107 Missing (2)

Once the sun set, Kyro stood up and looked around. He had noticed the fox leaving some time ago, but it always returned after its explorations, so he hadn't paid it much heed. Yet over an hour had passed, and the fennec was still missing.

"Iris, Iris!" he called it, hoping she would pop out from a bush or come barreling over from over a hill.

Mom picked up on his unease, and looked around as well. "I thought I saw it leave in that direction while we were talking. Should we go check it out?"

"It's fine, I'll go alone. You and dad can return home first, see if it had returned on its own."

This was unlikely with the fox's leg, which hadn't yet fully healed, but he wanted to give dad an excuse. There was no reason for him to tire himself out here, pretending that he was fine.

"Sure, I'll see if it's home," dad said with a hint of mockery in his voice, but he didn't refuse. All of them knew he wasn't well, yet it was a subject that none of them wished to mention out in the open, as if it would make it more real.

Mom then went with him, and Kyro chose the direction in which the fennec had left. It had to have went somewhere far and decided that it was too tired to go back right away. Or maybe its leg was acting up again? The swelling was mostly gone by then, but a lot of moving about would aggravate the injury form time to time, and the fox would whine at him to pick it up.

This was probably the case now as well.

As he walked, he called out for the fox, but only the wind answered him. The surroundings weren't that dark since it was early night in summer, yet there was a sense of foreboding in the air, in the rustling of the leaves.

Although the situation here was clearly different, he was reminded of the day in the park when he had been certain he'd lost the fox for good, and caused its death to boot. Unconsciously, he quickened his step as he went forward, looking for any kind of clues on the ground or the surrounding flora.

There was nothing, though. It was as if the fox had disappeared into thin air. After a good while, he wasn't even certain if he was walking in the right direction. Could the fox have really walked this far? It wasn't likely. Then why didn't it answer him when he must have passed it?

When he reached the end of their grounds, he turned around and ran back while calling for Iris. It was impossible for the fennec to not hear him even if it was asleep. Unlike him, the fox would wake up from the smallest sound and give him a greeting.

Where was it then? Why wasn't it answering?

When he reached the bench they'd been sitting on all sweaty and breathing hard, his heartbeat picked up. This couldn't be. How could it have disappeared?

Quickly, he pulled out his phone and called mom. "Hey, is it home?" he asked the moment she picked up, his hopes rising up against his will.

"No, I thought you— Wait, you didn't find it?"

"No," he answered, controlling his breathing to not alarm her.

He could hear her saying something to dad, then she told him, "We'll look around the house. If you don't find it in an hour, return home, okay?"

His consciousness said he should stay out for as long as it was required to find the pet, but his parents' peace of mind were more important. They would worry for him twice as much as he would for his pet. "Yeah, I'll be back before it gets fully dark."

This was a safe neighborhood where only the rich lived, but accidents happened everywhere. No place was perfectly safe from intruders, and those that might move about at night weren't those he'd want to meet. They wouldn't be a naked girl like the last time.

A corner of his lips curled up at the thought of that incident, but then he remembered the missing fox, and all idle thoughts flew out. Knowing that his time before the dark was limited, he rushed to the other side of their land. Maybe the fox had circled them around the back at one point and come there?

Such thoughts became less convincing when he was reaching the other end of their grounds. There was no way the fox could have made it this far in the time it had.

Not that it should have come here. Once they came to his parents, he noticed that Iris didn't like leaving his side for too long. The fox wasn't clingy, but it never ventured out of hearing distance. It was fine as long as she could ascertain that he was nearby.

What was happening here then?

It was really late, and mom called him. "I'm on my way back."

"All right, we'll wait for you in the terrace."

When he returned, he saw the house bright with color. It looked like mom had turned on every light available.

"Where's she?" he asked dad, who was sitting alone at the table.

"Bad news. The fox isn't the only one missing."

"What?"

Kyro couldn't believe what he was hearing. Someone else was missing? Mom? But no, dad wouldn't be sitting like this if she was. His expression was grim, but it wasn't panicked.

"We saw no sign of Lucy when we came back, but that's normal, he loves to wander about, so we didn't pay attention. But then, he didn't come for his late night snack, and that's when we thought something's wrong.

"Mom checked all the rooms while I went around the house, but we saw no sign on him. At that time, we noticed that Queen was also nowhere to be seen. I called Stevensens, but they said they hadn't seen her since yesterday."

Kyro felt like the world was shaking under his feet. He dropped onto a chair and clawed his fingers through his hair. "You're certain they're missing as well?"

"I wouldn't worry if it was just one of them—since we give them so much freedom, they're hard to locate at times—but three of them not returning for scheduled meals on the same evening? That's a bit too much of a coincidence."

Dad looked disquieted, and Kyro felt the same. He hadn't lived a good enough life to think that stuff like this could just happen without anyone's interference and would solve itself in the morning. Something had happened to their pets; there was no question about that.