MISSING IN ACTION

The party had begun to lighten up again. Late into the afternoon most people were wet from being thrown or pushed into the pool. A volley ball net was set up in the yard, and already people were dividing groups and making bets on who's going to win. Music blared from the sound system strapped to the gutter pipe on the roof, and underneath teens danced to the hip hop beats. It was a wild party of ghosts and pirates, faeries and demons, and even cartoon characters.

Riks was by the pool having a sculling competition against a guy.

"Scull! Scull! Scull!" the small crowd chanted as Riks and Spencer emptied glass after glass, seeing which could drink their punch the fastest.

After her tenth drink of punch Riks was feeling pretty nauseous, and heartily put down her glass in defeat.

"Wahoo! Yeah! You lose, I win! Ha ha!" cried out Spencer as all his popular friends cheered.

"Eh, I feel sick." He proceeded to puke his last drink drink into an empty bowl. His friends cheered even more while everyone else cried out in disgust.

"Yuck!"

"Take it somewhere else man!"

Laughing, Riks got up and started to head to the house for the bathroom when Siana's worried face popped in front of her.

"Where's Annabelle?" she demanded. Riks stunned, quickly said, "I don't know, I haven't seen her." The fight that had happened nearly an hour ago suddenly came back to her. Riks had been so busy trying to get the party started again that she had completely forgotten the event.

Feeling rather stupid and guilty she said hastily, "Come! Let's go find her."

"I've already looked around," Siana cried. "She's not out here, and she's not in the house. And Riks your room is totally trashed."

Riks stopped. She seemed a bit confused, and then something dawned on her. She looked quite horrified, and suddenly sprinted towards the house.

"Riks wait! It's not that bad!" Yelled Siana as she followed after her.

Riks walked slowly into her room, carefully stepping around her beloved mirror, now in tiny pieces on the floor. Her favourite photo of her dad, the only memory that she had left of him, had been knocked aside; and her school text books had been flung across the room as well.

But she was not concerned about the state of her room. She was preoccupied with the door. No one knew its purpose except for Riks. Her only guess was that Annabelle had gone through. After the misunderstanding with Siana, Annabelle would have easily opened it. Riks made for the door, but then realized that if she went then people would notice her disappearance, and Siana would be left behind quite baffled.

"Where do you think she'll be?"

Siana's voice brought Riks back to their present situation. She was standing there looking at her intently.

"I know where she is," Riks replied. "We'll get to her as soon as the party's over. Don't worry," she said confidently when she saw Siana's concerned face. "Annabelle's gonna be alright."

But in the back of Riks' mind she thought to herself, I just hope she doesn't freak out too badly.

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