Into the Mist

Chapter III

A Cause for Concern

Amber Simmens had just barely gotten home at her normally scheduled time, provided she did have to exert herself a bit more than she was used to. Partly due to the fact that she felt somewhat uneasy after her run-in with the young but adept police officer, Seymour Reiley. After she had left her friends Roxanne and Faith to their respective treks home, another feeling had washed over her all the way back to her house. A feeling of suspicion mixed with a hint of dread… like someone, or something, was watching her every move, stalking her all the way home. She had turned around several times to look, but she could find nothing. Fearing that she may have just exhausted herself from her schoolwork, Amber thought she would have a nice, relaxing bath once she did get home.

Walking up to her cracked driveway, weeds still in need of a good Round-Up application sprouting through the concrete fissures, Amber turned to greet her irritating but lovable green-haired little brother Sam, who had just gotten out of his carpool with a friend.

“Hey, Lettuce Top!” Amber yelled, quickly joining her brother, putting him in a headlock whilst rummaging through his hair. “How was school for you today?”

“…Unngh! Caaan’t breathe…!” Sam protested, finally squirming out of his sister’s grip. Once free, he began to talk to her again. “uugh… is that how you say ‘hi’ to everyone?”

“Only irritating younger siblings.” Amber mused.

“Ha-hah… so hilarious.” Sam panned. “And to answer your question, no… nothing happened. Ms. Franklins just kept on ranting about the history of the word ‘ambidextrous’, expecting us to be able to spell all of these words about the body. I already knew them, of course, but that didn’t stop her from yapping. ‘Blah-Blah-Blah-Blah-Blaaah!’ It was torture…”

“Aww, welcome to middle school, Sam.” Amber teased.

“Is middle school really worse than her?!” Sam questioned, now concerned for his well-being. “Please tell me it gets easier!”

“I’d be lying if I did.” Amber confirmed.

As the two ventured back into their house, that same presence of dread hit Amber yet again. Only this time, whatever it was seemed to take a focal point in her younger brother.

Her sweet, innocent, rambunctious, vulnerable little brother.

“…Hmm..."

Amber stood in silence, observing her surroundings one last time before heading inside, closing the heavy, worn-out white door behind her quickly.

After grabbing a sack of chips from the pantry, Sam Simmens had wandered upstairs to his room, where he picked up a small, brown stuffed puppy from his bed. He had always wanted a dog, but due to his allergies to animal dander, he knew that he just couldn’t ever have one without the miserable symptoms. Ever since he found out, he had been somewhat sad over the fact. Every day since the revelation, as a tribute to his desire to own a dog, Sam kept a video recording of whatever he and his stuffed pup would get up to in their spare time on his brand-new camcorder.

“…This place… is horrible Ruggles…” the young boy spoke, a first person view from his camera catching a glimpse of his room. Other than the fading paint, and a few small cracks and spots in the corners of the ceiling, the room looked like a typical bedroom for a young boy. A fish-shaped clothes basket sat in the corner of the room, and a dresser with a lamp sat on the left of his bed next to the door.

“…huuuummm….” he sighed, clearly lamenting over the fact that he was still in this new place as his father continued to find a job. Fortunately enough, being a specialized defense attorney had its perks. The family never seemed to be in any financial danger due to the money that their father earned, paired with their mother’s job an accountant in the city of Pittsburgh where they once lived. But due to economic downsizing and relentless assaults from a new and aggressive law firm causing their father to lose his job, the family decided to play it safe with a relatively good deal on an old fixer-upper estate. The place was much larger than their old home, but in need of several renovations and repairs.

*Skritch* Scrape*Scratch*

A sudden thumping and scratching noise emanated from the ceiling near the closet door, causing the young boy to freeze in his tracks. Now very scared, Sam turned to face the closet door and the ceiling above as she shuffling noises trickled down to just behind the door. Sam could feel his hair stand on end as he began to shiver, clutching Ruggles tightly to his chest.

“…Ruggles…” he whispered just as the door to the closet creaked about a third of the way open on its own, still revealing nothing. The knob even slightly turned to signify that there was definitely something behind the door.

Whatever had been doing this, Sam had never been more terrified in his life than at this moment.

“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be fixing up this room!” spoke Sam’s mother, who had just entered the room through the main door.

“M-Mom!” Sam sputtered, quickly turning to face his mother.

“Honestly, it’s been almost a month since we first moved in. How have you not unpacked everything yet?” she questioned. Soon after, however, she could see something was wrong with the ten-year old. “…Honey, you don’t look so good. What’s the matter?”

“…I hate this place!” Sam groaned.

“…Well, maybe if you finished setting up your room, you wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable. It’ll be just like your old room.”

“No, mom it’s creepy, I’m hearing weird noises!” Sam protested. “The closet just opened up on its own! The knob turned and everything!”

“Sam, that’s silly. Are you sure you didn’t just open it and forget it?” his mother reasoned.

“N-no, it’s not! It happened!”

“Ugh…” his mother grumbled. “I told you not to be watching the Crime Stoppers segment on the news! Look, Sam, you know what I think happened? I think you opened it up yourself, and forgot that you did a few moments later. That’s all it was honey…”

“No it wasn’t!” Sam barked back.

“Sam, what makes you think you can raise your voice at me, young man?!”

“BECAUSE I SAW IT!” he yelled back at his mother.

“…You kids and your imagination.” his mother finally conceded. “Okay, come with me, let’s go see what’s in the closet.”

Sam sat on the bed, shaking his head from side to side.

“I’m not going in there!” he complained.

Haze filled the air in the upstairs bathroom. The mirror had completely fogged over with steam from the bath tub, where an exhausted and very much naked Amber Simmens lay in relaxation. A hot bath was just what she had needed after her stressful encounter with Officer Seymour Reiley earlier that afternoon. At the time of her soak, she had been in the tub for just a few minutes. Her eyes lay closed and her face was plastered in a glazed over expression of complete bliss as she lay in the bubbly water. She let out a soft moan as she slowly fully extended her legs so that only her shoulders breached the water, the soap suds congealing just perfectly as to cup her shoulders. Utter silence served as the only backdrop to the foggy realm of warmth she was blissfully awash in…

…Until a couple of odd scraping noises were heard, seemingly emanating from the ceiling above her, causing her to stir a little. Craning her neck upward, she surveyed the room up and down for the source of the noise. Once she had determined that it was probably the wind making the old house groan and creak, or maybe just some poor squirrel in the attic or walls, she shrugged her shoulders and went back to her luxurious, hot heaven.

“Hmm…"

“See Sam, there’s nothing in the closet to be afraid of.” Sam’s mother spoke. “Look, I’m standing in the closet right now, and I’m still just fine.”

Stepping carefully into the closet, Sam joined his mother, clutching his stuffed puppy, Ruggles, to his chest out of fear. However, his mother did seem to be right. He looked all around the closet, only to find nothing but walls and boxes from their recent move. One thing stood out though- a 2-foot by 2-foot square on the opposite side of the wall. The square seemed to be cut from the surrounding drywall, and had hinges and a latch on it.

“Mom… what’s that door over there?” Sam questioned, causing his mother to look in that direction.

“…I don’t know. I didn’t know that was there.” she answered, walking up to the door and kneeling to its level. Once she was at level with the hatch in the wall, she opened up the small door, revealing a long, dark chasm leading to a grey stone floor.

“…Mom…?”

“It looks like a laundry chute to the basement.” she explained. “That could be handy!”

Sam rolled his eyes as his mother exited the closet. Soon after, he followed her out into his bedroom, only to observe her standing on a chair while attempting to fix something to the wall. To Sam, it appeared to be a small mounted camera.

“Mom, what are you doing?” asked the ten-year-old.

Sam’s mother turned around slightly to answer his question. Before the family moved into this new house, Sam had had a history of potentially dangerous bouts of sleep walking. At one point nearly two years ago, the boy had somehow wandered out of the house and into the backyard of their old home, where he was found several hours later the next morning, soaked and freezing cold from a late autumn rain shower. Naturally, he couldn’t remember a thing once he had woken up at sunrise. Ever since the incident, and the few less-severe occasions afterward, the family had always kept a close eye on their youngest member.

“…Well, remember when you used to sleep walk?” she asked.

“Mooom…” Sam whined.

“Well, it’s just that this is a new place, and I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“Mom, I haven’t done that since I was nine!” Sam protested at the prospect of having his privacy invaded. “I wanna be treated like a ten-year-old, not a baby!”

“Oh, honey, I know…” his mother consoled. “You are a big kid. But can we just keep this camera up for me? So mommy can sleep easier? Please?”

Sam just sighed, he knew his mother wouldn’t take it down, no matter how much he pleaded.

“MOM!”

Both Sam and his mother turned to face the source of the voice which called to them. Exiting the room, Sam dropped his still rolling camera on the bed, to which it faced the opened closet door once again.

“Hey, careful with that! That was a nice gift from grandma!” Sam’s mother instructed as they walked away from the room and down the hallway.

…And then, just as it had opened, the door’s knob turned as it slowly creaked shut once more.

*Creeeeaaak*

Soon after Sam was ushered to go find something to do while his mother spoke with his elder sister, Amber, the remaining two women conversed in the hallway.

“Mom, I found out at school today that there’s supposed to be some sort of block party at 4:30 today.” Amber Simmens fibbed, wrapped in a pink bath towel, her hair kept in another balled up towel. “My friends are going to be there, can I go out with them?”

“A block party?” her mother questioned.

“Yes, they’re going to have free stuff all day, plus the police department are saying that they have a few announcements there.” Amber explained. “I’m really burned out from school today, so can I go?”

“…I don’t know, dear.” her mother responded. “Sounds an awful lot like you’re not going there for your friends’ sake. It sounds more and more like you’re still stalking that police chief’s kid.”

“Ugh! Mom, I told you, we’re just friends!” Amber protested. “Really, look at me! Do I look like some catty teen-girl who just follows boys around all day?”

“Amber, you know that you’re a terrible liar, right?” her mother continued. “Honestly, I’ve know you for 18 years; ever since you popped out of me, you’ve been bad at telling stories.”

“Mom, I’m just going with…”

The conversation between amber and her mother was cut short when the front door to the house creaked open, and a peppy, masculine voice announced the arrival of Amber’s father, Nigel Simmens.

“Velma, I’m home!” Nigel called. “And employed!”

“You got another job?!” Velma cried back. “That’s wonderful honey!”

“Yep!” the man exclaimed, heading up the stairs to meet his wife and almost nude firstborn. Nigel had worn a black business suit with a red, checkered tie to accentuate his closely cropped and smooth black hair. Such professional clothing was usually his own personal style anyway. Once at the top of the stairs and in their sight, he continued his explanation. “Got a position as a public attorney over at the court house. I get full benefits too!”

“Oh, Nigey, that’s so wonderful! We’re back on our feet again!” Velma continued, walking over to plant a kiss on her husband’s cheek. Even though the two were in their forties, the Simmens parents were still quite romantic, even sexually active, in their advancing age.

“Ugh… get a room, you two!” Amber complained.

“Oh please, Amber.” Velma countered. “You don’t think I can hear you moaning and groaning at night in your bedroom?”

“Eww, mom! I don’t do that!” Amber lied, obviously nervous at her mother’s suspicion. “Look, can I just go to the party or not?”

“Honey, I also heard about that block party. And Amber’s been working so hard lately with her school work...” Nigel tried to reason with his wife. “I think she deserves a night to rest that big, bulbous brain of hers, don’t you?’

“See? Dad knows how hard I have it!” Amber added. Truth be told, she had always been “daddy’s little girl”, and everyone in the house knew that the two had a close bond due to their intellectual pursuits, as well as her interest in her father’s career field. She had always wanted to join her father’s business of legal practices and archiving from her love of all things written on paper and bound to a hard cover since she was only a year old. “Can I? Please?”

Amber’s mother finally had had enough of her daughter’s pleading. In her eyes, she had always seen the cute little girl begging for another cookie, another bedtime story, another trip to the library. Finally, Velma Simmens caved in.

“…Oh, alright…” she answered, smiling to her daughter.

“Yes!” Amber exclaimed, jumping into the air, almost losing her towel. “Yes, yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes!”

“…As long as you take Sam with you.” her mother interrupted, causing her eyes to shoot open as she stopped bouncing.

“AWW, MOOOOM!” Amber protested. “I don’t want to babysit him all night!”

“Actually…” Nigel spoke up. “That sounds like fun! Why don’t we all go?”

“DAD!” Amber whined again. “Who’s side are you on?!”

Finally, the time had come for Amber Simmens to attend the block party in hopes of finding more time to be with the police chief’s son, Officer Seymour Reiley. Unfortunately for her, this personal meet and greet had turned out to be a family outing. Not only would she have to constantly babysit her lovable but irritating little brother, but she would also have to endure the displeasure of her parents constantly breathing down her neck.

Her parents had left to sign up for the raffle which Seymour had explained to her earlier that day, leaving her on a community bench, disgruntled, with her little brother who was now gorging himself on free popcorn and cotton candy beside her.

“…MMn! This party…*gulp* is awesome!” Sam spoke through mouthfuls of sticky, sugary, and salty snack foods. “Why didn’t you want me to come here? It’s great! Free games, candy, snacks, everything!”

“…Yeah… great… just great…” Amber grumbled, holding her chin in her palms, a soured look plastered her face as she blew a lock of hair off her forehead. Her eyes slanted upwards as her parents soon returned. However, Amber’s expression soured even further once she witnessed that her mother was wearing a novelty arrow hat with multiple fake Hawaiian flower necklaces around her neck, while her father ate from a bucket of popcorn whilst sporting a Spiderman pattern of paint on his face. Worse than that, her two friends Faith Summers and Roxanne Dreyton followed closely behind them.

“Hey, sweetums!” her father announced so that half of the party could hear him. “We found your friends over by some girls by the bounce house! We thought we’d bring them over to see you!”

“Oh… no…” Amber winced.

“Gee, thanks for bringing us over to see our super bestest friend Amber Mr. and Mrs. Simmens!” Roxanne thanked in a tone that Amber could clearly tell was all a façade.

“Oh it’s no problem girls!” Velma replied. “Perhaps I could get Amber to invite you over for her birthday party next month! We’re all making the cake!”

“Oh, I’m sure that would be wonderful.” Faith confirmed in a more sincere and sweet tone.

“MOM!” Amber whined. “Not in public, please!”

“Oh Amber, lighten up!” her mother offered. “You don’t see Sam complaining about… Hey, where is the little goober anyway?”

“…I don’t know. He was here a moment ago.” Amber lied, she knew he had just gone to get more snacks. “I think he might have gone over to that bounce house you were just talking about.”

Glancing in the direction of her fib, all three members of the family were surprised to see that he had indeed gotten side tracked, and ended up inside the bounce house. Nigel and Velma looked on as their son bounced nearly as high as the ceiling of the bounce house, oblivious to all outside.

“HAHAH!! Atta’ boy Sam!” Nigel shouted, rushing to see his athletic young boy, much to his following wife’s dismay.

“Oh dear, honey! Be careful in there, you could bump your head!” Velma shrieked over her husband’s encouragement.

Amber Simmens could only shake her head in disbelief at the embarrassment her family had caused her. Her parents were stuck in an age where families regularly played games together on Tuesday nights, went on hiking trips together, and did many other things most in the twenty-first century would call “lame” or “old-school.” Upon looking up to see her two friends, she discovered Roxanne looking down at her, snickering loudly with a hand over her mouth, while Faith cast her a questioning glance.

“Oh, what are you laughing at now?” Amber demanded from her giggling friend.

“Pffffffsh… Hahahaha!” Roxanne continued, forcing all subtlety out the window. “I thought my parents were embarrassing! ‘Oh, let’s invite them to her birthday party! We can all make the cake!’ Come on, Ambs, what are you, four?!”

“Roxanne, stop it!” Amber demanded again. “They’re my parents!”

“…Um… I-if it counts for anything, I thought they were very nice…” Faith commented, trying to ease the situation. “…I think it’s great that you all have such a close family, it makes me kind of jealous knowing I don’t have a mom anymore…”

Suddenly, the atmosphere of the conversation grew very quiet.

“…Well, way to kill the mood, Summers…” Roxanne chuckled nervously.

“ROXANNE!” Amber shouted. “That’s just mean! Faith tells you she doesn’t have a mother, and you joke about it?! That’s just not right!”

“What?! I was gonna give her something nice to say after!” Roxanne defended.

“That’s still… You should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking that would be funny!” Amber continued. “That’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard!”

“…O-Oh, it’s okay Amber…” Faith interrupted. “I-I’m not mad or anything, I just thought I’d put it out there…”

“Faith, are you sure?” Amber asked her blonde-and-pink-haired friend. “We can talk about it if you want to.”

“No, I’m okay.” Faith softly affirmed, giving a gentle smile. The rather somber moment was soon interrupted again, however, by a sudden series of quacking sounds emanating from the shy girl’s pocket.

“The ducks have spoken.” Roxanne mumbled.

“Oh my!” Faith squeaked, looking down in horror at her flip-open phone. “My cousin is here!”

“Your cousin?” Amber questioned from her bench.

“Yes.” Faith answered. “My cousin’s cat had kittens, but she can’t take care of them all. I promised to help her give them new homes today at the fair! E-Excuse me…”

With that, Faith Summers was off.

“Kittens?” Roxanne spoke up. “Wait up!”

And with that, Roxanne Dreyton had also fled the scene.

“…The attention span of a squirrel.” Amber huffed, leaving to go find her brother to make sure he wasn’t causing anyone any trouble. “Little brothers… who invented them anyways?”

*THUD*

Once out of her temporary daze, Amber had realized she was on the pavement, having just collided with something tall and rather weighty. And also rather masculine.

“Whoa!” the bleary form in standing above her spoke.

“I-I…” she sputtered, trying to collect herself. Once she could see straight again, the figure looming over her became clear- Officer Seymour Reiley.

“Here… need a hand?” he offered, outstretching a muscular but lean arm out in front of her.

“Y-Yeah, just lost my balance…” Amber spoke, grabbing onto the hand with hers. His hand easily encapsulated her own, giving a sturdy pull which put some pressure on her shoulder, causing her to be pulled upright at last.

“Huh, well if it isn’t Amber Simmens!” Seymour greeted. “Glad you could make it to the party!”

“O-Oh! Hello Seymour!” Amber nervously giggled. “Sorry for bumping into you like that.”

“Naah, don’t worry about it.” Seymour dismissed. “Say, you’re not hurt or anything, are you?”

“Oh, n-no, I’m fine…” Amber hastily responded. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you again, too!”

“Well, thank you.” Seymour responded, taking a moment to admire her rustic choice of party clothes. “Say, you look good. I like what you did with the sweat pants and the purple hoodie.”

“Oh, thank you!” she thanked. “So, why are you here again? I would imagine you’d be busy lately, what with all of the weird murders and kidnappings going on in just a couple of weeks. I thought for sure you’d be out there, you know, busting bad-guys?”

“Oh, yes, we are very busy with that.” Seymour spoke. “Anyway, that’s one of our main focuses this year actually. I’m here because they said they want to announce something in front of me and my department partners. After that, I’m here to call out the raffle winners, then to discuss that matter of the strange killings and disappearances.”

“Oh.” Amber nodded, somewhat disappointed. “Well, it looks like you have a full plate right now. I was really hoping that we could… do something fun together, but I don’t want to hold up your work.”

“Well, actually, there’s about an hour or so left after those announcements each year, so I can take you up on that offer after I get done on stage, if you’d like.”

“O-Okay, sure…!” Amber agreed, now back to her plucky attitude from a few moments prior. “We can do that after all of those stage events!”

“Great!” Seymour proclaimed. “Now, I’d better get on up to the stage. The speech starts in a few minutes.”

“Alright. Good luck!”

By the time the police department was scheduled to present the prizes announced for the winners of the raffle, as well as a state of the city address, most of the patrons of the block party had seated themselves in the fifty or so chairs in front of the portable stage, with a few others, such as the Simmens family, standing off to the side. Faith Summers and her cousin sat at a nearby booth with the several kittens of which they tried to find a home for over the course of the event. Roxanne Drayton knelt down near the two, rubbing two particularly cute kittens against her face. Once most of the party was confirmed to be in attendance, a relatively overweight and middle-aged police officer, Michael Reiley, took to the microphone.

“A-Ahem…” the chief of the department grunted, clearing out his throat for the announcements he was planning to make, before handing the mic over to his first-and-only born. “Um, may I have everyone’s attention, please?”

The rumble of the crowd lowered to a manageable level at the chief’s request.

“Thank you.” the senior officer Reiley spoke. Now, before we begin with our announcements, I would like to thank each of you for coming out this afternoon to our annual party. It really is very wonderful to see such an actively participating community thriving under our ordinance.”

The crowd gave a short golf-clap over the good turnout.

“Yes, also, we have received a request for a special announcement at the request of two members of our local ranch-workers, the Summers family. They currently have several kittens, all have been vaccinated and are free to a loving home. For more information, please speak to Faith Summers at the booth nearest to the stage as you would like.”

“Aaaww…” the crowd simultaneously cooed.

“Now, since we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like to turn the microphone over to my boy Seymour here. But first, I would like to make one more special announcement concerning my son.”

Seymour looked at his father, somewhat confused at this news. He hadn’t expected something regarding him directly to be discussed by the department at the presentation. Being the obedient and well-mannered young man he was, Seymour took to the stage beside his father anyway.

“Now, as all of you may know, my son here is one of the finest young officers in the city. He’s always gone above and beyond the call of service when needed, and is a very adaptable, intelligent, and quick-thinking man.” Seymour’s father boasted, earning a blush from his son.

“…Um, thanks dad…” he nervously chuckled.

“Yes, ever since he joined the department as a recruit at the age of sixteen, he had served his community well, and always put the needs of family, neighbors, and friends before himself.” Chief Officer Michael continued. “But, even more recently, in response to current events which I am sure most of you are aware of, he has really buckled down and aided the department to the best of his abilities- outclassing most of the department with his skills of advanced tactical formation and operation, incredible marksmanship, and amazing resourcefulness.”

The crowd continued to listen on in admiration that such a young member of their city had such a powerful presence in the department of apprehension. Finally, Seymour asked his father what the big deal was.

“Um, dad, I appreciate your praise…” Seymour spoke. “…But what is all of this for? I don’t recall doing anything too significant lately.”

“Oh, but you have son.” his father countered. “Your skill and dedication is why I’m still up here presenting. It is for these reasons that your efforts should finally be rewarded. Ladies and gentlemen of our great and humble city, I am here to announce the newest tactical specialist to enter our elite Special Tactics and Rescue Squad, or S.T.A.R.S. team as you may be more familiar with… My outstanding son, the new Agent Seymour James Reiley!”

Finally, the crowd began to cheer and admire the new member of the city S.T.A.R.S. team. All of the attention filled Seymour with an overwhelming sense of pride- he hadn’t thought he would actually make it this far, at least not this soon. But with his father’s confirmation, Seymour found himself having to wipe away a few stray tears of honor. Of course, he had turned his head to the side, he had to look somewhat tough, right?

“Wow, thank you, everyone…!” Seymour thanked. “Let me say what an honor it is to be given such a promotion! I never thought I’d get so far at my age…”

“Well, Special Agent Reiley…” Seymour’s father continued. “…It looks like you have a few things to say, so I think I might just get out of your hair for now.”

“Thanks dad…”

Just past the corner of the stage, Seymour could see Amber Simmens with her family. She looked to be deep in thought, but offered a smile of admiration nonetheless. In her own shoes, she quickly began to think of her new acquaintance as quite the haul. Cute, sweet, and incredibly talented… was there anything he couldn’t do?

She had never been the biggest fan of the stereotypical “perfect boy”, as a previous but short-lived pseudo-relationship in her last high school the year prior hadn’t really gone anywhere. She had dismissed the scenario prior to this one as a simple crush which didn’t last; her previous “Boyfriend” was very sweet and understanding, much like the young man up on the stage. The only downside, which proved to be a fatal road block for the two, was that he hadn’t the stomach to argue against her due to his paranoia of screwing up. But now, Amber Simmens, about as romantic and sexually active as a seabed sponge, began to see that maybe, just maybe, Seymour was different.

Now that his promotion had been cleared by the head of the department, it was finally time for the address in which Seymour was offered to give. Adjusting the collar on his regulation white police shirt, the young but experienced officer began his address.

“…Alright, first off, I want to thank the department for this great privilege, and I want to thank you all for coming out tonight.” he began. “However, the most important part of the evening needs to be discussed now. As many of you could have guessed, this is on the topic of the recent compromise of the city’s security over the last 20 days.”

A rumble of concern emanated from the gathered crowd as the particularly frightful events of the past three weeks would be brought to light.

“So far, we’ve confirmed that nineteen murders have occurred in our city, many even in this area, in just three weeks. This is likely to be an incorrect number, as we are still dealing with several more disappearances- specifically in the population of young, able-bodied men and women.” Seymour explained. “The latest murder took place, we believe, early this afternoon in a wooded area nearby the corner store at the gas station of Fifth and Ninth Avenue. We have found a body, bearing striking resemblance to the several others we have located in terms of physical damage.”

Amber, somewhat awestruck, couldn’t believe that Seymour was currently on the search team regarding the grisly killings and kidnappings which had begun to plague the area. Knowing that he likely left her earlier in the afternoon to investigate the same murder her has currently discussing, a certain deal of concern began to manifest in the intelligent young woman.

“Given the certain number of ‘rest days’, we are seeing an average of one to two killings each day in our once peaceful community. We still have no idea as to the whereabouts or identity of the assailant, or assailants.” Seymour continued. “Due to this alarming recent development, the police department is here to advise as many as we can about how to protect against these heinous and atrocious acts of violence. The most important things that you all can do to protect yourselves and your loved ones are as follows: one- do not travel on streets you are unfamiliar with unless inside a vehicle. Two- use the buddy system. It is highly advised that no one travel without someone with them, a murderer is much less likely to target even a small group than they are to go after an individual. Finally, if you must go out alone, make every effort not to go out at night.”

As many of the concerned citizens native to the area grumbled on about what they should each do individually, a sudden, low but powerful rumble of thunder echoed from a fair distance to the north- proof that the party might soon be rained out. Noticing this, some of the police officers near the stand viewed their phones in order to get a rough estimate of how long they had left to finish the proceedings, only to find out that the storm looked to be upon them in just under half an hour.

“Oh great… Honey, we didn’t bring an umbrella, did we?” mumbled Velma Simmens to her husband.

“…Nor did we bring a car to get home in.” Nigel responded. “Looks like we’re going to have to call off this little outing earlier than we thought.”

*Chew* *Chew*

“Hey, mmmrm, I fink if goingh trrr rrrin!” warned Sam Simmens, mouth still full of free snacks from the various stands around the party. *GULP* Aah… I think we should get home soon…”

“Yeah, you aren’t kidding Sam…” Nigel confirmed, continuing to monitor the grey clouds in the distance.

“A-Ahem…” Seymour called through the microphone once more. “It looks like we’re going to have to wrap things up a little early tonight, folks…”

A groan of dissatisfaction rose from most of the crowd at this news. Amber was particularly disappointed upon hearing this news, for she now probably would not get a chance to spend time with Seymour before they all would have to leave. On top of that, she hadn’t even given or received any means of contact, meaning that she would just have to bump into him again to do so. But who knew how long that could take?

“Sorry everyone… but even the police department can’t protect us from the weather…”

Seymour apologized, trying to be as cheerful as he could, knowing now that he wouldn’t be able to keep his word with the sweet girl he had just met earlier in the afternoon. “…Well, given the situation, I think it might just be time to start announcing the winners of our raffle!”

Finally, some clapping from the crowd rumbled after an announcement session full of frightening news and premature disappointment.

“Yes… why don’t we turn this around and announce our first winner.” Seymour offered, now spinning the tumbler of labeled Ping-Pong balls which had just been hauled out from backstage. After a good few turns, one ball popped out of the chute, rolling to a stop in the collection bowl. The crowd waited in anticipation of the news, waiting ever so patiently for the first name to be called as the rumbling in the distance grew louder and nearer. Reaching to pick up the ball, Seymour began to select the winners of the day.