11 CHAPTER TEN

DOROTHY'S POV

I sat in the living room watching as my husband stood on the front porch talking tentatively on the phone. My mind was still reeling on the words that was spoken to Jonathan by whoever called the landline earlier.

It made no sense! What do they mean by he's coming? Who's coming?

It was a fine Sunday morning and It would be a shame if I let the drama that has become our life ruin the day. I decided to go ask the kids if they would like to go out to the backyard or maybe the lake and have a mother-children bonding time.

I headed upstairs just as my husband came in with a scowl on his face.

"Everything okay?" I asked him as I continue making my way up the stairs.

"Sort off" I heard him say.

Up on the second floor, I walked to Junior's room first. After knocking a few times without an answer I slowly pushed the door open and called out his name but no answer came. I walked to the bathroom and knocked on it then called his name again but still no answer.

I walked out from Junior's room and went straight to Bella's, I stood at her door and knocked, but there was no answer. I knocked for the second time and called her name as well but no response came. I pushed the door open rather forcefully and nobody was there, I walked to the bathroom and called Bella's name then turned the door knob gently, seeing as it wasn't locked I pushed It open to reveal an empty bathroom. I draw back the door and headed back towards the hall, feeling myself beginning to panic when I stepped onto something, looking down at the object on the floor beneath my foot I saw Bella's old doll she used to play with when she was much younger. It was a rubber doll made to look like little red riding hood.

I bent down and picked it up, 'she hadn't play with this thing for almost two years now' I thought.

Throwing it on her bed I walked out into the hallway, about to shout and run downstairs to my husband when I heard laughter coming in from the window of the hallway overlooking the backyard. I walked to it and stood there watching Junior and Bella playing on the grass, and I let out a heavy breath I did not realize I was holding.

Moments later, I was out the back door heading to where my children were playing, leaving Jonathan in the living room working on his laptop.

"Hey guys, can mummy play with you?" I asked.

" Yes" Bella answered happily.

"I know! Let's play hide and seek" Junior said enthuasically. Apparently feeling tormented by playing tea party with his sister.

I Laughed at his effort in changing the game, fortunately enough Bella squealed at the idea.

So we spent the next few minutes playing hide-and-seek.

"1, 2, 3.... 99, 100. Ready or not here I come" I said opening my eyes and began looking around to found their hiding spot.

I walked to each sides of the house but I couldn't find any of them there, I walked into the orchard where I found Bella squinting from behind a big tree and I walked slowly to her not wanting her to know I saw her, then did a little jump when I got close enough to the tree making her giggle. Together we walked through the orchard looking for Junior.

We spent more than 30 minutes going through the orchard, down to the lake and back, but Junior was nowhere to be found.

We began calling onto him. "Junior C'mon out I give up" I called out

"Junior you can come out now, you won" Bell said but no response of any kind.

Then I began to really panic. I held Bella by the arm and pulled her with me towards the house.

Once we were there I called out to my husband who immediately came running.

"What is it?" He asked, worried.

"It's Junior, we were playing hide and seek and then I was Counting and they were hiding and I don't know…..."

"Hey slowdown" He said interrupting my rumbling.

"I think Junior is missing" I said choking back the tears that were threatening to fall

"How? Where? Why?" He asked confused and walking out the backdoor completely.

Three of us walked to the woods as I narrated all that happened leading to his assumed disappearance. We combed through the orchard and round the house three times just in case we missed something. Then we decided to go ask our neighbors if they might have seen Junior.

After asking all of the houses around the street and nobody saw him, we decided to sit and wait, hopefully he wondered off somewhere and would be back.

After what felt like forever, it was getting dark and the awful feeling of fear and despair was making me unsettle.

"We have to call the police now" I said walking quickly to the land line

I dialed 911 and waited for the call to go through. I had tears in my eyes and started sobbing when the police answered the call.

My husband came to stand next to me as I made the report, they asked me to hold on as they will send somebody over and I ended the call just as my husband hugged me and let me cry on his chest.

All the while Bella was sitting quietly staring at the window. Her expression was neutral, her breathe was steady but something about her was off. Something was wrong with her.

Before I could move to her side to ask what was wrong with her the door-bell rang. Jonathan and I almost ran for the door.

We came face-to-face with two police men as we drew the door open. One of them was tall and lanky with few locks of sandy brown hair sticking out of his hat, while the other was quite short compared to his partner, jet black hair peeking out of his own hat as well. "Good evening Mr. Davies, Mrs. Davies" The lanky cop greeted, tilting his hat to acknowledge me.

"Good evening officers" we answered in unison.

"We are here about the missing person's report you called in.... we need to ask you a few question before we could start our investigation. May we come in?" He asked gesturing to the house.

"Sure. Please come in" Jonathan said opening the door wide while I stepped back to allow them in.

"Thank you".

"Ca.... can I get you anything?" I stutter choking back tears.

"No we're good. Thank you" he said. "My name is Officer John Michael and this is my partner Officer Chris Davidson. We understand you called in a missing person?"

"Yes, we did" Jonathan answered.

"Can you please describe your relationship with the missing person?" Officer Michael asked.

"He's our son" Jonathan answered.

"What his name?" he asked as his partner writes down our responses.

"Jonathan Davies Jnr" answered Jonathan.

They asked series of other questions and we both answered. I recalled every single details about the event that led to his disappearance.

"Thank you so much Mr. and Mrs. Davies for your absolute cooperation. We'll keep you in touch on our investigation. If there is any other information you might have kept or you may have in the future please don't hesitate to let us know, it will aide us very much in this case."

"I assure you we won't keep any vital information from you" Jonathan said showing them out.

After they left it was already night, I turned to walk into the living room and I noticed Bella wasn't there.

Instead I walked my way upstairs to check up on her. "Going to check up on Bella" I informed Jonathan.

Upstairs I stopped on the landing of the corridor and allowed the water works to flow freely. I was a mess and I didn't want my little girl seeing me like that.

My shoulders were slumped and my body was shaking because of the heavy sobs escaping my clasped mouth. I can hear my husband downstairs making a phone call and I could also hear faint noise coming from Bella's room, I stood up from sitting position against the wall and forced myself to stop crying then made my way to Bella's room.

I knocked softly then pushed the door open and walked in calling her name when I didn't see her. I stood immovable in the room few feet away from her bed seeing no body, I called her again panic creeping up and clawing at my heart. Still no answer. 'Please God not her too' I thought to myself with fresh tears running down my cheek.

Something caught my attention from the bed. I turned my attention towards the bed and I saw Bella's red riding hood doll jumping off the bed, where I threw it on this morning, it started walking towards me and fear replaced the panic in my heart.

I was stroked immobile by the fear that took hold of me. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. I tried pinching myself to see if it was real or a dream.

The doll walked up to me stopping few meters away from me and pointed to something behind me. I was too scared to turn to see what it was pointing at, but nevertheless, I reluctantly started turning slowly in the spot I stood. Looking at the sight in front of me, my heart leaped into my throat and back down to my stomach before an ear piercing scream left my mouth.

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WHOOOOH THAT WAS INTENSE!

OUR LITTLE BOGGEY MEN ARE BEGINNING TO COME OUT TO PLAY!

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I HOPE YOU ENJOY READING JUST AS I ENJOYED WRITING THIS CHAPTER :)

YOURS FAITHFUL,

PRINCE ABDUL🤴