It's no use. I can't sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see Ruby; her bright eyes and her glistening smile. It's all that I can think about right now. Why isn't she here? Where'd she go? I have to find out. I crawl out of the tiny fort and walk out of the room, then I take a right and make a beeline for the phone on the cabinet outside the hall. I pick it up, dial 911, and hold it up to my ear. The second I do, seven drawn out beeps ring in my ear.

"Great, the storm must have cut the phone line." I think to myself. I put the phone back in it's place and tighten my hand into a fist. If Ruby's missing, I have to let the police know and file a Missing Person's Report. My heart begins to sink and my shoulders start to feel heavy. In the corner of my eye I can feel a tear start to well up.

"Damn it Ruby," I notice that my voice is getting a bit shaky, "where are you?" Then, a thought occurs to me.

"That note said to not snoop around to find out what happened...are there clues here?" It's a wild and absolutely crazy thought, but...what if? I can't call the police, and finding her in the rain would be damn near impossible; especially since this town is new to me and I don't know where anything is. It's the best I can do right now.

"Where do I start?" I ask myself. I guess the most logical place would be her room, but I don't know where that is. I'll just have to sweep the house until I find it. I turn to my left and head back into the first hallway. At the end, instead of turning left into the living room, I make my way right. There is a long hallway with a red carpet and a door to the left.

I push open the door and feel for a light switch. I find it on the left side, and when I turn it on I can see that the room has a bookcase in the center, a small counter to the left and a chair in the corner. This isn't her room, so turn right and continue the hall towards a tall plant and a dresser, then I make another left towards a door at the very end. I twist the door handle and try to open it, but it won't budge; and even though it doesn't I still give it another jiggle or two.

"Locked…" I sigh to myself and look down. This whole situation sucks. I'm all alone trying to find my missing sister and parents in a house they've completely abandoned, trying to find clues and piece together what happened. What am I doing?

Out of the corner of my eyes, something on the ground catches my attention. There's a metal trash bin with a single crumpled up piece of paper in it, oddly tucked away from everything else. My curiosity grows as I continue to stare at it for no reason at all, so I bend down and pick it up.

"Yang,

Please, whatever you've found, don't tell mom and dad. The attic"

I read through a scribble over hurried writing on the crinkled paper. Ruby was in a rush to write this, but I wonder why she scribbled it out and threw it away. Two specific phrases capture my attention: "whatever you've found" and "the attic". They repeat in my mind, back and forth between one another, like a parrot that only knows two phrases.

"Whatever you've found?" I think to myself, "Does this mean that there really are more clues?" I tighten my grip on the sides of the paper and press my lips together hard. "The attic..? Is there something important in there?" Even though everything still feels helpless, I can feel a glimmer of hope in my heart. Now, I have two useful pieces of information I can use.

I recrumple the paper and shove it into my hoodie pocket along with the letter I found on the door earlier, then a whip around and began marching away from the locked door. Just as I'm about to pass the dresser, I stop and realize something.

"What if more clues are out of the way, like that one?" I turn to the dresser and turn on a lamp that is on it. When I do, the area illuminates and I see a note that I somehow missed. I read it without picking it up.

"Yang,

Please tell mom and dad sorry about the stuff that's missing.

-Ruby"

Sounds about right, Rubes usually wouldn't be one to steal anything, but I imagine that if she did she would come back and apologize for it. I just wish she would come back. I open the first two drawers and find next to nothing; just a few documents and a couple of highlighters, but when I open the bottom one I do find something interesting.

"Hi Wiess!

So if you wanted to come over to my house still this afternoon that would be cool! I can drive. It's kind of far but I can drive you home too so hopefully that's fine. Write back and leave this in my locker if you still want to and we can meet in the parking lot after 6th.

-Ruby

Sure, I'm in. See you there. Just know that I won't hold back.

-W"

The paper has black ink for the first part, then turns red in the second. On it is a poorly drawn picture of someone throwing an energy ball at another person, with the word "you" pointed at the target. I smile to myself and my heart begins to full with a warm, bubbly feeling. I'm so glad to see Ruby made friends without me there, since she's usually so socially anxious and awkward.

I shut the drawer and turn back down the hallway. Before I turn left to the main foyer, I gaze into the room I tried and failed to fall asleep in.

"Maybe I should look in there too, just in case." I think to myself. I head in there, turn on the light switch, and begin looking for anything I could find. I start on my left, where I find a cassette tape and player on a shelf. Side A of the tape has the word "girlscout" written on it with red crayon; the o is a heart, and side B says "It's My Turn." I pop it in and hit the play button.

The song starts with a short drum fill, then it immediately amps up to a nice little punk song.

"You...were the one...who held me down and told me I was heading nowhere!" The lead vocalist is a girl, and she has a beautiful singing voice. I walk away and the song just becomes background noise. I look under the couch and inside cabinets - really anywhere I can think of - but the only interesting thing I find is one of the books dad wrote and a note that goes on about how one of his friends could send it into his boss for editing. That is, until I open the door at the far left corner of the room.

I pull the string hanging from the ceiling and light up the closet. There are a few articles of clothing hanging on the left and a small stack of boxes in the right. The top box is open, and again, oddly tucked away, is something that I actually remember from my childhood. It's a small, three page story that Ruby made when she was really little.

"The Hevin at the Edge of the World.

Ruby Rose, grade 2

Story: the turtle people

part 1"

It's still so cute how she misspelled 'heaven'. It's also adorable that she gave the story two titles for some reason. On the front page are a few turtle stickers; one of them is holding a piece of paper with an A on it. There's also a poorly drawn picture of two female pirates next to a ship.

I smile to myself again, gripping the paper at the sides and sorting through every memory of my precious sister. I love her so much. She was so innocent back then. I don't want to let go of the story or think of what's going on with her right now. She's gotta be scared and alone, or maybe she's just sad, or maybe she feels empty. God, I pray that's not the case. I just wanna stay here and relive that part of my life again; the part with Ruby in it. But I know that I just can't afford to do that, it'll get me nowhere. I let out a shaky breath and I can feel my smile fade away.

"I miss you, Ruby." I whisper to myself. I think tonight is the closest I've come to crying in a long time. I set the story back in the box and exit the closet, then I head out of the entire room, feeling a bit disappointed that I didn't find another clue.

When I leave the room another thing strikes me as odd. There's another crumbled up piece of paper next to another metal bin. I pick it up and try to fix it, and it turns out the piece of paper was torn in half, so I try my best to align the words and read it.

"Hey are you that new girl Ruby? I'm Cardin im at the back behind you wave if you get this and write back.

Hi Cardin. Yes, I'm Ruby and yes I'm new. What's up?"

I start to get a little excited. How many friends did Ruby end up making? And with a boy? I'm impressed by how far she's come. Though Cardin's terrible handwriting and poor grammar make me worry a little.

"I just thought since youre new maybe you could use a friend. I dont have alot of friends either and so I thought Id ask something if you dont mind. do you mind?

Y/N

No I don't mind. What did you want to ask?

Was it just your uncle who went psycho or does it run in your family?"

What? I begin to clench my fist around the two pieces of paper so hard that it hurts. I grit my teeth and my entire body is engulfed in a boiling rage. I take my right fist and slam it into the doorframe as hard as I can. I swear, if I ever find this 'Cardin' guy I'm going to kill him.

This kinda reminds me of this one other time some boy was picking on Ruby. She was in 3rd grade and I was in 5th. I was never one to use my words to resolve problems, I'd just punch things...or people. I don't remember what that kid did, but it made me so mad that I knocked one of his teeth out. I think he ripped my orange scarf in that fight. I ended up getting on top and pinning the kid, then I just started wailing on him, and the only reason I stopped is because Ruby hates seeing people get hurt, so she pulled me off and pleaded with me to let it go. The difference here is that I wasn't here to stop this.

"Is that what happened, Ruby?" I ask both myself and Ruby in my mind, "Were people bullying you so you ran away? Could I have stopped all this if I just didn't go on that stupid trip? God, is this my fault?" An extremely loud boom of thunder jolts me back into reality. I shake my head and throw away the note. Of course this isn't my fault, and there's no way something that simple would make her leave. There's gotta be a lot more going on.

I look inside dad's office to my left, but I decide not to waste my time on it. What kind of clues could possibly be in there? I open the drawer of the cabinet that my post card was on and there are a few things I notice right away. The first is a pack of playing cards, the second is an obituary for my great uncle, Qrow, and the third is a photograph of an unfamiliar teenage girl.

I pick up the picture and examine it. The girl has long, white hair that's kept in a ponytail off to her side and glistening blue eyes, with a scar running down her left one. She's wearing a military uniform, and on her name tag it says "Schnee".

"Who is this girl?" I ask myself. Then it hits me, "Maybe she's the same girl from the answering machine. Or maybe she's that Weiss girl from the letter. Or maybe all three of them are separate people, or maybe they're all the same?" I set the photo down and skim the obituary.

"Qrow Branwen, 60, of Boon County, died peacefully last month in his home." I skip to the bottom of the page. "His survivors include his nephew, Taiyang Xiao Long, as well as, in spirit, the people of Boon County…"

I toss the obituary back into the drawer and shut it, then I finally leave the hallway and shut the door behind me.

"Not there…" I sigh to myself. I gaze at the stairs directly in front of me for a bit, then at a door mostly hidden in shadow in the far right corner of the room. I speed walk over to the door and turn on a lamp that's on a dresser near it, then I open the door. Lame, it's just a closet. I even look behind some of the boxes in there and on the top rack, but find nothing.

I walk up to the right of the staircase where I see two bookshelves with two of my old track trophies on it, a lamp, and a door through the dark. I turn on the lamp and try to open the door, but like the one in the opposite hallway, it's locked. Guess the only way to go is up.

I zip around and lightly jog up the stairs into the darkness at the top. There's yet another lamp on a dresser, so I turn it on to see better. I enter the hallway at the top of the stairs and turn on another light switch. At the end of the hall, there's a door with a yellow nuclear radiation sign that seemed to glow almost as bright as the lights to my right.

"Jackpot." I say. That is exactly something that Ruby would have on her door. I walk slowly up to the door and reach out, but my hand stops just before I touch it.

"What kind of things will I find in here?" I think to myself. Slowly, I reach my hand out and rest it over the knob. It's cold, like nobody has touched it for a while.

"What if Ruby is in there, sitting on her bed reading her favorite book, or listening to music through some headphones so she didn't hear me come in? Or maybe she's fast asleep?" I stay there hoping for a long time as I listen to the rain hitting the roof. Deep down, I know that it won't happen, I just wish it will. I take a deep breath, twist the knob, and push open the door.