Obsession (3)

Marcel looked towards the man in a somewhat suspicious way. But he didn't mind much thinking it was just his imagination.

He took out his phone and decided to call him.

Ring!

Ring!

[The number you have dialed is not reachable at the moment. Please try again later.]

Even after trying for a second time; he couldn't get in contact with Joshua.

"Where in the world did he go?"

...

At last he thought that Joshua might have went to their group and he also stopped searching for him.

***

"What? He is not here? How could it be? I tried calling him but it said that he wasn't reachable at that moment. And he wasn't even at the restroom!" Marcel was shocked.

"Wait...then where could he have gone?" Nathalie asked him in a worry of Joshua.

"Marcel! There's no way someone would could get lost here. We better report this to the cops." One of his male friends told him.

"I also think the same." He replied.

Hearing their conversation, Nathalie was pretty worried about him.

"Don't worry Nathalie, I bet he is all right." Sasha tried to comfort her and maintain the atmosphere of the room.

With Joshua gone missing the group celebration ended in worry.

Marcel, Nathalie, Sasha and Abdul went to the police department to file a missing persons report.

***

"Sir, we can't wait that long! I say that you trace the phone number right now!"

Marcel shouted at the police officer.

"Listen kid, according to the information you gave us, we can't do anything about that right now. It hasn't even been a day since he went missing. We will start the investigation at morning, as fast as we can, so you can just go now. There's no guarantee if something were to happen to you guys also."

Tsk!

Marcel click his tongue in anger.

"Marcel, the officer is probably right. If Joshua really got kidnapped then there's also a high chance that something might happen to us also, since we are his friends. You gotta think about this, there's also Nathalie. She is more worried about him than you." Abdul tried to make Marcel think rationally about the situation.

"He is right, Marcel. There really is no guarantee. The cops will start the investigation at morning right away, but if something were to happen to us then it could cause more problems. But listen, this is pretty suspicious don't you think? How could someone be kidnapped from such a crowded place. Did you really not see anything unusual?" Sasha told him.

...

"I don't know if it is right but...I will be honest with you. When I went to the restroom to call him, there wasn't anyone except a middle-aged man. I would say about 40 years old. I asked him if he had seen a young man but he said that he didn't. And when he got past me It felt somewhat unsettling and also there was this stench coming from the area. A very foul stench. But I didn't mind much about it."

After hearing about this Abdul quickly went to the officer and told him about the stench.

"Ok ok, I will go search in the restaurant."

The officer replied.

***

The officer told the manager about the search operation and went to the place Abdul told him about with the manager.

"Kid, are you sure this is the area?"

"Yes sir." Marcel replied.

"There sure is a foul stench."

He and the manager went to the restroom to check about it.

"Manager, why is that restroom so dark. Shouldn't it be more brighter?"

"Sir, I remember it wasn't like this." He looked at the ceiling. "Sir the light bulb is broken there. In the middle."

They opened the toilet rooms and storage room but there was nothing.

"Kid there wasn't anything, but about the smell. You were right. We will search more thoroughly and contact you as soon as we find something about your friend."

"Ok...officer."

Without finding any clue they returned to their apartment rooms.

***

Marcel sighed and with a thought he opened the door of Joshua's apartment room.

"What could have happened!"

He went put the lights on and went to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Gulp!

Sigh!

He drank the glass of water and put the glass on the table.

He looked near the plates and saw that there was one knife less in the knife stand.

"Where did a knife go!...no I guess I am being paranoid, he must've put it somewhere else."

He went to the bathroom for a wash. Thinking with it could somewhat put his mind in ease.

Swoosh!

Pitter-patter!

He was gazing the wall in a deep thought while water was pouring upon him. He took a deep breath and closed the tap of the shower. He took a towel, covered himself and came out of the bathroom.

He changed his clothes and went to bed after putting the lights off.

***