Chapter 2:

Phantom Child

Tom and Anna Lair sat in his Captain's office. Tom was clutching his hat in his hands. He was in full patrol uniform and was only able to spare his lunch hour to meet with his wife and supervisor. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe his little girl was gone. She couldn't be. She was just pulling an elaborate ruse. 'Just a hoax. A trick. A Halloween stunt… a month and a half late. Irma's weird like that. She got that from her mother… God I wish Gabrielle was here. She would know what to do. She would know where to find our daughter.' Tom gasped quietly. Had he really… Did he really just wish his dead wife was here? He hadn't thought about her in at least six months. 'It's natural. It's completely natural. Our only child is missing. She's so much like Gabrielle… It's only natural to wish her mother was here to find her. That's all.' He swallowed hard.

His reaction hadn't gone unnoticed. His second wife, already in pieces beside him, looked up at her husband and wondered what was on his mind. She knew from his years on the police force—eighteen, to be exact—that he was thinking of all the gruesome things that could be happening to his daughter. His baby. His world. Anna could always see it in his eyes. No one, not her, not Chris, not his dead mother or his long dead grandmother, could take Irma's place in his heart. No matter what he was going through, Irma could fix it. Anna remembered the worst day of his career. The day he found the dismembered remains of a mother clutching her child… He was absolutely devastated, until Irma came home. All it took was one hug, one whisper in his ear from his little girl, and he started to get better.

Even now, as her step-daughter was missing and possibly dead, Anna couldn't help but recall her feelings of jealousy for the girl. The smiles Tom gave her were genuine. He was always happy to see her. Lately the looks he gave Anna seemed to be obligatory. Ever since she had started her business, their relationship hadn't been the same. Tom had leaned on Irma a lot more, and Anna hated it. She was his wife. She was the person he should be counting on. She was the one who had given him her best years. Irma was still a child. But Anna knew she was defeated. Irma was his pride and joy, no matter what she did or didn't do.

Irma—just by being herself: cheerful, spunky, carefree, and funny—naturally reminded Tom of the best years of his life. The year that he met Gabrielle. Their first dates. The night she got pregnant. Their wedding. His first years on the force, when everyone called him 'Robocop.' The name stuck, but for different reasons now.

There was no way Anna could compete with Irma or the memories she resurrected in her husband. Anna had met Tom at the beginning of his end, and while they were happy in their marriage, with a son and successful careers, there was no way Anna could make Tom as happy as he was with Gabrielle, or as happy as they'd been after they first had Irma.

It didn't help that Irma never tried to get closer to her, despite Anna's attempts. She tried to take Irma shopping, to the park, ice skating, all with no luck. She even offered to take a mother-daughter gymnastics class, since Irma had done gymnastics all throughout her childhood. All she ever got was a polite 'No, thank you, maybe next time.' After a year of this same ritual, Anna decided it would be wise to just give up. Irma didn't even call her Mom. Or Mother, or Step-Mother, or anything even close. Anna. That was her name, and that was the name Irma used to address and refer to her.

And yet she was as heartbroken as anyone over her step-daughter's disappearance. She had thought things were getting better over the last year. At least between Irma and her. Irma had opted to take all Advanced classes—to please Tom, no doubt—and was doing very well. She maintained a solid B+ average, enough to make the Honor Roll, even.

Anna and Tom knew she worked extremely hard to make those grades, and to be more responsible around the house, to make up for those few months when she was thirteen—the beginning of her being a Guardian, unknown to them—when everything seemed to go wrong with her. So that was one of the major factors in Tom's decision to buy her a car. They knew she wasn't a bad kid, and that she wouldn't abuse the privilege. And so far she hadn't. She didn't even take her car with her on this latest trip to God knows where. Anna sobbed as she realized she might never see her step-daughter again… outside of a body bag, at least.

Tom put his arm around his wife and looked up in time to watch Captain Logan Reynolds finish reading the missing person's report. "You say the last time anyone has had contact with your daughter was at three-thirty pm on the day in question, right Tom?"

"That's right, Captain. Irma was walking home from school, since she didn't take her car that day, for whatever reason. The last point of contact I can establish from her, to anyone, was a text message she'd sent me, letting me know she was on her way home… I canvassed the whole neighborhood, all the neighborhoods, and no one has seen or heard from her since."

"Do you still have the messages in your phone?" Logan asked. Tom nodded and handed over his phone. Reynolds looked through it until he found what he was looking for. "Sheffield Upper Institute lets out at three, am I right?"

"Y-y-yes," Anna choked. "But we live, f-forty-five m-m-m-minutes walking distance from the school…" She finally let out a wail. "And I should have gone to meet her! I'm such a bad mother!"

Tom pulled Anna into his chest. Partially to comfort her, but mostly to keep her cries from engulfing the police station. He whispered to her, as reassuringly as he could, that she was a great mother and had done nothing wrong. "You know this, Logan; there hasn't been a crime in the area of Sheffield since… Ever?"

"You're right, Tom. There would have been no reason to suspect anything could go wrong on her walk from school, given the route you relayed in the missing person's…"

Just then, another officer walked in and handed Logan an evidence bag, which in Heatherfield was an extra-large brown paper lunch bag with special labeling. "Thanks, Bobby," Reynolds started, and started reading the labels. His eyes grew wide, and he frantically opened the bag and rifled through the contents. "This changes everything," he murmured.

"What is it, Logan? What's wrong?" Tom asked. He was worried. Logan didn't usually take any evidence that didn't belong to the case at hand.

"Tom, do you recognize any of these things?" He first pulled a turquoise knapsack from the bag.

"Yeah, yeah that's Irma book bag; she keeps her schoolbooks in it… Where did you get that?"

"How about this?" Logan then retrieved a cell phone and an iPod with a Kamilla sticker on it.

"That's her cell phone! A-an-an-and her iPod!" Tom stuttered.

Anna finally looked up. "Yes, those are her things! Where did you find them?" she asked hysterically.

Logan swallowed. "These were found in the last area she was seen. She was about two blocks from your home. Everything was strewn about… Like I said, this changes everything."

"She didn't run away…" Tom ventured.

"What? What do you mean? I don't understand," Anna replied, confused.

Logan and Tom sighed at the same time. "If she had run away," Tom started, "she would have at the very least taken her cell phone. Since she didn't take any of the things that she went to school with, it means…" He suddenly choked and tried to blink back his tears. His daughter was in real, serious, tangible danger.

"What it means is," Logan continued for his friend, "that she was likely abducted. Sixteen-year-olds do not leave their cell phones and iPods behind if they run away."

"OH MY GOD SHE'S BEEN TAKEN!" Anna screamed.

"It's going to be okay, Anna…" Tom started. His voice was shaky and strained, but he continued anyway. "We're going to get her back…"


It had been over two days since Irma went missing, and the remaining Guardians were losing their minds. Where was she? Where could she have gone? When did she leave?

Why did she leave?

The fact that their best friend could have been abducted hadn't occurred to any of them. Any of them, that is, except Hay Lin. That was the idea that Hay Lin held close to her heart. She hoped, no she KNEW that Irma would never have left Heatherfield on her own. She had an important job to do. She was a Guardian of the Veil. She had amazing friends. She was going to a great school, and she was doing really well. In Higher Level classes, at that. She was two quarters away from being a Senior and one school year away from being a graduate. She had a car, and relaxed rules. She had a father who idolized her, a brother who adored her, and a step-mother who… Well they weren't enemies.

Why would she leave all that behind?

The Air Guardian's friends were not thinking so clearly. At least Hay Lin didn't think so. "Where would she have gone? Oh, I know, she lived in another town before Heatherfield, right?" Will started.

Hay Lin sighed heavily while rolling her eyes, and her friends noticed the annoyance in her voice. "No, Will, that was Taranee. Irma has lived in Heatherfield all her life. We grew up together, remember…?"

"Jeez Hay Lin, she was just asking a question," Cornelia defended. "And, well… this is going to sound crazy, but do you think she maybe ran off with a guy or something? I know she still has a little crush on Andrew Hornby?"

"Andrew Hornby…" Hay Lin mocked sarcastically. "The SAME Andrew Hornby that sat happy-go-lucky through all our classes, and didn't even KNOW Irma was missing until someone TOLD him about it… in SIXTH period? Come on, Cornelia. Think."

Cornelia pursed her lips before making her reply. "You know, instead of shooting all our ideas down, you could at least TRY to come up with some kind of explanation. At least we care enough to brainstorm."

Before Hay Lin could retort—she was already turning bright red and was about to let it all out—Taranee interjected. "What if she just ran away?"

"What?" Will asked.

"Think about it. Guardianship. School. Brother. Step-parent. It's a lot to handle. What if she just… got tired of it?"

"That actually sounds like something Irma would do…" Cornelia said softly.

"She wouldn't run away," Hay Lin murmured inaudibly, "She wouldn't run away, she wouldn't run away…"

"Hay Lin are you trying to say something?" Will asked. "I see you mouthing words, but nothing is coming out."

Hay Lin licked her lips. "What if she was taken? I mean, what if someone kidnapped her? It doesn't make sense… I just, I mean… I'm trying… I just… I know Irma wouldn't run away. I know it. She is my best friend in the whole world. In all the worlds. We know everything about each other—"

Cornelia started, "Maybe not—"

"She WOULDN'T just disappear like this… And did you even think to ask why she had been acting the way she was acting the week before? You just jumped to conclusions. That's why you're thinking the way you're thinking now. You aren't taking everything into account. Irma has a point-of-view, too, girls, and you're ignoring it."

Hay Lin walked away from her friends, leaving them in stunned silence.