The pale long fingers of a woman touched a cement concrete, the black mesh top and rugged wall contrasted her fine hands with glossy tips.
She nodded at someone behind her in agreement, she sighed and closed her eyes, and her eyelids fluttered revealing only the white of her eyes.
A few minutes later she pulled back her hand and pondered.
"Are you okay?" The woman standing behind her asked reading through her expression.
"Yeah, yeah. It's just something doesn't seem right."
"What do you mean?" The women enquired.
"The apartment is empty, but so are the other two one on its top and the other down it".
"Maybe they are empty, nothing strange about empty apartments." The guy standing way behind them added as he stood leisurely with hands in his pocket.
"No, you don't understand. I can hear all these voices from both, the dog whining, the baby's colic. But that particular floor is just void like it doesn't exist.
"The rest of the apartment is just normal I can see the people, kids, dogs".
The guy walked closer to the building."So this is a family-friendly complex." He looked up at the concrete back of the building.
The other woman walked towards the black minivan that was parked at the back entrance ."That's the problem." She started rummaging through the stuff in the trunk.
"What are you doing." The guy cocked his head near the woman.
The woman opened the duffel bag and took out a gun."We cannot know until we go in and check it for ourselves. Besides there are kids in there if that guy is still here everybody could be in danger." She started putting clear bullets in a gun that looked like a see-through toy.
"You hear that, Boss we have no choice but to check it out, people could be in danger." The guy twisted his mouth.
"Okay, but be careful! And chump, do not engage, as soon as you see something leave, we will call the SUPREME HOUSE for backup. Do you understand?
"Yes Boss." Chump pressed the ear device with a cheeky smile on his face. "You hear that my dear sister no contact." He put his arms on the car.
"Loud and clear." The woman put the gun in the side of her pants and closed the trunk.
Chump put his hands on his hips and took a wide stance, his jaws forward. "Race you." He bolted.
"What, are you fiv..." She cocked her head.
"Should we kick it open? You know like in the movies, like detectives, FBI." Chump, bug-eyed urged his sister.
"Aren't you being too excited?" The woman glazed at her brother.
"You're the one with a gun?" Besides it's our first real outing, you know trying to catch the enemy and shit." He addressed.
"It's a neutralizer, we are not here to catch anybody, but simply to check. Now open it." She urged her brother.
"Fine."
Chump attached a round device to the doorknob, which had tiny white lights surrounding it with a button in the middle. He twisted and pushed the button on it. "Ahh, there it is." He cracked the door open. "After You." He opened the door wider and gestured to his sister.
The woman rolled her eyes, she walked in first with a gun first in her hands and her lips tight, aiming at anyone or anything that they might encounter.
Chump walked behind his elder sister with a flashlight in his hands.
"Wow. It's like empty empty, almost like nobody ever lived here for a time being now." He spun around and flashed at everything, he pointed at the ceiling. "Ella, look there are no light fixtures."
The apartment didn't show any signs of life, nor any inanimate objects.
"Take a look around," Ella told her brother.
Chump walks towards the balcony, which was wrapped around by the glass from floor to ceiling making the roof see-through. The only part of the apartment that got proper lighting.
"Hey, Ella come see this."
"Looks like someone didn't get much time after moving everything else out." Ella bent down to get a proper look at the pile of dirt spread around different corners.
"Holy basil".
"Jesus! Nika!" Chump flinched his eyes almost bulging out.
"You scare the shit out of me. Don't sneak on people like that. How did even get here so fast." He retracted to the corner grabbing his chest.
"I came through the main entrance, used the elevator," Nika replied looking deadpan.
"What did you say." Ella turned her head towards Nika.
"I can smell it, sage, foxglove, henbane, furrow, and many others." She walks around the balcony looking at one dirt to another.
"What, plants?"
"Yes, ones if made concoction with each other could either heal you or kill you." Nika tried to explain to two other people.
"Oohhh, magic plants." Chump tried to provoke Nika, twirling around his fingers.
"Herbs, but sure Chump." Nika gave an unwilling smile.
Chump took out his phone and walked away typing. "Gotta tell Boss."
"We still need to check other rooms," Ella ordered around her brother while still trying to make something of what's in front of her.
"On it.''
"Hey, Boss said there's another party joining us."
"Who?"
"Don't know probably a new hire."
"What, he didn't tell you?"
"No."
"Don't tell me you didn't ask?"
"Aah, no?"
"Why?"
"He's like our Boss he can hire and fire whoever he wants." Chump was already tired of his sister's questions.
"What if we get paid less?"
"Whatever, I'm just gonna check out the two other apartments."
Ella left with an uneasy and annoyed look on her face, not expecting much from her useless brother.
"You were right, that one has a mother and baby." Ella pointed to the ceiling.
"Other has a Shitzu with its owner, an older lady," she tried to explain to the two, how nothing was making sense, she could not stop but feel as though something was terribly wrong in this building.
"Did you talk to them?" Chump enquired his sister, almost questioning his sister's competence.
"No! Chump. They live here, we don't. If I go around asking them questions, they are gonna be suspicious. This is a residential area if they call the cops, it's over for us". She retorted.
Nika walked a few steps forward to get away from the bickering of the annoying sibling.
Her sense of normal breathing function stopped midway, her right ear ringed and her left ear muted all the noise around.
She reached out her hands halfway at nothing in front of her.
"She's here."
"Who, the new recruit?"
"She's a she?"
The siblings asked questions at the same time.
"A Se'er," Nika replied in a daze.
"Anthony, My man." Chump spread his arms open ready for a hug stretching his words in excitement.
Big gruff Poc man stood blocking the doorway, not much of a hugger. "Back off chump." He grunted
"Why you gotta be so rude." Chump retracted.
"I'm not, this me being nice now move." He warned this always cheeky almost annoying dude. He moved to the side of the door giving way for the company.
Rayla emerges from behind, who stayed hidden due to this giant of a bodyguard, hired by her brother
"The Ramsey, Ramsey?"
"Rayla, David's half-sister." Rayla took off her AirPods and introduced herself nervously.
*****Her Airpods*****
super shy
super shy
"Here that, Boss' sister. Chump gestured his head toward Rayla. "Mind if I ask how old you are? You look quite young."
"Chump, I'm warning you." Anthony shook his fingers at Chump and enunciated.
"Not trying to be weird, just asking that's all." Chump put up his hands like he surrendered and retracted.
Rayla looked at a weirdly matched group of people. The two women, the one with pure platinum hair, her skin almost as white as her hair, the other Bi-Poc woman who looked ready for combat with her lace-up boots in this excruciating weather, her hair made in tiny braids which were tied in a ponytail. A creeper dude who seemed probably shorter than both women who just tried to flirt with. Her lashes fluttered almost making a face of disgust, showing all of her front teeth mocking a smile.
"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Nika, this is Ella, Chump." Nika went forward to diffuse whatever just happened now.
"So, you're going to be in a team." Ella enquired
"What? No, no. I'm just helping my brother out for the time being, we had kind of a deal." Rayla almost stammered.
"We all had kind of a deal with him at first, now look at us."
"Chump! He's not, he's just. So, what are you going to do?" Nika spoke up again to shut chumps wittiness up.
"I'm here to see, I can see things. So my brother thought I might be of some help, but I haven't done any major seeing. He also told me that one of you could help." Ryla explained with whatever words she could muster up.
"That would be me." Nika warmly smiled at a young girl with her hands on her chest.
"You're a Se'er too." Her eyes widened.
"No, I'm a Medium, I can read things and see things even, but unlike you Se'ers we cannot go inside people's heads." She walks near her with her hands behind her back.
Nika calmly explained to the young girl who went from being tout to bug-eyed.
"Which I believe is what your brother wants you to do."
"Oh okay. What about them?". Rayla lowered her voice a bit.
Nika wrinkled her nose as she looked at her teammates, "Well Both of them are Reapers, and they are also twins." She also lowered her voice to match hers.
"Never heard about those?"
Both chuckled.
Chump clears his throat.
"So should we start."
"Okay, but." She was reluctantly
"We can make them wait outside if you're not comfortable,'' Nika assured the young girl who seemed to be in admiration of her.
"Yeah? Okay."
"Okay."