Her

Chapter 13

Stupefaction

Seth saw Joseph's mother falling down on her knees and crying. Seth was taken aback.

"A man passing by an empty plot reported to us that he had seen the body of a boy. The cause of death was apparently a stab directly below the chest. This is probably done by some local thugs, we are trying to find the murderer..." Explained the other policeman.

Seth slowly took a few steps back, turned around and ran away. The fact that he had murdered his best friend was consuming him from the inside. The thoughts were shutting his mind down, he found himself getting lost in an ocean of sorrow, of guilt. He somehow managed to accumulate the will to at least make it back to his house.
His house was looking like an abandoned house with no one living in there except him. As he entered the house, he heard the phone ringing, he rushed to answer it.

"Hello?" He asked with an expectant tone just as he picked up the phone.

"Hello, this is deputy officer Meyers. May I know who I'm talking to?"

"This is Seth-"

"Okay, Seth do you remember that I contacted you yesterday?"

Seth was confused, the officer never contacted him. The officer had contacted Amelia and that's when he remembered that fact his sister was no longer existent in reality.

"I... Uh, yeah..." Seth answered falsely.
       
"Yeah, so, We are still looking for your mother... We don't have any lead on the case yet but we'll surely find her, don't worry. Your father's body will be brought to your house by tomorrow as we had some problems with transporting..."

Seth listened and did not even bother reply. After a few moments of silence, the officer started talking again.

"We are sending two officers to make sure everything is alright at your hou-"

"There's no need for that at all... Trust me..."

"But, it's actually-"

"I said no, that's it!" Seth shouted, cancelled the call and walked away.

Almost quickly, the phone started ringing again. Seth turned back, angrily walked towards the phone and picked it up.

"Didn't I say that there is no need to send anyone?!" Seth shouted into the phone.

No one replied.

"Hello?" Seth shivered as he said.

He could hear heavy breathing on the other side. Seth's heart started beating faster almost as if it was going to burst out of his chest. The breathing became heavier and faster and Seth's mind went blank as if the consciousness was knocked out of him, his eyes widened, his limbs quivered and he felt like his body was going to collapse.

"Book...." The voice faintly whispered.

Everything went silent and after a few seconds all Seth could hear was static. He put the phone down and ran to his room, on his bed, was the book which Joseph and he were trying to get. He slowly walked towards it and picked it up like it was the most deadliest thing he has ever seen. He sat on his bed, flipped through the pages and then calmly started reading what was written.

"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them who put their trust in him
Proverbs 30:5" Seth read the first page, the words were written beautifully.

"Always put your hope in God.
Hosea 12:6" another line read.

After the first page, a few pages were blank and then Seth saw a writing which seemed like that of a child.

"First day, saw them-
Don't know-scared" Seth tried reading the words but they seemed nothing more than just scribbles to him.

"I talked to them
Threatened-
They'll kill mommy- I cried" A wave of anxiousness ran through him as he kept reading the abnormal things written in the book.

A few pages ahead, he saw a drawing. It looked like a man, a woman and their daughter in front of a house. On the very next page, he saw the same drawing but this time, the man and the woman had big crosses drawn on them.

"They'll die..." He read what was written below the drawing.

The following pages were mere scribbles and incomprehensible writing. As he was about to close the book, he saw another page, something was written on it.

"They will kill mommy now. She will go to that place."

He saw a drawing of what seemed like a walking person.

"No shadows, no life... Nothing over there" the words read.

"Peter.... He didn't have any shadows or footprints... Maybe it means... That if someone goes to the 'other place'. They don't have anything that identifies them..." Seth concluded.

Seth started flipping the pages again, trying to find something comprehensible in this sea of scribbles. At the very last page, he saw something written in bold with scratch marks on it.

"DEMONS"

As he read the word and saw the blood covered scratch marks on the page and the back of the book, he felt nauseated. He put the book away safely.

"This is the time to end it..." Seth told himself, "Once and for all."

A feeling of fright was overwhelming him, disturbing his thoughts, weakening his body and poisoning his mind. He knew that if he wouldn't end it, it would end him. He had to do everything in his power to put a stop to this anomaly which has destroyed his life beyond the extent of imagination.

As he stood up, he felt himself convulsing and experienced an intense pain in his head. It seemed as if the whole world was spinning, he couldn't understand anything happening around him. A loud screech filled his ears. He fell on his knees and held his head with his hands between his legs. Unable to bear the pain, he screamed at the top of his lungs, he felt weak and helpless just like the ones he'd lost.

The pain was immense and unfathomable for him. It felt as if thousands of nails were driven into his body, piercing through his skin, hurting him more and more with each passing second. The lights flickered abnormally and eventually, everything stopped.

Seth, being in pain and confusion, lifted his head up slowly to look around him.
Everything was normal, nothing wrong, out-of-this-world or inhumane things around.
Seth took a sigh of relief, finally relieved of his pain. Suddenly, he felt something grab him by the throat and throw him towards the wall, he hit it with his back and fell down on the floor.

As he collected himself and looked up, he saw that he was in a closed room. The room with the small window, the one where the girl killed her mother. Everything was dark and it had an ambience which was darker than usual. Seth focused his eyes on a body lying in the middle of the room. He stood up and walked towards it, chills of hesitation running up his spine.

When reached the spot where the body was lying, he noticed that that particular spot was more lightened up than the other parts of the room. He went closer to take a good look at who it was, still not putting down his guard, he was ready to run the moment the body even tried to twitch.

He froze as soon as he recognised whose body it was, he didn't know what to do and the surroundings seemed to fade away. The body was of his mother.