Detached: Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Where are you?

TRIGGER WARNING: MISSING PERSON! IF THIS MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE DO NOT CONTINUE!

Miro’s POV

My phone buzzed in my palm as I waited impatiently, the contact name “Space Nerd” glowing off of it.

“Come on, pick up already,” I muttered. After the third ring, I heard a voice.

“Hey, Miro. Sorry it took a sec,” Torin’s tired voice came through the phone.

“Nah, it’s fine, dude. Hey, listen, are we going to the cabin today? Carmen hasn’t called me yet,” I asked. I already knew we most likely were, but Torin was the best with dates and hated me the least, so I usually asked him.

“Um… Yeah, I think so. She texted the group chat, but your phone’s usually on silent, right?” He replied.

I snickered sheepishly. “Uh, yeah, silent.”

“…You were on Project Sekai, weren’t you?”

I laughed, knowing I’d been caught. “Yup. Nothing like a few flick notes and vocaloid songs at one A.M. Really hits the spot.”

He let out a laugh, and I smiled even though he couldn’t see.

“Okay, then. I’ll see ya there, ‘kay?” I said.

“Yup. See ya, Miro.”

As I hung up, I flung my feet off my bed and looked in my standing mirror. My blue bangs were messily laying across my forehead, and I had bags under my eyes from going to bed late. Mom wouldn’t be happy about that. But it’s not my fault I have insomnia.

I snickered to myself as I stood up and began to hastily get on my shoes and socks. I stumbled a few times, which caused a great matter of thumps on the wood floor. I heard my mom coming down the hall to my room, so I knew she heard me.

“Méli, you going somewhere?” She asked, her thick, Greek accent flowing off her tongue in a comforting way. I’d kind of lost my accent after fourth grade, because I didn’t like it and forced myself to lose it, but sometimes it slipped out. Now that was embarrassing. She opened the door and leaned on the frame where the paint was chipping off.

“Yeah, practice,” I said absent mindedly, searching my messy room for my guitar pick.

She smiled at me. Unlike most moms, she loved the fact that I was in a band. She’d always been worried after moving from Greece, knowing nobody and barely knowing a lick of English. But I always thought of myself as… Charismatic? Nah, that’s probably not the right word. Whatever.

“Curfew is still eight, okay?” she said, and I nodded.

“Uh-huh. Eight,” I replied, finding my pick and shoving it in my backpack. I stood up and went to leave.

“Hey! Miro Maciras, aren’t you forgetting something?”

I paused, then rolled my eyes, pretending to be annoyed. I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek before hurrying away. 

I grabbed my skateboard and hopped onto it, shooting down the road faster than normally. I just wanted to get there fast. I sometimes have those sorta days when I need socialization or I’ll just become all snappy.

I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket, but I didn’t have a second to stop, as I was coming to the bottom of a hill and had to make sure I didn’t screw up.

I turned a corner and sped up a bit. My hair chaotically whapped in the wind behind me. My phone buzzed again. Yup, definitely Carmen yelling at me to hurry up.

I turned another corner again, stumbling over a rock for a second before getting my balance back. I heard yelling coming from the cabin at the end of the path. I rolled my eyes. 

“Looks like Carmen’s already there…” I mumbled as I hopped off, grabbing my skateboard as I pushed the old door open.

I was greeted ever so kindly by Carmen yelling, “Miro! Where the hell have you been!? Haven’t you checked the group chat?” 

I blinked. “I was going as fast as I could, Carmie. I don’t get what could possibly be such a big deal.” Carmen glared at the nickname. I sighed, putting down my skateboard as I spotted everyone else. Corey was looking worriedly at her phone, Midori was stress-drinking a Dr. Pepper, and Torin was tugging at his hat.

“Uhh… Did I miss something?” I asked.

“Axel! They haven’t gotten here yet, or answered any calls, or texted any of us!” She said worriedly.

“They probably overslept again, I’m sure they’re fi-”

“No, Miro! Their mom said they didn’t come home last night! She’s called the police! Why can’t you take anything seriously?” She snapped.

I paused. I really didn’t feel like fighting with her this early. Luckily, Torin saved me.

“Carmen, it’s not his fault. Try to calm down. You’re really stressed right now.”

She opened her mouth to say something rude, but seeing as Torin was basically the peacemaker of our group, she shut her mouth and sat down.

“Well… Have you guys tried checking their house?” I asked cautiously. I knew Carmen was on-edge. Usually I would’ve thought it was hilarious, but she’d slaughter me if I made a joke right now.

“Of course we have, idiot,” Midori sighed. I picked at the thread of my jeans. Everyone being in a shitty mood wasn’t helping the fact that I was having one of those “Socialization starved” days.

“I’m sure they’re okay,” Torin said. Nobody spoke. The air hadn’t been this heavy since Carmen had gotten genuinely pissed at me a few years ago.

“What do we do?” I asked, trying to think. If they already checked their house and they didn’t come home last night, then that means they’re hiding or lost in the woods. 

“Have you checked the woods?” I asked. Everyone looked around at each other. Carmen spoke first.

“No, we haven’t. We did talk about it though. We were about to, but then Torin brought up that you weren’t here, and if they got lost out there, who knows if there’s something dangerous out there,” she explained. 

“Well I’m here now, soo…” I drew out the syllable. For once, I didn’t know what to say.

Carmen looked up with a glare, “Miro, try to take this seriously.”

“I am! Is it that hard for you to tell when I’m being serious?” I sighed, getting frustrated.

“Yes!” everyone said at once. I crossed my arms and went silent, annoyed.

Corey broke the silence, “Well, let’s go, then. If Axel really is in trouble, we can’t waste any more time.”

Torin nodded, “Yeah, definitely. Let’s go.”

We all stood up and rifled through our stuff hastily, trying to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind. I shoved a Monster in my backpack from the fridge, and… What else matters, really? 

“Miro, you need to bring more than that,” Torin sighed, snatching my backpack from me and shoving a flashlight, hoodie, water bottle, and Chewy Bar into it before I could do so as blink.

“Uh, thanks,” I said as he shoved it back into my hands, dazed.

“Okay, let’s go,” Carmen announced, and we all hurried out the door.

The cool humid air felt nice as we searched. Everyone was walking around screaming, “AXEL!’

I breathed hard, looking amongst the trees, “AXEL!” I shouted. I groaned. So much for not straining my voice.

“Should we split up, or…?” Corey asked hesitantly.

“No,” Midori said firmly. “I’ve seen enough movies to know that isn’t a smart idea.”

I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, Corey, we’ve already lost one of us. Let’s not lose another.”

“Axel isn’t lost. They’re… They’re fine,” Carmen hissed through her teeth.

“Right, um, my bad,” I sighed. I could feel someone’s eyes staring at me. I shifted uncomfortably.

“Let’s just check that way,” Torin said after a moment, pointing deeper into the woods. Everyone nodded.

“AXEL!”

“AXEL, COME OUT, THIS ISN’T FUNNY!”

“AXEL!!”

My throat hurt really bad after three hours. I think I said ‘Axel’ so many times it felt weird on my tongue now.

I sat down, exhausted. I pulled out my Monster and downed a quarter of it then and there.

“What time is it?” I huffed.

“It’s five twenty-three,” Carmen replied absent-mindedly, searching in an area of large bushes. 

“We’ve been searching for hours, Carmen, please can we just give it a rest for a moment? I don’t know how much more of these woods we can search before we start going in circles, anyway. These trees seem familiar,” Corey said, looking up at the mammoth redwood trees that towered over us. 

“Yeah, maybe there’s something back at the cabin we missed or something,” Torin added.

Carmen sat down on a stump near Midori. 

“I guess we should take a break. I don’t think we’ll be able to find them out here. Who knows, maybe they got lost somewhere else or something,” she said, agreeing. Everyone started walking back in the direction of the cabin. 

The walk was long. I don’t know how long it took, but it took longer than I would’ve liked. 

“Hey! C’mere! I found something!” Torin yelled from the front of the cabin. We all rushed over. He propped up a blue bike, made for a tall dude. It had a bell with the nonbinary flag on it, and a basket on the front. 

“Oh my gods, that’s Axel’s,” I muttered. 

Carmen said back, “Yeah no shit, Sherlock. Looks like ya solved the case ay mate.” 

“You told me to be serious, Carmie. Now you’re being all sarcastic? Sounds hypocritical,” I snarled, rolling my eyes. Carmen glared at me. 

Midori ignored the comments from both of us and persisted on the subject. 

“So, that means they were here last night, right? There could be something inside the cabin they came back for- or something. Maybe then they decided to go exploring in the woods… Even though that makes absolutely zero sense at all.” 

Torin responded as he put down the bike, “Let’s do a sweep inside and see if we can find any of their stuff.” We all agreed and walked in.  

The inside of the cabin looked the exact same as it did before. Fridge closed, drumset set up, guitars on the wall. 

Then I noticed a few sheets of sheet music sitting on the table, the one across from the old rotting door. I picked them up and realized they were vocals. Axel’s sheet music. 

“Guys! I found Axel’s sheet music!” I said loudly, but not a yell. “Guess they must’ve come back for it last night.” 

Midori was looking at the door across from the table. “Have any of you guys ever been in here?” she said, gesturing to the old door with a few nails sticking out of it, wood chipping everywhere. 

“I mean, Miro dared me to go in a few times, but-”

“You were a chicken about it.”

She glared at me.

“People say it’s the reason this place is haunted. I dunno, man, it seems sketchy,” Corey said. 

“Yeah, right. Since when did we believe that? We literally come here every day okay. Plus, I don’t think some random reddit post is our most credible source,” Midori exclaimed. 

“I thought we swore we’d never open it,” Torin said, bringing up the fact that we in fact had when we discovered this cabin swore never to open it because it looked scary and we were chicken. 

“That was when we were twelve. I mean, seriously, what could go wrong? If we don’t find anything, at least we tried,” Corey said from the back. 

“She has a point,” Carmen added. 

We were quiet for a moment.

Torin sighed, “So I guess that settles it. We’re opening the door.” Everyone nodded. 

Carmen reached for the handle and opened the door.