“Hey” Lila said as she quickly walked towards me. I responded with a simple “Hi”, and pulled her close to me and embraced her in a tight hug. Then the song changed and Lila wiggled out of my hug and onto the dance floor and began dancing instantly. She’s an excellent dancer and I’ve always loved watching her dance. However, I’m quite clumsy, so I normally stay back and watch rather than joining in. She was dancing by herself until Robert Linker just joined in and wrapped his arms around her. She did nothing to stop him! I rose from my chair ready to fight.
I stalked across the room until I was right behind them and pulled him off of her. Robert Responded with a loud “Hey man what do you think you’re doing?” “You stay away from my girlfriend! Do you understand me?!” I said in a rage with my one hand holding his shirt and my other clenched in a fist ready to swing. “James calm down we were just dancing its not a big deal,” Lila shouted trying to make sure she was heard over the music, while she squeezed in between us and pushed me back. “Not a big deal! He had his hands all over you!”  I responded and relaxed my fighting position. “James we were just having fun!” Lila said sweetly and then smiled. “Fun, is that what you call it now?” I said harshly. “You know what, I’m out of here! I’m not fighting with you here in front of all these people. I’m going home and we can talk, and I mean talk not yell about this tomorrow.” Lila said and stalked out of the house. I went to follow her but
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my big brother Jacob pulled me back and said “Let her go.” So I did, I stayed at the
party for about another two hours before I left and went home.
    When I woke up the next morning, I got up off the couch and headed into the kitchen. I figured she would walk into the kitchen soon after, so we could talk about what happened last night. I waited for about an hour before I walked up to our room and saw the bed hadn’t been slept in. I went and got my phone off the kitchen table and called her mom to see if she was there. The phone rang three times before her mother answered the phone with a light “Hello.” I quickly muttered “Have you seen Lila?” She answered with a swift but concerned “No. Why is there something wrong?” My heart raced as i told her ”We got in a fight last night and i notice this morning that she never came home last night so I was hoping that she had gone over there.” “Well she’s not here.” Her mother responded softly. “I’m going to try a few of her friends.” I said in a rush. “ Well call me when you find her, I’ll call a few relatives and call you if they’ve heard from her.” She said hurriedly. I quickly said “Goodbye” and ended the call, then quickly began calling all her friends that I knew. None of them had heard from her so I drove around to see if she was at any of the normal places. She wasn’t at any of them. I called Jacob and said in a panic “I can’t find Lila anywhere and that no one has heard from her. What do I do?” He said sweetly “Calm down, there’s only one thing you can do. Go to the police station and report her missing. I’ll go with you if you want.” I muttered quietly “That would be great. Meet me at the police station in ten minutes.” then hung up the phone.
I waited in my truck in the police station parking lot until Jacob pulled in and
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stepped out of his truck and we strolled into the police station together. Once inside we
walked up to the receptionists desk and she asked “What are you here for?” Jacob answered before I could with a light hearted “We are here to fill out a missing person report.” She turned around and pulled a few papers out of the filing cabinets and said in a plain tone.  “I need you to take a seat over in the waiting area but first i need some basic information to put into the computer to start the report, which an officer will finish with you as soon as one becomes available.” This time i responded “Alright ask me anything you need to know.” She clicked on a few things on the computer and then asked softly “What’s your full name?” I quietly answered “James Boyd Lintner.” She typed it into the computer and then said “Go have a seat that is all the information I need right now and an officer will be with you in a few minutes.” We walked over to the seating area and sat in silence. After being seated for about five minutes an officer came over to the area and in a loud gruff voice said “Mr.Lintner.”
Jacob and I stood up. Then the tall, thin and dark haired officer said “Come with me.” We followed him down a dim lit, narrow hall to the last door on the right which he opened and led us inside. There was a small desk with a computer, and two chairs placed in front of it. He walked behind the desk and took a seat as we took a seat in the two chairs facing it. Then he began clicking buttons on the computer and said “I’m officer Hotchen and I’ll be the one putting the missing persons report together. I’m going to ask you a series of questions I’m going to need you to answer for me to the best of
your ability.”  Jacob and I both answered at the same time “Ok” The officer then said
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“What is the name and date of birth of the missing person and how long have they been
missing?” I answered in most composed voice I could manage “ Lila Nicole Irvine, June
seventeenth, 1987 and since around midnight last night.” Officer Hotchen then said in a harsh voice “Are you sure this girl is missing? If so, we don’t put them in the system until they have been missing for forty eight hours.” I responded sharply “I’m sure I have called everyone and no one has heard from her and checked just about every place I could possibly think of to look for her and why on earth don’t they go into the system until they’ve been missing forty eight hours?! She’s been missing twenty hours now. For all we know she could be dead by the time it goes into the system.” Officer Hotchen with a smug look said “It’s very unlikely and I’m sorry sir but that’s just how it works.” Jacob said “I understand my brother here on the other hand is in love with this girl and is sick with worry.” I was so angry I stalked out of the police station and sat in my truck with the radio on and waited for my brother to come out. I waited for about five minutes before I was falling asleep to the soft lull of the music playing on the radio.
    I woke on the sound of my brother pounding on my window. I looked at my car radio clock I had been asleep for almost an hour. I opened my door and my brother teasingly said “Did you have a nice nap?” Once he saw the look on my face he quit picking on me and said “I finished the report. Do you want me to stay with you until we find her or she comes back?” I snappily said “I’ll be fine, I’ll talk to you later.” then Jacob said “Ok but if you need anything call me.” I nodded yes and closed my door and drove
away as I watched him walk to his truck.
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When I got home, I walked up to my room and just layed in my bed. Then my
phone rang, I sat up quickly and answered once I saw it was Lila calling. I instantly
shouted “Lila where are you? Are you ok?” I heard a quiet hoarse voice say “James I
need help I’ve been taken I don’t know where I am. James I’m scared, I can hear him coming. James, help! James, help me, James!” Then there was crying, screaming then a hard thud. Then the call was disconnected. I called the phone company because there was no chance the police were going to help me. Once the call went through I stated all the information and got the location her phone was last at before it was shut off. The location was in a remote part of town in an old abandoned farm house.
I hung up once I heard the location and called Jacob. It was two A.M. and he still managed as always to answer before the third ring. He answered with a groggy voice “What’s the problem James?” I rounded up my pocket knife and a thick hoodie as I answered “It’s Lila I got a very disturbing call from her. Then I called the phone company and had them use the last location the phone was at before it was shut off, its and old abandoned farm house in the outskirts of town. I’m going to get her and i’m not involving the police until I get her out of there. The possibility of her getting caught in the the cross fire, is not an option. I just wanted you to know where I was going.” Jacob was alert now and harshly muttered “Are you insane?! You should contact the police and send them to the location or since you seem pretty against getting the police involved, at least allow me to come with you after all you know I can handle myself and maybe
this way I can keep you from getting killed.” I angrily stated “Fine you can come with me
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but no police!” Pleased with himself he stated “I have a few things I want to get together,
meet me here ASAP” then he hung up the phone.
As I pulled in the driveway, my heart speed up. I didn’t even get out of my truck I
just honked the horn twice and Jacob came running out of the house with a big black
bag. I got out of the truck and went to help him with the big bag but he pushed me back and said “I got it.” So as we walked towards our trucks I said sternly “I think we should take both trucks, and park one at the end of the street so if someone messes with the one we have a back up to get away. Also what’s in that bag?” He spoke wisely “That’s a good idea and weapons.” Curious and kind of worried I asked “What kind of weapons?” With a relaxed look on his face he said “Nothing too major a few guns and some knives.” A little worried but in a rush I said “We should get going and just follow me.” He threw the bag in the bed of his truck and we drove toward the location.”
    I pulled into a parking lot about a block away from the house and got out of my truck and walked over to Jacobs truck and said “Shall we take my truck the rest of the way or yours? We should probably divide and conceal weapons here.” Jacob laughed out loud “Your truck and quit acting like you know what you're doing and let me direct you a little bit because you're obviously forgetting that I spent many years as an army general and know more about the strategies we should use, then you do.” I muttered “Alright” Jacob got out of his truck pulled down the tail gate and pulled the bag to the tail gate. He unzipped the bag and handed me three guns and took three for himself then
handed me five knives and took seven for himself. Then he said “Hide those weapons
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really well.” softly muttered “Lets go” as I tucked all the weapons into my coat and my
jeans. We climbed into my truck and headed down the road.
We pulled in the driveway which felt like it was at least two miles long. When we finally reached the house there were lights on inside. I couldn’t discover how there were lights on when the house should have no power. Jacob hopped out of the truck and
quietly and seriously said “We have to be extremely careful, there’s no way to be sure
how many are in there.” I nodded a yes. Then we heard a loud shriek come from inside
the house. I started to run but Jacob closelined me and sent me flying to the ground. I got back up fast but with a much clearer head. When we reached the door Jacob slowly turned the knob and pushed it forward about an inch before taking a step back and then kicked the door to open it wider. Then he yelled “Hit the ground” as he dropped to the floor. I dropped too, as an axe came down swinging. It missed us and Jacob took the first step inside.
He put his foot down gently to check for any more traps as he stepped around the axe that was now hanging in the door. There was none that he could tell, so he signalled me to follow him inside. We slowly crept into the foyer which seemed to be trap free but after a few steps we became extra cautious because it just seemed odd that there were no more traps. A scream echoed through the house and the I heard light running coming down the stairs. I started to sprint into the living room but once again Jacob stopped seeing that there were many traps in the living room, right after the
entrance there were fish hooks hanging from the ceiling and if you got through that
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there were pins all over the floor. A trap that would fool anyone in a rush to save Lila.
Lila was at the bottom of the stairs, luckily she noticed the pins and stopped on the last
step. Jacob said in the most quiet voice he could say it that he knew she would be able to hear “Lila, James and I are here to rescue you but we’re going to have to find another way to get to you.” I was so happy to see her and when I heard heavy footsteps moving
around up stairs, I knew I couldn’t risk losing her again. I took out one of the knives I got
from Jacob that had a sharp tip and cut all the fishing wire. The hanging fish hooks clattered to the floor and I put the short sharp blade away and pulled out a long machete, which I used to push the pins to the sides to clear a small path for me to walk through to get to Lila. Once I reached her I threw Jacob the machete he slid it into one of his long coat pockets and pulled out one of his guns and had it ready to shoot. I picked up Lila and held her close to my chest as I saw a man dressed from head to toe in black running down the stairs towards us. Then I heard the gunshot and watched the bullet hit the man square in the left side of his chest. I turned and walked quickly back into the foyer and then Jacob and I headed straight out the door. I put Lila in the back seat of the truck as james hopped into the front seat and then I quickly jumped into the front seat and sped out of the driveway.
    I said concerned “Is everyone ok? Lila are you alright? I’m driving to the police station once I drop Jacob off in this parking lot up here and he starts his truck.” It took Jacob a whole sixty seconds for him to get out of my truck climb in his and for him to
pull up right behind me. I took off in the direction of the police station and said “Lila,
please say something. Tell me what happened.” Lila sweetly laughed “James, I’m not
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telling you anything that happened, except what I think is necessary for you to know,
because if I told you everything you would lose your mind with rage.” I was upset that  she didn't trust me enough to not be insane with rage about what happened, but then I realized she didn't understand what was going through my mind, while she was missing and how happy I was to have her back and that there was no chance I would ever take
the risk of losing her again, so I said “Lila, I can control myself. What you don’t
understand is that, I wouldn’t do anything that would warrant me losing you. I love you too much to do that.”  Lila smiled and said “I love you too and I know you can control
yourself but some of the things that happened”  he gulped and wiped her eyes to keep tears from falling down her face “I’m just not ready to talk about it or even think of it.”
I pulled into the police department and said “We don’t have to go inside if you don’t want to we can go home and I’m sure Jacob will tell them what happened for you.” Lila frowned “I know, but I need to tell them what happened before you guys got there. Can you do something for me though?” I looked at her and concerned I said “I will do anything you need me to.” Lila grinned and softly said “I want you to stay in the waiting room, while I tell the police what happened and when I’m getting checked out at the hospital part of the building. Then we can go home and get back to being normal hopefully.” I frowned, “Ok but you promise me you won’t disappear and you will be coming home with me tonight.” Lila grimaced and said “I promise.” We walked into the
police station, I finally looked at the clock and notice that it was four A.M. Lila made me
sit down while she talked to the secretary, who got her back and talking to an officer in
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less than three minutes. I called Jacob and told him to head home and that I could take
care of everything from here myself. After sitting in the waiting room for about two hours, Lila came out and walked over to me and said “We can go now.” I got up and we walked out to the truck and climbed inside. The drive from the police station to our house was only about ten minutes. Once we got home we headed up our bedroom and climbed into bed. I wrapped my arms around Lila and stayed awake just long enough to
be sure that she was sound asleep before I closed my own eyes and let sleep wash over me.