The Sisters of the Dragon Coin

Gone

No one will ever see this except my friend but just wanted to let you know that I love you so much. 

It was a funny concept, Rachel had pondered years later, that if her mother hadn't been cleaning that morning, she probably wouldn't have gotten up at all that horrible morning. Whether that was for better or worse, she didn't know. 

But it was the constant sound of the vacuum that had awoken her that morning. She had tried to ignore it, but it's roar filled the small apartment to the point that denying its presence by continuing to pretend to sleep was pointless. She stumbled out of the bunk bed, cursing as she stepped on the clown figurine Agnes had jokingly gotten her for her birthday. Even though it was supposedly made of porcelain, it seemed invincible to all forces of nature. It was almost a game she played- no matter what she did, the creepy little face wouldn't crack. She kicked it to the side, and heard it slam against the wall. That ought to do it. 

She wasn't surprised when her doorknob fell off, and chose to throw it onto the pile of clothes that had gathered on the floor, and just pushed her way out of her room. She slumped towards the kitchen, and opened the fridge to find two slices of drugstore pizza from the night before. She slipped them into the toaster, and turned her attention towards the two week old curry. She sniffed it, declared it digestible, and poured some into a bowel to warm up. Of course the microwave had to be broken. Whatever- cold curry was good too. 

"What are you doing?" Her mother had stopped her cleaning rampage to stare at her. "I have some warm dosa on the table if you want it," She wrinkled her nose at the smell emitting from the kitchen. "Is that-" 

"Daddy's store pizza?" Rachel guessed what she was about to say. "Yup. What can I say? I just love the taste of chemicals. Also what are you doing cleaning this early in the morning?" 

"Rachu," Her mother scolded her, using the nickname she had been given when she was younger. "look outside- see the flowers blooming? I am spring cleaning."

"Mom, it's the first day of June!" She made a face as the pizza dinged up, and attempted to yank it out of the toaster quickly before she could feel the burn from the heat. "You're kind of late, you know." 

"Better late than never," the older woman muttered, as she began to put the vacuum away. "And you dare judge me when you make that monstrosity," 

Rachel rolled her eyes as she lathered the curry onto the pizza with a spoon, smoothing it out in order to get all the edges and rolling it up into a tight scroll-like shape. "You just can't experiment," She retorted, "It's called fusion, thank you very much. Also, don't blame this food's creation on me- your favorite child invented it." 

"Oh, Agnes," Her mother sighed, knowing exactly who was being referred to and not denying it. "I can excuse that though- at least she's succsessful in life. What is she at today? A science race?"

"No, the state champs for math or something," Rachel clarified, knowing she wasn't exactly helping her case. "Besides, what if I marry an Italian guy? Then I'm going to combine so much stuff together- how does naan pizza sound?" She made her way to the living and dining room hybrid and sat at the cluttered table. 

"As long as you don't marry British, we're good." 

There was a strange moment of silence then, where Rachel just waited for her food to cool down, and listened to her mother making her own breakfast in the kitchen. She heard the door to her family's supermarket jingle open, and her father yelling his welcome at the customer. It was still early, so the usual saturday crowd wasn't in yet. When they finally did come, the noise was almost deafening. The thin walls did little to cover any sort of noise. 

She took little notice of when her mother's phone rang, and began to feast on the breakfast she had forged together. It wasn't until she heard  "Cara? No, I'm sorry, we haven't seen Agnes at all. Is everything okay?" that she realized something was terribly wrong.

"What?" Rachel stood up quickly, dropping her plate to the floor. It shattered, her breakfast among the pieces. Her mother ignored this and put a finger to her lips as she listened to Mrs. O'Malley. Even from across the room, she could hear the frantic Irish voice of her best friend's mother, though she couldn't hear any specifics.

"Cara, you have to call them." The older woman said with an air of finality. "Agnes is a good girl- we both know she wouldn't run off like this. Oh, they're on their way? Even better. Rachel and I will be there in a few minutes. We're going right now,"  Not bothering to bid goodbye, she hung up and grabbed the shawl hanging up on the back of the chair. 

"Mom, what happened?" Rachel asked, following her as she grabbed her bag and wrapped the shawl around her. 

"What do you think happened?" Her mother turned and snapped harshly at her. She regained control and breathed in. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled. But Agnes is gone." 

It wasn't until her mother called her to get out the door did that really sink in. Gone. Gone.

-----------------

"Was Agnes acting strange the last time you saw her?" A police man now questioned her, tapping his pen against the little notebook he held in his hand. He had introduced himself prior to this- it had  been some sort of complicated Polish name, and truthfully she couldn't pay much attention.

"No, sir," Her leg bounced from nerves as she glanced at Mrs. O'Malley, who sat hunched on the worn down sofa. She remembered when they had found that old thing in front of the Red Hen, and how Agnes convinced her to help drag it into their small apartment. They had had to carry it through five busy blocks, up the four stories of her walkup and squish it through the tiny door. It had been such a tiring task that neither girl left that sofa from Friday until Sunday night. But it was worth it to see how happy Mrs. O'Malley had been. What a contrast to now. 

"And what was the last thing you two talked about?"

She had to think for a moment. "I remember that we talked about how she almost burnt down an apartment with children in it on her first babysitting job," 

He paused while writing this down. "This is.. normal for her, correct?"

"Yeah, very," She let out a melancholy laugh, and tried to not let the gasp of a sob Mrs. O'Malley get to her. 

"Now this is very important," The man looked at all of them now. "Did she let anything on about wanting to go anywhere or do anything specific? These types of clues can mean everything if it truly was a runaway.

"Agnes did NOT run away," Rachel herself was surprised at the strong tone of her voice. "She couldn't  have- she wouldn't. She told me herself that she would see on Monday. And she meant it. I know she did. And she wouldn't... there's no way," She paused and closed her eyes, before continuing in a low voice. "Agnes would never do this to Mrs. O'Malley. Never." 

"The girl's right," A burly officer came up from behind him. "Captain Mendez, Ma'am. There is no way your daughter left that room- the window's not big enough to fit a three year old, and the room's been torn apart. Are you absolutely sure there's no way to get out of her room?" 

Mrs. O'Malley looked at him with wide eyes. "No, " She finally said. "I had to knock down the door to even get in. She always locks it, you know. Doesn't want burglars in her room. The only way yeh can even lock it is from the inside, y'know." She checked her wrist watch and let out a small cry. "God, ten AM. She's supposed to be competing right now." 

Captain Mendez put a hand on hers. "You're coming down to the station." He ordered gently. Mrs. O'Malley barely nodded as she rose from the couch. Rachel still sat in her chair, and it wasn't until her mother was able to drag her up did she leave.

Agnes is missing. Agnes isn't here. We don't have a clue.

Agnes is gone