"I wish you were here, dad." Kaia sniffed as she stared at the near lifeless form if her dad on the bed, trying her hardest to hold back her tears. Breath shaky, she exhaled and tried to calm herself. "It's been so hard, Nel has been gone for a week and I just can't help but feel like I've failed her."
"Cops are staying it's likely a runaway case but it's… it's bullshit." Kaia choked out a sob, her breath becoming unstable once again. "We… we spoke that night. She said she has something to tell me. She was coming over to Paula's, I don't believe them. Something… something has happened to Nel, dad. And I'm so scared and I just… I wish I was there with her at least."
Kaia wiped forcefully at her face. "You know, her birthday's in 2 weeks. She's been… she's been planning for her 16th since she was 13." Kaia laughed fondly at the memory. "It… the themes change a lot but… she's been saving up for it. Also recently dad, she… she's been nicer to me. I know, I know it's hard on her and I really don't blame her for previously taking it out on me but…"
"There's been this change. I noticed. Like she's doing her best to be better." Kaia let out a shaky breath. "And I'm so proud of her, whether she knows it or not. Oh God, I… I've failed her, I hope she's not in pain. I…"
Kaia tried to keep her sobs under control but it just came out noisier and more painfully. With aggression, she wiped her face and bit down hard on her lower lip.
She needed to be calm if she wanted to find her sister. Being a sobby mess wouldn't take her anywhere near getting the clues the police had missed. There has to be something.
In a few minutes, she was regulating her breathing once more, drying her face with a handkerchief.
"All right, dad. I promise, I'll find her. Alive." She said, staring determinedly at her dad's ashen face. "I miss you. I always miss you and I know you'll come back to use one day."
Kaia rised from her chair about to leave until something caught her attention. She frowned.
There was something in her dad's hand. Something she hadn't noticed earlier because she was a mess.
She reached for it and pulled out a folder piece of paper.
"Come here ALONE if you want your sister alive. Nothing needed, just you. If you tell a soul, you'll be receiving a package with her parts in it."
A warehouse address was written below it.
Kaia's heart stopped, then dropped, a cold chill she's never felt before washing over her whole body, starting from inside.
Immediately, she rushed out the room and went to the nurse receptionist who was on a gossip phonecall, she didn't care, she needed to know something.
"Miss, was anyone in my dad's room earlier?" She asked frantically, close to hyperventilating. The nurse raised a hand as she went on about trivial things that didn't matter to Kaia right now. She banged the counter forcefully. "I don't have time for this! Did anyone check into my dad's room earlier!?"
The startled nurse jerked in her seat and went to check the records before shaking her head. Then she was annoyed. "No one but you, and your sister."
Of course the hospital recognized Kaia and Chanel, she was sure they considered them lost causes for having blind hope about their father. And not letting go,no matter how much sustaining him cost them.
So if no one else checked in, who left that paper?
Kaia was about to ask that question until she remembered the warning in the note.
"Miss, are you okay?" The nurse asked but Kaia didn't reply as she bolted out of there and ahead outside the hospital, where she emptied her insides inside a little brush in front of it.
"I'm coming Nelly, stay strong, I'm coming." She whispered as she headed to the airport to board a plane to Alaska.
_____
Chanel throat were sore with thirst and screaming endlessly for the past few days. Her eyes heavy with bags from crying up every tear in her. Her skin burned from whatever was used to bond her ankles to the wall.
Every move she made to ease it only worsened it. Once she tried to yank at it with her hands, she got a new burn, so she let it be.
That plus the migraines and the increasing thirst and hunger. She hadn't eaten anything since when she was captured, with that nasty wound on her neck. It was deep, almost as if a chunk of her neck has been taken out.
And Chanel knew with that injury, one was supposed to be dead. However, after a while (maybe hours, maybe days) it completely disappeared, nothing but a tiny bump to show something happen there.
The first few days, she'd been left to screaming and crying until she couldn't anymore. She didn't have anything to keep track, so she had no idea how much time has passed. But it felt like forever until she picked up the sound of a door opening and shutting somewhere outside where she was.
Lying on the cold floor, exhausted and feeling like death, she raised her head at it.
Then the sound came closer; a rattling outside her door but not close enough to be the entrance door of where she was. And then finally, a loud noise of a heavy metal bolt coming off place.
Chanel couldn't clearly see who it was, but her eyes seemed to be trying to focus with a red tint over her vision.
"Who…" She has tried to ask but suddenly talking after exhausting herself on screaming and crying seemed like such a chore now. It felt like that one word drained every last bit of energy in her.
"Shhh." The figure hushed in a soft voice, walking forward to squat beside her floor ridden body. "It'll be fine."
"Let me… go." Chanel struggled but was silenced by a finger brushing through her hair.
"Shh, speaking will only exhaust you more." The voice was calm, sounded like something she could rely on but then again, this person put her in here. "It'll be hard the first few days, but after those dreadful days, you'll feel like you've been reborn. You'll be out when you're ready."
"Wha-?" Chanel has rasped out but the figure was already retreating, leaving her once again to the excruciating pain slowly building up in her.