Have you ever been addicted to someone? You do your best to avoid them, to separate your own life from theirs, but you can’t–you have to get one more taste, one more hit. You know it’s bad for you, but they're hypnotic, electric. It feels like you can't live without them, like you’re dependent on them. Seeing them every chance you get, at some point it will be too much, it will take over you. There is nothing you can do to stop it, it will eventually consume you.
Chloe had that kind of addictive personality, some people would just let her talk and talk, just to be around her, surrounded by her. However, Matt, Taylor, Daniel, and Ava were different, they didn’t want to occupy the same space as her, they wanted to be really with her and truly experience things with her.
That's what Chloe missed the most about her old friends. With other people there was that disconnect and now, in this cold cramped barn, she felt that disconnect once again. She hated it. It seemed like no one was mingling. They were just taking turns talking to Ava.
“Who wants to play truth or dare?” Chloe suggested in a panic. She tried to keep the distress out of her voice, but to little avail.
“Yah, that sounds like fun,” Ava responded, trying to force the group conversation.
“What? Are we in middle school?” Daniel groaned from the corner.
At that, Chloe took a deep sigh, he was right. Why would people want to play the game that probably ruined their friendship? Ava’s going to remember what happened and kick her out. They’re all going to become friends again, but she will be the outlier. They hate her, they all hate her. Chloe fell into this spiral of self-hatred far too quickly for her liking and barely noticed when Taylor spoke.
“Oh, Daniel, thank you so much for volunteering to go first,” Taylor said using the most sarcastic voice she could muster, “Truth or dare?”
Daniel looked around at Chloe and Ava, who both just shrugged. He desperately turned to Matthew as a last resort for an out from the childish game, but Matthew had already had a few too many to drink and simply responded, “Yeah, Daniel, truth or dare?”
Daniel searched the room, looking for some scapegoat to somehow get out of the predicament he found himself in. When he couldn’t come up with any viable excuse, he gave in and turned back to Taylor.
“Truth.”
“And that’s kinda when things got dark,” Matthew remembered, as he talked to Chloe, Taylor, and Daniel during lunch that Monday.
“You really don’t remember anything else?” Chloe persistently inquired, her face plastered with concern.
“I couldn’t even tell you what the question was!” Matthew confessed, his voice giving way to a slightly panicked tone.
Chloe took a deep breath, no one had seen or heard from Ava since that night.
“I feel like you guys aren't telling me something,” Matthew tentatively confessed, the suspicion in his voice was almost as thick as the mystery mush they were eating for lunch.
“Well, Mat, you kinda–” Daniel was cut off by an announcement over the speakers.
“Chloe Ashford, Matthew Commuovere, Taylor Forelsket, and Daniel Waldeinsamkeit, please report to the front office.”
Chloe looked around at her friends, well not really friends, more like… acquaintances she knew a lot about. A pit had lodged itself in Chloe's stomach, getting heavier with every second. She pulled her honey colored hair over her shoulders and began fiddling with it.
After a couple seconds of sitting, tension in the air, Daniel was the first to start moving. The rest of them followed suit. The out of sink footsteps of the four of them was somehow soothing.
Stepping into the office, the lady at the front desk, Mrs. Lee, knocked on the principal's large mahogany door. As soon as her knuckles hit the wood, the door flew open.
Mr. Bink was the principal, and if you asked any kid in the school, they would tell you he was nice. If you were five minutes late, he would let you off with a warning, if he found some unsavory items on your person, he would just turn it into the police without a name. He almost always had a bright, infectious smile. Yet, when that door opened and he stepped out, a look of sadness and regret lay on his face, taking all four of them aback.
“Ah, hello,” Mr. Bink said, shoulders slumped with no light in his eyes, “come in, come in.” He motioned for them to enter his office.
The quartet stepped in, one by one, and were greeted by the town sheriff and an official they didn’t know. The town they lived in was on the smaller side, so even if you didn’t know someone's name, you would still have seen them around, but none of them had ever seen that man before, and it terrified them.
“Sit,” the man said. Well, not said exactly, more like demanded.
“And why should we go and do a thing like that?” Daniel asked, his arms crossed defensively over his chest.
“Because, your friend Ava, is missing.” At that, the room went quiet.
Comments