After the four finished their breakfast Blue tried to make more small talk. "Ready?"
"For?" Robin asked raising his eyebrow.
"Aren't you gonna go to Riverside Park?" Blue responded pulling on Gary's arm. "We're going."
"We?" Gary added looking confused. "We?"
"I never said I was going." Robin said. "I said I'll think about it but I never confirmed anything. I know Sally is going."
"Can you at least take us there?" Blue asked. She pouted.
"I know this is a trap. I'm not stupid." Robin said.
"Come on, just take us there, and do nothing. You don't have to enter, you'll just be our ride." Blue said.
"No. No. And no." Robin said. "Please stop. Can't we just hangout. Maybe play some video games? Like old times?" Robin suggested.
Blue groaned. Then groaned again. Then groaned even louder.
"Oh my god. I can't believe you're doing this." Robin said. He looked at Gary. "How do you put with this?"
"I... I don't know." Gary said trying so hard not to yell in frustration. "All I know is that she is not gonna stop."
"Yeah, I know. Hanged out with her for *far* too long." Robin looked around, looking for the nearest exit. "Blue, you wanted to eat here at this 'diner' and now you want me to drive you to an abandoned park knowing that I don't want to go."
"Oh my god. Fine. Let's just hang out at your place." Blue said defeated. "You suck."
Robin chuckled, rolling his eyes. "I still have our old Banjo-Kazooie file that hasn't been competed since 1999."
"Get the hell out!" Blue said excitedly. "Really? Jesus Christ, we still haven't beaten that?"
"Excuse me Robin but I have to go." Sally said getting up from her seat. "I have to do some errands. I'm gonna scrap the whole Riverside Park thing." she lied, she looked over at Blue and Gary and gave a friendly smile. "It was nice meeting you two. Good luck with your writing career."
Blue got up from her seat. "Why leave so early?" she asked. "Whose gonna pay for the check?" Blue laughed at her own joke.
"This is why I consider you painfully unfunny." Robin said cringing after what Blue said.
Blue flipped Robin off. "It was nice meeting you too. Who knew Robin was capable of making friends on his own." she said laughing. Robin wasn't amused. "Stay safe Sally."
Sally chuckled. "I'll see you later hopefully."
"Bye." Gary said.
"Bye Glenn." Sally walked off. She doubled checked her pockets to make sure she wasn't missing anything important. She pushed the door opened and walked away. "What an awful breakfast." she thought. "Should I go? This is a stupid idea." She grabbed her camera from her bag and ultimately decided to go to Riverside Park. "The day is still nice so there probably won't be anything unusual."
***
After a twenty minute walk Sally was there facing the metal fence that barricaded the park from the rest of society. The gray trees with it's olive green leaves felt unnatural to her.
"Just walk in, maybe take some pictures for your scrapbook and get out." Sally told herself. She climbed over the metal fence and began walking further inside the park. She turned on her camera and began looking for a decent area to take a good landscape photograph.
"Jesus Christ, this park is horrid." She said frustrated. "What the Hell is this?" The trees were old almost dead, the grass was up to her knees, and anything that remained was completely destroyed. Benches, swings, even mini playgrounds were demolished and were covered with plants of every kind, almost as if nature was taking back what was theirs. Riverside Park was dead silent, it felt like it was a different reality, Sally couldn't hear the sounds of the cars passing bye, or even the wind. All she was able to hear was her breathing and the steps of her footsteps.
"Okay, this is stupid." She said. "I could of sworn I heard that baby cry perfectly the other day. What the Hell is this nonsense?" she continued her trail alongside the park's flowing river. It was relaxing to her, the gentle sounds of the water flowing the opposite way was strangely therapeutic. After a couple of minutes she sat down on a big flat rock alongside the riverbank to rest, she took out her Gatorade and took a sip. Even though she was relaxed it felt as if though something was wrong. She was relaxed in an area where the water was cover in algae, the trees were as gray as fossils, and the sky was beginning to turn cloudy almost as if it was at the verge of a storm. She grabbed her camera and took a picture of the dead empty park. "Wow, this is pretty bad." She said taking another sip of her Gatorade. She attempted once more with no luck. "This is garbage, no filters could make this any better,"
She closed her eyes and began to meditate. In an instant she could swear she heard the sound of the same baby crying in the distance. She tried to brush it off but the sound got louder. She got up and followed the sound of it because of an off chance that a baby could be stranded in the park alone. As she walked further down the trail it seemed to her that the sounds of the baby's cries stayed the same distance away. After a minute of walking fast she gave up and came up with the conclusion that it was just someone with a baby walking in the same trail as her. However that conclusion seemed very slim. Why would anyone be walking here in the park with a baby? Sally sat down on another flat rock she found on the riverbank.
Eventually the crying seemed to just stop. It didn't fade away it just stopped abruptly. She sat on the rock for five minutes taking more poor pictures and even recording some videos on her phone. Sally closed her eyes again to meditate, that's when she heard the sounds of footsteps coming closer to her. She turned around and saw a frantic looking woman running towards her. The woman ran so quickly that it actually scared Sally half to death. Sally yelled.
The woman stopped uncomfortably close to Sally's face and began screaming at her. "HAVE YOU SEEN MY BABY!? HAVE YOU SEEN MY BABY!?"
Sally was frozen. She didn't know what to say.
"HAVE YOU SEEN MY BABY?!"
Sally calmly replied. "I heard a baby crying coming from that direction." Sally said pointing at the direction where she heard the sound of the baby's cries. "You can follow me."
The woman followed Sally. The two walked quickly down the trail where Sally heard the sounds of the baby earlier. Sally looked back to see if the lady was still keeping up with her.
"So how exactly did you lose your baby?" Sally said after some time.
The woman didn't reply.
Sally turned around and noticed that the woman was gone. Sally stopped, just ten seconds earlier the woman was right behind her. Sally yelled out for her but the only sounds she could hear was the sounds of the river. Even if the lady did leave Sally thought that she could still be able to see her walking away. She stood there thinking what could she do next. Either move on with her life and get out of the park or look for the woman and help her find her baby.
"Hello?" Sally yelled out. Sally did one more scan of the area to see if the woman was anywhere nearby. Sally then saw the woman across the river staring at her, her arms were dangling lifelessly at her side and the woman was looking at her dead in the eye, not saying anything, not moving a muscle with a blank expression. She was just standing like a statue watching her.
With no second thought Sally ran away and the woman let out an ear piercing scream. It felt like the branches of the trees were falling and the scream echoed in the dead park. Sally continued to run, her eyes were tearing up and her heart felt like it would explode out of her chest. Her legs were screaming in pain but Sally continued to run. Jumping over rocks and bushes she felt like she was running in an endless cycle. Almost as if the park was refusing her to leave. She didn't bother turning around, the thought of the woman chasing after her made her heart go up to her throat. She found the metal fence and climbed over it. She fell on the hard pavement breaking her nose.
She place her hand on her nose and felt a warm yet cold liquid pouring down. "Ow." Sally cried in pain. She got up and began to slowly walk home.