Souls Of The Innocent

Chapter Five: The neighbor’s face

" Amber.. Amber ..Amber sweetheart"...from a distance she heard the worried voice of her mother calling out her name, but at the same time, there was a chorus of voices that kept whispering her name. It sounded like a group of girls chanting her name in slow-motion, asking her to follow them. She tried to move but numbness had taken over her entire body, she like something was sitting on the top of her chest making it difficult for her to breath and move.

" Mother", she managed to say even if it came out as a soft whisper and then as if that was the magic word to break the trance that she was in, Amber could finally open her eyes. She took in a deep breath as the heaviness on her chest was lifted and she stared straight at the ceiling. She blinked a couple of times to adjust her pupils to the lighting in the unfamiliar room. Suddenly, all the whispering stopped and slowly everything around her started to make sense, she finally realized where she was. Someone grabbed her hand and gently caressed it, her gaze moved from the ceiling to the person holding her hand and her heart skipped a beat. She anxiously tried to pull her hand away from her grip but the woman grabbed onto her hand tightly as she moved her face towards hers. Amber's heart started to beat faster and she let out a piercing scream.

" Amber wake up!", Anna worriedly said as she gently squeezed her daughter's hand.

Amber quickly sat up on the sofa gasping for air. She felt like someone was choking her. She could hear her pulse banging in her ears and her face was drenched in sweat. Her mother pulled her into her arms and hugged her tightly. She wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her as she breathed in and out fast.

" It was just a dream darling... it was just one of those awful dreams", her mother kept on saying in a soothing voice as she gently caressed her hair.

Amber sat back, she took in a deep breath, and then she asked her mother for some water. Her throat was getting dry making it difficult for her to speak. As her mother stood up, she glanced around the sitting room and her eyes widened when she spotted the person sitting on the sofa across from her. She felt her cheeks were getting warm from embarrassment, she didn't even want to know what she looked like, the only image that came to her mind was her looking like she has been through a hurricane. Her mother must have removed her hoodie as she glanced down and noticed that she was now wearing only her plain black T-shirt and her jeans.

" Nathan, what are you doing here ?!", she whispered.

" Nathan was the one who carried you inside. You bumped into him and passed out on the street. Honey, what happened out there ?! Nathan said you looked so pale ,like you had seen a ghost", her father asked worriedly.

" I passed out?!", Amber asked surprisingly as she narrowed her eyebrows.

Her mother walked into the sitting room carrying her glass of water and she told her how Nathan had found her next to the new neighbor's house. Amber sat there in silence taking small sips of the cold water, at the same time she was trying to figure out what happened out there. Amber closed her eyes and loads of images started to shuffle inside her mind just like a deck of cards and then she remembered what had happened to her and she quickly opened her eyes, a look of horror crossed her face. Everyone in the room was looking at her with narrowed eyebrows. It was like they had noticed the look of horror on her face and they were now waiting for an explanation.

" No ...I don't want to remember!", she said out loud.

Her mother glanced at her father and he shrugged his shoulders. He had no clue what was going on with Amber. At the back of his mind, he was thinking if he should call Doctor Laura, Amber's psychologist. Harry approached his daughter and sat down next to her. Amber turned her gaze towards him.

" What don't you want to remember?", her father calmly asked. 

" Mum, dad can we talk about this in the morning. I don't feel well and Nathan ... I suppose I have to say...thanks ..", she said as she stood up.

Without saying another word, Amber slowly made her way towards the staircase. She was praying that her legs wouldn't give in as she felt her whole body was still coming around. She was probably walking like a newborn animal and to make it worst in front of Nathan. Her mother wanted to follow but her husband stopped her.

" You know how she is. Just let her be ...for now", Harry said to his wife.

" But Harry...she didn't have dinner. .. look at our daughter she is getting so thin. I don't want to lose her like we lost Nora", Anna said to her husband and she couldn't stop the tears from escaping her eyes.

" I'm sorry Nathan... but everything in this house has been upside down the past weeks. Amber is blaming herself for what happened to Nora, she is seeing a psychologist and it hurt us that we have to watch our child take pills for her to sleep... her life is miserable at school ... she's failing in her studies...", Anna said and then she stopped talking. She felt like she was talking too much like she was getting everything off her chest but she was opening up to the wrong person. Nathan was the same age as Amber, surely not the right person to be discussing their family issues with. She grabbed a tissue to blow her nose and then looked at Nathan and forced a soft smile.

" I'm sorry, I got carried away there", Anna said.

Harry grabbed his wife's hand and gently squeezed it. 

" Uhm, If you don't mind ...Let me take something up to her room ", Nathan suggested and Harry gave him the "over my dead body" look.

Anna touched her husband lightly on the arm and he changed the look on his face. Anna walked to the kitchen, she wasn't going to wait for Nathan to make the offer twice.

" What were you doing around here Nathan?", Harry asked.

" I just wanted to speak to Amber...Mr. Jones ... I saw her at school and she looked kinda down, so I just wanted to check up on her. After all, Nora was Eva's best friend ", he replied calmly. He was hoping that Amber would never mention that he had threatened her at school or he was among those who were making her life miserable. 

" I can't remember you being friends with my daughter...", her father continued and as Nathan was about to answer Anna walked in.

" It's ok Nathan. Take this upstairs to her room. The last room on your left", Anna said emerging from the kitchen carrying a hot bowl of chicken soup on a food tray.

She handed the tray to Nathan , he softly smiled at Anna before he made his way towards the stairs. As he reached the top of the stairs he looked to his left and followed Anna's instructions. He was about to knock on Amber's door when he heard a door opening with a creaking sound. He turned around and saw the shadow of someone standing in the room opposite to Amber's. He took a step forward and then stopped.

" Amber?", he said but the shadow didn't move.

" What are you doing here ?", he heard Amber's voice coming from the opposite direction and he turned to look at her as she stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, and then he glanced towards the other room.

" Did you open that door? How dare you?!", Amber asked angrily as she walked over to Nora's room and shut the door.

" I didn't do anything... I came here because...", he started to say but she interrupted him.

" You came here because you wanted to get back at me. Because the police came to speak to your sister right! So you found the perfect opportunity to snoop around my house !", Amber angrily said.

She was trying to control her voice so that she didn't shout at Nathan. Nathan kept  looking towards the stairs checking if her parents were not around listening to their conversation.

" I have nothing else to say, Amber, even if I came here in good faith, you wouldn't believe me",   Nathan answered as he handed her the tray and glanced at Nora's room before he walked back downstairs.

Good faith! Who would believe that...Amber said as she watched him walking away.

Amber walked towards the stairs and heard him saying goodbye to her parents. She walked back to her room with her food and almost slammed the tray on her study table. She heard the sound of a car engine, she walked to the windows and slightly drew opened the curtain to watch him reversing out of the driveway. Her eyes fell on the house next door and she remembered what she had seen earlier.

She still couldn't delete that picture from her mind, how that woman had looked exactly like Nora, but an older version of her. Goosebumps tickled her skin and she quickly closed the curtain and took a step backward.

" But how could this be!? Could I be losing my mind ... I have to tell mum and dad about what I saw.. no they will probably think that I'm losing my mind... Should I tell the police.. what do I do? Someone has to go in there to check !", she softly said as she closed the curtains .

As she turned she was startled by the presence of her mother standing close to her bed, she put a hand to her chest and took in a deep breath.

“ You’re scared me”, Amber said.

" Honey you should eat", she said pointing towards the bowl of soup.

Amber sat down at her study table whilst her mother sat down on the edge of the bed.

" Amber do you want to talk about it now .. about.. why you passed out?", her mother asked softly.

Amber stopped eating and she thought about if she should tell her mother what really happened to her. She could see the image of her mother telling her that all those things were a product of her imagination, that probably the pill she was taking for her to sleep was making her delirious, and the next thing she will be in a psychologist's office. So the final decision was not to say anything, she will have to make up some convincing reason as to why she passed out earlier.

" I’ve been really on edge the past weeks, because of those nightmares. I get scared so easily, when I was running towards the house, I kept looking behind me .... when I bumped into someone ...I guessed I panicked and fainted", she answered and then she started to eat again.

She glanced at her mother who seemed to be satisfied with her answer since she didn’t ask any more questions.

" Mum, did the police conduct a thorough search through the neighborhood? Do you know who is that woman.. our new neighbor?", Amber asked to hope that she didn't sound too curious.

" I don't know who she is..We’ve never met her", her mother answered.

" But the police will know right.., that is if they checked the whole neighborhood , all the houses ", she said wiping her mouth.

" Amber leave the investigation to the police. We don't want you getting involved in the police investigation .. we already lost one daughter.. we don't want to lose you as well", her mother said her voice started to break down.

Amber stood up and walked to her mother and hugged her tightly.

" Promise me that you will stay away from the investigation", her mother said holding her hands and Amber nodded yes, but at the back of her mind, she was thinking that she also promised herself that she was going to find out what happened to her sister. She was more determined now to get to the bottom of all those mysteries. 

I'll start by finding out who our new neighbor is ...she said to herself with much determination.