Five men jumped out of a black van behind a dilapidated building. It was 2am in the morning.
They had been given express instructions from their boss to make sure one of the rooms in the warehouse was completely empty.
What the shipment was, they had no idea, their business was to follow orders.
They'd parked another truck farther down the road to move whatever they were transporting easily.
The van was to avoid suspicion as a big truck driving into an uncompleted building in the wee hours of the morning was a big magnet for trouble and unnecessary questions, something they had no plans of allowing to occur.
It was a very clever idea, the boss' decision to use the building for a warehouse.
They could carry out activities discreetly and move shipment easily without being seen as the neighborhood was very very quiet, not to mention how terribly ugly and in disarray the building looked from the outside.
The agency the building was acquired through were all too happy to be getting rid of it as it had been long put up for sale and apparently, there was something about it that chased potential buyers.
Maybe there was an invincible sign that said keep off! which only the buyers could see, they didn't know...it was all too puzzling.
They jumped at the offer the Arasian company provided.
They'd sold it to some company that apparently dealt with green architecture and had plans of turning it into a model for future generational buildings of it's kind and a confidentiality agreement had been signed, which the agency didn't mind, considering the amount of money they were being offered.
The deal was completed in the twinkle of an eye and both parties went their own way, no questions asked.
The rooms that had windows faced the back of the building to avoid questions and unnecessary curiosity.
They accessed the building from the front gates and drove around to the back of the building, to the side stairs, a latest addition to the building only members of their organization who had ever been here knew of.
There they alighted because it was closer to the room they had been assigned to clear, even if they had to climb up to the third floor in order to get to it.
One after the other, moving in a single file, they moved quietly up the stairs and down, lifting sealed boxes and hefting them into the van.
They worked quietly and in no time, the van was full and four men stayed behind while one of them drove to the parked truck.
They'd gone few rounds to and fro their parked truck, when one of them suddenly decided to take a leak.
He moved away from the company of others and walked to the farthest corner of the building, and was just zipping his flyer when he caught sight of fabrics on the stones close to the water tank.
He walked towards it and lifted one of it up.
It was a black coloured pantie.
The man's eyes widened in surprise.
"What in the...." the man wondered aloud and let it drop then he brought out a little flashlight and flashed it's beams on the stone.
There was a short and even a bra.
The man switched off his torch and walked into the building, squatting midway as he walked.
He posed like a hunter stalking a prey as he walked.
Clothes on the stone and the tap being wet meant there were some trespassers lurking around and alerting the others might create noise and spook who ever that was.
He liked doing his things quietly and solo.
Judging from the size of the clothes, they were just children and probably a teenager also...well that much he could tell from the undies.
Well they were in the building and who knows, they might even know what transpired in it.
One of the fastest ways of passing information was using children. He knew this because they had a network of children spies placed in different homes whose job was just transmitting info.
Adults did tend to underestimate children and were often careless and loose around them when they spoke, making kids the perfect spies.
No one was considered harmless...well except infants and toddlers.
He had no plans of killing the children anyway, but they had to be brought along with them.
Slowly and stealthily, he checked the first set of rooms, leaving behind the one's with locked doors as he knew there was no way the children could have access to them without the keys.
He checked the empty ones.
They had nothing relating to humans in them, well except for the pile of human dump in the middle. He scrunched up his nose.
'christ...the boss had to do something seriously about these trespassers.
Their shit was really getting out of hand. Pun intended.
He climbed up to the next floor. Same thing, more piles of shit.
The man angrily closed the doors silently, wishing he could do just the opposite and slam the door.
He shook his head. He walked towards the last door on the row of rooms facing the rail less mezzanine and was about to open it when he heard his name on the staircase.
"Hey chondria what do you think you're doing" another man called, flashing a similar flashlight to the one the man code named chondria was carrying.
Chondria turned his head immediately and the beams from the flashlight landed right in his eyes, his pupils dilated, he immediately held his right hand up to cover his eyes.
"Hey put that thing down cunt" he cursed, gesturing wildly with his other hand at the man.
Well either to the man heard and just wanted to be trouble, or he didn't, Chondria left the door and headed in the direction of the stairs, know his trouble.
Only when Chondria had left the door did the man switch off the flashlight.
"You're needed out back...what do you think you're doing up here"
"I think there are intruders or trespassers in the building Royale" Chondria replied the man, his voice barely above a whisper.
"how would you know that" Royale asked him, brows raised in the darkness....not like Chondria could see his raised brows in the dark anyway.
"not would...I know there are" when Royale didn't reply, he added "there are undies out back"
Royal laughed at me statement then he hit him at the back of his head.
"I told you not to take too much of that stuff but you wouldn't listen.. now you're seeing things"
"I know what I saw" Chondria replied getting pissed.
"alright, alright...I believe you and if there are indeed intruders or trespassers like you said, they wouldn't be going anywhere. Let's finish loading this batch then we can come back and check" Royale said, patting him on the back.
Chondria just grunted and followed him downstairs after giving the last room he was about to check a long hard stare.
They had just put the last of the boxes into the van and were about shutting the door when they heard a loud scream .
It was coming from inside the building and it sounded like the voice of a scared child.
Instantly, the men jumped off the van and ran into the building.
**********
Annie got up sleepy eyed and let out a loud groan before scooting over to her sister.
Bertha had screamed again for the third time that night. It was one of her episodes again.
Annie held her as she shivered.
"shhhh it's okay, it's alright it was just a dream" Annie cooed at her.
"what did you dream Berth" Annie asked, patting Bertha's head softly.
"bad man... Uncle Will....sh..sh..sh.. shoot momma....say he sh..sh..shoot..mmme and he shhh... shoot me and you and Jon and Papa" Bertha stammered.
"shit " Annie cursed under her breath.
'no wonder she screams...she keeps seeing that night over and over in her dreams. Shit shit shit' Annie thought.
"I see it too" Jon said suddenly.
He'd also woken up the moment he heard Bertha's scream and sat watching his sisters.
Right then, she knew her sister needed to see a doctor. They all did but where in the world would they find the money.
Even the cash in the wallet had reduced drastically.
The shoes and clothes shopping made quite a dent and now they had just a thousand five hundred dollars left.
Even she kept on seeing the phantoms in her dream....that night had become a stubborn ghost that did not want to stop haunting them but she wouldn't dream of telling that to her siblings.
"it's okay Jon...we...." she started to say, when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
They were quiet and unhurried as though they were trying to be stealthy, but lots of people do tend to ruin stealth.
Two's company, three's a crowd.
Annie instantly sprung from her position on the floor, and stood in front of Jon, carrying Bertha on her hands.
Jon moved from behind her to her side and they slowly backed up towards the wall, waiting for whatever or whoever was coming through the door, as there was no where to run.