Chapter.Four

Chapter.Four

Mrs. Firan sat down at her kitchen table. Her head resting on her closed fist. She stirred her tea bag around, mixing it with the newly boiled water. Tea had always calmed her nerves or helped her relax. This time, as she looked at the picture of her missing son and his father, she knew it would not help her cause. He was fifteen then, and happy.

Bang!

A noise from down in the basement startled her causing her to drop the picture.

"What the...Kylie?!"

She stood up from the table and walked towards the basement door.

"Yes mom?" The eight-year-old ran up behind her. If he was up here? Then who was downstairs? Her heart rate quickened as she grabbed Matt's baseball bat and reached for the door knob.

"Stay here while I go downstairs." Kylie was confused as his mother opened the door and walked down the stairs. She flipped on the lights. There was nothing down there. There was an envelope sitting on Matt's desk though so she walked over and picked it up. It was signed, "Mom" on the front. Flipping it over in her hand, she opened it.

Dear Mom,
I came by to get a few things. My sleeping bag, clothes, my pillow, and don't worry. I packed new underwear and socks. I took the money out of my old piggy bank and some money from the swear jar. Are all those from me? Sorry I've been so...Nevermind. I just want to try to fix my life...On my own. Please tell Kylie I love him. I love you too. Don't come after me.

Your Son,
Matt

Kat's eyes watered as she read. A little drawing of the moon was down in the right hand corner. She folded the note and slid it back into the envelope, kissed it, and place it back on Matt's desk. Walking up the stairs, she switched off the lights and shut the door behind her. Kylie sat at the table with his legs twisted together and his arms resting on the table, fingers woven together. He had a huge smile on his face which made her eyes light up.

He jumped from the table and ran to her, throwing his arms around her. "He was here wasn't he?"

His mother kissed the top of his forehead and wiped the tears from her own eyes. "He loves you."

Chapter.Three

Chapter.Three

He sat staring out at the harvest moon. It was an odd feeling he got everytime he saw it. It left him in awe, the orange and yellow molded together adding up to a great, wonderous sight. He concentrated on it hard, bringing it down to him.
"Matthew?" The sound of his name broke his concentration and the moon appeared back in the sky. "Mattie?" There was only one person who had ever called him that. Traci Tivin, a friend since...Well, he couldn't even remember when they first met. She appeared at the top of the hill. "Is this seat taken?"
"Does it look like someone's sitting there?" He had been pretty cold to her ever since she ditched him for jocks and cheerleading. They were like brother and sister until sixth grade. Now their friendship was on and off.
Traci sat down next to him and the blood on his hand caught her eye. "What happened? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He wrapped some gauze that he had in his backpack around it. He didn't have any tape so he just folded it in itself.
"You should clean that. It'll get infected."
"What is it to you? Why don't you go worry about wether your make up matches your cheerleading outfit or something." He turned away from her not wanting to see the hurt look on her face. He knew it hurt her when he mocked her. "Besides, we're all gonna die anyway. I'm just speeding up the process with a small cut." He stood up swinging his bag over his shoulder and left Traci there...Alone.

Chapter.Two

(Sorry for the long awaited post)
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Chapter.Two


As the officer walked down the creaky basement stares, he felt a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect. He looked all around the basement. It was warm, not cold like he had expected. There were different bands and singers posted all over the walls. Jimi Hendrix was one posted right over a black Gibson acoustic resting on a stand, a chord hanging up next to it on top of a small amp. *I never knew he played the guitar.* He touched the headstock of the guitar and looked around at all of the other posters. Nirvana, Blink 182, Third Eye Blind, and some bands he had never heard of.
Bucka really didn't know what he was looking for. He knew that Matt was clean and wasn't into pot or any other drugs. First seventeen year old boy that he's ever met like that. Maybe that came with the officer's profession. As a cop, it's not likely that the kids who come into the station are clean.
He flipped through a small photo book seeing Matt with a few friends. A lot of them were of him and his best friend Rad who Bucka knew very well. They both were always in and out of the station. He shut the photo book and walked towards a bookcase. As he ran his fingers across the books, he felt a tug on his pants. It was Matt's younger brother Kylie.

"Sir?" The boy was about six or seven years old and looked exactly like Matt and his mother.

"Yes?" Bucka spoke lightly so Kylie didn't feel scared or uneasy.

"Are you going to find my big brother?" A tiny tear appeared from the corner of his eye. The officer knelt down on one knee in front him. Kylie looked down at his feet and gave a little sniffle.

"Yes. On one condition." This made Kylie look back up at him. "You have to help your mom. She's going through a rough time and you have to help make it easier on her. Take care of her until Matt gets back. Anytime she gets upset just give her a great big bear hug."

"Like this?" The boy smiled and flung his arms around Bucka's neck. The officer laughed.

"Just like that."

"Thank you." The boy smiled and ran off upstairs to find his mother.

Bucka used a desk for balance as he stood up. *I'm getting to old for this* He thought to himself. He continued to look for clues, rummaging through Matt's desk drawers. In one drawer was a small notebook, leather bound. He opened the notebook and saw that it was a sketch pad. There were little pencil sketches of a man that looked like Matt, but older. On the next page, there was another drawing of a young man standing with an older woman and a younger boy. They were standing in front of a grave. When he looked closer, he realized it was a scene that Matt had drawn from his father's funeral. He flipped through the pages, there were some pages ripped out, but nothing that could help Bucka out. He put the book back in the drawer and shut it. He took one more look around the room, then continued his way upstairs.

As he exited the basement and shut the door, Matt's mother walked in from the other room smiling. Kylie ran in right behind her up to Bucka. "I did exactly what you told me too! Now I have to go to bed..." Then he ran off upstairs.

His mother looked at Bucka with a tear in her eye. She smiled a thank you. "Did you find anything?"

Bucka looked down shaking his head. "Sorry miss. I didn't find anything that would've helped. I didn't realize that Matt was an artist or a musician. His sketches are amazing."

"He gets that from his father." Katherine smiled and walked over to the coffee table, picked up the two coffee mugs from early and carried them over to the sink. A long silence continued until finally Bucka walked over and picked up his hat.

"I better get back to the station. I'll let you know if anything turns up." He smiled.

"Thank you so much for coming down." They walked to the door and she opened it.

"It's my job miss." He put on his hat nodding slightly, and walked out the door. He was disappointed that he didn't find anything that would help. Then he thought about it. Rad would probably know something.

Chapter.One

...Read the intro first!
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Chapter 1

Officer Kacie Bucka leaned back in the black, leather office chair with a squeak. He stretched his arms back and lifted his hat to run his fingers through his hair, then placed the hat back on his head. Resting his elbow up on the arm of the chair, he rubbed his forehead. Kacie sighed softly and rocked back and forth watching the phone. Why wouldn't it ring? He looked at the clock, it was late. As soon as he thought the phone wouldn't ring, it did. He didn't want to rush and pick it up so he let it ring a couple of times, then picked it up.
"Good evening, you've reached the P..." Before he could finish, a woman cried out through the reciever.
"My son is missing! I can't find him anywhere. I've called all his friends, the school, all the places where he hangs out, and no sign of him!" She continued on an on not able to stop talking.
"Ma'am! Please calm down and tell me..."
"Tell you what! I don't know anything right now! I'm a widow with two sons and I can't find one of them! I can't believe this is happening. I don't know what I did, he didn't even say goodbye or anything!" She began to talk to herself and become hysterical."Matthew, what did I do?"
"Please calm down and breathe for a moment..." There was silence as the woman took a long deep breath. "Thank you. NOw tell me. When was the last time you saw him?"
"Ummm...I don't know..." The woman took a minute to think. "The three of us - Kylie, Matthew, and I - had breakfast together this morning before I brought Matt to school. And then he called and said he was going to visit his father after school." She paused.
"Then he's probably off somewhere with his Dad." Kacie couldn't believe that after the whole time of waiting for someone to call and end the deafening silence in the office, he was stuck with a hysterical woman.
"My husband is dead!"
"Oh, sorry miss...I didn't mean to..."
"I know...Matthew was just...So close to his father." She sniffled. "By any chance, could you come over? Maybe search his room for clues or whatever you guys do." She choked out a small chuckle. "Sounds ridiculous. I won't check his room because it would be a violation of our trust code."
He let out a little laugh as well to lighten the mood. "Of course. What is your address?"
"55 Beach Street."
"I'll be right there." They both hung up and Kacie jumped into the squad car. *55 Beach Street...Isn't that where...Matt...Matt Firan.* He knew the boy that had run away. After picking Matt and his friend up in the middle of the night so many times, Bucka knew the route by heart. So many times he'd find that Matt had gotten himself in trouble. The boy had actually begun to spend time at the station helping Kacie with filing. Why didn't it register before?
Kacie walked up the paved walkway and knocked on the aqua green door. He heard a younger boy yell to his mom on the other side and saw a blonde head through the top windows. The door opened. The officer automatically placed out his hand.
"Officer Kacie Bucka at your service." When her hand touched his, he finally took a good look at her. She was about 5'8", a little shorter than him, and looked like her son. Her eyes were red and looked soar from crying.
"Katherine Firan, Matthew's mom. Please, come in." She moved to the side, gesturing with her arm fro him to enter. As Kacie did, he took off his hat so as not to be rude. He stopped and waited for Ms. Firan to shut the door and then followed her into the kitchen.
"Would you like something to drink Mr. Bucka? Coffee? Tea?" She sniffled.
"Coffee would be fine thank you." He spun his hat through his fingers looking at the kitchen table, seeing a picture of Matt. He picked it up and saw it was the right kid who hung out at the office.
"Please sit." Katherine sat and put down a cup of coffee for Bucka as he sat as well, putting his hat down. There was an awkward silence as the sipped coffee. Bucka put his mug down and placed his arms on the table to twidle his thumbs, a nervous habit of his.
"I should've registered this before and told you over the phone but I didn't realize it until you told me your address."
"Realized what?" Katherine began to get excited as if Bucka was going to tell her that he found her son.
"Your son, I've brought him home many times for obvious reasons." Katherine smiled, a little embarassed. "Lately though, he's been hanging around the office with me, helping me file."
"He's always been interested in police work. Totally obsessed with Cops." She smiled again then sipped her coffee.
There was another awkward pause until the officer stood up. With this, Katherine stood as well. "So where is Matt's room?"
Katherine pointed to a door under the stairs that led to the second floor. "He moved into the basement. His father and he fixed it up nicely."
The officer walked over to it and opened the door and looked down at the small set of stairs that led down. He flicked on the lights and headed down to Matt's room.

*Introduction*

A low, full howl sounded in the thick evening air. The moon's reflection sparkled off the still lake.A young man stared at the reflection in the water, pondering over how he was still alive. His beautiful blue eyes watered again and a tear came down his cheek; he blinked, and the tear fell. Looking up at the moon, he saw the face of the man he mourned, A man he once knew as his father. He could only think about one thing; *If it wasn't for this mouth of mine, you wouldn't be dead.*
He dropped to his knees as he began to cry once more. He couldn't remember the last time his eyes were dry. He knew he didn't deserve to live till his eighteenth birthday. At the rate he was going, he wouldn't. Drawing his fingers across the engraved letters, he read the name of his father. David Michael Firan. Jan 1957-Dec 2001; Loving Husband to Catherine; Loving Father to Matt & Kylie.
*If I hadn't yelled...* The pain of what had happened was too much for him to bear. He had to be strong and not cry. Even if he knew it was alright. *I'm sorry...* Taking out his father's leatherman, he flipped out the sharpened blade. Resting the knife against the soft skin of his palm, he paused. "I love you...", he whispered. With that, he sliced a line across his skin and grabbed the blade. His blood seeped through his fingers and dripped onto the leaves below. Shocked slightly, he opened his hands and let the knife fall. Then he ran...