THE STARKS ALLEY

22

KELSIE'S POV

10 DAYS LATER...

"People went crazy for The Coco Monkey Nuts and..."

"You mean they went nuts!" Kelly said and everybody in the room laughed.

"Yes, Kelly," Kent said, "So this new series is going to be bigger and better. It's also going to be our first time directing and producing a series!!" Everybody in the room cheered, "Which is why I need everybody who worked on the last movie to be on board for this one and that includes Kristie."

Everyone in the room looked around to see if they could see Kristie but this was yet one of the many days that she was absent. Everyone had noticed that by this time.

"Give a girl one important speech to read and she becomes so proud she stops showing up!" Miss P shouted in distress.

"Kelly and Kelsie, I need you to find her before the end of the week and bring her here since she's not answering my calls or returning my texts," Kent said firmly before dismissing us.

I decided to keep quiet after telling Kelly about it and he also didn't talk about it. That doesn't mean it didn't worry me. I had it in my gut that something went wrong somewhere.

Kelly and I decided to go over to Kristie's house one last time because we didn't have another place to look. Someone else had already moved in to their old house and they had no idea who Kristie was. This is after I checked, of course.

We drove over to Crammer West with the hope that Kristie might be home eating ice cream as she would have wanted to on that night. Kelly went up the flight of stairs pretty quickly than I did.

"You need to see this..." he said before going back inside. The place was trashed and everything was all over the place, including blood.

I don't know for how long it went, but my scream was powerful enough to alert the neighbors. Mr. Haymahn was the first to arrive of course. That was the first time I had seen him so devastated and terrified. The other neighbors rushed there and it caused a huge commotion. Someone had called the police because they arrived within a few minutes and drove everyone outside. Kelly was meant to answer all the questions they asked because I was unable to utter a single word. I was seated alone in the car as I looked at Kristie's apartment. All the windows were opened so the blood wouldn't reek and the neighbors wouldn't know anything.

I also saw Kent at the scene. Kelly must have called him here. He saw me in the car and rushed towards me.

"Kelsie..." he said hugging me when I got out of the car. I didn't know what to feel but pain and agony.

"We will get to the bottom of this sir," the policeman said to us reassuringly. An investigation needed to be done especially because Kristie's body wasn't there.

I was taken home by Kelly as Kent told us he had a few things to take care of. When we got there, Dale was there.

"What do you want?" Kelly said as he charged at him, "This is all your fault!" It seems word got round quickly. It was all over the news because she was a member of The Starks Alley. That was a big deal.

"We're all to blame," Dale retorted, "We all had our share in hurting her so don't put this on me."

"If you had been faithful, none of this would have happened!" I yelled at him.

"If you hadn't chosen that crappy apartment for her then you wouldn't feel so guilty as well!" He yelled back at me.

"Clearly both of your secrets made her take her own life! She's dead because of you and you dragged me into this mess!" Kelly was equally frustrated.

"She's dead?" Dale asked.

"You should have seen the blood at her apartment. She wouldn't have survived whatever happened to her."

"It's nothing confirmed yet," I said trying to give myself hope that Kristie was alive somewhere.

"Even if she is, why would she come back? No one has been nice to her except me... and Izzy! Izzy might know where she is!" Kelly suggested.

"Yeah but didn't you hear? Izzy and Monic traveled back to Poland on the night of the party. He's long gone by now," I pointed out. No one had him and Monic so we all assumed that they were really gone.

"Well I'm going to find her before the police do. I'll look for her in every hospital if I have to because if she lost all that blood then she has to be getting treatment somewhere." Dale was definitely determined to find her.

"You mean if she's still alive," Kelly said.

"We can cover more ground if we work together." I have no idea why Dale cared while before he avoided Kristie. It was hard to understand that.

"I need time away from this first," I said, walking to the house.

"The more time we take, the less likely my Kristie is to be alive."

"She stopped being yours the day you cheated and you know that. Even I treated her better than you did," Kelly intervened.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dale was clearly surprised.

Kelly narrated how he and Kristie had been fake dating for months and even though Dale pretended not to be hurt by it, he was broken by each word that came out of Kelly's mouth.

"I've heard enough. Both of you just think about my offer and I'm sure we can find Kristie; dead or alive. I'll start today." He then entered his car and drove off.

I got into my room and I looked at the note I picked from Kristie's room. The more I read it, the more I believed she was truly gone.