Fazbear Fears #24: Case Closed
…Harvey wants to uncover the secrets behind a disappearance, but might just lose himself in the pursuit of answers…
Harvey didn’t blame people if they thought it was creepy. But he couldn’t help it.
He picked up on small details others couldn’t, usually connected to recurring habits. Things even the person doing them might not notice.
Angela, his neighbor, was a prime example. Years of living in side-by-side apartments had taught him two things about her. Every weekday she would leave at about 8:00 and return at 6:30, usually with her boyfriend. That was the status quo. That was normal.
But normal had taken a sabbatical over the last month. First, Angela’s boyfriend has started coming less and less. One night, Harvey heard them arguing loudly through the thin walls, then her front door slam open as someone stormed off angrily. The visits stopped after that.
The newest development was much more concerning, though. It had been a week since Angela had left her room. Every day, at 8:00 and 6:30, Harvey would listen intently, straining for the sound of her door opening, of her going out or in, but it never came.
And that’s what led him here, kneeling in front of that very door, wiggling a twisted bobby pin around in the lock.
Their apartment was cheap, the locks nothing fancy. Harvey hoped that would mean the two videos on lock-picking would be enough to get him in. He kept shifting it, straining his ears for the tiny cylinders shifting, occasionally looking around to make sure no one was coming, when…
Click. The door swung open.
Harvey quickly stood up and made his way inside, shutting the door behind him. He was half flushed with success, and half in a complete panic. “Oh god.” He muttered. “I broke into someone’s apartment…”
He couldn’t be caught. If his suspicions were correct, Angela wouldn’t be returning, but he remained on edge.
Slowly he searched the apartment, and didn’t see anything odd. He was really starting to worry he’d done this all for nothing. However, when he looked in her bedroom, that possibility vanished.
A chill went down his spine- not just from the tense situation, but from the cold. Angela’s bedroom was freezing. In horror, he noticed the window was smashed open, the icy winter wind blowing in.
Harvey peeked out the window. He realized that the rusty old fire escape was right next to it.
Someone had climbed up and broken in. Someone had abducted her.
Harvey began hyperventilating. All his life, he’d read books where someone was kidnapped, and a brave hero went off to find them. But this was no story. His neighbor, the woman he lived next to, had been taken by some madman. Had Harvey been in his apartment when it happened, only ten feet and a wall away as she was dragged out the window?
Whatever. As much as Harvey wished he could be that brave hero, he couldn’t. Time to call the police.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The operator answered.
“Uh, hi.” Harvey answered as he began to make his way out of the apartment. “I haven’t seen my neighbor in a week. She’s normally quite…sociable with me, so I’m starting to get worried.”
That was a lie, of course. Angela had never spoken a word to him, but that seemed more palatable than informing the police he’d memorized the schedule and habits of a recently kidnapped woman.
“Ok. Where are you located?”
“We both live in the Oak Heights apartment complex. She lives in room 224, I’m right next to her.”
“We’ll send someone over to look. They should be there in ten minutes.”
“Right. Thank you.” Harvey hung up. He had to get out of here quickly.
He reentered the living room, but noticed something amiss. Sitting on the table was a large, rectangular box.
Harvey stared. He was almost certain that hadn’t been in there when he’d entered. It definitely stuck out in this otherwise relatively lively and colorful apartment.
The box was a dark gray, reinforced with two rows of bolts that ran vertically. It had two latches, each sealed with a golden padlock. He moved closer and tentatively touched it. The metal was slick and smooth to the touch. Whatever, he thought. The police will figure out-
Suddenly, he recoiled, pulling his hand from the box. “I touched it.” He muttered, horrified. “Now my fingerprints will be on it! They’ll trace it back to me!”
In the distance, sirens echoed.
Harvey panicked. He grabbed the box and ran back into his apartment, slamming Angela’s and his doors on the way.
He stared at the box as he set it down. “I…stole evidence from a crime scene. Oh god, I could be arrested as an accessory.”
Harvey thought it over. He couldn’t return it; he wouldn’t have enough time to clean his fingerprints off. But he couldn’t just do nothing. He knew this box was somehow involved in Angela’s disappearance. So he only had one choice: he’d have to do what he’d just thought himself too scared to, and solve the case himself.
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Detective Cass Achebe surveyed the apartment hallway, filled with cops. All of them were clustered around the victim’s door, clearly unsure of what to do. One gangly, younger officer turned when he heard her and gasped. “D-d-detective Achebe! What are you doing here?”
Cass was the best detective in the police force. She specialized in disappearance cases, and usually was only assigned to the ones that stumped everyone else. It was uncommon for her to be at the scene of the crime within hours.
“I made a special request to Chief Simmons to get on this one a little early.” She explained. “Miss Angela West here was a witness in another unsolved disappearance case- a friend of hers, I believe. I felt there might be a connection.”
An older man Cass recognized as Officer Wrigley approached her. “So, you really think we got some kinda serial kidnapper or something?”
“Can’t rule it out. So, any witnesses of any kind?”
“Not exactly. We did contact her partner, and he said she’d been acting strange over the past couple of weeks. He’s out of town, though.”
“Keep in touch so we can question him when he gets back. Was he the one who called?”
“Nah. The guy next door was the caller- said he hadn’t seen her in a week, and got worried. Some guys talked to him a bit earlier, but you can if you like.”
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Harvey didn’t know why he kept checking under his bed. The box wasn’t going to run out and announce, “Hey, everybody, Harvey stole me from the crime scene!” And yet he wanted to be sure it was there still, hidden.
He heard footsteps, and quickly clambered back onto his bed, trying not to look suspicious. A tall, dark-skinned woman with short frizzy hair knocked on the doorway. “Hello, sir. I’m Detective Achebe. I’d like to ask you a few questions. First off, I didn’t catch your name from the other officers…”
“Oh, yeah. Uh, I’m Harvey, Harvey White. Nice to meet you.” He weakly held out his hand.
She shook it firmly. “Now, according to Officer Wrigley, you called 911 because you hadn’t seen Miss West in a week. At what times of day did you typically see her?”
Harvey tried to keep his cool. “Well, I only saw her sometimes. Usually I heard her leaving the apartment in the morning and returning in the evening. The doors here are creaky, and the walls are thin.”
It was a strange sensation- Harvey wasn’t lying about anything, but it felt like he was. Guess withholding any information at all in a kidnapping case did that to you.
“I see. Now, did you notice any odd behavior from Miss West leading up to her disappearance, anything at all?”
“I heard her and her boyfriend arguing a lot. I think they broke up. Other than that, nothing.”
Detective Achebe looked off thoughtfully. “Ok, then. We’ll keep in touch, but no further questions for now. Could I just have your number?”
Harvey scribbled it down on a scrap of paper and handed it to her.
She nodded. “Thank you for your time, sir.”
The detective turned to leave. As she passed through the doorway, Harvey thought he heard a voice, whispering.
“She suspects you. She thinks you did it.”
Harvey yelped. Detective Achebe turned back. “You ok?”
Harvey glanced around the room. He was alone.
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There! Harvey thought he heard it again, just barely.
It was hours later. He had gone to bed, and most of the police had left for the night. And yet he couldn’t sleep. Whenever he got close to it, that voice he’d heard earlier muttered in his ear, prodding him with snippets of “Keep me hidden.” and “Trust no one.”
He wanted to write it off as a guilty conscience- not normally the most appealing idea, but infinitely better than what he feared. The box, the one right below him, was speaking to him.
Almost as soon as he processed that thought, the voice became clearer. “You need to save Angela, Harvey.”
Harvey didn’t move a muscle, continuing to stare up at the ceiling. Still, he responded hesitantly. “No- no, I don’t. The police will find her.”
“They’re on the wrong track. Only you can save Angela.”
“How? Any evidence I could use is in her apartment, and I can’t break back in.” Harvey paused. “Unless…you’re the evidence?”
“In a sense. You just need to keep me safe, for just a short while. Then, everything will be revealed to you.”
Everything revealed. As much as this situation had terrified Harvey, the idea was appealing to him. His whole life had been spent in mediocrity, waiting for some kind of meaning. He’d be a hero, and he liked that.
However, one more thing bothered him. “You…you weren’t left here by the killer, right? I mean, it’s fine if you were, but you’re not some kind of trick to mislead me, right?” Harvey suddenly felt a little silly about asking a box whether it was manipulating him.
The voice was silent for a few moments, but it eventually answered. “I work for no one. I only wish to see this case closed, and you to play a part in that.”
“Ok.” Harvey said, uncertainty still clinging to his voice. Eventually, he was able to drift off to a restless sleep.
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Harvey clumsily spooned cereal into his mouth with one hand as he buttoned his shirt with the other. “Ugh…come on, come on, I’m going to be late!”
The excitement of last night and his voice-induced insomnia had left him tired enough to sleep through his alarm. His shift began in only thirty minutes, so he had to move quickly.
“You really should stay, you know.”
Harvey glared towards his bedroom. “In case you forgot, I have a job. It’ll be fine. The doors and windows will be locked.”
“Angela’s were too. There are people who will go to any length to stop you. Just take a few days off work.”
Harvey sighed. The box was making sense. He could easily picture a sinister figure, clad in black, smashing their way through his window, or picking his door’s lock. Wandering around his apartment, taking the box, maybe waiting for him to return to clean up all the evidence…
He shook his head. “Paranoia won’t get us anywhere. Anyway, you can get rid of those stakes if you just tell me what I need to know.”
“That will happen in its own time, Harvey.”
Harvey finished getting ready and left without another word.
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Harry- no, wait, Harvey- rushed past Cass. Poor guy looked to be late for something. Oh, well. Cass had no time to worry about that, she was on the clock. She entered Angela’s apartment, to see Officer Wrigley and some other cops were already there.
“Detective Achebe, ma’am.” Wrigley nodded. “Ready for a closer examination?”
For the next hour they searched the apartment, checking for fingerprints on every surface, looking for any sign of a struggle, but were unable to find anything. Wrigley scratched his head. “Ever seen a case with so little to go off of?”
“Admittedly, no.” Cass steeled herself. “But no criminal is perfect. They all make mistakes. We’ll find one.”
She pointed to the window. “I know some people already checked there, but maybe we should look again. It’s clearly the point of the break in.”
“Hey, go nuts. At this point we should try anything.”
Cass checked for fingerprints around the sill, but was unable to find anything. She noticed reddish stains on the glass. “Did you see this?”
Wrigley looked and nodded. “Blood, belonging to the victim. Pretty much confirms she was kidnapped, but nothing we didn’t suspect.”
Cass looked down, disappointed. Then, she noticed something.
“There’s no glass on the floor.” She pointed out. “Were the shards cleaned up?”
“They were, but there wasn’t very much. Like only a little glass had fallen inside or something.”
“Hmm.” Cass looked out the window, but saw nothing in the alley below but a blanket of snow.
But maybe under the snow…
“Officer, can you follow me?”
The pair rode the elevator down and made their way to the alley, the cold biting into them as they walked. Cass tracked the broken window’s column downward, and determined the spot right below it. She kneeled down, and began digging through the snow.
“Come on, Officer. Help me with this.”
“I didn’t bring gloves! You’ve got mittens…maybe I could just keep watch?” He suggested sheepishly.
Cass rolled her eyes as she continued her excavation. Finally, she felt something else within the snow: shards of glass.
She carefully pulled one out. It was covered in frost, and was stained in blood like the window above.
“You know what this means, right?” Cass asked, as she studied the shard closely.
Officer Wrigley thought for a moment. “If the glass fell out here, it must have been broken from the inside. But that still doesn’t explain why Angela’s blood is on the shards.”
“I have some theories.” Cass stood. “But I’m not collecting all this evidence alone. Find some cops who came prepared, Mr Naked Hands.”
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Harvey flinched. He knew it was just a bowling ball knocking down pins, but it was all too easy to imagine a masked gunman trying to take him out for knowing too much.
It had been a few days since Harvey had discovered the box, and his paranoia had only grown. He still resisted the box’s calls for him to keep a constant watch, but it was getting harder to drag himself to Lucky Rabbit Bowling Alley for his shift. Every person who walked up to rent bowling shoes forced him to ask the question: Could this be the kidnapper? Is Angela locked up in their basement, struggling against restraints, or buried in their backyard?
Clearly, his coworker friends had started to take notice. “Dude.” Paul said as they sprayed some used shoes down. “You ok? You’ve been kinda…out of it lately.”
“I’m fine.” Harvey muttered, not meeting his gaze. “Just a little tired, that’s all.”
Stella, his other coworker, frowned. “You’re always a little tired. This is different. Come on, Harvey, you can tell us.”
Harvey looked away from her too- but not because of his worries. He didn’t want her to see him blushing.
Harvey had had feelings for Stella as long as he’d known her. She was beautiful, smart, funny…but no way she felt the same way about him.
Either way, Harvey was growing tired of secrets, so he decided to let a little slip. “Actually…my neighbor disappeared. Last I heard, the police suspect foul play.”
Stella gasped. “Oh my god, that’s horrible.”
“Yeah.” Harvey stared down the shoes lined up on the counter. “I’m next door. I should have heard something happen, or seen someone suspicious…”
“Don’t say that.” Paul said sympathetically. “Look, what happened happened. The cops are on it now, it’s their responsibility. At this point, what more can you do?”
An answer weaseled its way into Harvey’s mind. You could protect me. Make sure the one thing that could save Angela is safe until the time is right. But no, renting out shoes in a bowling alley is far more important.
The words rang true. Harvey had been neglecting his duties. Fate had put the box into his hands, he was its steward. His meaningless job could not be allowed to distract him any longer.
Harvey walked out of the counter area. His coworkers quickly took notice. “Hey, Harvey.” Stella called out. “Where are you going, lunch break isn’t for another half an hour.”
He only looked back once as he left the building. “There’s something I need to attend to. Be back soon.”
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Harvey was getting tired of pizza. But what choice did he really have? In the time it would take him to cook a decent meal or go out to dinner, the kidnapper could easily slip into his room and snatch the box. It felt like he was pushing his luck just going to his door to pick up his order.
Most of the past week had been spent in his bedroom, keeping a close watch on the box. He read books, watched TV, and, as he was doing right now, ate pizza. Still, he remained alert.
As he had a few times before, he interrogated the box. “This is getting tiresome. I’m running out of vacation days. Just tell me what I need to know to save Angela.”
“You’d have more days if you hadn’t gone to visit your family last June. And what does keeping a job matter if a life is at stake? I promise, it won’t be much longer.”
Harvey was irritated, but couldn’t disagree. He finished off the slice he’d been munching on and tossed the empty pizza box onto the growing stack in the corner.
“Think I’m gonna try to get to bed early tonight.” Harvey could already sense the box’s response. “Yes, I’ll check the alarms on the windows.”
Harvey scanned over them quickly. They all seemed to be in working order…
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Harvey froze. The only people who had come to his door recently were the pizza delivery guys, and he hadn’t ordered anything else…so who could it be?
Harvey slowly approached the door. He made sure to grab the metal baseball bat he’d leaned against the wall, just in case…
In one swift movement, Harvey opened the door, just wide enough that he could easily whack any kidnappers. To his surprise, the person behind the door wasn’t a masked stranger- or even a stranger at all. It was Stella.
Harvey gasped. “Stella! Wha- what are you doing here? How’d you even know I live here?!” He quickly set the bat out of sight. Stella hadn’t seen it, but she could clearly see the tiredness and paranoia on his face.
She played with the zipper on her coat. “Paul told me. He would have come himself, but he had a rough day. He’s taking on a lot of your duties, y’know.”
Harvey opened the door wide enough to let her in as he sighed. “I…I know. I’m sorry I had to leave on such short notice, but it’s urgent.”
Stella marched in and hung her coat on the rack. “What’s urgent? Harvey, are you getting mixed up in that missing person’s case you were talking about?”
Harvey hesitated. He didn’t want to involve Stella in what was going on, but at this point he just wanted someone else to know. Someone who understood his responsibility.
“Look, Stella. Please, just follow me. There’s something I want to show you.”
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Stella reached out to caress the lid.
“Don’t.” Harvey gently grabbed her hand. “If the police find out I took this, I don’t want your fingerprints on it.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s what got you into this mess, isn’t it?” Stella collapsed on the bed, her face in her hands. “I still can’t believe you broke into someone’s apartment.”
“Just to confirm my suspicions. Anyway, I don’t think of this situation as a mess. It’s an opportunity to do something good.”
“I guess.” Stella admitted. “But what’s happened to you recently? You’ve never been a paranoid person. And why not just open the box? If you think this is key evidence, then go all the way.”
“Look…it’s all for a reason. Trust me.” Harvey had elected to leave out the part about the box talking to him.
“Ok, ok. I trust you, really.” Stella said, sitting back up. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s cool you want to help out.”
“Thanks.” Harvey replied. “And…thank you for visiting me, and listening to me. It’s nice, not being completely alone in this.”
Harvey had never understood why, but he’d never been able to read Stella like he could other people. Perhaps she just kept her feelings close to her chest. But right then, for just a moment, he saw her blush slightly.
Stella responded, hesitantly. “Like I said, these last few days have kind of sucked. That’s partially because you’re not there to work, but it’s also because you weren't there to talk to. I…I like being with you, Harvey.”
“Oh.” Harvey was frozen for a moment. “I like being with you too. You and Paul make my job pretty fun…but you especially.”
He took a deep breath before speaking. “I’ve been thinking about stuff, too. Just being wrapped in something like this…something dangerous…if something happens to me, I don’t want to regret something. Stella…I love you.”
There was a second’s silence that seemed to last a century. Eventually, Stella responded.
“Wow…Harvey…I never knew.”
“It’s fine if you don’t feel the same!” Harvey blurted. “I just wanted to get that off my chest.”
“No, no! I do feel the same! It’s just I only realized I did when you were gone.”
Harvey was stunned. He’d never seen this coming, never seen a world where someone could love him. Once again, the status quo was shattered- but he liked it this time.
The couple spent the rest of the evening adjusting to each other, to the new normal. Eventually they grew comfortable with each other, closer than they’d ever been.
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Cass trudged into the station, finishing her coffee. It had been a long night, trying to fit barely existent pieces into an enormous puzzle. It didn’t help that she had to come in so early, but this had already been put off enough. Angela’s boyfriend was finally back in town, and he was the only lead left they hadn’t explored.
Officer Wrigley was there waiting for her. “Morning, Detective. Mr Holland is in there waiting for you.”
Cass opened the door to the interrogation room to see a nervous man with a week’s worth of stubble staring down at the table. He looked up when he saw her enter.
“Mrs Achebe, ma’am, hi. I’m Joe Holland, Angela’s boyfriend. I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner, I was dealing with some family stuff.”
“It’s ok. And please, just call me Cass.” She pulled out a greasy paper bag as she sat down. “Accidentally bought an extra donut, you want it?”
Joe sighed. “No need to play good cop, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Alright.” Cass grabbed her notepad. “What do you know?”
“So I heard you already know Angela had a friend who went missing.”
“Yeah. But, from what Angela told me, Patricia had a brother who went missing shortly before she did.”
This was news to Cass. Had this chain of kidnappings gone further back than she’d suspected?
Joe continued. “According to Angela, Patricia started acting very strange and paranoid, even claiming that she could solve the mystery. Thing is, after she went missing, Angela started to act the same way.”
“What?” Cass raised an eyebrow. “Why would she do that?”
“After a few days of her being like that, she showed me this…box. It’s just this weird metal crate. She said Patricia had shown it to her, claiming it had something to do with her brother’s disappearance. When she went over to Patricia’s house and found her missing, the box was still there. She took it and said she understood Patricia now. This box was the key to solving everything.”
Cass raised an eyebrow. “The crime scene has been searched thoroughly. No box like you described was discovered.”
Joe froze. “No…that’s impossible. It has to be there. Unless…she was right? The box really is important, and the kidnapper took it?”
“It’s…possible.” Cass mused. “But you described the box as rather large, right? Could someone really carry both Angela and the box?”
“Unlikely.” Joe admitted. “But nothing else makes sense. How could it just disappear?”
Cass chewed on her pen. For the first time, in all her cases, she was stumped. What could she do?
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Harvey awoke. He smiled before he even opened his eyes, reflecting on last night’s events. Was Stella his girlfriend, officially? He wasn’t exactly sure how these things worked.
She wasn’t next to him in the bed, but he heard movement down the hall. Probably just grabbing something to eat.
He was suddenly reminded he should check under the bed, for the box. As opposed to the times before, he did so calmly, without fear of the box’s absence.
But its absence he discovered.
Harvey stumbled backwards, in total shock. He knew he’d slid the box back under last night, he was certain!
He ran out, running into the living room. Stella sat there upon the couch, sipping a mug of coffee.
She saw the panic in his eyes before he spoke a word. “Harvey, what’s wrong?”
“The…the box! It’s gone!”
“What?!” Stella stood up. “But…how? We slept right over it all night! You have alarms on every window.”
“It just seems impossible! No one could break in…”
Suddenly, a thought struck Harvey. It felt wrong even to think it, but the more he did, the more it seemed true.
“Stella.” Harvey said cautiously. “Did you do something with it?”
“What?” Stella was taken aback. “No, of course not.”
Harvey took a few steps, closer to the front door. “You knew where it was. I showed you. Then, the next day…it’s gone. You don’t think that’s a little strange?”
“Are you accusing me of…what, working with a kidnapper? Being a kidnapper? Harvey, we’ve known each other for years.”
“Maybe they’re paying you because you’re close to me.” Harvey gasped. “Yes, that’s it!”
He smacked his forehead. “How stupid could I be? Of course you don’t love me, it was all an act!”
The words hurt to say, but he knew they were true. Harvey had let the wrong person in, and it had cost him everything.
Tears began to form in Stella’s eyes. “How could you say that? Nothing last night was fake. Harvey, this is turning into an obsession. It’s causing you to do things you wouldn’t do otherwise!”
Harvey steeled himself as he took one last step towards the door. “You’re right, Stella. I’m usually too weak to do what needs to be done. But not this time.” Then, he grabbed the bat he’d tossed aside near the entrance, and gripped it tightly. “Tell. Me. Where. It. Is. Now.”
Stella was silent. Then, she ran for the door.
Harvey could take her out. He knew it. He prepared for one good swing…
But couldn’t force his arms into motion. They remained frozen with cowardice.
She dashed out of his apartment, and slammed the door behind her. She didn’t break her sprint until she clambered into the elevator.
Harvey fell to his knees. A part of him felt horrified about what he’d almost done, and what he’d said. However, a far greater part mourned his foolishness. His naivety had lost him his one chance to solve the mystery. He’d failed.
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Hours passed, Harvey still distraught in front of the door. He didn’t know what to do now. It was as if his whole life had been building up to this week, this one period of true purpose, and he’d fumbled the ball.
However, just before his despair fully consumed him, he heard a voice.
Harvey gasped. “Y-you! You can still talk to me!”
Of course. Our fates are intertwined.
Guilt overcame him. “Stella…Stella took you, didn’t she?”
Yes. I don’t wish to say I told you so, but…
“I swear!” Harvey stood. “I’ll never doubt you again!”
Good. Because it’s time, Harvey. Time for the truth.
He froze. “Wait, really? Then what are you waiting for, tell me!”
I cannot tell you in a way you’d understand. I have to show you. Which means, you have to find me.
“But I don’t know what Stella did with you.”
In that, I can guide your path. But, you must leave now.
“Right.” Harvey grabbed his jacket off the rack, stepped into his winter boots, and took a step towards the door.
Don’t! The voice screamed. Don’t you hear them coming?
Confused, Harvey stopped to listen. He swore he heard something from the echoey stairwell, climbing up to his floor…and the elevator rising…
Harvey understood. “They’re already here. I can’t go out this way.”
He swiveled his head, looking for an answer. He spotted it- the window.
Escape by any means necessary! Break it!
Harvey dashed over and deactivated the alarm. He looked for something heavy to smash the glass with, but nothing was within reach. He knew he only had precious seconds, and acted drastically.
Harvey began punching the glass, cracks spreading over the frosted pane. Tiny pieces began to embed in his knuckles, causing them to bleed. He even saw larger shards of glass, stained in blood, falling into the snow below, but he didn’t care. Escaping, and solving the mystery, was all that mattered.
Finally, with a SMASH!, the window gave way. As carefully as possible, he slipped out onto the narrow ledge. He braced himself against the building, steadying his bloody raw hands against the brick wall. Slowly he inched, closer and closer to the fire escape- ironic, he thought, that he would evade the kidnapper using the very structure they’d use to reach Angela’s apartment.
Eventually he gripped the railing, the cold metal soothing his injuries. As he climbed down, images beamed into his head- directions, to the box’s location and the mystery’s solution.
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His journey lasted longer than he’d expected- half a day of walking. Maybe it would have been faster if he’d taken a bus, but the voice had advised him that one of the kidnapper’s accomplices might see him (It felt so odd, knowing so many people were against you). The walk wasn’t pleasant, seeing as he only had a pair of pajamas under his jacket. But the biting wind wasn’t enough to keep him from his goal.
When he reached the snow-covered forest, he knew he was close. When he found an old road winding through, he knew he was closer. And when he saw the dilapidated old house, he knew he had made it.
It was incredibly rundown. Parts of the roof had collapsed, leaving gaping holes that were visible from the ground. The windows were all boarded up, though the boards had begun to soften and rot. Most importantly, the door was wide open, barely hanging on to its hinges.
After one last look over his shoulder, Harvey walked inside. Indoors wasn’t much nicer- snow had piled up in every room, and he could even see what looked like the remnants of small plants that had sprouted from exposed dirt when the weather was nicer. The carpet even had stains that looked like oil and a rusty red substance. Harvey didn’t want to linger on what it was, and he didn’t have to. He could hear the voice calling for him to ascend the nearby staircase, up to the attic. His final destination.
Just down the hall from the top of the stairs he saw a ladder, which led up through a trapdoor. Rung by rung he climbed, until he set foot on the creaking wood floor. He’d made it.
The first thing Harvey noticed was the smell. It was awful- like something had died here. But he could barely notice that, because on the ground, just a few feet away, laid his box.
He couldn’t contain his joy. “I made it!” Harvey ran towards the box, lovingly caressing its metal surface. “Thank you, for guiding me.” He weeped gratefully.
And thank you for following. Now, it’s time for the truth.
There was a small click, and the box’s lid suddenly flew open. For the first time, Harvey looked inside- and saw only darkness.
“I can’t see anything.” Harvey admitted.
Of course not. One final step, Harvey. Climb inside, brave the dark, and I will show you everything.
One week ago, Harvey would have been startled at that request. What purpose could that possibly serve, to solve the mystery? However, he now knew not to doubt the voice. With little hesitation, he climbed into the box. It was roomier than it looked, though barely big enough for him. He curled up into a fetal position, unsure of what else to do.
Suddenly the lid slammed shut, and Harvey was trapped in darkness. He heard two small clicks from outside- the padlocks closing. He tried to move around, but the box was sealed tight. He knew at that moment there was no escape.
But he wasn’t afraid. This felt…right. This was where he was supposed to be.
Time flowed by at an imperceptible rate. Harvey was uncertain of how long he’d been inside. What he did know was that it was getting harder to breathe, his limited supply of air getting thinner. He began to feel light-headed, and could barely keep his eyes open.
At that moment the voice spoke one last time. It gave him an answer.
Once upon a time there was a man who had many things. A place to call home, a job he liked just fine, and people he could call friends. But it wasn’t enough for him. He desired meaning, something above what the world would give him. One day, he stumbled upon something special, unique. A spark, in an empty world. A legacy waiting to happen.
Others tried to hold him back, drag him back into mediocrity. They claimed he was losing himself, all to chase an unattainable goal. But the man refused to give in. Even as they callously left him, the man kept pursuing his spark. Eventually, his pursuit led him to a dark place, a place he couldn’t leave. He never fully understood his spark, but he walked its path. So even as the rot crept in, he endured, content with what he found at the end.
I am the pursuit. The ruined legacy the man left in his wake. We all are. And now, you are too.
Harvey smiled. That was the last thing he did before he blacked out.
The box remained in the attic, though in a slightly different place. It retreated into the shadows, out of sight of anyone who entered. It set itself at the base of a pile of identical boxes. Each was filled to the brim with a rotting corpse, though the oldest were nothing more than bones. And each and every one wore a smile on their face, satisfied to have fulfilled their purpose.
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Stella knew this wasn’t right. Harvey wasn’t quite…stable, right now. But she was growing worried. He wasn’t answering her texts, and she wanted to check on him. So she’d come back to his apartment.
She knocked on his door, but there was no answer. Hesitantly, she tested the doorknob, to find it unlocked.
The moment she entered, she knew something was wrong. It was freezing, and she realized his window had been smashed open.
“Oh, God.” she muttered. “Was…he right? Someone was out to get him?”
Stella stumbled back, the weight of her discovery fully hitting her. She looked around the apartment, trying to find something, anything that would help her make sense of this new, terrifying reality-
And her eyes settled on a large, metal box, sitting on the coffee table.
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
origamiaround
areudirty
theartofmadeline