Lindsey awoke to the smell of damp earth. It was dark and wet, wherever she was. Her entire body ached and she realized she was still naked. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized she was in an old root cellar. Rickety wooden stairs led up to a heavy, wood door at the top of the cellar, making up most of its ceiling. A few tiny rays of afternoon sunlight streamed through the boards. Lindsey quickly climbed the stairs and pressed her shoulder against it. It moved aout an inch, but she heard the metallic crunching of a chain on the other side and the door refused to budge anymore. She began to scream and beat on the door for the better part of an hour, but no one ever came. She sat on the steps, hugging herself and crying. She wanted Gohan beside her now, more than ever.
After a few hours of sitting alone in the dark, she heard the sound of voices approaching. For a single, fleeting moment her heart leapt, thinking Gohan had found her. But then she recognized the Johnson boys' voices and she scrambled down the stairs to cower in the corner. She thought about her powers and tried to summon fire to throw at the boys. All she managed to produce was a small flame, about the size of one produced by a cigarette lighter, and it quickly fizzled out. She simply didn't have the strength.
The chain clinked and crunched against the door and late day sunlight flooded the cellar. The silhouettes of two young men tromped down the rickety stairs towards her.
Jonah grinned crookedly at her. "You ready for round two?"
"Please, Jonah," she begged. "Don't do this."
"Say you're sorry and help us get Pa outta jail," Cody said. "Get our farm going again and we'll let you go."
"Never," she growled at them, at which she received a hard kick to the jaw. Her ear popped and the inside of her cheek began to bleed.
"I reckon we need to take that attitude down a few notches," Jonah said, pulling a hunting knife from his belt.
"No," she whimpered.
"Just do as you're told," Jonah said, stepping close to her and tipping her face towards him with the tip of his knife. "And easy with the teeth, or you'll lose 'em."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jenny sat on Piccolo's lap in the big, squashy armchair in the living room. Catie and Trunks sat side-by-side on the loveseat, while Leelee, Seventeen and Sabriena were squashed together on the couch. No one was saying a word.
Gohan was pacing back and forth in the middle of the room. The grandfather clock chimed mid-night. Tension emanated from Gohan and lay thick on the air in the room. He clutched a phone in his hand and tried the number again. It rang and rang, but there was no answer. Then he called the other number he'd been trying all day. A voice rang over the phone, "Hi, you've reached Lindsey and I wasn't available to take your call. But if you leave your name, number, and a brief message, I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks and have a great day." Angrily, he snapped the phone shut.
Leelee stared miserably at her cell phone clutched in Gohan's hand. Surely she was remembering what had happened to Shayne's earlier in the day.
"I don't understand why our parents won't answer," Trunks said.
Gohan shrugged in an irritated sort of way and began to pace again. "I don't know. That's the number of their hotel."
"I say we go looking for her ourselves," Piccolo said.
"We looked all afternoon, honey," Jenny said softly. "I don't know where else to look. She's not in any of the barns, the house, the old farm house down the road…"
"Why don't you call the police and file a missing person's report?" Catie suggested.
Gohan spun on the spot and glared at Catie. Trunks began to sit up straighter as if to protect Catie from the threat of Gohan's verbal assault, but Gohan heaved a sigh and said, "I think I'm going to have to." And Trunks settled back into the loveseat.
An hour later, two officers showed up at the house. They spoke to everyone and took statements about when the last time they'd seen Lindsey.
"Is there anyone you can think of that would want to hurt Lindsey?" the female officer asked.
"Not that I can think of," Gohan answered.
"She used to run with a rough crowd back in the day," the male officer said, "Do you think anyone from that bunch had anything to do with it?"
Gohan shook his head. "No. In fact, they've been looking for her, too. They searched the whole warehouse."
"We'll need a picture of her," the female officer was telling Jenny. Jenny nodded and headed to a china cabinet at the back of the living room. She opened the cabinet underneath and pulled out a photo album.
"We should find something in here," Jenny said, and began to flip through the pictures.
"Someone's here," Sabriena said softly, staring out the window as gravel crunched outside.
The female officer went to the door and opened it. She spoke briefly to the person outside, then turned to the officer in the house. "The search team is here."
The male officer turned to the group in the livingroom and said, "Do any of you have an article of clothing that belonged to the victim? It would help the search dogs find her."
Knots twisted up sharply in Gohan's stomach at the words "the victim". It made him picture his future wife lying dead somewhere alone. He quickly brushed the horrific image from his mind.
"I'll get something," Jenny offered, setting down the photo album and running up the stairs. She returned a few minutes later, holding one of Lindsey's favorite black shirts. The officer took it and headed outside, followed by the group.
"Don't worry, son," the male officer said, clapping Gohan on the back. "We'll find her."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Armed with flashlights, the search began. The police took their search dogs and began to follow them. The dogs led to the campsite where the group had stayed the night before. From there, they followed a small trail down through some trees to the creek. Beside the creek lay a pile of clothing.
"That's Lindsey's stuff!" Catie proclaimed as the officer picked it up. "She was wearing that last night!"
The dogs began to wander up and down the edge of the water, but seemed lost. They kept returning to the spot where the clothes had lain, and then wander again.
"So, she's naked somewhere?" Sabriena asked.
"It would appear that way," the female officer said.
"So now what?" Seventeen asked.
"I wonder if the current carried her down-river somewhere," the male officer who had been with them at the house said.
"The current isn't that strong, is it?" Jenny asked skeptically.
The male officer shrugged. "It could be."
Gohan stared at the river, completely lost as to what to do next. 'Lindsey,' he thought, 'where are you?'