Without You
Jay and Alex made their way to the ravine, leaving Sean at home in case Ellie managed to sneak away to a phone. They walked around, searching for some trace of Emma, when they saw Manny, sitting by herself, where the hook-up van was usually parked.
"Santos! Where's the van?" Jay asked, sitting next to her, trying not to let on why he was really there. "Someone took it, why?" Manny asked suspiciously. "Honestly? I'm looking for someone, and it just seems a bit fishy that the van which is always here is gone and so are they… any ideas?" Jay asked scooting closer to her.
Manny looked down then back into Jay's eyes, "Jay, I'm not sure who you're looking for, but if you want to ask, go ahead". Jay laughed at her bluntness, aware that there was some raw attraction between them, choosing to ignore it for the time being.
"I'm looking for Emma… have you seen her?" Jay asked her. "You want to be with her?" Manny asked confused. Jay laughed and looked at her like she was insane. "No! We think she might have something that belongs to someone else… I'm just trying to help get it back to the owner." Jay told her shaking his head.
"Emma was acting weird earlier… she made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone where she went but… maybe you should know…" Manny started to say. Jay looked at her, Alex coming up behind him. "I was on the phone with her earlier… she said she was going to take the van and go on a road trip to… some town in Manitoba? But the really weird thing wasn't the sudden road trip but the noise in the background. It might have just been my imagination, but I swear, I heard a muffled cry in the background and it definitely was not jack. It sounded more like a girl, maybe our age?" Manny said explaining everything she knew.
Jay and Alex looked at each other alarmed, knowing that it had to have been Ellie in the background. "What's going on?" Manny asked confused. "Ellie is missing… and Emma was pretty pissed when Sean turned her down last night… we just think, maybe she did something to her" Alex said quietly. Manny looked at them in shock, but quickly closed her mouth. "Emma said she'd be back by the 5th… so that gives you about 3 weeks before she plans on coming home… I'll see what info I can get and let you guys know, okay?" Manny said, patting Jay's shoulder.
They both nodded and headed back to Sean's apartment to find him in his bed, still holding Ellie's necklace, right next to the phone. Jay slowly walked over to him and shook him awake. "Dude, we think we know where she is…" Jay told him, trying to make sure he was paying attention. "So where is she? Is she alright?" Sean asked, sitting up quickly, desperate for information.
"Manny told us that Emma took the hook-up van and headed to some town in Manitoba. She is pretty sure she heard Ellie in the background of a phone call with Emma earlier today… Emma said she wouldn't be back for 3 weeks, so that's all the time we have. We just have to hope that she doesn't switch cars or change her destination." Jay told him, twirling his keys around his fingers.
Sean hurried and called the police, telling them the information they had gotten and packed a bag. "We going to Manitoba?" Jay asked him. "Yup, now get your shit, we gotta go now!" Sean said, grabbing a bag of chips and heading to the Civic.
Sean and Jay drove all night until they stopped in a little town on the edge of Manitoba called Creekwater. They spent some time at a rundown motel so that they could have a little sleep. Alex called them from Toronto, saying that Manny had heard from Emma and she hadn't given her any new info rather than that Emma hadn't changed her plans but had run out of gas on the highway earlier in the day.
Sean and Jay talked to people around town, getting names of as many small towns as they could. No one had seen Emma or Ellie, which they took as a good sign, they only hoped they wouldn't be too late.
Sean spent the next night calling the Toronto police, finding out that they had found the van abandoned right out of Toronto, so obviously they wouldn't be able to find them that way.
Jay could see that Sean was starting to lose his grip. He knew his friend was hurting and wished that Emma hadn't done this. What he really didn't understand though, was why Emma had taken off Ellie's necklace but not her engagement ring.
Meanwhile, Ellie was in the basement of a cold house in the middle of nowhere. Emma hadn't given her any food since she had taken her and her stomach was growling angrily. Emma had also taken her engagement ring, wearing it around Ellie to show her up. It killed Ellie to see Emma wearing it.
Ellie was tied tightly to a chair, and Emma would constantly give her that strange green liquid. Ellie knew it tasted familiar, but she wasn't sure how, until she saw the bottle. She had been with Emma for an entire week at this point, not aware that Sean was looking for her. And suddenly, she saw that the green liquid Emma had been giving her was a mix of rubbing alcohol and Ipecac.
Ellie had been throwing up ever since Emma had started giving her that liquid. Ellie also knew that if she was given too much of that foul mixture, she would go blind. She also knew that Emma had a plan to get rid of her soon. Emma had been walking around with a gun, threateningly looking at her at night, as if preparing her for her death. Ellie was absolutely terrified.
Another week went by, and still Sean had not found Ellie and Emma yet. He and Jay had been driving around for 2 weeks and still no one had found a trace of them. He knew that they only had one week left, or Ellie might not make it. Sean knew in his heart that Ellie was still alive, and he knew that she was getting closer to him.
They arrived in a little town called Maple Ridge, which barely even had a grocery store and Sean had a strange feeling that Ellie was there. They rented a motel and stayed there, looking around for Ellie or Emma. It had been three days, and then they saw Emma at the drugstore and followed her to a house. They knew that tonight was the night they would get her back.