He Follows ✔

Chapter 4

Michelle Buckolt pulled into the driveway of her father's house. She grabbed the stack of mail that he never remembered to get. She walked up to the door and took a deep breath. There was some part of her that hoped that when she walked in, that he would be sitting down watching the news like he always did.

She entered the house and turned on the light. The house looked as it always did. It hadn't been dusted in years and stuff was strewn everywhere on the floor. She set the mail on the table and looked through it for anything important.

There were bills that needed to be paid, ads for a new air conditioning unit, and then she found an envelope.

It had her name on it written in handwriting she had never seen before.

She quickly tore it open. The cover said Happy Birthday on the front. Her birthday had been 6 months ago. She opened it up and started to read the note inside.

It was anything but a birthday note.

"Your father will pay"

She shuddered in fear. When had this been written? Was she supposed to have seen this a couple of days ago?

No, she always came over on this day of the week to check up on him.

This person had to know she would check the mail today.

She looked at the word will again.

He will pay.

That means that he must still be alive.

She knew she might be being nieve, but she held out hope. Her father always told her, "when you have nothing else, you have hope."

Realizing that she had nothing else to do, she began searching the house for anything that might help her find him.

It took her 2 hours just to clean up the house enough to walk through and then she began searching.

She started in his bedroom.

The bed was left un-made. The mirror was covered in dust. A pile of dirty clothes were left in the corner. She sighed in exasperation. After finding nothing under the bed or in the dresser, she moved on to the closet.

She found shoes that had never been worn, about fifteen work uniforms, and the tux he had worn on his wedding day.

She pulled out all the clothes and shoes, looking for anything. Nothing was left inside. On a mere whim, she ran her hand along the wall.

Smooth...smooth...wait. She ran her hand over the previous spot again.

She felt a slight raise in the wall.

She went to the kitchen and grabbed a sharp cutlery knife.

She cut along the wall where it was slightly raised and then pulled out the sheetrock.

There was now a hole where she had cut. She reached her hand inside and felt around. At first she felt nothing. Then she reached back with all of her arm and hit a box with her hand.

She felt for a handle and then pulled it closer. The box was not very big. She grabbed it and pulled it out of the hole in the wall.

It was a small brown jewelry box.

She attempted to open it, but there was a padlock on the outside

Sighing in frustration she decided to plop down and go to sleep in her father's bed.