Young Writers Society

"I know right?" Avery looked out the window and watched as people scurried about, and cars honked their horns. It looked like chaos, but Avery loved it all so much. He loved whatever was a change of scenery.

There was a TV at the front of the restaurant that was turned on to the news channel. The heading was Celebrity Conundrum: Charles Emmett Disappeared!

The reporter went on saying, "Apparently, Hollywood has a reward of $100,000 dollars for whoever finds this young celebrity. This morning, the young singer was meant to be at his studio to make a new song but his friends didn't see him there. They waited hours, but he never showed up. They checked his house - no one. They checked everywhere they would've thought Mr. Emmett would be at - but he was no where to be seen."

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, and turned to look at Alex.

"A hundred thousand dollars! Charles Emmett! The Charles Emmett! The singer!" he exclaimed.

The rest of the people didn't really look at the TV or see Avery getting excited about anything. Everyone was too busy eating.

Alex turned to face the TV, then back at Avery, “That’s weird. Isn’t he relatively new, fame-wise? Why would he disappear…”

Alex looked down at her lap, confused, “I got it!” She looked back up, “Let’s solve this case! We could use the prize money for college!”

"Exactly what I was thinking." he said. "Finish up your food quick, and then we'll head to his studio or something. And check around on social media. You can do the tech stuff. You're better than I am."

He gobbled up the rest of his brunch and packed away the Cookie Plate for later. He called for the waitress again and payed - it was expansive, almost touching a hundred dollars. Nine thousand and twenty left.

“Thanks!” Alex said to the waitress, then they exited the restaurant. Alex sat in the passenger seat of the car, buckled herself in, and pulled out her phone.

“Charles Emmett… Emmett… that rings a bell. Oh! His sister is Elizabeth Emmett-Hill, the model! She’s really pretty,” Alex got distracted and started looking through photos, “Anyways, he just came out with his first album this year… so he wouldn’t step out of the spotlight this soon, you know?”

Avery saw the picture of Elizabeth and he silently admitted to himself that she was gorgeous. "She's does look pretty." he agreed.

"Of course he wouldn't. His album was such a hit. I always play it on repeat when I have nothing else to do or if I'm doing homework. It's amazing." he said. "I'll get his autograph when we find him."

He smiled when he noticed he didn't say 'if' but said 'when'. "Can you get the address of his studio?" Avery asked, looking at Alex. "I can't really drive into nowhere and expect myself to end up at his studio." he smirked.

“Oh my god, you're obsessed!” Alex laughed, then searched the address, “I bet he was kidnapped by a crazy fan. It’s 100 W 80th St, New York, NY 10024, Precision Sound Studios, near the Natural History Museum.”

Avery nodded, searched it up on the GPS and started driving there. Soon, he parked in front of the building and he and Alex trotted up to the see-through door. He peered inside and saw an old man sitting in the studio, holding his bald head in his hands. There were two others, a young man and woman on either side of him, looking as if they were comforting him. And to the right of them all... was Elizabeth Emmett-Hill. The model.

Avery and Alex walked into the studio greeted with curious looks. He was never one to be social, so he shifted on his feet a bit before the young girl spoke up. "What do you want?"

“Uh, hi! We’re Alex and Avery…” Alex said, but Elizabeth interrupted.

“Yeah, but what do you want?” She hissed.

“We want to figure out what happened to your brother.” Alex looked around the room. It was a nice studio, an expensive studio.

“So did the last seven people.” The man said.

“And who might you be?”

“I’m Tom, Charles’ producer. These are his friends, Jonah and Zoey, and you probably know Elizabeth.” Tom gestured to Elizabeth, who was sitting in a chair, in the corner.

Elizabeth looked so sad, Avery wanted to hug her. "This was the last place he was seen, yesterday night. He was working on a new song." Elizabeth said quietly, blinking up at Alex and Avery.

Zoey, the one with the black hair and brown eyes, who had snapped at them, went and hugged Elizabeth. "It's alright, Liz, we'll find him."

Avery couldn't help but point out that they hadn't really been looking for him. Zoey shot him a piercing look and Tom just sighed but spoke. "If you really want to help, please do. The last seven people didn't seem too keen on finding him. They just wanted the money."

Avery gulped nervously. "Um, we really want to meet him." he said. It wasn't a lie... "We'll help. Promise." he cracked a smiled and Tom smiled back and it shone through from his gray eyes.

The man got up and walked over to Alex and Avery, patted them on the shoulder, and left.

"He's been here all morning. The poor guy's stressed and he's lost his energy." the brown eyed young man - Jonah - explained. "Sorry about Zoey by the way. My sister gets angry easily."

“It’s fine.” Alex said, “Where was he going, after this?” She took out her phone, ready to type their answers.

“Well, he always walked past the museum on his way to his car. Charles liked to…” Elizabeth nearly burst into tears, “park far away, you know. So he wouldn’t… run into paparazzi.”

“Is his car still there?” Alex typed what she said down.

“Yep. His keys are missing, probably with him wherever he went…” Jonah was pacing around the studio.

"Do you by any chance have an extra pair of his keys so we could check for something in the car?" Avery asked. "He could've been going into his car and something happened to him then." Elizabeth sobbed at that, and Avery gave her an apologetic look.

Jonah nodded. "Mr. Emmett always has a pair for evey car."

"You should ask him for it then." Avery said.

"He's all the way in Ireland for some business trip." Elizabeth sniffled. "And Mum is with him. I doubt he'd take them with him, so we could check at our house." she offered.

Avery took out his notepad and pen and jotted everything down in case something happened to Alex's phone. Better to be safe than sorry, he decided.

- Charles always walked past the museum
- It seems as if he was on 80th street last
- His car is still there, parked far away
- His keys are probably wih him

“Lead the way!” Alex said, getting excited, “If you don’t mind.”

Elizabeth wiped her tears off with a tissue, mascara stained her cheeks. Then, she reached for sunglasses, a black jacket, and New York Yankees hat and put them on.

Elizabeth then turned around to face Jonah and Zoey, “Are you all coming?”

“Sure, let’s go.” Jonah and the others stood. The group followed Avery and Alex out of the building. Several people on the street recognized Elizabeth, so they had to sprint to Avery's car. Elizabeth and Alex (at the wheel) in the front and Jonah, Zoey, and Avery in the middle.

“Do you have any idea who would have done it?” Alex asked. Elizabeth nearly burst out in tears again, “Assuming someone did take him.”

Jonah beat his sister to a reply. "I have seen a very creepy young man loitering outside Char's house, and just, I dunno, it may be him, but he didn't seem like the type."

"He even came to ask where Charles went." Zoe added thoughtfully. "He seemed concerned. Left his phone number too. I think his name was... Evan? Evan McSomething."

Avery looked out the window at a group of young people huddled together, pointing at his car and he shifted uneasily. Attention wasn't something he was a big fan of. Elizabeth sighed. "Let's go to our house first." she said, giving Alex the address and Avery typed it out on his phone and handed it over to Alex.

“Holy crap,” Alex said. If she could cover her mouth, she would of, but she was driving, “You live in the San Remo! I’ve read about that building, it’s beautiful.”

Elizabeth didn’t seem to care about Alex’s opinion on the building, so she shut her mouth. They pulled up to the apartment building (it was hardly a three minute long drive) and parked across the street from the building. Elizabeth put her sunglasses in her pocket and exited the car last. We followed her to the door, where a doorman greeted us.

“My husband should be home by now,” Elizabeth said, “James said he was doing a meet and greet today.”

“Interesting.” Alex typed that into her phone. Liz’s husband not home during disappearance, she typed. They went up to the elevator and the man in it pressed floor 25th. The exited the elevator and it opened to a large entryway, which led to a gorgeous apartment.

Avery gawked. "Dang. You live here?" He looked up at the white ceiling with LED lights fixed into it. The floor was a shiny wooden color, and when Avery took off his shoes at the front of the apartment, he itched to slide across the halllway in his socks.

"Since Dad and Mom aren't at their house, they left all the important things with me." Elizabeth explained, leading the group into the living. Jonah and Zoey flopped onto the couches and leaned into them. Avery's heart jumped when he saw Zoey flutter her eyes shut, flick her brown hair back, and smile, breathing in softly.

He had to focus right now though so he peeled his eyes off her and watched Elizabeth search for something in the wooden baskets on the bookshelf. While she was doing so, she gestured for Alex and Avery to sit. They obediently did as asked.

"Ah, here we go." she finally said. "The keys." She jangled them in her hands and chucked them at Jonah. He caught it with ease. "You're the most responsible." Jonah gave her a crooked smile.

At that very moment, a short, brown eyed and brown haired man walked into the living room, dressed in an expensive looking tuxedo. He froze when he saw so many people in his apartment. He gave everyone a dirty glance before smiling sickly at Elizabeth. "And who might all these people be, my dear wife?"

Ah, so this was James.