Chapter 2

Tally opened her eyes to find herself still on the couch, surrounded by her friends. She sat up, stretching her arms as she got up and stepped around Maya and Matt on her way to the kitchen. She pulled out a bowl and a box of cheerios and set them down on the counter. She tipped the box over her bowl and watched as the last of the cheerios fell out of the box.

“Why don’t we have any milk?” Tally asked herself softly as she slammed the fridge closed and walked, grumpily back over to the counter. She had a spoon full of, dry, cheerios almost to her mouth when something fell in the family room, causing her to jump and spill the cheerios. She walked into the family room just in time to see Brad jump and fall off the couch.

“What was that?” He asked, rubbing his sore head as he looked around for Tally.

“I’m over her,” She answered from behind him.

“Oh,” Brad said, looking behind himself and smiling at her. “Do you know what made the noise?” Tally shook her head no. Brad looked around again. “Where are Bethany and Jackson?”

“I don’t know,” Tally said as she started toward the bedrooms. Brad followed close behind her. Both of the bedroom doors were open, so they guessed they weren’t in them, but they checked anyway.

“Um, Tally, how long has your window been broken?” Brad asked, coming out of her room.

“What?” Tally questioned as she pushed past him. She stared at her window, glass was spread all over the carpet, making it obvious that someone had broken it from the outside. Brad and Tally did a quick sweep of the rest of the apartment before heading out to the parking lot to find all the cars that were supposed to be there, still there. “Where could they have gone without a car?”

“I don’t know,” Brad answered. “But you’re not staying here. Come on, let’s go wake up the others and get your bags packed.” Tally followed Brad back up the stairs to her apartment. “You guys, wake up,” Brad said, loudly, throwing a pillow at Matt’s head.

“No, I want to sleep,” Matt moaned as he threw the pillow back at Brad.

“Jackson and Bethany are gone,” Tally said.

“Jackson probably had to get to work and Bethany has school,” Matt grumbled, trying to get Tally and Brad to let him sleep.

“Their car is still here,” Brad said levelly. Matt opened his mouth to argue. “All the cars are still here. And there’s a broken window in Tally’s room.”

“Hey wait a second why were you in…”

“The point is their gone,” Tally interrupted.

“What? Where’d they go?” Matt asked, jumping up. Bethany had been like a little sister to him since about the third grade. It wasn’t Matt’s fault he wasn’t very protective of her, he didn’t think he need to, it looked like Brad had that covered. When they were in high school Brad would bite off the head of whichever guy came along wanting to date Bethany.

“We don’t know,” Brad said through his teeth. It was killing him to know that he’d lost his baby sister.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go look for them,” Maya said as she got up, rubbing her eyes.

“We will, but first we need to get you two moved to somewhere safe,” Brad said.

“Hey, we wanna help look for them!” Maya said, outraged.

“You will, but you need somewhere safe to stay, not here,” Brad explained.

“Why? Here’s safe,” Maya said confused.

“Sure, tell that to the broken window in my room,” Tally said sarcastically. “Now come on, the sooner we’re out the better.” Tally turned and started back to her room to pack.

“Hey, shouldn’t someone call the police?” Matt asked, standing up and starting toward the kitchen.

“Um…Matt, how do we know they didn’t just go for a walk?” Maya questioned.

“Then why is my window broken?” Tally asked.

“I don’t know,” Maya admitted.

“Then hurry up and get packed,” Tally said before turning and walking to her room.

“Matt, call the police,” Brad said, before following Tally.

Matt pulled out his cell phone as he opened the fridge. He dialed 911 with one hand and grabbed the milk carton with the other.

“Hey, our friends were um… stolen? Kidnapped? I don’t know, but we woke up this morning and found two of our friends gone, their cars are still here and there is a broken window,” Matt said before going silent as the receptionist on the other end asked for the address. “Um,” Matt spoke choking on milk as he had tried to swallow too fast. “Just a sec,” he coughed before holding the phone away from his ear and calling to Maya. “Um, what’s the address here?”

“498 South Waterway Avenue.” Matt repeated the address to the receptionist.

“They’ll be here as soon as possible,” Matt said as he came out of the kitchen.

---

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I hope you like it. Review!!