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Atlas
Ahardknotsat in my stomach, weighing me down and causing my muscles to clench and seize. No one had been able to get hold of Wren. She hadn’t been seen since the day before last. A part of me wondered if she had just…left. Maybe she’d simply gone as quickly as she came.
But something in my gut told me that wasn’t the case. This wasn’t normal for her. No matter how upset she was at me, why would she ignore her friends too?
My jaw ached from worry. I sat at the small desk set up in my room, making a last-ditch effort to gain some information on where Wren might be. I logged into my online cell phone provider account and prayed this attempt would work.
Wren had gotten her own cell phone not too long ago, and although she completely paid for the phone herself and the service, we’d decided to add her line to my existing account. Ty and I already shared it. It only made sense for her to join because it was cheaper that way. At least for now, to get her started.
Using the “find my phone” feature, I entered Wren’s phone number, hoping against hope that she had her GPS tracking turned on. I hadn’t asked her to have it on. I would never expect something like that from her, but when I entered the information and immediately got a ping on her phone, relief like I’d never felt before overcame me.
I let out a pent-up breath, staring at the area her phone was located. I squinted at the spot, my brow furrowing. I knew where that was. It was a secluded camping area on the nature preserve. My heart thudded. Did she disappear to camp for a few days? To get away from it all? I pressed my lips together. That could be a possibility. Hope sprang within me as I got to my feet.
Be okay, Starlight, I thought. Let this all be over and let me find you.
Twenty minutes later, Ty was pulling the Jeep into the campgrounds where her cell phone pinged at. I jumped out of the vehicle the moment Ty put it into park, followed closely by Ellie. She hadn’t left since she found out Wren was missing.
The place was barely even a campground. It had no electric hook-up or bathrooms. It was free to anyone who wanted to stay, and people didn’t often use it when there were other, better places to camp in the area. I looked around, but there were no other cars. I walked deeper into the grounds, passing old fire rings with nothing but ashes inside. The area seemed empty, as if it had been that way for a while. The little relief I’d felt started to get crushed like a bug under my boot.
“Atlas,” Ellie called; my head snapped toward her. “I think I found something.”
I almost ran to where Ellie was knelt in the tall grass on the outskirts of the parking area. Ty looked down at her, his body rigid. My heart raced but my face remained stoic as I approached her and crouched down.
My lungs spasmed, trapping my breath. She held Wren’s backpack, her hands shaking as she gripped it in white-knuckled fists.
“It’s Wren’s,” Ellie said with no doubt in her tone. “It’s full. Her phone is here too.” She reached into the grass and pulled out the cell phone with the pink case and the little blue banana sticker. I remembered sticking it there one morning.
She’d been sitting at the kitchen island, peeling a banana to eat with the stack of pancakes I’d made. When I leaned over to give her a kiss, she’d stuck the sticker on my nose, laughing. My chest tightened at the memory.
I’d taken the sticker and stuck it on the back of her phone sitting next to her on the counter. She hadn’t taken it off, it seemed.
I reached for the phone, panic threatening to overwhelm me, but I needed to keep my mind clear. I needed to think. I tapped on the phone screen, relieved when it didn’t prompt me to put in a passcode. Wren was always so trusting.
I glanced at Ellie. “Go through the backpack. Let me know if you find anything unusual.”
Ellie nodded, and I stood, opening the phone and going through the text messages. There wasn’t anything of note there. She didn’t talk to many people. It was mainly messages from me and Ellie. I stared at the last message she sent me, the one saying she was going to stay with Ellie for a while.
My eyes narrowed as I read the message over again, something about it not sitting right with me. It was different from her other messages. I hadn’t noticed before, but the punctuation and grammar were different. Wren usually used punctuation correctly, but there was none in this message. No capitals, either, and she always spelled out the word “to” instead of using the number.
I cursed at myself for not noticing something so obvious earlier. I tapped out of her messages and looked at her recently called. My suspicion intensified at her last outgoing call. It had been to Tony.
Ty and Ellie were both on the ground now, taking Wren’s bag apart item by item. I didn’t know Tony well, but he had been dating Ellie and working at the grill. We’d gone out with them on a double date a couple of times.
“Do either of you know why Wren would call Tony?” I asked.
Ty glanced at Ellie, who was holding a bent envelope in her hands.
“Tony?” Her face went white. “I haven’t talked to Tony in days.” She glanced back down at the envelope in her hands. It had Wren’s name on it.
I frowned. “What is that?”
Ellie held the envelope to me. She wiped away a stray tear as it fell from her lashes.
“I think,” her voice sounded thick, “I think that’s Tony’s handwriting. I mean, I can’t be sure, but I’ve seen it a couple times.” She looked away.
I opened it and pulled out a white card. Inside the card was one sentence typed out in black ink.
I found you, little bird.
