Alex's POV
Liz hadn’t shown up at school all day and by the time school was over both Jenna and me were really worried. Jack acted like he didn’t care, but I knew he did, even though both of us had refused to talk to him all day. It was his fault Liz was missing and he would not get away with it that easily.

During art class Jenna made one of those missing posters with a picture we found on Liz’ Facebook on it. We printed a bunch of them as we had decided to hang them all over town and the surrounding towns. I wanted to go to the cops, but Jenna told me they wouldn’t do anything until she had been missing for 24 hours. We couldn’t bear to do nothing until then, so we decided to hang posters. On the internet we had read that it was wise to contact everyone a missing person knows, but Liz didn’t know anyone around here and it seemed unlikely that she would travel all the way to Illinois without money or a phone, so that wasn't really an option.

As soon as the bell rang, Jenna and I left, took my car and drove to the center of the town, where we started hanging the posters, while looking allover for Liz, and sometimes asking people if they had seen her. By 6 PM we had hung most of the posters in Baltimore, but still didn’t have a clue where to find Liz. We decided to go home for dinner and go to a few of the surrounding towns afterwards.

By the end of the night we were out of posters, but had thankfully covered most of the areas we wanted to. By that time it had been 24 hours since she went missing, so on our way home we went by the police station to report her missing. They asked a lot of questions, some of which we couldn’t exactly answer as we didn’t know Liz that well, but that said they would start looking for her.

Just as we were leaving the station, Jack and his parents came in.
“What are you doing here?” Jack sneered.
“Reporting Liz missing” Jenna replied.
“Well, then I suppose we won’t have to do it anymore” Jack’s father shrugged.

“Took you long enough” I gritted through my teeth.
“Excuse me?” Jack’s father asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Jenna and I have been searching all over town for her, hanging up posters since 4 PM. Where have you been?” I replied.

“But how did you know she was missing?” Jack’s mother asked.
“Because we haven’t seen her since yesterday?” Jenna said.
“Yesterday? Jack said she didn’t come home from school today” Jack’s mother said confused.
“Of course she didn’t, she wasn’t at school” I groaned. “And you’ve got Jack to blame for that. Now if you’ll excuse us.”

I grabbed Jenna’s arm and dragged her past them. I already figured Jack wouldn't tell his parents the whole truth, but at least now they knew. Jenna and I went back to the car and got in. I dropped her off at home and went home myself. We had put my number on the posters and I promised to call Jenna as soon as I heard something. Even though it was late already and I had hardly slept the night before, I couldn’t fall asleep. I couldn’t shake the thought of Liz being somewhere out there on her own.

After only about one or two hours of sleep, I was woken up by my phone ringing. I looked at the screen, which showed an unknown caller. I quickly sat up and slid my finger across the screen to answer.

“Hello?” I asked, confused as to who it might be.
“Hello, is this Alex?” the voice on the other side asked.
“Uh, yeah, who’s this?” I replied.
“My name is Peter and I think I’ve seen your friend the other night” the man replied.
Oh, right, the posters!

“Really? Where?” I asked eagerly.
“She was hanging around my horses, late at night. I send her away as I thought it was quite strange, but then I saw one of your posters earlier and I thought I’d give you a call, just in case. She ran off into the woods. Once again, I'm not sure it was her, but it easily could've been” Peter replied.
“Thank you so much for calling, if you could give me your address we’ll start searching from there right away” I replied.
Peter gave me his address and we hung up. I quickly dialed Jenna’s number.

“Any news?” I heard Jenna’s voice say as soon as she picked up.
“Possibly” I replied. “A man just called to say he saw a girl that might’ve been Liz last night near the woods. I got his address, you coming?”
“Obviously” she replied.
“Okay, I’ll pick you up in 10” I said.
“See you” Jenna replied before she hung up.

I quickly got out of bed, got dressed and rushed downstairs. I couldn't even be bothered to do my hair, that's how much I wanted to find Liz. My parents weren’t downstairs so I figured they were still asleep. At least they wouldn't be asking where I was going. I hadn't told them about Liz being missing as I hadn't even told them about her at all and they would probably find it strange that I would be spending this much time searching for a girl I hardly knew. I made myself a sandwich to go, grabbed my keys, wallet and jacket and left for Jenna’s.

10 minutes later I got to her house, to find Jenna already waiting outside. She got in as soon as I pulled over and we drove off to the address Peter had given me. When we got there, it was obvious which woods he had been talking about. I parked the car on the side of the road near the only farm in the area - which was probably Peters - and we got out, walking into the forest.

“Well, how are we gonna find her here, if she even is here?” Jenna asked.
“We’ll walk around until we have searched the whole forest” I said simply.
“Okay, but do we split up or…?” Jenna asked.
“Yeah I guess, it’ll be faster” I replied. “How about you go right and I go left? Call me or just yell if you find her.”

Jenna nodded and we both went separate ways. We searched for about an hour without finding anything, but then I noticed something on the ground. A pair of black high heels. Weren’t these hers? I took a photo of them and sent it to Jenna.

Definitely hers, she replied within a minute.

What does that mean?, I replied.

I don’t know, but don’t freak out yet. I wouldn’t run away on high heels either, Jenna replied.

I guess that made sense. I continued searching for her. Why did she have to go into the woods? All these trees and leaves covering the ground made it impossible to see anything.

After another 30 minutes I noticed something on the ground. I figured it’s nothing but I went over there anyway. When I got closer I noticed it was, in fact, a body. I started running over there and I soon recognized Liz’s petit body. Fuck. As soon as I got to the body I kneeled down next to her. Her eyes were closed and I felt my breathing speed up. I grabbed her wrist to find a pulse. At least her skin wasn’t cold. Or well, it was cold but not so cold that I would assume she was death. That was a good sign, right? I tried to find the spot where I could feel her pulse but my hand was shaking too much to feel anything. I pulled out my phone to call Jenna,

“I found her” I exclaimed as soon as she picked up.
“Where?!” she replied. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know” I replied and I continued to explain where I was, which was not very easy to do in the woods.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jenna asked.
“She’s unconscious and I’m trying to find a pulse but I think I’m having a panic attack and my hands are shaking and….” I rambled.

“Alex calm down, I’m on my way, I’m trying to find you but you can’t have a panic attack right now” Jenna said calmly. “I’m heading your way, as soon as you hear me yell, you yell back, okay?”
“O-okay” I muttered.
“And in the mean time, you try to get yourself together” With that, Jenna hung up.

I tried to force myself to steady my breathing, not looking at Liz’ motionless body. It seemed like forever until I heard Jenna’s voice calling out my name. Even though my breathing wasn’t quite steady yet, I got up anyway and replied to Jenna’s calling. We kept yelling until we saw each other and Jenna came running over. Shock appeared on her face at the sight of Liz’ body.

“Fuck” she cursed under her breath. She looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine, just see if she’s alive please” I begged.
Jenna nodded and walked over to Liz’ body. She put her fingers on the spot below her jaw where you should be able to feel a pulse. I watched her, feeling both hopeful and terrified.

“I have a pulse” Jenna said. “But she’s freezing, we have to get her to a hospital right now.”
I sighed in relief, calming down. “I think I can carry her.”
Jenna nodded. I picked Liz’ body up from the ground and we quickly headed back to the car in the direction I came from. When we had reached Peter’s farm, Jenna quickly unlocked the car and I lay Liz down in the back. We both got in the car and I drove to the hospital.

“Should we call Jack?” Jenna asked.
“Well, I suppose his parents should know…” I replied, not taking my eyes off the road.
“I’ll text him” Jenna nodded.

We continued to drive to the hospital in silence. When we got there, Jenna ran ahead to tell the nurses we were coming and when I carried Liz inside, they were already waiting with a bed to lay her down on. Jenna and I were sent to the waiting room. All we could do now was hope for the best.

Notes

Thank you all so much for commenting and subscribing! Had a busy weekend so it took me a few days to update, but here it is!

Title credit: Paramore - Emergency