Aether is it?

It was exactly two weeks since Ava and Noctis had disappeared.

Their parents still called it missing.

They still used the word like a charm against something worse.

Then the call came.

The police didn't come to the door with hats in their hands.

They called first.

Asked them to come in.

That was bad enough.

Luna knew something was wrong the second her mother hung up.

Her mother's hands were shaking.

Her father was pale, quiet.

They didn't say what the police wanted.

They just said they all needed to go.

The ride to the station was silent.

Luna felt like she couldn't breathe.

She sat in the back, watching the world blur past the car window.

When they got there, they weren't alone.

Ava's family was already waiting.

Her mother was crying.

Her father looked furious and lost.

Ava's older brother sat with his fists clenched, white-knuckled.

They all filed into the same cramped meeting room.

The detective looked tired.

Older man.

He'd met them before.

He didn't try to smile this time.

He cleared his throat.

"We found something."

Noctis's mother grabbed his father's arm.

"What?"

"Blood."

Silence.

The word felt like it sucked all the air from the room.

The detective continued.

"We found a site in the industrial area. Abandoned lot. Blood spatter, partial trail, but no bodies."

"We ran DNA. Matches both of them."

Luna felt like she was falling.

She couldn't hear anything for a second.

Her ears buzzed.

Ava's mother let out a horrible keening noise.

Ava's father stood up so suddenly the chair slammed backward.

"So you're saying they're dead?!"

"We don't know that."

The detective raised both hands.

"It's not enough blood loss to guarantee lethality. There's no body. No signs of them being transported away dead. No proof of death. But—"

He paused.

"—it suggests injury. Possible foul play."

Noctis's father clenched his jaw so hard Luna heard it pop.

Her mother sobbed, breath hitching.

The detective kept talking.

"We're treating it as an abduction or assault. We can't rule out homicide. But the missing persons case remains active. It isn't being reclassified yet."

Ava's brother slammed a fist onto the table.

"So you don't know anything."

"We know they were both there."

Luna wanted to scream.

She wanted to grab the detective's stupid tie and shake him.

They were there.

They bled there.

And now they're gone.

Her brother.

Her stupid, protective brother.

Who got mad at her for staying up too late.

Who made her tea when she cried over tests.

Ava, who always laughed gently when Noctis scolded Luna.

Who helped with her hair before festivals.

She couldn't picture them bleeding in some filthy lot.

After the meeting, the families didn't even look at each other.

They just went home.

That night was the worst yet.

Luna heard her parents fighting.

Muffled.

They were trying to keep it quiet for her.

But she heard.

"You promised me he'd be okay!"

"How the fuck was I supposed to know—"

"You always said it was just a phase—"

"Mayu, stop!"

"HE'S OUR SON."

Glass shattered.

Someone sobbed.

Luna curled on her bed with her pillow over her head, but it didn't block anything out.

The next day at school was unbearable.

The news had leaked somehow.

The "missing" flyers were gone.

Someone had put FOUND DEAD? on them in marker before they were ripped down.

Her homeroom teacher tried to talk to her in private.

She told her to fuck off.

She didn't even get detention.

She didn't want pity.

Or rumors.

Or anyone looking at her at all.

Ava's house was worse.

Their mom didn't stop crying.

Their dad went silent.

Her brother didn't come home for two days straight.

They had been fighting before Ava went missing.

About school.

About the future.

Now he wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

He left whiskey bottles in the living room.

Their mom tried to throw them out, screaming at him to stop.

The whole street heard.

The police kept calling, asking for anything they might remember.

Ava's mother always picked up.

Her voice was hoarse from crying.

Noctis's father started ignoring the calls.

He said the police were useless.

That they didn't want to solve anything.

At night, both families sat in darkened rooms, watching old photos on their phones.

In one, Ava and Noctis were side by side at the summer festival.

Noctis was making bunny ears behind Ava's head.

She was rolling her eyes, but she was smiling.

It was from only months before.

Now all they had was blood on concrete.

The police said they were still searching.

But everyone could see it.

The search parties were smaller.

The media had moved on.

There were other crimes.

Other tragedies.

Two teenagers gone.

No ransom.

No suspects.

Blood found, but no bodies.

It was the worst possible limbo.

Noctis's mother washed the same dishes three times.

She didn't remember doing it.

Ava's mother wrote her a letter she couldn't finish.

She didn't even know where to send it.

Luna lay awake at night whispering:

"Please. Please be alive. Please come home."

No one answered.

But she kept saying it anyway.

Because it was all she could do.