~~~~~~~~~Iv's POV~~~~~~~~~

It didn't take long before I reached Sage's home. Something I forgot to mention is that she's the great Bill's Cipher's daughter, the middle child out of three. Because he has no limits when it comes to reality, he could easily travel through time, even though he's been alive for billions of years.

He owns an antique store, where he sells super valuable things from Earth's entire history to rich collectors. And museums. I've been to his store a few times, it looks like a museum of its own.

Unfortunately, it was closed down a month after he went missing.

Anyway, my point was that the Ciphers were a very rich and very powerful family, but they were all really nice people, and I had been to their home a lot of times before.

Once I rang the doorbell, I only had to wait around ten seconds until Sage opened it for me. I gave a small wave, but my worry got the best of me pretty quickly. She seemed more tired than normal, pale as if she were sick.

I didn't think too much about it though, she's lost her dad and her boyfriend, she has it worse than me..

We walked inside, eventually reaching the living room. Victor, Lola, and Gia were already there, each holding a small cup of lemonade that had been placed on the coffee table. Once we entered, they all turned to me, Gia giving me a warm smile. "Hey Iv..!"

"Hey guys.." I walked over, sitting beside Lola. "How are you doing..?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest.. And I don't really wanna complain about it either, not when you're all in the same shoes as me.."

She had a point, the worst part about it was that we felt like we didn't deserve tp talk about how we felt about it because everyone was suffering just as much.

We felt guilty for complaining, even if we had a good reason to..

Ten minutes passed by where no one said anything. None of us had anything to share, we just didn't want to be alone anymore. Soon enough though, the silence was a little too much for me, and I stood up. "I need to use the bathroom, be right back."

I didn't wait for the to reply, walking out of the room. I had been in this place so many times that I basically memorized where every room was, almost like an instinct of mine. As I turned the corner though, I ended up bumping into something.

Well, it was actually someone..

Someone I didn't really plan to see..

In front of me now stood Noé Cipher, the oldest child of the three Cipher children. He and Sage are actually twins, but because of genetic malfunctions, he had to be removed from the womb months earlier. He was pretty tall, though everyone was really tall compared to me, with dark magenta hair, light skin, and bright green eyes.

The reason why I'm so familiar with this home is because he and I used to be friends. Best friends, actually. We had met back in the six grade, and were together almost all the time.

Until he started dating this girl from another school in our freshmen year.

Apparently she hated me for no specific reason, and as time went on, Noah and I went from best friends to complete strangers in only a year. Even after he broke up with her two years ago, things between us were never fixed, and now we're only acquaintances who happen to share two words every once in a while, mostly because of Sage losing both their dad and my brother.

Being honest? I did miss the old days, a lot..

"Oh, Iv, hey.." He had a semi smile on, a little forced. "I didn't know you'd be here.."

"Sage invited us over, not surprised you didn't hear about it." Without waiting, I continued my way. He didn't try to stop me, he never tried to fix things at all, which is one of the things that really bothered me.

Once I entered the bathroom, I let out a heavy sigh, staring at myself in the mirror. Sometimes I couldn't stand looking at my reflection; Aiden and I basically shared the same face, the only difference was our eye color, and whenever I looked at myself, I saw him staring back at me.

I hated it.. So damn much..

"When did this become my reality..?" I asked myself before washing my face, trying to wake myself up a little, then walked out and back to the living room.

Victor lied down on one of the couches, playing a soft tune on his guitar, Gia was in the middle of making a flower crown for Sage who sat next to her, and Lola was scrolling through her phone. I sat on a small chair beside Sage, leaning back against it and melting into the depressing silence once again.

Seconds passed..

Minutes..

Half an hour..

...

"I can't take this anymore!" We were startled when Victor raised his voice, sitting up and placing his guitar aside. "Is this all we're gonna do forever?!"

Lola didn't look away from her phone, eyebrows bent in frustration. "What else do you expect us to do, Vic..?"

"I don't know, anything besides this!"

"Like what, find the others ourselves?" I asked, making him turn to me. "If the police doesn't have any leads, how are a bunch of high schoolers suppose to find so many missing people?"

"You've said it yourself, Iv. The police in this town don't do shit, they probably only scanned the surface and gave up."

He had a point; my parents were both in the police force, and they knew just how bad the police were in this town. The simply didn't care for their jobs.

"You want to do your own investigation, don't you?" We all turned to the archway, seeing Noah standing by it with a serious expression. The others were pretty surprised to see him considering he used to be a part of our group.

Vic then nodded. "Yeah, I do. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to sit still and wait anymore. Let's take matters into our own hands."

"... Lidia would've agreed with you.." Lola stuck her phone in her pocket, and a small smile grew on her face. "I'm with you, Vic."

Gia smiled brightly. "Me too! If there's any chance of finding them, I'm definitely helping!"

"Count me in." Sage added as well.

They turned to me, and I could feel a smile grow on my face. "I was in before you were. Let's do it."

Victor gave a nod, then turned to Noah, who was still standing a bit far. "N, I know you're not as close as you used to be with us, but we could use all the help we can get."

"Will you help?!" Gia asked, standing up with hope in her eyes.

He didn't reply right away, and I noticed him glance at me. But he soon let out a sigh. "If you're all okay with it, then of course I'll help."

"Then it's settled." Lola smiled with determination. "Starting today, we search everywhere for any clue, and we won't stop until they're all found."

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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