Missing ...
Short story - part 3

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Read part 1 story from October Energy issue here

Read part 2 story from December issue here

Last scene from part 2

"Once reaching home, Phil went back to Mrs. Adams house again and rang the doorbell. No answer. Then his eye caught something; there was a car in the driveway and its license plate was 34TUA. At that same moment his phone rang and it was from his parents.

"Hello", said Phil

"Phil, Jones' have got evidence of Mark's kidnapper on the camera.", his mom said with excitement.

As Phil was about to leave Mrs. Adams house his eyes darted up and saw a blurry face in one of the house’s open windows. The shades abruptly went down.

Phil could not believe himself. The blurry face on the window looked like Mark. Was he dreaming?

Continued ...

Phil ran home with all his might. He got home exhausted. His parents were again in the living room with Jones. They were viewing footage of the security camera in the front yard. They were looking at footage from two days ago at 1AM. Sure enough at 1:40 AM a car with blinding headlights appeared. A short woman with a hat came silently out of the car. She was walking close to the camera to disable the security system when a gust of wind blew the hat off the woman’s face.

“Pause!” screamed Mr. Jones.

They zoomed in on the woman’s face. Phil’s mom said, “Hey isn’t that .....”

“Mrs. Adams” Phil finished the sentence.

"We had to call the police immediately", said Phil

Mrs. Jones called the police and the police contacted the SWAT. In the next two hours, the SWAT invaded Mrs. Adams house and after a lot of silence they came out with a note. The note said, "I am going to a place from where you can overlook the entire city." The SWAT was puzzled and so was the Jones’ family.

All of a sudden Phil’s mind flew to a moment two months back when he and Mark were walking in downtown when Mark said excitedly, “Let’s go to the High-Rise Towers - the tallest building in the downtown.” They took a subway train to reach the High-Rise Towers. It was at least 7PM and it looked magnificent at night. The sight brought their head up until the top. It was glimmering with all the lights on. Phil immediately brought out his phone and started taking pictures. Mark said “Let’s go inside.” Phil followed him all the way to the top floor and it was magnificent. The skyline of dowtown was amazing, breath-taking, spectacular, stupendous, marvelous, and astonishing put together. Phil’s parents were mad at him when he got home but he was happy that he was able to spend time with his friend.

“Phil!” his Mom's voice interrupted him, "What are you thinking?"

Phil came back into conscience and declared, “I think I know where Mark is.”

"Where?" querried the SWAT official.

“He’s at the top floor of the High-Rise Towers. It takes an hour to get there.”

“Not if we go by the helicopter” remarked the SWAT official.

It was 9 o’ clock and it was nighttime. When Phil was in the helicopter, the skyline was just as beautiful as it was 2 months ago. Phil wasn’t happy to see it though because Mark wasn’t there to share the moment. They zoomed across town with armies of cars below them. They finally got to the High-Rise Towers.

The SWAT team invaded every floor with an entry grant from the manager. Phil joined them. Finally they reached the top floor. They stepped out of the elevator and entered the room. Mark was tied to a chair and Mrs. Adams was guarding him.

She immediately took out a gun and said “You” with disgust in her voice.

The SWAT official said put down all weaponry or I will have to take out my own. Mrs. Adams slowly lowered the gun. You’re under arrest said the SWAT official. He hand cuffed Mrs. Adams and walked out of the room with her.

“You will pay for this” Mrs. Adams said to Phil when she walked out the door.

Phil walked toward Mark and untied him from the chair. Mark said, "Thank you and I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?"

“Sure" said Phil.

Mark said, “Do you remember this night?”

“Yes” said Phil. “It’s a similar night when we saw this downtown High-Rise Towers for the first time. It happened 2 months ago.” They both stared at the skyline for one last time.

Phil said, “Come on. Your parents are waiting for you.” They both went down the stairs and saw Mark’s parents waiting for them. Mark was greeted with so many hugs.

Reporters asked them questions while the cameras flashed.

"How did you escape", asked one reporter.

Mark said, “I couldn’t have done without Phil leading the SWAT team over here.” Now reporters swarmed around Phil. They were both on the headlines of every local newspaper next day. They were asked to be on TV shows and became instantly popular at school. As for Mrs. Adams, she got a life sentence of jail for kidnapping a child. Everybody had a happy life without her.

[End]

Wake up ...

If you want to make your dreams come true,
the first thing you have to do is wake up.
~J.M. Power

* The characters, settings and happenings are fiction only.