Gone: Still Missing – Ch.1

I sat there waiting for the phone to ring. The T.V. light casting shadows on the dark walls.

It was 5 a.m. and my eyes hurt. My eyelids were heavy, but my brain would not let me go to sleep. He was still missing.

Last night, although only 24 hours ago, felt like days. I had called him dozens of times to no avail. His phone was off. It wasn’t rare for his phone to die. In fact, it wasn’t rare for Luke to go MIA, so I didn’t lose much sleep last night.

Today, Saturday, was a different story. I tried dialing him again this morning, and still no answer. By noon I decided to drive to his condo – he wasn’t there.

It was my mom’s birthday, we were scheduled for dinner later, and Luke was still missing.

By 3:30 I called his siblings, his parents – none of which had heard from him. I started to panic.

Just a few days ago, I took my house key back. I just couldn’t take the abuse anymore. We were always an emotional roller-coaster and he did not seem to want to get his life together.

I finally, after 4 years of struggle, decided that I had too much to lose. I couldn’t cart his baggage around on my shoulders any longer.

I immediately thought maybe it was my fault. He is gone because of me. Could he have hurt himself, or worse.

At 5 a.m. that is all that I could think about. That and the thousands of dollars of debt his family and I had found the night before.

In the quest to find him, we discovered that gambling wasn’t just a casual past time, but a severe addiction. One in which he had taken loans out to support…and who could forget that little black spiral bound notebook, covered in over and under odds and numbers.

My mind raced as I went over minutes, days and years of my life with him. I never suspected the reality that I was living. Based on the change in his personality, I figured mental illness, but never in a million years would I have guessed gambling.

I guess they go hand-in-hand, some may argue that one leads to the other. All I know is that Luke was gone, and my world and the reality that I knew was crumbling around me.

At 5:30 a.m…the phone rang.

Next chapter – Gone: Found