The Moth Effect

Chapter 2

                                                  May 22nd 2013

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Waffles—waffles was what I was having for breakfast today. I yawned for the second time and pushed two frozen waffles into the toaster. I sat down at the wooden table and waited for about 1 and 30 seconds, the now toasted waffles jumped up peeking out of the toaster, I pinched the ends of the waffles as they were cooling off. Unplugging the toaster, I sat down and enjoyed the waffles with a bit of syrup on top.

My phone started to vibrate, indicating that someone was calling me. I answered and put it on speaker, "Hey...Ashley, heard you took the case?" It was Meghan, "Yeah! I did. It's not as bad, I guess."

"Yeah...you're doing interviews today? Right?" She asked.

"Mhm."

"Did you watch the news last night?" Meg questioned, her voice saddened as she asked. "Nope. Why?"

"Well. A teen went missing that night and...I noticed as I looked closer, the pictures of the boy...." she paused and sniffed, "looked exactly like my younger brother, Ryan!" I looked up from my plate and to my phone, "Your brother? How old was he again?" I asked, quickly grabbing my voice recorder. I never thought i'd be doing one interview so early in the day. 

"He was 17.."

"I haven't really seen him since we were kids, so what did he look like now?" I started to ask more and more questions, as I continued to ask, Meg's voice got sadder and she sounded more broken than ever. 

"Do you want me to stop?" Getting more worried about her than her missing brother, "No! My brother needs to be found. Please ask as many questions as you need to help find my brother!" She cried, I nodded knowing she couldn't see me nod and responded. "Alright, later tonight we can continue this but I have to go work. I'm sorry about your brother, love you Meg. Stay safe."

"Okay, love you too. Talk to you later."

So, her brother's name is Ryan, he's 17, has very short, black hair, hazel eyes, his skin tone is exactly like Meghan's—mixed. The last thing she saw him wearing was a grey sweater and blue jeans. The last thing he said to her was, "I'm going out with some friends." That's what Meghan remembers him saying. It was 11:20 pm the time he left. She said it was weird since Ryan wasn't the type to go out that late at night. 

From the little evidence I had, I decided that since we had cameras setup around that specific forest area, I could see if the cameras captured anything. I made my way to my usual bus stop, as I was waiting, I heard an odd faint bell ringing. I didn't know where it was coming from but ignored it. It then got louder and sounded like a bell that went off when you opened a door to a café. I covered my ears and looked around, nobody was here, I turned to see if there was anyone behind me. There was not a single soul there either. The noise got louder and louder, I crouched down and squeezed my hands against my ears trying to block out the bell. I looked up and saw the city bus arrive, the noise suddenly stopped. I inhaled sharply and exhaled insanely quick, swiftly grabbing my bag and hopping onto the bus, plopping myself onto the incredibly soft, front row seat.

        The family's that I interviewed were pretty nice except for two. A father and mother were devastated and angry that their daughter and son went missing back in 2006, but they were more angry when I interviewed them.

"What's your children's names?" I asked, with a slight frown upon my face, looking up the two. "Mei and Victor Lee."

I nodded as I had my voice recorder recording the convo and my notepad to the side. "Mhm. How old were they when they went missing?" 

"Victor was 17 and Mei was 16." The mother responded and the father nodded. 

"What did they both look li-" I started but then suddenly got cut off by the mother who seemed to be more pissed than ever, she stood up and slammed the table, "We don't want to keep being asked these questions!! They went missing 7 years ago!? They are most likely dead!! Why are you guys just NOW starting to investigate this missing situation!! It's been happening since 2006!!" She screamed, I mean I can't blame her for being so mad, I would've been pissed if my kids went missing 7 years ago and I'm just now being asked questions. I sighed trying not to lose my cool, "ma'am please sit back down, we have just a few more questions. And they could still be alive-" 

"Oh really? The chances of that even happening are very low!!" The woman responded.

"But they are never zero, ma'am.." I looked at her with a worried expression, "now may we please continue?" My voice recorder was still recording the conversation, I tried my best not to roll my eyes, she nodded and sat back down. "Thank you...."

I continued to ask questions and they continued to answer. Mei had dark brown, long hair and  dark brown eyes, her body description being small and slim. Victor had dark brown, short, and wavy hair and lighter brown eyes, his body was slim like Mei's but he was taller than her. The last thing that their parents remember them saying was,"We are going out with friends."  It was 12:00 am when they left. The father said he thought nothing of it and the mother said that she thought it was too late but let them go anyways. The only thing that was different was that they came back in the morning around 8:30 am and left again at around 5:00 pm. They both claimed that they slept over at a friends house, then when they left again they both were going on a walk, that time they never came back.

The second family that was stubborn is something I don't want to remember. I shook my head and went to go look back at the security camera footage in my office. "Hey Ash. What are you about to do?" One of my co-workers, Ethan asked.

"Just about to check the security footage. Why are you asking, Ethan?"

"I just wanted to ask. Can I come with you?" He pleaded, I sighed, "sure. Whatever."