Megan felt the blood drain from her face as she listened to the words coming through her phone. A representative from the tiny village had just reached out to share the unfortunate news that a guest named Max Reed had checked in that night, but there was no record of him checking out, nor was there any trace of him in the facility. Since she was listed as your emergency contact with the receptionist, they were required to let her know that you couldn’t be located. In less than a minute, Megan was in her car flying towards Tiny Town to meet with a detective of the local police department. On her way she had called Missy to confirm that she hadn’t seen you or Liz. She even called Ashley to ensure that she hadn’t gone to pick you up either. Everyone confirmed that they had seen the pair and at that point Megan began to break down in tears.
It was one thing when you had been taken by Alexis and Ashley. At least then, she knew where to find you and could find a way to recover you. But now? Where could she even begin? Were you even alive still? Would she ever see you again?
“Goddamnit! How is this happening right now?!” She screamed as she pounded her fists against the steering wheel. The tears in her eyes had grown to the point of obscuring her vision, forcing the young college student to pull her vehicle over to the side of the road where she sat for several minutes, simply wallowing in her sorrow.
Eventually, Megan made it to Tiny Town and was shocked to see Missy was already there speaking with an older man, probably a police officer. Megan got out of her car and sprinted over to her friend. As she got close, she could see that Missy had been crying just as much as she had and the two grabbed each other in a long embrace.
“I’m sorry Meg, I’m so sorry!” Missy whispered as she cried into Megan’s shoulder. Meg held her friend tightly and rubbed her back.
“It’s not your fault. This was supposed to be safe!” The young blonde replied. Eventually their remorseful embrace was interrupted by the man who had been talking with Missy a moment ago. He introduced himself to Megan as Detective Thomas and explained that he was taking the lead on this case. The detective continued to explain that there were some added difficulties that came along with locating missing reduced persons. He urged the young women to try to remain optimistic but the reality of the situation was that odds were highly stacked against them. This dose of reality hit the girls like a freight train, causing them both to break down even more. The emotional turmoil of this event made the information gathering quite a bit more difficult for the detective. Through sobs and cries, the officer collected everything he needed to know about the missing couple.
“Alright ladies, I’ll be in touch when I’ve got more information for you. In the meantime if you need to speak with me about anything, just give me a call.” The man gave a final condolence and assured the women that they were going to do everything possible to try and recover the missing RPs. From here, both Meg and Missy stood in the parking lot consoling one another before they ultimately decided to go back to Meg’s apartment.
The drive back to Megan’s place was a long, quiet, reflective voyage. The entire trip back, Meg’s mind was once again filled with all the thoughts of her escapades with the shrunken people in her life. All the horrible things that she did to Max growing up. She was reminded of Ivan and everything they had just gone through on that front. And she thought about Ashley. She thought about everything that had transpired between Ashley, Alexis, Max and herself over these last several weeks. In such a short time her little family had become so fragmented and damaged and now, with this… everything she cares about in the world was threatening to implode on her. And with this revelation came yet another wave of tears.
By the time that she pulled back into her own driveway, Meg felt like she had cried away every last bit of moisture in her body. Missy was pulling into the driveway just as Meg was getting out of her car and she was unsurprised to see Ashley’s vehicle here as well. The pair took each other by the arm and walked up to the house. As soon as they entered the house, they saw Ashley pacing back and forth in the kitchen, holding a phone up to her ear. As soon as Ashley saw her sister enter the building, she quickly turned and approached with one upturned palm.
“Give me Alexis, right now.”