Never Again

Chapter 9

Jessica's - POV

Me and Katie had always been inseparable. We'd had each others backs since we were six years old and had never looked back since. I wouldn't change our relationship for anything else.

We do most things together as I know she can get quite nervous and me being there helps make her feel better, which in turn makes me feel better.

When we were nine years old we went ice skating with our parents. It was Katie's first time but I had skated a lot before and so I showed her how. She's a great learner and catches on quickly so it was no surprise when she was up and skating within half an hour of me helping her.

The downfall here was Katie's constant want for overachievement. She never gave up and didn't stop doing something until it was perfect.

She tried more and more extravagant moves until she did one wrong and fell, hitting her chin on the ice, gaining a cut. Her chin needed cleaning and then a plaster but she wouldn't allow her mum or my parents to do it for her as she only wanted me to.  They showed me the best way and I cleaned the cut and put a cute blue plaster onto her chin.

After this we went back to skating, her being more careful and sticking closer to me while I made sure to keep a closer eye on her.

That incident made us closer than ever and from that day on she always stayed closer to me whenever I was around.

Which is why I was surprised when she was nowhere in the house when we all woke up.

We checked all the bedrooms, the bathroom, the closets and even the basement and garden but she was nowhere to be seen.

I wasn't too worried as she sometimes liked to go off on her own to think and so it didn't bother me when I found her phone on the shelf next to the back door. When she went out she liked to go without it, so she wouldn't have any distractions.

"She's probably meeting some hot guy," Jill said. "And who wouldn't want to date her? She's sexy."

I made a noncommittal sound, not believing that to be true, before standing up to leave. I made sure to grab Kate's phone before as the first thing she always did when she came back was come to me.

I got in my car and turned it on, putting on the radio before driving off.

I arrived home very quickly, parked my car and went inside. I snuck in as I wanted to avoid mum, but as I was going up the stairs I realised she had told me she wasn't going to be home today and I felt my body sag in relief.

Going into my room I took Katie's phone out, trying to turn in on.

Unsurprisingly it wasn't charged. So I got my charger out and plugged it in, leaving it on my bedside table.

I went downstairs and put on some food. Rice and chicken was always a good option.

While the chicken was cooking and before I put on the rice, I put the TV on, not really paying attention to what was on.

When my food was done I turned off the TV and decided to go upstairs and watch the TV there.

When I got up there I remembered about Katie's phone and decided to check it.

I typed in her pin and it opened.

I know that she liked to take pictures so the first course of action would be to check her gallery.

Weird. The first few pictures were of darkness. I couldn't really make out anything, so I turned up the brightness and leaned in closer to the screen.

To say what I saw on the screen shocked me would be an understatement.

It was a picture of someone in a black mask waving at the camera. That freaked me out.

But, unfortunately, it wasn't the scariest part. What terrified me, was that the person had a knife in their hand.

I swiped to the next picture and let out a gasp, muffled by my hand.

There were pictures of us sleeping from last night taken from outside the house and in the reflection of the glass door you could now see two people in masks.

I swiped to the next picture and a cold fear took over my body.

It was Katie, but she wasn't awake. She had tape over her mouth and her hands were bound with rope tightly, so I could see the rope burns on her wrists, which must've come from shifting in her unconscious state.

I quickly stood up and rushed downstairs, putting my shoes on before getting in my car, quickly backing out of the driveway and then speeding to the police station but I didn't care, I needed to get there fast.

When I drove there I was having trouble with steering as my hands were shaking so much. I was scared and fearful over what potentially had happened to Katie and I didn't know how to deal with it.

When I arrived I parked on some double yellow lines before hopping out of the car and power walking into the station. I talked to someone when I got in there and they calmed me down, took the evidence and helped me file a police report.

Afterwards, as I was still quite freaked out I sat in my car and thought about what could've happened to her. I quickly pulled out my own phone as I realised I needed to call Kate's mum, Lila.

I dialed her number and waited.

"Hello?" I head a tired voice say, as I heard some papers shuffle.

"Lila? It's me, Jessica," I said, my voice shaking a bit. "Katie is missing."

That fully woke her up.

"What?!" She said, loudly, sounding like she was moving stuff around in the room. "What do you mean she is missing?"

"I found pictures on her phone," I said, choking up at the images painfully ingrained in my mind. "Two people in black, and they were carrying her while she was sleep."

"I'm coming back, I'll be there soon." She said quickly, the noises becoming more frantic.

"Bye, call me when you land." I said, before she hung up and I put my phone back in my pocket.

I felt void, hopeless that I could do nothing to help.

I really hoped that this wasn't the last time I would see Katie again. I definitely know that I wouldn't be able to live with that.