"Lance, did you really go there?" Bricx asked when he saw Lance.
He could not believe that he really went to the haunted house in that village. Who would have thought that Lance would definitely do that?
Lance bobbed his head and said, "I wanted to know if the story you told me was true or not, and I found out that it was just a fake story." He replied, laughing while sipping on the drinks that Bricx had ordered for him.
His friend's expression turned to worry. "Dude, what you did was trespassing. They might file a case if they saw you walking inside of their house," he was now preaching to his friend. Concerned for his friend's welfare. "Are you nuts? I just heard that story from the kids outside playing in front of our house. I was just joking. I should not have told you about it. Look at what you did." he added, starting to blame himself.
Lance stared at his friend. "Then... locking a human inside that house is really wrong, right?" He asked. Terror overtook Bricx's face. "Why? Did I say something wrong?" he asked again.
"What are you talking about? You saw someone in that house?" Bricx asked Lance.
Lance nodded his head. "Absolutely, a human indeed. Someone is living there and they are locking someone inside that house." he explained.
"Who?" Bricx asked, starting to get curious as to what his friend was saying. "You are not making up some stories, right? You better tell me now, or else I will kick you later." He warned Lance, thinking that he was just making up a story to scare him off.
Lance shook his head. "No, I am not lying. Too bad I did not get a photo or video of her. I sneaked in, right?" He asked his friend, making Bricx nod his head thrice. "I was about to go out after our call, but I heard some noise inside the room. Out of curiosity, I tried to find who or what that noise was from. It turns out a girl with chains on her feet." he shared.
Then silence ensued.
"Are you sure about that? She is being locked there. Did someone lock her there?" Bricx asked continuously.
Lance sipped again on his drink before nodding. "They locked her there. Why would they do that to her, especially when she is their child?" he asked.
"Did she see you? How can you say that it was their child?" Bricx asked back.
"We talked―no, I asked her, and she was only answering me by nodding or shaking her head. She could not speak and she was full of scars on her body." He shared. "You know what, she is pretty, but I do not get why she was like that and why she was in that kind of situation. I even asked her if it was her mother's doing, and she nodded her head. So I asked her again if she was being abused by her mother, but she shook her head." he added, explaining.
Sadness was visible on his friend's face.
"You pity her?" Lance asked. "You might cry if you see her in person. She is not in really good condition. You know, I saw a dog's bowl there near her. I think they are making her eat there." he added.
"That's too much. She needs help." Bricx responded.
Lance agreed. "She needs help, yes. But we can't, we can't mess with it, especially since we do not know the real story. I know it's very, very alarming, but we have to be sure. Are we clear?" he replied. "What I saw in that house is my own point-of-view. We do not know why they locked her up or what her condition was. Still, we should not touch her. We still need to know some information, so that we will not get into trouble." he added.
Bricx sighed. "I just can't stop pitying and be sad at the same time. You know, we lost our baby sister long ago. I could not bear to hear or see that kind of situation. Imagine that she is a girl in the first place. They were too hard on her." he admitted.
Years ago, when his mother gave birth to their youngest child, unfortunately, someone stole their baby sister and they have not heard of her since then. They also did a wide investigation through the CCTV they got, but they were not able to move on since they could not find any strong witnesses or evidence that could point out where they put the baby.
Since then, Bricx grew up alone with his parents. They were trying to move on and hope that someday they would be able to meet their sister again.
Lance tapped Bricx's shoulder. "I know and I understand what you are feeling right now. But on the other hand, we have to be careful with our steps before taking any action. We need to make sure about our safety too." he explained to Bricx. He was determined to help the girl in that so-called haunted house.
After they met and finished their food, they separated their ways. Bricx was on his way home, while Lance was on his way to the village.
Bricx had already told him that he should not go there alone because it was dangerous, but he was still on the way to the house to see if the girl's parents were there or not.
Lance only planned to see if there were people aside from the girl, or know if she was not really living alone.
But when he got there and surveyed the surroundings, there was no sign of people inside the house. No one came out for an hour, and he did not hear any noise from the inside. That is why he had the courage to enter the house again through the small window and headed to the room where the girl was.
He knocked on the door, making the girl look at him. "Hi, how are you?" he asked the girl.
The girl smiled upon seeing Lance and adjusted her posture while kneeling. But after that, she quickly cried out in silence and touched the knee with the wound and clotted blood.
Lance guided him. "Sit comfortably. Why do you have to kneel? Sit properly. It's okay." he told the girl, so she followed him and sat properly. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking at her new wounds on her body.
Lance thought that they definitely hit her hard just by seeing her new wounds. He could not help but get mad.
On the other hand, after the girl saw Lance, his mood changed. She quickly knelt in front of him and sobbed.
Lance panicked. "Hey, hey. You do not have to kneel. I told you to sit comfortably, right?" He told her and let her sit again. "Here, here. I brought you some food." he added and showed her the plastic bag with food.
Before they went out of the shop, he brought some food and told Bricx that it was for his sister Lizzy, so that Bricx would not find it suspicious.
The girl did not move.
"Why? Get some and eat it. I promised you that I wouldn't hurt you, right?" Lance asked, and the girl slowly nodded her head.
Lance looks at her knee with new wounds. He touched it lightly and blew softly.
"Does it still hurt?" Lance asked her. She was silently staring at Lance. She raised her hand and brought it closer to Lance's face. She lightly pressed against Lance's cheek. "Do I look like an illusion?" he asked, laughing. "Did you do something wrong that they made you kneel? Because of what?" he asked again.
The girl pointed to the side with the newspaper and salt, where she knelt before pointing to Lance.
"Me? because of me?" he asked, and the girl nodded her head. "They learned that someone came in. That's why they hurt you?" he asked again, confirming his thoughts.
The girl pointed at Lance's shoes before pointing to the floor.
They learned that someone had come in because of the dirt on his shoes on the floor.
"Do they know that it was me?" Lance asked again and made the girl shake her head. "That's better. They might have thought that a robber had gone inside their house. Okay, promise me not to tell your parents about me. If you keep it as a secret, then we are good." he added.
He handed the plastic bag over and pulled out its contents. It has food and drink she could eat.
"Eat this." He told the girl and opened the food for her, as well as the bottled water. "Eat slowly." he added, because the girl was eating eagerly.
Lance could not help but think whether her parents were feeding her or not.
"How many times do you eat a day?" Lance asked. "Three?" He asked again, to which she shook her head. "Two?" He asked again, which she answered with a shake.
"So they are feeding you once a day? They are killing you. No wonder why you are so thin." He couldn't stop himself from being mad, but the girl in front of him was just staring at him.
He wandered his eyes around and saw the dog's bowl again. He stood up and got it.
"Hey, do they put your food here?" he asked her.
The girl nodded and smiled innocently, which made Lance frustrated.
"You're not a dog, for Pete's sake!" he yelled out of anger. He couldn't believe how they treated the girl.
The woman flinched in fear. She moved away from Lance out of fear and lowered both her hands, about to kneel again.
Lance sighed after seeing the girl's reaction. "I will not hurt you. I am just mad." he explained. "Do you want to get away from here?" he asked the girl, but she refused. "Why? Don't you want to live better? knowing that they won't be able to hurt you anymore? You will live like me, free and without any chains on your feet." he explained.
The girl shook her head again.
"Why? I don't get you." he asked.
The woman pointed to herself before weakly hurting herself. She pointed at herself again before shaking her head and looking at the door.
"You are hurting others? So that is why they're keeping you here?" Lance asked, and she nodded weakly. "So she's imprisoned because of that. But why does she have to be chained? She can't leave this house because the door is locked... aah, in the window, but they can cover it if they really don't want their child to escape." Lance whispered weakly to himself.
"How do you hurt them?" Curious, Lance asked.
She let go of the food she was holding, closed her hand and acted like she was stabbing it. She also weakly choked herself before looking at Lance. Lance immediately backed away from her, wondering if it would kill him as well.
The woman knelt in front of Lance and tried to approach him. Lance immediately walked away and approached the door so that she could not reach him. She looked at him, crying, and tried to reach him. Out of fear, he immediately left the room and went up to the window to leave.
When he got home, he said to himself, "I have no intention of going back to that place anymore."
"Lance!"
Lance immediately turned to the familiar owner of the voice.
"Baby! I missed you."
"What are you doing here?" Lance asked as the woman tried to approach him to hug him. "We're done already, right?" He reminded.
"Come on, Lance. Are you still mad at me? I explained already, it's just a one-night stand!" his ex-girlfriend explained with a hint of annoyance.
Lance backed away. "Then? Should I be happy with that one-night stand?" Lance asked angrily. "Get out of here or else I am going to drag you out of our house." He threatened her before leaving his ex-girlfriend outside and entering the house.
"Lance, Mom is finding you. You have to call her now." his sister said when he came in.
"And why?" he asked back.
"She knows your grade already, dumb," Lizzy replied, laughing. "Anyway, about your ex-girlfriend being so friendly with me. Tell her to back off, please." she said in disgust before she left and headed upstairs.
"I have to deal with Mom first, before anything else."