TW: transphobic slur.

It had been four days since I’d last seen or talked to Amelia. She had more or less disappeared from all of our lives. Me, Lydia, Janis, Ceres, none of us had heard a word from her since. Yesterday, Janis had come to talk to me in campus, worried sick. “This isn’t like Mel,” she told me. “She never cuts contact on purpose, or for so long. I think something might have happened to her.”

That was the first hint I had that something was wrong. The next day, I decided to put my hurt feelings aside and call Amelia. The call went straight to voicemail.

“Hi, this is Amelia Dias. I can’t answer right now. You know what to do,” said the recorded message, followed by a beep. I couldn’t speak. Tears started streaming down my face. I hadn’t realized I missed the sound of her voice so much.

“That’s enough,” I told Lydia, that night. “I’m going after her.”

I had half-expected Lydia to try to stop me. After all, it was half-past-eight and I had no idea where to start searching. So it didn’t surprise me when Lydia got to her feet and took the car keys from my hands.

“Ly, I have to do this,” I tried to argue.

“I know,” said my friend. “But you’re nervous, so I’m driving. Let’s go.”

She motioned for me to follow her, and walked to the front door. I was left behind, feeling dumbstruck for a few seconds, before I snapped out of it and hurried after her.

“Where to?” said Lydia, once we were both in the car.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I know Mel hasn’t spoken to us or Janis in a while, but someone has to know where she is. Wait… Her brother. What’s his name, again?”

“Vincent,” said Lydia, and nodded once before she turned the key and started driving. “The restaurant, then?”

That surprised me. “You’ve been there?”

“Yeah, once,” she replied. “Vincent organized a transition birthday party for Mel there, once. It was a great night. Seriously, Mel, I wish you hadn’t wasted so much time with that loser Michael, you missed out on a lot of the fun. There was this other time when—”

Lydia stopped talking, out of a sudden.

“Sorry, that was insensitive of me,” she whispered.

“No, you’re right,” I retorted. “I did waste my time on Michael, I suppose. It’s just that he wasn’t always this bad, at first.” Lydia scoffed when she heard me say that. “I mean it, Ly,” I argued. “He used to be…”

“Self-centered and insufferable?”

I smirked. “That too. But he was also nice, at times. Caring. I don’t know what changed in him. He wasn’t violent at first.”

“Okay, Hannah, let me be real with you for a second. Michael was only nice at first because you used to say ‘yes’ to everything he asked of you. But Michael is one of ‘those guys’, you know? He wanted you to be a housewife, to clean and cook and take care of his children while he went out to have fun with other people. Other women, I might add. So when you first started to tell him the things you wanted, that’s when he showed you his true nature.”

I leaned back and placed both my hands on the sides of my head, taking in what Lydia had just told me. The worst thing is, I knew she was right. Maybe I even knew it back when I was dating him, I simply chose not to see.

“I am such an idiot, aren’t I?”

“It’s all right,” said Lydia. “We’ve all been there, in one way or another. At least you’re with someone better now.”

I stared out the window at the empty streets, feeling miserable. “Yeah, that,” I said, absentmindedly. “Assuming she still wants to be with me, after all.”

Lydia furrowed her brow, and stared at me for a moment, confused. Taking her eyes off the road proved to be a mistake, which she realized when she started veering the car slightly off the lane and jumped at the sound of another car’s horn.

“Sorry,” she told me, pulling the vehicle back in the lane. “So tell me, why wouldn’t Amelia want to be with you, Hannah?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. All sorts of reasons, I suppose. She cut me off.”

“She cut everyone off,” Lydia argued. “Which is why we’re going to see her brother, right? To figure out what exactly is going on. But I promise you one thing, Hannah, Mel is absolutely crazy about you. And she has a good head on her shoulders, too, she wouldn’t just up and leave without a good reason. So don’t worry.”

Easy for you to say, I thought to myself.

It wasn’t long before we at Vincent’s restaurant. But it was no use. The door was locked and the lights were off.

“That’s odd…” I said. “I came here with Mel a few times before, and I’m fairly sure she said the place was always open until ten in the evening.”

“Maybe clientele was bad today and he decided to close earlier?” Lydia suggested.

I shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible.” I walked up to the restaurant glass door. There was a notice glued to it. “Hey, Ly, come take a look at this,” I told her, motioning for her to come closer.

Dear friends and esteemed guests,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Seahorse will remain closed until the 25th of this month. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope to see you again soon.

The Seahorse Family.

“Unforeseen circumstances,” Lydia read out loud. “What do you think it is?”

I shrugged. “Beats me.”

“Think this could be related to Amelia’s disappearance?”

I considered that for a moment. It could be that the restaurant simply had to go through renovations. But it was a strange coincidence, wasn’t it? And if it wasn’t a coincidence… then that would mean that Amelia’s situation was much more complicated than it seemed.”

“I hope not,” I said, at last. Then I took Lydia’s hand, and pulled her back toward the car.

“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, girl, what are you doing?”

“There’s still one place we can try,” I explained, snatching the car key from her. “Get in.”

“All right,” said Lydia, suspicious. I got in the driver’s seat, buckled up and turned the ignition. “Can you at least tell me where we are going?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not far from here.”

Lydia arched her eyebrows. “That is not what I asked, Hannah.”

“The pub,” I explained. “The one where Mel works. There’s a person there who may know something about her. It’s… Mel’s ex-girlfriend,” Lydia looked at me with absolute distrust. “What?!” I exclaimed. “It’s worth a try, okay?”

Lydia said nothing. She just kept staring out the window as I drove.

The pub really wasn’t that far from where we were. After a five-minute drive, I pulled into a parking space near the sidewalk. A few people were gathered outside the entrance, as usual. I walked down the stairs and stopped near the door, where a short-haired lady with a clipboard was sitting on a chair while she inspected some papers.

“Name and reservation,” she asked us. Then the woman looked up at me and frowned. “Oh. Great. You.”

“Nathalie,” I called. “That’s you, right?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Look, do you two want a table? ‘Cause if you have no business here I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

“Is she the ex?” Lydia asked, surprised. “Wow, how did Amelia even stand this girl?”

Nathalie scoffed. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t mind her,” I intervened. “We’re looking for Mel. We know she took paid leave from work, and she haven’t been to uni these past few days. I thought you might know something.”

At that moment, Nathalie’s demeanor completely shifted. The snarky attitude was replaced by sincere concern.

“Oh god, don’t tell me she went back to Rio?” she asked.

“We don’t know yet,” I told her. “We’ve all tried calling her, but she won’t answer. Not me, not Janis, not anyone.”

Nathalie sighed. She turned around and called someone from inside the pub. “Hey, Ivan, can you cover for me, real quick?” she asked, already taking off the blazer of her uniform, and leaving it on the chair along with the clipboard. Then she nudged her head for us to leave, and the three of us walked up the steps to the exit.

“I haven’t heard of her, either. The boss called me a few days ago, asking me to cover some of Mel’s shifts. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But Mel used to be famous for going awol in the past, she used to do it whenever something came up with her family. Do you know if anything weird happen to her lately? Something that might have bothered her or hurt her?”

I hesitated. In all honesty, I’d rather not tell Mel’s ex about the whole Michael thing, but this time, it didn’t seem like I had an option. Finding Mel was what really mattered just then.

“Yeah, something did come up,” I said. I took a deep breath and started to tell Nathalie the whole story. She did not interrupt me once.

When I was finished, Nathalie crossed her arms, and hummed.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Mel’s pretty tough. She’s gotten into fights before, I don’t think something like a drunk guy going a little violent is enough to ruffle her.”

“He also called her a tranny,” I added. “And then things got weird, ‘cause I hadn’t known she was trans up until that moment.”

Nathalie wrinkled her forehead. “She didn’t tell you? That’s unusual for her. More importantly, how did you react to it?”

“I didn’t… react, I think,” I said, forcing myself to remember the details of that night. “We just left the apartment at that point, and she put me in her brother’s car so Vin could take me to the hospital. That was the last time I saw her.”

Nathalie sighed. “Yeah, this is something which would ruffle her. Not the slur itself, but her girlfriend — you — finding out about it in such an awful way. Even though she’s always so cool on the outside, things like this do get to her, at times.”

I smiled. “You know her well.”

“Well, we did date, you know,” Nathalie asked, snickering. “I have an idea. Let’s go back inside, I need to ask my boss about something.”

Nathalie turned around and started to walk down the steps again.

“You know,” said Lydia. “I’m starting to get that thing Janis said about you being Mel’s type.”

I furrowed my brow. “Whatever do you mean?” I asked, and started going down after Nathalie.

“I mean,” said Lydia, behind me, “that this Nathalie girl sounded so much like you just now that it was a little creepy. You know that thing you do when you go super rational like you’re trying to solve a puzzle in your head? And then you’re all like, ‘follow my lead’ as you focus like a woman on a mission.”

“I don’t do that,” I said, even though I felt my face grow hot with the realization.

Lydia snorted. “Yeah, right. It’s literally what you’ve been doing all night.”

I sighed. “Fine, big deal. One similarity. It’s a coincidence, is all.”

We walked into the pub to find Nathalie behind the counter, exchanging a few words with a tall older woman. Once she saw us, she motioned for us to come to her.

“So, I just talked to my boss,” said the girl. “I wanted to know exactly what Mel had told her when filing for the leave, and as it turns out, it wasn’t Mel who called her, it was Vincent. So if we can just get a hang of him, he might know where Mel went.”

“No good,” said Lydia. “We’ve been to the restaurant already, it’s closed.”

“Yeah, but do you have his phone number?” said Nathalie, smirking. She pulled her phone from her pocket, and started dialing a number. “We were friends in high school, let’s just hope he hasn’t changed his number since then.” Then, to my surprise, she handed the phone to me.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“You’re the girlfriend,” she said, winking.

The phone rang three times. I almost expected it to go to voicemail, like Mel’s, but then I heard Vincent’s voice.

“Hello,” he asked. “Nathalie? Is it really you? Long time no see, eh?”

“Hi, Vincent. It’s Hannah. You know, Mel’s girlfriend.”

The line went mute for a few seconds.

“Hey, Hannah, I wanted to call you sooner, but I didn’t have your number. I’m assuming you’ve heard.”

I hesitated. Suddenly, I was filled with an ominous sense of dread. Heard? Heard what?

“Vincent… where is Amelia right now?”

Another pause.

“Do you know the North Zone Community Hospital?”