The Disappearance
Tianna Zondervan
The shock of the town was still fresh, maintaining every ounce of its sharp potency. Five days were hardly enough time for Harleigh to grieve the official disappearance of her classmate and best friend. Before Brandy went missing, the biggest news in the small down of Tolasdale was the Roberts’ family painting their house hot pink. Harleigh just wanted to forget. The last thing she needed was a welcome-back and an I’m-so-sorry-for-your-loss parade at school.
As much as she hated to, Harleigh knew it was time to return. She was lucky that her mom even believed that she “got the flu” after eating some “bad chicken.” She wasn’t a fan of confronting her problems. She preferred to run from them. After snatching a yogurt from the refrigerator and locking her fingers around her backpack, she headed out the door towards her mother’s SUV.
“Maybe seeing your other friends will be a good thing,” Harleigh’s mother Liza Keasle said, trying to comfort her daugher. Harleigh just brushed her brown, shoulder-length hair aside and stared out the window, ignoring the words she knew were probably true.
London and Kara greeted Harleigh at the school doors with smiling faces, but Harleigh knew better. She knew that underneath those smiles were hearts sinking at the same pace as her own. But she just smiled half-heartedly and muttered, “Hey. I missed you guys.”
The day was going fairly well. Kara, London, and Harleigh were sitting together at the lunch table flinging jello at each other with their spoons, when London’s grin faded into a gloomy frown. Kara and Harleigh turned and followed her gaze to the mounted television screen in the corner of the cafeteria.
The screen flashed red and the girls listened to the sound of a woman’s voice announce, “After five days and several teams searching, teenage Brandy Janowitz is still missing. Investigators claim that there are no major leads at this time. . .”
“Great. Just when my day starts to turn up, someone’s gotta remind me that Brandy is nowhere to be found,” Kara complained, but Harleigh could see tears welling up in her eyes. The bell rang just as London began to put her arm around Kara. The three dumped their trays and hurried to their lockers.
“You know she’s dead, right?” The girls turned around to see Trevor, the athletic and popular Junior boy sneering at them. Trevor, the boy Brandy used to date last year until she so harshly and publicly dumped him. “I mean, where do you think she would be? Nobody just up and leaves for days at a time without warning. She totally could have gotten murdered or something,” he said as if he didn’t care in the slightest.
London and Kara stood still, jaws dropped, in sad disbelief. Their gaze shifted from the tall dirty-blonde jock to the usually timid, petite brunette charging after Trevor. Harleigh was raging, and when she reached Trevor, he chuckled to himself. He was caught off guard by a small bony fist smashing into his nose, causing immediate blood to flow from his nostrils. As he layed on the floor, he opened his eyes to Harleigh standing above him, gritting her teeth.
“She’s not dead,” Harleigh uttered in a calm yet authoritative voice sending Trevor scurrying down the hall, and stumbling as he tried to regain his balance.
“That was amazing!” London gushed as they raced to P.E. “Where did you learn to throw punches like that?”
“Harleigh!” a short sophomore girl called. “I heard you broke Trevor’s nose!”
Kara and London exchanged glances. “You’re practically famous!” Kara gushed, grinning from ear to ear.
“Okay, okay. My fifteen minutes of fame won’t get me out of gym class. Come on,” Harleigh prodded.
All through the hour, Harleigh received praise, high fives, and shocked expressions from students who had hardly acknowledged her existence prior to her popular spat of violence. When the period was over, the class headed to the locker room. Harleigh pulled her gray sweatshirt over her ponytail and tied her left sneaker, then looked around to see her right one was missing. “Has anyone seen my shoe? It’s really bright yellow.”
The only response was the bell ringing once more to alert the students that gym class was over and it was time to move on to the next class. Harleigh sighed as her classmates exited the locker room. Instead of heading towards the door like everyone else, she turned and searched down the hall of showers that nobody used, assuming one of her friends had hidden it as a prank. At the hall’s end, Harleigh almost ran for the door from the stench emitting from the last shower.
“Ugh!” she grimaced. “What’s that awful smell?” she muttered to herself. She followed her nose to the odor’s source: a shower drain. The drain was bigger than most, a fair seven inches in diameter. The smell was so wretched that she could no longer breathe through her nostrils. She pointed her cell phone light into the drain, and peeked in to see what could lie inside. All she saw was a yellow figure she couldn’t quite make out. Thinking that is just might have been her yellow shoe, Harleigh dug her dainty fingers into the grate of the drain, in an attempt to open it. After failing, she searched through her duffle bag until finding an old toothbrush. Jamming it into a hole in the grate, she pressed her weight until the drain popped open. She reached inside but pointed her face in the opposite direction, so her head would create a barrier for the foul odor. Her fingers hooked something solid, so she continued pulling until several long stick-like objects came out of the drain.
Harleigh immdiately dropped the objects and backed against the cold brick wall, unsure of how to react to the scene before her. Two human sized bones lay before her, with dozens still left in the drain. Gasping for breath, longing for an explanation to this morbid discovery, Harleigh raced out the door, staggering down the hall.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in class, Miss Keasle?” Mr. Pilar questioned, but his expression soon changed after catching a fainting Harleigh. As a passing female teacher took notice, she dashed to the site to help.
“Breath, Harleigh. In. Out. In. Out,” she ordered. “What’s wrong?”
Not capable of describing what she had just seen, Harleigh asked simply, “Could I get a drink of water?”
“Of course. Allow me.” the teacher obliged as she grabbed a ice cold bottled water from the office refrigerator.
“I’ll be fine, really,” Harleigh started after gulping half the bottle. “I was just really warm, that’s all. Can I go back to class?” she pleaded, wanting time to think about what just happened.
“Why don’t you just have a seat in the office for a few minutes. Catch your breath,” the woman suggested as she led Harleigh to one of four red padded chairs.
“Yeah, okay,” Harleigh agreed.
For ten minutes, she sat, processing the events of the last half hour. She reasoned with herself, trying to justify what she saw. It must have been a daydream, she thought. Whose bones would they be, anyway? What should I do? Who do I tell? Her thoughts were cut off by the principle’s door slamming as Trevor exited, smirking mischieviously as always. Harleigh glared as he neared her. He slowed slightly as he passed, until stopping and without facing her, he whispered, “I told you she was dead.” Harleigh narrowed her eyes and glanced at the floor. “Oh, yeah. I believe this belongs to you,” Trevor sneered as her tossed her a small shoe, bright yellow in color.
Harleigh stared. She just gazed at the floor without focusing her eyes on anything in particular. Her mind was racing. Does he know? How? she wondered silently. As a million questions raced through her mind, confusion began to be replaced with fear. Fear of the realization that Trevor was not lying. Brandy really was dead. Fear of the realization that Trevor was dangerous. The realization that Trevor may have very well killed Brandy.
