Michelle's avoidance to stay in her bedroom wasn't the only oddity.
One quiet Saturday early midnight, Chester woke up on a floor mattress in the family room. Hair untied, covered most of his face. He brushed it backward with his two hands. He could feel his skin and shirt were wet. Sweating too much. Who the hell in the world is too lazy to take off his sweatshirt before sleeping, while the air temperature is warm enough? "Damn it." He grunted while he was about to take off his black hoodie.
But then he noticed that Michelle wasn't in the couch where she used to sleep. He searched the entire house, but Michelle wasn't found. Not in the family room, under the beds or wardrobes, bathrooms were also vacant and dry, nowhere in the house.
After almost one hour searching inside the house, Chester decided to search outside. Then when he was walking out from the front yard and turned to a vacant land next to the house's fence, he spotted a subtle moving shade under a big tree. He turned on his phone light. And there Michelle was found hiding in the bushes under the tree.
Michelle's body was shaking when Chester found her. Chester slowly touched Michelle's back to not shock her. But she screamed. Flung Chester's hand frantically each time he wanted to touch her. "Go away!" She yelped, but suddenly her voice turned down low and shivered. "Don't hurt me, please~" She begged in her face hidden between her two knees. Her hands clenched her knees.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm your brother." Chester talked in a panicked tone.
"You bad guy, just leave me~" Michelle started crying.
The midnight scream brought a woman came from across the street. She looked at the back of young man wearing black hoodie squatting, facing the bush, then saw Michelle was terrified in the bush. "Are you scared?" Just simple words that the woman said, but enough to make Michelle a little calm. Her voice was smooth and gentle. Then the woman in pastel colored-pajamas kneeled. Seemed like she was awakened from sleep. Her long hair was tied low. "It's me, Auntie Sarah."
Michelle didn't respond, but at least she stopped screaming.
"What are you scared of?"
"Guy." Michelle answered in a very low and raspy voice, almost couldn't be heard.
"Did you say 'guy'?"
Michelle rubbed her head on her knees, a vague nod.
"Which guy?" Waiting for the scared girl to respond again, but nothing happened, Sarah talked again. "Okay. But you're not scared of me, are you? So, you can come with me."
Michelle slowly turned her head to the woman, then looked at Chester and screamed again. "You bad guy, leave me! Don't hurt me!" Then hid her face.
Sarah just got it, that the little girl in the bush was scared of adult man. "Please, give her a space. I guess she's scared of you." Now the woman talked in a firm voice, it was more like giving instruction.
"But how ...?" Chester was about to argue.
"Please!" Sarah repeated a little more loudly after a too slow response from Chester.
Chester took a few steps away backward with face full of question why.
"Now, Honey, you're safe." The woman stretched out her hand. "Come to me."
At first Michelle stared doubtfully to the woman's hand. But then she slowly stretched out her hand too. And reached the woman's hand.
Sarah carefully pulled Michelle into her and hugged the girl gently. "It's okay, Honey. It's okay." She could feel the girl's body was shaking uncontrollably while hiding face in her shoulder. She then looked at Chester. Her lips slowly said something without voice.
But still Chester could capture what Sarah said as, "Trust me."
It was quite a freaking night to Chester. That was not the first time he saw Michelle miserably frightened, but it was weird that Michelle was scared of him.
"No wonder if you don't know us." Sarah stared at Chester, at his shoulder length messy dark brown hair. No wonder Michelle was feared by this bad guy look alike-man. "I and my son just moved here this January. Your mother told me you studied in Irvine." Sarah sat in Michelle's couch while rubbing the curling body's red hair. "I live across the street. Your father showed me the house and helped me during the moving. Your parents and I were good friends. And I'm sorry for the passing of them."
Chester sat in front of the woman that looked to have age about ten to fifteen years old younger, linking his fingers. "How did you know they're passed?"
"Mel told me that you're going to be in Texas for one or two weeks. But Keane, my son, told me that Michelle had been not in classes for two months. So, yesterday I knocked on your door and met your uncle ... Ralph?"
"Yes, that's him."
"I wanted to know, make sure they're already back. But Ralph said they're passed."
"What else did he say?"
"It was an accident. Then what happened to Elle? She looked weird, like traumatized?"
"I'm ...." There was quiet a long pause. "... not sure. Then Keane, you left him alone? Is it okay?" Chester tried to change the subject.
The conversation didn't go on as Sarah thought that Chester was right, that she shuld've not left Keane alone without telling him anything. She went back home.
~*~
YOU ARE READING
LARSSEN'S LANE: Grey
Mystery / ThrillerChester Henry was a criminology student at a university in Irvine, California. But as a smart student, he had a rare hobby-street racing. One day his family was slaughtered by a psycho serial killer. The culprit was then found dead at the same place...
