Sammy was smart enough to leave traces. The thing was, Sammy was too smart. Decoding her intelligence was not going to be easy for Henry and I. I feared the where abouts of my mother as well. What if they had done something to prevent any questions being asked? I had to focus on the disappearing girls right now.
To trace back to what could've happened, I started at the door of the girls' hostel. There had to be a trail, something Sammy knew I'd recognize. That's when I saw them; the daisies. They were scattered at a long distance from one another. Sammy was trying to make sure that the monsters of the institute didn't figure out what was going on. I smiled at Sammy's intelligence.
One after the other, Henry and I found the daisies that were lying in plain sight. We knew that by now, the warden must have seen us. We had to be quick. The unreliable element of support that the monsters had was wind. Wind was not in our favor. It scattered away the flowers from their original location. We knew that the trail would end. We had reached a narrow lane on the street. That's where the trail left us. Sammy was probably put into a vehicle at this point. It was almost curfew and all we had found out by this time was the street where the vehicle would wait for its next victim.
We were worried that the authorities might find out of our knowledge of the street and change the location of the vehicle next time. We knew we were always being watched and we couldn't risk it. We had to postpone our investigation. We were forced to act normal while the people we loved were suffering the wrath of the authorities. The feeling of loneliness hit me immensely during class as I watched a peaceful class turn into one with mean replacements. Sometimes, I wished I were Arnold. All I had to do was be a cruel replacement. I would have had no worries in the world, nothing would keep me up at night. I wondered if people like Arnold were actually nice. Maybe they were being forced to act out in order to protect someone they loved. Maybe every single person was playing a part in some bigger scheme. No one knew the truth but everyone seemed to be trying their best to hide it.
I missed playing with the knots in Sammy's hair. Even though she wasn't my type, I knew she would someday clean up well for the one she loved. I wished I had complimented her more often. I wish I had given her the confidence boost she needed to consider herself capable of a love story. Maybe I was the reason she despised love so much. If I ever had another life, I would make sure Sammy found a better best friend. I would make sure she felt pretty in her own skin. I would make sure she knew her worth and value. In another life, Sammy would be the happiest soul on Earth.
My mind wandered towards the possibility of a supernatural reality. What if there were multiple worlds existing at the same time. A Sammy lost in the other world was provided by ours. Maybe, the reason the trail ended there was because that's where they all vanished. They travelled through the space time continuum and reached a parallel universe. It was possible that they were all okay. Maybe their life over there would have had less struggles, less malice and less treachery. The probability of this was impossible but it offered a relief to my dying mind.
I missed my sister Emilia's annoying screams every time I disagreed with her. She would have a cute red swollen nose with anger ruling over it. Her cheeks would be red with crying and her eyes wet with misery. She was a total drama queen. She knew how to have her way. I wish I could tell her that I loved her so much. Henry assured me that she knew; she knew her brother always loved her. Em was always the strong one. When dad died, she held our family together as if she were the eldest and most mature one amongst us. She never let us see her cry in the tough times. She was our rock. My other sister, Jane always envied that about Em. Em had the most beautiful soul and I would never let a petty institute take that away from the world. I wondered if Jane was okay. Em and I were always the closer siblings. Jane sided with mother on every single thing. It was always Emilia and I against them. We were a team, the best one of all.
I thought of Daisy. I tried to keep her freshness in mind. Her image popped in my head every time I tried to breath. I realized, I never got to tell her that I loved her. I loved her deeply. When she was right in front of me, my love was deep like the sea but when she was taken from me, the sea was hit by an ocean. The love grew deeper. I wondered if I would ever get to hear her voice again. She had only ever said two words to me but my mind had built up conversations we would have had.
The reminiscing and missing was not helping me think clearly. The wild theories that my mind was coming up with, only kept me from my goal. I needed to focus on Sammy. I needed to find a way to get inside her head so that I could figure out what other trails she might have left. I knew Sammy was the smart one from the beginning. That is why she didn't choose difficult hints. Knowing me, I would never have figured them out. The daisies were a funny start. The jungle of my imagination smiled while I picked away the trail.
That night, as I stared into the depths of the tiny daisies left behind, I promised myself to never stop looking for all of them. I had to try a different approach; I just hadn't figured it out yet.