Wake Me From This Nightmare

Chapter one; Investigation

After Jasey hadn’t returned an hour later, her mother and uncle began to worry. The meeting at finished half an hour after she had left and they had just presumed that some fans had seen her and she was signing autographs. But she had not answered her phone either which made them even more panicked as she always had her phone near her; she never missed a call. Vanessa, her mum, had already called her husband Joe to see if he knew where she was but he had no reply for her. Scooter and his sister stayed in the meeting room for several hours, expecting Jasey to come back with a reasonable excuse but it never happened.

Scooter and Vanessa shared the same look of worry the entire time which made them even more alike. People could have mistaken them for twins but Vanessa was older having the age of 42 whilst Scooter was only 33. They also had a brother Adam who lived in a different state but they were a close family. Vanessa worked as a lawyer but quit her job after Jasey became famous so she could spend more time with her children. She and Jasey shared the same shade of brown hair apart from that Jasey’s was naturally wavy whilst Vanessa’s was straight. Everyone in the Taylor family had brown eyes apart from Jasey who had ocean blue eyes that stood out in a crowd. All Vanessa wanted to do was see her daughter’s blue eyes so she knew she was okay.

Eventually, Scooter lost his temper and stormed out of the building telling his sister to stay in case Jasey returned. The first place he decided to look was the park where she usually ventured to in boring meetings since that building was the usual place for them. He walked through, tredding on the leaes, glancing around him looking for any sign of Jasey but found none. He reached the back of the park that he didn’t like. He found it creepy and too quiet for his liking. He knew that gangs hung around that area but he had to check just to be sure that Jasey hadn’t got into any trouble. He was about to turn a corner but a pink rectangular item caught his eye; Jasey’s iPhone. He swept it up and felt it buzz in his hand. It was Justin calling. He quickly answered before it went to voicemail then held it to his ear. “Hello Justin?” Scooter asked making sure it was him.

“Scooter? Where’s Jasey, I texted her telling her that I’d phone her but she never replied. Can I speak to her please?” Justin asked sounding rather confused. Why Scooter had picked it up and not his girlfriend who always had her phone right beside her, he thought.

“When was the last time she text you Justin?”

“I dunno about four and a half hours ago wishing me good luck. Scoot just tell me what’s going on.” Justin demanded. He knew something wasn’t right with this situation. Scooter explained that Jasey wandered off but hadn’t returned and how he’d found her phone on the ground. Both men were scared for Jasey’s sake now so Scooter hung up on Justin and phoned the police straight away. Overnight, an investigation had begun into the disappearance of Jasey Rae Taylor. 

Soon the press were involved. It was all over every newspaper or magazine worldwide that Jasey was missing. The top headline for several weeks was ‘TEEN SENSATION JASEY RAE TAYLOR DISAPPEARANCE’. The fans were devastated. Many went in search parties looking for anything they could find but there was no evidence. There was no evidence of where she could be, why she disappeared or is she was alive or not. It was like being told to find treasure with no map. It didn’t lead anywhere.

The Taylor’s were heartbroken. Jasey was the life and soul of the family, the glue to keep them together and without her, they fell apart. Vanessa would go out driving around L.A from 8 in the morning to midnight looking for her in house windows whilst Joe put his all into looking for evidence. He was a detective so he knew what to do and had experience with situations like these. He had demanded that he was the one who would lead the investigation. He would return to the park and investigate the grounds in hope to find anything but failed. Luke and Liam became quieter and rarely talked to their parents. They didn’t know what to say so as soon as they got back from school, they’d either go out or stay in their bedrooms.

Scooter struggled too. He had to put on a brave face and keep working. He had many artists to manage and he couldn’t let them down. But on the inside, he blamed himself. He believed that if he hadn’t let her leave that she wouldn’t have disappeared. Everyone had told him that it wasn’t his fault but he couldn’t believe it.

Justin was distraught. When the case was launched, he locked himself in a room and refused to come out. When he did, the room was trashed with his knuckles bloody. He couldn’t handle the fact that his beautiful girlfriend was missing. ‘Why her? Why couldn’t it be anyone else?’ he thought. Although the worst thought was, ‘what happens if she never returns?’ He couldn’t bear the thought of it but it managed to slip into his head anyway. There was so many things they still hadn’t done; so many plans that had not been put into action; such as sneaking into a cinema to watch his film ‘Believe when it was released. Jasey hadn’t seen the film yet because Justin wanted her to see it once it had finished. They had never been on a Ferris wheel together due to Jasey’s fear of heights but they had talked about doing it. They hadn’t been to Disneyland together or done a concert together. All these things they had talked about but never achieved. The thought of never getting the chance to do that made his heart ache painfully.

But the worst thing was no one what happened to her. No one knew whether she had been kidnapped, drugged… killed or anything. For all they could know, she could have left herself without any warning but that was highly impossible since Jasey hated being alone.

As the investigation came into the sixth month, people began to give up. Searches had stopped and only few people were involved in the investigation. They planned to close the investigation, against her family’s wishes, because there was nothing they could do. The police had absolutely no evidence what's so ever. Although days after they had announced that the case was closed, an anonymous person claimed he had seen Jasey being killed three months earlier. The person had written to the police telling them he had seen men take her into a barn where he heard her screams for help. When the men left the barn, they carried a bag the shape of the body.

Police searched for the writer but couldn’t find anything. It had no fingerprint marks or any return address. So they had to go by the only piece of evidence they had and officially ended the investigation again. When the news came out that she was dead, the world crumbled beneath all her loved ones’ feet; her parents, Luke and Liam, Justin, Scooter, Miley, her other best friend Lily (Collins), her crew and her fans. It was heartbreaking for every single one of them. But Vanessa refused to accept that she was dead. She kept looking for leads and wouldn’t mourn over her daughter unless they found her body. She knew inside her that her daughter wasn’t gone but no one believed her. Scooter sent her to counselling but she wouldn’t have any of it. People thought she'd gone crazy when she would repeat, "My daughter is not dead" over and over again to herself.

It took Justin a long time to get over it but he believed she was dead. There was no other proof so what else could he presume?

But no one had thought that it could have been a fake letter. No one thought that the letter was just to stop the police from finding her. No one thought that she could really be alive, working as a slave in another country.