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Into Thin Air

Chapter 9

Agent Kevin Orsen was tall, over six foot and slender but well build. His hair was a light brown but getting grey, receding on the top of his head, skin showing wrinkles and signs of aging. He headed over to the apartment right after work, after receiving a phone call from my father's friend. Kristina let him in, and I hardly listened as he shook hands with her and my father. I didn't stand.

Again the story was retold, seeming slower then the last time. I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands, not bearing to hear the message again. My whole body ached, wishing I could just go back to last night. Fifteen hours ago. If I could go back that many hours, I could have picked her up and she would have been here with me now. Safe and loved.

As they spoke, Kristina's words replayed in my mind. It didn't seem possible that something could happen to her. I stared at the phone, wishing it would ring. I would pay any ransom money to get her back to me. I lifted my head to listen to the conversation.

"It sounds to me like trafficking." Agent Orsen stated. Kristina put her face in her hands and my father looked down.

"Trafficking? What. . .what do you mean?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Sex trafficking. We see this all the time. Commonly in tourists, in foreign countries. But its not unheard of here. I'm afraid if we don't find her in the next two days, all tracks will go cold."

My heart dropped.

I felt my face muscles contract involuntarily.

There would be no ransom call, no men looking for money in exchange for Darcy. We had 48 hours before she was gone forever. Sentenced to a life of. . .I couldn't even think the word.

"So what do we do?" I asked. The silence in the room was thick.

"I have someone working on the phone message right now. I sent an email to the trafficking unit too, to get some leads on other cases in the area. Until then I'd like to go the scene of the abduction." It seemed ironic that the fate of my girlfriend was in an email.

"I'll take you." I stood up.

"No, Rayden, you don't have to-"

"Yes I do." I mumbled, cutting Kristina off. "I need to do this." No one else protested.

~~~

"Turn here." The outside of the club looked like any old building during the day. There seemed to be no one inside.

"There seems to be no signs of struggle in the front." He said, and we started to drive to the back. The pavement was wet from the night of rain.

In the back, things looked as average as ever. It was odd to think that something so horrible could happen and the world would continue without even a scar. I wondered if I drove past places all the time that meant nothing to me, but everything to someone else. Every sidewalk bench could be the place where a loved one was lost. The world seemed dark and shitty.

"I think I see something. Let's get out and look." We silently parked the car and got out, walking over to the back of the building. I hesitated at first. Who knows what we could find. But I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. For Darcy.

We headed over, starting at the back door. "Is this where she usually leaves from?" I nodded. Agent Orsen hopped onto the steps, walking down.

"What are you doing?" I asked skeptically.

"In order to understand what happened, we need to put ourselves in Darcy's shoes." He said. "So I exit from this door, closing it behind me." He said, pulling at the door. "Is it always locked?
" I nodded and he took a few steps down.

"She was talking on the phone."

"Your right. Thats very good, Rayden. She's calling Kristina's voice mail, leaving a message. So she walks out into the rain, and what happens next?" We looked out into the deserted parking lot.

"There's no one here, how are we supposed to know what she saw?" I felt useless and stupid, retracing footsteps when Darcy was still moving forward.

"Thats right, there is no one here. But someone was here last night. She probably saw something. She walks out into the parking lot, and when she sees the car, she knows something is wrong. So what does she do?" I rubbed my hands over my face.

"She runs." I said after a moment. "She's a smart girl, she would know to run."

"She sounds like a smart girl." He said, turning around to face the building. "What's this over here?" We headed to the corner, where something caught the light of the wet pavement.

There on the ground, was the broken remnants of Darcy's cell phone. The back was shattered, the battery a few feet away, and the screen torn off. "This must have been where they-" He stopped, for my sake I suppose. "She must have headed to the door first, but once it was locked she ran this way. And here she was cornered." I looked up at the corner of the building, only a few feet away. She was so close.

"There must have been at least two men, to outnumber her. Maybe three. They would have to corner her, and then get her into the back of a van." Now that we were at the scene, I could suddenly picture it much too vividly. Men in black masks picking her up and tossing her. I reached out the touch the pavement.

My thoughts were interrupted when Agent Orsen's phone rang. He answered it, turning away from me. I sank down, defeated on the pavement. My clothing absorbed the water, leaving me wet and uncomfortable on the cold ground, but I didn't notice. Where was she at this very moment? Is she in the back of a van still? Have they drugged her? Is she in pain? Is she already at the place they're taking her? I picked up her phone and rubbed the broken screen, trying not to think about what she would be doing then.

"Good news," I looked up to find Agent Orsen off the phone. "That was a buddy of mine who's still working. He's agreed to take on the case, as a favor. They think it could be related to a string of recent abductions in the area."

"I want you to take the case." I stated, before I realized what I was saying. There was something about his comforting words, his accepting attitude that made me sure he was the one. Handing the case to someone else seemed tedious.

"Well, I am retired, so I'm not allowed to head the case." I realized I looked pathetic, begging him to help while I sat on the wet pavement. "But I can certainly participate in the search. I'll do everything I can to get her back to you."
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Hello :) I know some of you have been looking forward to this (I dont know that at all LOL I would hope someone still reads this though). I'm really busy with school right now but I'm also really relaxed and happy and yeah so I've been getting a lot of writing done for the other storied I have up, please check them out!

And please leave me comments about this chapter! We had a big reveal (note: this is obviously a very serious issue, it's rampant across the world and I am only as well studied in it as I can be from media/television/internet, so please excuse any inaccuracies that may occur at any point in the future, I'm trying my best to be accurate!) Tell me what you think will happen next :) I'll try to update soon

<3