Noah ~ POV

Without Ethan, school is a bit more tedious than average. I mostly spent the time at school wondering if the creep noticed she had lost her key. After all, what would she do if she left something important in her hotel room? During lunch, I sat alone, though that didn't stop some of Ethan's friends and rumor starters from trying to talk to me. Most of them wanted to know what happened to Ethan; he had texted me that morning and told me what had happened. Gotta say it's weird that a woman who broke into a house the night before broke into City Hall the next.

It honestly didn't make sense; why would they be there in the first place? I thought to myself; I mostly told everyone that the creeper was stalking Ethan. Figured that might put Ethan in a good light with all the negative rumors. Eventually, a woman approached and sat down across from me. She seemed a little fidgety.

"Is… is it ok if I…?" She began to ask.

I knew what she would ask, so I nodded yes, better than eating alone. The girl smiled before she began eating. She seemed to fidget with her food for a bit before she spoke.

"So… how are things… going?" She asked awkwardly.

I couldn't help but let out a tired groan.

"Look, Ethan was helping…." I began to say but stopped when she interrupted me.

"No, no… I'm talking about Nathaniel." She said, looking at me.

I was a little caught off guard; she was one of the robotic club members.

"Sorry…." She said as she hung her head and looked down at her food.

"No… no, I'm just tired of everyone asking me about Ethan." I said, feeling a little bad that I scared her.

The girl smiled as she looked up at me through her curly hair.

"Sorry… I'm just worried about Nathaniel… he didn't seem like himself before disappearing." A hint of guilt in her voice.

"What do you mean?" I was a little curious.

She seemed to go silent quickly after I asked her that. Did she blame herself for Nathan and his dad vanishing?

"He just seemed… off, like he wasn't himself." So she said as soon as a few others walked over.

One of them placed a hand on the girl's shoulders.

"Emily…" The guy said as she looked up at him.

She gave me a smile as he looked at me. I motioned to the empty seat next to her, and he and the others sat down.

"Jeremiah… president of the robotics club." He introduced himself as he sat down.

He motioned to the others that had joined us.

"Samantha… and Alex." I couldn't help but look at Alex since he was the one that got away from the creeper back at the park.

"Sorry about Emily; she's got a bit of a crush on Nat…" Alex said before Emily elbowed him in the ribs.

Alex let out a mix of groans and chuckles even through the pain at Emily's blushing cheeks.

"He was acting a little weird a few days before he disappeared; we tried talking to him about it. He mostly said he just had drama at home." Samantha said, giving some context to what was going on.

I nodded in understanding as Emily kept her sharp glare at Alex.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Did he mention what kind of drama he was dealing with?" I asked before taking a sip of my drink.

"Not really,… he mostly kept to himself. Though he was nice to have around the club. And not just because of the generator." Jeremiah mentioned what caught my attention.

"Generator?" I was a little curious.

"Some of the robot building competitions aren't just battle bots. We have to get inventive and stress tests." Samantha clarified before taking a bite of her lunch.

"A few months back, we had to design a robot to explore collapsed buildings. Nathaniel brought a small solar generator, panels and all. To power our tools and equipment." Alex said as he leaned against the lunch table.

They chuckled as they laughed at an inside joke.

"Nathaniel didn't tell his dad, and he got his ass chewed out when he got home." Now I was more curious.

"Hey… what kind of generator did Nathaniel bring?" I was curious.

Remembering my time back at Nathaniel's house, I only saw a carport; there wasn't a shed or anything in the backyard. And I didn't see anything for a generator in the house while we investigated.

"Ethan told me Mr. Davis and Nathaniel weren't into camping." Which got a smile from Emily.

"Nathaniel wasn't, but his dad… oooh, he was a bit nuts if you ask me," Samantha said as I began to see the picture.

After lunch, I shot a quick text to Ethan. Or tried too, because what I saw Ethan had sent me caught my eyes. He sent me a pic of a framed photo of two men in police uniforms holding diplomas.

"He's hiding something." I stared at the picture for a few minutes.

Deputy Ben had a lot of questions to answer. I decided to do a bit of digging on Nathan and Mr. Davis after lunch. I mostly looked through the town's social media. I have to say this town was different from what Ethan mentioned when we first met. What I came across were a few things that caught my eye. The first was a lack of something; I couldn't find anything for Mr. Davis or Nathaniel, no accounts or anything. So I ended up tracking, doing a bit of deep digging, mostly looking through posts and photos where Mr. Davis and Nathaniel could be seen or mentioned. Looking through a few different groups and posts, I noticed a few other things; one, Mr. Davis and Nathaniel arrived in a town roughly around two thousand and fifteen. Give or take a few months; this is all speculation so far. But before that, nothing, which was way too weird for me. I honestly couldn't find anything for them before they arrived.

I looked up Mr. Daivs or Theo; Ethan mentioned the woman was calling out that name, and what I found only creeped me out more. I found Theo was a police officer like the picture showed. However, what was surprising was the fact he worked for the cyber crimes division of the New York police department. That explains the setup we found in the hidden room, but that doesn't explain the robot that led me to the hotel room key. I did find some mention of Mr. Davis… Theo did run before a big court date. Most of the posts I found relating to that date, and he mentioned he was in a fight with his wife. Mr. Davis abused his wife and ran away before his wife could prosecute him? It makes sense; he ran away with his son and hid here. And now the wife’s going crazy to try and find them.

The next day I showed Ethan what I found; the news seemed to wallop him. I mean, I should have seen it coming. I don't know how I would handle the fact that a friend I thought I knew was a different person all along. Though Ethan seemed a little defiant at the idea.

"That's not Mr. Davis…." He said as he looked at me.

Ethan, unless Mr. Davis got mistaken for his doppelganger, I don't think it's a coincidence." I mentioned as we sat in our little corner during lunch.

Ethan went quiet for a minute before looking back at the picture I showed him. Then, finally, he closed my phone and handed it back to me.

"It doesn't make sense… Why run and take Nathaniel with him?" He asked, and I looked at him sympathetically.

"Could have been vindictive; there are stories of people going crazy after stuff like that," I mentioned.

I didn't want to, but someone had to spill the truth to him. The man he knew wasn't real. He went quiet again, seeming to be in thought.

"What about Nathaniel?" He asked.

"A form of Stockholm syndrome?" I guessed.

Ethan seemed defeated as he kept running through the information in his head.

"It explains why Mr. Davis and Nathaniel ran. His former wife found them, and now she wants her son back." I speculated.

"But why didn't she go to the Sheriffs?" He asked.

"You saw the picture; Ben's a friend. He either got tricked like everyone or something else." Which honestly seemed to fit all too well.

We both sat there in silence for a moment. I placed a hand on Ethan's back, trying to comfort him as best I could. He seemed to accept the truth after a minute. But then he looked at me with a cold stare.

"You still have the room key?" He asked; I simply reached into my pocket and held it out for him to see.

"There's something we're missing. I'm willing to bet we'll find it in there." Ethan said with conviction as he stared me in the eyes.