Chapter 2-Found

In the next few weeks, Callum stopped functioning. His six-foot, burly frame shrank into a sallow, frail, and gaunt visage of his former self. He no longer looked human. His vibrant green eyes now looked dim and lifeless.

At last, he awoke from stupor. All of his tears had been shed, every scrap of anguish and sorrow was gone. He just felt numb.

Despite this, he still had to pay his bills. So he took a shower, threw on the best-smelling clothes he could find, forced a smile, and went to work.

....

Callum worked at a local Target in customer service. He kept mostly to himself; he spent most of his time with Salem. As a result he had few friends.

"JESUS! Callum, what the hell happened to you?" "I really let myself go, didn't I?" Callum grimaced. "You call that letting yourself go? Jesus Christ, Callum." Alexis Andres was tall, with deep red hair, orange eyes and an ever-smiling mouth. Except Alex's mouth was set in a thin line. When Alex's mouth stopped smiling it meant one of two things. She's either incredibly serious about something or concerned about someone.

"You're that concerned about me?" he asked.

Her mouth twitched. " Callum, it's been three F**KING weeks. I was unable to contact you, I had no news of you, save that of your brother, and you didn't show up for work! I think I have the right to be concerned."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I kind of stopped functioning after I received news of my brother's...passing"

She pointedly ignored the fact that Salem had died, and said "Before you clock in, you need some food. You look like Slenderman"

After having a McChicken with Alex, he got to work.

....

Callum stood in front of his brother's grave, holding a bouquet of flowers. He stared at the freshly disturbed earth. As he did, he felt the first emotion aside from sadness for weeks. He felt anger. Cold, calculating, chilling anger. Placing the flowers on the gravestone, he silently vowed to find and kill that soulless murderer who had taken life from his brother. He knelt down in front of the grave, touching it as a final goodbye.

Standing up, he noticed a strand of something ethereal floating from a crack in the air, three feet above the earth. He reached his hand towards it and felt something pressure his mind. His unstable mind that had been wrought with grief began to fracture at its very foundation. He felt...something...on the other side of the crack. As he did, he watched the world around him drain of colour. The only colour remaining was the now vibrant and ethereal crack in the air that had swallowed his arm up to his elbow. His mind shook under the immense pressure of whatever was on the other side, until his had firmly grasped something. Pulling his hand out, Callum inspected the vibrant green orb he had pulled out from his brother's grave.