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   “It's been four months, and what have you done?” Fiona questioned the officer with the annoyed expression on his face. They were both sitting at his office as they discussed yet again the problematic topic of her brother, Riley.

“Fiona, we've done all we could,” said Officer Jon, folding his arms over the pile of unattended papers on his desk.

She leaned closer and stared directly into his eyes. “Really? Because as I recall, there are still hundreds of fliers with people's faces who have been missing for months stuck to every post in this damn town.”

The officer sighed deeply, pulling his hands back as Fiona dropped a yellow folder on top of his desk. He looked up at her confused, and she just raised her eyebrows.

“What's this?” he asked as he picked up the light folder.

“Photos.”

“Of?”

“Of the man who kidnapped my brother,” she said with great confidence.

His eyebrows creased as he opened the folder, taking out the first photo of a man in a black suit walking down the sidewalk during the annual parade. The photo only showed his back, so his face was still a mystery. The next photo looked like it was taken from a different camera, and a large red circle was drawn over the man who stood by himself watching floats go by. Unlike the other people in the photo, his face was blurred, disfigured, like if a three year old had smudged black paint over his face.

The officer looked up as if this was some kind of joke.

“I know, I know,” Fiona immediately responded, reading the officer's mind. “For some reason we can't see his face in any of the pictures. But I know it was him. Look at the last one.”

He flipped through the pictures quickly and got to the last one, holding it out in front of him. On the picture, in the background, fireworks had exploded beautifully in the sky in the shape of a star. At the bottom of the picture was none other than Riley Aster Hamilton accompanied by the man in the dark suit.

“He was last seen with this man. He kidnapped my brother. We finally have a lead,” she said happily, almost at the brink of tears. She only wanted to see her brother again, know that he was safe and not hurt. So many sleepless nights finally paid off.

“How is it a lead? We can't even tell what he looks like,” he said.

“There are not many people in this town who dress in a black suit and wear leather gloves. Why was he wearing leather gloves, Jon? Maybe he didn't want his hands dirty, or maybe he just didn't want his fingerprints found by the police, because he's the guy who took my brother!” Fiona was getting angry, and her patience was wearing thin. The evidence she had bought was pure gold and he wasn't even showing any interest in it. She knew they had all given up like they had with the other missing people. She knew they dropped her brother's case when they searched and searched and found nothing. But it didn't mean she stopped, she never did. Riley was her responsibility, and now he was gone. She couldn't even remember the last time she hadn't spent a day without at least shedding one tear.

“I'm sorry, Fiona. I just can't do anything with this,” he said as sincerely as he could, but no matter how he said it, she still felt like she had been slapped in the face.

“You don't understand,” she said quietly, her voice so low and so soft that the officer mistook it as whimpering and handed her a napkin. She took it anyway, for future caution. “It's my fault my brother got kidnapped. He wasn't even supposed to be here. I dragged him here because I wanted him to stop distancing himself from people. I wanted him to live, not to simply exist. I worried a lot about him. He was my brother after all.” She noticed what she had said and almost burst into tears right there, but she fought them back. She had spent so much time trying not to cry in front of people that she learned the ability to hold it, even if it hurt. “No, not was, he is my brother, because he is alive and I can feel it. And if you won't help me, then I'll just have to find him myself.”

Jon gave her a pity look.

That was all she needed to finally get up, retrieve her photographs and walk out of his office as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

She left the police station and did exactly what she had told Officer Jon she would do. She was going to find her brother even if it was the last thing she did.

Fiona raced to her apartment after confronting the police officer with what she thought was the evidence they needed to be closer to solving the mysterious disappearance of Riley and many others. But once again she was on an empty road with a dead end. The police in this town were the worst she had ever seen. How could they let hundreds of people go missing? And how was it possible that no one was ever found again?

The thought of never seeing Riley made her heart ache. She couldn't allow him to be just another face gone from the world. She didn't think she could live with herself if she allowed the kidnapper to win.

A small box sat on the coffee table. Inside were hundreds of photographs she had printed to spread around. There were pictures of the faceless kidnapper, Riley, and her two friends who had also went missing around the same time her brother had.

It wasn't a coincidence that they had disappeared. Because Samara had seen the man with Riley, it made her a witness. She was a threat to his exposure. And somehow he found out that Maeve knew as well. He terminated them as soon as he could. So the big question now was . . . was she next?

She thought about it many times. Was he going to come looking for her? Unless he didn't know about her. Her friends must have kept quiet about her knowing about the man.

Well, if he didn't know, he would now. She was going to go to every single house if she had to, and she would personally hand every living person the photos of him. Everyone would know, he would have nowhere to hide. Not with his eerie appearance.

She picked up the box, throwing in a couple of extra photos of Riley to carry around. She packed them in the trunk of her car and dialed a friend.

“Hey, Fiona. What's up?” Mel answered.

“Are you busy?”

“Nope. What's wrong? Are you okay?”

“I'm okay. Listen, I was wondering if you could help me put up a few fliers in town. I finally have something and I can feel that I am closer to finding the person responsible for kidnapping my brother.”

“Sure, I'm up for it. Meet you at the library in half an hour?”

“Perfect, thanks. Love you so much!”

The library was the perfect place to begin. Mel was already inside waiting for Fiona when she got there. Fiona didn't really need Mel to come along, she could handle everything herself. But it was safer to be with someone, especially when it seemed as more people went missing everyday.

Mel was one of the tallest girls Fiona had ever met. She felt extremely safe next to her, like nothing could go wrong. But of course, she wasn't going to jinx it. Mel was a strong, athletic person. Something Fiona wasn't. Fiona was just short, thin and sometimes looked like she was still in high school.

For some people that would be a dream come true, to look the same as you were in high school, but she hated it. There was really no reason, aside from the fact that everyone else around her changed like crazy while she was just stuck in the same age.

“What's this?” Mel asked as she found a photo of the kidnapper.

“It's the guy who took Riley,” Fiona told her.

She gasped. “Oh my gosh, are you serious?” She tried looking closer at his face, then she squinted her eyes when she realized it was disfigured. Fiona told her that she couldn't really explain why his face was like that in all the pictures, just that it was. “This really doesn't look good, Fiona.”

She took the picture back and stared at it. “What do you mean?”

“Just look at these photos. They're all taken by different cameras, different people. They weren't even taking pictures of the guy, just the area. He . . . he just happened to be walking around as they took it. But somehow his face can't be seen in any of the pictures, and instead we just see this weird black smudge.” They looked through every photo, thoroughly examining closely at the details of this man's face. They were all the same. “What I'm trying to say is . . . this doesn't look normal.”

“Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I've thought about it a hundred times?” Fiona's eyes were getting watery, not out of sadness but of anger. She wanted to punch something, or the kidnapper. Yeah, that sounded good.

Mel set the photos down and wrapped her long arms around Fiona.

“I know you have, hun. I know you're doing everything you can to find Riley. But you have to be careful. This might not be a game for you, but it might be for him. So don't play, you might lose.”

“Wow, thanks for the pep talk.”

Mel rolled her eyes and released the shorter girl. “I'm just being realistic here. Cut me some slack. I just don't want you to get hurt.”

“Let's just do this. The faster we do it, the better. Someone in this damn place has to have seen him.”

The two girls went up to every person they saw, shoving numbers of different fliers into their faces, trying to drive out as much information as they could. For an hour, they had no luck. They went to every restaurant and diner, they even went into the public men's bathroom to post the fliers on the mirrors. A few times when Fiona handed someone a flier, they just dropped it carelessly. She wanted to yell at them. How would they feel if their own brother was kidnapped, or their sister, or their sons and daughters. They didn't need to be rude about it.

“Have you seen these people?” Mel asked loudly as she waved fliers around at people who were walking around the park. This was the most popular area in town. The park was a beautiful place, with grass as green as a fresh painting, couples with romantic picnics that made you want to puke, and lots of people exercising on bikes.

Fiona approached a couple of teenagers who were sitting on a dark green bench and handed them fliers. Some of them laughed at her, and it took every ounce of self-control not to kick them in the face.

“Seems like everyone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Mel whispered closely.

Fiona noticed a woman walking by herself. She had beautiful long black hair and eyes so blue that she felt hypnotized, which was what captured Fiona's attention in the first place. She walked up to the lady, whose skin was pale and had this glow that made her seem like an angel, and handed her a flier.

“Hi, my name is Fiona and I was wondering if you've seen him? His name is Riley, he's my brother. He went missing four months ago and I'm just curious if you've seen him?” she said.

The woman was quiet as she stared at the picture of Riley. There was no expression on her face, no concern like most people who first found out Fiona's brother was missing.

“No, I'm sorry. I've never seen him before.” Her voice was so peaceful and calm that it actually soothed Fiona's heart ache for a little bit, reminding her that the world wasn't all full of evil.

“I have one more question if you don't mind.”

She placed both of her hands over her stomach and smiled, flashing her pearl white teeth. “Not at all.”

Fiona smiled back, a little bit too awkward since her beauty pretty much made her feel like a total toad. Fiona pulled up a photo of the kidnapper and carefully gave it to the lady. “Have you seen this man? I know it's him, the guy who has my brother.”

An actual expression formed on this stranger's face. Fiona couldn't really figure out what it was, but it was sort of curious. The lady looked to be in deep thought, so Fiona gave her some time.

“Hm, he looks familiar,” she said after a while.

Fiona's eyes widened, she did not expect that answer. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. “Have you seen him?”

The lady looked up from the photo, and Fiona swore her eyes flashed for a second, but she forgot all about it when she responded, “I have.”

Fiona started shaking. “Where have you seen him?”

“There's a road that isn't on the map. You have to go south of Bellumstone, past the abandoned Louise Mansion. Enter the forest until you see tire tracks on the dirt, follow them and you'll find yourself in a field of wheat, then go straight for a few miles and you'll see an actual road. Once you find that road, just follow it and you will see a house hidden in the forest. That is where I saw him.”

Fiona stepped back after that information and fixed her eyes on the lady, glaring.

“Are you bullshitting me?” she said.

She shook her head innocently. “No, of course not. I just came here from Kansas with my friends and we took a shortcut. That's how I saw the man. He was outside a house, wearing a similar suit. I'm afraid I did not see anybody else, though.”

“But there's nothing out there. The police have checked everywhere.”

The woman raised a brow. “And you believe them?”

Fiona swallowed, knowing that this woman was right. Fiona couldn't trust the police. They never even found anyone, so how could she put her trust on these old men who just sat around all day watching television?

“Okay. Thank you for the information, it really means a lot.”

She smiled, nodding. “You're welcome. I hope you find your brother, and be careful.”

“I will, thanks.”

Fiona searched for Mel, calling out her name loudly. She couldn't find her. She must have gone ahead since the box of papers was missing from where she left it; besides an empty bench on the floor.

She tried calling her but it went straight to voicemail. That was odd, she never turned her phone off. And she wouldn't have left Fiona by herself without at least saying good bye, it wasn't like her.

“MEL?” she shouted.

Why did she leave? And most importantly why did she take the box? Fiona gave up after half an hour. The tall girl was no where to be found, at least not in the park. Fiona hoped that Mel just randomly had the idea of continuing handing fliers without her.

It meant that she was free for the time being. Immediately after leaving the park, Fiona got in her car and drove south of Bellumstone, which was approximately another half hour.

The Louise Mansion was a place nobody dared to go. It was a three story mansion with all the windows cracked and all the plants and trees nearby dead. It belonged to a woman who lived a hundred years ago, but people were afraid of it because it attracted suicide. Yeah, suicide. People went inside and killed themselves.

The story behind the house was really unknown. The only pure fact was that the first suicide was Louise herself. Ever since the tragedy, people over time had sworn that they had seen her ghostly apparition.

And, well, the story of the suicides was simple. People believed that Louise's mansion was a gateway to the other side; not hell nor heaven, but in between where your spirit could roam freely without the judgment of either side. That was why some could see Louise, because she never left.

But Fiona thought it was a bunch of crap.

“I'll believe it when I see it,” she said to herself as she parked in front of the house, turning off the engine.

It still made her curious, made her wonder about what was beyond the wall that separated reality from the truth. The real truth.

There was a tiny path next to the house that led to the forest and it was only big enough for a person, not a car. She took her purse, which carried a phone and a pepper spray just in case she ran into some trouble.

She traveled down the narrow path into the forest, ducking under tree branches and jumping over large puddles of water. The air in the forest was cold, colder than she had expected it to be. She didn't know how long she had been walking, but she knew she was heading in the right direction when she spotted tire tracks. They were coming from the opposite direction from which she came, meaning there was another way into the forest.

After following the tracks for a couple of minutes she saw bright yellow, the wheat field.

Wow, that woman actually gave me real directions, she thought. But is it going to lead me to my brother? Or am I just simply, and stupidly, walking into my own death?

She went through the field, disappearing completely from the world. Most of the wheat was dead, so it led her to believe it was abandoned. But who wouldn't abandon this field of wheat with the crazy weather that Bellumstone had been unluckily blessed with? She just hoped she wasn't trespassing; she wasn't ready to get locked up and miss finding her brother.

By the time she finished walking two or three miles, she was exhausted. She checked for a signal on her phone every ten minutes, making sure she wasn't going to get stuck with no means of communication. But the bars were almost completely full. If for even a second the signal was lost, she was going to turn around and head back.

But the good thing was, she found the road. She had no idea where the road led on either side, but she was on the right track. She could feel her heart beating fast at the thought of finding Riley. Her hands were getting sweaty with nerves, but mostly from having to walk more than what it took to get the remote control from the other side of her living room. It didn't matter, she'd walk hundreds of miles to find her little brother. Anything to bring him back, to have him home and safe. She would even let him go back to being anti social if it meant she could have him again.

Behind her, she heard the loud growling of a motor running. She quickly turned around as her blood spiked. There was a car coming up the road, it wasn't coming from the place she was headed to, so maybe she was safe.

Either way, she shoved her hand in her purse and squeezed the pepper spray, ready for use.

She couldn't see who was in the car, the windows were tainted too dark for her to tell. She just waited, but hoped that the person would just keep driving. But it stopped, right next to her. She breathed hard, but kept it quiet as the passenger window rolled down to expose who was behind the wheel.

“Are you lost?” said the man in the dark suit, the man she was searching for, it was him.

She felt like she had been punched in the stomach. She wanted to scream, to run, but to also jump through the window and murder him in cold blood. She was terrified at the same time, scared that he would take her like he took her brother. Her stomach had a lot of emotions boiling inside, and she felt like she was going to puke, but she remained strong, she had to, for Riley.

She bent down a little to have a better look at his face features, studying every single detail. She smiled from ear to ear, “No, I'm okay. Just decided to go out for a run.”

His black hair had been combed back elegantly, his eyes were this really bright blue color, one she had never seen before on a person, but for some reason it looked familiar. She blinked hard, suddenly feeling odd as she stared into his eyes.

“Alright then, have a good one,” he said back.

She tried to smile again but it came out as a small twitch. She stepped back and watched the car drive away. The numbers on the license plate were unreadable. Every time she tried looking at it, her eyes just blurred, making her dizzy.

She started to run, back to her car, back to safety. She began to cry half way into the forest. She couldn't keep her legs moving, not after facing the man who kidnapped her brother. She wasn't expecting that she'd see him, not in a million years. For a while it just felt like a dream, like he wasn't even real and it was all in her head.

She sat on the ground, her back against a tree, her knees together, and cried.

“I'm coming for you, little brother.”

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[Author's Message]: Omg, guys. Have you seen the artwork for A Little Insane? You can see it on the right side of this page, and if you want to see the full large version, head to my fanpage and go through the photos. It's AMAZING. And another one is being done for part two of the book, which is even COOLER, like holy crud you guys are gonna pee yourselves when you see it. An amazing, talented girl is doing it, the same one who made the first artwork. She's just awesome. Also, have you seen the new cover? AWYUS. Thank you guys for loving this story so much, it's becoming the most favorite, more than One Last Chance O.O Honestly, all I see is people asking for more uploads of this. So THANK YOU DFHGGFDHFH. This story is only going to get better, trust me. Can we get over 500 votes on this chapter? I'll love you forever! c: And remember to leave an awesome comment to have a chance to get a chapter dedicated to you! go go go