“Answer it” Simon said.

  With that, Molly answered the call, and what she was being told on the other end made her smile fade. She closed her phone and looked at Simon.

  “We have to go to her house” she told him.

  Tyra's mum, Alisha, was a very pretty woman, you could tell where Tyra got her looks. She was wearing a green dress and had her hair tied up in a nice curly bun with a scurnchie as she entered her living room with two cups of soda.

  “At least it's something” she said as she placed the cups down on the table before sitting down.

  Molly and Simon were sitting on the opposite sofas to her. Simon picked up the cup, and took a sip. Molly, on the other hand, was holding a phone in her hand. Only it wasn't her phone. It was Tyra's. She was staring at it intently. She knew her best friend too well. Tyra would never just leave her phone somewhere. Especially with how much she loves taking selfies, and making videos on her socials. Molly was trying to figure out why this had turned up, and not her.

  “A little boy found it” Alisha said, looking directly at Molly, trying to get her out of her thoughts.

  “It doesn't make sense” Molly said.

  “Tell me about it, darling,” Alisha replied, glad she got something out of her daughter's best friend, “My baby would never just leave her phone lyin' around”

  Molly put in Tyra's pin code so she could look at the phone itself, and maybe try to figur eout why Tyra ditched her phone.

  “That's why I called you,” Alisha continued, “If anyone would be able to find something on there, it's her best friend, right?”

  “That's often true, for anything” Simon added.

  “I'm glad you did,” Molly said, searching through Tyra's phone with her finger, “It might not be her, but it could lead us to her, or at least help us figure out why she's doing this”

  “Where did you say it was found?” Simon asked.

  “Oh,” Alisha replied, “Apparently, he found it just by...”

  But Molly had drowned the conversation out. She was now on Tyra's social media. As Tyra. She began looking through her feed, her direct messages, her stories, everything, even her recent posts. When none of them gave anything away, she clicked on her drafts and saw a bunch of make up videos ready to go. But there was one video that was odd. It looked like it was filmed in bushland. But as far as Molly knew, Tyra wasn't going away anywhere. Even if she was, she hated the bush. Molly bit her lip before she clicked on the video.

  “So it's definitely out of character” Simon was saying to Alisha, trying to gather more information from Tyra's mother.

  “Yes, for sure, darling,” Alisha told him, “She shares everything with everyone, wanted to aswell, that's why she has social media”

  Simon looked around the room awkwardly as he took another sip of his soda and noticed something on the wall.

  “Is that an award?” he asked, pointing to a framed certificate hanging on the wall just to the left of the three.

  Alisha looked to where he was pointing and her face lit up before she answered.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed with glee, “It's an award for most followers on a social media site. I don't quite understand it, but it celebrates my baby so I had it framed and keep it up there!”

  Simon didn't have any social media himself, so all this talk with Alisha was new. It was like diving into a brand new world. He knew Tyra was popular, based on how much she bragged about her videos, but he never would have thought most followers award type of popular. It sort of impressed him. Just then, Molly's gasp shot him back to reality and both he and Alisha looked at her.

  “What is it, sweetheart?” Alisha asked her.

  “This video of Tyra's,” Molly said, placing Tyra's phone down on the table in front of them, “It was in her drafts”

  “Is that bushland?” Simon asked, noticing all the trees.

  “My baby despises the bush” Alisha noted.

  “Watch” Molly said as she pressed Play.

  The video was pointed down an empty pathway, and you could tell Tyra was moving forward down it from how the video played.

  “Hello?!” You could hear Tyra's voice from behind the phone, “Is there anyone down there?”

  The view switched around, as if Tyra had done a 180 and looked back in the direction she came. And all you could see was trees and shrubbery. Then the view changed back to the same view as earlier, only more foggy. Tyra's voice was heard once more.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  ““Hello?!” she shouted once again, “Is there anybody here?! If there is, I'm recording so this will be all over my social media!”

  And then that's when the video got strange. You could hear little crackles of something, it sounded like. There was some static, and then the video just ended abruptly.

  “What happened to my baby?!” Alisha said, clutching at the pearls around her neck in worry.

  “Is a good question,” Simon said, “Rewind it”

  He pointed to the phone as Molly did as asked, rewinding the video, and letting it play.

  “There, pause” he said, pointing at it.

  Molly paused the video at the point it did a 180, looking at Simon curiously as he leaned in closer to the phone.

  “I recognise that” he said.

  “Recognise what?” Molly asked.

  “Look further down, past the trees,” he stated, trailing his finger along the phone's screen, “That's the hairdresser opposite the radio shop, I'm sure of it”

  “Are you saying she's down that alleyway that's opposite it?” Alisha asked him, knowing the hairdresser he was talking about well.

  At the mention of the alleyway again, Molly tensed up a little. But shook it off. She was probably still spooked from the story Alan Richardson had just told them.

  “But there's no trees down there” she acknowledged, getting back in the zone.

  “Or are there?” Simon queried.

  No one really had ever been down that alleyway, or even took notice of it. It was just there on your walk past to get to whatever shop you were going to. Then Molly recalled something, and forwarded Tyra's video.

  “Actually, come to think of it, those weird noises,” she said as she scrolled, and played that part of the video, “I thought I saw something down there a few weeks back, but I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me because of how I'd just finished rereading that book again”

  “Maybe it wasn't,” Simon stated, standing up, placing his cup down, “We should take a proper look at that alleyway”

  “You think...?” Molly asked him as she, too, stood up.

  “He could have...” Simon responded, knowing full well she was asking about if Dash went down it too.

  They thanked Alisha for her hospitality and began heading out the door, Alisha stopped Molly for a second, touching her shoulder.

  “Find my baby” she said to her, looking deep in her eyes.

  Molly simply nodded in response, because that's all she wanted too. After seeing the video, her doubts about their friendship were gone, she just wanted her best friend to be back, and safe.

  The two walked down the street heading to the alleyway, and noticed there was a little blonde boy, no more than eight, in a blue jumper standing outside it, staring down into it. As if he was entranced by something. When they reached him, Molly was the first to speak.

  “Hello?” she said.

  This snapped him out of his daze, and he turned to her and Simon.

  “Oh, hi” he said.

  “Are you alright? What were you doing?” Molly asked him.

  “Oh, I found a glowy phone here, and handed it in to the police,” he replied, “I was just going back home, until I heard someone call me from down there”

  He pointed to the alleyway.

  “It sounded like they really wanted me to come play with them,” he said, “But I guess I was hearing things. Bye!”

  And with that, he continued skipping down the street away from them. Molly gave Simon a look, and they both turned to face the alleyway. Was this really an ordinary alleyway? Or is there something going on down there? The something that happened in Tyra's video. Whatever it was.

  Molly and Simon gave each other a look, and slowly started walking down the alleyway they never ever really took any notice of. As they walked, they didn't see anything unusual, it seemed like a natural alleyway you would find anywhere. The more they walked, though, the more things got strange. A soft grey mist started covering the area, and they noticed that trees and shrubbery had appeared around them, as if from out of nowhere.

  “Is this still the alleyway...?” Molly asked.

  “We didn't make any directional turns” Simon stated, spinning around to check for the alley's entrance as Molly did the same.

  But they couldn't see it. All they could see was something you would compare to a forest. No alleyway. No way to see the way back to the street. Just trees and bushes and the path they were on.

  Simon pulled out his phone, and opened his maps app.

  “According to the map, we're still in the alleyway” he said.

  “But we're clearly not” Molly replied, gesturing towards the trees.

  Then she heard it. A voice she knew all too well. The voice of someone she'd known all too well. Her best friend's. Tyra's. She couldn't make out what it was saying, but she turned back around in the direction of it while Simon was looking at his phone. And then she saw her. Just a glimpse, but it was definitely her. She was hiding behind a tree up ahead, looking directly at her.

  “Simon...” Molly said, tapping his arm.

  “Just a second, Moll,” he said waving her hand away as he scrolled through his phone, “I'm trying to figure out how this is possible to still be the alleyway when evidently it's not”

  But Tyra was still staring at them. She gave Molly a smile, and waved her finger at her, and then spun around and started walking.

  “Bestie, wait!” Molly shouted as she started running towards Tyra.

  And that's what snapped Simon out of his focus. He knew who Molly's best friend was, and looked up, turning around. He saw Molly was running towards more trees, and a feint hint of what could potentially be Tyra's outfit she had on last they saw her. He shouted after her as he ran himself, following her. As he reached Molly, he saw it was in fact Tyra. And that's when Tyra started running, causing Molly to run even faster. Simon gave a sigh and followed after. But as they kept running, it seemed like they would never reach her.

  “Ty, wait!” Molly screamed as she ran, getting herself puffed.

  After running for what felt like minutes, Tyra dipped behind a tree and as they reached it and turned to it's corner...she was gone.

  “...What?” Molly asked through breaths.

  “I didn't know she could run that fast...” Simon panted.

  “She can't,” Molly replied, “She gave up track in second year”

  “Then where'd she go?” He asked her.

  They looked around the forest clearing, and saw nothing. Not one trace that Tyra was even here at all. And then as they looked back at the tree beside them, they saw a feint bright light was sitting on it.

  “What's that?” Molly asked, noticing it first, “Sap?”

  She walked towards it, with a hand out.

  “It doesn't look like sap” Simon noted, adjusting his glasses and leaning his head in to take a closer look.

  As the both of them got closer, the light started moving and hovering off the tree, sitting right in front of their faces. It bobbed up and down and then quickly dashed further down the path, the way Tyra disappeared to. As if instinct, they decided to follow the light and chase after it. They ran for more, down a long winding path, never losing sight of the light. It lead them into this huge open oval-like path of the forest, they noticed. Once they stopped, they heard it. A voice all too familiar to book club, and one they hadn't heard in a long time.

  “Guys! No!”

  It was Dash's.