Here I am Again, on my Own

Arrived back at the park a bit before midday. Cold day, but clear skies. No one around when I got there. My resolve wavered; hesitation for a moment before I worked up the nerve to enter. A familiar sense of frightful unease washed over me when I stepped through the gateway, an unease which grew tenfold when I beheld that decrepit house on the far side of the park. My mine raced as my gaze lingered on that monument of decay.

He lives there, the supposed supernatural entity by the name Dirk Rossman, the one who took my sister and her friends, so I've been told. But they're not there, I know that much, or so I think.

The longer I stared at the house, the more I felt the burning of eyes staring back at me. Felt like he was watching me, no doubt eager to begin pursuing me again. I eventually turned towards the forest. 

They're in there, and I'm gonna find them.

As I stepped forward, I thought for a moment that I heard a voice calling my name and hesitated. I couldn't ignore it entirely, but I knew for certain that there was no one else at the park. When I renewed my motion I heard it again. I stopped and turned to see if anyone was there and I really was hearing something. 

It was then I beheld the form of the man from the coffee shop. I didn't remember what he looked like at all, but the second I saw his face I instinctually knew it was him. He was approaching me with a quickness that was concerning. 

"Haven't seen you in quite a while, Liz. What have you been up to?"

"Just living my life," I replied as nonchalantly as possible. I wasn't about to tell him I couldn't remember anything from the past several years. But knowing him, he probably already knew that. "What do you want?"

"Still with the aloof coldness, I see." He chuckled to himself as he spoke. "Playing hard to get even after all the time we've spent together."

Like I would've ever spent any amount of time with him more than was necessary for my searching for my sister. But the way he said it made my certainty of that fact falter ever-so-slightly; what if it was true? What if we really had been in regular contact ever since that horrible day we spoke in the coffee shop?

"I'm just here to find my sister. Don't follow me."

He smiled a wry smile that I didn't like, but made no effort to continue to accost me. Just waved a casual goodbye and turned and walked away.