Chapter 1

Rain poured as a woman walked with her black umbrella, earphones in her ears tuning out her surroundings but she was also completely aware of them. A black SUV passed by slowly, she felt eyes on her. She felt uneasy, holding her bag closer as she picked up her pace. Another couple minutes passed, by then the SUV passed by her 3 more times. The woman began to worry and decided to let them be aware that she noticed, she stopped and took out her ear buds as she pulled her phone out and decided to make a call. As the phone rang she noticed that the SUV stopped behind her pulled over on the opposite side of the street.

"Hey you reached Claire, sorry I missed your call. Please leave a message." The woman cursed and called another number as she turned into a park, "You reached the voicemail box of Darren Staye, leave a message."

"Black SUV, no license plate, can't see the driver nor passengers. I'm really scared I'm at Huston park. If anything happens I love both of you." The woman hung up the phone and placed it in her bag. She closed her umbrella and let the rain hit her, she heard someone walking up behind her. "If I come with you, you won't hurt them right?" Her voice shook, her grip on the umbrella tightened until her knuckles were white. She turned slightly to face the person with a weak smile, "I'll only come with you if you promise me that you won't hurt them."

"Quite the rain fall we've been having, huh Jamie?"

"Quite and there's more to come with that hurricane coming! Thankfully we will be only getting the rain fall." The weatherman spoke as a young woman sat on the sofa in a living room, she looked at the time and sighed. She went upstairs and into the bathroom, brushed her teeth and started the shower. As she got out she looked at her phone and saw a text from her brother, 'Have you spoken to Allie?'

'No? Thought she stayed at the office why?'

'Nothing I have a voicemail from her but it's all sorts of fucked, can't hear shit besides static and rain.'

'She's probably fine.'

'You work today?'

'Yeah, only a 4 hour shift. /'

'Cool I work late tonight soooo'

'Ight. See you later.'

She set her phone down and finished her makeup. As she put a beanie on her short hair and went to her room, put on a pair of black leggings with a light pink spaghetti strap tank top. Grabbing a black sweater open sweater and placing it on her bag, she hurried down the stairs and grabbed a pill bottle along with a large bottle of water. Running back upstairs she got her bag and and sweater then running back to the kitchen grabbing the water, pills, and her car keys.

She pulled into the parking lot of the mall and hurried inside to her store. "Hey Claire." She heard a voice say, she smiled and waved, running into the employee lounge tossing her bag into the corner and throwing her phone into her locker. She hurried to the terminal to clock in as she saw her stores Human Resources, "You're late." She said, "Yeah I know. My brother kept me on the phone." She lied but mentally noted that hey she wasn't completely lying, she was actually talking to her brother earlier. "Doesn't he know you work?" HR said with an attitude, Claire stood there biting her tongue, "He does, not my fault my sister hasn't been heard from in days, but you know...I work." Claire snapped back with a smile. She walked out to her counter putting on her sweater cover up and name tag, "There you are! Thought you weren't coming in." Her supervisor, Cody, said. "You know, I have seriously thought about just not coming in. Money you know. Only reason I'm staying." Claire chuckled, Cody laughed "Same."

"Will that be all?" Claire smiled as she placed a customers items on the side to take off security tags, "Well I have coupons but you know your store is notorious for them not working." The customer said smugly, Claire thought about how many times a day she heard that, and how badly she wanted to smack them for being assholes and not reading the back of the coupons. She looked at them and smiled, the customer went on as two men came in and walked up to her supervisor, out of the corner of Claire's eye she saw Cody point at her and all three walk over. Cody came around and said "I will take over here don't worry. They need to talk to you." Claire's stomach sank and nodded, she walked around the counter and to the two men. "Claire Staye?" Asked one of the men, "Uh yes..? Is there a problem did something happen?" Claire nervously asked, "Can you come outside with us?" The other motioned towards the doors to the parking lot, "I would rather talk here." She said firmly. "Well, alright have you seen this man before?" They held a photo out of a man, "No I haven't, should I know him?" Claire took the photo and then looked at the men, "He worked with your sister." The one man said, "My name is detective Harrison, this is detective Jones. One of your sisters coworkers called us saying she hasn't been seen in over 72 hours." Claire looked at them and tears welled up and she looked at the photo closer. "W-why can't I-I remember who this is?" She began to sob and her legs gave out "Oh god something has happened to her and I've ignored her." She sobbed. One of the men got down and hugged her, she held onto him and cried.

-4 years later-

"Happy birthday Claire." Her brother placed a small round cake in front of her, "It's your favorite, red velvet." A woman said smiling softly, "Thank you Meredith." She weakly smiled. Meredith hugged her brothers arm after he lit the candles that were in the shape of a 19. She blew them out and her brother and Meredith came around and hugged her. "So what did you wish for?" Meredith smiled, "If I tell you it wont come true." Claire smiled. "Well let's have some cake!" Her brother cut a slice of cake for everyone.

Claire looked at them and then at her cake, "You haven't touched your cake yet, Claire." Meredith said worried "Claire are you alright?" Darren said placing his hand on hers. "I-" Claire looked down and fiddled with the fork as her eyes teared up "I miss her." She covered her face and sobbed. Darren came around and hugged her "I miss her too, Claire." He held back his own tears as Meredith came around and hugged them both, "Its been four years. Will she ever come home?" Claire cried into her brother shoulder, "We can only hope." Meredith said.

"So how was your birthday?" Cody asked as she and claire carried pillows out and stacked them "Meh it was alright. Darren and Meredith took me out to eat and Darren got waaaaay to drunk." Claire began chuckling "He was saying how when he, Allie and a family friend were in high school they went out and Allie some how got stuck in metal fence." Claire covered her mouth trying to stifle her laughter as she saw customers walk by. "Since the day my mom passed my sister and brother have been the only parental figures I've had. I never saw my sister as that kind of person."

"What kind of person is that?" Cody asked

"A fun one." Claire looked down. "Any who so how about that sale?" Claire changed the subject and as the two chit chatted the supervisor phone rang, "Hello?" Cody said "Yeah sure." Cody motioned her finger up mouthing 'I'll be right back.' Claire gave the thumps up and went back to stocking.

As she stocked her mind wondered, she thought of the lowest point her family went through.

Allie cried softly as she placed a light blue nightgown into a box, she picked up a picture frame with a woman and a little girl. Allie stood up and looked around the room, it looked like a hospital room even though it was once a normal bedroom in her childhood home. She sat on the edge of the medical bed and stared at the photo, tears hit the glass. A soft knock came from the door, "Hey." Darren said "You missed the wake." He said walking in as Allie wiped her eyes "I know." She choked out, "Claire needed you today." Darren crouched in front of her, "She has us now. And only us." His voice began to break "Allie please moms gone. She left Claire in our hands." Allie hugged her brother and sobbed loudly "I want her back, Darren. I want mom." Darren hugged her tight and whispered "I do too, Alison. I do too." Claire watched from the closest through the slits in the door, she hugged her stuffed bunny and sobbed softly. As she cried the doors opened and Allie stood in front of her, "Claire? How did you get there, sweetie?" Allie said as she kneeled down and pulled the crying Claire closer, "You guys are gonna leave me with a new family aren't you?" Claire said softly through tears. "No we're not." Darren said squatting looking at her wiping a tear from her eye "You're our sister, mom had you later than us but you are our sister." Allie said "Yes we hate you sometimes but we love you more than anything." Allie hugged her tightly and Darren hugged them, Claire's head rested on Allies shoulder she hugged them back.

Darren sat at his desk and typed up his latest report, as he typed his desk phone rang, "Go for Darren." He said "Darren its Meg. Come down here I've got something." Meg said quickly, "What is it?" She had Darren's full attention. "It's Allie, we have a hit." Darren rushed into the tech lab room, Meg stood next to a man in a chair who was typing away on a computer with six screens in front of them. "What's up? What did you find?" Darren came up to them "So while we were trying to find that mystery woman, we happened to find some street footage from Korea." Meg said still staring at the screens, "Paul pull it up on monitor three." Meg said "Aye aye madam." Paul said as the top right monitor went black then security camera street footage came up of a busy street in Seoul. "Can you bring it to 1200 hours." She said Paul brought it to the time and stopped it. "Okay um what does this have to do with Allie?" Darren said as he looked at Meg, Paul zoomed in on a woman who was coming up from a subway. "You tell me if that's Allie." Meg look Darren dead in the eye. Darren looked at the screen closely, a woman's face was somewhat blurry but the hair and face the same as Allie's. It had been four years but Darren knew his older sisters face, she raised him while their mothers health declined, helped Claire with her health issues, took them both in after their mothers death.

"It's Alison." He said "When was this?" "No less than 72 hours. We've gone over a months worth of footage while looking for mystery lady for Valentine. I just happened to notice the same lady like clockwork. It's not unusual but she's always back that way again at midnight." Meg responded. "What are you gonna do, Darren?" Meg asked walking to her desk and sitting down, "Either I go to Korea or get more info." Darren said. "Maybe she's tried contacting anybody? You, Claire, maybe an old flame?" Meg said swiveling her chair to face him, "I don't know if I should call him but...maybe I could actually ask for his help." Darren said "Thank you, Meg. I owe you." He turned to leave "Maybe ask if we can get a new vending machine?!" Meg shouted as he left. "You think he heard me?" Meg asked Paul, "I'm not walking up to the 3rd floor for food or a soda anymore." Paul muttered.