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CHAPTER TWO

  The spare room was locked as it always was, and no matter how hard I banged my fists on that door, there was no reply. I stopped and put my ear carefully against the solid wood to check for any sounds but there was nothing. Just silence. Trying to kick the door down, I didn't even leave a single mark. I was just a slight girl with little strength, after all.

  It was then that our neighbours, Dorothy and June, came rushing in.

  “Oh my dear, my dear! Whatever is the matter? What is all this banging about?” yelled one of the sisters as they tried to calm me down.

  “It's mother,” I said, “she's... she's disappeared. She's always here. I don't know what's happening. There's no answer at the door. Something's wrong,” I sobbed.

  Just at that moment, the sisters' black cat wandered in behind them. It immediately began purring at my feet and rubbed itself against my legs. It had never set foot in our apartment before and it was strange that it did so then.

  It jumped up so that it balanced on its hind legs and leaned against me. I momentarily forgot all about the commotion that I had caused and leaned forward to pick it up, cuddling it while it continued to purr. “That's strange,” said June, “she's usually terrified of people.” The cat was clearly not terrified of me. It was the first time I had ever stroked an animal and I felt a strange affinity with it. It was a wonderful feeling as it rubbed its head against my neck. Looking into her deep, warm eyes, for a moment I felt a strange sensation within me. It felt as though I was being loved. I didn't want to lose the feeling so I sat down on the floor and stroked her soft fur, smiling.

  “I'm going to call the police,” one of the sisters said as the other tried to coax me off the floor. I didn't feel myself, for some reason. A strange trance-like state came over me.

  “Come now, dear. Come and sit on the sofa. You'll catch your death on those cold floor tiles.”

  I did as I was told and followed her to our uncomfortable hard red leather sofa, where we waited until the police arrived. The cat sat on my lap and the two sisters sat on either side of me.

  “We know that your mother leads a strict routine, my dear, so to hear you banging on the door like that had us worried,” said June.

  “We've never known anything ever happen to you like this so we thought we'd better come over straight away and find out what's going on,” added Dorothy as she gently patted my hand with her own wrinkled, yet perfectly manicured, fingers.

  My calm moments with the cat were cut short by the arrival of two young uniformed male police officers, followed by a third woman. The cat jumped out of my arms like a shot. She was clearly spooked by the presence of strangers and had vanished from our flat, presumably to return to the safety of her home. My calm feeling faded the moment she was gone.

  The female police officer was very kind and polite and asked me a few questions about myself and my parents. When had I last seen them? Where did they work? Was it common for them to leave without telling me? Did they have mobile phones? I didn't even know the answer to the last question, although if they did, I never saw or heard them. Technology wasn't a word I heard used in our home. Not that there were ever many words used at all.

  More questions were asked of me and so I answered them as best as I could before the other two police officers managed to literally knock the door down. I wasn't prepared for what I saw and I don't think they were either. There was almost nothing. Just a simple room, painted black – the floors, ceiling and walls all painted black. There were no chairs, no desks, nothing. The only things to be seen in the room were a small black shelf which contained two glass vials. One was filled with a thick deep red liquid and the other contained what appeared to be something from the insides of an animal – I couldn't identify it, but it looked disgusting. A pang of fear shot through me. Fear for my parents' safety.

  “Do you have any idea what substance this is, Miss?” asked one of the police officers.

  I shook my head. “I've never been in here before.”

  The two men gave each other a sideways glance that was way too obvious for me not to have seen.

  “Right then, Miss, would you like to wait outside while we gather some of this evidence together?” said the first officer as the other led me out of the black room.

  Snippets of conversation could be heard as I waited for them to finish.

  “This is definitely blood. What on earth do you think has been going on in here then, Pete?”

  “Beats me, Dave. I tell you one thing though, it's weird, whatever it is. It's almost like something out of a horror film. Here... look at this.”

  The female officer appeared by my side and cleared her throat. The conversation in the black room suddenly became quieter.

  “Don't worry, Lilly. We'll get to the bottom of this,” she said, smiling. “We'll find your mum and dad.”

  After about half an hour, the officers appeared from the room, carrying the vials in two clear plastic bags.

  “Okay, Constable Madley, we've all the evidence now. We'll take them to the lab for tests,” said the taller of the two.

  He tipped his hat to me and smiled before carrying everything out of the flat.

  Following behind, the other one stopped in front of me and crouched down, looking right into my eyes. His dark brown eyes and the soft laughter lines around his mouth gave him a look of kindness. I hadn't noticed when they'd first arrived. “Lilly, we'll be in touch as soon as we have any information as to the whereabouts of your parents. Don't worry. We'll find them.” He stood up then and patted Constable Madley on the back. They were clearly friends as well as colleagues. He smiled at her, “Thank you, Constable Madley. We'll see you back at the station.”