Missing

Chapter 4: Reported

Cindy Vortex woke up in her warm bed the next morning around 5:45am. This was her normal time to get up, eat breakfast, take a shower, and head off to school. She sat up and looked around her room in confusion. She couldn't remember what happened the night before. She remembered arguing with Eustace about his ridiculous idea in marrying her, but she couldn't remember anything past that point.

Cindy shrugged off the thought and figured she would remember much better after some breakfast and a nice, warm morning shower. She jumped out of bed and headed downstairs, awaiting for her mother to greet her with a nice, hot breakfast and helping her father with this morning's crossword puzzle in the newspaper. When she walked into the kitchen, she was surprised to see nobody there. The kitchen looked untouched since last night's dinner.

"That's weird," Cindy noted to herself. "Maybe they overslept."

She ran back upstairs and knocked on her parent's bedroom door. The door wasn't closed all the way, which caused the door to slowly swing open once Cindy's hand came into contact with it. The room was empty, it looked like the bed wasn't even slept in.

"Okay, that's even weirder."

She ran back downstairs and into the family room, searching for her parents. No luck.

"You've got to be kidding me. If Neutron contacted those Yolkians again, I swear I'm going to pound him to a pulp," Cindy muttered, as she searched throughout her entire house for her mother and father. She finally decided to look out the window, and saw that the family vehicle was gone. She sighed in relief. "They probably went to the store real quick. Thank goodness."

She walked back into her kitchen, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and walked over to the couch. She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned on the TV. What she saw on the TV nearly made her drop her cereal in shock.

On the TV screen was a picture of herself, with caption saying, Cindy Vortex: Missing Teen.

"What?" Cindy shouted in disbelief. She placed her bowl on the coffee table and turned up the volume on the TV.

"Good morning, Retroville," The news anchor greeted. "Breaking news; Local teenage girl Cindy Vortex was reported missing around two o'clock this morning by her mother and father. She was last seen at her home around 6:30 pm last night, before being picked up by her friend for a date at the park. Around ten o'clock last night, her parents began to worry when Cindy didn't come home and made a police report a few hours later. Her parents were unable to contact her by phone and police were unable to track it to find her location. Police have brought a few people into the station for questioning, but are not releasing any names at this time. Cindy Vortex is only sixteen years old. She is five feet, three inches tall and has blonde hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing a green button up top and blue jeans. If you have any information on the whereabouts of Cindy Vortex, please call the local police."

"Oh… my… god...," Cindy gasped. She immediately felt embarrassed. "I must have snuck in so quietly, my parents didn't hear me and thought I didn't come home."

Cindy hopped off the couch and grabbed the house phone off the end table next to her couch. She began to dial her mother's cell phone number when something caught her eye. She looked over at the mirror and began to feel anxious. She moved closer and closer to the mirror, but nothing changed. She dropped the house phone and placed both hands on the mirror. She couldn't believe what she had seen, or didn't see. She made no reflection in the mirror, whatsoever.

"What on Earth is going on?" Cindy screamed in frustration. "Why am I invisible? Am I… a ghost?"

She pulled her hands away and stared at them. She didn't have a problem seeing her hands, but when she looked back up at the mirror, she was invisible. She began to freak out.

"Neutron!" Cindy screamed after she opened her front door. She was sure this was his fault somehow, and she was sure her scream would awaken her neighbors out of a dead sleep, but nobody responded to her. Even the birds sitting on the telephone wire were still there; they didn't even flinch. She noticed a young man jogging past her house.

"Hey! Hey, you! Can you help me, please?" Cindy ran off her porch and tried to catch up the stranger. "I was reported missing last night but I'm right here!"

The man kept jogging, not even noticing the young girl's existence. Cindy stopped chasing him and just stood there in the middle of the road, no more than ten feet from her yard. "Nobody can see me or hear me? I'm going to freak out if I don't get some answers soon!"

She turned around and noticed the big yellow school bus pulling up behind her, and then stopping. The door swung open and her neighborhood classmates began to exit their homes and line up to enter the bus. Even Jimmy got out of his house and made it to the bus in time before it pulled away. Once everybody settled in the bus, the bus driver closed the door and drove off, not even acknowledging the blonde haired girl on the opposite side of the road.

"Oh, this isn't good!" Cindy yelled. She ran back to her house and closed the front door. She then began to walk to school, hoping to find somebody, anybody who could see or hear her.

"I'm really worried about Cindy," Libby sobbed on Sheen's shoulder. The thought of her best friend missing made her feel helpless. "Where could she be?"

"I don't know, Libby," Sheen responded, rubbing Libby's back. "But if anybody could find her, it'd be-"

"If you say Ultra Lord, I will beat you!" Libby threatened. "I don't have time for your games! I need to find my best friend!"

Cindy walked up to her Libby, in hopes of her having a strong enough connection to her that she'd be able to see and hear her.

"Libby, I'm right here," Cindy greeted, waving her hand in front of Libby's face. When she didn't respond, Cindy started poking her in the shoulder several times, but was not successful in capturing her best friend's attention. Libby could not see, hear, or feel her in anyway. Cindy looked over at Sheen, who paid his full attention on Libby. "Even if people could see me, he wouldn't even acknowledge I was here."

Carl walked over to Libby and Sheen, and gave Libby a hug. "It'll be okay, Libby. Cindy probably just went for a late night walk or something. She'll be okay."

"Carl, I'm right here!" Cindy shouted at him, but he didn't react to her. He couldn't see or hear her either.

"It doesn't make any sense," Libby said. "She texted me last night and said she was at home and she was going to bed. Now she's missing? Something happened, and I bet you Strych is up to it."

"Strych is up to what?" The boy genius asked as he approached his group of friends. "What's going on?"

"Didn't you watch the news this morning?" Libby asked. Jimmy raised his eyebrow in confusion and shook his head. "Cindy is missing!"

"What do you mean she's missing?" Jimmy asked.

"Missing, as in, she never went home last night," Libby explained. "Or at least that's what her parents are claiming. She texted me last night and said she made it home, but her parents went to the police last night and said she never did."

"I never texted you last night," Cindy stated in confusion, not that she would hear her. "At least, I don't remember texting you. Ugh, I'd give anything just to know what in hell is going on!"

"That's ridiculous," Jimmy said. "She probably just ran away or is at the mall. Face it, she does everything to get attention."

Cindy started to get angry at his statement. Even if she did run away, she wouldn't do it for attention. She would do it to get away from her demanding home life. She couldn't believe he would make such accusations about her.

"Jimmy, it's true," Carl said. "She didn't come home last night."

"Then she's probably with Strych somewhere," Jimmy reasoned. "Come on, do you really think he would do something to her? He's a coward and she's a black belt. There's no way he did anything, and there's no way I'm buying that she went missing. She probably ran off and married him for his money."

"How dare you," Cindy muttered angrily. She ran up behind him and pushed him on the ground. Everybody, including Cindy herself, stood there in shock. Her friends couldn't understand what happened to cause Jimmy to fall down like that. Cindy couldn't understand how after all her efforts in getting everybody's attention, it only worked on Jimmy.

"Jimmy, you okay?" Sheen asked as him and Carl helped him off the ground. "What happened?"

"I… I don't know," Jimmy responded in confusion. He turned around and found nobody behind him. "It felt like someone pushed me… like, Cindy pushed me."

"Jimmy, that's not funny!" Libby yelled, poking his chest. "Cindy is actually missing, and you're going to play little jokes like that? How dare you!"

Libby stomped away from the group and left Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl behind. Carl and Sheen looked at Jimmy, who was white as a ghost.

"You okay, dude?" Sheen asked.

"I was being serious. It really felt like Cindy pushed me," Jimmy mumbled.

"Are you sure?" Carl asked. "Maybe you tripped or something."

"Guys, I know Cindy's push. She has pushed me quite a few times throughout our childhood. But, she isn't here. I just don't understand."

"I'm sure you'll figure it, Jim," Carl said. "Come on, we're going to be late for class."

The first bell rang and everybody in the hallway dispersed to their first class of the day, leaving Cindy all alone in the hallway. She looked down at her hands, in complete shock of what just happened.

"Of all the people I've been close to, or have interacted with, and only Neutron can sense that I'm still here. And his big, science-loving brain will never accept that I'm actually here, just… as a ghost of some sort, because he doesn't believe in ghosts," Cindy explained to herself. She clenched her fist in frustration. "Well, this is just great!"

Author's Note: Hope you aren't confused on what's happening. Cindy's in a ghost-like state due to what happened to her in the previous chapter. Is she dead? Guess you guys will have to stick around and find out! ;)

To shake things up a bit, the person who posts the 20th review for this story will get a little sneak peak of the next chapter! :D So, get reviewing for your chance to get a peak at what happens next!

Thank you everybody who read/favorited/followed/reviewed this story, as well as favorite/following me as an author! It means so much to me, you guys have no idea! I enjoy writing these stories and I have so many ideas for new ones after this story is done, so make sure you're following me! :)

Hope you all are having a fantastic Wednesday!

~JimmyxCindy976J :)