Black Plague

Chapter 28: Daybreak

"I fucking knew we shouldn't have let him go on his own." Travis said as he studied the hole in the floor. The floorboards had snapped in half giving full view to the basement below. He stared down at the photos from above and shivered. As a chill ran down his spine he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Rose with a concerned look.

"We didn't know this would happen, right now it's better for us to find Jessie then to worry about what we should have done." Rose said reaching out her hand.

Travis sighed and took her hand, the warmth in her hand reassured him.

"Where could he have gone in the first place, and what made this hole in the floor?" Travis asked scratching his head. A familiar head poked into his view and he turned to see Lily's neck stretching from the stairway.

"We didn't find anything upstairs, just someone's nasty room." She said as her body appeared from the stairway. "It would be impossible to find anything useful in that room, it smelled like a dump." She pinched her nose as her head snapped back into place on her shoulders.

"Probably his mom's room, Jessie always talked about how gross she kept her room." Rose said in a dejected tone.

"Are you sure? The rest of the house looks spotless compared to that room. Well except for the hole in the living room." Lily asked peering over the edge of the hole.

"She is way into appearances, the outside will always look better than the inside when it comes to her. It really ticked off Jessie." Travis said.

"Is she really as bad as your making her out to be?" Lily asked concerned.

"She isn't our mom so it's not really fair for us to say one way or another." Rose said anxiously.

Lily turned to Travis and he nodded.

"Jessie practically lived at Rose's house, we both kinda did." Travis said. "His home life wasn't the best."

"We just gonna stand around and chat or are we gonna find Jessie." Sarah asked annoyed as she emerged from the kitchen.

"Sorry we couldn't find anything that would lead us to Jessie and I got curious." Lily said sheepishly.

Sarah sighed and motioned for the group to come closer.

"Well can't blame ya, with that basement below us I guess we all have questions. For now let's leave the guys to explore that room while we head out back, the back door was wide open and I have a feeling I'm on to something." She said confidently.

Travis peeked around the corner to see the kitchen door hanging on its hinges loosely.

Whatever did that to the door is definitely the same person who ripped a hole in the floor. We better stay on our toes.

"Oh yeah this is the way." Lily said as she crossed the threshold into the outside world. Travis followed behind her and shivered as the cold night air wrapped itself around him. He felt something small land on his shoulder and held out his hand just in time for a snowflake to land in his palm.

"Great we better hurry and find him before this snow destroys any clues left behind." Travis said as he wiped his hands clean.

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem." Rose said drawing Travis' attention. He turned to face her to see her pointing out towards the forest in front of them. His jaw dropped as he stared at the clawed remains of tree branches and broken wood.

He stepped forward and ran his hand alongside the edge of a particularly nasty cut. His fingers sunk into the grooves and fear slowly crept up his spine.