Beyond the Veil

TWO : Like Wildfire

SONG RECOMMENDATION: Waves by Dean Lewis

                            WEDNESDAY

     By the time two days had passed, half the town knew about Mara Caldwell's disappearance. Word travelled fast in Elmwood, and the vanishing of the most wealthy local family's daughter was a disturbingly juicy piece of gossip.

It was the first thing Ruby saw when she woke up that morning; one scroll through her latest messages, and her heart dropped to her feet.

This wasn't part of her morning routine.

Ruby Wilson was a creature of pattern. Every morning at 5:00, she rose before the sun, brushed her teeth, got dressed, and finished homework from the night before. The world was deafeningly silent in the early morning hours of her small town, and the quiet was refreshing. It woke her up and helped her focus.

This morning, though, the silence was heavy. It seemed to press in on her from all sides, squeezing the air from her lungs. The texts from her friends blurred as her vision swam, but the ones she'd already read whirled through her head, crescendoing and overlapping each other, blending into gibberish.

Mara is missing.

Ruby? Please pick up!!

Something happened to Mara, call me.

Please answer, Mara's disappeared. I have no idea what's going on. It's all over the news.

It was too much, like multiple sonatas playing all at once. Her world had shrunk down to one single pinpoint; Brookewell and Elmwood High and midterms melted into the background as she struggled to process what was right in front of her face. Mara hadn't come to school yesterday, but she'd been complaining about her allergies for weeks. This had to be some elaborate prank.

Her hands trembled as she pulled up the Elmwood Register.

She swayed on her feet when the headlines popped up, one after the other. Local Girl Goes Missing. Daughter of Senator Caldwell Vanished. Mara Caldwell Mysteriously Disappears From Home. The words danced and swam, carving into her like jagged, broken glass. There was no way this could be real. This was Mara-- Mara, who lived in the most secure home in the entire town of Elmwood; Mara, who always locked the doors and bolted the windows when her parents went out of town; Mara, who knew perfectly well how to defend herself and shout for help and call the police.

Ruby could feel the walls closing in on her. She was no stranger to anxiety, but she hadn't had a full-blown panic attack since her freshman year of high school. Still, she could feel it gripping her, a frigid, iron fist clamping over her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs.

Knees threatening to buckle, she threw open her bedroom door and rushed down the stairs, her breath coming in short, staccato pants. This had to be a misunderstanding. Ruby was supposed to have a farewell party tomorrow night, she was supposed to take bittersweet pictures with Mara and Emily and Bree, she was supposed to squeal about how excited she was to go to Brookewell but lament about leaving her friends. She'd talked to Mara, what, Monday morning? She had to be okay, playing some stupid prank on everyone. That had to be it.

Ruby's mom, to her credit, was already downstairs, looking deceptively calm. Mrs. Wilson looked up from her coffee, sympathy evident on her face.

"Oh, honey," she said, and whatever semblance of sanity Ruby had been clinging onto collapsed.

"Mom, please tell me this isn't real, I--" Her mother shushed her, and Ruby fought down her mounting agitation.

"Ruby, look at me. It's real. It's not some sick joke; I got a call from Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell last night. They told me they received a call from someone asking for ransom, but the person calling gave no further instructions on where to send the money or how to deliver it. Honey, they don't know what to do."