Down Where

On the rooftop of her house, Violet was patching a few holes for her father while he was at work.  It was a clear, quiet summer afternoon, there was virtually no other noises besides a few chirping birds and a couple dogs barking.  As Violet started hammering she heard a faint mumbled whisper, she stopped and rapidly looked around but remembering she was on her roof she brushed it off. Again, she started hammering and then she heard it "....please...look...down...here..". Violet carefully walked to the edge of the roof, kneeled and looked down at her lawn but saw no one. She stood up and looked around her house but there was nobody around. Confused Violet tried to see if any of her neighbors were home however there were no cars or people anywhere in sight. Assuming that she was just hearing things Violet went back to fixing the holes, as she worked across the roof she could hear the mumbled whispers once or twice but she ignored it until she came to a hole right in front of her chimney. As Violet pulled off a roof shingle, she heard it loudly "....please...look...down...here". Violet stunned by the voice, looks at the only other place where there could possibly be someone talking from .... the chimney. As Violet slowly made her way to the chimneys opening, she grabbed  both sides with each hand and very cautiously peered over the top. Her eyes searching for any type of movement or sign of life yet she sees nothings, as she begins to move away the voice speaks out once more "....please...look..down...here". Violet snaps her head back to the chimney only this time she immediately locks eyes with an old man. The man was shriveled up in the chimney, he looked as if he was in a hospital gown...covered in dry blood, soot and bird shit. Violet in shock and disbelief stays still and silent as the man weakly lifts his arm up towards her. Shaking uncontrollably, the man says "..reach..out..for..me", unable to wrap her head around the situation entirely that this was in fact reality Violet was frozen. Suddenly a car starts honking obnoxiously as it pulls up and blocks Violets driveway, looking in the direction of the noise she sees a blacked out Tahoe. As she looks to see if she can recognize the car, she aimlessly puts her hand in the chimney reaching for the man. Not feeling anything, Violet looks back down the chimney and the man was no longer there, in fact she can see clear down into the fireplace. Confused more than ever Violet tries to understand what has just happened, she hears two car doors slam as she looks back towards her driveway she sees 2 men walking to her front door...

“Violet is your father home?”

She edged to the ledge and just stared oddly at the men, they looked as if they worked for the Men in Black. One man stepped forward and spoke again in a deep raspy voice,

“Miss we have some business to speak about with your father, will he be back shortly??”

 Violet  wasn’t sure who these men were and why they needed to speak with her father? If they actually knew her father, they would’ve known just to call his cellphone, skeptical she lied,

“It’s just my mother and I, she’s at the grocery store right now but I could leave a message if you’d like.”

The men look to each other and start to whisper amongst themselves, the same man stepped forward and spoke.

“Violet, I would like to know if anyone has made any phone calls from this house recently?”

“No, no one….I thought you said you were looking for my dad?”

The other man shook his head, adjusted his tie and tightened it. He walked to the edge of the front steps, stopped, and reached his hand up to Violet. Violet just looked on confused, she looked down at the mans hand and there was something in it.

“Okay…. You can just leave your card in the mailbox and when my mom comes back I’ll tell her that… Uh two gentlemen from …..”

The man reeled his arm back down, and stepped back with the other man. They stood there awkwardly, seemingly unsure of what to do or say next to Violet. She saw this right away and decided to get rid of these guys before her dad came back, she had a bad feeling about this entire situation.

“Alrighty then, well as you can see I have housework to do. I don’t have time to have staring contests with old men. So I bid you a farewell and again, just leave your card in the mailbox and someone will get back to you. BYEEE!”

Violet hopped up and walked to the opposite side of the roof, she tried to get out of their view so she hid behind the chimney. After a few minutes, she heard the car drive off. As she stood up, she tried to imagine why the Men in Black were looking for her dad and who used the phone? Violet started to ponder until she tried to look down at the chimney and remembered what had been going on prior. She was shocked, she couldn’t believe she had forgotten…her father had filled the chimney years ago when the weight of the snow buckled the roof crashing into the side of the chimney. She fell to her knees, she was losing her mind. What the actual fuck was going on, trying to wrap her head around it all she felt was a hand resting gently upon her shoulder, she stopped breathing and slowly turned her head and there was the old man standing behind her, smiling, he spoke

“Violet, my name is Mr.W R Dean I have something to …”

Violets eyes bulging out of her head, she as so scared she jumped up so quickly she lost her balance and fell of the roof.

Violet opens her eyes to see the blue sky and  the roof of her house above her head. As she laid on the ground, sprawled out she couldn’t find herself to even think or react to the fact that she had just fallen off the roof, the only thing she could feel was her head pounding. Nervous that she hurt herself, Violet slowly sits up, she feels no pain anywhere but her head was excruciating. Violet got up off the ground and headed towards her backdoor. Violet’s father returned home 5 minutes later, he reached the edge of his driveway, looking up on the roof for any sign of his daughter and when he saw none, he started calling out for her,

“Violet! Violet!

He starts to walk into his house, as he steps through the front door, he hears nothing which causes him to worry. Thinking the worst, he runs towards the backyard as he runs past the dining room he sees something out the corner of his eye. Retracting his steps, he whips his neck in the room to see Violet sitting there at the table. She looked very distraught and she had a ice pack up against her left temple. He rushed to her, she put her hand up motioning his to stop

“Why didn’t you answer me? What happened?’

“Okay, I am NOT lying nor am I on any kind of drugs….”

Violet continues to tell her father everything that had happened to her leading up to right now.

Her father just sits there dumbfounded, unsure of what to say he just looks oddly at Violet. Starting to get annoyed that she wasn’t being taken serious, Violet yelled at her father even though it hurt her head more by raising her voice.

“WHY WOULD I LIE ABOUT ANY OF THAT?!?!? HELLOOOO!?!? I NEED YOU TO TAKE ME SERIOUS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT IS NOT FUNNY!”

After she yelled, her squished her face in pain before slamming her head on the table. THUMP

Violets father reached out to his daughter, and spoke

“Honey, listen to me rationally nothing you said made sense. I think you hit you’re head terribly when you fell off the roof… Vi, there is no way possible that you could’ve seen anyone in the chimney because it’s filled and not for anything what did you expect to reach out to, from the top when the man would’ve been on the bottom or was the man floating? I mean it just does not make sense…”

Violet snapped back,

“I don’t know, I don’t know what I saw or how I planned on getting him out, I don’t know dad! All I know is I SAW someone, heard someone, FELT someone and then two creepy fucktards came asking about you! The guy said someone called from the house dad but it wasn’t me, and if Mr. Dean called…”

“Violet….. How do you know that name?”

Violet’s father jumped back, this time he looked a if he had seen an ghost. Violet was thrown back by her fathers reaction to the old man’s name.

“That was the man who I saw in the chimney…”

Violet’s father runs outside, jumps into his car and frantically takes out his cell phone to call someone,

“Hello? Maria, I don’t know how but Violet knows about Walt! She said she saw him, HOW COULD THAT BE?!?! I thought you said you took care of him? Where did he come from and how did he get into the house?”

~ the person on the other line replied,

“Scott… I killed Walt going over 4 years now, it’ll be exactly 5 years tomorrow… What are you saying, what’s going on?”

Scott sat on the phone silent, as he faced his house in the front seat of his car, he saw Violet come out the door, he had never seen her look this way before..she looked frightened, a tear fell from his face.

“Where did you bury him?”

The line was silent, Scott screamed to her

“WHERE MARIA! WHERE?!”

“…. It was around the time you were filing your chimney and it seemed liked the best idea but…” click.