I walk back from school with Ben every day but today was different, I mean we were walking the same way with the same crowd of people, but something felt different. It scared me. Ben must have sensed it to as I could see him tense up as if he were ready to fight someone or something, but Ben was already on edge, as his mum hadn't come into work today as she had a migraine, so he was in a rush to get home and check she was ok.
When we got to the end of my grandparents' road, I looked to Ben. I looked into his eyes, he must have seen the fear in mine, because he gave me a hug and when he did, he whispered "Do you want me to walk you to your house?" I just nodded slowly, he let go and we continued walking down my road.
The first house in the street had a little boy playing outside, his name is Charlie and I baby sat him a couple of times, he said "Hello" like he always did. The next house had Mrs Robinson outside pruning her roses, like normal. My grandma's house was next, the door was open, and she was sitting outside with my grandpa. They both had glasses of pink lemonade in their hands, and they were talking in a low whisper. When they saw me coming up the path, they instantly stopped talking and looked at me and Ben. "Hi" I said as I opened the squeaky garden gate. They didn't say anything they just looked right behind us with a worried look on their faces. "Hey Mr and Mrs Parker", Ben called as he closed the gate behind us. As we walked closer to my grandparents, my grandpa spoke "Hey guys," he then turned to me and said, "come inside sweetheart we have something to tell you." Grandma then spoke to Ben and said, "why don't you come inside too, this concerns you too." Ben and I kept walking and my grandparents got up behind us and ushered us inside.
As I walked inside something was wrong, I couldn't tell what it was, but it made me feel nauseous. Ben must have sensed my unease, as he instantly grabbed my hand almost as if he were scared. I just looked at him - this was so unlike him; he never showed emotion and never ever showed any sign of weakness and tried not to laugh and put my head down so he wouldn't see. He squeezed my hand tight, so I looked up straight into the face of my grandma, her usual smile had faded replaced with a frown, I looked over to grandpa and saw that his normal big genuine smile had vanished, and he now wore a fake smile. "Sit down poppets, make yourselves comfortable" my grandma said as she herself took a seat. Grandpa asked if we wanted drinks and when we said no, he sat down as well. "Fern, we have recently received a letter from your parents. They said they have found a cure and are coming home." My grandpa said. I got so excited but the look on their faces suggested that there was more. "Sweetie that was a month ago." As my grandma uttered these words my whole world came crashing down. Ben who was sitting next to me on the couch put his arm around me for reassurance. I looked up at him and smiled weakly. My grandpa was looking on sympathetically as tears started to flood my eyes. My grandpa had never known what to do when I cried, he always just stared at me sympathetically.
Ben held me closer to comfort me, he rubbed my shoulder in a soothing manner. As soon I got my breathing under control I sat up and sniffed to sort out my running nose. My grandma got up and handed me a tissue. I just looked at it and said wiping my nose on my sleeve "Why didn't you tell me?" she just looked at me took back her tissue turned around and walked to the table. When she got to the table, she put her hand underneath and pulled something off the underside of the table. "We were preoccupied and didn't want to worry you Fern" my grandpa said. Preoccupied with what? All they did was garden or watch old TV shows like 'X-files' (I don't what it is I asked and all they said was 'the truth is out there'). My grandma then walked over and handed me a pile of letters held together with a piece of twine. It took me a second to realise that this is what she had taken from under the table. I looked at her confused. All she said was "open", so I did. I could feel Ben looking over my shoulder as I untied the twine. I could feel him judging me as I tried to untie the knot, it was tied too tight, I eventually gave up and gave it to him. He got his pocketknife out of his back pocket and cut the twine with ease. "Show off" I muttered under my breath just loud enough for him to hear, he teasingly nudged me and passed me the pile of folded paper. I turned over the first and unfolded it. I was astonished by what I read. It said:
"Don't look for those you have lost, or you will face a consequence worse than theirs."
It was written in what looked like blood, in joined up handwriting that looked a lot like my grandma's. I passed that letter to Ben and picked up the next one. As I opened this one, I saw something fall out. It was a lock of hair, I recognised it as my mum's bleach blonde hair, and it was tied with a scrape of material. The material was instantly recognisable, it was the recovered from the wood on the day my great aunt went missing, white and covered with delicate red roses. I dropped it shocked. How could my missing parents and my great aunt Fern's disappearance be linked?
Ben whispered, "You, ok?" and broke my trance. I sat there just staring at him for a second and then it suddenly hit me what he said. "Yeah", I replied with an unsure tone in my voice. I then looked at the envelope the lock of hair had fallen out of. In the envelope were picture, the pictures chilled me to the core. The image was of me and Ben, it was taken the day Ben tried to catch me as I fell from the tree, but that day me and Ben were alone we had to ring my mum to tell her what happened, she had to call an ambulance. These pictures couldn't have been taken we would have seen, would have heard. The pictures were taken mid fall as I was falling through the air and as Ben ran to catch me.
I wanted to scream. How could this be? Ben touched my arm gently, I then realised I was shaking. Ben was staring at me confused I just handed him the pictures and watched as all the blood drained from his face. I looked at my grandma and grandpa and asked the question that had been bugging since I opened the first letter "Who sent them to you?" The only answer I got was from my grandpa "We have been getting them since you parents went away three months ago." That hurt, a lot but I carried on asking questions "Do you know who's been sending them to you?" Ben started to squirm next to me, but he still looked pale and then he asked a question "Where do I come into this?" My grandparents looked at us and then my grandma said "We don't know who sent them to us poppet, and Ben sweetie, we were just about to explain were you come in." There was a long silence as my grandma looked at my grandpa like she was waiting for to say something then rolled her eyes and said, "Fern poppet, we want you to go and stay with Ben for a while. When we reported what had happened to the police, they thought it best for you to go as well." I was shocked. I just sat there with my mouth open and started to protest "Why can't I stay here with you? Why can't they help?" Ben shuffled on the sofa and my grandma continued "We think it will be safer for you there until we know what is going on, ok, ok poppet."
I just stared I tried to talk but couldn't, my throat felt like tied in knots. I looked to Ben, and he did nothing he just looked at me and started moving his mouth like he was going to say something, but he said nothing. I couldn't take it anymore I got up and ran to my room. I didn't want to leave I wanted to stay, take care of them, help find whoever took Mum and Dad. I lay on my bed and burst into tears. I cried into my pillow and screamed, why don't they understand? I just want to help.