By the Forest Pt. 01

Reader discretion -- contains mature language.

Reader discretion -- contains mature language.

Maisy shot awake with a knot like dread in her stomach. After taking in the surroundings of her cluttered little bedroom she managed to breathe steady again. She tossed the covers over and slipped out of bed, still dressed from the day before. She squinted her eyes, nursing her throbbing forehead as she emerged into the kitchen. The static clock on the microwave told her it was almost noon. She reached for a cereal bowl, but realising the shelf was empty, snatched one from the tower of dirty dishes blocking the sink instead, then dumped a heap of corn flakes into it.

It was dead in the heart of the house. Maisy's mum was already at work, like always, and her older brother, Joseph, was no doubt still out cold in his room. Maisy herself was wondering whether or not to go to school. It would've been a waste of a Friday if she went, but it looked like a pretty crap Friday to be staying at home, so it was a waste either way. She figured school didn't matter on the last day of the week, so she wouldn't be missing much.

She hadn't seen Joseph since yesterday morning, but he did that a lot. Despite not being in school anymore, or having a job, he would drop in and out of the house all day, and then be gone for hours and hours at a time. Even though she could hardly blame him, it always seemed to bother her. She never said anything to him about it. This time it was another party -- or at least he said so, but even the parties Maisy knew about didn't ever go for that long. They must always get bored once the party was over and go mess around somewhere else instead.

Joseph and Maisy weren't as close as they used to be. Life was quieter after their parents split. There was nothing to talk about together anymore, so they barely did - even when he wasn't out of the house doing whatever he liked to do. She'd been spending more and more of her time indoors recently, and although Maisy was halfway through her second year of high school already, she didn't know anyone. On top of that, she knew money was getting worse. Her mum hadn't said anything to the two of them but Maisy could read it on her mum's face every night. She wasn't stupid.

As she poured milk into her bowl of breakfast, Maisy figured it was probably about time she woke up her good-for-nothing brother. She walked away from the counter and knocked loudly on Joseph's scuffed bedroom door down the cramped hall. No answer. Probably even drunker than he was last time. Maisy pounded with her fist, but he wasn't getting up. She scoffed, then tried to force it open past something big and solid. A twisted wad of clothes gave way on the other side and she finally slipped in. Joseph was nothing more than a tangled mess of sheets on his bed. At the foot of his bed, Maisy shouted at him. Not even a stir. She rolled her eyes.

"Jesus, you lazy arse. I said,get up!"

Maisy leant closer and tore the sheets back, revealing nothing but the worn mattress underneath. Her eyes went wide. All she could do was stand there and stare. Her brother stayed out a lot, but he always found his way back by the morning. If Joseph wasn't back in his bed by now, she didn't know where the hell he was.

***

***

The sun was shining right in Maisy's eye as she sat alone on the back patio. It was pissing her off, but she didn't have the strength to move. All the bushes in their backyard had gone dry countless summers ago; sitting behind the leaves would've done nothing to shade her anyway.

She'd been sitting there for - honestly, she didn't know how long. Maybe half an hour already. The thought of Joseph tumbled over and over in her mind. At first she'd panicked when she saw he was missing. Then she went and made laps around the entire house, just to make sure he hadn't passed out before he could make it through the door, or he got locked out and slept in the yard. Then when there was absolutely no sign of him, she started to feel sick. He wasn't picking up his phone, either. Of course, the useless prick. The thought of calling her mum for help crossed her mind too, but she decided to save it for now. She couldn't handle the blame.

Now, she was figuring out how to feel about it. She just sat quietly with her hands in her lap, staring at the sandstone bricks between her toes. She hadn't gone back to her breakfast. It was still sitting on the kitchen bench, turning into milk-soup. For all Maisy knew, Joseph might come stumbling through the door any minute with some dumb-arse excuse, and then she'd realise she had no reason to ever worry. Then she'd go up and punch him in his side. Maisy and Joseph got into fights all the time, so she knew he was tough enough to take it. But the house was still, and that minute never came.

After that, Maisy went back inside and downed her soggy cereal in front of the T.V., trying to drown her worries. She got up after getting bored and wandered around, looking for something to do. Nothing seemed to stick. Maisy was home alone a lot, and she was used to exploring or going out into the town completely by herself. But for the first time in a long time, she really felt alone.

As she trailed from room to room, she decided to really think. Despite what a lot of people said about her, Maisy was a smart girl. Smart enough to prove them all wrong, she hoped. Her memory was pretty good, and so she could tell that everything around the house was exactly as it was last night. She could tell for sure that her older brother never came back.

Maisy could also remember exactly what Joseph said when he left the house twenty-four hours ago: He told her not to worry, like always, because it was 'just a group of friends'. That didn't mean it was true, though. He said he was going to a party, but not whose, or if he already knew them; only that it was a few blocks away. There were also no clues for when it was or what else he was doing. Even though they lived in a small town, there were too many people he could've been connected to, much less track down one by one.

Then she remembered a face. A few years ago, Joseph used to hang around a loser named Adrian. She had a burning hatred for Adrian, and she was pretty sure he knew it. He was Joseph's best, and at the time, only friend. It'd been ages since Maisy had seen him, which she was thoroughly glad about. She'd memorised Adrian's house after going to collect Joseph's unconscious body from his backyard the first few times. In fact, he was the one who got Joseph into drinking. He started introducing him to all his friends, and that was when the late nights began. They got later, and she started to see him a lot less. Soon Joseph was in so deep with the crowd he probably couldn't see it as a bad thing. But no matter how she felt, there was nothing she could do about it now.

Maisy felt a fire light up inside, and she wasted no time. After carelessly brushing her teeth she changed out of her clothes and into a tank top and cargo pants. She noticed an old jacket in her wardrobe that she'd forgotten all about and picked it out. It was faded, and dusty, but it would work. She zipped it up over her clothes, then took a backpack and tossed in her phone, snacks she stole from the cupboard, and some other essentials. She snatched Joseph's wallet out of his room, checked how much money was in it, then dumped it in. Maisy made sure the house was locked up, like she always did, then set off down the driveway under the overcast sky. She had a few things she wanted to go say to Adrian.

***

***

Walking to Adrian's house took a lot longer than driving there ever did. It was on the other side of town, maybe three or four blocks only, and almost a straight shot from her own, with exactly two turns. But walking was tedious, especially with a landscape as unexciting as this one. A few faces glanced up at her as she walked by, but they weren't very familiar. Maisy was used to going out in the other direction. Whenever she was feeling adventurous she would trek closer to the edge of town, past her house, where the forest began. But she was most familiar with the centre of town where all of the shops were. Apart from all of the ugly-looking front lawns, not much of this particular neighbourhood was in her memory anymore.

Finally, when Maisy had run out of things to keep her mind entertained with, she arrived at Adrian's house, stopping on the road by the driveway. This was definitely it. The house was the exact same hole she remembered from two years ago, only the vines gripping the front fences were thicker and everything was a lot dirtier. A flood of memories suddenly came rushing back to Maisy. A lot of them made her scrunch her face. She shook them all away again.

She really didn't want to get any closer to the house than she already was. She gripped the straps of her bag tighter, took a deep breath, and stepped over the gutter. The driveway was a narrow strip of concrete that ran up the hill to the front of the house, the edges hidden under grass. A gate guarded entry into the rest of the yard, but its hinge barely held on, and it squeaked open helplessly under Maisy's touch. She continued up the incline, glancing around at the empty takeaway containers and beer bottles scattered over the ground. She began to step more carefully in case she accidentally knocked one and something feral ran out of it.

Up against the weatherboards, Maisy tried to peer inside the house. The windows were too grimy to see much, but the lights were definitely all off. No-one was home. She sighed and dusted her hands off on her pants, when she noticed a lane that led down the side of the house. She wondered if she could instead get around to the back and find a way inside. As she made it to the wall's corner she heard something come from behind and spun, startled.

Stalking up the grass hill was a guy, in his mid-twenties only, who was skinny and greasy-looking, with long blond hair and an oversized T-shirt. Maisy recognised his stupid face immediately. As Adrian approached the front door, he fiddled with a set of keys. When he finally noticed her across the yard, he jumped, keys hitting the concrete. He squinted at her for a second, then muttered, "Oh shit."

In a heartbeat Maisy had crossed the lawn to where Adrian stood. She only stopped when she was less than an arm's length away. It took all of her strength to resist clocking one into his face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Adrian shrieked.

"Where the hell is my brother?"

He shrugged. "How should I know? The bastard never talks to me anymore. Haven't seen him in weeks."

"Bull shit," she said. "I know you all hang around the same people."

"Honest. Last time I saw him he was mad at me, so even if I wanted to, he'd probably still ghost me."

Maisy raised a hand and he flinched.

"Alright, alright!" he yelled, throwing his arms up. "Okay, so Idoknow where he was. But I'm not lying. Joey, he suddenly had some kinda problem with me. I tried to talk to him but he kept shrugging me off. Went to that lame party last night instead."

"So itwasa party?" asked Maisy, arm returning to her side.

"Obviously," answered Adrian.

"When was it?"

"Early, probably. Before sunset. But you'd have to ask someone who was there. I told you already, I haven't seen the dude in at leasttwo weeks, so I have no clue who was with him. He started to hang out with some other people. People I don't know. So when he turned me down last night, that was it. Next thing I hear he's freakin' vanished."

Maisy's eyes widened. "What does that mean? Where did you hear that?"

Adrian went pale. "Nothin', man! I mean, it's just a rumour-"

Maisy pulled her fist back behind her jaw and he jumped again.

Adrian looked around the street, as if checking for people, then leant in closer. "Look,everyone'sbeen saying it. I just heard it from a friend who got it from a friend, so who knows if it's real? For all we know it's just bullshit and he skipped town or something-"

"But who didyouget it from?" asked Maisy. "And what did they say? I mean inexactwords."

Maisy watched as Adrian tapped his greasy chin and strained his tiny brain. "Let me think... He said... He said Joey was definitely at the party. But he didn't talk to anyone. People kept seeing him with some girl, s-so I thought maybe they left together."

"And what time was that?" Maisy asked Adrian again.

He shook his head. "No clue."

Panic was swelling inside Maisy again, but she blew it out with a sigh. When she was recomposed she stood up straight.

"Well, actually-" Adrian started, "The dude I was talking with? I called him last night for--nothing important. Anyway, I remembered that Joey owed me beer money, but when I asked, he said he wasn't there anymore."

Maisy stared at him. "What? When?"

"Like at 9 o'clock, or something," replied Adrian.

"How long was he there for?"

"I don't know... He messaged me later on about Joey and that girl. But it was night time by then."

Maisy frowned. She had just learned the 'what', and the 'when', but not the 'where' or the 'who'. If Adrian wasn't even at the party, he had no way of knowing anything else, and she'd just hit a dead end. Maisy grunted in frustration and swung her foot through the dirt, spitting grass into the air.

"Hey, take it easy!" yelled Adrian.

She turned to him. "Shut up. Do you know where your friend is right now? The one who was there."

Adrian swallowed. "Not really, man. He's got a job, but I don't know when he works."

"Give me your phone," demanded Maisy.

"What-?"

"Give me your fucking phone," she repeated, and Adrian fumbled it out of his jeans pocket. She snatched it angrily, then opened it up. "What's his name?"

"D-Derek," Adrian squeaked back.

Maisy located the contacts list, then found Derek's number as the only one listed under 'D'. Some life he was living up. Maisy thought her next move was to find whoever threw the party and head straight there, and it was a long shot, but hoped Derek knew. He better have.

When Maisy glanced back up, Adrian was still standing there, waiting for her next order.

"What?" she said. "You can piss off already."

"But my phone-"

"It's mine now," she said, and walked away. She let herself out of Adrian's yard and headed further down the street.

If a girl really was involved in Joseph's disappearance, it made things a lot more complicated. Knowing her dumb-arse brother, he could've stayed the night anywhere in this rotten little town if it meant getting with a girl. Or worse, he could have skipped entirely with not much plan to come back home. It was a pretty damn good excuse for him not to, that's for sure.

And if Joseph's party started at around sunset, maybe six in the afternoon at the earliest, and he was gone before nine, it puts his earliest leaving time at 8 o'clock, when the sun goes down. That still left almost fourteen hours since the last time anybody he knew had seen him.

For now though, Maisy pushed all her doubts to the side. What she needed to worry about now was which house she needed to crash next.