Bleak Hill

CH XI "If you play with fire, you get burned"

The morning was reluctantly greeting our town, when Rafael and I begun towards the spot we had last seen Elle. It felt chilly which was surprising because September was still one of the warmest months. The town was quiet, people were comfortably sleeping in their expensive suburban beds . I had a backpack with me in case we would find anything that could be considered as a lead. We had around one hour and a half of walking ahead of us. We decided taking a car would be too risky since Rafael and Tom had no brilliant ideas yesterday on how to stop Gregory from watching over me. Rafael was describing each of their idea's flaw in grave detail- it was around the forth idea that I had stopped listening. The way to the spot was not the easiest one. We first had to reach the lake just at the end of the town, which would take us a bit over an hour if we paced fast enough. Walking around the town like that, I tried remembering the memories I had from each corner we passed, but Rafael's mumbles got in the way.
"...and that's when I told him, Tom! You cannot give out names of people who take LSD, that is unthinkable for so many reasons, I don't even know where to start from. I honestly think the pressure of our current issue is clouding his ability of thinking reasonably..."

"Boy, was that coffee strong or what!" I smacked Rafael on the back of his head with some difficulty, since he was abnormally tall.

We joked a bit about Tom's ideas for the next twenty minutes, and we finally reached the lake. On the edge of the lake where we were supposed to take a turn in order to reach our destination, I could see three figures, one of them with puffy hair.

"Rafael!"

"Had to. And I am not sorry." He gave me an honest smile.

I wanted to feel mad at Rafael for not telling me anything, but I could find no anger inside me. I felt a spark of happiness, which felt as unreal as the rest of the situation we got stuck in. The five of us patiently walked towards the spot, the only thing that could be heard was our footsteps accompanied by Luke's yawns. We finally reached the field when it started raining a light summery rain.

"Why, isn't that nice." Lily said staring at the sparse clouds above us.

"I think we better start now, if we want to get back by midnight." Said Luke.

The field was enormous, filled with tall corns. I didn't remember exactly where was the spot where Elle was seen last, everything seemed the same. Every inch. We divided the field into five sections, each corresponding to one of us. It would be better if we looked in pairs but that would take ages. Everybody looked thoroughly and no sounds other than us were heard. After a couple hours I started losing hope. What did I expect to find. What would these people leave behind? What would the police fail to find, that we wouldn't? The police with all their equipment and resources. What could we, five people find that they did not. I started thinking of Gregory. I would not say he's a good cop. He didn't have much to deal with since he became a Chief. Well, except for me. But he did find both mine and Elle's blood. 

"I need a break guys!" Tom yelled in the distance, stopping me from completely losing my faith in our goal.

"Toughen up, we're not even in the middle!" Rafael's voice echoed even further.

"Anyone found anything remotely interesting?" asked Luke.

"I can't hear you guys, speak louder!! Is everyone alright? Did you find anything?" Lily had taken the last section of the field, I couldn't exactly see where she was, she was so small it seemed like the field had devoured her.

"That's what I asked Lily!"

"Oh!"

"Nobody found anything guys, but just in case it wasn't clear, if you find anything yell!" I said while laughing at the situation we got ourselves into.