Her

Chapter 4

Revelations

After looking at the arcade, the mall and the little square where all the boys of their age seemed to hang out, Seth and Joseph decided that they more than deserved a break.

"Do you think he's alright?" Joseph asked his best friend as they sat down on a bench in a park.

"I think that the question we should be asking is 'where is he?'," Seth replied.

"Yeah, but, if he is already dead, then there is no point in finding him."

Seth made an unimpressed face at Joseph's obvious sarcasm. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind about the fact that maybe what Joseph said might be true, but there was no good reason to believe it.

"I just can't seem to think of anything." Joseph looked at Seth, hoping that he'd have an idea.

"Peter isn't picking up his phone," Seth said worriedly, "it is getting slightly concerning now."

"It is getting frustrating now..." Joseph stood up and sighed, "We can't find him anywhere!"

"Just let me think. I feel that there is something that we're overlooking." Seth clasped his hands and gazed at the people walking in the park.

"Let's just go to his home and tell Mrs Richards that we couldn't find him and that she should call the police," Joseph suggested, "if, for some reason, she hasn't already done so."

"Well, the police can certainly do a better job than us in finding him but we..." Seth paused, "Wait a second... The house!"

Raising an eyebrow, Joseph asked, "What?"

"The house! Don't you remember it?" Seth seemed excited, "The house that Peter mentioned to us."

"Do you really think that it is real? Are you out of your mind?"

"We can at least consider that it exists. I mean, this is our last hope of finding him."

"Last and absurd hope..." Joseph murmured and then looked at Seth, "You do realise that this idea is on the verge of stupidity, right?"

Joseph showed his firm disbelief but Seth didn't want to ignore the possibility of there being such a house where Peter could've gone.

Seth leant back against the bench and sighed, "We don't seem to have any other options, do we?"

Both of them remained silent for about a minute.

"I hate to admit it but you're right." Joseph stood up, "Now, let's find that house. If we don't find Peter by sunset, we'll inform his mom. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Seth nodded and stood up.

Seth and Joseph ran through the streets, thinking how Peter would probably always follow the main roads as he was always so obedient of his mother's orders. They sprinted past the modern and expensive houses, the shabby apartments and the tiny bungalows but as hard as they looked they couldn't find a dismal house that their friend warned them about.

As they reached the soccer grounds, a wave of disappointment washed over them. They had no idea at all about where their friend could be.

"We could go ask around if anyone has seen a gloomy-looking house." Proposed Joseph.

"We should go back and see if we spot it."

"Fine. But if we don't find it then the best thing would be to ask someone." Joseph didn't doubt Seth's decision but he still thought his way to go about this problem was better.

After another failed try at searching for the house, they decided to ask some of the residents for the so-called enigmatic house with a hope that they would find at least something about the house and maybe Peter.

"Let's go over to that house and ask 'em if they know something about such a house." Said Joseph, pointing to a large old house.

They went over to the house and rung the doorbell. After a few minutes, a kind-looking lady opened the door.

"Hello, I am Seth, sorry to bother you but do you know about any old and abandoned-looking house over here in your neighbourhood?" Seth asked politely.

"No... I don't think there is any 'old or abandoned-looking house' in our neighbourhood." The lady replied with a chuckle.

Suddenly Joseph thought of something.

"Maybe there was one?" He asked, enthusiastically.

"Now that you've mentioned it... Yes, long ago, I remember there was this house which was left abandoned for a long time before it was demolished. The house was of someone named Mr Neville, I was about your age at that time. All that I remember is that they didn't have a child, so they adopted a girl who was paralysed and well, to be honest... really sinister. She never used to talk to anyone except her parents... It is said that one day Mrs Neville went missing and the very next day Mr Neville was found dead beside the girl who was making anomalistic movements." Explained the lady with a rather frightened look on her face.

"So, what happened to the... girl?" Questioned Seth almost reluctantly.

"The girl just suddenly stopped and... died... Most people left the house instead of helping them because they thought that it was a demon... Some people helped in taking Mr Nevil's body to the ambulance but when they came back for the girl... She... was not there... Just an empty wheelchair." The lady replied.

"Where was this house?" Asked Joseph.

"It was right over there, in the empty plot near the ground... Why do you boys want to know this?" Inquired the lady out of curiosity, "By the way, there was another boy who came here a few days ago and asked the sa-"

"It's uh... for our homework, we needed to write the history about our neighbourhood. Anyways, thanks a lot for your time ma'am!" Seth interrupted and quickly left the front porch along with Joseph.

"Seriously? Homework? That's the best explanation you could come up with?" Questioned Joseph.

"What should have I said? That we're trying to find a missing friend of ours who is supposedly in a goddamned house which was destroyed years ago?" Exclaimed Seth.

Both of them went over to the empty plot and took a brief look at it. Disappointed, they went back to Peter's house with a firm decision that they would do anything to find their friend.