April 5, 2016 (Prologue)
The lights burned my corneas. I blocked them with my hands, impeding the work of the poor girl who was tasked with fixing up my face. She smiled, her eye red from my finger going in it, and shook my apology away.
“You’ll be fine,” she assured me as she rubbed blush on my cheeks. “Dan is great with victims’ families. You should’ve seen the family of that little girl who was killed by a serial rapist back in December. Her family was sobbing the whole way here. We could barely get a word out of the mother without tears, but every time she broke down, Dan would stand in front of her to block the shot and help her through it.”
I could hear her talking but she felt far away. Victims, killed, sobbing, broke down. All my trigger words, yet she talked about it as if she was telling her family about her new dog. I wanted to be away from her, but I had to be still and let her fix up my face. I zoned back in on her. “You know, Dan really is a good guy. I think it’s because he was in jail for-”
“I think she’s gone getting make-up, Gina,” a gruff voice said from behind her.
Gina turned to see a large, well-built man in a suit and slowly cowered away from me. “I’m sorry sir.”
“That’s alright. You should go check the mics for us. Make sure they’re nice and loud.”
She gave him a small smile and crept away. The man turned to me and stuck out his hand. “My name is Daniel Powell. How are you doing today?”
He was the first person to ask me how I was feeling. The tears I’d been repressing for months broke through my tear ducts. I laid my head on his chest and sobbed.
“There there,” he murmured as he pet my hair. “You’ll get through this.”
“I miss her!” I sobbed.
He handed me a few tissues from the Kleenex box strategically placed on my lap.”We can do this together, alright?”
I nodded and pressed the tissues onto my face to try and stop the blubbering mess before it ruined the make-up. The man hugged me tight and I felt at home. For an ex-con, he was an excellent hugger. After a few minutes, my sobs had been reduced to sparing sniffles. He let go of me. “Feeling better?”
I nodded. “Thank you,” I sobbed.
“Anytime darling,” he replied. “We’re thinking of starting in about ten minutes. And don’t worry about the make-up. Gina gets paid by the hour.”
He winked and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are you ready to do this?”
I nodded. He smiled and nodded in agreement. The cameramen turned towards him while an intern signalled for Gina to come fix my make up and put the mic onto my blouse. “Waterworks already, huh?”
I ignored her. About a yard away, Daniel had started his speech. “In October 2014, we presented the story of a woman named Ana Sabura Wyatt, a twenty-five year old woman who vanished after a skiing trip with a few friends. In this episode of Spotlight, we will update this story with the help of her sister, Beatrice, her brother-in-law Ralph, her brothers Nico and Peter, and her best friend, Michelle.”
“And cut!” The director clapped from somewhere I couldn’t see. “That was beautiful.”
“Hey Tony, can I not announce their names? I mean the subtitles will tell the viewers eventually.”
“Sure, sure. You do what you feel you need to,” the director replied.
“Alright. I’m gonna take five to check on our guest.”
Dan came over to me. “How are you doing?” he asked.
I feigned a smile even though I felt like my flesh was burning.
“It’s okay to not do this. We have been interviewing a lot and if you just want to make a statement and go home-”
“No!” I said a bit too loudly. “I mean, no. I’ve been here for Ana for this long, and I want to stick it out to the end.”
He smiled and nodded. “Would you like to practice? Your husband informed me you have a nervous breakdown before along with several panic attacks and I just want to make sure we aren’t pushing you too hard.”
I nodded. The cameras were on me. I could feel my knees shaking. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said.
“My name is Beatrice Wyatt-Truman, and Ana was my younger sister.”
April 7, 2014
Zen music pulled me from my nightmare. I sat up, cold sweat covering my body. My husband, half-asleep, hooked his fingers into mine. I had had the same nightmare every night for about a month now. I am in the park, pushing my three year old in the baby swing while watching my seven year old do the monkey bars. Suddenly, a curdling scream destroys the perfect day. My six year old, who was just going to get a drink, was being shoved into a white van. Before I can move, the door slams closed and I awaken screaming.
My husband wrapped his arms around my waist. “It's just a nightmare, baby,” he murmured. “The kids are fine.”
I slid out of bed and slipped my feet into my slippers. “There's nothing wrong with checking.”
Before he could protest, I'd left the room and gone into the hallway. The draft from our A/C unit nipped at my bare ankles. I turned the knob to my girls’ room, took a deep breath, and opened the door. There they were. My two little girls were asleep as they were every morning. I smiled. It almost made me not turn on the light.
“It's time to get up,” I said as I flicked the light on.
My daughters groaned. I watched as they slowly pulled themselves out of bed. My younger daughter emerged first. Her hair was matted to her forehead, and her clothes had been twisted around her body. She rubbed her eyes, spreading crust across her cheeks.
“Why do we have to go to school?” she whined.
“You need to learn. Go take a shower and brush your teeth, and I'll get your clothes set out.”
She grunted in response, grabbed her fuzzy pink towel, and stomped into the bathroom. My older daughter had pulled her Winnie the Pooh blanket over her eyes. With a tiny chuckle, I pulled the blanket off of her face. “Get up, sweetheart. You have to go to school.”
“I don’t wanna!” she groaned.
I pulled her up into my arms. “Katie, you have to go to school. Come on, we need to get ready. Daddy said he’s leaving in one hour and if you aren’t in the car, you’ll have to get on the bus.”
Katie squirmed away from me. “Fine! Just go away so I can get ready.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Set your sister out some clothes for me, okay? Try to make them match this time.”
Katie nodded and opened the dresser drawer. I went back to my room where my husband was asleep. I rolled my eyes and clicked the light on. “You know, you have work too.”
“I’ll be up.”
“If I come back in here in five minutes and you aren’t awake, I’m going to throw cold water on you.”
Ralph sat up as soon as the word water left my lips. He stood and rubbed his eyes. “I’m up, see?”
I smiled at him. “Look who knows me.”
He rolled his eyes and reached for his pants. I went into the kitchen, where I heard a crunching noise. I stopped, and peered around the wall of our breakfast nook to see my three year old son eating Cheerios. Milk had been sloppily cleaned off of the table with some towels. My son looked at me and smiled. “Hi Mommy!”
“Hi Seth. I see you’ve made yourself breakfast.”
He nodded and smiled. “You want to help Mommy cook breakfast?”
“After I finish my cereal!” he said slurping another spoonful of cereal.
I smiled and nodded. I rapped on the bathroom door. “ Hurry up, Lexie! You need to get dressed!”
The shower cut off. I went back into my bedroom to see my husband looping his belt into his jeans. I tapped on my daughters’ bedroom door. Katie answered. She was dressed in sparkly pink skinny jeans, a grey t-shirt, and fuzzy striped socks. She had her backpack in one hand and her shoes in the other. “Go get your teeth brushed and your face washed. Breakfast will be ready in ten.”
Katie nodded. Lexie emerged from the bathroom wrapped in her towel. She was chewing on her towel. She looked at me and then the clock at the end of the hall before she trotted into their bedroom. I went back into the kitchen where Seth was waiting for me. He had milk residue along his cheeks and he was standing on a stool. He had tried to put his bowl into the sink but had only managed to spill milk everywhere. I sighed and cleaned it up. As I did, I instructed him.
“Get out the carton of eggs, the flour, the sugar, and the blueberries, sweetie.”
“Okay Mommy.”
Something dropped, and I heard him groan oops. I chuckled, rinsed the rag, and turned to help him. Shredded cheese was scattered everywhere. He was struggling to carry the broom straight. I helped him steady it as he swept. My husband came into the kitchen. He held my phone in one hand and his tie in the other. “Uh, can you help me?” he asked.
I clicked my tongue and pulled the tie from his hands. “So, I don’t think there will be time for pancakes today. The girls can survive on toast though.”
“Well, I have to go to the OBGYN on Thursday so you guys will have to stop on the way to work.”
“I should really come to this one. I was there for the other ones.”
I kissed his cheek. “It’ll be fine, baby. I’ll call you if anything goes wrong.”
“Speaking of calling, some unknown number has been trying to call you all day. Are you cheating on me?”
The twinkle in his eyes made me laugh. “No. But, there is my the in shining armor again.”
I took my phone from him.
“I’ll go check on the girls,” he said.
I answered my phone. Someone on the other side sighed in relief. “Hello? Is this Trixie? Ana Wyatt’s sister?”
“Yes. Who’s asking?”
“Uh, you may not remember me, but I’m Max Charles. I go by Charlie. Ana and I work together. I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen her lately. She hasn’t come into work for a few days and I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
“Well, I-”
“Mommy! Daddy’s trying to do my hair!” Lexie screamed from the other room.
“Just a minute!” I called to her. “I’m sorry about that. I-”
“I’m done, Mommy,” Seth said as he prodded me with the broom handle.
“Alright,” I took the broom from him and propped it up against the wall. “Thank you, sweetie.”
I walked out onto the porch and turned back to the phone. “I’m really sorry. I think Ana just went on some trip with her friends.”
“I just wanted to let you know before I went to the police and filed a missing person’s report.”
“Ana does this a lot. You shouldn’t worry. I’ll try to call her a little later and I’ll let you know if something comes up, okay? In the meantime, you should just keep an eye out and call me if anything else weird turns up, okay?”
“Alright. Thank you.”
I smiled. I knew Ana was just in the Alps or in Mississippi fishing or in Alaska hunting for moose. She had been doing this since we were kids. I chuckled, put my phone in the pocket of my pajama pants, and went back inside. I could hear my family getting antsy without me. I went back in the kitchen to quickly make breakfast and prepare to help my family through another Monday.
August 17, 2008
“Her name is Ana Sabura Wyatt. One n in her name. She is turning eighteen, and she was last seen leaving her best friend’s house. She is half Chinese, has blue eyes, brown hair, and she’s very tiny. She’s about 5’1 and maybe 110 pounds… If that, I mean, she’s so small… She has a little scar above her lip, and she was last wearing a red sweatshirt with a falcon or something on it and these hideous khaki shorts. They’re very unique. She also wears these weird shoes that I don’t really like but you know… Let’s see, what else?”
“Mom, I think you’ve given them enough,” Nico said. His arm was around her.
“Yeah Mom, I’m sure she’s okay, This could be like when we were kids and she spent that night in the treehouse,” I added.
“I don’t know,” my mother sobbed. “I just want her back.”
My brother wrapped his arms around her. The secretary behind the desk slid some tissues her way. “I can finish this up,” I said to the secretary.
“When was the last time she was seen?”
“She went to a party with her friends on Thursday night. That was the last I saw her, anyway.”
“Who was she with that night?”
“Um…” I looked at Nico to help me.
“I wasn’t home when she left. I think Peter and Dad were though.”
I sighed. Our stepfather, Aaron, was already pretty messed up about Ana disappearing and we’d all unanimously decided not to let Peter know what had happened to her. Johnny, standing next to me, spoke up. “He was with her friends Alena Barnes, Kittie Hambrough, and Adania Lee.”
“Have you spoken to these people recently?”
“We tried. Alena said she left early and the other two didn’t answer their phones.”
“Was there anyone else at the party that you know of?”
“Maybe Alena’s boyfriend, Adam Lewis.”
“How do you know all of that?” I murmured to Johnny as she typed.
“She’s my little sister. I have to check on her,” he replied with a wink.
“I’ll make the report,” the woman said, “But the best thing y’all can do is contact her friends and the family of her friends. Anyone that was at that party. I can’t tell you what did or didn’t happen but I can tell you, we will try our best to locate her The station will be closing in five minutes though. You folks have a nice evening.”
I nodded and followed Johnny out the door. Aaron was holding our mother. Tears were dripping down his face. In the eleven years that I’d lived with Aaron, I’ve never seen him cry before. I knew things were serious. Nico, standing behind my mother, wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. He turned to me.
“Hey, Aly is coming over with Kimmi a little bit. I need to go. Uh, they asked me to pick up Peter, but you know how Aly is about me being on time. Do you mind?”
“No, no,” I said. “I’ll go get him.”
“He’s at Dad’s house. You know where he lives, right?”
“Unfortunately. I’ll get him home safely, alright?”
“Alright.” Nico wrapped his arms around me. “Be safe. I’ll call you if I hear anything.”
He kissed our mother’s cheek and ran to his car. I turned to Johnny, who was also getting ready to leave. He pulled some tissued out of his pocket and pressed them into my hands. I hadn’t even noticed I was crying. “Here,” he said. “Drive safe, alright?”
“Get them home safe too,” I replied.
The walk to my car felt like I was walking to Death Row. The warm August air rustled through my hair and blew away some of the tears. I got in the car to see I’d left my phone on the dash. My boyfriend, Ralph has been blowing my phone up. Did you find her? Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want me to get Peter from your dad’s house? Babe, are you there? Did you faint? I could call my cousin… you know he’s in the FBI. I understand if you want to stay with your parents but can you warn me first? You know I get worried about you…
A smile emerged. I quickly texted him back and dabbed tears from my cheeks. I’m going to get Ralph now. I’ll be home around ten but I’ll text you if I’m gonna be late.
I started to turn my car on, but a small part of me wanted to wait for his response. My phone chimed and I snatched it off of the dash quickly. Don’t kill Martha ;)
I chuckled. Martha, my stepmother, had been married to my father for six years and I hated her guts. Between her and her six kids, I couldn’t be around her for more than twenty minutes without wanting to kill her. So, when I pulled up to my dad’s seven bedroom and saw her standing on the porch with my brother, I had to bite my tongue. I got out to see her better in the fading sunlight. She looked like the Wicked Witch of the East probably would have if she’d survived Dorothy’s house. Her face was flattened and boils stood out on her face. She had slathered some make-up on her grotesque face and her dark twisted teeth were mangled into a grin.
“Trixie,” she said. “How nice to see you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go, Peter.”
“How was the police station?” Martha called as I ushered Peter to the car.
I answered her with my middle finger. I took Peter’s bags to put them in the trunk. As soon as I turned, Martha was right next to me. Her smile hadn’t waned. “Do they know where she is?”
“Will you fuck off?” I said as I slammed my trunk. I narrowly missed her fingers.
“Your father won’t like how you’re talking to me,”
“My father doesn’t like anything. I can get over his disappointment just like I get over everything else he does.”
“You know, your father and I were talking about you babysitting Liz and Georgie for a while on Friday while we go rekindle our relationship.”
I shuddered. “I’ll pass.”
“You are their sister you know.”
“I didn’t ask for them.”
“You could be a bit more supportive of them. We’re trying to help you out. WE all know you’re expecting so we thought-”
“I don’t care what you thought Martha. We both know that if it wasn’t for Peter, I wouldn’t be here. So, let’s keep my business out of your mouth, okay? What is happening between my boyfriend and me is for us to discuss. Move.”
She stepped back onto the sidewalk, and I got into my car. My brother was flipping through the radio stations. “Just think about it!” Martha called.
I replied with my middle finger and sped off. My brother, content with the radio station, sighed. “Why do you hate Martha?” he asked.
“She’s a dumb bitch.”
“Yikes.” He sat back in his seat and turned my radio up a bit. Usher serenaded us for a few miles.
“She’s not that bad you know,” he murmured after a few minutes. “She makes me cookies and stuff.”
“The reason I hate her goes back way before they even got married,” I said.
“Is Ana back?” he asked.
I could feel the tears coming. “She’ll be back soon,” I tried to assure him.
His phone dinged. He looked at it before setting his phone back in his lap. “Johnny said they’re going to go out for dinner. Can we stop somewhere?”
“No. Ralph’s already worried about me. Plus, you have school in a week. You need to start going to bed earlier.”
“Just say you don’t want to spend any money,” he teased. “I think I’m just going to eat the leftovers from Popeye’s anyways. Is three day old leftovers still safe to eat?”
I nodded. We pulled into the driveway of my mother’s house. “Get your stuff,” I told him.
I opened the garage and went in. My sister’s baby blue Honda Accord was in the garage. It couldn’t be. I took my key out and Opened the door. There she was at the dining room table eating Cheerios like she used to when she was little. Her brown hair had been dyed bright purple. She was wearing an Animefest T-shirt and ripped jeans. I ran to her and hugged her. “Ana!”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Where the hell have you been!” I shouted as I squeezed her tighter.
“I went to Animefest with Dani and Kittie.”
I planted a solid smack on the back of her head. “You couldn’t warn someone? We were worried sick about you. Mom even filed a police report! What the hell were you thinking?”
“I just wanted to go. I mean, it was a drunk decision and-”
“You were drinking?”
“You and Johnny do it and you guys aren’t twenty-one…”
“That’s because we’re suicidal maniacs! You can’t drink.”
“Hypocrite…”
“Hypocrite nothing! You are in big trouble. Aaron was crying.”
Her face went pale. She hadn’t realized how serious things were. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s whatever,” I snapped. I hadn’t realized that I was crying.”
“Listen, I’ll call before I go anywhere okay? I’m so sorry.”
I held my sister in my arms, and we cried for about twenty minutes. I knew she’d always call after this.
April 9, 2014
The call came at 7:30 in the morning. I was in the kitchen with Seth teaching him how to make a perfect pancake when we heard my phone ring in my room. Dutifully, Seth ran into my room to grab my phone for me. “Here you go, Mommy!” He plopped it into my hand. “It’s Uncle Peter.”
“Thank you, sweetie. Go wake your sisters up, okay?”
He nodded and went into the other room. I hit Answer on my phone. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”
“I got a flat. Can you take me home?”
“We both know you can fix a flat, Petey.”
“I tore my rim up and everything. Please sis, I need you.”
“I’ve gotta go to my appointment at 8:30. You’re six miles in the other direction.”
“There’s no one else. Come on, please?”
I sighed and flipped the pancakes. They gave me a low hiss. “I’ll be there in about ten minutes. Stay put.”
“Thank you!” My brother’s gruff voice voice died.
I slid the pancakes into a neat stack and buttered them. I could hear my daughters groaning and the shower turning on. Seth came back into the kitchen. He noticed the stack on his plate and pouted. “Aw man! I missed it!”
“I’ll show you tomorrow, okay?”
I gave him the plate of pancakes, grabbed the syrup off of the counter and escorted him to the table. I helped him slide his plate onto the table. While he climbed into the chair, I cut his pancakes into strips and squirted syrup onto them. He grabbed a strip and put it into his mouth. “Mmmm. These are good, Mommy.”
I chuckled. “You wanna go with me to go get Uncle Pete?”
He nodded and shoveled more pancakes into his mouth.
“Okay. When you’re done, go get your shoes and your jacket on, and I’ll be out soon, alright?”
He nodded again and kept eating. I tousled his hair and went into my dark room to change. Midway through, I heard my husband mumble, “Where are you heading off to so early?”
“Peter called and said he got a flat and can’t go anywhere for a while so I’m going to take him to school?”
“Is Seth going too?”
I nodded. He grunted in response and rolled over. I slipped my feet into my tennis shoes and grabbed my Longhorns sweatshirt. My son was in the living room struggling to put his jacket on. Beside him, his shoes, which were still caked in dry mud from the rain, were sitting on my couch. He poked his arm in every angle he could to try and get it through the hole. I knew I could’ve helped him, but right when I was about to, he found the sleeve and slipped his arm through. He put his shoes on and tightened the velcro. He grabbed my purse and my phone and walked towards the hallway. I met him halfway.
“Are you ready?”
He nodded and presented me with my purse and phone.
“Thank you sweetheart.”
I helped my son out of the door and into the car. Together, we buckled him in and started the trek to my old high school. The warm breeze flew through the open windows, tousling my hair. I could feel the nostalgia of the first time I’d driven down this street. I was sixteen in my mom’s brand new 2005 Nissan Altima. Ana and I had missed the bus and my mother didn’t feel like taking us to school, so she tossed me the keys and told me if she saw a scratch I would be grounded until I had a head full of white hair. Ana and I had donned pairs of sunglasses and flew down the street easily going 80 mph in a 20. It was a wonder I didn’t get pulled over. I chuckled at the thought of Ana and me. We must have looked like fools.
“There’s Uncle!” my son shouted.
He was pointing out of his window at my brother, who was sitting in the middle of a closed Denny’s parking lot. He was on the curb with his head in his hands. I pulled in and pulled up to his car. He looked up and walked over to me.
“Did you call AAA?” I asked him.
“Hi Uncle!” my son yelled from behind me.
Peter waved. “Nah. I don’t know the number.”
I crossed my arms. “Why didn’t you call them first?”
He shrugged. I sighed and got out of the car to inspect the damage. His green 2002 Maxima literally had three wheels. The rim of the fourth wheel was bent in and the tire was a shredded puddle on the ground. There were scrapes along the car as if a banshee had dug her nails into it. His bumper was hanging on one side. I clicked my tongue a few times and shook my head. “What did you do to The Baby Gator?”
“There was a median and I didn’t see it when I was backing up and-”
“That doesn’t explain the shredded tire.”
“I was getting to that. I got to close so I turned to correct it, turned the wrong way, and my entire right side skid along the curb, and it shredded my tire.”
I rubbed my temple. “Why couldn’t you call Mom or someone?”
“They’re in Hawaii, remember? They went on that came show and won the trip.”
“What about Nico?”
“He has that court date. John went to the airport today, Tina’s in class, and no one has heard from Ana.”
My heart kicked me. “No has heard from Ana?”
“The last I talked to her was Saturday when she went on that skiing trip. I asked if she’d gotten back okay and she said she was about to go back out and she’d text me later.”
I started to tell him about Ana’s boss calling me to tell me that she hadn’t been in for work in a few days but the worry in his eyes stopped me. Not knowing where Ana was all those years ago made me paranoid. For about three years, i was always on her case. I begged her to tell me where she was going and what she was doing every day, and even though she readily agreed every time, I knew it bothered her that I worried so much. If something was wrong, Peter didn’t need to focus on it. So, instead of telling him about her, I told him the number for AAA so they could get his car to a mechanic.
AAA arrived twenty minutes later with a tow truck. Someone took my brother’s information and assured me they would call when they were done with the car, so I could get it back to his school before it was out. Peter got in my car and sighed. “The Baby Gator’s going to survive,” he said with a smile.
“Well, you were going to let it die,” I reminded him. “If it wasn’t for me, The Baby Gator would be dead.”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
I started the car. “So, Dad tells you want to go into the Navy.”
“I don’t want to talk about him,” Peter grunted.
“Why not?”
Peter just bit his bottom lip, a habit he had since he was little. I could tell he was tapping his foot furiously.
“What happened?” I pressed.
“He and Mom told me that Fred isn’t my dad. He is.”
I heard Seth ooh from the backseat, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“So? He’s been in our lives since you were born.”
“It didn’t seem weird to you?”
Laughing, I replied, “Honey, I was eight. Nothing was weird to me. Just like I didn’t notice Fred cheating or how he spent so much time at work. It just wasn’t my place to worry about it. Plus, you act like you loved Fred as your dad. Fred sucks.”
“I know but think about it. If they had just told me since I was born, I wouldn’t even need to know him or Martha or any of them.”
I shrugged and glanced at the clock. 7:51. I might make it to my appointment. I heard Peter shift uncomfortably before saying, “I tried calling Ana and it went straight to voicemail. Have you talked to her lately?”
“Bu but her boss called-”
My brother looked at me in horror. I couldn’t tell him.
“She was going to go to Sweden with Michelle. Maybe she forgot her charger again. You know how much she does that. Especially when she gets excited. Don’t worry about her, okay?”
He made a face before nodding. “I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right! Just focus on school and I’ll focus on getting through to her.”
He nodded solemnly. We were at his school. He grabbed his stuff and opened the door. “Have fun at the OB/GYN,” he said with a chuckle.
I smiled and waved at him before driving off. My stomach was turning. I called my stepsister, Raegan, on the Blutooth. She picked up after one ring. “Hey Trix. What’s up?”
“Hey, um, is it alright if Seth stays with you today?”
“Yeah, of course. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be there in a few.”
Raegan’s voice cut off. My eyes were clouding with tears. “Mommy,” my son said. “Are you okay?”
I wiped the tears away with one hand as I straightened the car on the road. “Yes, I’m okay sweetie.”
“Is Auntie?”
A sob broke from my lips, but I tried to keep my composure. “I’m sure she is,” I stammered. “Are you excited to see Auntie Raegan?”
He nodded and stuck his sippy cup in his mouth. The rest of the ride was silent. Raegan was on her porch waiting for me. Her blue shawl draped from her like a fabric waterfall. I could see peaks of the green scrubs under her clothes, and shame welled in my cheeks. I’d forgotten she had a job now, and I couldn’t just call like this. Yet, when Seth and I got out of the car, she smiled at me.
“Look at my little stepsister!” she shouted.
I smirked. Seth ran to her. “Auntie!” he screamed.
He pressed himself in her arms. She picked him up and chuckled. “About time you came back. Remember what you promised me last time?”
His eyes lit up. “We can do it?”
She smiled and nodded. He practically leapt out of her arms and ran inside. I chuckled and hugged Raegan. She stood back, looked at me, and her face paled. “Oh no, what happened?”
“Huh?”
“The last time I saw that face, you told me Mittens got ran over. What happened?”
“Uh… when’s the last time you talked to Ana?”
Filed: April 9th 2014
Name:
Ana Sabura Wyatt
Date Missing:
April 6th 2014
Missing from:
Houston, TX
DOB:
May 8th 1991
Age:
23 Years Old
Hair Color:
Dyed red, though naturally brown
Height:
5’1”
Weight:
117 lbs.
Eye Color:
Blue
Sex:
Female
Race:
Chinese-American
Complexion:
Olive
Police/Sheriff:
Houston Police Department
Officer/Deputy Name:
Det. Kollin Long
Officer’s Phone #:
(832) 785-0106
Officer’s Case #:
# 21589321225
TES Case #:
# 12-8597
Twenty three years old Ana Wyatt was last seen exiting the Club 711 Casino. She was wearing a Houston Texans jersey with the number #99 on it, white skinny jeans, and black high top Converse with the word Love written across both toes. She told her friends she was going to meet her boyfriend in the parking lot and call them when she got home, but he never did. Her red 2003 Volkswagon Passat has also gone missing. If you have any information, we urge you to call Crimestoppers at...
REWARD: $10,000
April 20, 2014
He was blonde and wore glasses. He looked as though he and Bruce Willis were cousins. He chewed mint gum that I could smell was stale and walked as though he were the king of the police department. He wore his badge proudly on his chest, but everything else on his slender frame was a mess. Hi shirt was untucked and had mustard stains on it. His pants were wrinkled. His shoes looked as though he dragged them in the mud before he came to work. He stood before me, clutching a folder in one hand and taking a drag from a cigarette with the other. He’d introduced himself as Detective Kollin Long before escorting me and Raegan into separate rooms. As soon as we were in the room, he swapped his gum for a cigarette and stood staring at me. He finished smoking, snuffed out the dull cigarette on the cold metal table, and sat in the chair across from me.
“So, what makes you think your sister is missing?”
“No one has heard from her in almost two weeks,” I replied.
He could sense the desperation that tainted my words. He took out a legal pad and a pen. “Do you have a picture of her with you?”
“It’s not very current,” I stammer as I reach for my wallet.
At the twitch of my hand, he’s up and in the corner of the room. I stop to make sure he’s okay, and he pauses to let me do what I’m doing. I pull out my sister’s graduation picture with two shaky fingers and set it on the table. “That was last year when she graduated,” I explained. “She looks the same except her hair was red and not blue.”
He looked at it as if he were sizing her up. “Pretty,” he mumbled around another unlit cigarette. “Where did she go to college?”
“The University of Houston Victoria. She was studying to be a teacher.”
“What grade?”
“What?”
He looked up at me. “What grades?”
“Elementary school. Ana is great with kids.”
“Hmm.” He set the picture down. “So, what makes you think something bad happened?”
“What?” My heart stopped and for an instant, I felt like my lungs had collapsed.
“I mean, people go to the police with something bad happens. What made you come here?”
“No one has seen her,” I replied.
“Well, I looked at your sister’s record,” he said, plopping the folder down, “and turns out she has ran away sixteen times between the ages of twelve and eighteen. She has had four missing persons’ reports filed on her even though they were all recanted because little Annie had gone to another state. So, let me ask you again, why do you think she has gone missing this time?”
“She swore she wouldn’t leave like that again.”
He nodded halfheartedly and continued to circle the room. “Why did you wait so long to file a report?”
“Well, I had to be sure. I called her friends, her roommate, her professors, her bosses, our siblings, our stepsiblings, our father, our mother, our stepparents, her friends, her coworkers, and her pet sitter. No one has seen her! I had to come here.”
He was unmoved. “What about her boyfriend?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Well, her record also says she was in a domestic abuse situation.”
“That was someone different. He’s in jail now. Our stepdad made sure of that.”
“What happened to the child?”
“She went to her mother. That wasn’t Ana’s problem. The black eyes and the isolation was her problem.”
“Well, we interviewed her boyfriend, and we found out that he has this.”
He turned the page of the file to reveal an unmarked white van. My heart sank.
“Now, what was your sister into?”
“What?”
He made a sour face. “Come on, now. Lowly teachers who work two jobs and know people with unmarked white vans don’t disappear without a reason."
"My sister is not a criminal!"
he shrugged again and I wanted to hit him with the metal chair. What the hell does he know? Ana was no crook. His arrogant voice rang in the background of my angry stupor.
"Are you familiar with a woman named Leila Alvarez?”
A week ago, an eighteen year old woman was thought to be missing for three weeks. The investigators were able to get into her house and found her decomposing in her hall closet. She had been stabbed multiple times, before being choked and having her head bashed in. The police officers on the scene called it one of the most gruesome cases of all time.
"The little girl who was killed? What does she have to do with my sister?"
He nodded. “It seems like your sister had a connection with her. Do you have any idea what that might be?”
I shrugged. “Ana was just really friendly. She probably offered her money or something. Why?”
“When we searched her apartment, there were samples of someone else’s blood in her apartment along with her own. Do you have any idea at all what could’ve happened?”
“Wait, are you trying to pin a murder on my sister?”
“The DNA was a match to your sister.”
My throat constricted and tears that had been welling in my eyes were pouring from my cheeks like a broken faucet. “You’re saying my sister murdered this girl and fled?”
“We really don’t know. Which is why I need information. When was the last time you saw her?”
“March 29th.”
“Was anything out of the ordinary?”
“No, not at all.”
“Hmm... One last thing, do you know a man named Kyle McLeod?”
December 8, 2012
“What the absolute fuck, Ana?”
Blood coated my knuckles. The man was on the ground clutching his nose. My sister stood between us. “What do you mean what the fuck? Why did you hit him?”
“There was a forty year old man at your door. What was I supposed to do? ‘Oh I’m sorry, is this the wrong house?’”
“You didn’t have to punch him!”
“Yes I did! How am I supposed to know what’s going on in here? For all I knew, you could’ve been on the floor tied up and unconscious and he could have a taser waiting for me.”
“Are you insane! This is my roommate!”
I realized how close I was to her. Her roommate had sauntered into the bathroom, clutching his face and cursing. She sighed and picked up the fragments of her lamp from where I had pushed him into the wall after breaking his nose. I straightened her rug, which had been splattered with his blood. I could hear her bitching as she realigned her throw pillows and pushed her couch back against the wall. I looked at my knuckles and rubbed some of the blood off. My ring finger had been split by my wedding ring and blood had splattered the diamond. I clicked my tongue.
My sister appeared in front of me with a few paper towels. “Here,” she said slapping them over my cut. “Go into my bathroom and clean your cut.”
I rolled my eyes and walked down the hall. Halfway there, I caught a glimpse of him in his room. He looked like a pig in its sty. He had a bald spot that was surrounded by fading blonde hair. Stubble peppered his chin. His huge ears were still red from the ordeal, and his lip was cut. He caught sight of me, flinched, and closed the door. I continued down the hall. My sister’s room was the opposite of his. Everything was in its place. In a corner, I could see Bubbles, my sister’s albino boa constrictor chilling in her cage. A mouse was burrowing in her mulch, seemingly unaware of its fateful end. On the other end of the room, her salamander, Kermie, was scurrying up and down his cage. My sister used to time him all the time, swearing she’d enter him in a race one day.
I went in the bathroom and washed my hands, exposing more wounds. My fingernails had made a tiny incision in my palm. My thumb, which was double jointed, had somehow bent backwards painfully during the ordeal, creating a bruise on my knuckle. I got out her peroxide and sighed before pouring the scalding liquid into my cuts. I sucked air in through my clenched teeth and pressed a cloth towel to my hand. The salt in my wounds had barely ceased. I searched for a Band-Aid or some gauze.
“Look in the medicine cabinet,” I heard my sister say halfway through me tearing her bathroom apart.
“Oh.”
She came in and sat on the toilet seat while I fixed my wounds. “I can clean your ring for you,” she said after a few terse seconds. The stuff is in his bathroom.”
“I’m fine,” I replied.
Her face saddened. She stood from the toilet seat and went into her bedroom. I could hear Bubbles’ cage opening. Ana couldn’t go more than twenty minutes without touching the damn snake. I stood in the doorway of the bathroom and watched her. She stroked Bubbles’ scaly red and yellow skin as she watched her slither across her bed. Bubbles continued across the bed, until she bumped her nose against Ana’s pillow. I could tell she was thinking from the way she paused. Her jaws were unhinging. In an instant, Ana’s pillow was within her jaws. She chuckled. “It’s just a pillow, old woman. Calm down.”
Bubbles began to try to work the pillow into her mouth. My sister just watched.
“You’re going to explode like that python on Nat Geo, “ she scolded. “You shouldn’t stuff yourself.”
Bubbles must have realized that the memory foam pillow tasted nothing like a rat or even a small dog since she suddenly released the pillow, leaving bite marks in my sister’s pillow. She groaned. Bubbles returned her attention to the mouse that was burrowing in the mulch of her cage. She began to move towards it. Her tongue was flitting in and out of out of her mouth. Two minutes later, the mouse was being constricted by Bubbles’ big muscular body. My sister only closed the cage and put the padlock on it. “She doesn’t like to be disturbed while she’s eating,” Ana explained
“Hey Ana, I-” the man was in the doorway, choking on his words.
“Come in,” Ana said sweetly.
The man unwillingly complied.
“Now, let’s try this again. With no hitting. Trix, this is my new roommate Kyle McLeod. Kyle, this is my sister Trixie Wyatt-Truman.”
He stuck out his hand for me to shake. I just crossed my arms. “Why is an old ass man like you living with my twenty-one year old sister?”
“Listen, she assured me everything would be-”
“Fine? Yeah, it’s not. Why can’t you get a house and a job and leave my sister alone?”
“Well, my ex-wife took everything in the divorce. I don’t have anything to buy a house with.”
“Why can’t she just get over it and let you stay with her?”
“She has no problem with it. It’s Paul who has the problem.”
“Who’s Paul?”
“That’s what I said! But she wouldn’t answer. She kept insisting that Paul wants me nowhere around the kids, the house, or her, and he’ll kick my ass if I go back around there.”
“So, what made you beg Ana?”
“He didn’t beg,” Ana chimed in. “I offered it to him.”
“Are you insane?”
“No! I knew he was trying and couldn’t afford a place. So, I said that if he can come up with half the rent every month, we can be roommates. And I know that look, so no, we aren’t sleeping together or anything.”
“It’s not even that. I can’t even bring my kids around anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“For all I know, this guy is a pervert!”
“Uh, I’m still here,” he said meekly. “And that’s really rude…”
“Can you at least get to know him before you blow up and shoot my roommate?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”
June 17, 2014 (AR*)
I pushed open the door, and there she sat. The orange jumpsuit hung from her, and her hair had been chopped short. Her once almond skin resembled a powdered a doughnut. Her eyes had dark circles under them, and ten pounds had fallen from her petite frame. Tears rushed to my eyes. I sprinted into the room and wrapped my arms around her. When I pulled away, she was looking a me with such contempt that I regretted my existence. This wasn’t my sister. The light from her eyes had drained, and a murderous parasite was all that was left.
“Why did you hurt her?”
“Hurt who?” Ana replied. Her voice was an endless vacuum.
“That little girl. Do you know what happened to her?”
My sister just smirked. The twinkle in her eyes flashed danger, and my conscience screamed for me to leave. I couldn’t just leave though. For months, we’d searched for her. For months, I’d cried over her. Now, she was right in front of me. I couldn’t just leave now. I had to ask her.
I tried again, “Please just tell me what you know.”
“I followed her home, ambushed her, and killed her.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would you do that?” Tears and streams of snot were running down my face.
She leaned in closer, and I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. “Don’t you feel it?” she whispered.
“Feel what?”
She inhaled deeply and thrust herself back on the chair. “The desire to kill. I know you do. You used to bitch about the mailman being too loud and the kids being messy all the time. I know you’ve gotten to that point where you just wanted to kill the first person near you.”
“But I never did it!” I shouted as I leapt from my seat.
“Why do you think I’d leave all those times?”
“Ana…”
“You really believed I went to Animefest? You think I go to Oklahoma every other weekend? I’m a murderer! I go on killing sprees!”
“Please be lying…”
We both were standing now. She was smiling and walking towards me. She reached behind her and pulled a rifle out. I nearly passed out. “You know, Trixie, I wanted to smother you when I was three. You woke up to your innocent little sister asking to sleep in your bed but I was going to smother you. I wanted to hit you with my car. I wanted to drown you when you were pregnant. But I kept the image up because one more hardship would make Mom keel over. But, now that I’m here, hell, what’s one more victim?”
Before I could speak, she’d put three holes in my torso and was adding more bullets.
*AR stands for Alternate Reality so basically any chapter with this means either Trixie is dreaming or this something she imagined. In this case, this is a dream. Hope that isn't too confusing