۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ✩◿𝓓𝓣𝓐◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER FORTY ONE—
you're a flashback in a film reel

To the rightful hands of Finney Blake.

Finney, i'm sorry it took me a little longer then usually to write you back. I'm currently studying for finals because they're coming up at the end of December right before Christmas break so i've been so swamped. I'm glad we still get to talk on the phone, but I know you like the letters more. Speaking of Christmas, I think i'm finally ready to come home and visit.

It's been twenty-two months since i've left, I think we can all agree i've had some progress over this time since what happened last August. I've missed everyone so much, but especially you. Robin and I have been talking and I think I have the perfect gift in mind for you. I just hope I can make it through this time, keep my promise and actually show up.

Anyways, nothing too crazy has been going on, but thank you for asking. A boy started singing in class yesterday though. Scared me half to death, I wasn't sure what was happening. Aside from that and Bingo getting a new collar, everything is just same old same old. What about you? What's going on back at home? Did you see the eclipse like I told you about? I miss looking at them with you, I heard there might be one in December we'll be able to catch.

If not, we can just holler over the phone together when the next one shows up. I decided to prank call Nasa the other day when I was a little lonely in my room. I asked them if they take volunteers to go to the moon, when they said no I said that they should and then said they better go catch their running refrigerator. I think I messed the joke up though, because it didn't make a lot of sense and I hung up out of embarrassment.

Two flashes from me.
-Sarah (:

"Let me read it." Gwen shoved into Finneys side.

"No." he laughed and yanked away.

"Come on, let me read it." Gwen begged as she tried to reach. "What's it say?"

"Non of your business. It's written to me, not you." he continued to giggle, shoving it into his backpack as they looked over, hearing a faint yelling of a fight about to go down.

Sarah looked over toward her window when she heard laugher coming from outside. She pushed up on her knees some, looking out the window as she saw a group of friends laughing and heading back into school together. Sarah exhaled in the faint form of jealousy, sinking back down into her bed next to Bingo. Despite being here for ten months now, Sarah hadn't really made any friends. She was kind to others, as they were her, but that was about it.

"People usually go to church on Sunday, Bingo." Sarah looked to her dog with a knowing stare. "You think God wants to see us?"

She reached over and held his face so he'd shake his head no. Sarah exhaled loudly. "I thought the same thing. So glad we can agree."

He just sneezed and laid back down. Sarah gave a gross look as she motioned toward her papers. "Really? All over my essay?"

Yeah, she really needed to get out more.

Sarah's head snapped up when the phone rung from the wall. She glanced at the clock. "Someone's up early today. Who do you think it is?"

He just stared at her. Sarah nodded. "You're right. Better go see for myself before deciding which voice to use."

Sarah untangled her legs from under her, heading toward the phone. On the fourth ring, she pulled it to her ear. "Sarah's dorm. How can I help you?"

"Sarah." it was Gwen, but she sounded different. Her voice was low, she was whispering. "Sarah, I think you need to come home right now."

"Gwen." Sarah gapped as she held the phone closer to her ear. "What's the matter? Did something happen?"

Gwen hesitated. She was risking it all right now, risking it for Finney. She was playing with fire, debating on keeping another secret from Sarah or bringing her back here for the sake of her brother. She was risking another meltdown, another drop into a terrible void right when Sarah started to be okay again. But, she had to. Not just for Finney, but because they couldn't lie to her again. "It's Robin."

Sarah's heart sunk. Her eyes snapped toward the calendar on her wall. It had been in the back of her mind recently, but she'd gotten good at shoving it away. When no one told her five months ago that someone went missing, her ten month theory was crushed and she didn't worry about it anymore. She thought it was all over. "What happened to Robin?"

Gwen was quiet, looking for words. Sarah held onto that phone like her life depended on it. "Gwen. What happened to Robin?"

Within a matter of five minutes, clothes were tossed into a bag and her and Bingo were running out to the green car parked in the parking lot, speeding away from Aspen and back to Denver for the first time in almost two years.

"Dad!" Sarah was on the scene the second she got there. It wasn't hard to find. North Denver was relatively quiet and small, everyone sorta knew everyone. Plus, after a missing boy, the community was quiet. Grab N Go. Robin went missing from Grab N Go.

"Sarah?" Jason was in shock at the sight of her. Under any other circumstances, he'd be so happy to see her. But, he knew why she was here, and there was nothing happy about any of this.

"Did you find him?" she panicked, pushing against her Dad as he tried to keep her away from the scene as it was ropped off and inspected. "Is there a lead? What happened? How do you know he was leaving the store?"

"We don't know he was leaving the store. We just know this was the last place he was seen." he pulled her aside as Bingo barked from the car. "Did you drive all the way here?"

"Robin is missing, of course I drove all the way here." she breathed out in fear and pain. God, not Robin. "I was just talking to him a few days ago. We were just talking, Dad. He was okay."

"I know." he pulled her into a hug. He wanted to tell her they'd find him, but he couldn't promise her that after they failed to locate her best friend and her boyfriend. "I don't think you should be here, baby. After what happened last t-"

"I have to be here." Sarah cut him off as she pulled away. "It's Robin, Dad. Robin. And Finney is probably- holy shit, I need to go see Finney. Have you spoken to him?"

"He was the first one I talked to." Jason reassured her. "They were suppose to meet yesterday, Robin was getting snacks from the store for them. Finney waited around, but he never showed so he went back home. Later on that night, his Mom called the station because he didn't come home."

Sarah inhaled deeply as she put a hand on her wrist. That navy blue fucking bandana Robin had given her was on her wrist. It never left. "God, he's such a sweet boy. I love that kid so much. I don't wanna loose him too, Dad."

"I know, Sarah. We're gonna do everything we can." Jason told her, but she'd heard that a million times before.

"What are you doing differently this time? Different then then how you guys went about Griffin, Billy, and Vance?" Sarah pushed for an answer. Her Dad just looked at her. "You are doing something different, aren't you?"

"W-" he began, but she no longer wanted to hear anything he said.

"Because if you think doing the same thing you've done with the other three cases is gonna work, you're fucking wrong." he couldn't even scold her for how she spoke to him, she had a point. "Vance went missing twenty-seven months ago. Griffin and Billy were ten months apart, Billy and Vance too. But, not Robin. This is twenty-seven, so how do you know they're connected?"

"Sarah." Jason exhaled. This was gonna hurt, he wanted to warn her. "Robin isn't the first boy to go missing after Vance did."

Sarah frowned her eyebrows. "Okay. So, what? He went missing the months after?"

"Eighteen." he explained to her with shake of his head. "July, four months ago. Coming home from a baseball game he'd just won."

Sarah sat there. She just sat there. "Who was it?"

Jason braced himself. "Sarah, it was Bruce. It was Bruce Yamada."

Unexpectedly, after a few seconds, Sarah laughed. "Do you think that's funny?"

"I'm not trying to be funny." he shook his head.

"You're a fucking liar!" Sarah shoved him away from her, shaking her head. "No. No, you're a fucking liar. I've asked you about him just a few weeks ago. You said he was good, he was doing okay. Finney and Gwen did too, they just told me so a few days ago! Robin too. Mr.Yamada was just telling me about how he's gotten all A's and was applying for schools already. That was just two days ago!"

"Sarah." Jason tried to calm her down at the scene she was making. "You have to understand, we were all so scared. After Vance, you were hurting yourself and we almost lost you. We were all so scared, we didn't want to ruin your recovery process so we-"

"Bruce is gone!" Sarah yelled. "Robin is gone! These are my friends! My family! And you lie to me? You couldn't even tell me Bruce was gone? I've spent the last four months thinking we were fighting, and that he was ignoring me because he didn't wanna talk, all while everyone just feels my head with fake shit about him."

"Baby-" Jason couldn't go into detail more. What they all agreed to do was fucked up, it was so fucked up. But, if they'd lost Bruce, they couldn't loose Sarah too.

"No." she shoved his hands away from her with a scoff, laughing as the tears fell now. "No, you go do your fucking job and you find Robin. Don't you fail him like you did everyone else!"

She stared at her Dad again. Her face went from angry to completely heartbroken in just a matter of seconds. He felt terrible, he should feel terrible. Sarah's voice was weak this time, she was holding it all in while trying to talk. "Four months. I have been so upset that Bruce and I had drifted apart for four months now, all while he went missing? He was taken by The Grabber? You know what he-"

No. She wasn't about to get into that. She wasn't about to melt down about Vance too. She couldn't. She sat there as Jason tried to reach out for her, but she backed up closer to her car. "You find that sweet boy. I am not loosing Robin too."

She got into her car, and drove fast down the road. She didn't know where to go to. Did she go to Finney who was grieving and in pain of Robin disappearing, or did she go to Mr.Yamada who had been suffering for four momths straight and feeding her lies over the phone, possibly for his own benefit.

•

kylie speaks

taylor wrote this is me trying
for HER!