Chapter Fifty One

All too soon it was Miralys' birthday and they still had no news of Menolly other than that she'd left the island.

Miralys didn't feel up to much celebrating and after doing chores around the house to help her stressed parents

She took Cinnamon for a long ride to think about what she wanted to do with her life.  She'd never really felt drawn to any particular job and as she rode along her thoughts kept drifting back to her sister's disappearance and how worried her parents were.   

With all their worry over Menolly, no-one in the family really wanted a big party to celebrate Miralys' birthday, especially since Joshua had never got over his issues with strangers, but he and Tamara didn't want Miralys to feel completely forgotten so they invited Tamara's niece, Stacia, and Stacia's father, Gary, over for a small family party

Outside in the garden, the men discussed where Menolly might have gone and what she had intended in leaving the way she had.

"I know she was obsessed with music, but there's a theatre here, she could have got a start in being a musician there, she didn't have to disappear like that!"

"From what Stacia's mentioned I'm afraid your Menolly was as interested in being famous as she was in music and our little town just isn't that famous"

Inside, the women were sat on the sofa discussing the same thing.  Miralys felt sick at the thought her sister wouldn't be there for her birthday and was torn between worrying about what had happened to her and feeling angry at Menolly for spoiling the end of her teenage years and her birthday, she'd not even been able to go to Prom since the school had cancelled it after hearing about Menolly's disappearance.

Until of course it was time for the birthday cake when they all gathered in the kitchen and Miralys blew out the candles, wishing as she did so that somehow Menolly would be found and would come home eventually

After all the cake had been eaten, Miralys went onto the internet to look for jobs, seeing a recruitment page for the police force, it suddenly occured to her that joining the police might give her the resources and knowledge to find Menolly, or at least find out what had happened to her...

Decision made and acted upon, she went out to find her mother and tell her

"I've applied to join the police, I've got an interview on Monday and if I pass the tests I'll join straight away.  I'm going to try and find out where Menolly's gone and get her home if I can"

"Are you sure you know what you're doing baby?  Don't you think the police are looking already?"

"I'm sure they are, but I've got the extra motivation and... well... I remember when Aunt Sofia brought us here and what she told us about what happened back in Hidden Springs...  I don't think Menolly ever really believed it, she was a lot younger and after she hit her teenage years she seemed to want to disbelieve you on principle.  I want to try and find her before the vampires do"

"Just be careful Mira, I don't want to lose you too"

The next day was graduation, Miralys and her parents attended the Town hall with the rest of her year to receive their results and Miralys was awarded Class Valedictorian and voted most likely to become a sports star.

After all the speeches were over, Joshua and Tamara took Miralys out to the local restaurant for a celebratory meal 

On Monday, Miralys got into her mother's car (which Tamara rarely used, preferring to ride one of the horses) and drove to her interview.  The police force was also based at the Town Hall and she was put through lots of tests to see if she was fit enough and intelligent enough.  

Eventually, at the end of the day, the Police Chief, Aquarius Ocean, told her she would be accepted but he wanted a private chat with her away from the office...

Aquarius took her to one of the local parks and grilled her over a game of chess as to her reasons for wanting to join the police force.

"I know your sister's missing and I'm pretty sure your decision to join the police force isn't unrelated to that, so, why join up?  Do you not trust us to do our job?"

"No!  Not at all, I, I just couldn't sit around and do nothing while my sister's missing and..."

"Go on, "and" what?"

"I don't know what my parents have told you about our family history, but we moved here after some powerful vampires took against our family.  My mother's father was a member of a powerful vampire family himself, but married a human and somehow they attracted the attention of others, but not in a good way.  Almost all my family were killed in one night and my aunt sacrificed herself in a spell to get those of us who remained away.  

I don't know if any vampires who follow those ones have found Menolly, I hope not, but I need to find her before they do if I can, and... if they have found her... we need to know so we're warned and we can get away again before they find the rest of us or we endanger everyone else on the island by remaining"

"Very well then, I'll sign off your application and you may do work on your sister's case.  However, you are not to take any independent action, I'm partnering you with my stepson Fabio who has also just joined and I want you to tell him anything you find out.  He'll pass it on to me and I will decide what action if any is to be taken.  You can talk to anyone in the town you like but that's as far as I want you to go without clearing it with me first.  Understood?"

With Aquarius' words ringing in her ears, Miralys went to find any of her sister's school friends she could and tracked down the Sperie triplets at the beach.

Adabella told her that before her disappearance, Menolly had become obsessed with a number of artists whose music was all about rebellion and had talked incessantly at school (when she was there) about how cool it would be to go to a big city like Bridgeport to seek her fortune.

After gathering all the information she could, Miralys ran home, she'd found years ago that running, or riding Cinnamon, helped her to think.

Once she got home she went onto the internet and began researching the artists Adabella had mentioned and also the music scene in Bridgeport.  Once she felt she'd found as much as she could that night she emailed her findings to Fabio.

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Ryanne Roman has married Sebastian Striker and he has taken her surname.
• Bryce Roman has married Meriwether Stacy and the two of them have moved in together.
• Quhyn Sperie has aged to YA and got a job in the science career.
• Quetzal Sperie has aged to YA and got a job in the athletics career.
• Fabio Sabo had aged to YA and got a job in the law enforcement career.
• Nathaniel McKinley and Quhyn are dating.
• Glimmer Sabo and Ryan Crist have dated and then split up.
• Isadora Marlin has aged to YA and got a job in the acting career.
• Tempest Ocean has dated both Stacia Fields-Vamp and Adamina Sperie.

Chapter Fifty

Menolly arrived in Bridgeport and took a look around, she'd just sneaked off a container ship having stowed away secretly to get here.  She was feeling pretty confident and pleased with herself, she'd managed to get herself all the way here on her own and nobody knew!

She made her way to the Bridgeport theatre, she'd heard it was the centre of the music scene and she was certain she'd be able to get herself a contract and become the next big thing...

Unfortunately the manager didn't agree, he wouldn't even see her.  A very superior personal assistant simply told Menolly "Go back to school kid, we've got far too much work to bother with every brat who turns up expecting to get an audition"

Menolly was furious, but soon decided that the theatre was clearly part of the establishment and she'd just have to show them all!  She wandered around the city until she found a park where she busked for the rest of the day...

Alas for her, no-one paid the slightest bit of attention to her 

As night fell she began making her way into the main part of the city looking for somewhere to sleep, as she walked past a building site she was accosted by three men

"Hello there pretty girl, and where might you be headed in such a hurry?" asked one of them, Menolly tried to brush past them but he put out a hand to stop her

"Don't be going so fast lovely, I'm sure a pretty girl like you has stuff she wants to share..."

Menolly was shocked, she'd never been spoken to like that before and the way the men were looking at her creeped her out

"How dare you" she shouted outraged "I'm not "your" anything, take your hands off me!"

"Look girlie" one of the other men said, "there's three of us and we're all older and bigger than you, so why don't you just hand everything you've got over to us and we might let you go on your way"

When Menolly continued to protest and argue with them, the first man stepped up to her and slapped her round the face hard

The three of them then proceeded to attack her, knocking her unconscious and stealing everything she had before leaving her alone on the ground

When she eventually came round and realised what had happened she dragged herself off to the nearest park, curled up on a bench and cried herself to sleep, her dream was in tatters and she couldn't understand where it had all gone so wrongShe woke up the next morning in a foul mood, determined to get her own back at the world for ruining the dream that had seemed so certain the previous morning.

She wandered round the city looking for the most expensive houses and apartments she could find and threw eggs at their doors.

Then she found some paper bags, filled them with the most disgusting things she could find and set them alight in front of the gates of the expensive houses of Bridgeport's celebrities

Feeling somewhat avenged for the events of the previous day she went in search of a way to resurrect her dream.  She visited every bar she could find, although most took one look at her and told her to leave, until she found one that had a set of musical instruments on a stage.  She asked the bartender if she could maybe play there that night but the woman just laughed at her and told her to come back when she'd grown up

Eventually she found a dive of a bar where the rather sleazy looking barman was happy to let her play that night, he even gave her a drink on the house...

Menolly was thrilled, she could already see her name in lights once the city had heard her play, and she immediately grabbed the guitar, becoming lost in the music as she played.

She didn't even notice the sinister man watching her from a corner as she playedWell, not until he approached her as she took a break from playing and  offered her a drink,  feeling thirsty after her hard work that night she accepted and as she took a long gulp she looked up at him and registered his glowing eyes...As she suddenly realised what he was, and it hit her that everything her parents had told her was true, she felt a grey fog warp around her and the world faded awayWhen she awoke she found herself curled up on an old bed in what looked exactly like a makeshift dungeon!  There was a tumble of stone in the corner of her cell and she nearly screamed when she realised there were bones poking out from under the rubble...To make matters worse, the only light came from old fashioned torches, all of which were outside her cell, there seemed to be no door in or out and there was a coffin propped up against the wall...

As she looked round the tiny room, most of which was fenced off from her by barbed wire and a locked gate too high for her to climb over, she was stunned to see the wall itself suddenly crack open and a man dressed in evening wear walk in

He approached her cell and stood there looking at her for a moment before speaking "Greetings my lovely captive, I hope you don't find your surroundings too uncongenial...""I know who you are of course, I can smell your blood and I'm sure it will taste even better than it smells.  Don't bother trying to escape, you'll never find the way out and you may find whoever captures you next somewhat less congenial than I.  However for now you need to keep your strength up..."

Menolly never even saw him move, or the gate to her cell open, but abruptly there was a plate of food on the floor next to her

Chapter Forty Nine

When Joshua got home that night he went up to Menolly's room to try and talk to her and see if he could find out what was bothering her and why she had turned so rebellious.

Finding she wasn't there he searched the rest of the house and the barn, but it soon became clear that she had sneaked out yet again.

Going back inside he interrupted Miralys' workout, "Where's your sister gone?  Why didn't you stop her going out?  You know she's been grounded!"

Miralys was shocked to realise Menolly had snuck out yet again, "I'm sorry Dad, I never noticed her leave, you never said I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her and I got caught up in my workout"

As Miralys left the room to shower, Joshua phoned the police to alert them to the fact that Menolly was out after curfew again...

Joining Tamara in the kitchen for an evening snack, he told her Menolly had snuck out again and the two of them discussed the need to get to the bottom of her behaviour

The two of them agreed that Joshua would stay up that night to wait for Menolly and nap on the sofa if necessary.

But, by the time he awoke the next morning, Menolly still hadn't come home...

When Tamara came down a little later, Joshua was already fearing the worst

"It's the vampires, they've found us again and they've taken her or killed her!"

Despite her own fears, Tamara did her best to calm him down, "We don't know that for certain, you know how rebellious she's been recently; she may have stayed out all night and not come home yet, or she may have run away.  Bad as that is, it doesn't mean the vampires have found us although if she's run away they might find her...  We're going to have to call the police and report her missing"

After Tamara had made the call to the police, Miralys came downstairs and, on hearing that Menolly hadn't come home at all immediately thought that she must have decided to run away.  "She's always been talking about how she want's to make it big in the music industry, what if she's decided to try and do that now rather than waiting til she's grown up?  Oh Mum, I should have noticed her slipping out and stopped her!"

 Tamara hugged her eldest child close "Don't say that dear, it's not your fault if your sister's decided to run away!  We'll tell the police what you said about her wanting to make it big in the music industry, maybe that'll give them a lead"

Tamara decided to stay at home that day and train Dune on the jumps she'd set up in the back garden rather than go over to the training grounds 

Late in the morning she received a phone call from the police "I'm sorry ma'am, we've discovered that your daughter managed to slip onto the ferry to the mainland, she's left Dragon Falls but we'll do everything in our power to find out where she's gone and bring her home.  We'll let you know anything we find out"

Once the policeman had hung up, Tamara went into the house to find Joshua and let him know the news "Oh Joshua, she has run away!  The police just called, she snuck onto the ferry for the mainland, she could be headed anywhere in the world and who knows what might happen if the vampires find her..."

This time it was Joshua's turn to be the rational, sensible one, "We have to believe that the police will find her, she can't have gone far... 

Just in case though, they agreed that they'd better phone Tamara's brother-in-law, Gary, and let him know what had happened so he would be prepared if the worst did happen...

As the days passed with no news of Menolly, the remaining members of the family fell into a routine, Tamara would train the horses (and Shimmer the unicorn) in the back field

And care for the animals, a task added to when Cinnamon gave birth to another foal, whom they called Dusty

Like Dune before him, he looked a lot like his mother, although he also bore the unmistakable stamp of his father...

Joshua would tend the garden and fish in the small pond on their property rather than going off to the ocean

And experimented with turning the fruit from his garden into  different types of nectar

While Miralys alternated her spare time between practising her chess skills at home

Working out in front of the tv rather than going to the gym

And scouring the internet to see if she could find any news on Menolly and what had happened to her

When their respective work was done, Tamara and Joshua would sit together on the sofa in silence just waiting and worrying

They did make the occasional trip out of the house, Joshua to sell the vegetables from the garden and 

And Tamara took Dune down to the Equestrian Centre once he was reasonably trained to sell him on to a good home

As the time for Miralys' birthday came near, she and her parents were invited to an awards ceremony to celebrate the achievements of her year group.

She was presented with some nice trophies from her time in the school sports team but their celebrations were muted by Menolly's continued absence, being restricted to a family meal at home 

The evening was further dampened when both Midnight and Smudge aged to elders and the family realised that soon they would depart this life... 

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Quetzal Sperie dated Ryan Crist but they have split up
• Scarlett & Elijah have had twins babies - Joey (f) & Ramin (m) - pictured below
• Pacey Harris aged up to a teen
• Boy Crist joined the political career
• Nathan McKinley aged up to a YA and moved out
• Bryce Roman has married the consignment clerk, Meriwether Stacy
• Various people started dating townies but I've since deleted all sims who aren't either register sims or from people's legacies...

Joey McKinley

 Ramin McKinley