Silence gnawed at their insides. Silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. The silence was like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything. The silence was poisonous in it's nothingness, cruelly underscoring how vapid their conversation had become. The silence was eerily unnatural, like a dawn devoid of birdsong. Silence clung to them like a poisonous cloud that at any moment could choke the life from them. Silence seeped into their every pore, like a poison slowly paralyzing them from either speech or movement.

"Excuse me, what was that?" Detective Max Fletcher broke the silence as it shattered like glass. He asked as he tried to figure out what the kid had just said. He tried so hard but the group of words were too puzzling for his mind to handle. It was too complex yet too basic. What he said was comprehensive, but it was too absurd to even understand.

"I said that Ms. Griffin isn't a human being, she's a demon. You can't possibly kill her. What you need to find is Gunther, her assistant. I'm pretty sure he's a human being." The kid said with no hint of tomfoolery in his words, just an honest truth from a kid. Just a kid trying to explain his side. "Please, they won't stop."

Max was taken aback by the kid's statement, it wasn't his first time dealing with traumatized kids. He'd taken in victims and survivors of a sacrificial cult ceremony, a bank heist, and worst, a hijacking in the middle of the air. He was used to delusional children and adults because going through something like what happened to them wasn't easy. It certainly isn't when you suddenly bring up a demon in a normal conversation.

"You don't believe me, don't you?"

Max's thoughts were interrupted by the kid. He only realized that he was staring at the kid's hazelnut brown eyes as it shimmers with innocence for too long. He can't be lying, look at his poor innocent eyes. Max thought. But demons, that's literally BS right there.

Max stumbled to find a proper response to the kid's question, even though the answer was waiting to slip out of the detective's tongue. He just wanted to filter out the meaning behind the simple answer in which no feelings would be hurt. He just smiled and looked at the kid's disappointed face.

"I do." Max smiled, trying to hide his disbelief. He needed to, much more than before when the kid smiled, his face lighting up a little. He tried to segue into the real deal, but realized he had to not get to the point of the whole conversation so quickly. That way the kid doesn't feel rushed into interrogation. "Can you tell me where they are?"

"Hm," The kid lifted his head up, searching for answers in the ceiling above him. Trying to think of a clear answer to his question, reminiscing the time where the house was being swallowed by the fire, remembering any clues Ms. Griffin and Gunther would've said to them.

But he couldn't remember anything significant.

"No, sorry." The kid shrugged playfully, his tone gentle and soft. After all that had happened, the kid still managed to be slightly joyful. "I don't remember anything after the fire happened."

Max quickly scribbled in the clipboard resting in his hand the whole time, listing important information about the case that might help him and his investigation. Documenting anything the boy was saying with such detail and emotion. He felt his heart submerge into the bile stored in his stomach. It was too much, everything truly was. The kidnapping, the deaths, the fire, the torture, the spirits, and the whole interrogation was completely messing with his head. He couldn't continue, but again, he had to.

Max swallowed the lump on his throat that had stayed there for a while. He swiped the sweat off his face and took a deep breath, all he could think of was his son undergoing through such horrific experiences. He wouldn't be able to sleep and move on. Which made him understand the kid more.

Be calm, imagine your son going through all of that. Max thought.

"Alright," Max stated as he sensed the kid's discomfort. Maybe it was best for him to not yet know where Ms. Griffin and this 'Gunther' fellow, it would only bring him more stress. "Maybe you can tell me where Gunther is?"

"Nope, I don't know."

"Well then." Max leaned back in his chair, trying to relax his aching back. "Can you tell me what Gunther looks like? It's because nobody in the neighborhood knows of him, it's like he doesn't even exist."

The kid pictured the horrible man who was helping Griffin with all the horrible things that happened. Max can see the kid shivering in fright of the image of the man in his mind, he can't possibly imagine the pain the kid was going through. And it shatters his heart on how he managed to survive it all.

"Brown eyes, black hair, big nose." The kid can see the busy detective hurriedly writing in his notes. "His shoulders are hella wide, his height is probably 6'1". A little fat, he has a stubble, small freckles, and a messy undercut."

Max tried to picture the man, but all he can see is a tall, fat man with a knife, ready to kill more children than he possibly can. Max shook the terrible thought away from his stressed brain. This Gunther fellow must be disguising himself as an accountant at work right now, or a busy business man sipping a hot capuccino in a local coffee shop, blending in to our everyday life. Max can't handle the possibility of him bumping himself with this psychopath in a street.

"Alright. I think we're ready, shall we start?" Max inhaled the clean air around him, the smell of rubber and isopropyl alcohol seeping through his nose. This is exactly why I hate hospitals. "Tell me everything, spare no details. We need to get justice for you and your friends." Max smiled encouragingly, he can't turn back now.

"Okay, I think I'm ready. But beware, this is not a pleasant story you can really remove from your head. Everything bad that happened back there," The kid shivered a little. "I want those sick bastards in jail. And I want it now."

***

The aftermath of everything is done and explained! The kid who survived will be named soon! I just want his identity kept for now! I will update this story every week so please be patient! This story is so hard to put into words. Next chapter will finally show what happened in that house.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote!!!