Chapter One

‘The person you are calling is temporarily unavailable. Please try later.’ The automated message rang in Cassie’s ears as she pressed the ‘end call’ button on her small blue mobile phone. It was nearly witching hour, and her older sister Roxanne had not yet returned from her workplace, an old record shop on Durham street, named ‘World Records’. She had a shift which ran from eight until ten at night, which Cassie found pointless as no-one really visited old record shops at that time of night. In fact, the shop itself was on the verge of closing down as they recently adopted a new manager, because unfortunately, the previous manager, Jim Stock (who was very enthusiastic about records) died of old age, and the new guy didn’t seem at all bothered. The business was plummeting.

Roxxie had to work two shifts every weekday to get enough money for the groceries, as her dad never did anything outside of the office study. She worked at minimum wage, but never complained, which was unlike her. The sisters rarely saw their father other than on special occasions.

So Roxanne was two hours late. Cassie frequently checked her text inbox, but she wasn’t receiving any text messages. She contemplated telling her dad, but he would probably be too busy working on something ‘highly important’. Yeah right, Dad,

she thought. This situation sent chills up her spine as her mum had died in a way which seemed all too similar to this- Cassie didn’t think her sister was dead, but her mum died in a car accident on her way back from a business trip in London, and they didn’t get informed until a couple of hours later. So you can see why she was worried.

Cassie checked the time on her phone; it was now four minutes past twelve, past midnight. She felt she really should’ve been asleep, but was far too anxious to rest.

Jim Stock had actually been a close friend of the Maple family, and used to give Roxanne a ride home every weekday in his blue Peugeot 206. Roxanne was rebellious, but she didn’t seem to mind his company, which was surprising. He was a sweet old chap. Since then, though, Cassie’s mum’s friend, Richard Moore, who worked as a policeman like her mother, had been giving her lifts home for the past few weeks; it had been a single month since Jim’s life had come to a demise. Actually, Richard being in his early twenties and Roxanne in her late teens, some feelings between them had visibly developed. Was this the cause of her lateness? This kind of thing never usually happened.

Cassie walked slowly up to her room, lay down on her blue duvet, and dropped Roxxie a text. ‘Hey, when will you be getting back? Cass x’

She then yelled “Okay, Dad, I’m going to bed!” not listening in for any sort of response. She took the door wedge out, turned the light off, and didn’t bother to get changed into her nightclothes. Cassie managed to get to sleep, but it was very restless. She tossed and turned until finally, she was unconscious.

* * * *
By the time the following morning had arrived, Cassandra Maple had still not received a text from her older sister concerning her safety. It was disconcerting and caused her to be quite anxious. Cassie woke up to the sound of police sirens in the neighbourhood. She was very worried and believed if Roxxie was sensible (which was the case most of the time, when parties weren’t at stake), she would have at least sent a small text declaring she was safe, or stating where she was, let alone actually arriving home. A drunken appearance was always better than no appearance at all.

She heard the sirens grow louder and the engine of a car stop outside the house. She quickly got changed, brushed the snarls of her hair with her fingers, then rushed downstairs and opened the door. Richard Moore, hands in pockets, looked at her exerting sullen body language. “Richard!” she blurted. “What’s wrong?” he looked down at the floor and shuffled uncomfortably, which was strange for someone of his height. It was like he was trying to make himself seem as small as possible. He had no police force companions with him today; he was all alone, which struck Cassie as slightly odd. Still, she listened in on what he had to say. “Hey, Cassie. Well, you know I was supposed to be giving Roxxie a lift home from work yesterday?” there was a deep sadness in his dark blue eyes. Cassie nodded, swallowing. “It turns out she’s missing. Not dead, but missing. We don’t know when she’ll be back or if she’ll be back.” She tried not to let sadness get the better of her but her green eyes stung with tears. “How did this happen? Weren’t you supposed to be picking her up?”
“I was, but when I got there, Dylan (the shop’s new manager) said she hadn’t arrived yet. So she didn’t even get to work.” Cassie bit her lip. A mix of negative emotions swirled inside her. “Are you Okay?” she asked Rich, and he just inclined his head, a small gesture of acknowledgement. “Well, I hope we find your sister, and soon. Tell your dad, will you?” Cassie nodded, waved him off as he got back into his car, and closed the front door, her heart racing.

* * * *
Cassie was very concerned about her sister’s welfare. It was now Friday, and Roxanne had not turned up since Wednesday. Thursday was not the greatest of days. She mostly just lay in bed, checking her phone every now and again, but there was no response of any sort. Cassie hoped it was just that her phone had run out of charge.

On Friday morning, a strange envelope came through the letterbox. It was only strange because it had Cassie’s full name on it and no addresses. Nervously, she ripped open the flap and pulled out the paper inside. She’d hoped it wasn’t a bill of some sort; she received too many of those, and her dad wasn’t paying. It had to be Roxanne, as Cassie was too young to get a proper paying job. Her heart skipped a beat as she scanned over the letter. She knew the handwriting instantly; it was a letter from her ‘missing’ older sister. It read:

They’ve got me, but I’m safe,
I’m not trapped in a cage,
I’m missing at this stage,
But you’ll find me if you look carefully.
Where am I?

Cassie found she was never any good at understanding riddles or anecdotes, and there wasn’t much point in asking her dad for help, he’s probably be straining his eyes to look at his computer screen with all the lights turned off and curtains closed. He probably didn’t even know what time of day it was, let alone which day. Let alone knowing his eldest daughter was missing.

Cassie had told him she was missing, but all she got was a grunt in response, then a “She’s probably at a party or something. Text her.” She sighed and closed the door on him. It was just her who had to work this out now.

Chapter Two

By lunchtime, she had compiled a list of locations her sister could possibly be at, but since the riddle was so vague, it was far too long to even consider going to each of the places; there must have been at least thirty in total. Maybe another riddle would come through the letterbox? Cassie could only hope that this would be the case because she was clueless. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered where the first riddle had come from; when she got downstairs, it was already lying on the doormat, so had Roxanne delivered it, or had someone else? In the riddle, she had used the words ‘They’ve got me, but I’m safe,’ so did this mean she had been kidnapped? Cassie hoped not. She crumpled up the list of areas and sighed; it was no use when she had no idea where she was because they, whoever they were, could’ve taken her somewhere secret, where she would never find.

To Cassie’s surprise, her dad walked out of the stuffy and into the lounge, where she was sitting and watching the local news, the list shoved in the waste bin. “What are you doing out here?” she tried to mask her shock, but it slipped through anyway, as well as some unintended sarcasm. “Don’t you have something ‘very important’ to be working on?” she then felt guilty when she saw the crestfallen expression on his face. “Cassie, did you know Roxxie’s missing?” She rolled her eyes. “Wow. Now tell me something I don’t already know.” He looked confused at her reaction, if a little angry. “Don’t speak to me like that. Why do you know this already?”
“Well, I did tell you yesterday, but you did kind of ignore it and mumble on about how she was probably at a party.”
“I didn’t know!”
“But I told you! Why would I lie to you?!” her voice was gradually creeping from calm to a yell. “Well,” he said, matter-of-factly. “It’s not like you haven’t before.” She just left her jaw hanging open. Cassie couldn’t believe her father had just said that. Had nearly six years in a dark study really caused him to muddle up his truthful, straight A’s younger daughter with his anarchy-supporting, going-out-late-drinking and lying older daughter? Okay, Roxxie wasn’t all that bad, but still- Cassie had never lied to her parents, and was even less likely to because her mum died. Why didn’t he believe her? Anger boiled inside her, and she spat “I believe you’re wrong. I have never lied to you in my whole life, and you know that. You can’t just presume because I’m a teenager that I go around lying and going to parties and drinking!” She glared at him, glad to have shut him up even though she barely heard him utter a word prior to this. She could see how confused he was, and could mentally picture him joining the dot to dots with facts and daughters. She fiddled with a lock of her black hair whilst waiting for his reply. She had been rude and blunt, yes, but she had been right. Her father finally licked his cracked lips, then said “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, I know now. I hadn’t seen much of you two in the past couple of years.” Well, whose fault is that? She thought. “I also know how you’ve been helping pay the bills, thought it was mostly Roxxie, and I’m scared now. Really scared. I want to know what happened to my daughter, and where she is. Richard sent me a text telling me, bless ‘im. Oh, it’s so scary.” She got up off of the couch and hugged him, which probably surprised her more than him. For a good couple of minutes they stood there, until finally, Cassie let go and said “I’m sorry, too. It’s just, ever since Mum disappeared, I’ve been so scared of her going missing and now she has, it’s just…” She swallowed back the lump in her throat and attempted to blink away the tears. “I know,” he whispered, “I know. It hurts me too.”

* * * *
By that evening, the local news had gotten a grasp on Roxxie’s absence and notified the area, providing the audience with a photograph from her graduation, back when she had braces on her teeth. Cassie suspected that the news would spread round the neighbourhood like wildfire as Roxxie wasn’t exactly unpopular. She was very daring; she cut her own dyed black hair with blue and blonde streaks with a blunt knife and wore tight leather clothing. At high school, she was definitely the one who got into the most trouble.

Cassie supposed she did look a bit like her; like her sister, she had inherited their mother’s green eyes, though Cassie was the only one to get the naturally black hair, not like that stopped Roxxie. Not even a freight train could do that.

* * * *
Another couple of boring days passed by as only bills filed through the letterbox. Cassie read each one carefully, but there were no riddles anywhere. What was she supposed to do? It seemed like a game; one which was very intricate and involved moving all the pieces to exactly the right place. It was, she supposed, exactly like piecing together a blank one thousand pieced jigsaw puzzle.

She read the riddle constantly, trying to think of anything subliminal hidden in the text, when finally, the following Tuesday (nearly a week after the disappearance), a clue popped into her head. Roxxie always was a fan of metal music and went to plenty of gigs here and there, so when it said ‘I’m missing at this stage,’ could that have been linked to their local club, where new bands performed every week?

The idea was firmly planted in her head and she couldn’t get rid of it, so she got ready and dressed, yelled “I’m going out, Dad!” and went downtown to satisfy her curiosity, to do a bit of discovering.

When she got there, a familiar tune was being ripped apart (and not in a good way) by some angry teenage boys. It sounded like ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry, but with the way it sounded, she couldn’t be too sure. Cassie casually sat in a free barstool and ordered an Appletiser. She had been to this club a couple of times, though probably nowhere near as many times as Roxxie. She knew the bartender, too; his name was Alex. He had dark brown hair and was one of Roxxie’s many exes, so possibly he could help lead Cassie to the whereabouts of her older sister. She really hoped this was the right place.

When her beverage was handed to her (or, rather, placed on a coaster), there was a small neon yellow corner sticking out from under the glass, taking the appearance of a post-it note. Her heart beat sped up. It was possible that this could lead her towards her sister’s hiding place. On the other hand, it might not have, but it was most likely and she was very hopeful.

She pretended to wipe the bottom of the glass, as if she’d spilt some of her drink, and peeled the note off as discreetly as she could manage. She even sipped her drink for added effect, whilst placing the note into the pocket of her black trench coat. She waved at Alex, handed him a tip, and left, the drink barely touched.

Chapter Three

When she got home, she ran eagerly up to her room and took the post-it out of her pocket. She switched her blue desk lamp on, although it was light outside, and read the new note. It went:

You’ve got to do better than that.

What? Cassie thought. She was so close to finding her, yet so far away. So, obviously, Roxxie was somewhere else, but Cassie wasn’t too far off; at least she received a note. That, at least, gave her some sort of clue. The next riddle, or Roxxie herself (though this seemed unlikely), could possibly be at another club or stadium. The question, though, was where.

Cassie scanned the list she had recreated, using places from which she remembered from the old one she threw away, whilst she sat on her polished wooden chair and leaned on the table, held up by her elbows. She was very tired now; yesterday had deemed unsuccessful, though not completely- at least she had a rough idea of what kind of place she could find her sister.

She was very lucky it was a half term holiday, although it would only last a few more days. She decided it was best not to tell anyone in her year about her sister’s disappearance and focus on studying, although a minority might have heard about it on the news. Cassie then remembered that there was one of her GCSEs next week: a biology one. She tried to forget about Roxanne and revise, but it was very difficult. Roxxie usually ended up helping her revise for tests and such, but this was no longer an option, unless she asked her nocturnal dad to help, but he had made it clear that she wasn’t to disturb him; he had applied for a job online and needed to finish his first assignment today.

It seemed like there would be a very long week ahead.

* * * *
Cassie was right. The lessons seemed to string on to such an extent that they seemed endless, especially maths for some strange reason. The GCSE, which accounted for 56% of her grade, was not as hard as she’d expected, though it paid off for doing all that cramming the previous weekend.

School seemed like a bit of an escape fro, reality, now Cassie thought about it. Her friends and the lessons provided a good distraction from the daunting fact, the gaping hole where her sister should have been. She would hear the occasional whisper at school, but no-one had approached her to ask.

The house felt emptier than ever. The five weekdays where Cassie could do nothing about her sister made her feel more useless than before.

When the weekend finally arrived, though, she had planned out everything; where she was going, what she was going to do when she got there and what excuses she’d use if she got caught. It was risky, but her sister meant everything to her now, which was strange; before, she obviously hadn’t realised how much she relied on her. She was definitely aware now, and willing to take any risks to find Roxanne.

* * * *
Her first stop was a small club across the street from a Subway; where Cassie had first seen Lacuna Coil perform live a couple of years ago. This place had some sentimental value. It was very tiny and could only fit around two hundred and fifty people at a push, but the whole world seemed bigger when you saw famous people in the flesh.

She told her dad she was going to meet up with her friend at the Starbucks just down the road from there and she promised to get him a venti latté on her way out.

Of course, her friend, who went by the name Maria, was at swimming practice and she went every Saturday. It was good that her dad was unaware of this.

Cassie stopped off at Subway to get her lunch before she went to the club. It opened at three, which gave her fifteen minutes to eat before she could walk in. There wasn’t any ID needed; as long as you paid, you could drink as much alcohol as you wanted. Surely they should put some enforcements in, or at least a limit; the last time she came here to see a gig, there was a drunk twelve year old boy who’d been there with his (supposedly) care-free older brother and was trying to impress some girl by balancing ice cubes on his forehead. She laughed along, but acted like she was embarrassed, which she probably was. There was a new band playing there, a local band called Vampires With Cavities, and he seemingly had no idea what he was doing or what was going on; he got to the bar right in front of the stage, where the band was performing, and barfed in front of the vocalist’s feet, and passed out, falling over the bar head first. Some strange memories.

Now, though, the smoke machines and disco lights weren’t on and a couple of people were sorting out the equipment on the stage, getting ready for the group Mallory Knox to perform later that evening. The bulbs were yellowy-orange and didn’t really emit very much light. There were little neon lights flashing around the bar’s stash of chilled alcoholic beverages. Only a couple of people were walking around, which wasn’t really what Cassie was used to seeing in this club.

She walked into the toilets, whose walls were loaded with graffiti like ‘I lost my virginity here 23/07/04’

. She remembered the thing Roxxie had written on the wall and tried to locate its whereabouts in the loo cubicles. The pale blue walls were coated in scribbles and drawings, and the ceiling had tar marks and dried toilet paper balls stuck to it- obviously not the most cared for toilet in town. When she finally remembered where Roxxie’s writing was, she walked into the end cubicle. Luckily, she was the only one in the Ladies’ at the moment, so she didn’t look too strange. There it was, to the left of her, above the toilet paper dispenser. It said ‘Party on! Rock it! Peace out! Roxxie was ‘ere 17.03.09’

but Cassie noticed there was a folded bit of pink paper of some sort hiding under the writing, tucked behind the bulk of the dispenser. She nearly squeaked with anticipation. This could be it, she thought. This time, she wasn’t going to wait until she got home to read it; she did that last time and it probed to be unsuccessful. She needed to verify that this was definitely it. She locked the cubicle door and sat on the closed toilet lid, then unfolded the paper eagerly in her hands. This one read:

Well done, Cassie,
You got the right place, you see,
And though you can’t see me yet,
Behind the clouds it’s lovely.
Where am I now?

Cassie decided to save the decoding process for when she got home and left the club, got a venti latté for her dad at Starbucks and walked back home with her newly found evidence in her coat pocket.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 12.06.2011

Alle Rechte vorbehalten