Look over your shoulder

Heartbeats and cries

Riley's heart sank right before her. The acid in her stomach threatened to come up as her eyes were glued to the empty bed. She had been in this very room not more than fifteen minutes ago. Everything she touched was different. The chair she sat on was placed against the wall, the lamp turned off. The bed was made, sheets all folded neatly, looking as if it was never occupied.

Riley stood behind her friends, not wanting to see their faces, she stared at the floor. Every second literally felt like hours, the ringing silence piercing their ears. Finally Vince found his voice, "Where the hell is he?" he whispered, almost barely loud enough to hear.

Turning around to look at his friends, all of them holding nothing but fear on their faces. It was like being back on the road again, the unknown tugging at their thoughts, making each and every one of them tremble. Vince started pacing, running his hand through his hair, he turned to look at the bed again. All of them wanted Riley's story to be anything but true. They had hoped to walk through that door to find Daryl alive and smiling back at them, only they got nothing.

Gerald suddenly decided to break the silence, "What do we do now?" he asked, wanting anyone to answer so that he won't have to make any tough decisions. Gerald stared at his friend who continued to pace, a pained expression on show. As if everything started to hit him in the gut, Vince inhaled deeply. Truth be told, all he wanted to do was drop to the ground and wait, wait for things to start making sense and for someone to pop out and claim it had all been some sick joke. Sadly, no one popped out, and he had to stand there and put on a brave face, for the sake of his friends, and himself.

"What is going on? First the nails on the road, then the car with a damn body in it, now this-" Vince turned and pointed at the vacant bed, " It's just not making any sense." Deciding to finally answer Gerald's question, Erik said, "I need to find my sister, then we should get out of here."

"And go where?" Vince asked. It was obvious he was letting his fear get to him. He hasn't always been the one to show such thing, but when it came to this, this was just a whole other story. This was real.

"I don't know man, anywhere. If Riley is right, then all of us are literally standing in a house with a bunch of killers." Erik said the words no one wanted to believe.

"I'm not a hundred percent they killed him. I just saw what I did, and honestly I don't even know what to make of it." Riley told them, causing everyone to turn back and look at her.

This is what was ruining them, everyone's mental capabilities were running on no sure answers. All they know at the moment was that going on this road trip was the worst decision they had ever made. Although nothing was making sense, they knew that they needed to act, and soon.

"What if they did? We aren't doing any good waiting!"Erik said, his voice rising a bit, making Riley look away. She didn't like the fact that everything was riding on what she saw, or believe to have seen.

"Calm down okay, we just need to find the your sister and her friends, and just leave. Even if they did not kill Daryl, it's best that we just fend for ourselves out there than to figure out if they really are murderers." Gerald said, looking at Erik with soft eyes.

"We can't leave until we find Daryl, even if he is dead we can't just leave his body here." Vince said instantly.

"Where do we even begin to look for him? Let alone the girls?" Shadow asked, a question that has been on her mind for a few minutes now. She could tell that none of them had thought about that.

"She's right, this house is just too big. I left to the rooms the same time you guys did. We left the others downstairs with the guys." Autumn added, looking first at her boyfriend, then to the others.