Prologue 

“Let’s go Clark, we are going to late!”
I stood up, grabbed my phone, and jacket then headed downstairs for the door. Sam was standing there next to it about to turn the knob and open the door when we were hauled to a complete stop. “Not so fast young ladies.” We both turned and saw our dad standing in the archway of the dining room.
“Yes, dad.” we said in unison.
“Alright here is the deal. You are both to be home by midnight and not a minute later. Am I clear?”
“Yes dad I promise to have us both home by then. So now if you'll excuse us we…” Sam began to say but was cut off.
“Hold on a second I wasn’t finished.” he walked forward. “There is to be absolutely no drinking.”
“Ok we promise dad now can we please go my friends are waiting?” she asked.
“Ok fine. Have a good time and be safe.”
“Ok we will.”
She opened the door and both of us ran out of our house. Her car was parked on the curb.

   After about an hour of this party I was completely bored to tears. The party was being held at somebody’s obnoxiously large house that lay in the heart of what my friends and I call the “Snobby Square”. The Snobby Square was basically the area where all of the snooty rich people live. It was geographically located in the suburbs of Boston. The house was beautiful but its beauty was hidden by the hundreds of drunk hormonal teenagers. The house smelt like cheap kegs of beer and pot smoke. It was unbelievable at how these people chugged back beer after beer. I saw one guy drink three beers in under two minutes. He continued to drink and is now stumbling around trying to dance with any girl who was as drunk as he was. I am a freshman in a room full of juniors and seniors who somehow all know my sister. Speaking of which I began turning around trying to figure out where she was. I pushed my way through the crowds and was unsuccessful. I walked outside  and saw nothing. When I went back inside I spotted a staircase in the corner of the room that lead to up stairs. When I climbed the stairs I could hear faint voices coming from one of the rooms. I walked down the hall opening every door to every room just to find my sister but before I could reach the last door in the hall I hear two people yelling at each other. The door sprung open and my sister can stammering out of the bedroom followed by her boyfriend Adam Jacobson.
“Adam I told you that I don’t want to do this.” she proclaims.
“Sam you have told me everyday for the past week that you can’t wait for this but now we are here and you are just being completely selfish.”
“Selfish? Are you kidding me? Adam can’t you just open your eyes and realize that I really and not ready for this.”
I knew exactly what they were talking about. Two weeks ago I overheard Adam trying to get my sister to do drugs. Sam is terrified of them. Adam keeps telling her that it isn’t that big of a deal but since our mom is a nurse, she has told the two of us every horror story you can think of regarding that subject. Sam turned to walk away from only to see me standing there. She began to walk forward away from Adam towards me.
“Clarke let’s go!”
I turned back towards the stair, grabbed my sister’s friend Cassidy who drove us here, and left. Cassidy was so drunk  and my sister had a sip or two so there was no choice but to have me drive. I don’t get my license until this summer. I drove back to Cassidy’s house and dropped her and her car off which left me and Sam to walk.
“Hey Sam?” I asked as we walked down the street.
“Yeah.” she responded.
“Are you ok? What was going on between you and Adam.” I asked this even though I knew.
“I’m fine. Adam will come around. He always does.”
“Was he trying to get you to do drugs again?”
“Wait!” she grabbed my arm and came to a complete stop. “What do you mean again?”
“Sam I heard you two at our house.”
“Oh I’m sorry you had to hear that. Please don’t tell mom and dad.”
“I won’t as long as you keep saying to no to him.”
“I will. I promise I won’t.”
“Ok that’s fine.” We continued to walk home in complete silence.

    When we walked into our house my parents and brother were sitting in the family room watching football. 
“Hey girls you are home early.” my mom said as I looked at the clock on the wall that read 10:45.
“Yeah the party was sort of a bust so we decided to come home.” I said.
“Well why don’t you guys come and join us.” my dad said.
“That’s ok. We are both tired so I think we are going to go to bed early.” Sam responded.
“Ok we will see you two in the morning. Love you both.” my mom said. My sister and I walked up stairs and actually hopped in bed and fell asleep.
    I woke up in the middle of the because I felt a freezing cold draft coming from my door of our room. I halfway roll over in a complete daze to see our door wide open.
“Sam? Sam?” I continued to roll all the way over. “Sam?” That was when I say that she wasn’t in her bed. I pushed myself up and peeled back the covers. I pulled my jacket I was wearing last night on and walked out of our room. I peered into the bathroom finding nothing. Then I looked in my brothers and parent’s rooms. Nothing. I walked downstairs where it was so cold. My feet were frozen solid. I was completely clueless at where this cold air was coming from. I began to call her name again.
“Sam? Sam are you down here? Sam if you are trying to scare me this isn’t funny.” I walked around the entire main floor only to find the front door wide open. I was beginning to be very scared. I flipped up the light switch and look around. As I went to begin walking around again I felt my feet step into something wet. I looked down and in complete panic I screamed at the top of my lungs. My feet were covered in thick red blood. The entire front staircase was cover in it all the way out the front door and you could see in the white snow that covered the ground. It ended at the curb. I was horrified. I was screaming this entire time and my parents and brothers came rushing down stair only to find me crouched on the floor covered in blood. They were yelling at me but I was in complete shock and I couldn’t hear a word they were saying. They only thing I could hear was my parents yelling Sam’s name and telling my brothers to call 9-1-1. My sister was here one minute and gone in the next but who ever did this didn’t hesitate.

Chapter 1


      I pushed the wooden door open to my family’s empty townhouse. It lay on a quiet street in the suburbs of Boston. The outside was made of beautiful red bricks covered with green ivy running up the side. It was an empty dust void inside. As I stepped into the foyer I felt a flood of memories rush back into my mind. I could see my sister and I playing tag with our brothers when we were little. I could hear the infinite sounds of laughter. But, this memory was then overthrown by the horror of my sister’s disappearance. It had only been a year ago when she
went missing and I keep getting the feeling that she is still out there.

I continued to walk through the house. The old wood floor cracked beneath my feet as I entered the kitchen. The beautiful redwood cabinets and granite countertops made me think of my mom who would cook and bake goods that were unbelievably good. She loved that kitchen. I was surprised that in the 20 years she lived here she never rolled out a sleeping bag and camped out on the counter because of her love for that room. She would try to teach my sister and I how to bake but they would always turn out to be hockey pucks my brothers could play with in the street. I knew that she still loved us even if we couldn’t bake the perfect cookie. My mom loved us all and her love was unconditional. She was an amazing woman with the kindest heart.

     I passed the table where we would have our family dinners every night. It was also the place where my parents sat in tears and total disbelief that Sam was gone. I walked around the corner and climbed the stairs that lead me to all of our bedrooms. As I walked into our room I felt my eyes begin to water and my vision got blurred. The room was so cold. The only source of heat was the sunlight streaming through the center of the curtains covering the window. I looked around envisioning our furniture placed in their proper spots. I could see us both getting ready for school every morning fighting over counter space in the bathroom and picking out the perfect dresses for parties. I just can’t believe I couldn’t do anything about what happened to her.  One year without my sister felt like a lifetime and today was the day that this nightmare begun.

     She was the only sister I had and since my brothers both went off to college last year I was left with no one. My parents were basically statues. They wake up in the morning, watch the local news, and read the paper to see if there was any news about Sam. But, every morning would be a disappointment because there was nothing. Then my mom drives me to school in complete silence. The only words I could get from her were “see you after school” as I get out of her car. When I would get home they would be sitting at the table in complete silence eating whatever take-out food they hadn’t eaten in the last week. My mom hadn’t cooked a meal since Sam’s disappearance. She didn’t even cook for Thanksgiving or Christmas. She said why should she cook or celebrate when she doesn’t have anything to be thankful for. But I didn’t think like that. I know that having Sam be gone is nothing to be thankful for but I think she should be thankful for the fact that my brothers and I are safe and that the police have not stopped looking for her.

    Finally when the day had ended, my parents would put the silverware in the sink, throw the rest of the food and paper plates away, and go up to bed. Then they would leave me alone again sitting under the one light that was on in the house. I would sit there with a hundred thoughts in my brain. I would think is my sister alive? If so where was she? What is she doing right now? Did someone take her? What were they doing to her? Why would they take her and not me? And my final thought of the night before I went to bed would be will she ever come home.

Chapter 2

     Through this past 4 months I have heard the words “I’m so sorry” so many times. I appreciate people feeling so bad but, now it is just getting old. I keep saying it’s ok but really it’s not. Their words don’t help the situation. Their words aren’t helping my sister come home. I feel like if they were really sorry they would be doing something about it like helping look for her but, then I realize that they are a bunch of teenagers just like me who can’t do anything. I walk through the hall of Fenway High as a charity case because I have a missing sister. One time I completely forgot to do a paper for my history class on the Revolutionary War. My teacher pulled aside after class and said that she knew that I was going through a lot and that she would give my extra time to do it. I told her I would do it but she was not to give me full credit. She asked why and my response was that I can’t keep getting special privileges for something that happened a four months ago and not even to me. I wasn’t missing. But, when I moved schools I was just another face in the crowd.

     My name is Clark Allen . I am sixteen and I was fifteen when my sister went missing. My sister’s name is Samantha. She went missing on September 24, 2012. It was her sixteenth birthday. I have two older fraternal twin brothers Ethan and Owen. Ethan left home and headed west for college at USC and Owen stayed closer to home by going to Boston College.  After Sam was gone we only stayed at our house for four months. My parents said that they couldn’t live in this house anymore because they don’t want to think about how this is the place where someone took Sam. I was so unhappy about this whole thing. That house was were the four of us grew up. It was home. I was a safe place for us to come home to after hard bad day. But then I thought maybe it wasn’t such a safe place after all. My parents decided to move to Cambridge, Massachusetts. We used to go there to visit my grandparents before they passed away. I knew absolutely nobody and was completely lost. Cambridge High was the biggest school I have ever stepped foot in. I had never seen such big halls with hundreds of lockers lining the walls. It was impossible to get from one side of campus to another without getting trampled. I am a junior this year. I was in the midst of the hardest year academically I have ever faced. But, it wouldn’t be too hard for me because I had absolutely no friends which meant no distractions. But, one perk of this year is that I am getting my license so my mom doesn’t have to take me to school anymore. I won’t have to listen to the same four words she says every morning ever again.

*     *     *

      The house my parent bought is huge. I was blown away by the size of this place. I had never seen such a such house. They house inside was divided into two parts there was the main bedrooms and then there was a separate bedroom above the kitchen and garage. Well my parents decided to live in the main part of the house and put me on the other side of the house. They wanted as much space between us as possible. There was a secret room hidden behind the a bookcase. It was a big space as if it was a storage room or attic. But I turned it into my hiding place. I dusted and cleaning the room head to toe. There was so many cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. I brought in an extra mattress with sheets and pillow and strung colorful lights above the it. There are two windows on either end of the room that overlook the backyard and the front yard so I could see everything. This house was a waterfront house and was surrounded by lush forest of trees. We had a huge yard with a swimming pool, beach, and dock. I really debated why my parents bought this gigantic house when there is only three of us living here. There were 7 bedrooms and we didn’t even have enough beds to fill all of the rooms.
On the first day we were moving in I went walking down the main upstairs hall looking for my mom because I needed help carrying in the rest of the boxes. I found her in one of the rooms unloading all of my sister’s things.
“Um what are you doing mom?” I asked.
“I am unloading these boxes. What does it look like I am doing?” she responded.
“It looks like you are unloading all of Sam’s things into a room that she’s not even living in.”
“Clarke! How dare you say something so cruel and disgusting.”
“Mom, Sam is gone! Why would you put all of her things in here.”
“Clarke we don’t know where your sister is or when or if she is coming home so I would appreciate it if you would act like you actually care about your sister.”
“Mom I do care but...” she interrupted me.
“Clarke, no! Just go unload the rest of your things and leave me only right now. I really don’t want to talk to you after the horrible things you just said.”
I turned around only to find my dad standing in the doorway. I just lowered my head and walked out feeling awful for the things I just said that to my mom.

Chapter 3
My emotions had completely taken over. I was completely consumed by my anger. I have never been so angry. I walked out of the house and ran around the side of the house. I stopped running, took a huge heaving breath, and felt my legs give out from underneath me. I began to sink to the floor. I was trying so hard to hold back the tears but, it was useless. I just can’t believe how much of my life has been broken and taken away from me. My brothers, my house in Boston, my mom and dad, and most of all, my sister. Sam and I were closer than close. We had a bond that we thought could never be broken. Sam would never leave me out of anything. She never wanted me to feel alone or abandoned. Sam would never let anything bad happen to me. I just wish I could have done the same thing for her.
Everyday I try to envision the night Sam went missing. I try so hard to figure out what I could have done differently.