Interlude

  Somewhere, a man with his eyes glued to his laptop. A reporter droned about the recent murder and how it affected the community at large. Its gruesomeness caused a neighbor watch to be formed to help the police. The man had a disinterested look on his face seeing the chaos caused. Everyone was at a loss after the murders, wanting answers. Even the reporter looked exhausted from what was happening. He held his chin in his hand, leaning forward once the scene changed.

  On the cracked screen, a news report blared from its dingy speakers with a somber tone. A group of students gathered together on the screen. Some had started to hold on to another in tears, while others stood alone stony-faced. They were surrounded by banners with the dead family's picture plastered all over them and balloons. In front of them an older man, most likely their teacher, spoke to an eager-looking reporter. The reporter held a microphone up to his mouth waiting for him to speak.

  The man looked like a wreck, with greying hair and wrinkles obvious on his face. He cleared his throat once he noticed how close he was to him and quickly began to speak. Some of the students looked away from him while others cried openly with the cameras on them. Parents walked away with their children, missing posters clenched in their hands. His voice sounded dead, the events that happened to take a heavy effect on his everyday life.

  "I was Lea's teacher," His face began to become conflicted as he tripped over the teenager's name. "Our school has been destroyed by the news of her family's murder, coupled with her disappearance. We are begging anyone who has information to come forward."

  "Please, Lea if you're out there come back!" A student interjected, their eyes red from crying so much. The students next to them nodded and let out similar cries for their missing classmate.

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  "We just want to know that she's safe." The man finished handing the microphone back over to the reporter as the news channel switched over to something else.

  Chuckling, the man in the room closed the laptop and kicked his feet up onto the table. He smiled into the darkness of the room, his gaze directed towards someone similar. Far away, a door stood in front of him with nails and chains bolting it closed. He imagined walking up to it, wrapping his aged fingers around the doorknob, and throwing it open. To meet the ire of the being causing all of the current issues in the world.

  'Oh, what trouble you have caused.' The man thought to himself, knowing that who resided in the room was seething knowing he knew what they had been up to.

  With long white hair that covered their face, the being behind the door remained silent. They had no physical body, having lost it years ago before meeting the man. Full of rage, the creature's cat-like eyes were glazed over. The man got up from his chair and made his way over to the door. He told in front of it, feeling the ground tremble threatening him when the creature felt his movement.

  They bared their teeth despite knowing he was unable to see them at their current state. Hate boiled in their blood hearing the man nearing the room they were trapped in. He looked down at the floor with shock momentarily before stepping back, away from the door, and turned around. This left the creature alone, their teeth broken and bloody as they hissed despising him.

  Becoming warped, their web of a body was visible only to those who dared to enter. The creature’s depicted as a woman with an angelic appearance. Her skin was beautifully pale reminiscent of a princess you’d read about in a storybook. Her hair was a milky white unlike any human’s, the same with her strangely heart-shaped lips. Like a collectible, the man had successfully stored her away, until now.

  He had opened the laptop again, having reminded the video to focus on one specific detail. Smiling as if he had been in a dream, his fingers grazed the frozen image. Laid bare in front of his century-old eyes, the man marveled at what was witnessed. Behind the door, he could hear the woman realizing she had been found out. With her yearbook printed on a flyer and the word “missing” written under it, he saw her. He trembled with excitement at the thought of touching, her being with her again. Even in this form, nobody would stand in their way ever again.