The search group looked and saw no one who matched Ember's descriptions and drawings. So they head back before they send out a search party to search for them.

"Alright, let's go back." The leader of our search group, Hunter, announced officially.

Joanna silently nods while Nate next to her mumbles in agreement.

They start hiking in the direction of the town when Joanna hears a distant growling growing closer. "I got it." She claims as she draws her knife.

Joanna walks in the direction of the sound and when she sees a figure emerge from the webs of tree branches. Joanna's step falters and she backs away.

"Jo?" Nate asks as Joanna continues to back away.

"Nate, you do it." She tells him, handing him her knife.

"Okay?" Nate mumbles as he goes to stab the deader. He plunges the knife into its skull. It collapses, dead. Nate tells everyone to go ahead and stops Joanna. "What the frick, Jo?" He knits his eyebrows together. "Did you know it?"

She sighs and takes the knife out of his hand. "You should really carry your own knife, Nate."

"I do—and did you know him?" He indicates towards the dead one.

"Yeah," she meets his eyes and frowns. "It's my uncle."

----------

Ember's POV

Aviva had taken me to see the dogs. I mean that they have actual dogs. And they help with hunting and defense and being overall the coolest companions. A hunting dog named Willa is Aviva's favorite. I can see why, because Willa is so friendly and won't stop licking the both of us.

Nate had came in to say the search party came back empty handed. I hadn't seen where Joanna went, but I'll be seeing her when it's time to go to bed anyway. I am almost preparing myself for the news of them discontinuing the searches. It must be such a waste of resources to them.

After my dusk shift on the makeshift wall, I settle into my mattress sheets in Joanna's sanctioned off area of the library.

"Hey, Jo?" I whisper. If she doesn't respond she's either sleeping or pretending to.

"Yeah?" Okay, so she's awake.

"Are you okay?" I ask quietly.

"...Well, I'm fine. But you wouldn't know because I haven't told you."

"...What?"

"Oh, right. I mean as in when Aviva found me when she was hunting with her dog." Joanna starts and from there she goes to explain her entire backstory. "...And today I just found my Uncle Gary as a Deader."

"Oh..." I say dumbly. Sympathizing with people was never my strong suit until everyone had the shared problem of the dead slowly closing in on us, threatening to bring us down along with the demised. "Joanna...I'm so sorry."

"I guess I always kind of knew...But the fact I had to actually see him as a deader..." Joanna's voice trails off. And by some mutual agreement hanging loosely in the air, we understand exactly what it's like. Like Sofia and like now. Like Joanna's Uncle Gary, lost and found yet lost again.

So at Cross Country on Thursday, it ended as usual at 9:30. I didn't see my dad so I waited, assuming he just had some phone call from his work and that would be the reason.

Time passed and I was the last one remaining. I felt woozy being in the sun since the only shadows provided in the morning sun's angle was the narrow shadows of the columns holding up a little cover area above a small part of the pavement/sidewalk. So I went inside and saw my running coach was still there. After she got done talking to the college runner she asked me if I knew if my parents were coming anytime soon and if I needed a phone.

Okay, so I don't know anyone else's phone number except for my own. Today's modern conveniences are not so convenient when vital information is stored in it and not my brain. I left my phone at home on the kitchen counter after watching Dan and Phil with headphones in that morning before heading off to running practice.

I told her I think maybe my sister was playing soccer over at the turf fields, so I'd check to see if my dad was in the parking lot. So my coach went off to run a few laps around the track and I went and checked every single license plate of every single car.

I found nothing.

Maybe he's just a little late. I thought. So I went to sit behind one of the pillars where the shade was so I could see if any cars were coming down the road and into the school parking lot.

Nothing. I watched as the shadows shifted over time. I saw my coach get into her car and drive home, because since the shade was behind columns I was pretty much hidden.

Commence slow clapping.

So I was alone and had no trusted adults I know nearby. Good job universe for screwing me over.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And contemplated life.

And cried a few times.

No joke I was having an existential crisis right then and there. I cried, being like: omgomgtheytotallyfrigginforgotallaboutme

I saw a lady in running clothes walk into the school to do some paperwork as I watched multiple summer sports training finishing up. The parking lot gradually became more vacant.

I was inwardly debating if it was a good idea to walk over to my old neighborhood which was right across the street of the school. But all of my close friends that live in that neighborhood (they also did cross country with me) are on vacation.

Kaitlin was in New York.

Anna was a big runner and would never miss a practice unless there was a very good reason, and she wasn't even at practice that day.

And Amaya was in FRIGGIN' FRANCE.

So my mind went to the only other neighbor I could think of that I knew since the dawn of time. A childhood friend turned awkward that I have never interacted with in years and was on the front page of the school paper with a badly photoshopped photo of him in front of the school with lightning and dark skies edited in. He was extremely enthusiastic about ghosts.

I mean in childhood he and I were really good friends. He would tell me ghost stories that would totally not give six year old me nightmares (like, not cool man.) And I would sort of defend him when others talked badly of him (ever since the badly photoshopped photo debut there was lots of talk about him, not all too bad. He was in Hawaii when it happened. But it was something to laugh at. The newspaper put the most eye catching photos up front and well...that happened.)

And I am socially inept so the idea made me cringe. So after telling myself to focus through dears of trauma (lol), I told myself to focus. Maybe I could find a phone in the front office of the school to call my phone? I, the genius problem solver, thought and passed as an actual solution. I noticed that the shadows are growing and that the pillars aren't the only shadows anymore. My skills in wilderness survival and mountain climbing told me that it was nearing noon. I also thought surely my mom would come home from work on lunch and notice in gone.

So as I tried to keep it together because I hate the feeling of being abandoned, I walked into the school building. The first room I walk into is the commons area of trophy displays. In it was the woman from early wearing running clothes. The tables around her were surrounded of boxes and she was doing some math on a paper or something.

I was literally about to cry. It's always hard to compose myself in a crisis in front of people. She asked as I walked by: "You're still here?"

I nodded and sniffles because of my horrendous seasonal allergies that plagued my life with boogers and snotty sneezes and death. My sniffles made it sound like I was crying, which either made the situation better as I gained pity or worse as the woman was probably like um ur thirteen get ahold of urself gurl.

So I said: "Uh yeah I guess they forgot so I gotta find a phone now."

She let me use her phone. And as I tried calling my phone for the second time I checked the time, for I had finally more indication of the time than looking at shadows. It said 11:58.

I was stuck there for two and a half hours.

Commence even more slow clapping.

After I attempted calling my phone for the fourth time, the most horrifying thought dawned on me.

When I was watching Dan and Phil YouTube videos that morning before going to running practice, I had left my phone on the kitchen counter with my

Commence face palms and pillow punching.

"Uh..." I said as I returned the phone to the lady. "...They're not answering. But it's fine. I know some neighbors in the neighborhood across the street." Then I had to explain to the lady I knew no one's phone number.

"Parents'?"

"No..." I said.

"Siblings...?"

"Nuh-uh..."

"Grandparents?"

"Nope..."

I could definitely tell this woman didn't want to deal with me and wanted to get her work done. So I gave her phone back and rushed out of the school.

So I had the dreaded task: entering a socially awkward situation.

So before I moved basically a billion miles from my school to the other side of town I lived extremely nearby my school. So as I walked back to the place where oh-so-conveniently my close friends weren't, I wondered about what the fricky-dizzle I did to anger the universe to be under such circumstances.

I wish I could give advice to stop these situations but there's literally NO PREVENTION when it comes to these things. Look how drawn out my actions were. Isn't it just great and not at all a coincidence that I left my headphones in my phone, which was the only phone I knew the number to that also doesn't have voice mail set up? And that I don't know anyone's numbers and that all of my nearby friends are in either different states or countries?

Hmm...HMMMMMMMM...

So I enter my neighborhood. I'm walking down the first street when a beam of sunshine falls upon me.

Doing yard work in their front yard was my mom's friend with her daughter. I totally forgot about them and they are so much less-awkward to speak to than the old friend.

I went up to them and explained my situation. They drove me home. She kept saying "Bless your heart." When she first saw me though she hadn't seen us in a while so she thought I was my older sister. I said nope I'm 100% I'm Katie—the rational teenager in the household.

So she called my mom and my mom called back during the drive back. I tried my hardest to give the correct directions to my house and thank goodness mom's friend already visited before, because my car rides to cross country are full of mental preparation for the heat and pain on my knees whilst running on concrete.

So I get home and yelled "YEAH TOTALLY WASN'T ABANDONED AT CROSS COUNTRY OR ANYTHING." And I pointed my finger at my older sister lounged on the couch with the dog. "And how the frick did you NOT NOTICE?!"

Well in their defense I don't do much other than write fantasy novels and read and watch YouTube in my room and only leave the "Evil Fangirl Lair" for food when I'm not writing fan fic...

But my dad was apparently so immersed in work that he forgot to pick me up from cross country.

Okay, now it's my turn to slow clap.

*clap* ........... *clap* ............*clap*

I didn't even be mad at him. He looked at me from his office and said "Sorry." And I'm like, lol okay. But how did my sisters assume I was in the basement when I already finished all of my video games including Uncharted 4, which I got and finished two weeks ago?

So I grabbed my phone from the kitchen counter and watched more Dan and Phil but this time on my iPad mini. I found I had one text.

The text was from 12:09. And from my dad. It said "Hurry text mom order for Chick-fil-a."

Punch a pillow now. Even the blessing of food has been hurt in this matter WTF UNIVERSE imma fangirl and I need foods!

My mom came and hugged me and gave me a chicken sandwich, which was what I would want anyway.

But can we just take note that they didn't notice when I didn't respond? Hello, am I not the favorite child who actually has a pretty darn good chance at becoming a published author someday (I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging but I am the only one amongst my siblings whose really hardcore investing in that being their future) and having my own army of fangirls (think about it tho...we could all be creators of books and have a fandom as our weapons arsenal. Never a truer power than fangirls...)

Seriously. I'm not that reclusive when it comes to writing right?

I'm writing this at 10:00 pm because creativity on writer's block days seems to flow easier in times of exhaustion.

Also that same day I still had to deal with soccer practice. But my family now owes my and today my fav lil sis and I shared chocolate cake (which made me feel guilty because I was trying to eat healthy but we keep buying meh-healthy-maybe-unhealthy foods) and spent my day trying to start out some more history lore in my books.

Yeah, ordering my family around would have been great if I had a life. My only request today thus far was to get a salsa without mangos and peaches because seriously who bought that?! Dad, was it you? Better get that regular kind, because remember when you forgot me?

Haha, blackmail is a beautiful thing (But if you're ever being blackmailed tell an adult or trusted person). :)

So yeah. Now I have leverage. Woo.

My mom told me I'm a great survival expert, but keep in mind it took me two and a half hours to made a decision because I was fearing that if I started walked to a neighbor my dad would arrive and see I wasn't there.

And I guess part of me wishes they were the ones figuring out I was missing when mom came home for lunch with Chick-fil-a because I wanted them to be the panicked ones even though I'd be stuck there for another hour or even more until they realized I was friggin' abandoned.

So yeah that happened.

Zaremareth