The Novel

"Ten years after his sucessful novel, The Missing Ones, Nick Ashburn is releasing his second book. Mr. Ashburn, thank you for you time and congratulaiton on the second novel."

"Ha ha, thank you, Rachel. And please, call me Nick."

"Your first book, The Missing Ones, was the best seller at the time. How does it feel to release second book after ten years?""

"Kind of nervous, acutally. Everytime I release a book, I feel like a student getting is work reviewed my the teacher. I don't know what will the readers say."

"Is this a sequel from you last book?"

"I guess you can say that."

"Could you give us a brief synopsis of the book?"

"Well..."

Roy sat down on the couch as Nick brought tea.

"Here, have this garden-grown herbal tea I've made. It'll help you be at ease" said Nick

"Thank you," said Roy. Roy tok a sip form the tea

"Now, let's start this from the beginning. What you are saying is, your daughter disappeared ten years ago, and shortly after I released a novel about a girl going missing that had a lot of similarities with your girl's case?"

"..."

"And you think I wrote based off your girl?"

"As soon as I read the first sentence, I knew. I knew that the girl in the book too much in common with my daughter. Even the apartment complex where the kidnapping happened was almost identical. Didn't you live in the same apartment as us ten years ago?!"

"Please, calm down. Yes, I lived there ten years ago, but today's the first time I heard about your girl. And I'm very sorry to hear that."

Roy got up from the couch, now raising his voice.

"Please be honest! Our family has been living in hell ever since! My wife is in depression, and I quit my job to look for her in every way possible. Then, I saw your novel, The Missing Ones."

Nick slowly got up from his seat.

"It's very common to make a movie, drama, or book about children gone missing. Do you know how many kids are going missing every year? It's over 3000. Now, as I've said, I'm very sorry to hear about your daughter, but you can't really say I wrote about her."

"B-but the girl in the book! The apartment! The family in grief! For a novel, it's way too similar to our case! Are you perhaps the witness? Did you see her being taken away by someone?"

"I told you, I don't know anything. Writing a novel means being as realistic as possible. Please, this is a simple coincidence. I think you are suffering from paranoia and delusion after the loss of your daughter. I'll recommend you a good doctor friend of mine, so why don't you go see-"

"...Paranoia? Delusion? BULLSHIT! You wrote that book after witnessing my daughter."

"P-please, calm down, this is not how-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! WHERE IS SHE?!"

"There's no reason to-"

Roy rushed into Nick, and pinned him against the wall. He began to choke Nick.

"NO, YOU WEREN'T THE WITNESS. YOU WERE THE CULPRIT. WHERE IS MY GIRL? HUH?"

"I can't breathe... Please, it's just a novel. And you need you get help."

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'll... I'l..."

Roy began to lose grip on Nick, until he lost consciousness.

Roy woke you in a daze. The first thing he noticed was he was in some sort of bathroom, and his was tied up.

"What the fuck?!"

"Ah, you are awake."

"Y-you..."

"I honestly thought you were going to kill me. Had the drug kicked a moment too late, I would've ben dead," said Nick, soothing this throat.

"You drugged that tea!"

"You know, I was surprised to see someone was still digging around the case that happened ten years ago."

"Please... if you are going to kill me, at least tell me where she is.... where's her body?"

"Body, no. There's no body." said Nick with a smile

"Th-then she's alive? Where is she?"

"Nah," said Nick, now with a grin and a tongue sticking out, "I ate her. Slowly, bit by bit, finger to finger... All of her..."

"Could you give us a brief synopsis of the book?"

"Well, it's about the culprit from the last book discovering cannibals."

"Wow, sounds scary..."

"Yes, you'll see once you read it. I guess you could say, It's very realistic....."