We ran out to see what had happened, and I sighed in relief.

However, I wasn't sure if that was the proper reaction.

George was sitting in a chair, squeezing his hair. There was a hole in the wall next to him.

"George? Are you hurt?" I asked.

"No!" He yelled. "Your wall is."

I looked at it and frowned. "That's okay. We can get that fixed. I thought you hurt yourself."

"I am hurting!" He stood up and lifted his arm.

I didn't realize what was about to happen until Andrew pushed himself in front of me and gripped George's raised arm. Andrew's other hand pressed against his chest. "You do not get to hit my girl. Ever."

I was horrified. I knew George wouldn't try to hurt me on purpose.

He was really messed up.

His face softened, and his arms dropped. "I... I'm sorry, Jeena. I didn't..."

I saw his eyes start to fill with tears. I moved Andy out of the way and pulled George into a hug. "Hey... it's okay. I know you didn't mean it. We're all scared."

His breathing was uneven. He was doing his best not to start crying again.

Andrew huffed. "Jeena, what are you-"

"Andy, please." I sighed. "If I had been missing for weeks with no word whether I was dead or alive, wouldn't you be a little short-tempered too?"

He didn't say anything, so I took that as a yes. He was hesitant because he didn't like that I was right.

I pulled myself off of George, so it didn't get awkward. "If you want, I can call and ask about the neighborhood they're suspicious of-"

"Neighborhood?" George perked up.

"Yeah, they didn't tell you? There was some weird activity happening the night before she was gone."

"Why did no one tell me this?!" He asked.

"I figured you already knew." I shrugged.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be standing here crying." He wiped his eyes. "I would be out there banging on every single door to talk to people."

"Even if you did, they're not gonna let you into their house," I said.

"Call them. Ask them." He demanded. I gave him a funny look.

When his face softened, he looked at me with the biggest puppy eyes. "Please?"

Andrew had left the room already, so I said, "Man. I see why DJ can never say no to you."

After I phoned the number I was told to call, I wrote down the neighborhood name. They said we could drive by, but don't disturb anyone.

George didn't like that answer. "What?"

I did my best to calm him down again. "Why don't we just take their advice and drive over? Maybe it'll make you feel better to think DJ is close by."

His face changed once again. He stood still for a while with a blank expression, but I knew his heart was racing with anticipation.

"Give me the keys." He said.

"Oh, no." I grabbed them before he could even take a step toward the table they were resting on. "I'm not letting you whip around the streets. I'll drive. Andy, are you coming?"

"I better." He said, coming out of my room. "I don't want George lunging himself into houses."

He grunted in response.

George took the stairs to burn off some steam and, shockingly,  was downstairs before we got there. He was panting slightly, and his forehead was shiny.

I was happy Andy had agreed to come with me. If he didn't, I would've had to convince him to.

When we got to the neighborhood, I already got a chilling feeling. There were only a few houses, and it looped around like a U shape.

Two on the right and left, and one straight ahead.

I'm not sure why this was even called a neighborhood. It was just so tiny.

George hopped out before I could even stop to park the car. He scanned the houses and picked his first target.

"Yog, come on..." Andy said. We watched him walk to one of the houses and knocked on the door.

"Should we follow him?" I asked.

"I think you should. He's gonna cause a lot of attention when people start recognizing who he is. If I go up there, it'll make it worse." He got into the car and shut the door.

"But what if he tries to get into people's houses as you said?" I asked.

"I know what I said. But I think he'll be okay if you're there."

I sighed and walked up to where George was. The door opened on the other side.

An older-looking woman answered. "Oh hello. Can I help you?"

George softened his tone. "Sorry to disturb you, ma'am. I'm sure you've already had a policeman let you know this, er, area is going to be watched for a while."

"Yes, because of that missing girl, what was her name?"

"DJ," George swallowed, hard. His voice was thick now.

"Are you both related to her?" She asked.

George gave her a sweet smile. I answered for him. "I'm a very close friend of hers. He's her boyfriend."

"Oh my." Her eyes widened. "You're a very handsome young man. Is there anything you need?"

He chuckled. "Well, I was wondering if you had noticed anything, I don't know, weird that happened around here?"

She thought for a moment. Then she explained how most of the people in the houses were very friendly. Three houses had a family with kids, one was vacant.

"What about the fifth one?" He asked.

"Oh," she sighed. "Jackson. He lives across from me."

She pointed to the house across to the left from her. "He's... an interesting fella. He's polite, but something is off about him. He rarely leaves the house. I told the police my suspicion. They said the others had said the same."

George sprinted away without another word to the other house. I looked at the old woman sincerely. "I'm sorry. He's just... he's desperate to have her back."

"I see that." She smiled. "It's not a problem, dear. I wish you all the best of luck finding her. I'll keep you all in my prayers."

I waved goodbye to the woman and chased after George.

He was taping his foot and continuously, impatient.

He rang the doorbell again and knocked on the door.

"George, come on. You're not even supposed to be doing this. At least be polite..."

He huffed out, and I'm sure he wanted to give me some nasty remarks, but the door swung open.

"What-" he started to say something, but his face dropped when he looked at the both of us. "George Michael?" He nearly screamed. "What are you doing here?"

DJ's Point of View

I heard talking.

Upstairs.

I always eavesdropped when I did. Which was rare.

I lazily walked up the steps and pressed my ear to the small hole I found in the door. It was truly tiny, but it was the best I could hear from.

Once again, I could only pick up some parts of the conversation.

Someone had a slightly familiar voice. My heart began to beat faster.

"I was told by another I could talk to you about DJ Colleymore's disappearance."

I sighed. Seems like another detective.

I sat on the stairs to listen, but I didn't try as hard.

"Who is it?" Helen asked.

"It's someone coming to ask questions," I said.

Helen started talking to me more. So was Dan. He was very generous, especially when it came to food. But a few times I didn't eat whatever was brought. My appetite still wasn't back.

I'm not sure if it ever would be.

I kept trying to listen to the muffled voices. It sounded like the voices were lowered. I wanted to scream and shout but my throat had become hoarse.

And the last time I did cry for help...

I ended up with a few bruises.

"You know what I remember my mom used to say?" I ask. "Every time I would bruise, she would ask, "can I push on it?" I told her no every time."

Dan laughed. "Helen does the same to me."

I smiled, continuing to push my head on the door. A tear slipped out of my eye, but I wiped it away quickly.

The longer I listened to the conversation, the more something in my gut felt weird. In an instinctive way.

There was something about this person...

They were familiar.

George's Point Of View

Something wrong.

DJ's Point Of View

Way too familiar.

Silence.

For far too long.

I didn't hear anything for a while. I wondered if they had left and I didn't hear the goodbye part.

All of a sudden I craved alcohol. I needed it. I needed to calm my nerves. Wine, tequila, even beer, anything!

I hesitantly began knocking on the door. "Hello?" I kept knocking.

"What is that?" The familiar voice asked.

"My television." The man said. That was always his excuse.

"That was not a TV. What was that?" The voice was harsher.

Now it was extremely familiar.

And yet I couldn't figure out who it was.

"I've been keeping up with the story on the news. I know everything that's happening. Sorry for your loss, I have to get going."

The door shut.

Footsteps came closer, so I stood up. "Who was that?" I asked when the door opened.

"Some... guy. And this other chick... you don't need to know this! Why did you start making noise?" He huffed.

"Do I know them?" I asked.

He practically interrupted me. "How would I know?"

I stared at him for a while. I tried to read his expression through his eyes since I could never see his full face.

He grunted. "Do you need something to drink? Or food?"

"No," I said. "Wait... yeah. Do you have alcohol?"

He looked at me, puzzled. "What?"

"Do you have something for me to drink??" I asked.

"Uh... yeah. What do you want?"

I ended up getting tequila and drank it straight from the bottle. It burned, but it felt good to have it in my system again.

He lifted his hand and pinched a bruise on my arm, which he had created.

"That's for almost blowing this. Next time, it's worse." He threatened, then slammed the door.

Jeena's Point of View

"He said 'sorry for your loss'. He knows something!" George yelped.

"Maybe he was just trying to be nice, George," I said.

"He said he was keeping up on the news! They never said she was found dead!"

I put him in the backseat so he wouldn't distract me while I drove. It didn't help much, since he stuck his head up to the front anyway.

"George put your seatbelt on," Andrew said.

He fumbled with it since he was so amped up. "We need to report this. As soon as we get back I'm-"

"George let's think about this," I said. "It could be nothing."

"I want a search warrant on his entire house!" He yelled.

I flinched.

"George," Andrew turned in his seat. "Please. Lower your voice, and calm down. You're gonna get us into an accident."

He listened this time.

When we got back, he took the stairs again. This time when we found him inside the apartment, (We gave him his own key) he was panting much more and already on the phone.

"I want to speak to officer James." He said.

I sat on the couch to listen in. Plus relax, I was exhausted.

I was exhausted every day anymore.

"I don't care, put him on the phone! I have something he's gonna want to hear."

I wanted as impatiently as George probably was for his chance to speak again.

George's Point Of View

"James," I said, sighing with relief. "I have something you'll want to hear."

"Go ahead." He said, no questions asked.

"It's about one of the people in the neighborhoods."

Before I could continue, he groaned. "I told you we had this covered."

"Clearly you're not doing enough," I said. "Listen..."

I explained everything that happened. From driving to the neighborhood to knocking on the old woman's house, then the weird talk with the guy.

"James, he said he was sorry for my loss."

"So?"

"He knows something! He said he knew everything that was happening with the case, so he should know she wasn't presumed dead!"

The amount of silence in my life was making me crazy. The both of us were quiet.

"Okay." He finally said. "What do you want us to do?" It wasn't sarcastic, he was really asking.

"I want this guy's entire house searched," I said.

"I'll see what we can do. Thanks for calling me though." He hung up before I could thank him back.