Hey guys!
Sorry it took so long to post this. We just finished installing our pool! It's so exciting, and to be honest, it's very hard to write a story like this when you're feeling so upbeat and happy.
Just to clear things up, Austin and Ally are both 16 years old in this story (so are Trish and Dez, for that matter). And it has actually only been a few days since Austin was taken.
Anyways, hope you like it. I'll try to get a new chapter posted as soon as possible, which hopefully will be tomorrow.
"You don't know its Austin's"
Ally could feel her best friend's hand on her arm, hear the words she was saying, but she didn't process any of it. Her whole world narrowed down to these few strands of hair in her hand. And boy, did she know they were Austin's. She remembered it so well.
'Ally was screaming and clapping with the crowd, completely oblivious to the attention she may or may not be drawing to herself. All she saw was Austin. This was his moment, his first ever real concert, and he absolutely shone. He was still shining when he got off the stage and pulled her into a hug, his adorable little-boy grin ever present.
"You were amazing out there." Ally complimented, as he put her down, stepping away from the hug.
"Thanks." He said with a smile, tilting his head down in an almost nervous way. It wasn't often that Ally saw the top of his head, with her being so much shorter than him, and with them standing so close, she saw something there, something you never noticed before…
"You have exactly one strand of brown hair" She informed him. Without really realising what she was doing, she reached out and twirled that one strand of brown hair. Both of them quickly realised what was happening, and the two jumped apart. Ally hid her hand behind her back.
Austin broke the awkward silence. "I'll take that as a compliment." He smiled. She smiled. They were back in familiar territory.'
And the psycho had cut it off. Austin's single strand of brown hair was now in her hand. He must've known that it would bring back a certain memory. But how could he have known about that? No one had been around. Well, except for Trish and Dez, but Ally was pretty sure the moment hadn't meant as much to them as it had to Ally.
Surely… Surely Austin hadn't told him. It didn't seem like the sort of thing that would pop to mind in a life-threatening situation. Ally would've been surprised if Austin even remembered the moment, much less thought something of it. It hadn't been their first awkward moment together, and it certainly hadn't been the last. Still, Ally preferred to think that he had gotten the memory from Austin. Because the alternative was that he had actually seen what had happened… And, well, that was just scary.
Ally sighed, twirling the hair like she had so long ago. "It's Austin's." She said.
"But Austin doesn't have any brown in his hair." Trish said, trying to reason with Ally, to comfort her, even though she was really trying to reassure herself.
"Yes he does. Or he did." There was such a strong certainty in Ally's voice that Trish didn't even bother to argue. There was no point, not when Ally had made up her mind. Trish always figured that this was because it took her so long to make up her mind, so she had to make sure she would never go back on a decision. And Ally had decided that the hair belonged to Austin.
The detective started talking again, expressing his disgust and proceeding to informing the Moons of everything the police knew of what had happened to Austin and everything they guessed. Ally didn't hear a word of it.
After everything she'd been feeling over the last few days, Ally expected nothing more than a hysterical breakdown at the sight of Austin's hair. But it didn't come. In fact, Ally didn't feel any sort of sadness. Maybe her deep depression from the past hours had drained her of the ability to process sadness anymore. No, Ally wasn't upset.
She was angry.
That moment had been private- regardless of how anyone else had felt about it. Not that it hadn't been obvious before that he had intruded on their personal lives, but the one strand of brown hair finally drove home the fact that what she thought had been her own private moments had in fact been shared with some psychopath. And if there was one thing Ally valued above all else, it was her privacy. How many times had she had to warn people away from her journal? For all she knew, he had read her journal, and was getting everything about her from its pages. Maybe he was a she. They knew nothing about this person, and he knew everything about them. It was sickening. It was wrong. And it was infuriating.
Ally was startled to find that she was shaking from her anger, and she put down the letter and the hair on the conference table so as not to drop them on the floor. It was extremely rare for her to get this angry. She felt like screaming. She felt like tipping over every chair in this godforsaken room. Above all else, she wanted to rip the person who took Austin Limb. From. Limb. This had escalated beyond anything she'd ever felt before- not that that was a surprise. She'd never been in this sort of situation before.
Ally had been completely absorbed by her rage and hadn't heard a word of the conversation taking place around her, but when the detective mentioned the letter again with some connection to the police force, her head shot up, her eyes widening. "What did you say?" She asked. Her anger was obvious in her voice, and Ally knew it shocked the others. But her attention was entirely focused on the detective.
He repeated. "That letter shouldn't have been able to make it pass the security in this division of the office. Add that to the restrictions of this case in particular, we're looking at a nearly impossible situation with that letter."
"And?" Ally said, urging him on.
"And," he continued. "That means that the only way this letter could've reached you in this way is if someone from within had sneaked it past the security system."
It took Ally a moment to realise what he was saying. "Wait, are you saying that someone in the police department is helping this maniac?" Ally began to think that trashing the office wasn't such a bad idea after all.
"It looks like it." He said, his face grim. Trish gasped, and the sentiment was echoed by Mrs. Moon. Mr. Moon looked like Ally felt- like he wanted to tear something apart.
"We're conducting a thorough search of the police personel." Detective Mark said. "We've interviewed everyone in the communications division, but nothing has struck as suspicious behavior. We'll keep looking." The strength of his gaze intensified and he focused on Ally. "I probably don't need to tell you this, but finding the accomplice could be the key to finding Austin."
No, he hadn't needed to say that. They all knew. This letter, no matter how sick and wrong it was to send, may be the key to the maniac's downfall and Austin's rescue.
The group left quickly after that. There wasn't much else to say, and sticking around would only slow down the whole process. The group hailed another taxi, and they made their way to the hotel.
It took a bit of fighting, but they managed to get the Moons the room next to Austin and Dez's room. It wasn't adjoining like the rooms they already had, but it was the absolute best they could get. The group hauled the luggage upstairs. Trish took the opportunity to talk to Ally.
"Okay, what's up with you?" Trish said, her voice as quiet as she could make it, which, for Trish, wasn't very quiet. "I thought the hair thing would make you sad, but you look like you want to throw something instead." Ally noted that Trish didn't seem particularly upset by this.
A smile crept onto her face. Some distant part of her brain knew that there was nothing funny about this situation, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't exactly thinking straight. "The maniac's intruding on our lives. And I think he might have even touched my book." Ally glared at Trish, making sure she FULLY understood Ally's point. "NO ONE touches my book. He's gonna pay." Ally had never known such dark emotions, and some twisted part of her kind of like it.
Clearly, Trish liked it too. Then again, she was naturally aggressive, and loved every second that Ally felt angry. "He shouldn't have done that." Trish agreed, the traces of a smile forming on her lips. "Are we calling this psycho the maniac now? Because we need to call him something. I'm getting tired of thinking up different things to call him."
"I guess so." Ally said. "It's weird, every time I hear the word maniac, I always think of Tilly Thompson."
"Ah, Tilly Thompson." Trish said, sighing dramatically. "That was one hateful girl, and you know that means a lot, coming from me. I wouldn't have put anything past her…" Trish's voice trailed off, and shock crossed her features. Ally knew what was bothering her. The same thought had crossed her mind, at the same time.
"You don't think… I mean, she's a master of disguise… and she's got that grudge on us, after Austin showed her up…" Trish said, still trying to process the thought.
"The police already interrogated her. She has an alibi." Trish looked a little put out by this. It would've been nice to have solved the mystery just like that. But still, something else occurred to Ally. Maybe something more was going on here. Something far more insidious than they thought.
"But…" Ally continued, as the two entered their room. Trish looked up, intrigued. Ally pulled out her phone and waved it at her friend. "There's no harm in talking to her, right?"
