Creak.
The Stafford house creaked. It was tired and exhausted. The two members of the house sat, there on the couch, chewing on snacks and moping, understandably, about their lost boy. No progress had been made in any direction, and it seemed like they were never going to see him again.
Brrrring brrrriing!
The phone went off the hook, all of a sudden, at 10am on a random Tuesday. Heidi picked it up, and was surprised to hear what the voice said on the other end.
A croaky yet still clear, young voice called out: "Hello. I have information. I can't tell you much but we are being held… at the nearby abandoned factory, the sherbet one on Maplesweet Avenue… help us. Please, don't get the police involved, they can't do anything! We all need you to come… Your son. Your son is here amongst us! Please!"
Heidi's eyes widened. She had no reason to trust this person… and to not bring the police? She was worried. It sounded like a prank call, or something just as sick. It wasn't anything new to them, they'd heard it a thousand times before. She shoved the phone down and vented about it to her husband, Jay, as she shoved herself on the couch.
"Another prank call. Some young sounding voice, croaky. Demanded we go to the factory. No police. Load of old rubbish." She tottered out, near-monotonously, sighing.
Jay looked hopeful, though; "Really? I mean, all the other prank calls have been from clearly grown men pretending to be the kidnappers. You say this was from someone that sounded like a child?"
"Yes. It was definitely a child, unless they were using a voice changer or something. No adult with a developed voice box could fake that kind of voice." Heidi looked downtrodden, speaking as if she was a broken record, dashing hopes and destroying potential of finding her son ever again.
Jay's phone buzzed. It was a text. Looking curious, he opened it. The number wasn't one he recognized, but there was surely no harm in taking a look at what was sent… right?
The sender had attached an image. The image was of Ashleigh, one of the pictures from the cloud that went missing. Below, it stated the simple and clear message. "No police. They aren't here. I found this on their computer. Proof maybe? The factory. Please help."
Jay stood up. He dragged his wife to the front door almost immediately, before she snapped back.
"Excuse me, what the hell are you doing?!" she screeched, rightfully, back at her husband who had suddenly gone wild.
"I have proof. It's Ashleigh and at least one other kid. We need to go, now!" proclaimed Jay, out of breath and on the verge of tears already.
"But… we can't just go without the police!" Heidi stuttered, breathing heavily too.
"And what are the police going to do?!", spitted out Jay, "Do nothing again? They failed us for months. What else are we going to do with our lives? If it's false and we die… I don't care. I'm so sorry. I just want to see our son again."
Heidi stepped back. What Jay was saying was clearly absurd, and that of someone who was not all there, but she couldn't help but concede. She, too, wanted to see her son.
"Okay. But I'm taking a knife and a pan. And I'm recording everything on my phone, locally this time. No cloud storage." She breathed a sigh, before arming herself and driving off with her husband to the abandoned sherbet factory.
The door to the factory creaked in much the same way as the Stafford residence. It, too, was tired. Footsteps echoed throughout the halls as the duo, desperate to see their son again, walked slowly around. The crusted, beige walls belied the original use of the place, echoing sound off effortlessly. The seconds ticked by until, eventually, Heidi heard something.
"Help!"
It was the same voice as on the phone, and it was coming from a nearby supply closet. She ran towards it, as her husband lagged behind. Opening the door wide and entering inside, the steel frame slowly crawled shut behind her. In the dark, she couldn't see anything. She searched the wall for a light before remembering she had her phone on her and it was recording, the camera popping out of her shirt pocket.
With the flick of her phones torch, she could see it. A child, lying on the ground. But it was a strange child… it was green. Perhaps it was experimented on? Before she could ponder this, her husband followed her in, the door squeaking shut in much the same way as before.
"Heidi?" Jay asked aloud.
"No, I don't know what it is." Heidi stuttered.
"But we do." Spoke another, unfamiliar voice. The pair spotted a claw, giant and green, lurch around the boxes on the left side. Then another claw. And then the same on the other side of the room. Two sets of claws, two monsters. Two giant, green, fat monsters approached them, grinning from side to side.
"I doubt we'll fit… but we can try." screeched one of the green figures with a male voice, clearly loving every second of it. The phone dropped to the floor with a crunch and a crack as the same could be said of Jay and Heidi. Their bodies slumped to the floor as those same claws swung at their foreheads, killing them instantly. The poor couple never did meet their child again.
But the Slitheen couple would do it for them… in a way.