t going to be my main focus. The police said that the main disturbance had been near her bed, which seemed logical since it had been late when they had gotten the call. I could even picture her sitting propped up by her mountains of pillows, a book open in her hand. She always had loved to read more than the rest of us.

Wandering towards her shelves, my fingers brushed over the spines of the worn books carelessly crammed into whatever space happened to be available at the time.

“Is this the part where I’m supposed to tell you that we’ll find her? That it’s all going to be okay?” Jacob asked, his voice floating over to me from where he stood looking out the window.

    I turned away from the bookshelf, a look of disbelief written on my face. “Can’t you be sensitive for once in your life? I know you don’t believe that we’ll find Ivy, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us still have hope.”

    “It’s not that I don’t think we’ll find her, Ari, it’s that I don’t let myself hope for something that could never happen. It’s the only way to stop yourself from being let down later on,” he replied, his shoulders stiff.

    I knew that he had gone through things with his family, especially his dad recently, but I never realized just how much he had retreated into himself after his moms death. Maybe that’s what drew me to him in the first place.

    I mentally shook my head. I couldn’t like him. None of us could afford the drama of a relationship within the group anyway.

"Hope is what helps people survive, Jacob," I said, meeting his eyes solemnly. "You can't seriously tell me that if it were Mina, or Trevor, or...me, and not Ivy that had been taken, you wouldn't be fighting just as hard to get us back as we are now."