Missing Person

Rachael stapled another flyer to a wooden light pole, while Jessica held a large stack of papers in her arms. On the flyer, the words "Missing Person" in large letters could be seen across the top. Along with a photo pictured of a teenage girl with black wavy hair, hazel eyes and lightly tanned skin. Underneath the photo, was the following description:

[Name: Trinity Nadeen]

[Age: 17]

[Gender: Female]

[Hair: Black (Wavy)]

[Eyes: Hazel (Green Dominant)]

[Height: 5'6"]

[Weight: 120 lbs]

[Wearing: White blouse and black jeans]

[Last Seen: Near the alley between Suzie's Sweets Bakery and Glitz and Glamor Nail Salon, across the street from Jose's Mexican Restaurant.]

[Abduction Suspect: Assumed to have been abducted by the recently appeared demon (No description needed. You will know him when you see him!)]

[Please call the Police regarding any information if you think you may have seen this girl! Help us to bring her home safe!]

Tears streamed down Jessica's face as she clutched the packet of flyers close to her chest. "Do you think we will ever find her?" she whispered quietly.

Rachael shook her head and sighed. "We can only pray and hope for the best!"

"Pray to who?" Jessica cried out. "We have a frickin angel in this city, and she still hasn't been able to find her, or the demon yet! It's been three weeks since she has disappeared. Three weeks! If Amara hasn't been able to locate her by now, what hope do we have of finding her? What if... what if she is-?"

"Don't say it!" Rachael cut her off before she could finish that sentence. "Trinity is alive out there somewhere. Don't give up hope. She never once lost her faith, we cannot lose our faith in her! She is alive!" Her voice reduced down to a bare whisper as she repeated her last sentence. "She is alive."

Jessica nodded as the two of them continued down the street, placing a flyer along every wooden pole or tree they could find throughout the city. Every time someone passed by them on the street, they would show them the flyer and ask if anyone had seen her.

"Come on," Rachael waved her arm for Jessica to follow. "Let's try a few shops and see if they will allow us to tape up a flyer inside of their shop.

Jessica nodded as she walked silently behind Rachael.

Rachael walked up to the first shop that was closest to them, Gerald's Barbeque. The food in his restaurant was popular among a lot of the town residents. People were always coming in and out of his place. This would be a perfect place to start with placing the flyers in the shops!

A woman greeted them with a friendly smile as they opened the door. "Hello! Welcome to Gerald's Barbeque! We have several daily specials that we are offering today that you can find posted on the board on the wall. Will it just be the two of you dining today?"

"Thank you!" Rachael replied back. "But we were hoping we might be able to speak with your manager, please!" She bowed, gesturing that this was a friendly request, and was not asking to complain.

The girl was startled by the request, but quickly regained her composure and smiled again with a nod. "Yes, of course! Let me go get him." She tapped another girl on the shoulder to let her know that she would be right back. A few minutes later, she reappeared with the owner of the store at her side.

Gerald walked up to Rachael and Jessica. "Hello ladies! Is there an issue I can help you with?"

Rachael bowed again and smiled to reassure him that she wasn't here to complain. "My friend and I are posting flyers for a missing person, and we would like to ask permission if we can post one inside of your restaurant, please!"

Gerald seemed genuinely saddened by the news. "Oh dear, who might the missing person be? I will try to keep an eye out for them if I see the person enter!"

Rachael grabbed a flyer from the stack of papers that Jessica was holding and held it up for him to inspect. "You may have heard of her already! Her name is Trinity and she has been missing for-"

"Get out!" Gerald shouted.

Taken aback, Rachael shook her head, trying to clear her mind from the whiplash in his quick change in demeanor. "I beg your pardon?"

"Of course I know who that girl is! She is the one who helped that demon! If you ask me, she probably isn't even missing. She probably left on her own accord! You will not defile my establishment with that trash! Now leave, before I call the cops to have you escorted off of my property!"

Jessica gasped at his response, and tightened her grasp on the flyers as if she expected him to grab the stack of papers and have them destroyed.

Rachael looked around at all the eyes that were now staring in their direction from the scene that had just occurred. She couldn't tell what they were thinking. Did they also agree with what he was saying? "Do the rest of you feel this way?"

Many of the people in the shop nodded, while others ducked their head down low, trying to avoid the topic entirely.

"You guys are despicable!" Rachael shouted in outrage. "What gives any of you the right to judge her? She would never willingly help a demon! That isn't who she is!"

"Get out! Now!" Gerald shouted back.

"We're leaving." Rachael took Jessica's hand and guided her out of the shop.

Jessica stomped her foot once they were outside the restaurant. "The nerve of those people!" She began grinding her teeth together in her fury.

Rachael took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I didn't realize how many people would blame her for what she was forced to do. There is no way she would have willingly done this. Why can't people see this? This may be harder than I thought. Come on, let's try the next shop. Hopefully we will have better luck with the next one."

Jessica nodded as she followed close behind.

As they neared the end of the day, only about half of the shops that they approached with the offer, even allowed them to post the flyer on their glass window. The resentment and outrage they received from some of the shop owners, was appalling.

~*~*~*~*~

Trinity stood at the edge of the cliff as she watched the sunset. A wooden staff at her side, that had been carved by Zyxel from a wooden branch to help give her support when walking.

Ever since she was able to heal enough to be able to walk again, she had hoped that she would be able to escape the cave that she was in. But once she seen the view from the cave entrance, she quickly learned just why that hope would not become a reality.

Their cave that they resided in was high up in the mountains. The view from the tree tops below was way too far down, nor could she climb down either without risking falling to her death. She never considered herself to be much of an athletic person before. So to risk climbing down a mountain with no training and no rope, would surely lead her to a quick death.

In her opinion, Zyxel had planned this location well. For whatever reason, he didn't want her to leave. She had asked several times if he could take her back home, only for him to refuse without giving her an answer as to why.

Aside from that first day that she woke up in the cave, Zyxel had grown more distant, answering fewer and fewer of her questions.

If Trinity attempted to ask him something, he would growl at her, causing her to silence any question she had been wanting to ask. She recalled him muttering about how much humans have changed, and it seemed that all of her questions only annoyed him more and more.

She wasn't sure just what to think about him. His temperament constantly fluctuated from hot to cold and back again.

One minute he was scary and demonic looking, and then the next he was this hot and alluring dark tanned skinned young adult that made her heartbeat accelerate when she was near him. It didn't make any sense to her why he constantly tried appearing as a human, let alone why he would flip between the two appearances depending on what he was doing. There had to be a reason why, but she hadn't been able to determine the reason yet.

Not to mention his personality mood swings. When they first spoke in her room that one time, he seemed to find her intriguing and mysterious. From what she had noticed about about him was that as long as he found her interesting, he was much more approachable and easy to talk to. However as soon as that interest faded and annoyance set in, he quickly became distant. His temper turned into a short fuse, and it made her nervous and hesitant to push her luck with any attempt to speak with him.

Although he had initially told her that he couldn't risk her dying because the spell that he had her do, linked them in some way. It didn't mean that she was willing to gamble her life on the chance that he might just choose to find someone else to perform the spell that he needed. Surely this was something that could be performed by anyone, right? She wasn't sure, and she was sure that he wouldn't answer her even if she asked.

As the sun was getting lower in the sky, she felt a gush of wind blow past her, and felt the slight brush of a feather on her cheek. Trinity turned around to find Zyxel in his humanoid form with his black feathered wings, reappearing from his invisibility that he used to conceal himself from public view. In his hands was a piece of paper that was flapping in the wind. He held out the paper for her to take.

As she took the paper and flipped it over in her hand, she seen the missing person flyer that showed her photo and a description about her appearance.

"Your friends, they must really care about you." Zyxel spoke to her calmly for the first time in weeks.

"Rachael, Jessica!" Trinity whispered softly. She looked up at Zyxel. "They made these?"

Zyxel nodded his head in confirmation.

Tears threatened to well up in her eyes, but she fought to suppress her emotions that she was feeling. She didn't want Zyxel to see.

"Please, can I see them?" she managed to whisper without her voice betraying the sadness that was consuming her.

"I'm sorry, but not yet." Zyxel replied.

Anger rose up in her chest. She refused to just sit here while there were people out there who didn't know where she was, or if she was alive or dead. "Why not?" she screamed at him. "Do you really think that I could run from you even if I tried? Why can't I go back home? Why can't I see my friends? Why can't I let at least SOMEONE know that I am alive?!"

"I can't tell you that." He turned and walked away from her, deeper into the cave, marking the end to their conversation.

She screamed in anger, as a howling wind picked up immediately, seeming almost determined to suppress her anguished yell from being heard. She glared at Zyxel, who seemed unaffected by the sudden gust of wind, and she felt certain that this was all his doing.

__________________________

(Please read Author's Notes below!)

Books I am currently writing:

- The Forbidden Luna

- Divine Banishment