The Perfect Hybrid

CHAPTER XII

AN: I have been MIA for two weeks because duh! I am enjoying the holidays and I wish all of you did too. I decided to take my mind off of everything about me and decided to spend time with my family. I wish you all did the same and had a great time at that. I also had a migraine for three days, can you believe that? I spent the New Year's Eve with a migraine. What a painful way to start the year. Anyway, let's hope that this year, and this decade will be good to all of us.

By the way this story, I promise, will be finished this year because the updates shall now continue every week!

This chapter is not really that much edited, so bear with it for awhile!

Gosh! I have already said enough! Now, on to the story...

*****

Ella

"Grandma?"

"Ella," she said as she looked at me the same way my mom looks lovingly at me.

"Is this a dream?" I asked out loud. "Am I in another dream?"

"No, child," she answered. "I am real. I am here. And this is real."

"Oh, grandma!" I then hugged her as tightly as my weak body could.

I can't believe it! She's really here. She's finally home.

My grandmother went missing when I was at the end of my junior high. My parents decided to have an early celebration so they decided to have lunch in one of those fancy restaurants. My grandmother, however, offered to stay and look after the house. Although we urged her that it will be so much fun if she come with us, she insisted and told us to have fun. And when we came back, the house was empty.

At first, we thought that she just decided to visit where she and grandpa used to live, because she usually did whenever she misses him, but when we went to her room, her things, her clothes, all of her stuff were still there. My dad immediately drove to my grandma's and grandpa's old place for four hours only to find out that it was also empty. We asked our neighbors, and even went to our other estates but she was not there. It was then that we finally gave up and called to report a missing person. Dad even hired a private investigator. It took that person a week before coming back to us without information on her location.

Even after that, we still kept our search. For a month, we tried to go back to where my grandma would usually go whenever she's on vacation. But we still came up with nothing. It was then, we assumed the worse. A thought of her death struck us but was quickly dismissed due to the fact that there were no reports of a dead body for a month. We assumed that she was kidnapped but we don't have any proof or even leads on who would do such a thing. The police even suggested that she probably just wondered off and forgot how to get back which was ridiculous considering that my grandma has a sharp memory even at the age of 83.

We looked everywhere for years, yet we found not even a single trace where she might have been.

Seeing her now in front of me, being able to talk to her and hug her is enough to make me forget what happened to me.

It was then that questions from before started to swirl in my mind.

Where was she?

What happened to her?

How come she never came back to us?

Why did she leave?

With these questions in my mind, I pulled away from her embrace and looked at her.

"Grandma, what happened to you?" I started. "We've been looking everywhere for you. Where were you all these years?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she cupped my cheeks and stared into my eyes.