I thought I would never be capable of yelling at Sage.

Apparently I am and now I already regret it.

So yeah, I will get so sad that I will beg her to come back.

Sage

Hellooooo
I'm sorryyyyy
For what I saiddddd
You are rightttt
And I love youuuu
I didn't mean anythingggg
Would you please replyyyy
And please not hurt yourselffff
Because I've got a surpriseeee
That you won't even actually likeeee
But I do like ittttt
And you eventually willll
Can you guess what it issss
Please replyyyy
I am dyinggg
Where are youuuu
Sageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Sage
Sage
Sage
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Sage

I frown. She should've replied with big capitals saying 'stop spamming before I stick that surprise up your ass' way longer ago.

...Sage??
Viviette

I sigh. Scroll to another contact.

Minho

Is Sage home

She was
For three minutes
IN WHICH SHE SMACKED ME IN THE FACE

Dude. Where is she now??

I don't know

You didn't see she was upset?

I obviously did

And you don't worry when an upset person leaves the house on their own?

It's only six PM
She'll be back soon

You are no help. Ever.

Thanks for letting me know

I scroll to the next person I can call. It's no longer about the fact I indeed can't sleep with her next to me, or the fact I despise going to sleep after an argument, thinking she might die and my last words will be horrible things— it's just pure worry at where she is. Viviette wouldn't hurt herself.

Finn

Hi. Have you seen your sister?

Heard the front door open and close, yeah. Why? Cuz then she left again.

She was upset and she isn't replying to me. I'm worried

Shit

Yeah

I don't see her phone anywhere, though. Must be with her.

Do you have her location?

No, but I can try to get something.

Alright. Thanks.

I climb out of my bed. Put on my socks and shoes and a coat. Walk downstairs. Connected Mango to her leash and walk outside with my phone in my hand.

"Alright." I crouch down beside her. "This time, you are allowed to find bodies. Hopefully not a dead one. Just search for Viviette. Sage."

I repeat the name 'Sage' a few times. She'll understand what I'm trying to say like that, and then she starts walking as she sniffs at the ground.

"Perfect," I compliment.

We go a little down the hill, towards the town. Mango then pulls me across the street.

It's insane. I've had this dogs since the age of thirteen. Viviette has been a big part of her life, but Mango still knows her as Sage. I don't even need something that smells like Viviette. Mango can search for Vi without that. Mango knows her.

She suddenly stops. Gives a little bark. Looks up at me with pleading eyes.

I look past her, at the ground.

A phone with a broken screen. The screen shows that 'MINHO ❤️' is calling her. But she's not replying, obviously.

I turn the phone off and put it in my pocket. The only strange thing about it is that it's just lying there.

She's clumsy, but it's been a while since she left my house. A few minutes later, she left her house, too, according to her brothers. She must've arrived at whatever destination she needed to go to by now. She must've realized her phone is gone, right?

Mango starts whining. "Hey, hey." Quickly, I scratch her behind her ear. Favorite place. "It's okay. We can find her. You're already doing a great job. Now continue!"

Yet she doesn't move. I think she's lost. Unless Viviette is here.

No, Mango would've ran up to her.

She isn't below us or something, is she— no, don't be insane.

"Call the police?" I ask Mango, as if she will know. I sit down on the pavement. "Or is that too soon?"

I text a few more people, including Aris, Sonya, Newt, the stupid changing room group chat, and even Gally. And then Dahlia and my dad as well.

What could've happened? The killer is my number one suspect right now. But that's also the worst thing that could happen. I think.

If she dies tonight, I will, too. I am not kidding or trying to be romantic— I will steal a lot of pills or throw myself off a building or both of them or perhaps just kill myself in the same whatever way she got killed.

I can seriously, and simply, not imagine a life without her.

I cannot imagine so many things no longer happening that it's too long to explain. And that already proves that almost every daily thing I do includes Viviette. 

I could not go on, no matter what. And especially not right now, when my feelings have decided to take some kind of turn... or more like, evolve.

"Alright." I blink a few times as I get up from the pavement. "Let's go, Mango."

We walk down the hill. We walk through the streets of the town. We even walk onto the countryside. I'm shaking from fear of finding something here. I see Mr. Keller's face in every pumpkin the kids carved out a few days ago, at Halloween. I am afraid someone will jump out of the earth and give me a heart attack.

Yet I keep walking until I am one hundred percent sure no one is there. Mango doesn't dig anything up, so that's also good.

Wait, what god is next? Poseidon? Yes, I think so.

God of the seas. I remember that because he was always my favorite back when Mom read the story to us.

With Mango still on the leash, I start walking back up the hill, and then back down, onto the beach. I yell her name a few times. I don't care if older boys are here to annoy me or if I'm waking people up. I walk at least one kilometer next to the sea until I give up on looking there. I inspect every thing that could lead to something. I release Mango and let her run around, but she unfortunately doesn't come back with anything.

She mentioned Evie. She hung out with Evie yesterday. Maybe she went there.

I remember that night, when we were getting ice cream. Teresa and I. And we saw Evie along the way. She said something about living behind the hill, close to the beach, didn't she?

I see a house in the distance, and am immediately running towards it. Before I know it, I've rung the bell.

An elderly woman opens up. "Eh, hello. We don't do charities."

"Oh, uhm, no," I stammer a bit. "I was just wondering if an Evie lives here? Evie..." What is it again? "...Morgan?"

"That's my granddaughter. And yes. Why?"

"Does she have a friend over? My best friend is missing and I think she might've gone here."

"No. No one's around. Do you want me to ask her to confirm it?"

"Yes, please."

But, a few seconds later, both of us come to the conclusion that Viviette is not at Evie's, and before Evie can come down the stairs to ask what's going on, I'm on the other side of the hill again.

This is all my fault. Maybe if I wouldn't have yelled at her— not even a maybe. If I wouldn't have yelled at her or started that argument for no reason, then she wouldn't have left my house, and then she wouldn't be gone right now. If something serious happens, I won't ever forgive myself.

"Viviette!" I yell again. "Sage!"

After walking inside every single open store or restaurant I see, and ringing the door bell of every single house I know the owner of, I no longer know what to do. What are other places Viviette could be at? Where can she be found daily?

At the school, yeah, but that's closed for the night.

Checking can't do any harm, though.

Mango still walks along with me. She doesn't bark. Doesn't sniff. Doesn't dig. She just walks along. But I can tell by the way she walks that she knows we're still worried about Vi.

Once arrived at the school building, I check everything around it. The sport fields and the playground for little kids and the whole area. It's a scary place at night, I can't lie, but I check all of it.

Nothing, again.

Then I try the door handle of the enormous front doors. They're locked. It's already ten PM by now anyway. Four hours have passed. So many things can happen in four hours.

I've checked the backdoors of the school, too. Then I walk inside all the motels to ask if they've gotten a new guest tonight. But once again, no Viviette.

She isn't the type of person to run away in the first place, and certainly not about a single argument. Something happened.

I sit down on the first bench I find, in the middle of the dark path. There's dozens of closed stores around me. At least the lanterns make it less scary.

After petting Mango, I take Sage's phone out of my pocket. I do actually know her password. When we were eleven and first got phones, she changed the password to my birthday and I changed mine to hers. Mine changed for a few months during Teresa, but then I changed it back to the good old, familiar one.

I unlock her phone. The first place I go are her last class, but all of them (except for the missed calls from tonight) are from yesterday or before that. Texts, too. Or at least before our argument.

Social media won't help. She isn't on there a lot. Perhaps her camera roll.

The most recent thing is a ten minute video. The cover is a blurry picture of pavement I'd recognize out of a million; the path beside the hill.

I click on the video. It was filmed around thirty past five.

First, it's just her, walking down the hill in a fast pace, the short heels of her shoes clicking against the pavement. Then she flicks the view to her own face, pale and worried. Yet she smiles a bit.

"Hi, Evie," she says, but it sounds a little forced. "Yeah, I'm just calling because I wondered if you can meet up? Perhaps at the local store?"

Calling? This is a video. What does that... was she so upset she accidentally filmed herself? That can't be it.

"Yes? Alright, awesome!" She laughs a bit. "Where I am right now? Oh, just walking down the hill. I'll send a few selfies! See you in a minute."

Then she starts making the selfies, except she's still filming. She holds her phone far, far away from her face. She pouts with her lips and sticks out the tip of her tongue. She uses her hand to pose. But the angle is so—

Yeah, why would she pretend to call someone but actually video it, Thomas? Why would she make selfies from such a distance? Why make them in a way that allows me to see more of the background than of her?

To show me someone's walking behind her.

Cap over their head, face not visible. I can tell it's a man, but that's it.

At the realization, my heart sinks. It can still mean so, so many things, but they're no longer good options.

Her voice begins to sound more panicky when she finishes 'taking selfies'. "Oh, hi, Thomas. Why are you calling?" She asks. "Oh, yeah. I was... I was just on my way to the local store," she stammers. "Feel free to come with. You're so... tall... and- and... and didn't you have your boxing match today? You totally knocked that guy out."

Trying to scare the man away.

"Hey, sir!" Now she's giving him a warning, loud and snappy but also very scared. "I'm just making a call. Will you please— hey! Stay away from me!"

Then the phone hits the pavement with a loud thud. I get to see black screen for a minute. There's noises on the background. A lot of them, yet I can't figure out a single word.

Then the phone gets grabbed. It gets turned around, and the video gets turned off.

If he's going to be a creep, he's not doing it smoothly.

He turned the video off with his face in full vision, and I should have expected it.

Mr. Leadford.