Chase sat up abruptly, or at least tried to. Many icy cold hands reached around him from behind holding him to the ground amongst an endless sea of darkness. He felt as though he was stuck in slow motion, and unable to fight them off from grabbing and digging their long boney fingers into him. One eventually grabbed him by a handful of his hair, yanking hard and slamming the back of his head against what felt like the ground though he could only see darkness. His head throbbed with pain now as he saw little Amelia approaching him brandishing that same knife from before. Her mouth split open revealing a wide toothy grin and in place of her eyes were two empty black sockets. He trembled with fear unable to move as the small girl inched closer and closer until she stood next to him. The hands forcing him to stare at her the whole time. She knelt down next to him raising the knife high over his chest before suddenly her mouth opened wide, seeming to unhinge itself like a snake. The top of her head folded almost the whole way back to her neck as she let out a blood curdling scream thrusting the blade into Chase's chest over and over.
He awoke suddenly in a cold sweat, sitting up next to the fire barrel he rubbed his eye's. The nightly rains had just stopped for the day it seemed. Letting out a small groan he got to his feet. His body ached and was sore all over from sleeping on the ground. Looking around he saw the various homeless people gathered here and there around other burn barrels keeping warm for the morning. But he couldn't find Ivan anywhere. Chase strolled around for a bit, beginning to think he imagined the man all together. It didn't take long for him to grow bored causing him to head to a nearby coffee shop.
Going inside he ordered a small black coffee turning on his phone as he waited. As it came on, it revealed it only had 23% left on its battery life. He then let out a sigh signing into the coffee shops free wifi as he was handed his beverage. An inevitable avalanche of notifications caused his phone to buzz violently in his hand. After paying the $1.30 for his coffee he took his beverage to a seat that was close to an outlet where he plugged his phone in before finally sitting down. The chair was comfortable and he sunk into it as he sat down letting out somewhat of a sigh, his sore body taking some relief from the rest. Taking a sip of his coffee, Chase sat it on a nearby end table before then finally bringing up his phone. After reading and scrolling for a solid 10 minutes or so, he came to a stop, "... Mom?", he thought to himself as he opened the thread quickly. "Hello? Chase? Why are the cops looking for you what did you do!?", Chase fought back tears reading through his moms texts to himself before, "Chase answer your phone!!! HELP ME!!!", He trembled setting his phone down on the table to keep himself from simply breaking it, out of rage.
His coffee had now cooled and he couldn't waste his precious time playing the what if game. Drying his eye's, he slugged back his small coffee like it was a shot, then proceeded to gather his thing's and turn his phone back off before suddenly leaving. He knew he couldn't stay in one place long if he wanted to avoid the cops so he decided to head home to his parents house. He would have to hop a bus to the other side of town, in which case he'd be spending his last dollar fifty but it still beat walking. There were one or two people already there as Chase came to a nearby bus stop. An elderly lady and a younger kid, wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up. Though Chase couldn't really see his face he could see his head bobbing rhythmically, which meant the kid was probably listening to music, so Chase paid him little mind as the bus pulled up alongside the road. Chase grinned a bit, "Just made it!", he thought to himself as he waited behind the other two to get on. As he got on Chase dropped his money in the basket next to the driver and went to the back finding an empty seat. After multiple stops, it was roughly a forty five minute ride before Chase stood up getting off the bus in a small suburb on the outskirts of the city.
It looked like a genuinely nice white collared neighborhood, though Chase seriously doubted that. There were reasons he had left for so long with out looking back. That wasn't to say he didn't worry for his mother however. Their relationship was for lack of a better word "complicated". He would always have love for her, but he had to leave this part of town for his own benefit. In pursuit of his education, though it seemed that was all wasted now. There was a cool breeze as the bus pulled away, causing Chase to snap back to reality, where he walked through his old neighborhood. It seemed so long ago to him that he was there. Admittedly it was a part of his life he simply tried not to think about. But as he walked those streets it was hard not to. He pulled his hood up in an effort to conceal his face more. He had to remember he was a wanted criminal, it'd be a catastrophe if he ran into somebody he used to know.
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After a few more minutes of walking, Chase eventually stood at the front porch of his fathers house. He closed his eye's for a moment, taking a deep breath. Almost as if waiting for someone or something to reach out to him. But he was only greeted with silence. Slowly he opened his eyes, "Either she's still alive or... Somethings keeping her from crossing over...", He thought to himself staring up the stairs of the porch at the front door. The feeling was almost foreboding in a way. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to just turn around and leave. But he couldn't. Or at least he couldn't allow himself that luxury this time. He walked up the stairs onto the large front porch of the three story house. It truly was a nice property, however every time Chase saw it, it made him sick. Ignoring that he reached out pushing the button for the door bell.
It chimed loudly throughout the house and there was a brief pause before the door knob suddenly turned and the door slowly cracked open. "Who is it?", a gruff voice came from the other side. Chase looked up through the crack, "It's me dad..", He responded in somewhat of a hushed voice. The door slammed shut before the sound of locks hurriedly coming undone came from the other side and the door suddenly burst open revealing a heavier set man with greyed hair and a long scraggly beard. He reached through the door pulling his son into the house before quickly closing the door behind him. Before Chase could say anything, the old man whipped around and was gonna give Chase a hug, however Chase stiff armed the man instead stopping him. "Ew no. What are you doing?", he asked, "You never did shit like that before don't start now... I'm here about mom where is she? What's happened?", Chase dug in getting straight to his point.
The old man looked off, seeming to think for a moment before, "Chase... She died, after the news of what you did to that poor girl and her family...", The old mans voice faltered as tears swelled up in his eye's. Chase had never seen him this way before. These emotions seemed genuine, but his story didn't line up with anything Chase knew about already. If her heart gave in why would she text him asking for help? Something didn't feel right, though he decided to play along. "Dad, I was trying to help that family...," He explained tears swelling in his own eye's, "And it all backfired so bad... Everything happened so fast, and I didn't know what to do.. I had to disappear to try and clear my name before I could ever come back here again." If he was gonna try to subvert Chase, then Chase was going to use it* against him.
The old man reached out putting a hand on Chase's shoulder, "You could have come to us son...", he muttered lowly before suddenly pulling Chase in and hugging him tightly, "You could have come to us...", to which Chase simply stared off allowing him to do it. After a moment the old man released him. Drying his eye's he looked Chase over for a moment, "You look like shit kid... Have you eaten anything?".
Chase chuckled a bit, "Ya that's more like it old man...", he laughed causing his dad to laugh a bit himself, "Boy, I will whip the shit out of you. Go get ready for dinner.. We left your room how it was.", and with that the old man turned and went to the kitchen. Chase chuckled a bit more walking upstairs, "Fucking asshole.", he muttered, to which a shout came in response from the kitchen, "I heard that!"
His old room was up in the attic, and he scoffed a bit, "Bet he didn't wanna change it because he'd throw out his old ass back.", he muttered to himself at the top of the stairs. As he did so he reached up grabbing a pull chord, which dropped a ladder down leading to the attic. Chase climbed up into the room and sighed looking around. There were a few more boxes than when he left but for the most part everything was the same. He walked over to the corner where his bed was, and toppled over on top of it before quickly falling asleep succumbing to exhaustion.