Sister Dear, Where Have You Gone?

Casey was high up in her favorite tree in the Forbidden Forest at midnight, crying her eyes out and not even trying to hide it. She had gone up to bed late and found the note on her pillow. She had read it, then stood up and just ran. Just left and come here, climbing as high as she could into one of the Forest's tallest trees. She smoothed out the crumpled note in her hand and read it again, for the thirteenth time. (Yes, she was counting.)

Dear Casey,
I know you're going to be mad, but try to forgive me. I found information that my dad might still be alive and being held captive by the Mafia. I went to look for him. Don't follow me, this isn't your fight. I hope I'll see you again someday, but if I don't, I hope you know I'll always love you.
Your sister,
Alyssa.
PS- don't kick my ass when I get back, even if you want to.

Casey gave a watery little chuckle at the last line, probably just as Lyss intended her to do, and crumpled the paper back in her fist, crying even harder now. What if she didn't come back? What if she got ki-? She couldn't even think the word. She drew her knees up to her chest, crossed her arms, and stuffed her mouth into her arms, trying to muffle her sobbing. Nighttime wasn't really a good time to be making extra noise in the Forbidden Forest, but she didn't want to go anywhere else. Let the monsters come for her. She wouldn't mind a fight right now. She stared at the full moon above the tree tops and waited to be found.

Kaci was in a forest. And not just in any forest- the Forbidden forest. Why was she here again? Who knows what could be here. Werewolves... Centuars... Man eating zebras even. Kaci's sense of adventure caused her to keep coming back to this forest, no matter how scared she was at times.

Venturing deep in the cluttered woods, Kaci's breath grew quicker with every step she took. Come on.. keep going...

The sound of sobs reached her ears, and she took a sudden stop. The sound of crying was right above her, in a tree. So another student went here for some privacy? Kaci felt the urge to find out what was wrong, maybe even help. Though help wasn't her thing. She'd much rather yell at people and flirt.

Kaci grabbed onto a tree limb, and climbed her way up the tree. Her tree climbing skills came from her brothers, who'd she had grown up with. Kaci realized that she hadn't talked to her brothers in a while.... it made her a bit sad.

So it was a Gryffindor that was crying. Go figure- only a Gryffindor will go in the Forbidden forest to cry. Stopping at the sight of the fellow housemate, Kaci stared at her for a few minutes. "Wanna talk about it?"

Casey could hear the other person coming. It wasn't exactly easy to climb a tree silently. She glanced down as the girl spoke, spotted a Gryffindor girl a couple years older than her. "My sister's gone," she said simply. "Gone. And probably not coming back." More tears escaped. "She was adopted, but we were like twins anyway. Have you ever lost half your heart in one blow? As cheesy as it sounds, that's what it feels like." She returned to staring at the moon. "Gone," she whispered one more time.

"No. I never had a heartbreak like that," Kaci told her, in a tone that was hard to decipher. "But I can imagine it, I guess. So your 'twin' is gone... do you know why? Is she sick or something?"

Climbing up some more, Kaci sat right next to Casey, Kaci knew the girls name from hearing it from a few people, and sighed.

Casey looked at the other girl. "It's... Complicated. The shortest version I can give is that she and her dad were attacked by the Mafia when she was young. Her dad was taken and, so she thought, killed. But she wrote me that she had gotten information from someone that her father was alive and being held captive, so she went to go get him." She turned away again. "Chances of a relatively untrained 14 year old girl coming back from that unscathed, let alone alive, are close to zero. I'll probably never see her again."

Casey knew she should probably recognize the fellow Gryffindor, but she was too dazed and scared to try to remember. Everything seemed like too much of an effort right now. Even living didn't seem like it was quite worth the bother.