The Ghostly Past

Chapter 28

Ryan's car passed him leaving the lane, slowing to a halt just ahead. Max's nerves were fraying with every second that passed. He couldn't just sit around waiting for news. He had to do something. Ryan rolled down the window as he caught him, looking remarkably fresh after such an awful evening. "You look like hell." He commented, eyes narrowing. "What's happened now?"

"They're missing." Max admitted, folding his arms. "Oliver and Clara. Neither went home last night."

"Maybe they shacked up at a hotel." Kim remarked. She looked rough, wearing sunglasses and a loose shirt over leggings, curled up in the passenger seat. "We're going out for breakfast. Want to join us?"

"Kim," Ryan stared at her. "This is serious. We can't have the sixth soul going missing."

"Why not?" She answered grumpily. "It might delay it. This might be a good thing."Max heard raw hope in her voice and it saddened him. It was easy to forget that Kim was suffering too. "Besides they deserve a chance to be happy."

Ryan and Max stared at her like she'd had a lobotomy. "I think that's the most selfless thing I've ever heard you say." Max muttered.

"Don't get used to it." Kim snarled. "I like Clara. She's my girl."

"What even...?" Ryan blinked.

"Well she's missing." Max cut in. "Harriet says she and Oliver left together. They were going to try and walk to the next town on foot in the middle of the night." Ryan threw his hands up at the idiocy of this plan. "Jess and James are searching the village but I'm going to get my car and drive out of town, see if they reached the bus station."

Ryan groaned. "Get in the car. We'll go together."

"Thanks." Surprised, Max hopped into the back.

They drove in near silence, cruising out of the village and onto the country roads that eventually led to the Cantabile Academy and onto the next town.

"Stop!" Kim cried out, "Stop the car!" Ryan slammed on the brakes, Max lurching forward as the car halted in the narrow country lane.

"What is it?" Her boyfriend asked as Kim threw open the passenger door, leaping out of the car. She'd wandered just off the edge of the road, and seemed to be scouring the grass, bent down over something.

Kim stood wordlessly holding something in her hands. It was a high heeled shoe, silver, sparkly. "The sunlight caught it." Her voice was strange, almost strangled with worry.

"It could be anyone's." Ryan tried to smile in reassurance.

"But it's not anyone's!" Kim's voice rose in agitation. "It's Clara's shoe."

"How do you know for certain?" Max asked, looking at it.

"Because we were talking about them. I said I liked them and I was surprised by the store she got them from." Kim said, her finger touching the label delicately.

Feeling sick, Max gazed around. The ground did look trampled. The implications of the shoe however were disturbing and he could see the same worry on Ryan and Kim's faces. It meant that at least Clara, probably both she and Oliver, had made it this far on foot, but something had driven them off the road.

"Surely they didn't run into the forest." Ryan shuddered. "Even when drunk that should seem like a bad idea."

"Something was stopping them using the road." Kim pointed out. "They'd only have gone in there if they were desperate."

"They should have turned back." Ryan shook his head as Max strode towards the tree line. Max ignored him, bending down at the sight of another sparkly object. He lifted it. "The other shoe." Ryan sighed.