Now You See Me by Emma Haughton

been.
    I had no idea what was going on. I tried asking him once, about what I’d done wrong, what had made him change. He just looked at me. He didn’t try to deny it or pretend that everything was okay. He simply gazed at me in a helpless sort of way.
    â€œIt’s not you,” was all he said.
    But I could never quite shake off the feeling that it was.

12
then
    â€œBudge up a bit.”
    I shifted over to give her some room and Lianna plonked herself down on the sofa next to me and Maisy. It was a bit of a squash and I had to curl up my legs to keep them out the way. My whole body felt fidgety and awkward. Nervous.
    â€œOnly a few minutes to go.” Maisy grinned, hardly able to keep the anticipation from her voice. I saw Dad glance at her, and regretted again agreeing to have them over. Part of me was grateful they’d asked – in the six months since Danny disappeared, they were the only friends I had, and I appreciated them sticking by me. But another part felt exposed, like everything inside me was on show.
    The documentary about Danny’s disappearance was a big deal. All over town other kids and their parents were sitting, like us, waiting for it to begin. At school everyone had been talking about it for weeks, the excitement building as the scheduled date approached.
    â€œAre you going to be in it?” Rebekah Collins had asked me in history.
    When I shook my head, she gave me a sort of pitying look, like I was missing out on something exciting. It didn’t make me feel any better.
    The truth was I could have been involved. I’d wanted to do it, but Dad had said no. “She’s done enough,” he told Martha when she tried to convince him.
    I’d opened my mouth to object, but Martha got in first. “It’s just a TV programme, David. They only want to talk to her. What harm could it do?” Her voice was taut with frustration. “Couldn’t Hannah—?”
    â€œDrop it, Martha,” Dad cut in, his expression morphing into anger. “It’s up to me, not you, to decide what’s best for my daughter.”
    Martha gave him a furious look, but she didn’t argue. Nor did I. So as the adverts ended and the announcer introduced the programme, I was as much in the dark as anyone. I had no idea what we were about to see. Martha had never mentioned it since, and somehow I’d felt it better not to ask.
    As the opening credits rolled down the screen, Lianna and Maisy turned and gave me encouraging smiles. I managed a thin one in return, but my attention was caught up with the music. It was haunting, sort of serious and eerie at the same time.
    I glanced at Dad. He was staring at the screen, his lips pressed firmly together. He looked nearly as tense as me.
    It turned out the programme wasn’t only about Danny, but missing teenagers in general. It featured various kids who’d disappeared over the last year or so. A boy who took the bus home from school, but never got off the other end. Another boy who vanished seven months ago – just a few weeks before Danny. And a girl called Jenny who went missing after a house party last summer. They kept showing this photo of her, dark hair, dressed up in a short skirt with lots of black eye make-up, pouting at whoever took the picture.
    But it was Jenny’s best friend who stuck in my mind, the one who was with her the night she vanished. Jenny’s friend didn’t look in the least bit excited about being on TV. Halfway through describing the last moment she saw Jenny, she started crying.
    â€œI keep thinking it’s all my fault,” she said, covering her eyes with her hands, hiding her tears. “I go round and round, wondering what I’ve missed, wondering what I might have done to stop it.” I watched her, my own eyes welling, feeling like someone had climbed into my head and borrowed my thoughts.
    Teens ran away for all sorts of reasons, said an expert