'Where am I?' Oliver thought as he looked around him. He stood on a narrow street, which had street lights placed at the sides of it. Oliver looked forward, but he couldn't make out what was ahead in the distance. "Hello!" he yelled, hoping to get a reply.
The only reply he got was his voice, echoing around the surroundings. Oliver looked back and was met with darkness. 'Yeah, I am definitely not going that way' he thought. Oliver wasn't scared of the dark. What utterly terrified him was the unknown entities that lurked within the darkness. He decided to walk forward, his steps slow and careful. He examined his surroundings as he walked. The area beyond the street lights was covered in total darkness. Oliver walked for what felt like an hour but the road didn't seem to come to an end. The street seemed to stretch out longer as he walked. In the distance, Oliver could see the figure of a girl standing in the middle of the road. He picked up his pace and jogged towards her. He stooped abruptly when he was directly in front of her.
"Amelia Winston?" Oliver said, his face filled with surprise and curiosity.
She stood there, not moving a muscle like a mannequin. Her eyes stared directly at Oliver, making him feel very uncomfortable. He could feel the hairs at the back of his neck stand erect. Drip, drip, drip, drip. Oliver followed the source of the sound and looked down. Drip, drip, drip, drip. Blood dripped from Amelia's wrist, down to the ground, staining it a bright red. Oliver returned his gaze back to Amelia but this time, there was something different about her. Amelia's eyes were rolled back into her skull and her skin was as pale as snow. A loud thumping sound made Oliver jerk back a little. He looked back, searching for the source of the sound, but he couldn't find it. He looked around for a few more seconds before returning his gaze forward. The space where Amelia stood, was now empty, leaving Oliver speechless.
"What the hell is going on?" he said under his breath. A loud shriek erupted from the distance, catching Oliver's attention. He ran forward, towards the direction of the sound. Oliver came to sudden stop when he saw a girl lying on the floor. Her arms and legs were dismembered from her body. Her limbless body lay on the floor, twitching violently. Oliver was able to recognize her face easily. She was one of the victims of the beach house incident. He moved back slowly, not wanting to get to close to her grotesque looking body. Oliver began to feel himself sink downwards slowly with every step. Startled, he looked down and saw himself sinking in a pool of red blood. He frantically struggled to pull himself out of the liquid, but that made him sink even further down. Seeing as all his efforts to escape was futile, Oliver let himself be engulfed by the thick red liquid...…
Oliver opened his eyes slowly, his vision was in a haze. He sat up on the bed and noticed he was drenched in a pool of his own sweat. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, in an attempt to clear his blurry vision. Blinking twice, he confirmed that he could see clearly and looked around the room. 'Another dream huh' he thought. Oliver had been having frequent dreams about the victims of the cases he was handling. In this line of work, it wasn't all that rare to have these types of nightmares. It made Oliver wonder if Maria had nightmares like this too. He switched on the small lamp that sat on the bedside table and saw that Kenna was not right beside him on the bed. Oliver wasn't all that surprised that Kenna wasn't here. With the recent altercation between them, it was quite understandable why she wouldn't want to sleep on the same bed with him. Oliver pushed himself out of bed and made his way to the living room. Maybe it was because of the nightmare he just had, but the house felt colder and way more eerie than usual. Getting to the living room, Oliver flipped on the light switch. Light engulfed the whole room, revealing Kenna who was fast asleep on the sofa. Oliver sighed softly as he shook his head slowly. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't understand the reason behind Kenna's recent change in behavior. The way she acted lately was draining mentally and he didn't have the time or the energy to deal with her antics. Oliver had unsolved cases to worry about than rack his head trying to figure out what exactly is making Kenna act like this. 'I need a smoke' he thought. Taking one last look at Kenna, Oliver made his way to the balcony, desperate for a cigarette.
"What's the problem?" Maria said.
"The problem is that it's been almost two weeks, and my daughter hasn't been found!"
Maria sighed. She had heard loud voices coming from the front desk and wandered who it was. Seeing that it was Mr and Mrs Evelyn made Maria disappointed, or rather frustrated. This was the third that they had come to the station this week to request about their missing daughter. Every thing would've been fine, except they yell at the police officers each time they came. Today was no different. Maria could understand their plight, but they were all working hard to find her. "listen sir, we're working very hard to find her. So you have nothing to worry about. We will definitely find her." Maria said in a very polite tone.
"Working very hard?! For how long?! If you were working hard enough my daughter would have been found by now!" Mr Evelyn said, his body shaking violently with anger.
'I can't believe I left my work to handle this' she thought. Mr Evelyn kept talking on and on but Maria wasn't listening. His wife stood there behind him, not saying a word.
"I'll be back here tomorrow. I want my daughter found before then!"
With this, he stormed out of the police station, his wife scurrying right behind him. 'Thank goodness they left' Maria thought as she made her way back to the office. "Who was it?" Oliver asked immediately Maria got back to the office.
"Mr and Mrs Evelyn, again." Maria said as she rubbed her temples.
"the whole shouting is making me head hurt."
Oliver sighed.
"I didn't think they would come back again. They're really persistent."
Maria nodded as she flopped back on her chair.
"Don't you have an interview with them today?" Maria asked.
Oliver grimaced.
"Yeah, and I am definitely not looking forward to it." Maria giggled.
"Well, good luck."
Oliver sighed and continued with the paper work lying on his table.
Oliver let out a heavy breath as he prepared himself. His stood at the front door of the Evelyn's house, contemplating on when he would push the door bell. "Okay." He said as he pushed the button.
Oliver adjusted his tie when he heard footsteps approaching.
"Detective Oliver."
The woman who stood at the door looked at Oliver in confusion. After a few seconds of examining Oliver, Her eyes lit up like she had just remembered something.
"Oh! You're the detective who called yesterday asking for an interview."
"Yes, that would be me."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, please come in. These days my memory has been cloudy." She said as she let Oliver in.
The house was smaller than it looked from the outside. The floor was wooden and creaked with every step they took. Oliver wondered if the creaky floor boards bothered her. 'Maybe she's used to it' he thought. They got to the living room and she signaled for Oliver to take a seat.
"my husband is at work now, so I'll be the one to answer all your questions."
"That's fine." Oliver said.
"Alright. Give me a few seconds, I'll be right back." Mrs Evelyn said and walked out of the living room.
Oliver sighed and leaned back on the sofa. He had been so tensed up since he came in. He was glad that he wouldn't have to talk to Mr. Evelyn. Despite how small the living room was, it had a very homey feeling. There was a small fire place, which wasn't in use now due to how hot the weather was. Family photos hung on each part of the wall. One had a small girl who had glasses on. Oliver guessed that it was Nancy. She was on a play ground swing laughing happily. Another picture had all three of them on it. 'looks like she's the only child' Oliver thought. He sank further into the sofa, relaxing his head. The sofa was very soft and comfortable which made Oliver feel very relaxed. He closed his eyes, savoring the comfort.
"Did I make you wait long?"
Oliver opened his eyes to see Mrs Evelyn holding a tray containing a jug filled with orange juice and some glass cups. She placed it on a wooden table and poured some orange juice into the glass cups and handed one over to Oliver. He thanked her and took several gulps of the sweet liquid as Mrs Evelyn spoke. " I want to apologize for my husband's actions this morning. I know the police are trying their best but we've all been on edge, my husband especially."
"It's Completely fine Mrs Evelyn. We understand how you feel. We'll Definitely find her, at all costs."
Mrs Evelyn shook her head. Oliver pulled out his notepad and flipped the pages.
"Did your daughter say anything before she left on the trip?"
Mrs Evelyn shook her head.
"Nancy only said how excited she was. Apparently Amelia inviting her was a really big deal to her."
"And why is that?"
Mrs Evelyn shifted in her seat.
"If I remember clearly from what Nancy told me….. Amelia was the most popular girl in school and she was a nobody. Thinking about it now, it didn't make sense for Amelia to invite someone who wasn't from her friend group."
Oliver took down some notes and continued.
"Does your daughter have any close friends?"
"Yes, she does. Sandra Wilson. Her mom and I have been very close since our high school days, so naturally the children became best friends."
"Does Sandra attend the same high school as Nancy?" Oliver asked as he scribbled on his note pad. "Yes, they do. Although Sandra hasn't gone to school in a while."
"Why?" Oliver asked with a puzzled look on his face. "According to her, she said she wouldn't go to school if Nancy wasn't there."
"I see." Oliver pulled out a transparent bag and showed it to Mrs Evelyn.
"Do these glasses belong to your daughter?"
Mrs Evelyn squinted her eyes as she examined the contents of the bag.
"Oh my God, yes. That's Nancy's glasses." She said, putting her hands over her mouth.
Oliver stuffed the glasses back into his bag and wrote something down on his note pad.
"Where did you find it?" Mrs Evelyn asked.
"we found it in the beach house. It wasn't clear who owned the glasses so we ran some DNA tests on it." "oh…."
Oliver flipped the pages again.
"Did your daughter show any signs of being bullied?" Mrs Evelyn shook her head.
"Not at all. Now that I think about it, Nancy was a very quiet and reserved girl. If she was getting bullied in school, she wouldn't tell us."
Oliver took another gulp of his fruit juice.
"please, I'd like you to give me an accurate description of your daughter." Mrs Evelyn nodded.
"She has ash blonde hair, her eyes are caramel brown, like mine. She had little freckles spread around her cheek. It's not really noticeable until you look hard enough."
"Height?"
"She's short. She's also a bit chubby."
Oliver wrote everything down on his notepad.
"If you want to talk to Sandra, I can give you her parents phone number."
"that would very helpful."
Oliver handed her a pen and a sheet of paper and watched her write down the numbers.
"Thank you."
"Please find my daughter, she's the only one I have, I can't loos her." Mrs Evelyn said.
"Don't worry ma'am, we'll find her."
Mrs Evelyn nodded.
"I wouldn't want to take up much of your time. I'll be on my way now." Oliver said as he got up from the sofa. Mrs Evelyn followed him to the front door, waving him goodbye as he drove off in his car.