The first thing Ricky noticed when he woke up in his bed was how dark the room was. He usually never woke up during the night, so it had to be morning. It was just... a really dark morning.
Ricky looked to his right. Nicky was still in his bed, fast asleep. Weird... Nicky was always the first one up. Ricky turned his head to the left instead. He grabbed his phone off the bedside table, and turned it on.
The bright light from the screen made him squint his eyes. Everything went blurred, but he could still make out the 02:47. He did wake up during the night.
There was a shuffling noise coming from somewhere. What was that? After thirty seconds of non-stop sounds, Ricky concluded that it came from Dawn's room.
Guess she was awake too. Maybe it was a full moon night...
Ricky dropped those thoughts, and calmly went back to sleep.
"Nicky! Ricky! Dicky! Dawn! Breakfast!" Anne put the last crust-free sandwich on the table in front of Nicky's chair.
Fast footsteps and arguing was heard a few seconds later, as the boys ran down the stairs. Ricky was the first in, followed by Nicky, and lastly Dicky.
"I'm telling you, the music won't go upside down if you wear your headphones upside down!" Ricky sat down in his chair. "Why would you even want to wear your headphones upside down!?"
Dicky gave Ricky a serious look.
"Because I don't want to look basic"
"Boys, where's Dawn?"
All three boys looked at Anne. They then looked around each other, like they hadn't even noticed Dawn wasn't in there. After noticing Dawn was in fact not there, they all shrugged. Anne sighed.
"Dicky, go and get her"
Dicky froze for a second, before quickly sitting down in his chair, an squinting his eyes.
"No..."
"Then, Nicky, you go get Dawn"
Nicky gave Anne an annoyed face.
"Why me?"
"Because you're the only one standing up"
Nicky snorted, irritated, and turned around without saying a word. He ran through the living room, up the stairs, and through the corridor. First when he reached Dawn's door, he slowed down. Totally ignoring the 'No boys' sign, he swung the door open.
"Daaawn, it's breakfast time"
Nicky's whole annoyed feeling disappeared when he saw that Dawn wasn't in the room. Not in her bed, not in the beanbag, nor by the desk. Nicky took a last look around, in case Dawn was hiding. She wasn't.
Well, she was probably in the bathroom. That would explain her absence from her room, and her not coming to breakfast. Nicky sighed deeply and walked up the corridor. The bathroom door was closed, so Dawn was obviously in there. Nicky knocked on the door.
"Dawn! It's breakfast time!"
No answer. Nicky knocked again.
"Dawn!"
He noticed the door wasn't locked, and so he opened it. At a first glance, Dawn wasn't seen in there. But the shower curtain was closed, covering the bathtub. Nicky rolled his eyes, and walked over there.
"Very funny-" Nicky swung the curtain open. "Dawn?"
Dawn wasn't there either.
Nicky was slowly starting to get annoyed again while walking through the upstairs corridor.
"Dawn, just come down to breakfast!"
He sprinted down the stairs and through the living room.
"Where's Dawn?", Anne immediately asked when Nicky entered the kitchen.
"That's the thing" Nicky sat down. "I don't know"
Anne looked confused.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I have no idea where she is. She's hiding or something"
"Then we have to find her. Get up boys"
Nicky, Ricky and Dicky groaned with their mouths full of bread and cheese. Very unwillingly, they stood up from their chairs and followed Anne into the living room.
"Found anything?"
Ricky, Dicky and Nicky met up on the stairs.
"Nope"
"You?"
Ricky shook his head.
"Nothing. Don't you think she would have like... gotten bored by now?"
"She should have. I didn't even get to drink strawberry juice for breakfast", Nicky hissed.
"I've gotten bored by now" Dicky sat down on the step he was on.
Anne walked out of the kitchen. She was on her phone, talking to someone.
"Last night at nine... Okay, we'll check the neighborhood"
The boys watched Anne hang up. She looked up at them on the stairs.
"I'm going over to the neighbors"
"Kay"
"Have fun"
"Oh no, you're going too"
When Anne said that, the boys stood up, shocked.
"Why!?" Ricky ran down to his mom.
"Because we need to get the whole neighborhood to help search for Dawn. At least until the police get here"
Slowly, the Icky's annoyed shocked faces turned to worry.
"The-... the police?", Nicky asked, voice shaking.
Anne nodded.
"I called them, since Dawn doesn't seem to be anywhere. Now we're going to search through the neighborhood"
The boys looked at each other. They were now worried too. Anne continued.
"One of you are going to Mae's to see if she's there, and the other two will get some neighbors to help"
"I'm on Mae duty!" Nicky ran out the door before anyone got the chance to protest.
Anne turned to the other two.
"You're going to Syd's, and you're going to the Hickman's"
"On it", the boys replied at the same time.
The three of them went outside, and found Tom standing there. Without even saying a word, Ricky turned left for the Hickman's, and Dicky went over to Syd's house. He hadn't talked to her since the tree house accident, and yet here he was, knocking on her door.
After six knocks and a minute of waiting, Syd opened the door. She had her pajamas on, and her hair was a mess. It was clear she had not been expecting visitors. She sighed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Look, I don't want to be here. But we need your help. Dawn's gone"
Syd turned her eyebrows down in confusion.
"Gone?"
"She's not anywhere in the house, and we need to find her"
Syd started to look concerned.
"I... I'll go, and like... get my parents to help" She pointed to the inside of the house.
"Sounds good"
As Syd closed the door, Dicky started walking over to the next neighbor.
It had been an hour since Dawn wasn't at breakfast. She hadn't been at Mae's, or anyone else's house either. Along with their neighbors, The other Harper's had searched through the entire neighborhood.
The police arrived quickly, and they helped to search through the entire city, to no success. Dawn wasn't anywhere. The police told them that they would continue searching on their own, and that Dawn would probably be home in 24 hours.
So the Harper's had gone home. There wasn't really much else to do, than put the matter into the hands of the police. They would still get to know everything they found that seemed suspicious or interesting.
Five of now only six members of the family (counting Squishy Paws) were in the kitchen. They were all worried sick, hoping with all they got that Dawn was okay. Anne was even too shaken up to cook a proper meal, so Nicky had taken care of that. He had decided that they were having chicken noodle soup, and a baguette.
"I just hope she's not kidnapped" Anne had tears all over her face.
Tom put his hand on hers, and slowly leaned in a little.
"Don't worry. She's probably okay. The police will find her, and arrest that kidnapper"
"Yeah, and that'll happen soon... right?" Dicky sounded sure, but he definitely didn't look like it.
Squishy Paws whimpered. Tom let go of Anne's hand and started petting the dog's head instead.
"You don't worry either"
"Hey, has anyone seen the baguette?", Nicky suddenly asked.
He seemed to be looking for something around the bread basket.
"No. Is it gone?" Anne leaned out on her chair to see more of the kitchen.
Nicky nodded.
"I'm one hundred percent sure I left it in here by my-..." He stopped abruptly, and searched for words. "-bread rolls"
He was clearly lying, but he couldn't tell the others his money was there. Tom pointed it out.
"There are no bread rolls there"
"I... I usually keep them there" Nicky quickly closed the bread box. "Now back to the point; where is my baguette?"
Ricky came in through the kitchen door. He looked concerned.
"I was just in Dawn's room, and I noticed something weird"
The others listened in.
"There were no signs of a break in at all"
Anne shrugged.
"Could've come from the front door, or the unlocked garage" She gave Tom a deadly look.
Ricky shook his head.
"That's not it. Her backpack was gone, and so was her favorite shirt, and those light blue tights"
Tomorrow, I don't think there will be an update. Why? Because tomorrow's Easter!
I'm going to my grandparents house for Easter, and so I won't be able to update.
Maybe I won't update on Sunday either, cause it's my cousin's birthday, and we're going to his house. But I promise there will be an update on Monday!