Tweetie

35

Hazel shook her head, felt the chill of the air and sucked in a breath.

His house looked empty. She hoped it wasn't, she needed more. But it looked empty and her hopes were diminishing as she glanced around for anybody who could recognise her. But the street was bare and the house on the outskirts of town was lifeless.

Jason's home was a big one, threatening and lonely.

She would knock, she decided, ask to borrow their house phone to call somebody and just use whatever she saw as she passed through as her evidence. Pictures on the wall, things left on countertops, anything. But for this to work, she needed an answer. Maybe she could ask questions, poke at his parents to see what they knew.

She wanted to avoid it, she wanted to stay far away from his family because she didn't want to poke at healing wounds. They weren't involved in the crime, she knew they weren't. Their alibis were too clean, they clearly thought the world of their kid. But maybe they knew more, maybe they knew enough to give her a push and tell her what it was she was missing.

Stopping in front of their door, she took in another deep breath, swallowed the stone in her throat and listened to the hollow rapping of her fist against the wood of their door.

She held for a moment, waiting one second, then two... three, four, five...

Nothing. Not a single sound.

Then she tried again. But still nothing.

Nobody was home.

She visibly sank, her heart dropping and her body slumping as she dropped her head into her hand and held back a cry of frustration. She needed something. She felt like her time was ticking and soon to run out. How long would it take for whoever was responsible to decide they that were sick of the game, to ruin it all and point her out to the crowds of people who always chased the mystery of Hazel White?

She didn't want to be Hazel White.

When that happened, it would be over. She wouldn't be able to investigate, she would have to drop the case, drop everything and hide. Then what? Have no friends? No future? She didn't have the grades to get a good job, she didn't even go to school and would never be able to.

Her desperate thoughts quickly turned to thoughtless movements as she reached her hand out, looked over her shoulder behind her, to the windows across from her, the roads and the streets.

Nothing.

She turned the handle, clenching her teeth and expecting her hand to stop turning, to meet a lock that prevented her from going further.

But she didn't.

The door was open.

This was stupid, she knew it was stupid. But she couldn't stop herself from turning, looking over her shoulder again and stepping in as she closed the door behind her.

Then, she was surrounded. The memories of when this case opened clung to her mind, with every glance around the house, she saw reminders of the news, of all of the articles when the Barber family were desperately trying to find their son. When the photo's of the home came out, when Jason's face was printed everywhere with big bold red letters above reading 'missing'.

It felt so much more real.

This whole time, she was chasing just a name, not a boy with a family, with a life.

He was on the walls around her, looking at her with a smile while his dad tugged him closer with an arm around the back of his neck, he was looking at her through younger eyes when his cheeks were chubby and he was sat on his mothers lap smiling at the camera, never once thinking that one day he wouldn't be there anymore.