Chapter 3

The flight of stairs she had to take seemed to make it worse. Kaitlin kept glancing at her wristwatch as she paced up the sloppy steps. She would have gone out herself to search for her son. She knew that he'll come back safely, but somehow, she felt something would go wrong. Her pacing steps heightened to little runs. She didn't know where to go as she took her run to and fro across the stairs, three at once. It was a little distraction for her, which was okay.

She stopped on the fifth turn on the stairs and veered around towards her buzzing phone. She had dropped it on the verandah seat after she spoke to Johnny and confirmed he was on his way back. The buzzing sound came with a different apprehension. She quickly reached for the phone and, without checking who the caller was, swiped across to the receiver button.

"Johnny, it’s taking more time than expected. Where are you?"

The line only made eerie sounds yet no response came. She pulled the phone away from her