Her

Chapter 12

Anguish

Recognising the intonation in the voice, Seth looked up with a horrified expression on his tired face. His eyes widened in consternation. Seth saw the body fall to the ground, struggling and in pain.

"Jo-Joseph..." Seth barely uttered the words as he felt weak and fell beside his friend.

Seth saw Joseph, his best friend, dying. He slowly extended his hand towards him with the guilt of the murder of his friend overcoming him. Slowly, his vision became blurry and his eyes closed before he could even touch Joseph. The familiar darkness covered his eyes once again.

His vision cleared and he saw a room which looked rather familiar. His eyes opened fully and he saw himself standing in the corner of the room, the one with the small window. This time, he saw the girl sitting in the wheelchair, staring expectantly at the window. With rage overcoming him, Seth tried to run towards the girl but was not able to move from the corner.

He kept looking at her and felt time passing by. A little later, he saw a woman entering the room with a food tray, she seemed like her mother. She called her name which Seth was unable to hear. The girl started making reluctant movements as the woman walked towards her, it seemed as if she was telling her to stay away.

The woman stood close to her with a kind, smiling face, not paying attention to her actions. Suddenly, she dropped the tray, held her neck as if she was being choked by someone invisible, she fell on the floor, writhing in pain and screaming. Seth watched her eventually succumbing to the pain. Her body was spread out on the floor lifeless, Seth's gaze was fixated on the body and he couldn't comprehend the whole situation.

Unexpectedly, he felt an immense pain in his head which began to throb as his vision blurred once again. After a brief struggle, he collected himself and focused on his surroundings, he was standing outside the house but everything seemed normal. On the stone pathway, he saw the woman getting up and walking away from the house as if nothing had happened. He kept looking at her as he wasn't able to understand what was happening, he followed her with his stare as she exited the house.

"Strange... Isn't it?" He heard a voice behind him.

Seth being startled, looked back and saw Peter, still looking as pale as a dead person but somehow he was alive. Something made him look dead and alive at the same time but Seth couldn't figure out what it was.

"P- Pete? Wha- What are you doing here? Why does everything seem so... strange? What is going on?" Seth questioned, barely able to speak without stuttering.

"Don't worry, nothing bad has happened... yet." Peter said.

"Wha- I... But..." Seth struggled to speak with the confusion and tension overwhelming him.

"Calm down, this... is not the real world... This is a world in our world. An invisible place, I call this 'The Other Place'. Everyone who died and disappeared in the real world is here..." Peter tried to calmly explain Seth, "even your mom is here..."

"What? I... Can I see her?" Seth asked, almost on the cusp of breaking down.

"I'm afraid not..." Replied Peter.

"What about Amelia? Where is she?"

"She... is neither in the real world nor here, she is in a different place. The difference between everything is that normal people just die... their body remains in the real world, some people are 'special people', they have a different kind of energy inside of them. When they get killed by 'them', they come to this place. At last, there are those 'special people' who have suffered a lot of physical and psychological pain... They go to a different place where they become a constant source of energy for 'them'. Amelia is there..."

"What do you mean by 'them'?" Questioned Seth.

"Look I don't have much time... You need to kill that spirit..."

"But how?"

"Spirit Realm... You have to get there. That ghost.... She flickers in and out of reality in the real world, when she goes out of the 'reality', she is in the Spirit Realm... That's where she is vulnerable, that's where you can kill her.... To get to the Spirit Realm you have to be near her when she moves out of the 'reality'... Do it and end this." Peter told Seth everything in a hurry, "You have to get out of here now."

"Wait, what about Joseph?"

"He's.... No more.... You have to go now!"

"No!"

Suddenly, a raging turbulence was felt by both of them. Everything started becoming dark, almost as if it were night.

"I have to get you out of here now! She's coming..." Peter said in an ominous tone and pulled Seth.

Seth tried to protest but gave up understanding the gravity of the situation. Both of them headed towards the house and opened the door. Seth couldn't see anything in the house as it was blindingly bright inside.

"Go on, go inside and you'll be safe" Assured Peter.

"But Pete..."

"Don't say anything, just go..."

"I miss you, man..." Said Seth walking inside.

"Miss you too... I believe in you, maybe you'll succeed where I failed..." Said Peter.

Seth looked back whilst walking and saw a glimmer of hope in Peter's eyes, something that he hadn't seen for a long time. As he walked further, Peter closed the door and this time, he was surrounded by the extreme brightness. He closed his eyes not being able to keep them open due to the piercing light and all of a sudden, he felt that his body was at rest as if he were lying on a bed.

The brightness of the light lessened gradually, then after a few moments he opened his eyes and saw that he was on his bed once again and the light was just the sunlight coming through the window which was falling on his eyes.

He got out of bed not able to understand what to think or what to do. The first thought that came to his mind was Joseph, the picture of him dying by his side didn't fade away from his memory. He ran out of his house to Joseph's house, many thoughts were cluttering his mind, everything was flashing before his eyes, the horrors and the inapprehensible truth were seemingly overwhelming.

When he was just a few meters away from Joseph's house, Seth saw police cars standing in front of it. Gulping down his fears, he went a bit closer and saw two policemen standing in front Joseph's worried parents.

"I'm sorry to say sir, but your son... Joseph... is dead." He heard one policeman say.