After the meeting finished.
I'm currently walking towards the school music theatre to have one final practice with Nicole's Vocals club and the rest of the Instrumentals club.
The whole practice, Nicole was very serious.
We would still bicker here and there, but she mostly focuses on the practice.
It seems that she's trying to distract herself.
I was planning on bringing her to Ozzy, this coming Friday.
But with so much happening right now, I postponed it in the meantime.
----------------------
The practice ended peacefully and tomorrow we'd all be flying to France to perform in front of many live audiences.
I heard that it won't be much of a contest with Nicole being the main vocalist so I'm starting to have expectations right now.
Nonetheless, I still have appointments to attend to right now.
So after Nicole and I went home together and going our sepate paths, I went directly to the reserved basketball court where all the men in the Gardening club will be having practice.
This practice would be held until the day before the championship, with me being excempted tomorrow.
Nevertheless, after the practice I then went to work and left without Cheryl to go straight at Central City.
------------------------
Two hours past midnight, and I finally found Darren in Central city.
"Thought I was gonna freeze to death out here Ocho. Where the fuck have you been."
"Workin-"
"-I wasn't really asking! Now, before we proceed. This is the list and map of all the serial killings that had been happening lately."
Darren showed me the map and list before continuing.
"Kyle also agreed to help us by sending someone he thought 'would be of use' to us. But since he's still not here and I dont wanna stand here like a bitch for a little longer. Let's get to him already."
Darren said as he gestured for me to enter the police car he's using.
And after driving down for half an hour, we finally reached our destination.
Darren stopped the car and said.
"This place, is the den of the Darama Drug Cartel. Now I normally I don't give a shit about drugs but-"
"This place reeks of bloodlust."
"I was gonna say hella creepy and shit."
In front of us is the pathless entrance of a darkwood forest filled with thousands of large to gigantic trees.
My nose, ears, eyes, and instincts are all simultaneously receiving threatening signals.
Such as the thick stench of blood not far from here, and various crying voices along with it.
Needless to say, this place is bad news.
"Come on man. Kyle said our guy's always at the heart of this forest."
Ignorance really is, such a bliss.
We travelled by foot for a good ten minutes before seeing a cabin in the middle of the woods.
And as we approached the door of the cabin, intending to knock on it, someone abruptly opened the door from the inside.
"Oh. You guys must be Kyle's friend?"
An old, short, thin, and smiling man greeted us.
He immediately closed the door as soon as he opened it to come outside. But not before I heard a very low voice of cry for help inside.
"Its you two, right?"
"Uhh yeah. Umm, my friend would be the one doing the talking, so....."
"Kyle said you could help us with our case."
"Of course. You two are looking for leads for a murder case right? I don't if this would be much of help, but."
The old man paused and took out a phone with a pink,glittery, and cute case to show us something.
He then dialed a number and waited for the other line to answer.
"Hello? Yeah I know, its me. Yup...I'm actually gonna refer some people to you...No, I'm sending them to you now. Yeah. Sure."
After ending the call, the old man looked back at us.
"Since I owe mister Kyle big time, I'll consider this much trouble for me as a gift to to you folks.
Now do you two have a pen perhaps?"
I replied.
"We could use our phone's notepad."
"Ah right. Young ones and their techno stuffs."
I handed the old man my phone and let him type down the things we're gonna need, like the address of the person we're going to next, and his number.
"Now this man does not have that great of a patience, but if you both really wanna find a lead then this one's gonna be a great help. Oh, and by the way."
The man paused to look both me and Darren in the eyes.
"Never look at him in the eyes."
Then the old man handed me back my phone.
"His known as 'The Ripper' in our little community, and if he asks for confirmation, just tell him 'the boogieman' sent us."
And with that said, we quickly left the premises as Darren and I could not handle the atmosphere anymore.
As a battle hardened agent, I couldn't believe how disturbed I was feeling.
The feeling was still there even after we got back inside the car and the road.
After finally reaching the freeway, Darren suddenly stopped on the side of the road and went out the car.
He then proceeded to vomit what seems to be everything he ate the day before, until the present.
After calming down, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and looked at me groggily.
I said
"You felt it too right?"
"Felt it? Fuck me. It was like drinking from a bucket filled with laundry water and 3 inch nails. I don't even know nor can I remember why the fuck Im feeling shitty right now."
Darren, with his eyes filled with fear, paused and gulped before continuing.
"That place. Something's very fucked up about that place."
"Yeah.... But whatever it was, I don't plan on going back there again."
Maybe not yet.
Darren and I took a small cigarette break to fully calm down our nerves.
And after a few Huff's and puffs.
Darren agreed to let me, a civilian, drive the police car to our destination for the rest of the trip, so that he could rest before possibly encountering something disturbing again.
The night continues.