LAILAH
SIXTEEN
Just as we got off the ride my phone started to buzz. It was a good thing I put it in my bra so I would make sure to notice it, since my body was still recovering from all the chaos of the ride. Seeing it was Dylan, I answered right away waving at the guys to get their attention. "Dylan, thing—"
"She's gone.” Dylan blurted, cutting me off.
“I don't know what happened. She went to the bathroom but that was like ten minutes ago.
I went in to check on her, since Hudson was worried about a reaction but she wasn't in there.
I tried to call her, even wandering around the area to make sure she wasn't waiting for me in a different spot. "
"Hold on, back up a little," I said in a soothing voice. "How long ago did she go to the bathroom?"
"It's been like twenty minutes since she went in. Lailah, you have to help me. You said Jay can find people, right?"
"Where are you right now?" I demanded as I grabbed Jay's hand and started to run down the exit path back to the main area of the park.
"Ah...oh, I'm right near that kid’s area. She wanted to walk around a bit once she felt better. Do you think something happened to her? God, why did I let her take that medicine?" Dylan babbled.
"Don't move, we’re coming to you," I snapped hanging up the phone. "Guys we have a problem, Phoebe's gone missing. Dylan is waiting for us over at the entrance to the kid’s section of the park."
Once Jay heard this he charged off, almost dragging me with him, since I wasn't prepared for the sudden change in speed.
Thankfully, it seemed that they had been walking closer to us, so it didn't take us long to spot Dylan pacing near a bathroom building.
It didn't take him long to see us and the second he did his body seemed to sag in relief.
"This the bathroom she went in?" Jay asked without preamble. Dylan nodded as Jay handed me off to Micah and entered the woman's side of the bathroom.
"Asshole this is the women's," a lady yelled.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Get the fuck out before we call security and get your ass banned from this park."
I squeezed Micah's hand to get his attention.
"I should really go help with that." He nodded and followed me, standing just outside the door as I entered.
"Ladies I'm sorry about the intrusion but our friend is missing, and this is the last place she entered.
You didn't see anyone sick or passed out in here, did you? '
This caught all the irate ladies' attention and gave Jay a chance to look the place over while they talked to me.
"I just walked in here, how long has she been missing? Did you contact park security?" one asked, clutching her daughter to her tightly.
"We have someone reaching out to them right now, she wasn't feeling good so we wanted to make sure she wasn't still in here," I explained.
Another woman pulled out her phone. "I can post it on my Six Flags season passholders group and see if we can get more people looking for her. The government keeps trying to cover up all these strange disappearances going on right now. If they won't look out for us, then we better do it ourselves."
"I appreciate the offer but I'm not sure right now that's the best plan, she's only been missing for twentyish minutes. She could have gone to the help station for medical help," I suggested.
Jay walked back up to where I was and shook his head before he walked out.
"Thank you ladies for your help, and sorry again about my boyfriend barging in like that. Have a good day."
Ducking out of the bathroom, I was met with the others as they gathered around Jay. "Did you find anything?" Dylan asked.
Jay held out a little wallet that hooked onto your pants that Phoebe had been wearing. "We know she was here, but if something happened, she's now without identification. I suggest contacting security and seeing if they know anything first, if they have nothing for us, I will do what I do best."
Dylan looked absolutely crestfallen at this information, so I wrapped my arm around him so I could lead him to a park bench. "How could this be happening? Things like this don't really happen in real life, this is some Lifetime movie shit or something."
"I promise you, that we will do whatever we have to, to make sure she is safe," I vowed, looking my brother dead in the eye. "On my honor, as an Elementi Warrior, blessed by the angels we will find her."
I could feel the binding promise click into place as I invoked my power into my words.
I'd read about giving an Oath to a king or other leader to back up your words, but I didn't understand the gravity of what that meant until now.
Even if it took all summer or beyond, our focus would be on finding Phoebe.
Dylan pulled me into a tight hug as if he understood the gravity of what I just did on some soul level.
"Thank you, Lailah, I believe you," Dylan whispered as he sat back. "I know Phoebe and I have only been together for less than a year, but I think she's the one, I want to marry her someday."
Jay stepped up and waited for us to give him our attention. "I talked to security, they’re looking into things and asked for us to meet them at their office onsite."
It didn't surprise me one bit that Jay had already scoped out where that office was, since he led us right to it near the entrance to the park.
It was awful for me to think of this right now, but there was something so sexy about a man who could take charge and make things happen.
Micah wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a half hug, kissing the top of my head as we waited for Jay to speak with one of the security people.
"If you could come in with us, there is a camera right by that bathroom for situations just like this.
If you can point out what the female in question looks like we can send the photo out to our team," the security guys said, ushering us in.
"Do you have an approximate time to have us start looking at the footage? "
Dylan rubbed his forehead as he though. "It's been forty-five minutes or less since she entered that bathroom."
The man nodded, typed something into the keyboard and rolled back the footage. We stepped back letting Dylan and Jay get the better view of the small tv screen of the bathroom.
"There!" Dylan shouted. "She's wearing a green flowy short sleeve shirt with black jeans."
"Let's keep it going and see if she leaves the bathroom," the security man said, slowing down the speed making it easier to spot someone with all the people wandering by.
I held my breath praying that we would see her walk out or something else to give us a clue as to what was going on.
"Wait, when did that attendant enter the bathroom with that cleaning cart?" Jay asked as one left the bathroom.
"We have people check every hour on the hour, and that bathroom is busier than usual with it being near the kid’s area. Sometimes it gets more attention if someone hits the alert button that maintenance is needed," the security guy explained.
Stopping the tape, they rolled it back past when Phoebe entered another ten minutes or so and we saw the person enter.
You couldn't tell if it was a man or woman with the coverall uniform and the cap they had on but seeing as the woman didn't cause a fuss it made me think female.
Could this be how they stole Phoebe? That medicine had to have been the Day-Brite serum, that's the only reason for this. Just like me, once you took the serum you shone like a beacon to rogue demons looking for a person to take over. If it weren’t for Jay's rule, that could have been me getting stuffed into a garbage cart, but this made things all that much harder.
"Show me where those carts are stored and where the staff keep their things," Jay barked, making us all jump.
The security guard looked at Jay with a frown. "Look kid, I was willing to help you find your friend but at this point, it's time to call in the police and have them handle things. This is now a missing person's case."
"Who is in charge of your security?" Jay demanded. "I will need to speak with him."
"Sure, and it's a woman, but Kendall isn't going to tell you anything differently than I just did. We deal with this stuff all the time," the guy muttered as he wandered off deeper into the office.
Jay turned to face us, his stoic expression hard.
"Micah, I need you to call the closest Elementi hub to us and tell them what's going on.
I need to contact my father and make sure we own this security company so we can keep the police out of things.
Hudson, I need you to call your dad and find out if this serum could actually be consumed this way or if it's just a typical kidnapping.
Parker, do you think you can get ahold of her father and find out if he knows of any threats against his family that we should be worried about?
Brayden, don't let Lailah out of your sight. "
This sent everyone into motion, leaving me and my siblings in limbo watching everyone else be purposeful.
I sank into one of the chairs in front of the screens and pushed the button to play the film.
It was still stuck at the slow speed so it gave me extra time to watch Phoebe walk in, tucking her phone in her back pocket.
"Jay!" I called swiveling around. "Did you find her phone?"
Jay had his phone up to his ear talking to someone and motioned for me to wait a moment. "Dylan, hand me your phone." With a questioning look he pulled out his phone and handed it to me. "Do you use Snapchat?"
"I mean, I have it on my phone but I don't really use it much. I got it so when Phoebe went on a trip I could see her updates, she uses it a lot."