Her

Chapter 7

Bereaved

Still unable to comprehend the situation, he ran back into the house and shouted Joseph's name.

"Jo! Joseph!" Shouted Seth at the top of his lungs.

"Up here!" Replied Joseph.

Seth rushed over to the room in which Joseph was and found him rummaging through some books.

"Hey, look at what I found..." Joseph said showing a book.

"We don't have time for that, we have to get out of here. Now!"

"What happened, bro?"

"I... I met Peter."

"Peter? Where's he?"

"He's not here."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain everything to you later. First, let's get the hell out of here!" Exclaimed Seth tugging Joseph's shirt.

"Where is Peter? Tell me!" Joseph shouted but he gained no reply from Seth who tried to pull him along. Eventually, Joseph gave up resisting and the two of them ran out of the house.

Joseph stopped Seth in the middle of the grey path leading out of the plot. They were surrounded by fog and lifeless, melancholic plants.

"What the hell happened there?" Inquired Joseph, staring disapprovingly at his companion. Seth seemed distracted and distant as he didn't answer Joseph straight away.

"Pete... I... saw him but..."

"But what?"

"I... think he... is dead."

"W-what? What the hell?"

"He talked about him not ever coming back and being in some 'other place'. He also said that we shouldn't have come here... then he said, 'she's coming', walked past me and just... disappeared in the fog..." Explained Seth, taking deep breaths.

"I... What? That's messed up." Joseph looked around, "Let's go over to my house and talk about it... This... isn't the right place..."

They went over to Joseph's house and sat on the couch. Exhaustion took over both of them as they were talking about what happened at the house.

"Want a drink?" Asked Joseph.

"Sure." Replied Seth.

Joseph went over to the kitchen, grabbed two cold drinks, drank one and tossed the other over to Seth.

"Also... I found this book there that I was trying to show you... It seemed... kind of out of place in that house."

"What was the book about?"

"It had-" Joseph's sentence was cut off by the ringing of his phone.

He answered it without looking who it was.

"Hello? Yeah... Okay... Seth, it's your sister." He said, giving the phone to Seth.

"Hello?"

"Seth, Why weren't you picking up your phone? I tried calling you a thousand times!" Cried Amelia.

"Whoa, calm down... I didn't get any calls and my phone is never on silent. What happened?"

"It's dad and mom.... They're... They're..." Amelia burst into tears.

Seth had the idea of exactly what his sister was going to say but tried to pretend like he didn't, with a hope that he might be wrong.

"They're... not ok are they?" Said Seth on the verge of tears.

All Seth could hear was Amelia sobbing at the other end of the line. After a couple of unbearable seconds, Seth's sister managed to say the three words he never thought he would hear in his life.

"They..."

Amelia took her time, trying to remember to breathe and to sound more stable than she was.

"are... dead"

Amelia broke.

"They are dead! Mom and dad are gone! Seth, we will never see them again! Do you even understand? They're dead!"

She was screaming now. She was full of frustration and despair and was impossibly upset.

Seth tried to balance himself, he didn't believe this was actually happening. He was in shock, but he needed to get to his sister. He tossed Joseph his phone and ran out of the house, dark thoughts clouding his mind. When he reached his house, he saw his sister sitting and crying on the dining table.

"What happened to them?" Asked Seth in a shaky voice.

"Dad... was found... dead in his car and mom... She's missing..." Amelia told him, struggling to speak.

"Missing?"

The conversation was followed by a gloomy silence for a few minutes. Seth sat on the chair beside her.

"It's... It's all my fault." Said Seth in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" Asked Amelia with her hands still shaking.

"The things happening with me..."

"You mean that the stuff happening to you is involved in the death of our parents and you never told anything about it to me?"

"Uh, I—"

"Shut up! You... just shut the hell up!" She screamed and rushed to her room, looking it.

Seth was left sitting there at the table with tears rolling down his cheeks. He tried not to but burst out crying, not being able to handle the situation. He put his head down and cried out loud for a long time. He lifted his tear-stained face and looked at a picture of his family, his mom, dad, sister and him when they were at a beautiful beach. The happy memories and their happy faces, made him cry again. Suddenly a feeling of anger and revenge filled him.

"Why were my parents taken away from me? Why me? I don't deserve any of this... They... didn't deserve any of this." Seth told himself

He tightened up his fists while crying, hit the table, got up and headed towards the horrid house to end this nightmare once and for all.