No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.
Elizabeth Bowen

CROW HILLS TOWN
ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
SATURDAY MORNING
9:45 AM
TERRENCE JAMES

The continuous dripping of water breaks the monotonous silence, making the silence a living thing. Opening his eyes slowly, he closed it again from the glare of the morning light. Trying the second time, he was finally able to open his eyes to check his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was the ground he was lying on, he could feel something slippery and thick sticking to his clothes, raising up his hand, he noticed his hand felt heavier than normal.

What happened? How did he get here?

CROW HILLS TOWN
THE JAMES HOUSE
FRIDAY MORNING
11:56 AM
TERRENCE JAMES

He hates parties more than anything. But he hates the feelings, the feeling of not belonging, the feeling of being different. He hates those feelings above all else.

However, as a seventeen year old, it was expected of him to socialize. The expectation of the society weighed above his feelings of wanting to be alone. His mom always accused him of spending more time on the internet than he spends talking to real people that surround him. What does she know? No one seems to understand him.

The family therapist thinks it was a type of teen angst, what does he know? Though after eight months of talking about his feelings in the presence of all his family member and the therapists. You know they call it Family therapy, yet none of them understand him. He made a decision and started pretending like he was getting better. They stopped going to the therapist and he went back to his online life, though he had to keep up appearances.

The constant bickering between his best friend, Lao Knight, and his younger brother, Togan, drifts across to him. They've been at it for the past forty five minutes since Lao arrived at his house, He just tuned them out again, concentrating on the person he was chatting with online.

It was a new site he just came across, he has paranoia about all social media especially facebook, Instagram etc but he loves all the friend finder chatting sites. He has account on several of them.

The person he just met claimed to live somewhere closed to him, but the suspense was killing him. Their town was neither small nor big which means everyone knows each other. The description this person was giving him didn't fit any resident of their town.

That was one of the reason he agreed to go to the party. The party which was organized and hosted by the football jocks of Crow Hills High. He was aware it wouldn't be a gathering he would've enjoyed. He just wanted to see his new friend who claims he lives close to him.

He stands up from his reading table and stretched, he smiled when he heard his bones popping. Watching his brother and friend argue about an anime character, he shook his head and walked out of his room.

Crossing over to the room opposite his, he knocked, with a feminine voice answering a loud 'enter', he opened the door and stepped inside.

Lying flat on the bed was his youngest sister Talia, who was talking to their dog Juz. His twin sister was busy mixing up music on her computer and she barely lifted up her head to acknowledge his entrance. He flopped down on her bed and turned towards her.

"Tibby, will you go to the party with us? You know how much I hate this stupid party, but I have to go or else mom would sign us up for therapy session again," he pleaded with her.

"I can't go with you Terrance, I have to finish mixing up this beat. It's important to me, I haven't gotten it right since morning," She answered and thumped her head on the table her computer was sitting on.

"Please Tibby, you can even mix the music at the party. I can't go alone, besides mom would want to question you to verify if I went to the party or not which means you have no choice but to follow us," He said again sitting up on the bed.

"You are just a sucker and blackmailing doesn't suit you. However, I would go but you have to make sure I have a chance to mixed music at the party or else..." her eyes narrowed at her brother.

Nodding his head in answer, he stands up from the bed and walked stiffly out of the room.
******

CROW HILLS TOWN
SYLVESTER OTIS HOUSE
FRIDAY NIGHT
THE PARTY
10:45 PM
TERRENCE JAMES

The music was so loud they could hear it from afar, but he was not worried about the loud noise. He only needs to spend some hours there, so as to keep up appearance and then he would go to the abandoned warehouse near the industrial zone, where he is meeting his new friend.

Though Terrence was baffled as to why he would ask him to meet at that particular place, when they could have meet at the party, but Terrence was intrigued, he felt high from the suspense of it all and that's why he would meet with him at the place.

Terrence already talked about this with Lao and he too agreed to it, though Lao would not go with him, because he had to keep up appearance for both of them. Besides, Lao loved party too much and he wouldn't want to miss out on this particular party.

Putting his phone in his pocket, he followed Tibby and Lao into the house. Sylvester Otis met them at the door welcoming them to his house. The music was louder in the house than it was outside, he tried talking to Tibby, shouting so his voice could be heard above the music.

"Head in over there, its Slit acting as the DJ again, am sure he would allow you to assist him." He said pointing towards the general direction of the DJ. Tibby nodded her head and move towards the DJ booth.

He could see Lao at the drinks, he was talking with a blonde girl who looks older than him, Terrence guessed. He could never understand Lao and his fascination with older girls. He left his standing position and moved towards both of them.

"Who is your new friend Lao?" He asked as soon as he get to both of them.

"Meet Jane, she's Sylvester's cousin, she's around on holiday." Lao answered turning back to get another drinks for Terrence. Taking the cup from him, he starts sipping it. He has never been a fan of alcoholic drinks, it makes people loose their sense of personality, he could never understand the allure of alcohol.

Looking around to check on his sister's whereabouts, he smiled upon noticing her busy at the DJ boot. Leaving both Lao and his new beau, he moved deeper into the house, greeting some of his classmates that were at the party. Though he noticed, most of the people at the party were college students, they couldn't be mistaken because they look older than them.

After some hours of milling about and people watching, Terrence decided to look for Lao and inform him that he was leaving the party. Finding Lao was a bit difficult since most of the people were either drunk or necking each other.

He found him on a chair with the blonde girl, they were busy kissing each other, Lao barely acknowledged him. Terrence tapped Lao on his shoulder to get his attention and Terrence whispered to his ear that he was leaving. He left the party but it was after much pushing and pulling several people, that he was able to leave the house and head towards the industrial area.

He never understood why they called the place, industrial area. There were only three buildings located in the area; the towns popular milking factory and two other small establishment, and also the abandoned warehouse.

Singing softly to himself he kept walking. He sees the silhouette of a man from afar, no one comes this far to the industrial areas at this hour, could the person be his new internet friend? He wondered, but he couldn't decide since the shape of the person looks older.

He decided to walk faster so as to meet up with the person, he has a longer stride and was able to meet the person quickly. It was Mr. Larkson, a retired soldier who resides in their town. Mr. Larkson has a reputation of been unstable and he also have history of mistakenly killing people in the past.

Even with his dark history, Mr. Larkson has always been good to him, he usually advised him and overtime he has become a sort of a friend to Terrence. Terrence usually informed other residents of their town that once you look over his past, Mr. Larkson is a nice person.

There was one time when Mr. Larkson showed interest in having a relationship with Terrence, but once Terrence told him that he was not interested in men, especially not a man older than him, after that incident they became closer than before.

"Good evening Mr. Larkson, how are you doing? What are you doing in this area so late in the night?" Terrance asked him.

"I'm taking a walk, nothing beats an evening walk to clear the mind. But what are you doing in this area at this hour too? I saw that young boy walk past me some minutes ago, what was his name.... Sylvester. He told me he was going to the abandoned house at the edge of the industrial area." Mr. Larkson answered him.

"Sylvester told you that?" He asked a bit shaken with this information, could Sylvester be the one he was meeting at the abandoned house? Though Sylvester was nice enough on most days, but sometimes he likes to bully him, it was like a game of power and control to him, so Terrence feared been alone with him.

"Yes he did and you didn't answer my question, are you youngster meeting up there? An initiation meeting?" Mr. Larkson asked lowering his voice at the end.

"No, No, Mr. Larkson its not an initiation meeting. Though I am meeting up with someone, a friend I just met online, but I don't know what Sylvester would be doing there. I hope he would not turned out to be the person I was supposed to meet." He answered Mr. Larkson.

"You sound like you are afraid of him. If you are afraid of him, I would escort you to the warehouse." Mr. Larkson said, patting Terrence on his shoulder.

"I would appreciate it a lot if you escort me and you are right, I am afraid of Sylvester." He replied.

They lapsed into silence and continued on this walk towards the warehouse.
*******

CROW HILLS TOWN
ABANDONED WAREHOUSE
SATURDAY MORNING
PRESENT
TERRENCE JAMES

There was a brutal bruise on his wrists, looking at the hand in confusion, he tried to lift his second hand and found that was also heavy. His mind was clouded with confusion. He couldn't remember anything, his mind was foggy.

Deciding to check his leg, since both his hand were useless at the moment. He tried standing up and was successful at the first attempt, smiling to himself at his success. He took his first step, his leg slipped and he landed face down on the ground. He groaned in pain, closing his eyes to have a moment of respite, opening his eyes again, he came face to face with a mangled dead body of a boy.

He screamed, scrambling back away from the body. Looking at his surrounding for the first time, he noticed he was at an abandoned house. An uncompleted warehouse which seemed to stand alone in the industrial area, how did he get there? Who was the dead person? He couldn't get the answers from his memory, he felt as if someone had decided to format his memory.

He was so engrossed with his thoughts when a big black rat decided to check his pocket for food. The movement of the rat jotted him back to reality, he shrieked and jumped up to get the rat away, scared of the noise the rat jumped down from his pocket and ran.

Breathing slowly to calm his heart, he turned an accusing eye towards the place the rat took as an escape route, but he didn't see the rat again, lying some feet away from where he was sitting down was another grotesque body of a boy, who lookes slightly older than him.

Alarmed at his new discovery, he started looking about, searching for another dead body, but there was none except those two with multiple stab wounds on their chest.

But why couldn't he remember anything? Including the identity of the two dead bodies
**********

What do you think of the first chapter? Am editing it slowly but i do hope you still enjoyed it. Don't forget to comment, share and vote, thank you.