VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

f o u r ✔✔

"Mixed CD's?"

Arielle looked at the leather bag at her feet, filled with snacks and brochures and maps—and yes, the CD's that she'd discovered in the box of Jade's stuff. "Check."

"And... mix-tapes, in case the CD player breaks like last time?" Stella sneered.

Arielle hit her shoulder. "Also check. Are you sure you want to drive first? It's a ways out to Philly, I'm fine with starting." She buckled her passenger seat-belt, taking a large gulp of the lingering stuffy ashtray odor. She didn't smoke—but her dad did, and he often took her car to work to toy with it.

Stella adjusted the mirrors, reclined the chair, fastened her own belt. "I got it. To be honest... Mom and I had another big fight and driving... keeps my mind occupied. You can be the DJ." She turned to Arielle and flashed her signature grin; wide, toothy, impossible to not find adorable. "Are you excited?"

Arielle gaped out the front dash, unsure what to respond. Was she excited? Stella wasn't—she only asked because she wanted to get this over with. Explore places that were supposedly full of specters and that would likely rouse her powers and somehow prove to her mom that she did have the medium gene? It didn't take a genius to know Stella dreaded this. But she'd organized it for Jade, and stubborn as she was, she'd see it through.

A true Capricorn.

"Yeah. I'm nervous, too, I won't lie. These tours sound credible as fuck, but... yeah." Arielle leaned into the seat, trying to get comfortable in the squeaky, spongy cushions.

Stella started the car, and they took off. "Eastern State Penitentiary, here we come!"

The name alone evoked recollections of episodes of Ghost Adventures that Jade had made the girls suffer through, a few months prior, when they first spoke of this trip. Jade's chants of "Zak went here!" and "We have to say the same shit he said!" echoed in Arielle's ears as they left behind their busy Columbus suburb and rolled onward to a new adventure.

"Did you download all the apps I put on the list?" Stella's gaze again found the tattered bag at Arielle's feet before returning to the road. "Some of them seemed shitty, but they were the best I could find considering how broke we are."

Fumbling with the first CD—The Backstreet Boys, because why not?—Arielle nodded. "I tested a few of them out, for the hell of it. They're serious garbage, but the voice recorder one is genuine enough, from the reviews I read. The scanner one is fifty-fifty. We might catch something but... we'll do better with our phone-cameras."

Knock-offs. Cheap downloads from play-stores, whatever scrounged up a halfway decent review on the internet. Stella had spent several hours researching, reading through comments and articles, and Arielle experimented.

Stella groaned. "Oh, and don't make fun of me, but I brought my big-girl camera, too. That might up our chances. I mean, we won't get anything, because ghosts aren't real, and when you die, you don't dawdle in the same spot to haunt people, no matter what you and Jade and Mom say—"

"—don't throw me in the mix! I don't believe in any of that crap either!" Arielle's hands flew up. "Drive, would you? We'll see what we get, and we'll deal with it, yeah?"

"As long as you love me" came on, and the girls set aside their serious conversation to sing at the top of their lungs, windows rolled down for all in the vicinity to hear. They sang off-key, screeching and ridiculous, garnering giggles from people using crosswalks as they stopped at red-lights. But they didn't care—they were taking a road-trip for the ages, giving homage to a lost loved one, and hopefully... getting closure. So they sang, and sang, and sang some more.