Free Fall - Into Other Worlds

Chapter 1: The Mystery Of The Library

"Detective Kross?" A woman's wavering voice called out from the car speakers.

"Speaking." A sunken-faced man answered while scratching at his salt n' pepper stubble. He was tired as hell from doing a double shift and had been stuck in traffic for over an hour. So in other words, he wasn't in the best of moods. "Who is this? What do you want?"

"I'm calling from the city library," the speaker was hesitant as she'd never called a police officer before. "Our manager said we were to call you at this number if we ever saw the girl in the picture we were given."

"So you're saying that girl is at the library right now?"

"Yes, she went towards the archives in the lower level."

After ending the call, he slammed his fist on the dashboard. "Dammit!" he growled. "That little brat won't give me a break!"

Detective Kross signalled and pulled out of the slow moving traffic that would have taken him home. With anger practically steaming from his ears, he did an illegal u-turn and headed back into the city. His anger didn't last long though. Listening to the sound of the heavy rain hitting his car soon calmed him. He was tired and frustrated right now, but he was aware his anger shouldn't be directed at others. Especially Kara Blake, the girl currently in the library. Not because her mother was in-charge of psych evaluations in the police department, but because she simply wanted answers as to why she'd lost two of her closest friends. It was all the more frustrating as both missing persons cases were still sitting within the pile of papers on Detective Kross's desk.

Back in early March, seventeen-year-old Mia Williamson disappeared. Security cameras last showed her going into the lower level of the library, but there'd been no sign of her ever leaving. The entire building had been searched from top to bottom, but there was no trace of her found anywhere. If she had been abducted, no ransom demand was ever made to her family. It had already been four months, and the case was completely cold.

What made matters worse was a friend of the missing girl, Ren Choi, started looking into her disappearance in late April. Knowing what project Mia was working on, he'd begun visiting the lower level archives to find clues the police might have missed. Who would have thought within the first week of May, just two months after Mia, Ren Choi would also disappear without a trace? He became another thin case file on Detective Kross's desk that was just as cold as the previous one.

These two case files had become a constant headache for Detective Kross, for he couldn't remove them from his caseload even though they were impossible to solve. It wasn't due to his sense of duty to find these two missing teens, but due to the constant nagging and harassment from Kara Blake. Mia and Ren happened to have been her best friends since pre-school, and she wasn't about to give up on them without finding answers.

Recently Kara had been going to the library to see if she would also disappear. Of course Detective Kross wasn't about to risk the well-being of the police department's psychologist Dr. Evelyn Blake's only child, and so he'd set up a system for the library to call him whenever Kara dared to go investigate so he could drag her back home.

Shaking off his umbrella, Detective Kross stomped into the massive city library while grumbling to himself. Walking through the long hall of endless bookshelves he followed the signs to take him down to the lower level where the archives available to the public were kept. The air was musty down in the lower level causing the detective to scrunch his nose. He made his way down the centre aisle, looking left and right down each row he passed. Finally he caught sight of what he was looking for sat on the floor at the far end of an aisle.

"Hey brat!"

The girl with two childish hazel plaits hanging over her shoulders looked up. Rolling her amber eyes, she plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Hello Ivan! You got here fast today. How did you know I was here?"

"It's Detective Kross, you little brat," he growled as he walked over. "I'm a friend of your mother, not you." His anger sparked again when he saw her eyes roll at his words. "I thought I'd told you not to come here anymore. What exactly do you hope to accomplish by coming here?"

Kara sat up straight and gave him serious look that didn't match her childish attire. "Are you even willing to listen to my plan?"

"I'm listening. Tell me why you're here dressed like a tween. It doesn't suit you at all by the way."

She ignored his comment and began to tell him her plan with excitement. "You see, I figured there must be some sort of hidden entrance in this lower level that leads to some unknown place under the city. You see it all the time in movies. Anyway, I'm guessing whomever abducted Mia and Ren must lurk around down here to grab their victims. So I dressed like I'm innocent and weak hoping to catch the culprit's attention."

Detective Kross's neck turned red and veins started to bulge under his skin. Gritting his teeth he asked with a strained calmness, "And what exactly do you hope to gain from attracting the culprit's attention?"

"What do you mean? To let them abduct me of course." Her nonchalant way of saying this made the detective steam with anger. "If I let them take me back to their lair, then I can find out what happened to Mia and Ren. If the two of them are still there, then I can beat-up the culprit and save them."

"Are you COMPLETELY STUPID??" His roar was deafening in the quiet space of the lower level. "Let yourself be abducted? Beat-up the culprit? Who do you think you are? Super girl? You don't even know if it's an individual or a group, yet you think you can easily fight them and save your friends? Don't be so ridiculous! The chance of them even still being alive is..." He stopped himself from continuing his rant upon seeing Kara flinch.

"You're wrong!" she snapped at him. "They are definitely alive! I refuse to believe otherwise unless you bring me their bodies as proof! And so what if my plan has a lot of holes? At least I'm doing something to find them!"

Her words hit him where it hurt. It's true he hadn't and wasn't doing anything, but that's because there wasn't any evidence or leads to follow. The only option would be to go to a psychic, and there was no way he was doing that. Calming himself down he tried once more to reason with her.

"What about your mother? Have you thought about her at all? If you disappear as well what will she do? After what happened to your father do you really want to put her through that again?"

Kara's shoulders slumped in defeat. He was right. No matter how much she wanted to find Ren and Mia, she couldn't risk hurting her mother like that. Her chest ached from her torn loyalties between family and friendship. But in the end, both Ren and Mia had family to look for them, whereas her mother only had her.

"Come on, I'll drive you home," said Detective Kross while offering her a helping hand. He was relieved when she nodded weakly and took his hand to stand up. Turning to lead the way down the row of towering bookshelves, he calmly thought about how once he'd dropped her off he could finally go home and sleep.

Kara tugged her colourful tunic that had been rucked up while she was sitting down over her leggings. Her eyes gazed over all the books and files filling the shelves surrounding them as she reluctantly followed the detective. Something suddenly caught her eye. A small light had flashed from within the shelf next to her.

Stopping, she looked closely but there was nothing there. Just as she began to doubt her eyes, the light flashed again. What was that? She stepped closer and reached into the shelf to feel if there was something behind the books. As her fingers brushed the back of the shelf, the white light flashed again. This time though the light was so bright it was blinding and engulfed her entire being

Not hearing footsteps behind him, Detective Kross looked back to see Kara wasn't following him. "Kara?" he called out as he walked back to the row they were just in. It was empty. "Kara!" he yelled angrily. "Where are you?"

His anger soon turned to worry as he failed to find her within any of the aisles of the lower level. He called for the library staff to help search while he checked the security footage. After watching the footage the detective's shoulders slumped and his heart sank, he realised he wasn't going to be able to sleep today either. Calling-in to report the case, he dreaded what he was going to say to Dr. Blake. How on earth was he supposed to explain to her that her daughter went missing while he was only a few feet away?