The Disappearing Alley

Wide Open Shut

"He just vanished. His window is open and the bed is in chaos. But he wouldn't just run off if-"

"You think something happened to him?"

Jen simply nodded with a worried look on her face. Only now did she seem to notice what a mess I was.

"Linda, what happened to you?"

"I-" I started but couldn't finish the sentence. I shook my head.

"I saw something, that's all."

Jen nodded.

"You want to come down with me?"

"Yeah, I am not going back in there." I said to her as I shot a quick glance over my shoulder.

When Jen led me inside, the rest of the guys looked up.

"What did you bring her down for?" Jay asked annoyed.

"She is scared, asshole." was all Jen replied to his remark.

"Something happened to you, too?"

It was Steve who came towards Jen and me. I nodded weakly. Only now did I realize just how exhausted I was after the events of the last night.

"Well, you gonna spit it out, lady?"

"Jay. Just. Shut. Up. Okay?" Jen said to him, now seriously pissed.

She turned from him to me and motioned for the couch to take a seat and soon she handed me a cup of watered down coffee.

After I had taken a few sips and had somewhat calmed down, I told the rest what I had seen.

"Jesus, what is going on here?" I heard Steve curse after a while.

"Is that shit still there?" Jay asked.

"I only saw it in the middle of the night, so I dunno." I admitted.

Right at that moment Steve got up and made his way towards Will's room. I quickly followed him.

"Careful." I urged him.

When we were both in the room, I could see that Will's bedsheets were in chaos. The rest of the room seemed untouched though. Steve went towards the open window and carefully leaned outside to check the wall above. A few seconds later he turned back to me.

"Can't see a thing."

I don't know why, but somehow I had known that there would be no hint of it now.

We returned to the living room and found the rest talking about Will and what might have happened to him.

"Couldn't he have run off?" I asked.

It was Phil who answered.

"Well it is not so easy. He needs his," he made a pause to think for a moment, "medication. You know he" he didn't finish.

Medication I thought and smiled knowingly, while Jen frowned at Phil's attempt to disguise the truth.

"The window is a mess, too. Looks as if it was pried open from the outside." Jen went on.

I looked up. "You called the cops?"

"Yeah, called them first thing, but they didn't arrive." she answered.

"Tell you how it is lady," Jay cut in, "they probably won't show up at all. Some shit happened before, took them days to get here."

"So what do you think happened?" I asked them.

Every one of them knew Will didn't just run off. We all had seen the window and remembered the tapping and the silhouette he had been talking about. Combined with whatever it was I had seen, we were all sure that something weird had happened to him.