To say we were confused would be an understatement.

Zake was a good friend. He did have his run-ins with trouble, and that was because he was so impulsive, but really nothing bad could've happened to him. I mean that is what you think of a friend, right? You think that for all their faults, their mistakes, they would always be there to come back from?

However, not this time.

We stood in a lose semicircle with the old Head of Discipline and his sidekick officer next to him. It seemed strange that one time we were all afraid of Mr Van der Merwe but like everything else, it lost its drive.

My father and I stood on the end by the left. Next to me was Connor and his father, then Caleb and his father. Next to the two boys were my three bestfriends, Kete, Tshepang and Toni, standing with their mothers or fathers.

That I could understand. All of us were friends already having been in the same classes and groups. Zake was friends with all of us too and was, at the time, dating Toni. I didn't get who the last girl was. A small Indian girl between her mother and father, even smaller than me and I'm not exactly the tallest.

Probably an ex, I thought. It wasn't exactly the rarest thing but if they were bringing exes, there'd be more than just seven people here. Way more.

"Right," He shouted from behind his mask. "For the reason you all gathered here today, your children each questioned, is because Zake has disappeared."

Disappeared? "What do you mean?" I immediately fired. I was vocal, sue me. "Like he ran away or something?"

"Unfortunately, if that was the case you guys wouldn't be here." Mr Van der Merwe answered. He sat on one of the benches. "We don't know."

"You are going to have to give more detail than that. We all left work for this!" My father exclaimed, a scowl probably under his mask.

"We don't know. His family is also gone." Mr Van der Merwe shrugged, defeated. "He lives in a good neighbourhood, those ones with whatsapp groups, cameras, etc. Most of your kids have been there. Anyways,

", last night people noticed that everybody had returned home like usual. It was just the four of them, Zake, his parents, his sister and their four dogs. This morning their neighbours called the police. They had simply...disappeared."

"They can't just have...disappeared." Toni sobbing, trembling in her mother's arms.

"You say their neighbours noticed them missing. Surely they must have seen or heard something." Her mom suggested, clutching to her child.

Officer Radebe shook his head, angrily. "Ma'am, you are not listening.  They disappeared. Disappeared. We arrived there and there was nothing. No car, no dogs, nobody, no house, no grass. Just their walls remained. Everything that used to be in there is simply not there anymore."

"That's impossible!" Kete's mom argued. "I've seen their house, cars and etc. It simply can't just have disappeared. There must be rubble or someone must have seen something! People can't just disappear."

"I'm sorry, madam, but they have." Was all Officer Radebe could say. "We perhaps hoped that the seven of you could maybe lead us to them as Zake was last seen speaking to you all, but no. We just can't find them. We'll try but as of now, they are as a good as dead."