Missing

Chapter 4

I went to my car, parked right outside the café and raised my arm to wave goodbye to Maize. She gave me a shy smile and waved at me lazily.

I drove away from her; I needed time to think of what to do next… But I couldn’t think knowing she would have been watching me. I parked a few blocks away and started mulling over things I could do.

When my mobile vibrated in my pocket. I slid my hand into the back pocket of my jeans and pulled out my relatively new mobile.

I unlocked the screed to read….

From Private Number

Come, before their time is up!

This didn’t help me and my efforts to make a plan, it only scattered my mind more. They had a time limit; of course he wouldn’t just want to keep them captive forever. I rewound the events of last night, we went to Old Bills around nine thirty, I left at a little past ten, and Maize left a few hours later. I vaguely guessed that he had taken them around one-O’clock-ish. I glanced at the time on my mobile it read 3:46pm, meaning that they had to have been captive for at least twelve hours, if not longer.

My logic involved a lot more guessing than I would have liked, but it was all I had to run on.  I had to get moving, I didn’t know how long Old Bill would hold them for, and any amount of time seemed too long.

He was feared throughout the town, but no one voiced any complaints, the last time anyone did they went missing…. Never to be seen again. So I already knew that kidnapping was an option for him, an option he was willing to take if it became necessary.

There had always been rumours, but I never paid much attention to them, I thought they were made up to scare children and had never thought them anything near the truth. But now under the circumstances it seemed naïve of me. The children at school always made up scary stories of him; but they were indeed made up. This was real, I had to treat it as such; everything I do will have a reaction. So I need to get enough action to make the reaction worth the risk.

But I immediately saw a fault in my logic. I didn’t know what the severity of his reaction would be, or what to expect from him in the first place. I hadn’t the slightest idea of where to start my search, except that it meant going over to Old Bills property.

I started the car, waning to get this over with. It grumbled in protest when I hit the gas and started speeding down the road towards Old Bills place.

I was there in no time; the mansion loomed over the overgrown bushes that were present behind his old wire fence. The place didn’t look very inviting, which probably suites Old Bill just fine, seeing as he had made his outlook on visitors strikingly clear to me. I got out of the car after parking it on the curb by the road and walked towards the run down gate, before I reached it I heard something… something terrible.

I heard the shrill sound of screaming children were coming from Old Bills mansion, mixed in with the chorus of horror were two deeper and more distinct voices. Jack and Peter.

The wailing of the horrible screams intensified getting louder and louder, becoming laced with more horror and more pain. Making my heart rate increase and my eyes water, causing me to choke and wheeze, the thought of them being tortured along with children was unbearable. It made me want to rip my hair out and cry in pain with them, my heart constricted and was beating with a stabbing force. Their screams picked up once more, driving deeper into my skull, mentally scarring me with horrible thoughts of what was causing them to have such horror brought upon themselves.

I clasped my hands over my head, an attempt at blocking the wails, squeezing my head, painfully, trying to force the reverberating screams out. I was on the pavement, down on my knees, I had lost the ability to stand and my legs had given way. Tears streaked down my face, and droplets splattered the pavement, leaving little dark pools of moisture.

Then, just as suddenly as the screaming started, it stopped. There was no more pain, no more sound, nothing to show that what had just happened wasn’t a figment of my imagination.

But I knew it wasn’t I knew the sounds were real; they had come from the mansion, from the second story, in one of the rooms that had its window boarded up. I had heard Peter and Jack, both of them, I knew the sounds of their voices and they had come from the mansion.

A/N So, I finally uploaded this chapter :) I actually got scared as I wrote about the screaming children part... Maybe that's just my sensitivity to violence, either way I found it scary... Vote or comment :) I'd like to hear any thoughts or speculations...