And Then
Having decided that home was not the right place, Paige put on a light coat and walked outside. Hitting the sidewalk, she started walking aimlessly. A cold wind sprang up and played with unkempt blonde locks. Her mind was almost totally empty. Disbelief and impending tears whirled inside, but Paige heard only her pounding feet. In accordance with the oldest of misfortune laws, light rain began to fall on Paige, before eventually becoming a steadily drenching downpour. She sighed, and deciding to stop being so melodramatic began the walk home. Instead of going up to her room, Paige instead lay on the outdoor sofa on the front porch.
"What am I doing here?" Paige said to herself. She leapt up and ran to Ellie's house, determined to win Ellie back somehow.
Reaching Ellie's house, Paige was on the opposite side of the street, and stood stock still in the chilling rain. An ambulance was pulled up outside, its back doors open, and two paramedics rolled a stretcher down the porch stairs. Lying on sheets as pale as herself was a familiar redhead. Her wrists were heavily bandaged, and Ellie was unconscious. Her head lolled alarmingly as the stretcher was wheeled into the van. Paige couldn't move.
Suddenly a car rolled past her and sprayed water all over her; Paige sat up so alarmingly on the sofa that she almost fell over. The wind had changed, and as the rain was now almost horizontal it had hit Paige and woken her up.
Swallowing bile for barely long enough, Paige ran to the bathroom and emptied her stomach. She sat on the floor, shivering from cold and sickness. Eventually Paige lifted lead-heavy limbs and turned on the shower. The water was hot and quickly filled the bathroom with steam. Forgetting everything Paige stepped underneath the water, still fully clothed.
Ellie didn't go to school the next day, or the day after, or the day after that. Paige called her cell phone every morning and lunchtime, and Ellie's home every afternoon several times. In her desperation, that terrible dream vivid in her mind, Paige called the hospital one afternoon. No one by the name of Ellie Nash had been admitted in the last week. Five minutes after that phone call Paige ran to Ellie's. She knocked on the door and yelled out, but there was no answer. Peering through the windows, nobody was home, and Paige began to cry all over again. Ellie had disappeared.