The Suicide Master (October Writing Challenge)

Chapter 14: The Time Gone

Chapter 14

The Time Gone

"It's been two days guys, are we really not going to look for them?¨

Emery had been worrying about her missing friends for days, but it seemed to her like they just didn't care.

"Look, we don't know where they went, or why. They'll be back," Aaron said. It was just the three of them, Emery, Ethan, and Aaron, because Amily and Christy went to do laundry and Benny and Riley were getting themselves food. Emery cast her gaze downward, thinking.

"Bad things have happened here, Aaron. You can't overlook them forever."

"Listen, Emery, I think you just need to calm down and listen to what I'm telling you," he said. "Everything is okay."

Ethan watched the two. He stared at Aaron, dumbfounded, and Emery with wonder. "I agree with Emery," he said slowly.

"Then why don't you two go look for them yourselves, hm?" Aaron quipped icily.

"No! None of us are going anywhere alone. That means you."

Aaron stood up and walked out of the dining room where they sat at the table.

Meanwhile, Amily and Christy talked animatedly in the upstairs laundry room. Christy paused suddenly.

"Do you really think they'll come back?" She asked. "Can they really afford us not looking for them?"

"I don't know," Amily set the dried t-shirt in the basket next to her. "I say, if they don't turn up by tomorrow, we should go look for them.

"We can't keep treating them like dogs!"

"I know, I know, we will go look for the--"

"What the hell?" Christy looked behind Amily. A shadow crept up on her. "Amily!"

The rags were ripped off the girls' faces, giving them a view of their surroundings. From where they were, they could see nothing but an old TV screen. Christy tried to scream, but was stopped by the rag in her mouth.

"Don't try to scream, Christy. They won't hear you," the voice taunted coyly. So instead, she looked around frantically. Aaron and Amily stood next to her.

Suddenly, the small monitor turned on, the fuzzy coming to life.

"You three are in for a show."

It showed a split screen, one side showing Lucas, sat in his concrete call, and the other showing Charlotte. Christy gasped through the rag, seeing the silver glint of a knife in her hands. Lucas talked to her in a hushed voice and she breathed heavily. The two girls tried to scream and tugged at their tied hands as their friend fell to the concrete ground.

"Charlotte?" Lucas asked, not hearing her breathing anymore. "Charlotte?" He called, his voice growing frantic. His breath came out in sharp gasps and he doubled over, crying out her name. Lucas repeated her name over and over and over. "No," he whispered, his voice cracking.

Footsteps could be heard from outside of the room Lucas was in. The door opened -- just and inch -- and something was thrown in. A bloody knife.

The monitor was turned off and the voice chuckled, a deep, menacing sound.

"In all the time gone by, and you three didn't even think about looking for those two. You should be ashamed. How do you even call yourselves friends?"

The three were crying. Pathetic, blubbering sounds barely came through the rags. Tears fell down their faces and stung the scratches on their cheeks.

There it was -- the shadow. The first sign of their own breaking. It crept its way into Emery's heart and not it was making its way into their hearts. The shadow was also a physical being. It came at them and roughly picked them up, taking them to the security glass doors. When Christy was thrown in and looked up, she tried again to scream. Lucas's limp frame sat in the darkest corner, his eyes closed. The shadow came in the room and took off the rag and the gnarly ropes tying her hands together. She hiccupped, not feeling strong enough to try to go after the retreating shadow.