Eldritch

Chapter 25

Before the Sheriff, Louis and Marissa explain their circumstances, her voice frantic and breaking between pitches while she suppresses tears. 'He just went out, he wouldn't tell me where he was going and I called Louis. Later on, he found him at a motel in Chicago, and--'

'And then, the lights flickered off, and someone barged in. I didn't see their face, but they struck me against the wall, and when I woke up, Dan was gone. His car too.'

The Sheriff nods and scribbles down notes. 'And have either of you noticed anything strange about Daniel's behaviour lately?'

Louis opens his mouth to speak, but Marissa cuts over him. 'Well, I think he's been acting quite normally actually, considering that a girl he knew was murdered, for which he was arrested,' she bites, throwing a glare his way. 'As well as two of his friends and his girlfriend going missing before him.'

The Sheriff clicks his pen. 'I'm aware of how difficult this is and I assure you, we will do everything we can to make sure your son is safely returned to you.'

Marissa jolts upwards and leans across the desk. 'Will you?' she asks, her voice laced with sarcasm.

'Marissa,' Louis says, gesturing for her to take her seat once more before the tension in the room implodes.

'No, Louis,' she snaps, slamming her clenched fists off the desk in a fit of anger. 'No, he needs to hear this.'

She whips her head back toward the Sheriff. 'You need to hear this. There's no way in the world you have been doing everything in your power to keep this town safe. To keep our children safe. Because, if you had, Abi Prendergast would still be alive, and myself, Louis, and Sean, Ella and Charlene's parents wouldn't be going out of our minds like we are. Our children are continuing to go missing and you're not doing anything about it,' she screams.

Louis jolts her away from the Sheriff's face, who remains silent as she continues to scream at him.

'You're not fit to be a police officer, let alone the Sheriff when you're not doing anything to keep our children out of danger.'

Sheriff Ryan swallows as Louis drags a thrashing Marissa from his office and toward the door. He bows his head and flinches as the door slams closed and the room falls silent once more.

Ken, one of his deputies enters, and shuffles awkwardly into the room. The Sheriff doesn't seem to notice. He continues to run his hand along the back of his neck while comparing notes on each recent disappearance.

'Sir?' Ken says.

'Yes,' he answers, diverting his attention from the page.

'Your mother just called. It's your grandfather. He passed away ten minutes ago.'

The Sheriff's heart stops for a brief second. He sighs, looks back to his deputy and nods. 'Thank you, Ken.'

'I'm sorry for your loss, sir.'

'Thank you,' he replies. 'Now, I just need to work on something.'

Ken furrows his eyebrow slightly. 'Sir, aren't you going to go the hospital? We can cover for you here.'

Ryan slides one of his desk drawers open and pulls out its contents. A glass and half a bottle of whiskey. He places the glass on the desk and looks to his deputy. 'My grandfather is dead. The missing kids in this town need me more than he does. You heard Mrs Stone, we're not doing enough to ensure the safety of the young residents in Starryton. We need to work harder; I need to work harder.'

The whiskey burns in his throat as he chugs it down and focuses back in on his notes.

'Ken,' he says. 'Can you do something for me?'

Ken nods. 'I want you to look back through records, and pull out anything to do with disappearances of children in Starryton in the year 1915.'

'Yes sir,' he says. He leaves the Sheriff at that, and departs his office as he picks up the phone.

----

Daniel's head throbs as he slowly forces his eyes to open. The sight before him blurs in and out of focus as his eyes adjust to the bright of the room. He's slowly being dragged; hauled along at the hands of a robust figure. Sean, no, not Sean. The Gamemaster living inside him.

He can't speak, a hand clasped over his mouth as he continues to be lugged across the floor. The hand muffles his gasp as he realises his location, and where the creature is taking him. He does his best to stay silent, still and limp. Hoping it doesn't notice he's conscious. Hoping it doesn't realise he knows his whereabouts. If he ever escapes, unlikely, but if he does, he knows where to come for the bodies of the others.

As he guessed, Ella's body is sprawled on the floor of Annie's basement, the clean version of it. The version of it from an alternate universe. A universe in which they don't belong. Sean throws his fatigued body over his shoulders, and he allows himself to hang limply. He closes his eyes as he's placed into the restraints he was bound to in his dream. His nightmare. As he is chained to the wall, he wills his heartbeat to slow, fearful it will hear it skyrocketing.

As Sean stomps away, he opens his eyes and waits until he disappears from sight by means of the step ladder from the basement. Then, the door comes slamming down, confining him even more to the room. He struggles against the restraints; to alleviate the discomfort of being bound more than anything. 'Charlene,' he says. 'Where's Charlene?'

He's answered by a shrill scream coming from somewhere above. Definitely her voice. He can hear her weeping from the floor above him.

'She's alive,' he sighs with relief.

She's alive, he thinks to himself. Thank God.

Then, a chilling thought goes through his head.

But, for how much longer?