Part 25

            “Where are you going?” Kim was awakened by the feeling of Pie releasing herself from her embrace. Languorously, she sat up, watching Pie getting a fresh night gown and somewhat ready to go somewhere.

            “I want to see our daughter.” Pie muttered. Kim glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight.

            “If you said so...” Kim tucked herself into the bed again, being nonchalant about almost everything.

 Sighing to her disappointment, Pie left the room with sort of unhappy feeling. Kim has been behaving weird these days. She appeared to be irresponsible and took everything easily as if it was not a big deal for her. Kim puzzled her a lot. At certain point of the day, she was being concern about their daughter but the next moment, she seemed to give up on everything.

Turning the knob slowly, Pie pushed the door open. To her relief, she saw her only daughter sleeping soundly, covered by the duvet. Taking her spot at the edge of the bed, she pulled the sheet gently, fearing that she would awake the teenage girl. She chuckled to herself upon recalling the time when Sushar was just a child. She had repeatedly reminded the girl not to cover herself like a mummy. She often scared the little one by saying that doing so would suffocate her to death.

The moment Pie pulled the cover was the very second she figured out that her daughter was not there. They were just the pillows which have been arranged into a human figure. Panic struck her, she ran her eyes around the room and automatically she made her way to the bathroom. To her dismay, Sushar was nowhere to be seen there. She went to look for her daughter at the kitchen, thinking that the teenage girl might be there and again, she could not spot her presence there.

            “Kim!” She shouted in panic. Eventually, she made her way back to her bedroom. Kim has drifted into her dreamland.

            “Kim, wake up!” Pie jumped into the bed, shaking Kim’s body and bringing her spouse back to life. Startled with the sudden movement, Kim bolted up from the bed, trying to catch her breath.

            “Kim, our daughter is not in her bedroom.” Pie fussed, running her fingers through her hair in mess.

            “Perhaps she went downstairs to get some drink.” Kim said after she took a moment to think any possibility for it.

            “No. I know she is not downstairs. She ran away.” Pie shook her head. Fear and worry mixed up together than it brought her to cry.

            “Don’t make a scene here, Pie. Have you checked for Sushar anywhere around the house?” Kim stood up, picking up the clothes on the floor and get dressed in a split second.

            “Do you think I’m setting up a prank here?” Pie retorted. “Our daughter is not here.” She sounded offended.

Rushing to the Control Room, Kim went to check on the CCTVs around the house. Pie appeared short after, looking to the screens which would show them some clues about their daughter disappearance. “What is happening here?” Pie gasped. The screens which supposed to be ON all the time were blank. None of the screen showed the specific area around the house.

            “Your daughter is cleverer than we have been expected.” Kim breathed heavily. Pie saw her spouse’s hand curled into a fist. She took a step forward and calmed Kim with a hug from the side.

            “She’s your daughter too.” Pie corrected. “Are you trying to say that Sushar cut all the connection here?” She guessed and Kim nodded. Deep inside, Kim regretted it that she has ever taught her daughter about the system. She has never thought that her daughter could remember it until now.

            “We can check on the guard house. We have the support system there.” Pie suggested, though she was worrying that they could not trace their daughter.

            “Wait!” Pie gasped. “How could she escape the guard?” Pie wondered upon realizing that they have the guards to secure the house.

            “To answer your first question, this is the main control of the system. Once it has been shutting down, we lost them all and the next thing you have to know, our daughter is one smart girl. Do you think escaping the guards was a big deal to her?” Kim growled and made Pie released her arms from her waist.

Trailing behind Kim, Pie followed her spouse closely as she overheard Kim talked to someone over the phone. Kim was calling her friend who is also a cop for help. “What did you friend say?” Pie asked immediately once Kim hung up the call.

Kim brought a hand to massage her temple before she turned to look at Pie again. “He said we can’t make a report yet since Sushar has been missing less than 24 hours.”

            “What should we do?” Pie began to fret. “It’s too dangerous out there and it’s night. What if she got or killed?” Pie paced back and forth, fussing around.

            “Stop saying that.” Kim warned with a look. “My friend promised me that he will help us to look for Sushar. He is on his duty and he is patrolling around right now.” Kim told Pie which successfully to calm the mother a bit.

            “Shouldn’t we go and look for our daughter too?” Pie suggested. “She might not be far from here if she is just walking.” Kim gazed at her spouse, realizing the truth.

            “I can’t believe that she did it to us.” Kim stated. “Try to call her, Pie. She might as well take it along with her.” Kim said. Pie rushed to get her phone while Kim began to realize that she can track her daughter using the phone too.

Awhile later, Pie rushed to her side again. “Bad news, Kim.” Pie showed two phones in her hands. One which she recognized to be Pie’s and the other was Sushar’s.

            “This couldn’t be.” Kim ran back to her daughter’s bedroom; trying to check thoroughly around the room. “She took some of her clothes and also her backpack.” It was the first thing that Kim ever suspected.

            “Her personal belongings are not here too.” Pie said, checking the drawer which was empty. Slouching on the bed, Pie wept silently. She has been too vulnerable these days that she ended up crying for everything.

            “Do something, Kim.” She pleaded.

            “How can no one realize that she is missing?” Kim sounded frustrated. The maids were all downstairs in their room. They could possibly notice it but all of them seemed lost in their dreamlands.

            “Let’s look for Sushar, Kim. We can’t waste any more time.” Pie stood up. Nodding to her agreement, both of them went to get a proper change. They might end up looking for their daughter till the morning. One thing did matter right now was they needed to make sure that Sushar was safe.

*******

Sobbing to her disappointment, Sushar walked hastily down the path. The road was dark and the barking sound of the dogs could be heard here and there. She quickened her pace as fast as she could when the eerie feeling began to envelop her. There was no way of turning back.  The cold night breeze brushed through her skin and apparently she was shivering terribly. The teenage girl wrapped the sweater around her tightly and rubbed her hand all over arms for some heat.

She had no clue why she needed to run away but she did it. It took only a few minutes to escape her housing area. It was just a piece of cake; she grown up there. Taking a glance to her wristwatch which glowed in the dark, she noticed that she has been walking for twenty minutes by now. In her rough estimation, she was far enough from the house and she was not that dumb to take the usual route. She changed her direction to a different path. Her parents might not know it that well but she used to play around when she was young. The boy next door took her to go through that way. It would eventually take her to the main road.

            “You’re so dumb, Sushar!” She cursed herself, regretting her decision to leave her comfortable bed. “What are you thinking about?” She kicked the gravel on the road. The thud of her footsteps crunching loudly as she kept walking along the narrow gravel path.

            “I’m going to find myself.” She whispered to herself. Yes. She was a confused and dumb teenager who acted as she pleased. She hurt her parents, she brought a chaos in the family and now she was denying her existence as part of the family. Selfish and ungrateful, people can rate her as such. No grudges. She needed the acceptance by the folks where she did not have to endure the insults of others towards her parents. As much as she was hurting with those attitudes, it was more painful for her to see her parents suffering because of her attitude in dealing with the challenges themselves. She could have just ignored the external pressure but she took it way seriously that it was getting complicated.

The bright yellowish light at the end of the path was everything she has awaited for. She was finally able to reach the main road. Realizing that it was past midnight by now, there might not be many vehicles around and what more transportation for her to leave. She was stuck there, not knowing where she should head to and had no clue which route would take her away. She could at least run to her Grandparents’ house and stayed there but it did help at all. She needed to go away from the family and be just herself, stood as Sushar, a teenage girl who was so selfish and dumb.

The cops were patrolling around and she has to hide herself when she caught the significant sight of the car passing by. She might been caught right at the moment for being out this late and majorly for the reason she’s underage, a minor one. Sighing to her relief, Sushar leaned her back against the wall as she caught her breath. It was out of her expectation when someone held her by the shoulder. Frozen on her feet, Sushar turned around slowly just to be greeted by a hideous grin from a homeless man.

            “Watcha doing out here, young girl?” He grinned, eyed her all over like a hungry dog. He was drooling.

            “It’s none of your business.” Sushar shrugged off and walked away quickly. Not by her luck, the man grabbed her backpack, causing her movement to stop abruptly.

            “Give your cutie backpack to me or I won’t let you go.” He threatened. Sushar felt a hand wrapped around her neck awhile later. The homeless man got a knife in his hand.

            “It’s all I have. There’s nothing in the backpack. I have my clothes.” Sushar stuttered, feeling that she was going to meet her death at any time soon. The homeless man laughed like lunatic and pushed her away. Puzzled with such change, she turned around to look at the man again.

            “I don’t want your bag anymore.” He said. Only then Sushar saw he was drunk. “Give me your money.” He stepped forward but ended up stumbled on his feet. Taking the opportunity to escape, Sushar took off running. The homeless man did not seem to go after her. He might pass out right there. Who cares?

When Sushar thought she was a bit safer. She slowed down her pace and glanced over her shoulder to check for any harm. It came to her relief that she was not being chased by the drunken homeless man. A car slowed down and eventually stopped right beside her. Panted, she looked up to figure out whether she was trapped in problem again. She could breathe well when she saw they were just a bunc