"She's not here, Skul. I've checked America, England, and Australia she's not going to show herself. Besides, she'll bring attention to herself sooner or later. Has Saracen found anything?"
"Only that she is still in Ireland and she's withdrawing from every sanctuary around the world, one by one. Nothing big."
"She'll turn up but for now, I'd focus on who we're up against. If it's a race to get to her then we want to know how fast the competition is."
"I've had a flick through the book and her research, he's pretty remote, never draws attention to himself, and is never seen in public. Dexter, she is out of her depth and she is going to drown if we don't find her soon."
"We're trying and that's all we can do."
"Yeah."
He hung up.
Every road and every path that girl had ever taken had been retraced - nothing.
Every known location,
Every different alias -
Nothing.
It seemed that the only things that remained of her were at Eastbrooke House and the countless memories that surrounded her.
No pictures.
No personal items.
No records of her whatsoever.
Time was running short. There was nothing but dead ends. They weren't going to find her until it was too late.
"Hey, Maddie?" She shouted trying to catch up to her friend. "Listen, I was thinking maybe we should speed this thing up."
The other girl turned sharply, "What do you mean?"
"I mean let's go today."
"We can't."
"No, we can. I've already talked to some teachers, you're getting pulled out to practise for the show, and I talked to the cast and they said they would tell the teachers we were doing stuff for the show."
"Gina! Do they know where?"
"Of course not, I'm not dim!"She laughed.
"You tell that to them, when they catch us." Maddie muttered.
Gina grabbed Maddie by the arm and swung her round. "Hey! It's not just me that's already noticed that something is happening round there." She whispered angrily.
Maddie shrugged Gina's arm off and caried on walking. "Fine! Okay, we'll go but I doubt we'd find anything!"
100 years ago...
He walked amongst the gravestones, head down, hands in pockets.
The grave he was heading towards stood the farthest from the entrance. He glanced upwards, trying to remember when he was last here. At a set time many groups of people would gather here, for lost relatives or friends.
He had only been here last year.
It was winter then, all frost and snow.
Now it was only autumn, the golden leaves falling to the ground; it was growing dark and not a soul was here.
He reached his destination, an age old crypt, slightly crumbled over the years but still standing. He stopped, taking in the scenery around him.
There were no more graves here, only the one in front of him; vegetation grew on either side of the crypt, but he paid no attention. Easing open the door, he stepped inside. A flicker of light caught his eye, quietly he took the steps down, one by one.
Was that a gasp?
Hastily, he crept into the room.
No one.
A lantern sat atop the bench on the far side of the room, past the stone slab in the middle of the room, casting shadows that danced across the walls.
Odd.
After satisfying himself that nobody was in the room, he turned and sat next to the statue of a hooded figure. The hooded figure was meant to depict someone he once knew, dead now - obviously - but he wasn't convinced.
He walked back to the slab, about to push open the lid, when he stepped in some red liquid. Just a few drops of sticky, red liquid. Touching a glove to the substance, he deduced that the liqiud was fresh.
Odd.
Then he noticed the book.
A small little notebook, tucked away under the gap between the slab and the floor. Unable to resist, he picked up the tiny book and flicked throught the pages.
It was hers.
It wasn't just odd anymore, somebody had been here, they had been leafing through her few possessions as well.
He put it all together, and everything pointed towards somebody being here moments before.
He pushed open the lid, hoping against hope that it wasn't grave robbers.
It was there.
It was all there.
There was a soft POP! and he spun.
No one.
He was turning back to the possessions when something glinted in the lantern's light.
He knew then.
He knew right then and there.
It couldn't be anyone else.
She had died and disappeared wearing the jewelry and there it was, now carefully adorning the statue.
That could mean one thing:
She was alive.