Young Writers Society

Jonah leaned against the wall and whenever he caught the janitor looking at any of the girls - especially his sister - he coughed loudly, locking eyes with the man.

"Tea? Coffee?" he asked, sitting behind a small wooden desk.

"Nothing." Avery and Zoey said together.

Zoey continued. "We're looking for Charles Emmett." she repeated Alex's story. "BM, who we're suspecting is a woman, left a note in his car stating that she had taken him somewhere with amazing views."

"We were thinking it could be here or at any other building - like the One World Trade Center or Chysler building." Jonah piped up. The janitor nodded.

"So you came here in hope to find... what is he to the lot of you?"

Everyone exchanged glances. It was better to stick to lies in case someone didn't turn out trustworthy enough. "He's..." Elizabeth threw one glance around the group. "...a friend." she finished.

"What are all your names?" the janitor asked, looking directly at Alex.

Jonah coughed. The janitor raised his eyebrows at him. Jonah held up his chin. "You don't need to know that." he said coolly. "Tell us yours."

"Doug." the janitor said swiftly.

Avery shifted in his seat. That name always sent chills up his spine because his mother's brother was an abusive man when his mother was young. He had hurt her a lot. He decided he wouldn't trust this man at all.

Alex could’ve flinched when he heard the man’s name. She knew Avery’s uncle was abusive and the name “Doug” had always made Avery uncomfortable.

She patted Avery’s back, then returned her hand to her side. She was beginning to become hot, not because of the lack of air conditioning, but it was very uncomfortable in that office.

“Sir, we…” Alex started, but Doug interrupted. He insisted that they call him by his name.

“Doug, look here. We’re looking for Charles Emmett or another worker with the initials ‘BM’. If you can’t help us, then we’ll be on our way.” Zoey snapped, annoyed. Doug looked at her, and she sank back into her chair.

“Well, darling…” Jonah coughed, and stared at Doug. This guy was getting on his nerves, “There aren’t any people in the cleaning crew known as BM. There is a banker, who works in the Bank of America offices, that has those initials. Barry Macabee. Always has a dirty office.”

“Wonderful. We’ll be on our way then.” Jonah stopped leaning on the wall and held out his hand to Doug, “Thanks for your… help.”

Doug just nodded and turned to Elizabeth, holding out his hand, “Can I help you up?”

“No, no thank you. I think I can manage.” Elizabeth stood up by herself and made her way towards Alex. Alex whispered in Elizabeth’s ear, “This guy gives me the creeps.”

Doug seemed to grow red, after being rejected by Elizabeth. Jonah helped Zoey get up and Alex stood up alone. Doug twitched, and seemed to have reached his boiling point as he stomped towards the door. Alex ducked behind Avery, not wanting to be anywhere near that man.

Elizabeth got up to give Doug some money. "Don't tell anyone about our meeting." she said. "I'll give you four thousand dollars." she quickly added.

Doug stopped at the door, turned and nodded approvingly. He took the check that Elizabeth had readied for him and walked confidently towards the door.

Jonah held out his arm across the door and stared at Doug dead in the eye. "The girl back there?" he pointed at Zoey. Doug looked back. "My sister." Jonah growled. "Good thing you didn't touch her or I would've snapped you in half. Speaking of half... she's probably half your age."

Doug scowled, trying to move Jonah to get out. His face was red-beat. Jonah stopped him. "Chill out man. And that other model right there?" he pointed at Elizabeth. "Married. And by the looks of the youngest one, I feel like she could rip off every one of your limbs if you even seemed like you would touch her."

Doug shoved Jonah away. Jonah smirked as he watched Doug storming out into the hallway.

"There was no need for that." Zoey scolded, smacking Jonah's arm even though she had enjoyed watching Doug be embarrassed like that.

Jonah looked at Zoey. "Oh so I'll take my words back and let him take you if he follows us? I know people like him. Bastards, I swear." he shook his head. "Need to give them a good threat to have them back off."

Avery shared a smile with Jonah. Sometimes the young man could be annoying, but right now, he had a point, and Avery was super grateful for that - he would never in a million years be able to say any of that. When the group got out of the building and reached the car, everyone huddled around the SUV for a quick meeting. "Where do we go now? Should we go see the other BM guy, Chysler building, or One World Trade Center?" Avery asked.

“Well, the bank offices are back there, in the Empire State Building.” Alex said. She sat down. The sweat was stopping now that they were away from Doug. She turned to Jonah, “Thanks for protecting us. I appreciate it.”

“Oh, so I’m suddenly useful now?” Jonah smirked and looked out the window. Boy, was this guy weird.

“We never said you weren’t… nevermind. I say we interview that Barry guy, the One World Trade Center, then the Chrysler Building.” Zoey said.

“The Chrysler Building first.” Elizabeth said, “It’s the building less people would think of, therefore the better place to hide Charles.”

“None of the three buildings we thought of are good options to hide someone in.” Alex looked away from the window, “Just think about it.”

“Blondie’s got a point. Is that your original hair color?” Jonah asked, suddenly interested in the conversation.

“I’m a redhead, naturally. I dyed it blonde in February.” Alex answered, “That’s besides the point though… we need to find Charles.”

“Hmph. You’d look good as a ginger.” Jonah said, returning to his window. Alex turned to face the others.

Avery frowned at Jonah. He didn't like the way he was being towards Alex.

"How about we get one building done with at a time?" he suggested, looking at Elizabeth. She was the real leader here - Charles' was her brother after all. Then he added, to be more persuasive, "That way we won't have to go back and forth and tire ourselves out."

Zoey shrugged. "As long as we're out and about searching for Charles."

Jonah looked back at the rest. "Didn't you say that BM was actually a girl? Wasn't it a feeling in your gut?" he asked Zoey.

Zoey considered it. "I might be wrong." Jonah nodded.

"So... what have we concluded?" Elizabeth asked, a bit impatiently - which was understandable, if one was in her shoes.

“I say we just skip that Barry banker.” Alex said, “If he’s a banker, he’s probably wealthy, and can buy a meet and greet or something. He wouldn’t kidnap Charles.”

“We’ve decided on the One World Trade Center.” Jonah said, not looking away from the window.

“OK then.” Everyone climbed into the car, Jonah at the wheel. After everyone was settled, Alex turned to Avery.

“I think tonight, we’ll sleep at the hostel. Otherwise, it’s a waste of money.” She said. She really didn’t like to waste money, especially if it wasn’t hers.

Avery combed his hand through his hair. "Definitely. I think I might need a shower too." he said quietly.

"What are we going to do there?" Zoey asked from beside Jonah.

Elizabeth turned to look at everyone. "We have a list of names, which should do us good. I studied it a while ago, and more of them are employed. It shouldn't be too hard. And we know BM is a woman. So I crossed out all the male names - which were, like, more than half of them."

"What about the people at the front desk?" Avery asked.

"I-" she was interrupted by Jonah.

"Ave. She's a god forsaken billionare. She has money to bribe them with." he turned a corner and went on the highway.

"I swear, if you weren't driving, I would have smashed your head into the windshield." Zoey said flatly.

"Sure." Jonah laughed.

"Stop bickering." Elizabeth sighed. "Anyone have more suggestions? I'm out of ideas." Avery stayed quiet and Jonah kept on mocking Zoey which made Zoey plug her ears.

“Which one of you is older?” Alex asked, looking up at Jonah and Zoey.

“Him.” Zoey said, almost as if she was embarrassed of it. She leaned on the window and sighed, “Unfortunately.”

“Uh, ignore her Alex, I am the best older brother that has ever lived.” Jonah chuckled, and Alex laughed too. She smiled and turned to her phone. She began to type down everything that they learned (that she could remember).

Jonah continued driving, and every so often, his gaze would shift to the rearview mirror and he would watch Alex typing notes into her phone, which would make him drive slower. Zoey would slap his arm and he'd snap back into reality and speed up.

Avery stared out the window and watched the buildings and cars whiz by. He opened the GPS and checked how far they were from the Trade Center. "Oh, we're pretty close now. Two minutes." he informed the group.

Elizabeth sighed deeply and leaned into the car seat. "I hope Charles is okay." she said quietly.

"I hope so too." Avery and Zoey said in unison. Avery grinned.

Alex finished typing her many notes and looked up. She could see the glass building shimmering down the street.

“That building is spectacular!” Alex nearly jumped out of her seat, “It’s so bright and shiny, and look how the walls come together at the top!”

“Damn right it's cool.” Jonah smiled and looked in the mirror once again. Zoey flicked him on the arm.

Jonah drove around looking for a parking spot. Alex looked to the sun roof and saw the gleaming tip of the magnificent skyscraper.

“Here we go..” Jonah mumbled, has he failed to parallel park multiple times.

When Jonah couldn't park right, Elizabeth offered to park for him. "Thanks." he muttered. They switched spots and Elizabeth perfectly parked. The group got out of the SUV and in front of it under the late-afternoon sun.

Avery did some deep breathing exercises his therapist had told him about. Anxiety was kicking in, and he wasn't liking it the least bit. "Um, so we should have one person doing all the talking this time." he advised. "Last time..." he looked at Jonah and smiled. "It didn't go so well with all of us blabbing." he grinned at Jonah's scowl.

"I'll do it." Elizabeth said. "I'm the one offering up money, anyway, if we need to."

Everyone bobbed their heads in agreement and entered the building. It was huge. "Woah..." Avery looked around. "This place is awesome."

“It’s very… modern.” Zoey said. Alex looked around. It was very different than the building they had come from. The walls were white, the floor was gray, and there was modern artwork on the ground.

“I just realized something.” Alex said, “The basement to this would be the 9/11 museum. Unless BM was hiding him in the rooms that are off-limits, he couldn’t be down there.”


“Off-limits? Wouldn’t that just be the janitor’s room?” Elizabeth asked.

“I read somewhere that they have a laboratory of sorts, to see if they can recognize the unidentified bodies.” Alex explained, “They might not use it anymore though, they put the remains in a memorial, inside the museum.”

“Well, we can still look.” Jonah said, “I’m not losing another friend.”

Jonah walked ahead and Alex whispered to Zoey, “Another?”

“His friend, George, died in a car accident last year,” Zoey explained and Alex nodded.

"So, uh, where are we going?" Avery asked, uncomfortable about the fact they might be entering a laboratory where 'unidentified bodies' were.

"The lab." Elizabeth said, walking towards the front desk. The man behind the desk looked kind. She paid the fees without much talking and the group followed her towards the elevator. When everyone filed in, she opened her mouth again to talk. Then she shut her mouth.

Avery patted her shoulder. He couldn't help but do so. "Charles will be okay." and the elevator went down.

Elizabeth nodded as the elevator opened. They walked into the museum, which was completely silent. People were silently looking at the pieces, reading the captions, and moving on. Some were crying.

“We have to find the lab…” Zoey whispered. Suddenly, Alex got super uncomfortable. She felt weak, something she didn’t usually feel and shuddered. She didn’t like the idea of breaking into the lab, it wasn’t respectful, especially because it was a memorial to an event.

“Look, guys, I don’t feel comfortable doing this,” Alex mumbled.

“What?” Elizabeth said, shocked.

“Not the whole finding Charles thing, but breaking into this lab.” Alex explained, “This place is, well, sacred and I don’t want to intrude on this. This place was the site where some people took their final breath.”

The group seemed to nod in unison and Jonah said, “I agree with Alex. I can go wait upstairs, or outside, with her.”

"Alex..." Avery trailed off, walking towards her. "It's going to be fine. We're doing it for a good cause." he said. "Looking for someone's loved one isn't bad, is it?" he asked, smiling crookedly.

Jonah stepped in between the two. "I think she's fine." he said coolly.

Avery faltered and looked at Alex again. "Uh. Okay then." he said, backing away. "Um, don't go too far and stay safe." he advised and turned his back.

Zoey gave Jonah one glance and he grinned. Alex and Jonah left. Elizabeth didn't say anything. She took out a bobby pin from her hair and looked around for a door to anywhere. The other two did the same. "Aha!" Avery exclaimed, much louder than he had ever exclaimed. Zoey raised her brows. He blushed.

Elizabeth walked towards where Avery was and checked the door knob. "This blends in well with the wall." she noted. "Locked." She fiddled with the bobby pin and the door knob. After a few clicks and nudges, the door swung open.

The lab wasn't that huge. It had boxes that looked more like coffins. Some large, some tiny, some wide, et cetera. It was a sight. They were all wooden, and stacked up on the right side of the wall. Goosebumps ran up Zoey and Avery's arms, but Elizabeth was expressionless. She needed to find her brother.

But no one was there. Not even anyone who was tied up and the three of them had looked around everywhere. Every corner of the laboratory and every corner of the almost empty museum. No one.

Disheartened, Elizabeth slowed down her walking. Avery and Zoey glanced at each other then at her slumped figure. "We'll never find Charles." she sighed, combing back her hair.

Zoey frowned tilting Elizabeth's chin to look at her in the eye. "We will." she said confidently.

Avery nodded. "We have Jonah's charm, Alex and Zoey's brains, your wealth..." he trailed off. 'Your wealth' wasn't the thing to say especially since the look Zoey gave him made him seal his lips. He gulped. "Uh... I'll text Alex now." he offered instead. "We should get going. It's almost time for supper. We haven't even had lunch." He pulled out his phone.

Me: Alex, come quick, I think Liz might cry again.