Chapter Four - Where do I Begin?

**It started off with a one night stand and lingered to a fling

I'm sorry to all the soldiers who didn't see me as a fake

All you feel and all you want you still need your blood**

I listened quietly and sang along in my head until I realized this song was coming from my phone. I immediately woke up and took it off the dresser.

Who the hell called me at 8am on a Saturday morning? Unfortunately, the number was blocked, so I had no choice but to answer it when I wanted to find out who was calling.

"Hello?" I managed to get out half asleep. I should have just kept sleeping.

"Good morning, Morgan!" someone answered just too provocatively.

"Blake? How did you get my number?" I squinted my eyes to shield them from the light pouring through my window.

"I have my connections! I just wanted to let you know that everything will work out as planned. Shall we meet at the bridge then?" he asked cautiously. What was the matter with this boy?

"Um, yeah okay. Is that it then?" I was already laying back on my pillow.

"Yeah, that's all I wanted to say. Haha," he started to laugh.

"Okay, I'll hang up now." My eyes closed as if by themselves and my hand already reached for the receiver.

"Man, mornings are definitely not your favourite time of the day", again he laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "No they are not.", I admitted.

"Okay, okay, I let you sleep goodbye Morgan," he replied and I finally hung up with a "Bye."

Waking up so early in the morning wasn't a good idea. But now that I couldn't sleep anymore, no matter how long I tried to keep my eyes closed, I decided to get up. The first thing I did was looking if my mother had written another note. She often did that before she went to work.

And there was actually a small, yellow note on the table. Please don't let its say anything about housework, I hoped, but unfortunately the first "sentence" started with: "Please empty the dishwasher". I guess I had no choice but to do everything she asked for. Luckily I finished on time, so that I could still go to the bridge as planned.

Blake called out to me from afar: "Hey Morgan!"

"Hey!" I called back relatively calm. He had buried his hands in the dark fabric of his jacket and came towards me.

"Well, I've spoken to Mandy.. She's waiting for us at the Café Enchanteur. So can we go?" He looked at me expectantly while I was still processing the information.

"Okay, yes." He immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. The walk to the Café Enchanteur took only five minutes. The whole time I played with the idea of ​​asking Blake who this Mandy actually was, but for some inexplicable reason I was afraid of the answer. Maybe fear was the wrong word. At least a feeling of uneasiness was looming. But I just couldn't let go of the question. Why couldn't I just ask like a normal person?

We were just getting into the café when a blonde, thin-faced girl walked up to us "Hey, Blake!" She hugged him for a long time. "Hey Mandy, well we've already talked on the phone", he started and stayed quiet for a moment to look at her. "Oh yes, this is Morgan." He pointed on me. Mandy, who had just sat back down, stood up again to shake my hand. "Hello Morgan." She smiled at me with her thin lips. "Hi."

She seemed quite happy to me. Shouldn't she be a little sadder if she was close to Jared? But maybe she was just good at covering it up.

"Sit down," she said quietly to both of us.

"So, Mandy, did you see Jared on Friday the 17th?" Blake got like a bull at a gate . Suddenly her smile vanished. And that although Blake had already warned her about the subject. Now I almost felt sorry for her.

"Yes, around 11:15 p.m. We met here in the café. He was the same as always, I didn't even notice that he had anything," her voice sounded like she was going to cry at any moment. "How long was he here?" Blake asked. "Until about midnight." She picked up her cup and took a sip.

"Shit!" Blake cursed rather to himself. "Did he have a bag with him?" he asked without long pauses.

"Yes he did, why?" She tilted her head slightly and had pulled the sleeves of her pastel blue sweater over her hands, which were still clutching the cup.

"Because he didn't have any when they found him," he told her calmly.

"I see." She put down her cup. "Did he say anything suspicious or something?" Blake asked her one more question. "No, otherwise I would have asked him if something was wrong." Mandy got more nervous.

"Are you sure?" he added. She nodded weakly.

"You don't know where he was before or after, either, do you?" I finally intervened, rather reluctantly. Mandy then just shook her head again, sadly.

Even umpteen other questions didn't get us any further, as Blake finally realized after what felt like an eternity.

"Mm, alright," Blake murmured. " Mandy we have to go again, okay?" He got up and helped me standing up as well. "Yeah, okay. Nice to meet you Morgan." She gave me a faint smile.

"I am also happy to meet you Mandy," I replied.

When we were outside after our relatively brief conversation, Blake turned to me. "Looks like he must have been somewhere else after he met her. We should...." He stopped. "Hey Morgan, what's up? Why are you looking so thoughtful?" He leaned towards me. Something seemed strange.

"Who is this Mandy, or better said, where do you know her from?" I asked him a little cautiously. It would probably not be a good idea to immediately denounce her as untrustworthy or deceitful. "She looks familiar to me from somewhere," I tried to get the hang of it. I didn't want it to seem wrong, I was just curious.

"We went to the same school. To be honest, I liked her, but so did Jared. That's why there were often arguments between us. I then gave up and Jared has often met her since then. Me I actually think they were a couple, but I'm not sure. We still remained friends," he replied, although it wasn't quite what I wanted to hear.

Somehow I had a bad feeling in my stomach area. "Where do you want to go next?" I immediately tried to change the subject.

"I don't know. I was hoping Mandy would know something, but I noticed during the conversation that she really doesn't know anything." He made a suprised face and then continued: "Let's go by the old warehouse, he used to stay and hide there when he was younger," he laughed briefly as if it evoked memories. "It just came to my mind," he added, put his hand on the back of his head and this time laughed awkward. "Well then, let's go to the old warehouse," I said in a mock enthusiastic tone.

"Yes!", he answered and I was just about to start running full of motivation when something made me stop: "I just have one more question", I began.

"And which would it be?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Where the hell is a warehouse here?"

Blake started laughing. "Just come with me, okay?" I just smiled. "Okay."

And so we went to this legendary place. I really didn't even know there was a warehouse around here, let alone that it was empty. How so? I had never been to this part of the Town and I was glad about that! Because the gloomy and criminal appearance could really scare you. There were shady guys on every corner.

I stopped very briefly and watched two guys.They're dealing drugs right now, aren't they? I asked myself. But I really didn't want to know the answer. When I looked ahead again, I saw Blake walking quite a distance away. I immediately ran to him and reflexively grabbed his arm.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" I asked uncertainly. "Yeah, we'll be right there." It sounded like he wanted to reassure me, but his words didn't.

A little later he stopped. "Here is the warehouse," he presented. "Shall we go in?" he continued and I gave him a reluctant nod. Wanting was out of the question here.

We stood in front of a huge gray building that you couldn't even take in at one glance. The facade was brittle in many places and the whole ensemble made a rather dilapidated impression.

The only thing separating us from the entrance was a large concrete area and a metal fence, which was bent in a few places and had holes in it.

We both climbed over it rather less gracefully. My hair was caught and Blake had to free me. He then helped me through a broken window, which was found quickly enough to get into the building.

"So Morgan, I'll go left and you'd better go right and then we'll have a look around here, okay?"

At that moment I just thought: What?! Are you crazy?! Leaving me the fuck alone?!

But all I could say was, "Okay." Oh god, how could he have come up with such an idea? Before he went any further, I had one more thing to say: "I don't want to spread a bad mood now, but that's how horror films start."

Loudly resounding, I only heard his laughter as it gradually faded away.

I also kept walking on, into a kind of large hall. There were still a few brown wooden boxes, most of which were covered with tarps. Even an old, dusty forklift found room in the back corner. However, a few boxes immediately caught my eye. You could climb up there perfectly. Provided by the fact they weren't too brittle.

I briefly thought about trying to actually climb up there to get an overview, but I wanted to have a look around the room first.

I lifted some tarpaulins, there could have been something underneath, but all I found was emptiness apart from a fat black spider. So my eyes fell back on the stacked boxes. Examining each individual box would have taken days. With a bit of a run, I jumped up the first one and tried to hold on and keep going. Which was difficult because they were totally dusty and I often slipped away. The wood also seemed to give in a little. It really didn't help my fear of heights.

My legs were already shaking and a sinking feeling was spreading through my stomach.

From the top, I could see across the hall, so I was also able to see that there was something odd, light-reflecting, on top of the forklift that was parked in the corner. From a distance it looked like some kind of cell phone. Of course, I immediately climbed back down and ran to the forklift. I tried to grab on top of the roof but it was way too high or I was just way too small. Even when I jumped in the air a few times or climbed the step to the driver's cabin, I couldn't get close. I had to think of something else quickly. There had to be a way to get there. After all, the cell phone had somehow gotten up there.

Of course!, I thought to myself. I could turn on the forklift, then drive near some boxes and then climb onto the boxes. Assuming the old thing turned on, otherwise I had to push.

I looked into the driver's cab. To my strange luck, the key was in a small compartment below the many switches and buttons and the machine could also be switched on. However, the engine did not sound healthy.

I had no idea how to steer something like that, but it would work. Clumsy and shaky at first, I managed to get the forklift to the boxes.

I got out again and proudly looked at my work before I went back to climbing up the creaking boxes and taking the cell phone. I immediately ran back to find Blake. I ran in the direction he had gone earlier.

But finding him was harder than I thought. When I heard a voice from another great hall, I headed there immediately, hoping it would be Blake. Unfortunately he wasn't. There were two older boys standing there, both wearing caps and pants that looked like they were 10 sizes too big. One boy came right up to me. So fast that I was almost unable to react.

"Hey, little one, are you lost?" he said rather provocatively. With his right hand he grabbed a strand of my hair. "I, I'd better go," I stammered, but just as I was about to turn away, he grabbed my arm.

At the same time, a voice came from behind me. "Hey T. Stay away from my girlfriend." I immediately looked back. Thank god it was Blake. "This is your girlfriend?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Nice thing," he commented, now releasing my arm. I immediately ran over to Blake, who then held my hand. "Yeah, she is. We've got work to do, so let's get on with it, see you bro." The two boys just made a funny head movement.

Even though we were already back outside, my heart was still beating wildly. I didn't know that side of Blake at all, it was really unusual.

Actually I didn't really know who he really was. We just had met two times when I decided to help him.

"Shit man, I didn't know they still come here." Blake, still holding my hand, stared at the floor. In all the excitement I had completely forgotten that I had found a cell phone. "Blake." I let him go. "I found this in the warehouse." I handed him the phone. He took it and looked at it from all sides. I didn't even look at it myself, I just took it to Blake.

"It's 100% Jared's!" He happily ran his finger over a small skull that was on the back of the case.

"I just have to crack his code, but that shouldn't be a problem. Tonight I'll have a look to see if there's a message that might help us. You should go home first." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Shall we meet again at the bridge tonight?" he asked.

"Yes, at the same time as yesterday?" I answered with a counter-question. Blake nodded. "I'll accompany you a bit now, I won't leave you alone in this area again!" And so he walked next to me for quite a while. At least until we had reached the normal zone again. I then walked the rest of the way home alone. I hoped so much that the cell phone would help us further

It wasn't until I was sitting in my room at home that Blake's words crossed my mind. I knew he only said I was his girlfriend so the boys would leave me alone. Besides, we were just simple "friends" when you could say that, unhappily brought together by fate or whatever. But the words managed to make my heart beat faster. It was stupid, I knew that.