|26|

•Charlotte•

Loud knocking filled the room and I groaned, opening my eyes.

The room was dark. Not a single streak of light peeked in through the curtains as I sat up. 

The knocking continued, more urgent. Lizzie stirred besides me, muttering how much her head was hurting as I quickly got out of the bed, stumbling on the ground. 

"Charlotte."

It was Mr Walter. 

I walked towards the door and opened it, not thinking twice about how I looked. He let out a sigh of relief as I switched on the lights. I didn't care that I was in a shirt alone. 

There was something wrong. 

"Mary, your emergency contact has been trying to call you. It's your dad." 

The world stopped moving around me as I felt the chills run up my back with those words. He started talking, but I couldn't hear him as I asked. "What's wrong with him?" 

I waited for the worst news ever to hit me, to rip apart my heart as he answered me. "She said she has been trying to call you, but couldn't get through. Your dad has left. They can't seem to find him and she thinks it's best if you return home. I have Mr Collins working on your ticket back home."

"I'm going back with her." Lizzie said behind me. 

"Lizzie, I can't-"

"Sir, she needs me with her." Lizzie said and Mr Walter sighed but nodded. 

"If you girls could get ready in the next hour-" 

"I'm ready. I want to go home now." I told him and he nodded as he walked away. I heard Lizzie quickly packing her suitcases. 

"Wear this." She threw a pair of jeans and a shirt to me. I closed the door. 

"Lizzie, he is gone." I whispered at her. She stopped packing and walked towards me, frown lines on her face. She was fighting her first hangover ever, yet she was willing to come with me in an instant. 

I couldn't move as she stood in front of me. "Get changed now. The quicker you're changed, the faster we can leave. I'll text Calvin so he can bring the rest of our things but let's get home now so we can look for him." She said to me and I nodded slowly, as fear crawled inside of me. "Where is your phone?" 

I looked around the room, shrugging my shoulders. "I don't know." 

That was my first mistake. I never forgot where my phone was. 

She nodded and picked up the clothes from the floor and handed them to me. "Get changed." She said and walked back to the suitcases quickly backing them up. 

I got changed into the clothes quickly and pulled my hair up into a ponytail as she got changed into a grey tracksuit. We washed our faces and brushed our teeth as quickly as we could. Lizzie grabbed both of the suitcases and walked towards me, handing me my passport. 

"Calvin can bring the rest. Come on." She grabbed my hand and placed it on my suitcase before opening the door. I wore my shoes quickly and followed her out of the room, the light blinding us a little but it didn't bother us as we stood in the elevator, waiting for the buttons to close. 

I wasn't going to waste my time finding my phone as I asked Lizzie for hers. Her phone was on silent but I saw the calls from Mary and her mom. 15 calls and an endless amount of texts. 

I rang her back, but she didn't pick up. She didn't pick up again and again, even as we reached the lobby where Mr Collins was waiting for us. 

"I'll be going back with you. Come on. I got us the quickest flight I could. We have exactly ten minutes to get there to check in." He said as he urged us to move forward. 

I was going to find him. 

***

Lizzie's mom came to pick us up from the airport. We immediately left with her and she told me what happened. 

Drew was back home. He was Mary's son and he had sneaked into his house. He had texted Mary to come and check if something was wrong with the house and she had left quickly to check. 

That was the only chance my dad needed and he walked out of the house. Joe and Mark were looking for him. Mary and Drew were looking for him. Lizzie's mom and her fiance had been looking for him. 

Nobody could find him and it had been hours since he left. It meant one simple thing. He forgot where he lived. 

I quickly got out of the car as she parked it next to my house. The door was wide open as I saw Joe standing besides the door. 

"Kid." He said to me, a look of worry on his face as I walked into the house to see Mary crying in the room as she sat on the couch. 

I froze besides the door, the fear finally setting in. He was gone. We needed to look for him. The flight back home was eight hours. God knew how long he had been out for. 

The room was filled with people. Drew-who was still wearing his uniform- Mary, Mark, Luke. A sleeping Daniel was on the bed. 

Mary looked up at me. I couldn't move my legs to walk to her as she stood up. "I'm so sorry, Char. I just took my eye off him for a second. That was it."

I didn't blame her. I would never blame her but the words wouldn't come out as I looked around the room that we had made for him.

"We need to find him." I said to them. "He won't know where he is. What was he wearing?" I asked Mary. 

She wiped her tears as she answered. "A black shirt and grey bottoms." She answered. 

He had been getting ready for bed. I nodded as I walked out of the room. Joe grabbed my hand, stopping me. "Where are you going?" He asked me.

I pulled my hand away from him. "I need to find him." I said to him, to them all as I ran out of the house. 

I headed towards the park. Maybe he would remember it, and he was enjoying the weather. I prayed he did. 

They didn't understand. I didn't care about what they would say. I needed my dad. I needed him to hug me and tell me he got lost. that was it. There were countless thoughts flickering in my mind, wondering if he would ever come back? Did he have an accident? Did Logan get to him? Was this his big move? 

I jogged towards the park and pushed the gate open. I couldn't find him. 

Every second that ticked by, made me nervous. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest as I searched every place I could think of. The houses in our street, the back houses. I knocked on every door, getting weird looks as I asked them if they had seen my dad. 

Nobody saw him. The house was empty as I walked past it. Everyone was looking for him. Lizzie's car wasn't here anymore. I couldn't step into the house. I just couldn't, not without finding him. 

Hours went by, I met the others who said they couldn't find him, yet they carried on searching. We didn't stop, even as the sun started going down slowly, even as Lizzie told me the boys were on their way back to help us, me. 

Nothing mattered as I walked up the sidewalk of our street. Maybe he had come back. 

The door to the house was wide open, and my eyes widened as I ran up the stairs. "Dad?" I called out loudly as I walked inside. 

I stepped into the living room and felt a shuddering breath escape from me as I saw him sitting on his bed, looking down at his hands. 

"Dad." I breathed out as I ran towards him and wrapped my arms around him tightly. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry." He apologised as he wrapped his arms around me. I tightened my hold on him, just needing to know he was okay. "I saw a dog." He mumbled to himself. 

He loved dogs. 

"I followed it out of the house. It made me happy but then I forgot the way home." I could hear the pain in his voice. He hated that it made him weak, to forget. 

I pulled away from him and looked down at him. "It's okay." I smiled at him. He was safe. That was all that mattered. "Let's get you some rest. You're safe." I pushed his hair back from his face. 

It was growing and he needed a haircut soon. 

Dad nodded to me as I walked towards the couch to pick up the extra blanket. "There was a young man who helped me. He knew where I lived and brought me home." Dad said, making me freeze and instantly my mind thought of the only person I could. 

Logan. 

"Him." Dad said and I spun around as I heard the soft creak on the wooden floor. He was standing there in the doorway, a gun pointed towards dad. 

Logan was here. He stood near the door, a gun in his hand, while he ran a hand through his hair as if there was nothing he was afraid of. 

Genuine fear grew with every heartbeat as I stared at him and the gun. My dad put his hands up slowly, looking completely confused. 

"I'll join." I breathed out, as the fear clawed at my throat, demanding I shout the words. "I'll join." I repeated. 

"We don't want you anymore, sweetheart." He smirked at me, never taking his eyes off of me. The gun didn't move an inch as I saw him move his finger closer to the trigger. 

"Please!" I begged. "I'll do anything. Logan please." Fear clenched my heart. I couldn't breathe as he chuckled. 

"Anything?" 

I nodded. I just needed him to be distracted, just enough so I could run to him without him having the chance to pull the trigger. 

I felt Dad's eyes on me but I didn't dare look away from Logan as he answered. "I always fulfil my threats. I don't want anything from you." 

The world slowed down around me as he pressed the trigger. A scream left my lips, silencing the gun shot as the bullet went straight through dad's forehead, his blood splattering against the wall. 

The pain was a nightmare as I heard him run out of the door. I stared at dad. 

I fell to the ground on my knees, no longer able to hold myself up as the blood dripped down from the wall. 

He was dead.

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*Disappears*

Question- How would you kill Logan?  

[My Instagram- glitterxox1 I may or may not be posting a sneak peek of chapter 27]

[Also I will be updating every Mondays and Fridays now. I know I know, I'm terrible with this schedule stuff but I'm in my writing cave at the moment trying to write Broken Lie(which is exciting to me) I like to have some chapters written before hand so my aim is to write ten chapters before this book is completed so I can be throwing that at you lol. Once I pass the ten mark on that book, I will go back to updating three times a week. I'm a fast writer guys, so I'll probably be done with the first ten chapters by this weeks so we can ignore this message. (Not) it's here just in case people are wondering where I disappear off]