Souls Of The Innocent

Chapter six: Playing detective

Long brown hair hung loose, water dripping around her shoulder, running down her back and onto the floor. Leaning her head against the bathroom wall, Amber stood there sunk in thoughts. Apart from her steady breathing, the sound of tiny droplets of water hitting the floor was the only other sound that one could hear in the bathroom. Amber closed her eyes, she took in a deep breath as she remembered the nightmare that she had last night. She was getting used to those night terrors, she was no longer waking up and screaming for help. She had often asked herself this question, how could she called what she experiences as nightmares since when she will wake up, it would feel so real and she would even observe the presence of some weird shadows in her bedroom or most of the time there would be that girl sitting on the edge of her bed with her head bent down and she will disappear as soon as she would switch on the light.

The remnants of her nightmare from last night still cling to her mind and she couldn't push it away. Dressed in her pajamas she was walking along a  foggy cold road. She kept rubbing her hands together to try and keep herself  warm, but she couldn't do anything against the coldness that surrounded her. If she could describe how cold it was ,she would say that it was the type of coldness that reaches into your bones. She didn't have a clue where she was or where she was heading, she kept glancing around trying to find a way out of the fog. Through the fogs, she saw a dim light flickering and something had pulled her towards the light which she discovered was coming from an old abandoned house. She stood there a few meters away, staring at the two-story house, and through the windows, she saw a lot of young girls with their mouths open as if they were screaming, but she couldn't hear a sound coming from them. Among the girls, she had recognized her sister and as soon as she saw her she had walked towards the house shouting her name. She had hit the door with all of her strength but she couldn't break it open. She had walked off the porch and stood looking up towards the windows trying to figure a way to get inside that house. Nora had come forward and she had tried to tell her something, but no words escaped her sister's lips.  Nora looked anxious as if she was trying to warn her to stay away, but she wasn't going to leave Nora in that house, she was going to get her and the other girls out of that creepy old house even if she would end up black and blue. Her sister looked at her with wide eyes as she turned and pointed towards something. Amber couldn't understand what was going on, she had turned towards where Nora was pointing but couldn't see anything through the fog until a long-haired woman came crawling fast towards her and as she was about to jump on her, she had jerked awake. 

Perspiration ran down the back of her neck. Amber had reached out to switch on the light when a shadow crossed across her room and she felt a weird sensation that someone was staring at her. She glanced at the edge of the bed, for once the girl was not sitting there in her usual place. She had switched on the light and looked around the room. Glancing at the small alarm clock on her bedside table, she realized that it was only 4 in the morning. Amber got out of bed, she walked towards the windows in her bedroom and she slightly drew opened the curtains. Through the small gap, she peeped outside looking towards the house across the road. She quickly took a step backward, when she noticed that the creepy woman was standing there on her porch looking in the direction of her house. Amber had crawled back in bed and sat up pulling the covers up to her neck holding it tightly. The first thing that had crossed her mind was, what was that woman doing up at 4 in the morning and why was she just standing there staring at her house? 

She opened her eyes and glanced around the bathroom, she shook her head and silently said that this was pure madness. She walked towards the mirror and wiped the fog away from it, she stood there with a serious expression on her face as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. A look of determination crossed her eyes. She had to put fear aside, she felt that the police were not doing enough to find her sister, no one wanted her to know what was going on and she was tired of being left in the dark. No one will believe her if she tells them about her dreams and the fact that she feels like her sister was trying to communicate with her from somewhere, like from another world. A world that she had only been to through her nightmares. Amber bent her head and closed her eyes, she had made a decision and there was no going back. As she opened her eyes and looked at the mirror, her heart skipped a beat when she saw her mother standing behind her.

" Mum, you nearly gave me a heart attack!", she said putting a hand to her chest.

" I had to come and check up on you.  You have been inside the bathroom for a long time and the school bus is almost here", her mother said touching her wet hair softly.

" Really! I didn't realize it was that late ...I have to hurry ..", she was saying when her mother told her that she didn't have to worry since she was late, she will drop her at school. She hugged her mother tightly before she walked out of the bathroom. 

“ Amber, you got my shirt wet!”, her mother said out loud and Amber had to smile. It reminded her of the normal things that would happen in this house a few months  ago. The bickering and complaints her mother had to deal with every day. This made her more determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on around this neighborhood.

Amber waved goodbye to her mother and she hurried towards the school entrance. As she reached the school gates she stopped and stared towards the school, then she turned to check if her mother had already left the school compound. She glanced back towards the bus stop, inhaled deeply then slowly exhaled.

Let’s do this...she said to herself.

She pulled her hoodie over her head and walked away from the school. Amber made her way towards the bus stop, she opened her backpack and reached for her change purse. She counted the coins to make sure that she had enough money for the trips that she was about to take. On her way to school, she had been toying with the idea of going to see the Inspector who was in charge of the case of the disappearance of her little sister. She had met the woman only once when she was interviewed by the police. A young woman, in her late thirties, with a slim figure and blonde hair, but one could see that she was a brunette turned blonde. She sounded very intelligent, gave the impression of knowing her job very well, but Amber didn’t think that her intelligence was doing much in the case of her missing sister.

As she was about to reach the bus stop a car stopped next to her and the driver lowered the window and she was surprised to see none other than Nathan in the driver’s seat.

" I think school is in the other direction", she heard him said but she paid no attention to his statement as she pretended that he was not even there and kept walking towards the bus stop.

" Come on Amber Jones,Just last night I was in your bedroom and now you are pretending that you don't know me", he said out loud and she quickly looked at him with wide eyes and seeing the big smile on his face roused more anger than anything else inside her. 

There were other people on the bus stop and they were all looking in her direction, which made her face warm with embarrassment. She quickly walked over to his car. 

" What's wrong with you?! Probably the first thing you thought of this morning when you woke up was ,what will I do to Amber Rose today ,right !?", she snapped at him.

" Amber Jones.. get in the car. Takes this as a privilege to be able to sit in my car...hurry", Nathan replied with a smirk.

" Hell No! I'm not going anywhere with you! Privilege?! Who do you think you are? Idiot...", she said and hurried back to the bus stop. She was glad to see the bus was also on its way and not once did she glance back at Nathan who was still parked close to the bus stop.

" Where is she going?", Nathan asked himself as he rolled up the windows. 

If he didn't have the Maths test this morning he would have surely followed her.In his opinion after observing her closely  , Amber Rose had been acting a bit too weird. He didn't want to think the worst of her, but the way she had been acting and the gossips going around the school made him wondered if they could be true.

" Could it be true, what the others are saying, that she did something to Nora?!", he whispered.

Amber walked into the police station, she removed the piece of paper which she had scribbled down the Inspector's name on after she had found her card in her mother's purse this morning. Though she knew that snooping around in her mother's things was the wrong thing to do, she didn't have a choice, if she wanted to carry out her own investigation. She walked up to the officer sitting behind the front desk talking on the phone. He signaled for her to wait whilst he continued his conversation. Amber looked around the station, everyone seemed to be extremely busy as phone calls came in one after another. A scruffy handcuffed man walked past looking at her, he winked and licked his lips, she felt a shiver ran down her spine, Amber wondered if coming here was a good idea, to be around all those weirdos. She looked around the small waiting area and her eyes laid upon a large white notice board filled with pictures of missing people and she read what was written in bold letters ;

" Have you seen these girls?"

She was about to walk up to the board to have a closer look ,when the officer asked her how he could assist her. She glanced at the board and then looked at the officer.

" Is it possible for me to see ...", she said and then checked the name on the paper again.

" Inspector Nelly Brown".

The officer looked at her and then asked her,

" Why do you want to see Inspector. Brown. She works in the missing people department".

That's why I'm asking to see her because I have something to ask her not you! Amber silently said to herself. She was annoyed with what the officer had asked her, but she had to remain polite, after all, she was at a police station.

" Anyways, Inspector Brown is not in right now. You have to come back in the afternoon. Would you like to leave your name, a contact number, or a message ?", he asked and Amber thought no way she will leave her details, since her parents will find out that she had skipped school. She remembered the promise that she made not to interfere in the police investigation giving her more reason to hurry out of there.

" No... I will come back another day ..", she said and quickly walked away before he could ask her any more questions. 

She was sure that the officer had noticed that she should be in school instead of standing there in front of him. As she walked up to the exit door she glanced at the notice board again. A particular photo caught her attention and she approached the notice board to have a closer look. 

" Missing girl, aged 13, Lisa Martin..", as soon as she read the name of the girl she started to wonder where had she seen that name before. She walked out in a daze as she jogged her memory trying to remember where she saw that name and then she stopped as she remembered.

" The Newspaper that dad was reading!", she said out loud.