Christian entered the house--and saw no one. Not a single trace of his brothers or the babysitter. A rush of panic and adrenaline filled his veins.

Christian picked up his phone and dialed the babysitter’s number; he was one of his close friends so he knew something wasn’t right. He wouldn’t be at the park or something without leaving a note. The phone rang and rang but no one answered so Chris had to leave a voicemail

“Joe--where in the world are you and my brother? I specifically asked you to stay home and watch the kids!” Chris hangs up and takes a deep breath. Think, Christian, think! What are you going to do? he thinks. 

Calling and telling his parents are out of the question as they are out of town attending his grandmother's funeral who passed away earlier in the week. Christion didn't know what to do with all the stress from school he couldn't take it. Before leaving for the funeral, they gave Chris a choice: to go to the funeral or to stay, take care of his siblings, and attend school. Chris chose to stay home and take up responsibility. He thought his day couldn't get worse: an awful day at school, a terrible first day at tryouts, and not his missing brothers, no parents or anything. But he remembers what his friend said at tryouts

“Hey Chris, you good man? You looking stressed or not in a good mood,” Sunny said with a caring empathetic voice

With exam week coming up and getting the result of tryouts the same week there is a lot of stress let alone my parents aren't doing their best to due a family death.

“Yeah, yeah, everything is just fine. It's just one of those days,” Chris said, knowing he wasn't doing very great. 

“Hey if anything comes up I'm just a call away don't be hiding anything.” 

“Yeah, for sure, will do.”  They continued with tryouts. 

Chris paced his living room, panic-stricken. He knew calling his parents wasn’t an option. Sunny! Sunny will know what to do, he thought. He picked up the phone to call Sunny as the only person he can turn to. “Hey,” Chris said when Sunny answered. “We need to talk. Can I come over?” 

“Sure,” Sunny replied, a bit uneasy. He could hear the panic in Chris’ voice.
Chris heads over to Sunny’s place just down the block. Sunny opened the door as Chris came up the driveway. 

“Hey Chris, what’s up?” Sunny asked in a panicked voice.

“Jesus and Elijah went missing with Joe,” Chris blurted out.

 “The two little brats and the weirdo from class?” Sunny asked, incredulous, his jaw dropping to the ground.

“Yeah, and I have no idea what we can do with school and soccer tryouts right around the corner. My parents trusted me to take responsibility for my younger brothers and then this happened.”

“Hey it's alright we will find them before your parents come back,” Sunny said empathetically. 

Their first thought was to find where Joe lives and maybe even talk to some friends, getting the cops involved might not be the best idea. Who knows where those two troublemakers are, if it were to be a kidnapper something bad may happen to them. Or I may be overestimating the situation what if they are just with someone and it's only a case of miscommunication

Chris hopped in Sunny’s car and started heading over to Joe’s house, but when they pulled up the first thing they saw was Joe's car.

 “Hold on this doesn’t make sense,” Chris says as they are both walking up to the doorstep. If this was a case of kidnapping why would Joe's car still be here? 

Sunny rang the doorbell and Joe’s dad was at the door “what are you two boys up to” 

“We are here to talk to Joe. Is he here by any chance?” Sunny says 

“Well yes, of course, come on in taking a seat make yourself feel at home,” Joe’s dad says 

“How am I supposed to feel at home when your son might have kidnapped my younger brothers?” Christian thought with anger starting to pile up. 

While the 2 boys are waiting Joe’s nothing offers them drinks and snacks but they both kindly decline. After that Joe’s dad shows them upstairs to Joe's room and they walk in. No surprise, Joe was the only one in the room and he looked very surprised. 

“Heyy what brings you guys over to my house?” joe says  “ do you have ANY idea where my younger brothers are, “ Christian said with some authority in his voice 

 “ Wait, what? Did something happen to them? Joe says. 

Sunny steps in to say  “ who do you think you are? I thought he asked you to just watch them for the night and not to go out and to let him know if anything comes up.” Joe is very confused

 “ what do you mean his dad picked him up and said that you asked him to” 

“ Wait, what? My dad the one who just got a divorce from my mom,”

” joe is surprised “ wait what that doesn't make sense why did he pick up your brothers and where did he take them “At that moment Chris was overwhelmed by the situation 

“ do I tell mom and stepdad or do I call the cops or what do I do,” Chris says to sunny while walking down to the car

 “ You need to go to school and you have tryouts today. I'm gonna try and do something. I'll let your parents know about the situation and I will keep you posted'' sunny says so sunny drops Chris home and makes his way back to his house. Once he gets home sunny uses his mom's phone to contact Christians's parents 

“ Hi this is Stacy, “Chris’s mom says when she picks up 

“ hi miss Cortez this is Chris’s friend sunny I need to talk to you about something impotent, Jesus and Elijah are missing, we are thinking he is with his father.”

The next day after sunny and Chris had attended school and tryouts they had a little talk

“Well, what now?” sunny asks Chris 

“We look for my dad of course,” Chris says with a heavy sigh.

“Do you have any idea how we are going to be able to manage that,” Sunny says?

“Before dad left he gave me a number, I would guess it's his home phone,” Chris said

As he dials the number Chris knows something is up the number just feels off, and to no one's surprise it went straight to a voicemail telling them to boys the address 

“Man I don't know, this seems very sketchy to me,” Sunny says while being scared 

“Do you think we have a choice? This is the strongest lead we have gotten about them at this point. I don't care about school or tryouts, I want my brothers back,” Chris says.

The address that they had received was a 2-and-a-half-hour drive.

“Well, who's ready for a road trip!” Sunny says 

“Yay this is gonna be great,” Chris says in the most sarcastic tone anyone could have imagined 

Chris kept on thinking if the choice to leave school was a good one. A couple of hours later the two boys had shown up at the apartment complex that they had found from the call. After heading up the stairs Christian was feeling uneasy thinking

 “What if they are not here?”

A little later they arrived at the 4th floor of the apartment complex.

“So which one is theirs,” sunny said 

“Well it said the first door to the left,” Chris replied 

The two boys started the door down and had a little countdown 

“3, 2, 1,” the two boys said together 

Then finally Chris knocked on the door with his impatience taking over, a small step they heard a small step walking to the door, and to their surprise, it was a younger lady maybe in her late 20s answering the door.

“Is there something I can help you with,” said the stranger at the door. 

“Are there two little kids here their names are Jesus and Elijah,” said Chris 

“No I have not seen two little kids running around, and would you by any chance be Christian?” the stranger says.

“ How do you know my name? Do you know my dad?”Chris says 

“Why don't you two boys come in and have a seat,” the stranger said 

After a tense catch up they found out that the stranger is dad's fiance, they figured out that neither his dad nor his brothers are present in that apartment.

“Ok let's cut the crap, where are my dad and my brothers we have reason to suspect that he might have kidnapped them and taken them somewhere,” Chris said while pushing the conversation 

“I'm sorry I don't have an answer to that he said he was on a business trip but he just recently called and said,” the stranger said 

“What did he say?” Chris asked preparing himself for the worst

“That he is taking his sons somewhere, but also informed me that you would somehow get here and I'm impressed”

“What does she mean by 'impressed is she somehow involved in this?” Chris suspects in his thoughts.

“HE IS TAKING HIM WHERE!” Sunny and Chris shouted in sync thinking that it may be too late.

With flashbacks of 

As the two boys walked to see the progress, now they know that the brothers are safe. But from here they have a long way to go to find out where his dad and brothers are.