GH5 17: Where's Seth?

That night i was asleep in bed in my guest bedroom in the 19th century Victorian home, shirtless and wearing the same sweat-pants and socks i wore last night, with Copper sleeping in his puppy-basket on the floor at the foot of the bed. Despite the home being the place where Connor had vanished, we all decided to sleep in the house again. After all, Connor had disappeared because someone had taken him, it wasn't the house's fault. Houses didn't make people vanish. Adam had gone into town to the police station and given the cops a picture of Connor earlier today. According the Adam, they had printed up multiple missing person posters of Connor, then headed out and started driving around town to put up the posters for people to see.

Seth had called his Mom on his cellphone and asked her if it was okay for him to sleep over at the Dales tonight, and she said yes.

Adriana had left shortly after having dinner with the others.

As i laid in bed asleep, i was having another dream.
/

In the dream, Seth was in the bathroom by the sink, with it on, wearing some of Connor's sleep-clothes, which were that of a white sleeveless undershirt, white shorts that went down to his knees, and black flip-flops. He squirted soap out of the bottle and on his hand, rubbed his hands together, soaping them up, and then placed them under the running faucet, and began to wash the soap off.

As he was doing this, the bathtub faucet came on and began filling the tub.

Noticing this, Seth quickly turned finished washing his hands, turned off the sink faucet, dried his hands with a rag resting on the counter, and then turned and went over to the bathtub and watched as it's faucet filled it with water. Then once it was full enough, the faucet turned itself off.

Seth thought it was weird. What kind of bathtub could just turn itself on automatically like that? Certainly not one that was made back in the western times. The people back then didn't even have technology, much less devices that operated themselves.

The tub faucet then turned back on and began filling it some more. As it did, the water coming out of the faucet became a black and began turning the water in the tub black until it wasn't clear anymore.

Horrified by the scene playing out before him, Seth slowly backed away from the tub a few feet.

The black water then took the shape of a Dragon as it rose out of the tub, making Seth's brown eyes widen at the sight. The brown-haired boy watched as the black Dragon-shaped liquid turned it's attention towards him, making his eyes widen even more.

After a moment of silence of staring at each other for what felt like an eternity, the Dragon-shaped black liquid lunged forward at Seth.

Seth turned to run for the door, but the Dragon-shaped black liquid wrapped itself around him like it was a snake and quickly pulled him into the tub where it returned to it's flat form, with Seth being under the black surface.

The 9-year old boy surfaced, gasping for air, then his arms flailed around on the brim of the tub as he tried to grab ahold of if, only to be dragged back under the black substance. After a few more minutes, Seth surfaced, gasping for air again.

Then suddenly, without warning, the drain began to suck down the black water.

Seth felt himself being pulled towards the drain and attempted to get out of the tub, but couldn't, for the suction was too strong. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as he was pulled towards the drain. "AAAHHH!" He screamed. "AAAAHHHH!" He screamed some more as he pulled towards the drain. "AAAAAAAAHHH!" He screamed as he began spinning around in circles before being sucked down up to his neck. "Get me out of here!" The 9-year old shouted before his head was sucked down the drain. "(Gurgling) AAAAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed gurglingly beneath the surface of the remaining black water where the drain was, making it bubble, followed by all the black remaining black water being sucked down the drain.

/

I gasped as my eyes shot open. "NO, STOP! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I screamed as i shot up in bed, sweating all over before i started panting. I looked around and realized i was in my guest bedroom of the Dales' 19th century Victorian home. My screaming also awoke Copper. I looked at the electric clock on my night-stand and saw that it was 12:00 AM. "(Sighs)" I sighed with relief. "It was just a dream." I said as i ran my right hand through my wheat brown hair.

"AAAAHHHH!" Came the screaming voice of Seth.

"Seth?" I asked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" The voice of Seth screamed again.

"SETH!" I screamed as i pushed back the covers, followed by rushing out of bed and heading towards the door, with Copper getting out of his puppy-basket and running over to me. I quickly opened the door and we both ran out and made our way to the bathroom door where i opened it, followed by us rushing in over to the tub to try to see what was happening.

Nothing.

No sign of the black water.

And...no sign of Seth.

We ran back over to the door where i turned the lights off, then we ran out of the bathroom and rushed into Connor's room where Seth was suppose to be sleeping for the night, with permission from Adam and Chelsea. I opened the bedroom door and we rushed inside the bedroom, only to find that Seth wasn't there either. The covers on the bed were pushed back and it was empty. Could he have gone somewhere? I then noticed Seth's gray 2001 flip-cellphone resting on the night-stand by the bed.

"Seth?! Seth?!" I called as i looked around the room for the 9-year old. But there was no trace of him. "SETH!" I screamed.

"Keegan?!" Came the voice of my Dad from outside the room. He and everyone else then rushed inside the room. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"It's Seth, he's...he's gone." I answered.

"Gone? What do you mean he's gone? Gone where?" Aunt Candace asked.

"Like i said, he's...gone. He's disappeared." I answered. "I woke up, i heard him screaming, i came in here with Copper to check on Seth and...nothin'. No sign of him anywhere." I explained. I couldn't tell them that i checked the bathroom first. Because then i'd have to explain to them how i knew that Seth was in the bathroom. And i didn't want them all looking at me like i was some kind of weirdo.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna split up, look around the house for Seth, and there we're gonna re-group back here in Connor's room." Adam said.

"Sounds like a plan." Isaac said.

"Okay, everyone, let's move out." Chelsea.

"Right." Said Emma and Layla.

We all rushed out of the bedroom and split to look for Seth. Everyone else went in different parts of the house while Copper and i rushed down the stairs, into the foyer, up to the front door where i unlocked and opened it, and we exited the home and saw Seth's bike was still parked outside the house.

"SETH! SETH! SEEEEEEEEETH!" I screamed his name, but didn't get an answer. His cellphone was still in Connor's bedroom...his bike was still here...but he wasn't here. No way would he leave without those two things, much less this late at night. Which only meant one thing: Seth did not leave on his own free will.

I then rushed back into the house with Copper, closed and locked the door before we began searching the house for Seth.
...

Later, we had all re-group in Connor's room after searching the whole house for Seth, to no avail.

"Well, we've looked all over the house and we can't find him." Adam said.

"You're positive?" I asked.

"Yeah. Chelsea, Emma and i checked upstairs." Adam said.

"Candace, Layla, Isaac and i checked downstairs." Dad added.

"And Copper and i checked outside. His bike is still parked out there." I stated.

"So if Seth's not anywhere in the house and he's not outside, then...where is he?" Chelsea asked.

The gang was then startled by the ringing of Seth's gray 2001 flip-cellphone on the night-stand. Someone was calling.

"Do we answer it?" Isaac asked.

"No." I said.

Emma rushed over to the phone, opened it, and answered it. "Hello? Dale residence."

"Yeah, i know who's residence this is. Who is this?" Came the voice of Seth's Mom on the phone.

"Oh, hi. Hi, Miss Truman. This is Emma. Connor's sister."

"Why do you have my son's phone? Why didn't he answer it?" Miss Truman asked.

"Uh...may i ask why you're calling?" Emma asked.

"I'm just calling to check on Seth and make sure he's alright." Miss Truman answered.

"So he's not with you?" Emma asked.

"Of course not. Why would he be with me when he's over at your place?" Miss Truman said.

"Uh...it's just that...uh...(Sighs) Miss Truman...i think you better get over here right away." Emma said.
...

Police cars were parked outside the home along with Seth's Mom's red car. Seth's Mom, Sandra Truman, had arrived at the house before the police did, wearing her robe, pajamas and house-shoes. The sheriff and the cops were in the living-room, questioning the grown-ups while Isaac, Emma, Copper and i waited upstairs in Isaac's guest bedroom, instructed by the cops, while they questioned the grown-ups and searched the house and it's property for Seth. But the police never found him. Nobody could find any sign of what happened to Seth. I simply told the police that i woke up at 12:00-midnight to check on him in Connor's room...and he wasn't there. His phone was on the night-stand by the bed, so we couldn't locate him that way either. And when Copper and i checked outside, his bike was also there. Then his Mom called, wanting to speak to him and she confirmed he wasn't with her, so...we were concerned and that's why we called the police.

"Why are they even making us wait in here? Shouldn't they have this entire place roped off or something?" Isaac asked, standing up along with me and Copper.

"Why would they bother? He's just one more missing kid, right?" Emma said, sitting on the bed, referring to Seth.

"I guess this is what it takes for the cops to finally take this situation seriously. Second time's the charm. At least in this case anyway." Isaac said.

"Some charm." I said as i went over to the window and looked out at the eerie moor, which the cops had clearly not searched. "Why didn't they search there?"

"Where?" Isaac asked.

"They've searched the whole house and property, but not the moor." I said before i turned to face the others. "Why would they search the house and property and not the moor?"

"Well...i mean, the moor is a dangerous place to search without caution and protection, right?" Isaac said.

"Exactly." I said. "So why not search there too? And there's something else. Since Connor's disappearance, we've searched everywhere on the property for him. Everywhere but...one place. The moor."

"You're not making sense, Keegan. The moor is where one would hide someone if they wanted to dispose of their body." Emma said. "Oh, my gosh. Did i just say that out loud?" She asked, realizing what she said.

"Yes, you did." Isaac said.

Hearing Emma speak that way made my mind go from the moor to something else. "Emma...what time is it?"

"It's 1:00 AM, why?" Emma said.

"No reason. Just asking." I said. But i couldn't have been more dishonest. Truth be known, there was a reason behind me wanting to know what time it was. 11:00 o'clock at night when Connor went missing the other night, and it was now 1:00 AM. It had been 25 hours since he had vanished. 25. It had now been a whole day since Connor disappeared. When a kid went missing and if that kid hadn't been found within 24 hours, the chances of that kid being found alive or at all were highly unlikely. He could just see the future events regarding Connor and Seth's disappearance. the cases would be left open and the police would start losing interest after realizing that there was not a single clue to be found. The weirdest thing of all was that...there was no sign of forced entry in the house, just like it was with the vanishing of Connor. As if both he and Seth had simply vanished into thin air or ceased to exist.

But i know the truth. I know what happened to Connor and Seth...but i couldn't tell anyone. Not even the Dales themselves. That creep living in the walls took those boys. In spite of these dreadful, dark and eerie feelings i was having, i didn't believe or accept that the worst had happened. Connor and Seth weren't dead...but with these new thoughts i was having...it sure felt that way.

GOOSEPUPS

#################################################################################################

Please review.