I couldn't help but feel nervous as I stepped over the threshold and entered Alessia's home. I kept expecting to hear her bubbly voice but there was nothing. Nothing but deathly silence.

Looking at the familiar scene so devoid of life made me wish for the days when we would constantly invite each other over, often without telling our parents, leaving them scrambling to find food for an extra mouth. I rushed to her room immediately, retracing the steps I'd taken all those years ago and practically slammed the door off of its hinges.

Empty.

There were clothes strewn about the floor and a half-eaten mashed tuber, as if she'd left in a hurry. I sunk to the floor unable to fully process the myriad of emotions that overwhelmed me. A large hand was gently placed on my head.

"She's gone,''

Jon whispered,

"I'm sorry, I know you two were close. I should have… I should have told you sooner you deserved to know."

No. I refused to believe it. She was fine, maybe a little worried or concerned about something but she was fine. If something was bugging her so much that she felt the only solution was to run away there's no way she could have hidden that from me right? It felt like an eternity of stunned silence while my mind worked to piece everything together.

Jon's hand left my head and I could hear him take a couple of steps back.

"It's like I said. She's gone. You should probably head home, don't want to worry your mom do you?"

"Just give me a bit. Please. I'll be out soon. I just want to check everything myself."

he didn't say anything else and I didn't hear him leave. I pulled myself together as best as I could and started searching. I moved every piece of clothing on the floor, searched every pocket and ran my hands along and under every surface of the room but found nothing of note. That was until I found my books neatly stacked at the back of her wardrobe, three of them at least. The fourth book on flowers was missing. I scoured every inch of the room but couldn't find it.

The missing book spurred me to look harder, she loved that book, she could practically quote it word for word. Where could it be? On further inspection, it seemed like she had just dumped all of her clothes on the floor in one big heap. I'd seen all of her outfits over the years and she couldn't afford many unique items of clothing. So why dump them on the floor, even if you were in a rush?

I spent a while just staring at the two dresses, the socks, the panties, the shoes. The shoes? I blinked a couple of times half expecting them to vanish like a hallucination but there they were. I only had one pair of shoes and I was sure Alessia was the same yet her pair of shoes were counted among the items of clothing. Did she leave barefoot or did she simply have another set?

Now alerted to something fishy I paid more attention to the clothes and found another discrepancy. There was only one dress missing, again unless she had a secret dress or two, I had seen all the clothes she owned. It made sense that she didn't leave naked but why not take at least one change of clothes. Then the undergarments gave me pause. I counted again just to make sure.

One. Two. Three pairs of socks.

One. Two bras

One. Two panties.

It's not like I knew exactly how many pairs of undergarments she had, it was just that it made more sense to have multiple full sets so you could always have at least one clean set, an emergency set and a dirty set. At this point, I couldn't tell if I was grasping at straws or if this really was suspicious.

"What's up?"

I heard Jon call from behind. A feeling of dread started to creep over me as I wondered if she was taken from her home… Or attacked in it.

"Sorry, I'll go now. Before I do though, I need to know if she left any sort of goodbye note. I just can't understand why she'd leave without a word."

I turned to Jon but he just solemnly shook his head. He still looked just as distraught as before, maybe I'm overthinking things.

I turned my attention back to my books and quickly flicked through the pages but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. With no new information turning up I decided to head home.

As it turned out, word of Alessia's disappearance had spread so quickly that my mother managed to hear of it as soon as she got back to our village. I was sitting on my bed still trying to process my emotions and the information I'd gained when my mother almost busted down the front door with a slam.

"JOAN!"

Within moments she was at my side hugging me tightly. Her overpowering strength almost crushed me as she squeezed tighter.

"Oh thank the forge you're alright. I heard the news and got here as fast as I could."

We stayed locked in place for a while. It had been a long time since my mother had embraced me like this, I didn't realise how much I needed it until she was here. I couldn't help but wail letting the emotions I'd stifled until now overflow.

I babbled semi incoherently about how I'd felt like something was off about her sickness and how strange she was acting. How stupid I was for not noticing it sooner. How we could have had people searching for her already if I had just confronted Jon earlier. How Jon said that the guards were alerted to the disappearance but not actively searching. She just let me vent until I had no tears left to shed.

"Shhh. It'll be alright. First thing tomorrow I'll speak to the guards myself, I can't believe they'd let this go on for almost a week."

After I'd calmed down she made something for me to eat but I wasn't hungry, so the bowl of gruel remained untouched on my table.

Time passed with me lying down just staring up at the ceiling boards no matter how tired I was physically I just couldn't sleep. I thought about sneaking out when my mother left for her 'night job' but I never heard her leave. She was probably making sure I was alright, since sneaking out was a bust I thought about how I could find out more about Alessia's disappearance. I had suspicions but they were unfounded. I needed proof.

If I were in her place if I thought I was in immediate danger what would I do? What could I do? That second thought was chilling, I remembered the moment I was bodily thrown with apparently no effort.

If I was in danger I couldn't do anything, the feeling of weakness wormed its way into my mind. Did Alessia feel like this? Powerless. Not being able to fight never bothered me before but with the rite coming up and Alessia's disappearance it looked like staying weak forever wasn't an option. I thought about my mother, would she have been fine? She would, right? If nothing else I knew that I needed to get stronger, strong enough to defend myself at the very least.

My eyes fluttered open and the ceiling boards started to come into focus. I don't know when it happened but I must have fallen asleep. I took a quick look around my house but mother was nowhere to be seen. On my tiny wooden table was a hastily scribbled note.

'Headed off early to speak to the guards in the city. Spoke to Mura and he was very understanding, you don't need to go to class for the rest of the week just take it easy for now.

Love, Mom.

'Take it easy?' How?