*PSHHHT*
"Goooooood morning everyone! This is %&^4 news! Here to bring you your morning $^%&s of course. We'll be starting off with w#%a^&$#@n Davia. To you Davia!"
Urrrgghhh, it's morning already? I knew I shouldn't have stayed up late last night, I always regret it...
What was so important last night that kept me up so late? Nothing really, I wanted to sleep but couldn't, so I decided to read a little to get me sleepy and well... This led to that and I didn't get to sleep until 5am.
I'm not too mad though, I did finally catch up on some chapters of what I was reading, Ant rule supreme!!!
...
Ahem.
Well luckily today is my day off from both college and my part-time, so I don't have much to do.
I stared at my ceiling a bit longer before zoning in on my surroundings.
"@^&*^ -rand new power source has been discovered by Limine Corp! Based on their company scientist, this power source claims to be completely safe and more powerful than nuclear. Adding this to their previous invention of power storage and Limine Corp is on its way to possibly completely take over the power grid!"
*Beep*
I finally got outta bed to turn off my old alarm clock. Yes I put the clock away from me to get myself out of bed, otherwise I'd keep snoozing it.
With a quick stretch and morning essentials, I did a once over at the mirror to see if anything was wrong. Hair, black and curly. Face, tannish brown on the darker side, no blemishes Eyes, sharp blue with a black trim, I do have bags under them though. But I can't fix that I guess, welp, now I can finally start my day.
I left my dorm room to go get some coffee and breakfast, if not for the free food I'd be sleeping in, I'm WAY to poor to pass this up.
I quietly passed by my dormmates and made my way to the cafe. The first thing I heard was the coffee machine running so I guess I'm not the first person to wake up this morning. And just to prove me right, a louder than necessary voice rung my ears.
"Oh? Hey Veds! Great morning ain't it?"
The voice came from a friend of mine. Quincy to be specific, always the loud one...
I sighed, "How can you be this loud this early in the morning? It doesn't make any sense, and besides, others are still sleeping."
Quincy was a good friend of mine even before college. We both decided to study in most of the same topics so I see him around often. The only difference is that he's majoring in technology and minoring in the arts and I'm vice-versa.
He just laughed me off and poured himself and I a cup of the freshly brewed coffee.
"Ha! They should be used to me by now, it's been almost a semester now so they should be used to my voice. Here."
Passing me the cup I began dumping milk and sugar into it to get rid of the coffee taste.
"Yeah, well just keep it down a little ok? I don't want to be yelled at by miss beauty sleep for disturbing her sleep, again."
Quincy looked at me confused.
"What do you mean? Sam didn't come back last night, I assumed she was spending the night with one of her toys and sent you a text about it."
This time I was confused, what do you mean she hasn't come back yet?
"She did send me a text but it said she was coming back here? Do you think she got drunk at a bar again?"
"Maybe your right, I'll go ask around to see if she told anyone else where she may have gone."
We both chugged our coffee and went about finding information on our friend. To be frank this isn't the first time this has happened, Sam oftentimes told us her location but not always. when this happens we go on a scavenger hunt to get her back. And most of those times she was at some bar or the campus park.
I went back to my room and gathered my Sam pack. In it were some snacks, drinks, medical supplies, and minor camping gear. I call it my Sam pack, but in reality it's just my small camping bag for when I'm going star-gazing. Though, it does feel like I bring it with me to go get Sam just as often. I almost forgot to put on my winter coat since its the middle of November, alright now I'm ready.
Leaving my room I noticed that more people had woken up and now a small group has formed in the cafe lounge chatting about something. By their tone, it seemed quite serious and I, the ever curious one, listened in.
"Did you hear? There's been an increase of missing folk lately, not even the cops can find any leads."
"Do you think its some gang activity or something?"
"Nah, the people being kidnapped have been completely random. The only thing that all who've gone missing is that they are all within their twenties."
"Woah..."
"I know right? My hypothesis is that it's some conglomerate in need of young people for their crazy experiments."
"Hmm, I can see that. But which one, is the question."
"Nah. Its totally the government doing it, how else would the cops 'not be able to find any evidence.' That's where I put my money in."
"I think it's aliens. Remember how the government released the fact that aliens are real and that they have proof. It's gotta be aliens, and they will feel the might of a humans spirit!"
Ok, I think that's enough conspiracy theories now. It'll only make me more nervous about Sam.
I quickly and quietly made my way out of the dorm and was introduced to the breezy November weather. It wasn't terribly cold, which may have been uncommon ten years ago but now... Sometimes the temperatures never even drop below forty degree Fahrenheit during the winter. It's a shame really, I loved fresh snow on a quiet day, untouched by any and all life. I guess global warming's a bitch ain't it?
I snapped out of my thoughts and decided that my first location to go to would be the campus park. I hope it's not there, even if its not as cold as the past, nighttime can still drop drastically.
Almost instinctually now, I put on my headphones and played some soothing music to keep me calm. I don't want to admit it but whatever my dormmates were talking about earlier really has my nerves shot and I really hope they were just talking nonsense.
It didn't take long, only a few minutes and I was already at the entrance to the park. On the path was one of the volunteer morning cleaners, if anyone's spotted Sam around here it would've been them.
"Hey, how's it going Frank and who's with-? Ah! Demarcus! It's been a while since you've volunteered the morning shift."
Demarcus looked up, hearing his name being called and saw me. A knowing smile immediately popped up.
"Yeah, I had to change my schedule up a bit since my part-time wanted me to work the morning shifts for a bit. But I know you didn't come here to chat. Lemme guess, Samantha?"
"Hehe, you know it. Have you seen her around here anywhere? She hadn't sent me a message last night and still has yet to respond to me now."
This time Frank spoke up, "Oooh! Have you heard that recently people have been going missing at an increasingly large rate? what if she- OOOF!!"
Demarcus and I glared at Frank. This was not helping my anxiety at all.
"Shush it! Now's definitely not the right time for that!" He Barked.
"Geez, it just an observation..." Frank muttered. "But no, we haven't seen her during our trip around the park. I recommend hitting up the bars, I'm sure they let her sleep it off like they've before."
I sighed, my worry was only growing more but I tamped it down for now. But once I find her, ooooh! She's in for a mouthful!
"Thanks anyways you guys, see ya'll later!"
"Bye!"
"Laters! Hopefully you find her! And not on the news!"
I ignored that final remark made by Frank, though I think I did hear Demarcus begin chewing him out for it so yeah.
As before it didn't take me long, maybe ten-ish minutes?, to get to the closest bar since, unsurprisingly there are a few bars near the campus, and for safety reasons its known that they will only allow student and friends of students to enter during the school year. And out of those bars, I know of two that let Sam stay the night. One is a open space bar predominately used by fellow queer folk and the other a woman's only bar.
I decided to go to the closest one first, the Egg drop social. I swear that's the name and not me trying to be funny! The couple who own are both trans and its become a common occurrence for people to come out in some shape or form here. Anyways, none of that was important at the moment, I need to find out if Sam is here.
And the instant I entered I got my answer.
"She ain't here!"
I looked in the direction of the voice and it came from one of the bartenders.
"Do you know where she may have gone?" I asked.
"I don't. Didn't work the night shift last night, sorry." They said.
"Ah, I see, thanks anyways. Well if you see her please tell her to answer her damn phone!" I said.
The bartender nodded before getting back to work. Since she wasn't here I began making my way to the next bar. Not even halfway there, my phone rang. It was Quincy.
"Hey, did you get any info on Sam?" I asked.
"Yeah, so a few of the ladies at the dorm claimed to have spotted her leaving with a girl at Femme Alcol. Unfortunately, none of them know where she went."
"Well fuck... I'll still head over to see if anyone there knows where she..."
My voice drifted away as I saw something disturbing.
In one of the alleyways, midways through was a purse.
I know that purse.
"Hey! Vedal! You hear me?! What is it? Have you found her?!"
Quincy broke my stupor, though right now, I'm still not all the way here.
"Y-Yeah... I uhh, I think I found her purse." I said solemnly.
I started walking towards where the purse was.
"What?! Where are you? I'm coming right now! Call the cops ok?!"
Before I could respond though, something caught my eye.
"Hey Quincy, the floor around the purse doesn't look right. Am I seeing things or does the floor look kinda... Static?"
"What are you talking about? Static? Just tell me where you are alright? I'll be right there."
I went ahead and told him as I stared at the floor, for some reason, I felt it.
A, calling?
For reason unknown to me, I started reaching for the purse. Before I could realize my mistake, I was already crouched down holding the purse.
Instantly! All alarm bells rang in my brain that danger was imminent! But before I could respond my feet sank, fast!
"Wha-!"
"Vedal!? What Hap!-"
*PSSSHHHHHHT*