To his credit, Joel waits a significant amount of time before he panics. An hour after Spencer is supposed to be back, he calls his cell and when he gets no answer, he calls Davin's. There's no answer there either and so he forces himself to wait, he literally sits on his hands in their kitchen for another thirty minutes before he tries them both again.
When he goes upstairs and tries a locator spell using one of Spencer's shirts, he's relatively calm. It isn't at all like when Mark had taken Spencer because Joel is absolutely certain that such a thing couldn't happen again and he's only doing this because he worries. He cuts his palm with his pocket knife, draws a map on the shirt and then waits, but nothing happens. The familiar little spark doesn't glow, there's nothing to indicate Spencer is anywhere in Siren Cove and Joel's leaning over the shirt, trying to see what he's done wrong when the whole thing just sort of crumples. The blood he's painted on the shirt goes black and the material curves in on itself like its been burned, but there's been no flame. And that's when Joel knows something is really wrong. That's when he panics.
By the time he reaches Davin's garage, his heart is hammering in his chest and not because he'd run the entire way. He calls both cell phones again and it's standing outside the garage door that he realizes he can hear Davin's phone ringing inside and that doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
He doesn't think. He scoops up a sizable rock from nearby and drives it into the window beside the door. Somewhere in the back of his panicked mind, he realizes he's going to have to replace that window when it turns out everyone is fine -- because everyone has to be fine -- and he almost laughs out loud. He'll leave Davin a note, an IOU scrawled on a piece of paper so he doesn't have to stop looking for them.
The window shatters and he sticks his arm through the hole to unlock the door, scraping his hand against the shards of glass in the process. And inside it's empty. There's no one here. Joel searches the front room easily, then moves onto the garage and the second he sees his car he knows this is a crime scene, but that doesn't stop him from walking toward it. Toward what is clearly blood. For a second he feels like he's going to collapse, but he keeps going, moving until he finds Davin's cell phone and he scrolls through the contacts until he can find the number for James Thorton. They don't know each other at all, the only thing Joel knows about him is that he and Davin are together, but he doesn't hesitate to call him.
The call is brief, Joel tells him something to wrong, to get to the garage, people are missing, and then he ends the call and leans heavily against the wall and wills himself not to cry. To do something.
no subject
When he goes upstairs and tries a locator spell using one of Spencer's shirts, he's relatively calm. It isn't at all like when Mark had taken Spencer because Joel is absolutely certain that such a thing couldn't happen again and he's only doing this because he worries. He cuts his palm with his pocket knife, draws a map on the shirt and then waits, but nothing happens. The familiar little spark doesn't glow, there's nothing to indicate Spencer is anywhere in Siren Cove and Joel's leaning over the shirt, trying to see what he's done wrong when the whole thing just sort of crumples. The blood he's painted on the shirt goes black and the material curves in on itself like its been burned, but there's been no flame. And that's when Joel knows something is really wrong. That's when he panics.
By the time he reaches Davin's garage, his heart is hammering in his chest and not because he'd run the entire way. He calls both cell phones again and it's standing outside the garage door that he realizes he can hear Davin's phone ringing inside and that doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
He doesn't think. He scoops up a sizable rock from nearby and drives it into the window beside the door. Somewhere in the back of his panicked mind, he realizes he's going to have to replace that window when it turns out everyone is fine -- because everyone has to be fine -- and he almost laughs out loud. He'll leave Davin a note, an IOU scrawled on a piece of paper so he doesn't have to stop looking for them.
The window shatters and he sticks his arm through the hole to unlock the door, scraping his hand against the shards of glass in the process. And inside it's empty. There's no one here. Joel searches the front room easily, then moves onto the garage and the second he sees his car he knows this is a crime scene, but that doesn't stop him from walking toward it. Toward what is clearly blood. For a second he feels like he's going to collapse, but he keeps going, moving until he finds Davin's cell phone and he scrolls through the contacts until he can find the number for James Thorton. They don't know each other at all, the only thing Joel knows about him is that he and Davin are together, but he doesn't hesitate to call him.
The call is brief, Joel tells him something to wrong, to get to the garage, people are missing, and then he ends the call and leans heavily against the wall and wills himself not to cry. To do something.
But there's nothing left for him to do.