The Enchanted

Chapter-10

I was sitting in Sharon's sitting room making posters with huge pictures of her and the word missing written on the bottom. We had come here last night to find Sharon's mother in a frantic state. Apparently, Sharon's window was open and there was no sign of a struggle. As soon as Sabrina had heard all this, she had relaxed considerably and then spent the whole night calming Sharon's parents down. I had volunteered to help make the posters along with some other people as the police were not going to look for Sharon until forty-eight hours had passed.

I had just finished rolling up a poster when Sabrina came in looking tired but not worried.

"Let's go, Adriana," she said.

Grabbing my coat, I followed her out of the room to her car. I was feeling exhausted from staying up all night and I had to go to work in less than two hours.

"Sorry for dragging you into this," she said, looking at me apologetically.

"No, I'm glad you did. I wanted to help." I said, stifling a yawn. I was still wearing last night's clothes and badly wanted a shower.

"I don't think she is missing," Sabrina said, looking thoughtful.

"What?" I sat up in my seat in surprise. "Why didn't you tell her parents? And how do you know? Did she contact you?"

"No. It's just a theory. But Sharon is a free spirit. It's likely that she just ran away somewhere for a few days."

"Has she ever done something like that before?" I asked.

"No.," she said. "But she has talked about it before and it's definitely not out of character for her."

"Her parents look pretty worried."

"That's because they don't know her that well. They are away most of the time. I'm definitely not worried." she said, stopping in front of my house.

"Bye," she called out driving away. I waved back at her and went in. Closing the gate, I went straight to the shower.
An hour later, I was sitting at work trying not to fall asleep when my phone dinged with a message.

'Hey Adriana, Caleb here. I got your number from Sabrina. We are having an evening picnic by the lake. Wanna come?'

I sighed. I wasn't really in the mood for socialising tonight. I wondered how I could decline politely.

'Sorry Caleb, I am not really feeling up for it.' I wrote finally, putting my phone back on the desk.

'Aw, please say you will come. Everyone is coming to talk about Sharon and hang posters around the town.'

I bit my lip. I was beyond exhausted but I wanted to help look for Sharon. I didn't know her as well as Sabrina did and couldn't help feeling worried about her.

'I'll come.' I texted back. It looked like I was gonna have to sleep at work today.

                                       ***
Sabrina came to pick me up around seven and we headed to the river. She seemed to be in a good mood and was humming along to the radio. I knew why she wasn't worried but it still felt a little odd to see her this unbothered. I looked out of the window and saw the pretty town buildings pass by.

Audersbury was a quaint town with a mysterious feel to it as though it had a lot of secrets buried in deep. The wind was a warmer tonight but I still felt cold.

We reached the river and climbed down. Caleb waved us over, smiling brightly.

"You made it!"

Sabrina and Caleb immediately started exchanging news while I had a look around. I recognized one or two people from Sharon's party and I saw Moro standing quietly nearby. I suppose I should have gone over to say hello but for some reason, his voice really unnerved me. I knew it wasn't nice to ignore him just because I thought his voice was strange but I'd seen enough weird things in this town to last me a lifetime.

The picnic went on as people passed food around exchanging news about Sharon. 

"I saw her yesterday." said one of the girls I had seen at the party. "She seemed completely normal."

"Me too." said a guy who was sprawled on the grass.

"But you know how moody she was." protested Sabrina. "And how often she talked about running away."

"I agree," said Caleb, shoving chips in his mouth. The others murmured their assent.

"Hey- your name is Adriana right?" asked a girl with blue streaks in her hair. "What do you think?"

"Um, I'm new here. I only saw Sharon once at her party."

The girl looked disappointed on gaining no new information. Everyone continued talking and discussing. I felt too tired to say much and just listened, nodding along. The picnic broke up soon as everyone headed to the town to hang posters. I helped with the cleanup, packing all the wrappers and plates back in the baskets. The night grew colder and I wrapped my coat closer around myself.

We were split into groups of two and given instructions on where to hang the posters. I was paired with Sabrina as I still didn't know the town well. We worked mostly in silence, both of us not in the mood to talk. By the time we had hung the last poster, I wanted nothing more than to go home and fall asleep. We started walking back towards the car when Sabrina gripped my arm.

"What?" I asked, feeling alarmed.

"I wanted to take a small plant home for my mother," she said, nodding towards a little herb shop on the right. "Since we are here, I might as well buy it."

I allowed her to drag me along to the little shop. She pushed open the door and I stepped inside. Almost immediately I was hit by a blast of hot and humid air. I rubbed my hands together, grateful for the warmth. A large collection of plants lined the wall and the shelf behind the counter held lots of bottles and vials. A single light bulb was hanging from the ceiling and it was stifling hot inside the shop.

"Yes." croaked a voice from the back of the shop. "How may I help you?"

I turned towards the voice and nearly screamed. It was the old woman with the blackened teeth I had seen on my first day back here, huddled in a shawl.