Off the Deep End (68)

“Get out of here!” Isaac snapped at me before I had a chance to introduce myself to his friend. I’d quickly set his clothes on the bed and hurried out of his room so I wouldn’t embarrass him any more than I already had.

Isaac had been irritated and annoyed when I’d questioned him about his new friend after he left. This time I’d knocked on his door and been invited inside.

“You wanted me to have friends, right, Mom?” he asked with an angry scowl. “That was the whole point of me not hanging out with Jules so much, remember? So that I could spend time with kids my own age. Isn’t that what you said?”

“Yes, I . . . it’s just that . . .” Heat burned my cheeks. How could I be so nervous with my own child? When had it gotten this difficult?

“It’s just that what?” He rose from his desk and puffed his chest out as he walked over to where I stood in the doorway. He towered over me. “You want me to have certain kinds of friends—is that it?”

I snapped my mouth closed and hurried away. I never said anything. Just left it alone because he was right. I wanted him to hang out with other people besides Jules. There was nothing normal about their relationship. I could justify it when she was in the hospital, but all that changed when she got out. We’d been threatening to put an end to their relationship for weeks, so all I’d focused on was being happy that it was finally over. I’d never given his new friend a second thought.

Maybe the boy that day had been one of his online friends from Dracho. What if the game had already crossed over into his real life, and Mark hadn’t known it? Was there any chance Isaac wasn’t making things up? Thoughts of the game brought me back to the computer sitting in front of me.

The police had been in his room the night he’d gone missing, and they’d searched through his stuff, but they’d left his computer alone. There was no reason to do anything with it at the time. Not when they were so focused on the Dog Snatcher being responsible for his disappearance.

I took a deep breath and slowly jiggled his mouse to wake the system up. It wasn’t like I didn’t believe Mark about the game. I just wanted to see for myself. The computer came to life slowly since nobody had touched it in eleven days. I entered Isaac’s passcode and watched as his desktop loaded. His background was a picture of one of his favorite video game characters in a battle stance holding a gun. He just kept leaping and flashing across the screen. I had no idea you could animate your desktop wallpaper, and it quickly started giving me a headache. There was nothing on his desktop except the Google Chrome icon and the recycle bin. That was strange, but maybe he was one of those people who hated icons and folders cluttering up their screen.

I clicked on the start menu to pull up his list of programs and software, but there was barely anything listed except the basics that came with the computer system and Microsoft Office. He used to write all his school projects and reports with it in middle school before he switched to Google Docs. I opened those document files and folders, but there wasn’t anything in them except old homework. I pulled up the list of recent downloads, but Dracho was missing. All his other games were gone too. The hardware and software needed to run the computer were on the drive, but none of his games were. His computer search and download history were missing too. All his programs. Files. Games. Applications. They were all gone. Everything had disappeared from his computer like he’d disappeared from the street.

The room pulsed and throbbed around me. The fear surged through me, leaving me weak, and I was glad I was sitting down. I pulled my phone out and texted Mark:

Come up to Isaac’s room. It’s important.





TWENTY


AMBER GREER


There weren’t butterflies in my stomach—there were birds, and they twisted my insides as Mark’s footsteps thundered up the stairs and into Isaac’s room. He was by my side at the desk immediately. “What’s going on? What did you find?”

“There’s nothing here.” I pointed at the computer.

“What do you mean there’s nothing there?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Everything is gone. All his games. His history. Files. They’re all gone. Unless they’re hidden somewhere in some kind of secret folder that I can’t find, but they’re not here.” I just kept pointing at the screen.

“That’s impossible.” He shook his head, bewildered. “Move over.” He motioned for me to get out of the chair, and I gladly jumped out of it so he could slide into my spot. I stood behind him, watching over his shoulder as he grabbed the mouse and started searching. His hands flew over the keyboard, and his mouse clicked on all the things I’d already clicked on: files, folders, servers. All of it. He kept doing it over and over again. Just like I’d done. Checking and rechecking. After a few more minutes, he sank into the chair, and his shoulders drooped with defeat. He frowned. “There’s nothing there.”

“I know—that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” I said, feeling his defeat as much as he did. I’d been secretly hoping Isaac had just tucked his stuff away somewhere that I couldn’t find it and that Mark would be able to locate it since he was more computer savvy than me.

Mark put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. “I can’t believe he did that.”