Edge of Reality (boyxboy)

Missing piece (part 3)

Kal swallows hard as he lets go of the key, slowly moving his hand towards the latch. He carefully lifts it up, causing the door to open a jar. The whispers which had been plaguing his ears suddenly stopped. Everything was eerily quiet. All Kal could hear now was the racing pulse in his ears, as his heart prepared itself for what he was going to see behind the door.

He slowly pulls back the small black latch. The door creaks like it hadn't been opened for years. Kal stops momentarily. He closes his eyes and decides to go for it. To open the door fast, in one go. He counts in his head. 'One, two, three...'

He pulls the door open wide to reveal...an empty cupboard. Kal looks on, confused. Did he just imagine it? Did he just imagine the past twenty or so minutes?  Imagine the whispers, the bangs? Did he just dirty his hand, bruise his shoulder for nothing?" 

Kal pushes the door closed then opens it again fast. Maybe the element of surprise would make something happen, but no. The cupboard looked exactly the same as a moment ago. 

He now looked all around and inside the cupboard. It consisted of slatted shelves. Five in total, old and unpainted, not old enough though that it would have been original to the house, possibly 80s? The bold orange and yellow striped wallpaper which decorated the back of the cupboard was definitely of that era.

He now steps slightly into the cupboard. Reaching his hands high to feel if there is anything on the shelves. His fingers brush lightly against what feels like a box of some kind. Kal can't quite reach it, so he decides to pull the stool from earlier over to the cupboard to allow him to see what was on the shelf. He climbs up onto the stool and his eyes become level with the shelf. He can see a shallow box, with a lid. He reaches his right arm out and with his hand, manages to pull down the box and carefully gets off of the stool.  He now looks down on the box, holding it in both of his hands. 

The box is caked with dust, probably thirty years of it resting on top. Kal takes the box to his breakfast bar and places it down. He gets a few sheets of paper towel and heads to the taps and wets them. He rings them out before returning to the dusty box. He wipes down the lid and sees a picture. A familiar picture. 

It soon dawns on him that he is looking at a jigsaw puzzle. The words 'The Grange' written across the top of the box, with a picture of the manor house in all its former splendour underneath. A small yellow puzzle image in the corner showing '500 pieces'.

Kal sits down smiling to himself, gazing at the picture on the box. He stares at his own window, trying to work out where it is on the old image. He soon locates it and chuckles to himself. He and Paul lived in a tiny part of this grand house.  

He opens up the lid and looks inside. The box contains mid-sized pieces. It was a 500 piece after all. He tips the contents over the table, spreading the pieces all around. Maybe he could get this done in like half an hour and then he could show Paul when he got back from the store.  Maybe they could frame it, hang it on the wall. 

Kal stands the lid up to study the picture. Starting with the corners first, he then finds out all the edges and begins to create the outside of the puzzle. Now for the middle.

Again, he studies the picture. He then spots something he didn't see before. There at one of the windows, his window to be exact was a figure. Kal picks up the box and holds it closer to his face studying the tiny figure. Although the figure was small, Kal could just make out that it had short hair and a blue top. It looked like its hand was pressed up against the window pane. 

Kal stares at it for a few moments. Then feels the urge to blink, if not for anything else, for the fact that he could have sworn that the hand at the window just seemed to wave. He puts the box back onto the table and rubs his eyes. 

"What the fuck ?" He curses to himself.  

He picks up the box again and looks at the picture. At the window. There's no figure, just a window. 

Kal decided he was truly losing the plot. He leaves the puzzle pieces on the table and decides to make himself a very strong black coffee. That would surely set his mind straight.

He stands by the kettle in the kitchen area as he waits for it to boil. He leans against the countertop, looking across the room. The cupboard, now open, the dusty jigsaw with the disappeared image. 

He takes his coffee and heads back to the puzzle scattered across the table. Placing it down, Kal begins to collect up the loose pieces and place them back in the box. A sudden chill blows across his neck, causing him to shiver. 

Please....please save me... 

He stops and automatically looks towards the cupboard, but this time the whisper wasn't coming from there...it was coming from the jigsaw. Kal drops the pieces haphazardly back on the table, suddenly feeling the urge to find a particular piece. That piece! The piece which in this ridiculous situation he found himself in, would be the person. The person stood by his window. 

Kal can feel the sense of urgency about him. The need to hurry. Where was it? It had to be here somewhere, it had to be. He was not going crazy.

He checks piece by piece before he has it. There in his hand. That piece which was calling to him. The jigsaw itself was much larger than the picture on the box. Kal could again see the figure at the window. The same short hair, the same blue top, the hand pressed against the glass of the window pain. But this time, Kal could see it so much more clearly. The hand was moving. No matter how many times he rubbed his eyes or blinked, the image still remained. 

Kal pulled the jigsaw piece closer to his face. Paying particular attention to the hand. A sudden wave of fear washed over him. The hand, the waving hand. It wasn't waving at all. It was banging against the window. 

Please help me...