"Among all the detectives involved in the case, Detective Vincent Nicole is the only one left alive but… he was sent to a sanitarium. They say he went crazy before the investigation was over. Also, they were some reports of strange substance found in his blood stream, hard drugs to be exact." Officer Louise explained.
The sounds of creeping insects mixed with her voice in the dark of night. It was past bed time but both officers had their eyes wide open as they both listened to each other's hypothesis.
"He took hard drugs?"
"What? Is it that surprising? Officers, detectives and soldiers most especially, are one of the most depressed people on earth. Taking such things isn't really strange." Officer Louise rolled her eyes.
"Which mental hospital is he in now?" Elizabeth asked.
"Ah, it's in the city. If we want to visit, we would need a reasonable excuse to leave the town, it might not be easy tho." Officer Louise took a sip of her coffee.
"... What about the sixteen years old kid?" Elizabeth asked after a while.
"Him? I don't remember clearly but I think my father worked his way up to the top so as to find me and that kid." Officer Louise shrugged and twirled the mug of coffee in her hand.
"You don't remember?"
"I don't, It feels like there's a block, and I don't even want to remember. The mere thought scares me." Officer Louise placed the mug on the table and closed her eyes.
"Then Detective Vincent Nicole is the only lead we have."
"Yes, it would not be easy to get to him because he's been said to have schizophrenia. I think, due to the excessive intake of hard drugs."
Elizabeth nodded slowly at Officer Louise' words and asked, "When do we leave?"
"I don't know but it should be before the festival. If you have noticed, the disappearance always happens in the span of two years." Officer Louise said.
"When is the festival?"
"In two months."
Elizabeth closed her eyes and thought of a way to live the town. An idea popped in her head.
"My cousin, she's pregnant and might give birth in two or three months. I can ask for a one week leave since nothing really happens here anyway."
"That's great, I'll look for a reasonable excuse to leave too."
After a while, Elizabeth finally leaves after rejecting Layla's invitation to spend the night. It has just been a day but the two officers had gotten close enough since most things in their lives pointed at the same direction.
Elizabeth walked to her house alone, the town was dead silent. The street lights were on but the once peaceful town now filled Elizabeth with fear and gave her the creep.
The small village-like town with a calm outer look now gave her the sense of foreboding.
The only sounds that was heard were that of her footsteps. Elizabeth fastened her footsteps and quickly reached her apartment building. The young police officer felt like she was been watched, she couldn't figure out if it was just her imagination or if it was real.
She ran up the stairs and entered her apartment, quickly shutting the door.
After making sure that she was safe, Elizabeth plopped on her bed and sighed heavily. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.
…
"Elena, Elizabeth watch th…"
The young girl glanced at the closed door, she heard her name but she did not hear the rest of what was said. She shrugged and increased the volume of the song playing on her headphones.
The young girl glanced at the girl that was in the room with her, the young girl who had an uncanny resemblance with her was hurriedly putting on her clothes.
Her lips were moving but the young girl couldn't hear her.
The headphone was suddenly snatched away from her.
"Hey, what was that for?" The sixteem years old girl yelled and dragged the headphone back from the other girl who had an uncanny resemblance with her.
"I'm leaving." The similar looking waved at the other and left the room.
The young girl put her headphones back on and slowly fell asleep but was soon awoken by heat and the pungent smell of smoke.
She jerked up but was caught up in flames, the whole room was hot and burning.
The young girl's mind was filled with panic and fear, she pushed the door and coughed as the wave of thick smoke hit her.
Her room was at the first floor, so the front door was not far from sight, the young girl ignored all other thing and made her way tl the door.
The whole villa had already been caught on fire, burning things fell before her but she skipped through all of them and finally got to the front door but at this time, she had already choked on a lot of smoke and was at the verge of losing consciousness, she was suddenly pulled out by the fire fighters.
"Ha." The girl breathed in and let the cool and clean air fill her lungs. Her eyes burned and her throat felt dry.
"Elizabeth, where is Casper? Where the hell is Casper?!" Her twin sister held her by the shirt and screamed.
The young girl was too stunned to give a reply, she just blankly stared at her sister.
She turned to the side and saw a group of people holding a woman down.
"Mother?"
The woman screamed and threw the people off, She ran into the burning villa and the door collapsed right after she entered.
The young girl who had been too stunned too speak screamed immediately her mother went through the door.
"Mum!!" Elizabeth jerked up, her hair and clothes were sticking to her body due to the sweat.
"Ah, again." She sighed and hit the alarm that was ringing beside her.
She stood up slowly and stretched. She could not afford to be weakened by such memories now, after all,
This was just the beginning of everything…..