She was always light on her feet. Her petite posture seemed weightless and easy to slip through every crack and hid behind objects that were only slightly larger than her.
The streets were empty though, she didn’t need much hiding except from her father’s armed men standing around at her house. The blackness sometimes gets into her head and creepy images start to emerge in her mind of all the things she had seen through her dreams or whatever place that she went to when she drifted from reality and wonder if those things she saw would come after her in the dark.
Her steps were increasingly faster as the fear built up in her head. The sound of her footsteps echoed in the streets of Mofocity, a sound of a can being kicked from an alley and a cough set her off to run. She started to realize that she might have not thought about this thoroughly, the way to The Dungeon was still long and there was nothing but thick blackness and silence. The notion that there were people lurking in the dark, preying for others instilled more horror than any monster she had in her mind.
She was fairly young when it started, she didn’t even know what was real and what was not. Figures and images like she was in a lucid dream. She could see them, but they couldn’t see her, not the real people anyways. Something else was always there, guiding her, and they could see her just fine but nobody else could see them.
She remembered seeing her dad hurting his employee, she didn’t quite understand what it all meant but she knew it was something that had happened in the past.
She remembers seeing Iris, her sister-in-law with her boy toys, although it wasn’t a lucid dream, it was a memory from when she was younger. She knew that because Killian is real. Iris’s boy toy whom she had a huge crush on, and he’s still around.
She remembered a lady, dressed in an old Victorian dress holding a baby in her arms. This one, she was not sure of. The faceless lady was in her dreams and into reality. Just the way she did that night, standing under the street light ahead of her, watching, guiding her way. As much as she gave her the shivers, the lady gave her a sense that she wasn’t alone, whether that’s a good thing or not is not yet determined.
She finally arrived at The Dungeon, the place looked grimmer when it’s closed and all the lights were off. She took the stairs from the back alley to Adrian’s room, and the door was opened. “Adrian!” she called out in a whisper. There was no answer. “Adrian!” she stepped inside.
“He’s not here,” Jordan’s voice can be heard from the dark. “Friday? What are you doing here?” he asked with a flat voice.
“Shit!” she thought. “I have to find Adrian … something’s up.”
Jordan turned on a little light in the corner of the room. “Well he’s not here,” he replied unenthusiastically.
“Do you know where he went?” Jordan didn’t answer. “You know … his father used to beat him up really bad when he was little … right after his mom died,” he was reminiscing all of the sudden.
“Really bad, sometimes his whole face was swollen, his ribs were crushed, his leg broken … and then he came out here to hide from his dad, and that’s when we met,” Jordan looked sad. Friday didn’t quite understand why Jordan told her that story.
“He doesn’t remember any of it, and I never reminded him either … I wanted to protect him from the heartache,” he stopped.
“Jordan, we need to find Adrian and tell him something … he’s in big trouble.”
Jordan was staring blankly, “Yeah, he’s in big … big trouble.”
********
Esmee was running up the stairs, panting and frantic. “Adrian!! Adrian!!” she was calling him as she climbed up the stairs. She held her breath when she found Jordan and Friday instead.
“Where’s Adrian?” she asked. Jordan stood up, he couldn’t believe that she dared to come over looking for Adrian. “Jordan, where’s Adrian?” she sounded concerned. “There were strange men lurking around my neighborhood, the police were out there on patrol and they chased them away, I don’t know what’s going on! I was too scared to stay there by myself, I asked the police to drop me over here.”
Friday pulled her into the room and shut the door. She told them both what she had heard at her house.
“And he was gone when you got here?” Esmee’s tone was escalating. Jordan didn’t say anything. “Jordan, do you know where he is?”
He gave a sharp look at Esmee. “No! I don’t! He was gone when I got here.”
“Are you absolutely sure you didn’t tell him to leave?” Esmee didn’t believe him.
“How dare you?!”
“Hey! Hey! What’s the matter with you two? I think we should go look for him,” Friday interrupted.
It was the right time to tell them everything about her project with Adrian, so Friday told them everything.
“The island?” Jordan repeated it to himself.
“I think I know where it is, at least I know how to get there,” said Friday.
Jordan sighed in distress, “I don’t know Friday … it’s seemed so far-fetched, nobody has ever come back from the woods.”
“Killian did, he told me he went into the woods then came back.”
“Killian?” Jordan raised his eyebrows. “Did he go all the way?”
Friday hesitated, “Well, no, but he came back, he goes there a lot.”
“What was he doing in there?”
“I don’t know, but that’s beside the point … I think I can make it Jordy, Killian gave me a drawing, the direction into the woods, the safety route.”
Jordan wasn’t convinced, “I’m not so sure Friday.”
“I’m going Jordy, but I need Adrian … and I need to go back to the house to get my stuff.”
“I’m gonna look for him, you and Esmee just stay here until I get back … it’s too dangerous out there.”
“Where will you go?” asked Esmee. “To the Police station, see if they made an arrest or just talk to the Chief … see if he knows anything.”
Esmee took Jordan’s hand, “Be careful,” she said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find him,” he knew that was what Esmee wanted to hear. “Lock the doors, and don’t open it for anyone until I get back.”