Eldritch

Chapter 20

It's the early hours of the morning. Daniel opens the door to his home and shuffles inside with Lisa. His head bowed, he enters the living room, where Marissa stands, clutching the phone and holding her hand to her forehead.

'I don't know, he just left to--'. She spots him, her eyes widen and she focuses her attention back on the phone. 'It's okay. I found him. He's here. Thank you. Yeah, goodbye.'

She slams the phone down and rushes towards him. 'Oh my God,' she says. 'Where have you been? What happened to your face?'

She plants her hands short of his face and looks up to him.

He swallows. 'I was attacked last night, Mom,' he says. 'Both Sean and I were. We were on our way back to Martin's from the store, and we stopped because the tyre went flat. I got out to change it, and then, these guys came up to us and started attacking us. They had masks on and I tried to fight back. Two of them grabbed me while another broke one of the windows, and they threw me at the smashed glass, which is how I got the cuts on my face.'

He stops, takes in a deep breath to alleviate his pain, so as to not clutch his concealed wound in front of her. 'Oh my God,' she gasps.

Tears build in his eyes. 'That's not the worst part, Mom,' he swallows. 'They knocked me out, and when I woke up, Sean was gone.'

Marissa looks at her son in horror. 'I don't know who they were, but I think they took him.'

He looks down and starts to cry. Lisa takes his hand. 'My house is nearby, Mrs Stone. So, Dan called to me and I brought him into my house, where I removed the glass from his face.'

Marissa looks to Lisa, back to Daniel and nods. She smiles weakly at Lisa. 'Thank you, Lisa,' she says.

'We need to call the Police,' she continues. 'Where's the car?'

'It's on the road along the opening to the woods.'

She nods. 'Okay, sweetie, just sit down. I'll call Sheriff Ryan now.'

They nod and take a seat on the couch. After Marissa makes the call and enters the kitchen to make a hot drink for her son, Daniel breathes out, rocks his leg up and down and runs his hands through his hair. He can't bear having lied to his mother; he always used to tell her everything. But, it's safer for her to know nothing about his predicament, so he thinks. It's better for nobody outside of his circle to learn of the truth, including the Sheriff. It'll keep them out of danger. That's what he believes.

Nonetheless, he continues to weep while Lisa comforts him by gently rubbing his arm. 'Do you think the Sheriff's going to believe me?' he whispers.

'Well,' she replies. 'We drove the car out where you said it was and smashed the driver window. Your story lines up. They have no reason not to believe you.'

He looks to her. 'What if the Gamemaster rings him again, just like it did when it had taken Ella over, and had me arrested?'

He starts to panic and rests his face in his hands. She soothingly runs her hand along the large of his hunched back. 'Daniel, I know it's hard, but for everyone else's sake, you're going to have to lie. We need to be the ones to figure this out.'

He nods. 'It's just, I'm not so sure I can keep it together, when my ex is gone missing, one of my friends is dead, and Sean's been taken too.'

Lisa frowns and brings her face down level with his. She squeezes his hand as he looks her in the eye. 'You will keep it together,' she says. 'I know you will, because I know you want to save them. And to save them, we need to have the Sheriff off our backs. He can't be suspecting us.'

Daniel nods. 'Yeah,' he chokes. 'Okay, I just don't know what to do. My best friend is missing and he's probably going to end up like Ella if we don't--'

He stops speaking as Marissa approaches the living room, a tray in her hands. She holds it still and carries it to the coffee table, where she places a drink in front of each of them. She then stands up to answer the knock at the door. 'That'll be the Sheriff.'

----

'Did they believe it?' Martin asks.

'I think so,' Daniel answers, as he takes a seat on his bedroom floor. 'They're going out to check out the car now.'

Martin nods. 'So, we need to figure out what we're going to do.'

Sophie nods. 'It came for Sean exactly a week after Ella and Charlene. That can't be a coincidence.'

'It's not,' Lisa says. 'So, it's coming for the next one of us next Saturday. The question is, who?'

The teens sit, thinking for a moment, before Daniel breaks the silence. 'Me,' he says. 'It's coming for me.'

Sophie scoots closer to him. 'How do you know?'

'Because,' he swallows. 'Ella told, so she was the first to be taken. And I noticed a pattern. It's going from Ella in the order we took our turns. After Ella played, Sean played, then he gave the chalk to me. I'm next. And because I was last, it'll go back to who played first until it has us all,' he says as he darts a glance to Lisa.

She swallows. 'Right, so what are we going to do?'

Daniel lifts his head, catches eye contact with the others, puffs his shoulders out and speaks.

'I'm going to bait it out and then we're going to kill it.'

He cocks his head in the direction of the door at the stomping of footsteps up the staircase. He stands up and opens the door to see Louis, standing on the landing. He pulls Daniel into a hug, gripping him tightly. 'Thank God, Daniel. I came as soon as your mother called. Are you alright?'

Daniel winces as his wound rubs off his Dad and steps away. He eyes him with concern as he clutches his t-shirt. 'It's just sore from when I got beaten up.'

Louis nods. 'Okay, son, I can't believe this happened to you. Did you not get to see their faces? What were they wearing? Do you--'

As Louis continues to fire questions at him, he starts panicking. His breaths start to uneven, and he bows his head.

Picking up on it, Martin comes up behind Daniel, planting his hands on his shoulders. 'Mr Stone, I think he's still shook up.'

'Okay,' Louis relents, taking a step back. 'I'll just be downstairs, okay?'

He disappears from the door frame and treads back down the staircase.