тнє ℓαѕт qυєєи // тнє ∂σ¢тσя

Fear Her

"What's your game?" The man glares at us, "My er. Snakes and Ladders? Quite good at squash. Reasonable. I'm being facetious, aren't I. There's no call for it." Theta stutters our causing me to smile and pull him closer. "Sorry about him." I was interrupted by the man as we back away onto the road.

"I'm, I'm a police officer! That's what I am. I've got a badge and a police car. You don't have to get. I can, I can prove it. Just hold on." I smack him slightly as he starts reaching around in my pockets instead of his. "You better quit trying to cop a feel mister." He smirks slightly before turning back to the man. "We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look or sound like any of them."

"See, look. I've got a colleague. Lewis."

"Well, she looks less like a copper than you do."

"Training. New recruit. It was either that or hairdressing, so, voila!" Theta brandishes his psychic paper in front of the man causing me to give a smile. The man grows anger as he moves us towards the center of the street where Rose was standing with a man in a yellow vest and a older women.

"What are you going to do?" A women asked as she appeared beside the man in the yellow jacket, "The police have knocked on every door. No clues, no leads, nothing." The old woman complains, "Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do." I frowned at the man, wasn't his son missing too. I could have sworn I saw him over there putting a missing poster up. "Saw it with me own eyes. Dale Hicks in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then pfft! Right in front of me, like he was never there. There's no need to look any further than this street. It's right here amongst us."

"Why don't we-" Theta was interrupted by the other women, "Why don't we start with him? There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night." She accused the man in the yellow jacket who scoffed, "Fixing things up for the Olympics." He tried to explain but the father wasn't having it either. "Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it." I was already getting annoyed with this conversation, "I'm of the opinion that all we've got to do is just"

Theta was interrupted again by the boy, "You don't. What you just said, that's slander!" He shouted pointing his finger at the women, "I don't care what it is." She growls back. "I think we need to just-"

"I want an apology off her."

"Stop picking on him."

"Yeah, stop picking on me."

"And stop pretending to be blind. It's evil!"

"I don't believe in evil."

"Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van." He made a point as the father stepped up, "Here, here, here, that's not what she's saying." He tried to stop the fight but it didn't seem to be working, "Would you stop ganging up on me."

"Feeling guilty, are we?"

"Fingers on lips!" Everyone joins Theta in making the Shush gesture who had finally had enough.

"In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?" Theta asks with a thoughtful frown, "Er, can I? Look around you. This was a safe street till it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you're coppers, maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?" Rose looks up at Chloe in the window. Trish notices and goes back inside. Later, Theta and I are back at Tom's house, sniffing. "Want a hanky?"

"Can you smell it? What does it remind you of?"

"Sort of metal?"

"Mmm hmm."