Dark Side

Chapter 16

"It was so boring! All we did was learn about the colour wheel," Maddie whines, shoving another cracker into her mouth.

"Don't you like art?" Joe asks.

"What is wrong with your face?" Maddie replies, scrunching up her nose an ignoring Joe completely.

"Maddie! What's wrong with you?! Why would you say that? Apologize!"

"Don't worry about it, she's fine," Joe mutters to me before turning to Maddie," I just got into a little fight is all."

"So...Maddie, Joe and I are gonna go upstairs. Be good and we'll come back down in a couple hours for dinner, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah," she shoos, continue to eat her crackers.

Joe lets out a laugh as we head up towards my room.

"She's a character, that one."

"Yeah, Maddie's always been known to state her mind. At least we don't have to worry about her hiding something from us."

I open the door to my room and take a seat on my bed.

"Make yourself at home."

Joe looks around in my room, picking up picture frames and smiling. Then, I see his eyes trail to the fire hat he gave me back on the day of the funeral.

"Hey, you kept it," he smiles, holding it up in his hands.

"Of course. I have to treasure what I have, right?"

He sets the hat back down and pics up another frame. Joe's face soon drops and he takes the picture wih him, sitting by my side on my bed.

"Who's this?" Joe asks, pointing to the woman I was hugging.

"Uhh..that's my mom. This was taken the same year she died...in fact, this is the last surviving picture I have of us together," I say, trying not to tear up.

"You say surviving..does that mean there were others? Were they lost in a fire or something?"

"No...Joe, my mom died in a car crash. It was a head on collision with a tree...When they recovered her body, they found three personal items on her. One was her wedding ring. Another was her cell phone. And the third was a wallet-sized family portrait. Once her body was taken out of the wreck, she was almost unrecognizeable. Blood was everywhere, and therefore the picture was coated in blood. Her cell phone was crunched and could barely turned on. Her ring was the only thing that remained in tact. Still, Eddie took those three items and held onto them until his death. In fact, they should be upstairs in the attic."

"Demi..I'm so sorry.... Do you want to go look for that picture?"

I take a glance at the picture and realize that nobody has looked for Eddie's stuff since his death. Naturally, I became curious and my impulses took over.

"Yeah. The door is right above my head, actually," I say, pointing to the ceiling.

Joe stands up on my bed and opens the latch. Extending a hand, he says,"Here, I'll lift you up."

I get up and he lifts me into the ceiling. It's pitch black and I can't see anything, but oddly there wasn't much dust. Strange, I thought, considering no one had been up here in years. I reach for the light switch and turn it on.

"Woah, Eddie had quite the collection," Joe exclaims as he stands up.

Everywhere you looked, there were boxes upon boxes all lines up. All of them were sealed up, creating perfect symmetry, except for one thing: the chest.

Amongst it all was an old, vintage chest, coated in brown leather. Ever since Eddie married my mom, it had been up here in the attic. Which is why I was surprised to see that it had not even the slightest coating of dust on it.

"This is the cleanest attic I've ever seen. You must come up here often," Joe remarks, walking around the room.

"That's the thing, we haven't set foot in here in years.." I said anxiously, bending down by the chest.

"What's that?"

"This is where Eddie kept the stuff most important to him. My mom's stuff has to be in here."

I flip the latch and open it up, expecting to find her stuff right at the top. Once I peer in, I know something's up. The whole trunk was filled with old comics.

"Hey, my dad would read those to my brother all the time! They had quite the collection."

"No, this can't be right!" I mutter with anxiety.

"Demi, calm down. Maybe you jut have to dig a little deeper."

"No, Joe, you don't understand. This case was only full of things Eddie cared most about."

"Well maybe he had a secret passion for comics," Joe suggests.

"No, Joe. He hated comics. That was the one thing my mom and him were different on. He couldn't stand them and she love them."

"Maybe he put them in there to remind him of her."

"No, Joe. He wouldn't do that."

I continue to rake through the box, looking for the three items.

"There! It's the cell phone!" Joe points.

Sure enough, the crunched up cell phone lay at the bottom, right next to her wedding band. However, the picture was gone.

"Joe, there's no picture..."

"Uhh, maybe we just gotta keep looking."

Together, we take out all the comments and flip through everything, trying to find the picture. After an hour of looking, we found nothing.

"Can you think of any other place he could have put it?"

"No, Joe. This was it."

"There's gotta be some-"

The tears stream down my face and my sadness turns to anger. I realize that the picture wasnt just missing; all evidence showed it was stolen.

"No, Joe! There isn't! I knew he kept it here and I'm sure as hell he didn't keep comics in it! Someone stole the picture, Joe!"

"And why the hell would someone want a bloody picture?"

"I don't know, you tell me. It was your brother who did it, you know."

What do you think's going on? Did Wilmer really take the picture? Let me know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to vote! 5 comments before I post the next part 💜