"You won't want any...intruders. Hm?" The smile disappeared almost at the same moment it came on Professor's lips. Professor picked two shovels, tossing one at Henry. He didn't need to be told what to do as he watched Professor go first, his shovel striking into the ground.
~*~
Alex pulled up behind two vehicles. Two vehicles? That seemed out of place as Henry and her father had left in the same car. Thee cold air welcomed her with a shiver as she got out of her vehicle leaving behind Chris who fiddled with the seat belt's lock. By the time Chris emerged from the car, Alex had already walked over to the vehicles in front of hers. She recognized one of them as her father's, quite aright but she couldn't quite place the second one.
"The trail wasn't wrong after all," Chris said, his voice ringing over and over in the silence of the night, under the lonely moon drifting in the starless sky above them.
"Does Henry own a car?" Alex asked, giving up her attempt to peek through the window of the unfamiliar vehicle whose insides, just like everything around her was covered in darkness.
"Yes," Chris answered, "the ones which used remote controls. They'd probably be covered n dust after all these years sitting in the dark attic."
Alex rolled her eyes, not the answer she had expected from him, at least not at this critical moment. She walked back to her car in search of her flashlight, it was almost impossible to make out anything clearly, except of course for the dark shades of their figures.
"So what happens from here?" Chris asked, "we know they're out there but there's no way to reach them since the service here is-" he paused in his sentence, his heart skipping a beat when he saw what laid in front of him as Alex's flashlight shone on as much gravestones as the light could go,"-bad."
They crossed over to the other side of the road, stopping at the knee-height fence. Alex held on to the flashlight with a firm grip as her palms were starting to feel sweaty. Nervousness or fear, she wasn't sure which it was but she sure didn't like the feel of it. The sound of footsteps caught her attention, almost ripping her bones out of her skin in terror. They were supposed to be alone out here, at least except for Henry and her father.
"Well, well, look who could join us," a voice said, sending a ripple of tension across Chris, "cemeteries don't make a good place for site seeing."
"I never knew criminals now hid in graves either," Chris answered, recognizing the voice. He noticed the flash of silver as Detective Miles slid the Glock back into its holster. Chris went numb or a moment, if he had recognized the weapon earlier, perhaps he wound have said a word.
"Who's he?" Alex asked, feeling lost with their little acquaintance.
"Thomas," Chris replied, muttering the full name to himself in silence, Doubting Thomas.
"Thomas?" Detective Miles asked, puzzled as his voice trailed off and his brow furrowed.
"We got company, I see." Quite surprised, Chris and Alex turned to see the faint light of a flashlight approaching them from the other side of the cemetery. As he got closer, his face became illuminated by Alex's flashlight.
"And he came with his girlfriend," Miles said. For a second there, Chris had the urge to protest but no, he'd let it pass this one time at least. "Found anything?"
"No," Maloney replied, "but from the look of things, there should be other exits from this place."
"Alright, we'd make this easy," Miles started, facing Chris and –his girlfriend- Alex. "You lead us to where your friends are, we'd ask a few questions and we all leave happy. Simple."
"You're here to make an arrest?" Alex scoffed, putting one foot forward, "we're facing something life-threatening here and-"
"Hush now missy," Detective Miles cut in, pulling out the Glock 17 again, "Chris, lead the way."
Chris swallowed and without a word, threw one foot after the other across the low wooden fence. When the blind leads the blind, Chris thought to himself, they fall into a pit.Aided by a beam of light, all four threaded into the darkness in front of them. His stomach twisted at the thought of walking on dead bodies at such ungodly hour.
They walked aimlessly for a few minutes and thankfully, no one had asked if Chris knew where he was heading because the answer was obvious, No. He could only wish he would at least see a sign to lead them, perhaps a torch's light, or their noise as they dug or something, anything.
"Woah, guys?" Maloney drew everyone's attention, causing them to come to a halt. His flashlight had gotten dim so it really couldn't illuminate far but then, it was enough for them too notice the figure in the distance.
Alex pointed hers in its direction, there was nothing but the moment she took it away, it came into view again and this time, it appeared to have drawn closer than it was before. In that instance, Chris knew.
"Bloody hell," he muttered loud enough for everyone to hear as he took a step back, his blood running cold. The figure walked gracefully across the grave yard.
"What?" Alex looked frantically at Chris as goosebumps rose on her arms.
"Everyone just back off now," Chris mumbled, his feet were starting to feel too heavy to move. "We should totally leave now."
Miles looked over at Chris with disgust, anger fueling up within him. "Nonsense," he cursed under his breath, pointing the gun in the direction of the figure. "Hey!" he yelled in an attempt to get its attention.
"What are you doing? Miles!" Detective Maloney started, "you heard Chris."
Miles looked at his partner in disbelief, was he expecting that after getting this close, he'd back away so easily now over someone-something- they weren't even sure of? He scoffed and then took the flashlight out of Alex's hand, starting out in the direction of the figure which appeared to fade every time the light flashed in his direction.
The night went still, their heart close to their mouth and the hair on their skin standing on edge as they watched with anxiety building up within them as Miles departed towards this strange thing.
After walking a considerable distance, Miles stopped, Glock in one hand and flashlight in the other. He turned to his surrounding but there was nothing and for a moment there, he wondered if they'd really seen anything out there or if it was just the stress taking its toll on them.
He turned back to the rest, lifting his hands in the air to signal he was still fine, "there's nothing out-"
It happened in a sudden; the flashlight got knocked off from his hand as he stumbled to the floor. His heart leapt in his chest and he couldn't really tell what just happened as he could've sworn he'd felt something pull the torch out of his hand just before the air got knocked out of his lungs. A cold wind blew across as he picked himself from the floor, a cold running down his spine.
Chris felt that familiar breeze drift around him, his body quavered at the realization of it as he noticed the flashlight fall off Miles' hand. He held on to Alex's hand and pulled her away as they broke into a sprint barely seeing where they were heading.
Maloney turned around to see the other two on the run. He cursed under his breath, caught up between helping his mate or doing what sounded only logical-or was it? Running away from something unseen. He bit his lips after he gave the fleeing friends a brief look before jogging the distance to where Miles was trying to get himself together.
"Are you okay?" he asked, Miles didn't answer for a moment as his eyes roamed around him before he turned to his partner nodding skeptically.
"Wh-where are they?"
"Ran off," Maloney replied, looking in the direction they had sped off. "There's no way they'd have gone far."
Without a word, he picked up the torch whose screen was now cracked and then started off briskly, breaking into a jog moments later, going after Chris and Alex. Chris ran behind Alex, his lungs expelled air through his mouth as he huffed and puffed along the way. He turned behind for a second as he noticed the approaching beam of torch light behind them and then tripped over himself in the next moment, coming down like a sack of hay.
The world spun around him as he tried catching his breath, Alex turned back to see him on the floor. She came to a sudden halt, returning back to where he was on the floor. Urging him to get up, Chris picked himself from the ground, leaning both arms on his knees for support as beads of sweat dripped from his face.
"I swear I'll shoot if you dare to make another move." Miles' voice thundered from behind them. Chris rose to his full height; he threw his head to the sky as he took in a lung full of air, shading his eyes from the bright light from the flashlight in the detective's hand.
He ran up to where Chris stood exhausted, "think you're smart, huh?" He pushed Chris in the chest like a bully would, "think you can play silly tricks and get away?"
"Miles," Maloney started, reaching for his partner's shoulder. Miles grabbed his hand, flinging it away in anger and then turned back to Chris.
"What the hell happened back-"
"What do you want me to say?" Chris' yell cut the detective's sentence. He scoffed before he continued, "I warned you, right? I did, but you're man of steel eh."
Miles cursed, throwing his hand through his hair in raging anger and frustration. Maloney looked lost, confused, not knowing what to believe anymore, he had known things would get disturbing but he hadn't imagined it this way.
"Did you hear that?" Alex said, somewhat in a whisper. A shiver ran down her spine, her mind in panic. She hadn't expected to run into this fix where she found herself.
They all pulled close to each other, standing back to back. Everyone stood on edge, listening to hear what it was. Their breaths came out in short gasps as their eyes roved about, their heart rattling against their ribcage.
*~*
It's one thing to be brave, it's another to be stupid. Where would you place Detective Miles?
The night sure does hold a lot in store- more than they'd want to know and things are just getting started. What do you think they heard?
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