| GHOST STORIES | THE BLACK PHONE | COMPLETED

12 | SHE DESERVES A FUNERAL

     THE NEWS THAT another kid had disappeared made James feel like he was crazy for even attempting to try and save his sister. He anxiously watched his mother put down the phone, he wondered why the hell the police would call them about another kid.

Grace sighed and looked at James. "Finney. That's-that's who's gone missing."

The boy swallowed hard, now thinking about what Gwen was about to go through. He stood up and went straight over to the Blake House where he saw Gwen outside, tears in her eyes. He sat down next to her and pulled her into a hug, the girl gratefully accept it. Although the pair had met a handful of times, Gwen knew that James understood what she was going through, and she knew he needed the comfort in the idea that his sister was likely now dead.

"I'm sorry." James mumbled, rubbing the girls arm in comfort.

Gwen sniffed and wiped her tears. "I'm sorry too."

James stayed silent, he was never sure on how to reply to those words when they were speaking about his missing sister. "Mom's planning a funeral for her, sometime next week or something."

The girl looked up at the boy, who just stared at the neighbours house across the street. "I'll come."

"You don't need to Gwen."

She quickly shook her head. "I need to, for Finney."

Since Abby had gone missing, even since Robin had gone, Finney had been trying to help any way he could to find his two friends. He never expected to find himself in their situation one day, but soon he found himself waking up in a dark basement after being kidnapped by a magician with black balloons on his way home from school.

James sighed softly and looked down at the girl. "If you need anything, you come and find me, yeah?"

Gwen looked back up and him and nodded. "Yeah."

As James arrived home, he heard his mother and father once again in a screaming match. This time over the idea that Abby even needed a funeral, especially since they didn't have a body to bury.

"There's no fucking point! Just stick a fucking picture on the fireplace and put something in the paper!" Robert shouted, slamming down his beer.

Grace, with tears in her eyes, argued back. "She deserves a funeral!"

"I ain't burying anything until we have her body home!" The pair suddenly went quiet, James looked between them. His mother in absolute tears and his father welling with them. "I need to see her one last time before we bury her. So no funeral until then, understood?"

Robert then left the house, nearly pushing his son out of the way. Grace wiped her tears and looked at James. "Where did you go?"

"I went to see Gwenny." He replied, running his hand through his hair. "She really needs someone right now."

"And you think that's you?"

He nodded. "I know what she's going through, she is as close to Finney as I was to Abby. She needs someone to look out for her and make sure she's okay. Her father is the local drunk, he won't help her."

Grace just nodded and sighed softly. "I'm going to pray."

James watched his mother leave and sighed much like she did. The family had changed the moment Abby was gone and now it seemed everything was worse with the realisation that she is likely never coming back. The boy walked towards his room but paused in front of his sister's bedroom door, no one had opened it since she disappeared. 

He slowly opened it and stepped into the room, looking at the light green walls and the white furniture. He closed the door behind him and gently sat on her bed, once again looking around at the art she had drawn, the books she had yet to read, the unopened bottle of cola she had bought the day Robin went missing.

Suddenly, the radio in her room started to static. Since it used to belong to James, he wasn't surprised at the sudden sound, it used to happen a lot. He sighed and stood from his spot, moving over to the desk and picking the item up. He looked under it for the power button.

"James..."

The boy suddenly dropped the item and backed away from it, staring at it in disbelief. He swore he had just heard a voice say his name from it, more importantly, it was his sisters voice. The static had stopped as he bent down to pick it back up, his movements slow and cautious. Once the item was back in his hands, he looked over the radio, wondering if it was one last prank the girl pulled on her brother if he had gone into her room without asking. But there was no tape recorder, at least on the outside. He manged to pull off the front panel without completely destroying it, but there was nothing on the inside either.

"What the-"

"James. Help." The voice of his sister came again, and the words alarmed him.

He had heard of frequencies getting mixed and going somewhere they weren't meant to, maybe his sister had gotten to a phone or another radio and was calling for help, hoping her brother would hear. But the radio in his hand only emitted sound, no matter how hard he tries, nothing would get back to her.

The boy ran from the house, slamming the door behind him as he ran to the police station. He burst through, panting and still holding onto the item. The detectives looked at him confused, and while he tried to get his breath back, he held the radio out to them.

"I heard her." He managed to get out. "I heard her."

The detectives took the radio, promising to keep it with them until they heard something themselves. They didn't distrust him, but they understood that grief can appear in funny ways for people. They had a slight suspicion that James, upon hearing of Finney's kidnap, let his grief form into hearing his sister's voice. They had once delt with a woman who had lost her husband, claim to hear him. It drove her to insanity.