Cherry Cheeks

Chapter 3 - Last To Be Found

Chapter 3

That day had haunted Cherry for the rest of her life.              

It was the morning of August 22 that Cheryl Austin’s sister had disappeared.

Gone.

Scarlet Austin was 8 years old with long wave ash blonde hair, and crystal blue eyes. She was petite with a porcelain face and a blue ribbon in her hair to match her eyes. She was very clever for her age, both Austin girls were. The morning started off with their dog Skip jumping onto their bed. Scarlet was already away but didn’t waste any time jumping on her sister, to wake her up as well. Cheryl was two years older than her but they were as close as sisters could be. They were always best friends, doing everything together.

Their mother, Roberta was a Paediatrician and was away a lot, she made them breakfast and then called the Nanny in to look after the two girls. Their father Mark worked full time as a solicitor, so most days he was gone before they had woken up.

Their nanny Jena was a young sweet girl who needed money to pay for her college tuition. She thought highly of the Austin sisters, and they didn’t mind her either. They practically dragged her outside to play when she arrived.

What game would you like to play today; Jena would ask knowing the answer before she had asked.

Hide and seek, Hide and seek! The girls would answer, racing around Jena. So Jena turned around and began to count to 50, as she usually did.

Cheryl was older than Scarlet so was outraged when she was found first, she thought the older you were the smarter you were. But Scarlet was smaller than Cheryl and could hide in more interesting places.

The girl ran off while Jena counted down and looked for a place to hide. Cheryl started to climb a tree in their backyard that was her favourite spot to hide.

Cheryl, look look past the wire-fence, she’ll never find us there! Scarlet called racing to the fence, that was the out-of-bounds area. Mum and Dad told them never to go past it, there was no need to you could explore fine in the backyard we have. Cheryl shook her head, No Scarlet – you’ll get in trouble, I’m not going! She called back, not wanting her sister to go, but also not wanting to get in trouble.

Scarlet didn’t list and easily slid through the bottom of the fence alone, without her sister.

Fine, but I’ll be the last to be found! Scarlet called, those words became all too real for Cheryl and her family.

Jena found Cheryl first, then she searched for Scarlet. After half an hour Cheryl told her that she had gone past the fence and ran across the land that no one owned. Jena became frantic with panic as she told Cheryl to go inside while she searched for Scarlet, calling out her name.

The police searched for days, weeks, months. But the months turned to years, and you can only think the best for so long before the real pain sets in. The Austin family tried everything, searched everywhere. Used all their money to worldwide broadcast it, they did this every year. Cheryl knew that her sister was never coming back, but her parents would never let it rest, they tried forever. Even 10 years later they still tried. Cheryl’s parents were never the same after that, what had happened to their youngest daughter? Kidnapped? Held ransom? Murdered?

These holidays were the 10th year anniversary of Scarlet’s disappearance. The little Austin girl was never heard from or seen again.

Cherry had done it. She had told her best friend the past she had tried so hard to forget.

Eliza was speechless, a tear rolled down her cheek as she shook her head.

“How come you never told me about her?” She said, in more calming voice rather than accusing.

“Because I could have stopped her, I should have gone with her or, done something?” Cherry said, she had blamed herself, and although her parents had never once put the blame on anyone or treated her different, she always felt something missing. It was ten years ago, Scarlet would be 18 years old. Just finished school, probably just starting the Uni Cherry was at.

“You were 10, you were playing. You couldn’t have known” Eliza said. This was true, Cherry was only 10 – but she remembered everything about that day. That’s what drove her forensics. To speak for the victim, tell their story. So that one day she could tell her sisters story.

Cherry smiled at Eliza and said she was right. Eliza didn’t want to stay on the topic; she had so many questions but didn’t want to upset Cherry anymore that night. So she let Cherry study for her exam.

Cherry sat her exam the next day, and knew every question. She saw some people struggling, like Sara. Sara was good but never really good at revision.

“Hey Cherry!” Sara said when the exam was finished. She had on her usual clothes and new pearl earrings.

“Hi, how do you think you went?” Cherry asked.

“Meh, the usual” Sara replied, rolling her eyes. Sara went to her next class, she had that new teacher, so she didn’t want to be late. Cherry was meeting Alex for lunch. Alex was in med school which wasn’t far away. Alex had been Cherry’s good friend since high school, they saw each other at the start of the holidays but with them both being so busy with schoolwork they don’t have much time to see each other.

Alex has scruffy blonde hair, and kind brown eyes. He was gentle natured and had a great sense of humour.

When Alex saw Cherry walking towards him, he leapt out of his chair and gave her a big hug. He knew about Scarlet, he went primary school with them, they were all good friends.

“How you going, I know this month has been hard for you. How’s your family?” Alex asked letting go of his embrace with Cherry.

“They’re handling it, like they have been for a decade.” Cherry answered, looking on the menu for lunch.

“What about you?”  He asked, directing the question back to how she was going.

“Knowing that Scarlet would be 18 this year, is killing me. But she wouldn’t want me to be upset anymore.” Cherry said.

Alex talked about his course, and how it was going. The friend’s he’d made and what hospital he wanted to do his residency at. Cherry was glad to listen, and said she knew some good hospitals that her mum had worked at.

The lunch ended when Alex was paged, a car crash on the west side of the city and the students were called to watch. He apologised and left, telling her he would catch up with her again soon.

Cherry just got inside the dorm as the rain started to pour. She took off her rain coat, as she had participated that it would rain that afternoon and decided to go to bed. Eliza was already asleep.

The next morning Eliza was up before Cherry that was surprising. She had got an early morning call like the one Cherry had gotten. When she answered no one was on the line. She redialled the number that had ringed her and got a voicemail.

It was the guy from the bar, it was Shane.