Young Writers Society

Ew. This was the first thing that ran through Alex’s mind when she saw James. He smelled like tobacco and had that “I-Think-I’m-Better-Than-You” vibe to him.

“I’m Alex and this i…” Alex started.

“I didn’t ask you!” James hissed. “Elizabeth?”

“Calm down. You know Jonah and Zoey. Those two,” Elizabeth motioned to Avery and Alex, “are the people trying to figure out where my brother went.”

James snorted, “Dear, he’s probably fine! You don’t need to find him, he’s most likely living the life away from the public eye.”

“He left his car, though, and he wouldn't take a plane if he wanted to avoid the public.” Alex said, typing James - Thinks Charles is OK into her phone.

"Don't talk back to me miss!" James snapped, and then he gave Elizabeth a small peck on the cheek, "I've got a meeting at the bank. I'll be back by eight." Then, he exited the room.

Avery watched him leave and when he heard the front door shut, Zoey sat up. "Get rid of the idiot. He's such a snob." she said flatly. "He forgets everything too. You've been living with that monster, for - what? - two years now? He's messed up."

Elizabeth knew this was true, but her heart had made a soft corner for her husband. She sighed, ran a shaky hand through her hair and sat down. "Alright, well, what do you two have down?" she asked.

Avery looked down at his notepad once again and recited everything he had jotted down - he knew Alex had the same stuff. "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 with him. A young man named Evan seemed curious about Charles' disappearance. Your husband's not home during disappearance -"

"You're suspecting James?" Jonah asked, smirking. Zoey giggled.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "He would do no such thing, I assure you."

Avery shrugged. "You never know."

"He's my husband. Charles' brother-in-law." Elizabeth growled.

Avery raised his hands, surrendering. "Fine then, alright! No point telling you the rest of it then." he said, and tucked his notepad away.

“We might as well check his car.” Alex said. She spent a moment thinking but then had an idea, “Do you know if he had a dashcam? It may have recorded something.”

“I bet he did. I think mum bought him one a couple of years ago.” Elizabeth sniffed. She was about to cry again.

Jonah stood up and grabbed a tissue from the box. He handed to Elizabeth, who blew her nose.

“We’ll have to get his car anyways, before it’s towed… do you want to split up? Some people go to get the car, some people stay?” Zoey said from the corner.

“Sounds like a good idea.” Jonah agreed.

Jonah and Avery stood up in unison. They smiled - both knew the other wanted to check the car. "Anyone else coming?" Jonah asked, double taking.

"I honestly wouldn't want to leave Liz alone." Zoey said, stroking Elizabeth's hair, who was now crying silently again. Zoey pulled Elizabeth in a tight embrace, and soothin her with her words.

“I’ll stay here.” Alex said, “It’ll give me some time to research Charles, and if you don’t mind Elizabeth, ask you some questions.”

Elizabeth gave Alex a quick smile, then blew her nose again.

“OK, we’ll be back in an hour, tops.” Jonah said, then looked at Avery, “Let’s go.”

Jonah and Avery had driven over to the parking lot where Charles' car was. The two young men had small talk, and Jonah told Avery amusing stories about life with Charles. It seemed as if Charles was sent to Earth for fame and love only.

Avery got out of the car when they reached the parking lot and Jonah did as well. "Hey, Ave, pass me the key?"

Avery liked that Jonah called him Ave. No one had really called him Ave and it was funny hearing it from a person he didn't know much. He gave Jonah the keys and he unlocked it swiftly as if he'd done it many times before - which Avery was sure he did.

Avery crawled into the passenger seat and looked around. Jonah looked around as well, and gasped when he saw a bottle of something that had "poisonous powder" written on it. Jonah looked up at Avery. "Bro. Look." Avery gawked at what he saw and stared. Jonah hunted through the trunk and came back with a Ziploc bag, and zipped it in.

Avery got goosebumps on his back and all over his arms, and shivered under the mid-afternoon sun. "Jonah, I don't have a good feeling about this lot." he said, looking around at the rest of the cars.

"Why?" he asked, busy looking around the back seats.

"It's... my sixth sense. And it's rarely ever wrong." he breathed, watching some ravens flying around lazily.

Jonah waved his hand at his direction. "It's nothing to worry about. We have guns in here if we need them. Hopefully we don't."

Avery's jaw fell open. "What the frick?" Jonah's reply was an eyeroll.

They looked around some more, and at the end, Avery concluded that Charles must have been kidnapped considering what he had added to the list.

Everything suspicious in the car:
- poisonous powder
- bandana (Charles doesn't have those apparently)
- suspicious letter that's coded and signed off with BM

The two decided that was enough for the afternoon, and it was five forty five when they reached back to Elizabeth's apartment, Avery in his car, Jonah in Charles'.

“So, you said you wanted to ask us some questions?” Zoey said, staring at Alex. Something about her reminded Alex of Isaac. Tough, professional, serious, but also considerate and a good friend.

“Yes, I did.” Alex sat up, and turned to Elizabeth, “Do you think you could handle some questions?”

Elizabeth nodded, blew her nose, and turned to face Alex, “I think I can take a few.”

“Alrighty then, first off. Has Charles,” Alex tried to word her question in a way that wouldn’t upset Elizabeth, “Has he left without notice before?”

“Not without texting us the next day,” Elizabeth said, “He would drive down to Boston unexpectedly, then text us when he thought we would start to worry. It was nothing like this and he didn’t leave his car behind.”

Alex looked at Zoey, “Nope, nothing like this.”

The time passed quickly. Alex didn’t learn much, except Charles had one fan that would go to every concert. That Evan guy Tom had mentioned before. They stopped asking questions and relaxed a bit, Elizabeth had gotten tired and decided to stop talking. Then, suddenly, Jonah and Avery burst into the room.

“We found something!” Jonah exclaimed.

Jonan and Avery settled down, and when they saw the eager faces of the ladkes,and tear stained one of Elizabeth, Jonah started talking. "There were three weird things in the car." He took out the Ziploc bag from his pocket.

"Poisonous powder," Avery said as Jonah took out the bandana. "Random bandana - Charles doesn't like these, I heard. And then," he set the coded letter on the table, "a coded letter."

Zoey perked up at the last bit. Codes were her thing. She grinned widely at the letter on the coffee table, and earned baffled looks from many - except Jonah. "Codes are a piece o' cake for me." she winked at Elizabeth's whose tense shoilders relaxed.

Jonah added one last thing. "We suspect he's been kidnapped."

“Hm, morse code. I can do this.” Zoey pulled out her phone and started decoding.

“Was there a dashcam?” Alex asked. If their was a dashcam, they could find out who kidnapped Charles, and hand it in to the police.

“No, unfortunately.” Jonah sat down next to Zoey, looking over her shoulder.

“Damn.” Alex said, “Well, guess all we have to do is wait for the letter to be decoded.

Elizabeth walked to the kitchen to grab everyone drinks, sodas for Avery and Alex, alcohol for the others.

“I got it!” Zoey said. She had been working on the letter for ten minutes, “Right above where I claim Charles mine, you can find views so divine. If you want to find your precious brother, do it soon because he may never recover. What the hell does that mean?”

“It means the person who kidnapped him probably works at a popular tourist attraction with views of the city.”

Avery thought over it. You can find views so divine...

He snapped his fingers. "It's either the Empire State building, or the Chysler building." he announced. "How the heck would she have gotten to either of those places, though?" he added, more to himself.

Elizabeth walked in with the drinks. She handed Zoey and Jonah the bottles of alcohol and gave Avery and Alex Dr. Peppers. Avery took his gratefully and started drinking.

"If he's been kidnapped-" Jonah said, then flinched when Elizabeth let out a sob. "-it would look suspicious if the kidnapper is carrying him around either building. There's security guards everywhere, ya know." He took a swig from his bottle and scrunched up his nose at the taste.

"Bro." Zoey groaned, and turned to face her brother. "Think. The kidnapper would have obviously threatened him into acting like a friend. Or if the kidnapper's a she, then as a boyfriend." She didn't touch her bottle yet. Zoey knew if she started drinking, she wouldn't be able to stop. Opposite of her brother.

Jonah's mouth circled in to an 'o'. "A she-kidnapper?" Another swig.

"Shut up. Women kidnap too." Zoey rolled her eyes.

"It's six thirty. I'll set up dinner and then you guys can spend the night here. You all look tired anyway." Elizabeth said softly.

The truth was that she wanted them to go and look for her baby brother right now, but she had to be considerate and plan ahead so they wouldn't be tired when they had to go fight off the kidnapper. Everyone smiled at her gratefully. She smiled back and went to the kitchen to go prepare dinner.

"She's very nice." Avery noted.

“She is,” Alex said. She was thinking. If it was one of those skyscrapers, then how did she get him below them. The basement had to be off limits, “A-ha! What if the kidnapper, ‘VM’-”

“BM.” Jonah corrected her.

“BM, sorry.” Alex continued, “Anyways, what if they were a janitor at one of those buildings. That way, they could go anywhere in the building, including the basement!”

“Sounds reasonable.” Jonah agreed, taking a sip from his beverage, “But still, it’s a huge building, there ought to be other custodians.”

“True, but what if she’s not working alone!” Zoey pipped up.

“Doubt it, there would be a group name or multiple initials on the letter,” Alex stared at the morse code letter, “We need to find out quick. What do you think Avery?”

Avery hummed. "Look, if there were more people, our BM wouldn't want us to know and would keep it a secret, right? And then BM would want to give us a shock and... ya know, have us cower at the sight of more people than just BM." he answered.

Zoey nodded slowly, and Jonah took another swig from his bottle, and left it on the coffee table. No more.

After a pause, Avery added, "Janitor sounds right. BM probably works wherever he or she has Charles. But what really stops me in my tracks is how did BM manage to even take Charles? He would have been armed or something, right? And how did BM manage to bring Charles wherever?"

Zoey looked up. "I'll repeat myself: BM probably threatened Charles to act as a friend. Or a boyfriend. And about the 'managing-to-kidnap-Charles' thing, didn't they have the poisonous powder?" she asked.

Jonah nodded in agreement. "BM probably used that." then perked up. "We need to figure out the name first. We'll go to both buildings and ask if someone by the initials BM works there. If BM doesn't work in either building, we'll just have to disguise ourselves as janitors - or maybe do the actual job and get some money - and search the buildings."

“The job thing wouldn’t work, Avery and I are technically foreigners.” Alex said. Jonah looked at her confused, so she clarified, “Canada. We’re here on a two week long vacation. If it takes longer to solve this case, we will gladly extend our vacation.”

“Canada. Huh.” Jonah seemed to be in shock, as if he was just told his mom died.

“Is there something wrong with that?” Alex asked.

“No, not at all. Jonah’s just… being Jonah.” Zoey explained and Alex nodded.

“Alright, here’s some cheese and crackers, dinner’s in the oven.” Elizabeth sat down next to Alex and put the platter of appetizers on the coffee table, “You guys figured anything else out?”

“Well, the person is obviously a janitor if they work at the Chrysler Building or Empire State building. We’re going to go and ask if the initials match anyone’s at either of the buildings, or just pretend to be janitors and search the basements.” Zoey said taking a piece of cheese.

“And we found out Avery and Alex are canadian.” Jonah added.

“That matters because…” Elizabeth stared at Jonah.

“It's just, Canada. The place is so much better than here, so why are they here?” Jonah asked, motioning to Avery.

“That is just the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Zoey said, mouth full of food.

"I've always wanted to come to New York so me and Alex thoght we'd come spend the vacation here. We deserved it anyway." Avery explained and dived for some food.

Jonah glanced at Avery and Alex back and forth. "Are you-"

Avery rolled his eyes. "Nope." Zoey giggled.

After an awkward pause, he said, "Thanks, Liz. It's cool if I call you Liz, right?"

"Of course." Elizabeth smiled, and took a seat beside him. "You'll head out tomorrow morning?" she asked.

Everyone nodded, too busy to speak since they were all munching on the crackers. Zoey got up to go and get the dinner from the oven. It was freshly made lasgna. She gave everyone a serving, Elizabeth helping out.

While everyone was eating, Elizabeth looked up. "You guys will need some place to sleep. Four of you can't sleep in the living and four of you can't sleep in the guest room." she pointed out. "Who wants to sleep where?" Elizabeth asked.

"Does the guest room have two beds or one?" Avery asked.

"It's a king bed." Zoey answered swiftly.

"I call the living then." Avery announced, stretching.

“I suppose I’ll sleep with Avery,” Alex said, “Or we can go back to the hostel. I am totally fine with that.”

“No, no, I insist. Besides, you really don’t want to be out on the streets at night. Even if one of us drives you home.” Elizabeth took a sip from her mimosa, then ate some lasagna. She was pretty, even with messed up make-up and messy hair. Alex envied people like that, who were naturally beautiful even if they looked like shit.

Alex’s phone rang and she looked at the screen. Facetime, from her dads, “Excuse me, my dads are calling.”

As she walked out of the room, she heard Jonah ask, “Dads?!”

“Oh shut up! We know gay people!” Zoey shut him up. Alex was starting to hate Jonah, he seemed like someone that she wouldn’t be friends with.

Alex walked into the kitchen, which still smelled like lasagna, and answered the call, “Hey guys!”

“Hey cutie-pie! How are you? How’s New York!” Samuel practically shouted.

“It’s interesting. Our vacation is definitely not what I thought it would be?” Alex said, pushing herself up to sit on the counter.

“Oh? How so?” Isaac asked. Alex knew he had just gotten home from work. His shirt was unbuttoned, his tie was hanging around his neck, he seemed tired but relieved.

“Do you know who Charles Emmett is?”

“No, I don’t thi…” Isaac started but Samuel cut in.

“Yes! He’s that hot singer who just disappeared!” Samuel was super happy.

“Um, I am your husband! I should be t…” Isaac began to speak, but he was interrupted again, this time by Alex.

“Well anyways, Avery and I are working on his case.”

“What?! You're not a lawyer, or a detective!” Isaac went on and on about how Alex should’ve called him to help. I took twenty minutes for the conversation to end, they said goodnight, and Alex walked back into the living room.