It was a Saturday. The morning sunlight filtered in through Ebony's window into her room, and she could hear birds chirping outside as she sat up in her bed. For a moment, Ebony forgot everything of the night before. And, when it all came crashing back to her, she could barely believe how a world so beautiful could contain things so incredibly dark. Ebony slid out of bed and slipped her feet into her fluffy bunny slippers. She walked slowly, like a zombie, over to her dresser and sat down, observing herself in the mirror.

Just like Colin Blackburn, Ebony looked tired. She looked tired, young, and scared. Most of all, Ebony looked alone. But that was to be expected. She was in a two-story house, all alone. Her father had left her to fend for herself, as usual. This had happened before. He had left for at least two weeks one time, and by the time he got back the milk had gone bad and Ebony was eating her meals out of a peanut butter jar. 

But this time was different. She had no idea why he left, for one matter. Usually, it was for a case, and he would tell her all the itty bitty details before leaving. But now she had no idea why he was gone, and her wild imagination only brought her images of her father visiting Max Blackburn, tied back with a bunch of ropes in some abandoned shed miles away. 

The only thing that kept Ebony sane was the fact that her dad had never really shown an interest in Max. He never said anything about liking or disliking the boy, and never asked questions about him before he disappeared. Mr. Markson had treated Max just like he treated anyone else in his life; He barely acknowledged him. 

Ebony started to braid her hair, folding the brown strands over each other, her brow furrowed in thought. What could possibly be her father's motive? Did he have some sort of disdain for the Blackburn's that he was incredibly skilled at hiding? 

Why, if he really was guilty of the kidnapping, did it have to be her best friend?

~

Ebony did not make much of her Saturday morning. She sat in the kitchen, drawing swirls over and over again on a white sheet of paper. She had thought of getting out the old sketchbook that Max had gotten and attempting to draw something of more substance, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wasn't ready to look at the crinkled paper and messy sketches she had drawn of the boy who disappeared. There were too many memories there, and it already seemed that all Ebony ever did was revisit her past. But she had to admit that all of her memories seemed a hundred times better when Max Blackburn was grinning in them.

Ebony sat, alone, in the quiet Markson kitchen. She kept staring at her father's office door. It was tempting her, drawing her in. A quick look couldn't harm anyone, could it? The police didn't find anything, so Ebony didn't really think she would find anything significant that would prove her father guilty. But, as she got up slowly and pushed in her chair, she knew she had to look. Trusting the man she called her father was getting harder and harder every second she was left alone. 

Ebony walked over to the thick, wooden door of her father's office. Not surprisingly, she found the door locked when she turned the knob. But Ebony knew of another entrance into the office, which her father was oblivious to. Her heart began to pick up its pace just at the thought of what she was about to do. She ran up her stairs, taking two at a time, and rushed into the guest bedroom, which sat right above the office. It was basically empty except for a few boxes and a rocking chair filled with all of her old stuffed animals in the corner. She pushed some cardboard boxes to the side to access the closet to the room. Ebony pulled the sliding door open, and a cloud of dust greeted her. She sneezed, a tiny sound in the otherwise silent house.

The closet was empty. As it was just her and her father left in their house, they didn't have enough belongings to fill the entire two-story house. Years ago, that closet had held her mother's many dresses and blouses. She had also kept all of her seemingly endless supply of makeup stacked high in that small closet. Ebony almost thought she could smell the vanilla scent of her mother's perfume wafting through the air. The smell left the girl with a bad taste in her mouth. 

In the right-hand corner of the closet, there was a square in the wall that had been covered in cardboard. Ebony couldn't remember the last time she had crawled through the crawl space that was behind the cardboard. She just knew it was years ago when she had needed a place to hide from her fighting parents. Ebony ripped back the cardboard, to find that the passage looked much smaller than she remembered it. 

Ebony took a deep breath, and inched forward, army crawling into the dark passage. The passage was grimy and pitch black, and Ebony kept her eyes clenched shut and tried her best to keep her face away from the filth. Spiderwebs stuck to her face as she crawling through them, and it took everything inside her to keep her from flipping out. The passage was so tight that she could barely breathe, and Ebony tried her best to keep her breaths even so she wouldn't panic. Opening her eyes, Ebony was relieved to see the passage opening up. Infront of her lay a whole story drop, a chute that went all the way down to the floor of her father's office. When she was younger, she had never gone over the edge, only fearing what would happen. However, she had managed to figure out that it did indeed open up in her father's office. One day, when she was only nine, Ebony had snuck into her father's office when he was out. She had determined that the passage opened up behind her father's desk. She pulled the desk about a foot backward, just in case one day she decided to go down the chute.

And that day was in 2005. Ebony slowly pushed herself into the open chute. It was small enough that her back could touch one side and her feet the other side with her knees still bent at a ninety-degree angle. Slowly, Ebony inched herself down the chute, doing her best to keep her demeanor calm. It seemed to take forever to even get a foot down the chute, and Ebony's breaths started to pick up. Her calm was now being replaced with terror, her mind supplying images of her body following downwards to end up mangled at the bottom. Who would find her? Her father? Would he even notice she was gone?

As she got more and more anxious, Ebony started making mistakes. When inching her feet down, one foot went too far. Ebony slipped before she totally knew what was happening. Ebony was falling down. She clenched her fists, bracing for impact. In the darkness, Ebony fell about five inches and plopped down in a cloud of dust on the bottom of the chute. She opened one eye slowly, and then grinned to herself. She had made it to the bottom. Infront of her, there was another square of cardboard, and Ebony kicked it open in victory. The light shot into the passage, and Ebony had to shield her eyes for a moment while they adjusted. Just as she had left it, her father's desk was shielding Ebony's view from the rest of the office.

Ebony got up, pushing the desk out so she could step out into the middle of the office. Unlike yesterday, her father's office was in perfect order. Not one paper had been left out of order from the police's visit. His guitar was in the corner, not that he had played in years. The room was filled with warm, earthy colors that her mother had picked out for him years ago. After they had gotten divorced, Mr. Markson had always made sure to be very vocal about how much he despised the look of his office. He never did change it, however. The soft carpet swished under Ebony's feet as she walked over and slid into the chair in front of her father's computer. Maybe he hadn't left any paper evidence behind. But a computer could hold so much more.

Her father's password was easy: Doug. The name of his first dog. And the name of his last dog. Ebony had always begged for a puppy when she was a child before she had stopped speaking. Her parents told her that she was already an animal enough for them. This had left Ebony heartbroken, and she was left to only dream of what life with a pet would be like.

At first glance, there wasn't anything interesting on her father's desktop. Ebony looked through all the files, not finding anything of interest. All of them had to do with his cases as a lawyer. They were all labeled things such as, "Man kills two", " or "The Thompson Case". None of these attracted Ebony's eye, and after ten minutes of searching she started to think that she wouldn't find anything after all. This was a relief and a failure; Maybe her father was innocent, but then who took Max? And why did the criminal have her father's watch?

 A file suddenly caught Ebony's eye. It was labeled "Blackbeak". The word had no significance, but it was so strange to find on her father's computer that she couldn't help but click. When it loaded, it was a document that read as follows:

BLACKBEAK (SEPT. 29, 2003)

-PACKAGE

-BOY

-PORTUGAL

Ebony's eyes widened, reading the words over and over again. She then took a deep breath, trying to keep a level head. Ebony slowly shut off the computer, spinning around in her father's swivel chair. The clock on the wall seemed to tick louder in the silence, as she sat there in shock. What Blackbeak meant, Ebony didn't know. But the boy had to be Max. It was the same year, only a few days after he disappeared. But what was the package? Her father's watch, perhaps? And did her father send him to Portugal? Why Portugal? Or what this all just a big misunderstanding?

Ebony was starting to get a massive headache. She got up slowly, rubbing her temple in frustration. If was as if her father wanted to look guilty. Why would he just leave this on his computer? Why, why, why? The word echoed through Ebony's mind, and she left out the loudest groan she could muster. She was alone, after all.

 Ebony left the office, not bothering to move Jim Markson's desk back and leaving his office door wide open. She had the house all to herself for a week, and Ebony planned to use that week well. She was going to find out what happened to Max Blackburn, and at the moment her father was her biggest suspect. 

At that moment, however, Ebony Markson was tired. She wanted mac and cheese, and she wanted someone to talk to her. She did love listening so much. But there was no one to listen to, because without Max, Ebony always felt alone.