The chilly air in the city swayed the low grasses against our boots, I didn’t really want to go on my first detective mission a.k.a saving the village agenda with the grumpy ass mate that seems to be jealous of me. Not like I blame her though but I am still disappointed.

Tony did want to go with me, I saw it in his squeezed face when Rose chose to go with him. I am pretty sure he glared at her to change her mind. It could even be that they shared a room because her ass was scared to go to bed alone in this weird ass town or just her obsession with unaware pictures and videos.

“They just keep staring” Thelma says, dragging my gaze towards her, her voice is a lot more friendly and she is gazing helplessly at the old woman who hurried into her tiny house which I would argue is a freaking hut. Thelma was right though, from the looks of it, the villagers would stare and when we look back they would go back to whatever they were doing only to stare again after we had looked away.

They wouldn’t even talk if we approach them and they barely talked to each other or stayed in pairs, it was just like a one-man-to-himself kind of thing. But what they didn’t do was leave what they were doing to go inside with the exception of the old woman that locked eyes with Thelma

“She seems to know something” I blurted right from my thoughts. The look on Thelma’s face says it all. How much she hates being here with me and how lame she think my current suggestion is

“You didn't just see that cruel stare as an invitation to that old woman’s tiny house” just like I envisioned – the feeling is mutual – if she must know

"come on, how are we going to help them if we don’t know anything about this shadow thing? – remember what they said about Clues” I argue. Trying my very best to be the nicest I can – she better not push me though

Thelma crashes her eyebrows together tight-lipped and fixes her gaze on me for what I would call a long three seconds then her face lightens and she steps out from the path she had initially blocked. On second thought, impossible friendships are still possible though as far as she maintains the good girl attitude and let me do my shit

The interior of the woman’s little home was brighter than the windows showed, her stuffed bed in one end leaving only little room for a few belongings. The woman’s back turned to us while she arranges the pile of cloth on the bed. There is no way she didn't notice us enter the room, so is she completely ignoring us?

“Leave” The woman's voice ridden was with age, her skin squeezed on her neck and she moved slowly when she turned. A brief glance at her face, her pupils very soft like a bubble covering them, her face had more wrinkles and she gazed to the other end of the hut behind me

She is blind! I steal a gaze at Thelma who had the obvious ‘I told you so' look, her left brow raised “We are so sorry, we thought you were looking,” she said and raised the curtains to leave but stops when I don’t follow her

“oh! You did” The woman’s voice was now cold she slowly turned back to her packing, I look towards her slow hands folding the clothes - I need to help her

“let's go” Thelma says, still holding the curtain up, her face squeezed. Ignoring her, I stroll towards the woman to assist her with the clothes. I pick each fabric and folded it placing it in the box just by the woman's bed

“do you know anything about the family in the mansion?” I ask slowly making a distance from the woman when she froze, the cloth in her hands drops as her body shook.

Thelma’s sharp glare could tear through me, her twitched brows crashed even further. A look of concern grew on her face when her gaze shifted to the woman but she insisted “we should leave”

I catch the woman just in time before she fell and help her sit on the bed, the woman's trembling breath heaving repeatedly “she knows something, we need to calm her down first and then she will tell us what she knows”

"no, we need to leave”

“Thelma – we need any info we can get, how else are we going to if not asking the residents? She is literally the only one that has said anything to us”

Thelma breathes a laugh holding her hands in her head while her eyes wandered around the room and then rests on the woman who was so deep in grieve to care about our conversation “she is fucking blind duh” She is almost shouting now, her eyes sharp and filled with hate but more so frustration, her hands slapping her forehead as she spoke.

Dramatic much, I roll my eyes at her and turn my focus to the woman “I am sorry for asking about that but they might be related to the shadow kidnaps?”

“Nobody talks about the whispering shadows, they took my whole family, one by one till I was the only one left” the woman trembled even further and loses herself from my grip

“I am so sorry ma’am, but this why we need to find out what happened to the family so we can find a way to save this town” I assure her now making a distance between us to let her sit properly on her bed

“You never would have come here in the first place, they will take you one by one until no one is left” she says

I gasp, not only at the words but the Old woman’s grip on my poor fingers grew tighter, she pulls me back when I try to free my hand. Instead of helping me, Thelma rolls her eyes still leaning on the door frame looking outside in obvious annoyance, getting no response from her I face the woman and my lips break open even though I didn’t really know what it is I was about to say but she interrupts me

“The shadows, they travel with the darkness so I heard, the whispering grows strong once they are near and the lights go off from the chilly breeze they trigger so they could get close to you” her voice breaks and she swallow a huge gulp of air “You should find a way to leave this place maybe you still can”

“find a way?” I looked at Thelma who was now interested in the conversation because she looked back at me in abject confusion, I didn’t see the part about not being able to leave on the site. Unless that is what they meant when they said we cannot leave until we save the village and I fucking signed it. 
“once you have enter, you cannot leave this village, we have been stuck here for a very long time not able to leave the town. I will never see the sea again till the day I die” she shuddered at her last sentence

 
My amused face suppressing a laugh, the cab driver's words cling in my mind while I chuckled silently and this somehow surprises Thelma because she widens her eyes at me.

The thing is, this was getting all the more exciting because it just felt so real and that excites me all the more. I look at the woman who seemed to me like she was crying, the quiet one where tears just roll down your cheeks and you don’t sniff at all “I heard they took a person every night” I say

she nods "mostly the young ones, they had taken every young person in the village, we haven’t heard so much of a shriek till you came strolling by”

My eyes widens – there were only old women in the Village when I arrived and then was the group of teens chuckling at a game they were playing I did glance through them at a point, and I remember the relief I felt from the fact that there were at least young people in the village.

But then that could only mean that they were targets to the shadows and that would also explain that the voice from last night must have been one of them. I sprung up to my feet and hurried past Thelma who followed me against her better judgment.

"they hadn't done anything in a long time until you started to come, you need to find a way to leave or you all will die” The woman’s trembling voice echoed after us as we hurried out.

I remember seeing those kids in a cave-like structure a few feet before I got to the hotel the day I arrived. Finding them is a way I would be able to figure out the shadow thing. Doubt crumbles my drive with the realization that the sound did come out from the forest afar off, even if it was the kids, would they have gone back to the cave, they must have a room in the hotel, right?