Chapter Two: The Search

Justin and Katie visit his Uncle Jerry, in hopes that he can help them.

My baby sister.

   There was no way she was actually...gone. I just couldn't make sense of this. How could someone hurt my poor, innocent sister? Someone was going to have to pay for doing this to her. I was going to find her.

    "Katie?" I looked over to see her weeping, balled up on the floor.

    I realized I was shaking uncontrollably, and as was she. Never in my life have I had so many emotions run through me. Most likely, I would've cried, but the shock was guarding my eyes from tears.

    "I'm...so...sorry," Katie sobbed. "I tried to so hard to save her."

    "Don't blame yourself," I choked out, assisting her in standing. "It's not your fault."

    "She was your sister?" she buried her face in her hands.

    "Yes," I nodded. "Here, I'll take you home."

    "No," she shook her head. "I want to help you find her."

    "Katie, that could be really dangerous. Besides, your parents wouldn't be too happy about that." I helped her into the car and we drove down the road.

     "They'll be fine. I'll call and say I'm just taking a drive." she suggested.

     "We'd be gone longer than that." I pointed out.

     "I don't care. If I have to, I'll tell him the truth. Justin, please let me go with you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't." she pleaded in panic.

     "Fine," I sighed. "Let's go to my house and call the cops and my parents first."

    

 

"Mom?" I burst through the door to my house, taking Katie's hand.

    "Justin!" Mom came rushing towards me, throwing her arms around me. "Oh, thank God you're okay! The police are here!"

    That they were. Two cops were sitting on the couch, studying pictures of Bree with Dad, and at least three of four police cars were lined up outside.

    "Why are so many of them here?" I raised an eyebrow.

    "They didn't know where Bree was taken, so they all came here." she explained.

    "Wait, how do they even know?" I stepped backwards.

    "Well, you were at a gas station. Some cashier called the police, and found your I.D when you were knocked out. Are you okay?" she placed her hands on my cheeks.

    "I'm fine, for the most part. Mom, I'm so sorry." I couldn't even look at her.

    "Justin, don't be. This isn't your fault. We're going to find Bree." she assured me.

    "I hope," I nodded. "Oh, this is Katie, by the way."

    "Hi," Katie smiled and shook her hand.

    "Nice to meet you, Katie," Mom forced a smile.

    "Let's go upstairs," I whispered to Katie as Mom went back to talking to the cops.

    "We need a plan," I sat at the edge of my bed. "Cops are idiots. I want to find my sister myself."

    "Shouldn't you stay here where it's safe, Justin?" she sighed. "We can try to solve this case, but why should we go out there into that big dangerous world of criminals?"

    "Katie," I snapped. "Bree is my sister. She's the most important person in my life. I'm not going to let some crazed physco harm her. I need to find her myself. If you're not in, I'll take you home. If you are in, though, you need to trust me."

    "I do." she sat next to me. "Let's go find her."

    She hugged me before we began our plan. My plan was to go to my Uncle Jerry's house. He was a lunatic, but extremely intelligent. He could help us more than any police officer. So, we packed a bag with money, a flashlight, dark clothes, a cell phone,  and a knife, in case it came down to a fight.

    "How do we get out of here?" she questioned, silently opening my bedroom door.

    "We go out the back door. There's two sets of stairs, so we just use the other one." I told her, leading her to the other side of the hallway, where the stair cases met. "If my parents call, we'll explain what we're doing, and they won't be able to do anything about it."

    "I don't know about this. What if we get hurt? What will we eat? Where will we live?" she worried.

    "Calm down," I put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll sleep in cheap hotels, and buy food on the road. You won't get hurt. I'll protect you, I promise."

    "Let's just go," she hurried to get out the door before she could change her mind.

   

 

"Where's your Uncle Jerry's house?" she asked, checking the road map she kept in her pocket.

    "He lives in a small cabin out in the woods. We're almost there." I accelerated the car so we were zipping down the road. Hopefully, no stupid squirrels ran in front of our vehicle.

    "Why are we going to see him again? I mean, how is he supposed to help us?"

    "He's a detective. Well, used to be. He won't tell us what he does now, but he's crazy. I'm really not supposed to be associated with him at all, because my parents fear him for some secretive reason." I explained.

    "Secretive reason?" she repeated. "How secretive?"

    "My parents don't like to speak of it. Whenever Bree or I asked about it, they told us if we tried to bring it up again, we'd be grounded for a month."

    "I see. Are we there yet?"

    "Just about," I pulled onto the rocky road that my uncle lived on. Before pulling into his driveway, I took a deep breath.

    "Justin? Justin Scott?" Uncle Jerry rushed outside when he saw me step out of the car. "How's my nephew?"

    "Not so good," I shook my head and let out a great sigh. "This is my friend Katie, by the way."

    "Nice to meet you," she stayed a step behind me.

    "Pleasure," Uncle Jerry beamed. "Now, where's that sister Gabriella of yours? Have you ditched her at home to hang out with a pretty girl again?"

    "Actually," I kept my eyes shut. "Bree's in trouble. That's why we've come to you."

    "What's the matter?" worry deeply colored my Uncle's face. "Is she hurt?"

    "I don't know. She's been kidnapped, Uncle Jerry." I managed to say.

    "Pardon me?" he shook his head. "My niece Gabriella's been...taken away?"

    "Ye...yes." I choked out. Katie was near tears once more.

    "No! Justin, we have to save her!" Uncle Jerry pulled us inside.

    "Uncle Jerry, can you help us?" I begged. "You're our only hope!"

    "I don't know how to assist you, Justin! I'll help you in any way I can, though." he took a piece of paper sitting next to his fireplace and a pen from his coffee table. "This is my number. You can reach me any time. I'll help you from here."

    "Thanks," I nodded with appreciation. "What should we do from here? The sun's already going down, and it's getting darker every minute."

    "Go back to the scene of the crime." he answered, almost automatically. "Walk from there until you find clues. If this doesn't work, contact me, and I'll help you from there."

    "Thank you for your help, Uncle Jerry." I shook his hand gratefully.

    "Don't thank me. Just go find Bree!" he showed us the door.

 

 

"I'm glad you're here. If you weren't, I wouldn't remember how to get back to that gas station." I told Katie on our way to the scene of the crime.

    "I'm glad you're letting me help you," she responded, still studying her road map. "Oh, here it is."

    We pulled up next to the gas station and stepped out of the car.

    "Let's just go straight for right now," she suggested, taking the flashlight from my backpack.

   We walked straight on the dirt road for about ten minutes before we spotted headlights coming our way.

    "A car's coming!" I realized the vehicle was much closer than I thought. Katie panicked, so I grabbed her and ran her off the road.

    I looked back, keeping my arms around Katie tightly. The car had stopped, and a figure had come out of the car, and was walking slowly towards us.

    "Let's get out of here," Katie whispered, and we stood up.

    As we walked past the man, he was eyeing us deeply. Once we were a few steps past him, I glanced back to see him standing there, glaring at us.

    "He's scaring me," Katie put her arms around me for security.

    "Do you think he has something to do with it?" we kept walking.

    "Let's find out." she shrugged. "We can follow him with the car."

    We were almost by the car when I spotted him following us still. His eyes hadn't moved since we first saw him.

    "Okay, what do you want?" I finally spoke.

    He said nothing. He only kept his eyes locked on us.

    "Let's just get out of here," Katie pulled me with her.

    Once I was in the car, I realized that I'd been shaking again. I drove as quickly as possible, but after ten minutes, his car was right on our tail.

    "Justin!" Katie cried out. "He's dangerous!"

    "I think we've got that established," I pushed the car faster, but so did he. "We've got to lead him back to my house!"

    "Why don't you just call the police now?" she tried reaching for my cell phone.

    "Don't! He'll see you, and we'll lose him."

    "Isn't that the point?"

    "Katie, just trust me!" I practically was begging. It was all I could do not to tell her to shut the hell up.

    Only a few streets later, we'd lost him. He had taken another street, and was no longer following us.

    "Crap," I grunted. "We lost him"

    "Maybe he wasn't what we thought he was." she sighed with relief.

    "No, there was something strange about that man, Katie. We've got to find him." I turned the car around and onto the street he'd driven on.

    "We're onto something." I beamed at the idea of having my sister back.

    "You're going to get your sister back." she agreed.

   

   

Author's Note

So, I don't think I'm very good at this whole mystery thing, but I'm going to finish this piece. I never finish anything. So, hopefully I'll get better, just be patient. Hopefully this wasn't completely sucky though.

Reviews

[Forever and Always]

It was actually pretty good. I enjoyed reading it. I can't wait for the ending/