Author's Note; Aaaah I'm so so so so sorry. I'm not even going to bother you with my lame excuses, though. ._. I hope this chapter is worth it. It was rather difficult to write for some reason. I'm losing my focus D: But, now for some good news: I FINALLY got my laptop back! Which means I should be able to write more and more, erm, as long as I can stay focused. :D Well, enjoy the chapter, and I, unfortunately, own nothing. How sad D; R&R please and thanks! :D
The Note
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Rock heard the loud scream that awakened him from his deep sleep. He grunted, assuming Claire had found a spider on the kitchen table. "Rock! Get in here!" She yelled. Rock didn't move. He loved his wife, but to get up at six in the morning to kill a spider? That wasn't happening. He heard the bedroom door opening and turned his back to it. Rock felt Claire's hands shaking him. "Rock! The kids are gone! They aren't in their beds, or around the house, or the farm!" Rock's eyes popped open. He jumped out of bed, running past his crying wife to his children's room. Both beds were empty.
Rock turned, seeing Claire behind him. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Did you check around the valley? They may be at the beach." Claire shook her head. Rock left her standing in the middle of the room and flew out the front door, clothed in nothing but his boxers. He ran to the beach first. The villagers would stop and stare at him. They'd shake their heads and continue on their way, thinking this was a typical Rock move.
"Jenny! Oliver! Where are you?" He yelled, searching the whole beach. His face was red from yelling. He didn't see Jenny or Oliver anywhere. Rock jogged up to his best friend's house, pounding on the door. Nami answered the door, dressed only in a t-shirt. Her red hair was messy and sticking up all over the place. She gave Rock a disgusted look when she saw he wasn't wearing clothes. "What do you want?" She asked cooly.
"Are my kids here? They aren't at home!" Rock pushed past Nami, searching his friends yurt for his children.
"You lost your children?" Nami asked, nudging at her boyfriend Gustafa. "Get up!" She said, raising her voice a little. Gustafa opened his eyes, seeing Rock searching the house.
"Hey man, what're you doing?" He said, rubbing his eyes.
"I can't find Jenny or Oliver! They weren't in bed this morning and Claire is freaking out!"
"Okay, okay man just calm down. Nami will you hand me my clothes?" Gustafa asked. Nami went through some drawers and picked out clothing for him. As he put his clothes on, he told Rock to go tell his parents. "We'll set up a little search party type of thing. We'll find them in no time, don't worry."
Rock nodded and headed out the door. Gustafa was a pretty laid back person, and Rock liked that. He used to be just as laid back, which was why they were best friends, but this wasn't the time to be chilling out. His children were missing for Pete's sake! He headed for the Inn that his parent's owned. He threw the doorss open, scaring his mother.
"Rock!" She yelled, then shook her head when she saw what he was wearing. "Where are your clothes?"
"Mom, the kids are gone. They weren't in bed, we can't find them." Ruby's face fell. "Mom, you have to help us look, please."
"Of course I'm going to help you look! They're my grandchildren!" Ruby scooted Rock out the door. She closed the doors and locked them, then turned to her son.
"Can you look around the Villa? And around the Patrick and Kassey's house. Just that general area over there." Rock pointed. Ruby nodded, and headed off. Rock held his face in his hands, wiping away tears that were creeping up on him. He heard someone coming and straightened up. It was Gustafa and Nami.
"Did you find them?" Gustafa asked. Rock shook his head. "Well, we'll go look around Daryl's and the housing area over there." Nami nodded in agreement with Gustafa. They left Rock standing by the doors of the Inn. He decided that he'd check around Vesta's farm and the archeaologist's home before checking on Claire, but none of them had seen Jenny or Oliver. Rock sighed and began walking back to the house. He knew he'd have to call the police now.
The front door was still open, just like he left it. He walked inside, but Claire wasn't in the living room. Rock shut the door with his foot and walked into the kitchen. She wasn't in there either. "Claire?" He said a little loudly. There was no answer. He checked the bathroom and the bedroom, but eventually found her in the kid's room, lying face-down on Jenny's bed. Rock quietly chuckled when he saw half of her legs dangling off the end of the bed because she was too big. He heard a sniffling noise escape from the pillow. "Claire, honey.." He walked towards the bed and sat down, and proceeded to stroke her back. "Claire it'll be alright. We'll call Officer Thomas and they'll find them."
Claire brought her head up, turning towards Rock. "No." She said, with a harsh tone.
"N-no?"
Claire then sat up. She gave Rock a death glare. Her eyes were red and puffy. "No. We are not calling those idiots." Her voice raised a little. "It's their freaking fault that we're in this situation. If they hadn't let Skye escape, Jenny and Oliver would still be sleeping, and we wouldn't have this problem!"
"Wait, who said Skye took our kids? He wouldn't come anywhere near here." Rock stated, knowing his words weren't true.
"Oh don't give me that bullshit. You know just as well as I do that Skye took them. We are not calling the dipshits that caused this in the first place." Claire clutched the tear-soaked pillow in her arms even tighter.
Rock hugged his wife and began stroking her hair. "We'll find them Claire. I know we will."
"I can't believe this is happening. Why can't he just leave us alone?"
Rock didn't answer Claire. He didn't know the answer. There was a light knock on the door. Claire perked up. Had someone found the kids? She lept off the bed, sprinting to the door. A disappointed look fell upon her face when she saw Gustafa in the door way, looking as relaxed and calm as ever. He tipped his green hat to her. "Hey, is Rock home?"
Claire nodded, stepping aside to let him in. Gustafa walked in and waited for Rock, who came into the room seconds later. He was about to ask who was at the door until he saw his friend. "Hey, what's up?"
"Hey man, no one's seen the kids anywhere around the valley. Griffin and I were thinking about going up to the city and checking there. You never know where they could've run off to."
Rock looked at Claire. He didn't want to leave her all alone in the house, but he wanted to find his children. He left the room to get a few things, like water and snacks for the long journey to the city. He gave Claire a hug and a kiss, and told her that he loved her and would find Jenny and Oliver. Gustafa and Rock left the house, and Claire went into her bedroom to fall on her bed. Tears fell down her face. She screamed into her pillow before getting up to go to the kitchen. She searched the cabinets until she found her raspberry flavored Smirnoff. She grabbed a shot glass out of another cabinet. She poured the drink into the glass, brought it to her lips, and swallowed it all. She had three more before she heard a knock on the door. She didn't get up to answer it. The person at the door knocked a few more times before entering the house. Claire saw her two best friends, Celia and Muffy, walk into the kitchen looking shocked, before she blacked out.
"Where in the world did she get this stuff anyways?" Claire heard Celia's voice.
"I don't know! I thought she only drank from our bar." Muffy said.
"If we'd been here earlier we could've stopped her before she even had the first one. I feel terrible now. "
"We need to get rid of this. It isn't good for her to be drinking, especially now." Claire heard Muffy walking away into the kitchen.
"NOOO!" Claire yelled, reaching for Muffy and the bottle of alcohol. It was then that she fell onto the floor for reaching out too far. Her head started throbbing. "Give me my vodka!" She yelled at her friend, causing her head to hurt even worse.
"Oh, Claire!" Celia said, jogging over to help Claire up. "Are you alright?"
"Just fabulous! Thanks for asking." Claire said sarcastically.
Muffy walked over to the two, her heels making a loud noise. Claire flinched with every step. "Now you listen here!" Muffy said with a raised voice.
"Stop yelling!" Claire covered her ears.
Muffy sighed, and began to whisper. "You listen here! First off, we're here to make sure you're okay, so stop being a sarcastic bitch, got it? And second, I know you're worried about Jenny and Oliver, but this-" She held the bottle of Smirnoff in front of Claire's face. "This is not going to help you find them, so it's going down that drain."
Claire nodded and began crying. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
Celia hugged Claire and patted her on the back."It's not your fault. We know you're going through a hard time. Come on, let's go into the kitchen and get you some water." The three of them sat around the kitchen table. Claire was no longer crying, but instead, insulting Skye in every possible way.
"...and I hope he burns in a big fat boiling pot of moldy orange juice, and-"
"Claire, stop." Celia said. "Insulting him isn't going to fix anything. Are you sure Skye took them? Maybe they just wandered off."
"Oh, please Celia. Of course Skye took them. They are very well behaved children. The know better than to wander off in the middle of the night." Muffy said. Celia rolled her eyes in response.
"It was Skye. I just know it was. He's getting revenge on me." Claire said. She was staring blankly at the middle of the table, as if she was lost in thought. Her two friends waved their hands in front of Claire's eyes. "Hellooo? Earth to Claire?"
She shook her head violently. "What? Sorry, sorry. I was thinking."
"About?" Muffy and Celia said in unison.
"Well, when I first met Skye, he was a thief, you know. But he was different. He'd leave notes before going to steal things. He left notes at both of your places, saying he was going to be stealing from you guys at midnight, remember?" The girls nodded. "He'd leave me notes as well, saying that he was coming to visit that night. There was always a note. I'm just surprised he didn't leave one for this 'visit'."
"Well how do you know he didn't?" Muffy said.
"I checked the beds, but I didn't find anything."
"But did you check the whole room?"
Claire's eyes got wide as she shook her head no. The three of them jumped from their seats and headed for the kid's room. They searched through the bookshelves and the toy boxes, with no luck. Claire only had one more place to look; under Jenny's bed. "AHA!" Claire exclaimed. "I found it!" She crawled out from under the bed, holding a small piece of paper in her hands. She unnfolded it, seeing a paragraph of neat handwriting. She read the note aloud to her friends.
"My beloved Claire,
It's been a few years since I've seen your sweet face, but alas, tonight I shall. When you awake tomorrow morning, after frantically looking for your children, I want you to follow a few set of instructions. They are rather simple, and you're a brilliant woman. You should not fail. First off, I want you to pack your things. Anything that will fit in your rucksack. Although you won't be needing your farming tools. Second, tell that husband of yours that you're leaving him. You two are done. For good this time. Next, walk to Mineral Town. You should get there before dusk. Don't speak to anyone there. Don't tell any of them where you're going. Go to the beach, and wait for a ferry. That ferry will take you to a town called FlowerBud Village. You will stay at an Inn there for the rest of the night, once again, not speaking to anyone about who you are or where you are going. Then, in the morning, there should be one more ferry leaving for Sunny Island. That is where I'll be. And where the children will be. You will follow these instructions only if you want to see them again. You will go to the Inn there and get a room. I'll be in your room at midnight. DO NOT tell anyone about this note, or where you are going. I will know if you have shown up to the island with anyone else, and you will never see you're precious children again.
I hope to see you soon, my dear.
Forever yours,
Skye"
"Well what are we doing just standing here? We have to go!" Muffy said.
"Did you not here him say that if she brings anyone else she won't see Jenny or Oliver again? We can't go!" Celia exclaimed.
Claire went into her room to pack some clothes, her brush, toothbrush, and other things. "Well Claire, what do you think? Are we going or not?" Said Muffy.
"No. You two stay here, and don't tell anyone anything about this note or where I'm going." She was moving around the room, picking up small items to go into her rucksack.
"What about Rock?" Celia whispered.
Claire laughed. "That bastard is an idiot if he thinks I'm going to leave Rock again. No freaking way. I'm going to leave him a note saying that I'm looking for Jenny and Oliver and that I'll be home as soon as I can. You guys can help by making sure he believes it. Seriously, don't let him in on anything."
The two nodded, looking rather worried about their best friend. "Don't worry guys, I'll be fine. I think I know a way I can convince him to leave all of us alone." Claire gave her friends big hugs before heading out to Mineral Town. With the note in her hand, she left her friends standing in her house, knowing she'd have to be back soon, because neither of them could keep a secret for very long.
End
