Nightmares Vs Magic

*This is a story of pure fiction, any events in this chapter that involve real locations is purely fictional and any similar events found in real life is purely coincidence. *

Enzo, surprisingly, wasn't acting worried as Annabelle thought. When she was relaying the story to me, she told me that he actually looked amused, lighting up and happy that something like that was happening. I wondered why. All I know is that he definitely didn't need to be as cautious as he always tries to have Joon be. I guess, Enzo knows his capabilities but he doesn't know Joon's yet.

Annabelle described it to me. She said it was like he had years of experience in immobilizing people. Now, to be clear, Enzo would never hurt a defenseless women, or any defenseless. I can confirm this to be true. Joon knows him well enough to be the type of man who says you should treat every pregnant or vulnerable women the way you would treat the Madonna of religion. 

But the woman was snooping around and seemed suspicious. Vernon just told me that he immobilized the woman in a safe way, making sure she couldn't scream or flee, but was still delicate with her.

Do you know how difficult it is to carefully immobilize a person without having to hurt them? It actually takes some strength to restrain yourself. Go on, try it if you don't believe me, find a sibling and pin them without fighting.

Back to the motel room, Joon kept successfully controlling the camera bot, driving it into hiding places, and then when the coast was clear, drive along the walls. 

They have so far caught a few more glimpses of the nightmares that roam the house now. Some looked like mangled mutts who's limbs were stretched out, and they walked on their hindlegs, but the multiple nightmare forms that would frequently pop up, were these creatures that looked like a mix between a human, a goblin, a troll, and a hedgehog, but all dark, no colors, only these glowing eyes.

"Dammit. Literally any window we find is all boarded up! And all the halls look the same!"

Dove frowned at Joon's observation.

"Farmhouses should not be this big that we could literally spend hours exploring the place. At best, we should've made several circles throughout this house."

Joon shrugged as he took another pause from the laptop, leaning back into the next of pillows they built. Since they had the option, Joon convinced Dove to make it feel like a sleepover with a scary video game. He took off his sneaker while she took off her boot heels, and they gathered the pillows into a cozy pile on one of the beds in the room.

"Maybe it's another ghost illusion situation, you wanna take a turn? Just look at the other nine cameras, see if maybe we can find that mysterious guy the two captives talked about?"

He then pointed to his backpack laying on the corner of the bed.

"And can you also get me one of the snacks I packed? There should be some pocky, or aaruul." 

She made a small crawl trip over to the corner and unzipped one of the slots in his backpack. That slot contained many different parts all separated into different Ziploc bags, with some containing screws. She zipped that part closed, patted down all around the bag until she heard some audible plastic crinkling and went for the other zipper of the smaller section of the backpack, at the front. 

There were snack bags of all kinds, one caught her eye. She pulled out a snack bag the size of her palm, with a yellow and green stripes. It looked like a type of snack bag with chicken flavor, or more implied it by the picture of a roasted chicken on the front.

"What's Bika?" She asked, sitting back next to Joon and showing him the bag. 

"Oh! That's a good one!" He snatched the bag from her, opening it quickly. 

Dove took the laptop from him as he did this and began checking out the cameras. Joon took a big whiff of the flavored, savory crackers, full of bliss that he closed his eyes. He then held it in front of Dove for her to sniff. She hummed with a high-pitched surprise, nodding as if to say, 'that is good!', and took a cracker. 

Malaysian snacks are really good. Joon showed me the website where he gets his assorted snacks, hence where he got the Mongolian one. He told me that Bika is a brand, not the snack name? Or so he thinks? But it has Halal-certified snacks, so he usually shares them with Jalal and Malicka.

While checking out the other non-moving cameras, Dove then frowned with an epiphany, after seeing a full body shot of one of the creatures that they had gotten numerous sightings of. 

She pulled out her phone, checked the time, and went to her contacts. She dialed Laurence's phone number. 

"Who are you calling?" Joon asked, trying his best to eat his crackers slowly, savoring them.

"The only guy who's definitely still at work at this hour." was all she said, and as if right on cue, Laurence picked up. 

"Everything ok?" He said as soon as he picked up. 

"Yeah, we're currently at a motel. The search for this mysterious farmhouse is taking longer than expected. I was hoping you'd be available for a question? Since you're likely still at the office."

Silence.

"Yeah, I am." He admitted with a grumble. 

"Joon and I have been using the cameras, and we've been seeing these strange creatures repeatedly. There's like multiple of them in the house and I want to know if there any recorded nightmares that are known to work in groups? Or like live in nests together?"

A hum could be heard from the other end, and the sounds of typing on a keyboard. 

"Alright I found several results in our digital archives. Give me a description."

"A face that looks like a mix between a troll, a human, and a goblin, looks like it has black, greasy hair from the front, but from back or sides, it looks like a porcupine standing on it's hind legs. The rest is hard to tell because everything is so dark." 

Silence, no typing sounds, only a minute of silence. 

"Like a porcupine and a troll?" He repeated in a questioning phrase.

"With grey skin most likely. I know it sounds weird, but that's what we keep seeing."

"Are any of them carrying any arrows?"

"No, not that we can see. Some look like they have extended limbs dragging across the floor."

"The description sounds very close to Pukwudgies. Supernatural category."

"Pukwudgies?" She repeated, and put the call on speaker so Joon can hear. 

"what the heck are Pukwudgies?" The boy mouthed. 

"I first heard about them from Ursa." He responded as some rustling sounds were heard from his end. 

The sound of a drawer, and then some shuffling, then the flipping of some pages.

"She once told me about them. Let's see.." The sound of pages flipping were heard. 

Then a hum.

"Ah, here. There are several mythologies about Pukwudgies, they mostly come from folklore told by either Wampanoag or several other tribes. They are known for being mischievous but also very dangerous. Lurking in the forest, they Kidnap, do dangerous pranks especially with their magic, or even lead people to their deaths."

Joon snapped his fingers as he ate another cracker.

"Great! Looks like we figured out what creatures we're dealing with!" 

"Hold on." Laurence quickly interjected before they could celebrate.

"While it may seem like all the physical descriptions fit, you told me they all seem to be roaming around in this farmhouse?"

"Yeah, and from how long we'd been exploring, the inner parts of this weird house don't even feel like they match the blueprint on the background screen. We've been looking around for hours and the moving camera hasn't even found a room with any of the other cameras." Joon replied. 

"Alright. Well, some legends do say that Pukwudgies tend to prank humans by making them lost, so that's probably what they are doing. What doesn't seem to fit is that they are all roaming around or nesting inside a house?"

"Why would that part not make sense? The house is likely abandoned in the woods, save for a possible serial killer, because we also found two captives locked in a room. But, we couldn't access it, and we haven't seen anything on the cameras about this guy."

"The name 'Pukwudgie' is said to translate to 'Person of the wilderness', so it doesn't make sense that they would all be cooped up inside a building. And they are all just roaming around?"

"Each time we see them, they just walk around slowly, sometimes they'll pick up one of the cameras, inspect it, but then drop it and just walk away. Their mannerisms are pretty sluggish for mischievous creatures now that I think about it."

"And very unlike how the actual creatures would act. So, they don't have any weapons or anything?"

"Each of them always looked empty handed and lost."

"That is the one thing that stands out. We've never actually dealt with a case involving Pukwudgies before, either narrowly avoiding them, or Ursa would help us make sure we avoid them, since there were never really any sources about killing them. But since she's away and busy... Just be careful, okay? You're surrounded by forest, and these creatures, whether it's the real thing or not, likely have a magic that allows them to make people get lost."

"Will do."

"And if it gets late, go to bed."

"Good on you to say your affirmations and goals out loud." Dove replied.

"Wha-"

She quickly hung up before Laurence could correct her. Joon gave her a thumbs up as he chewed with a smile, offering another chicken-flavored cracker to her. She took one and popped it into her mouth as she proceeded to quickly call Annabelle. Joon took out his own phone to research more about the new creatures they learned of.

The phone rang for a minute, and then a minute longer, and finally Annabelle picked up.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Anna? We just figured out what cryptids we're dealing with. Pukwudgies, creatures that are known to play with humans by making them lost or kidnapping them." Dove said as she read some info from a short article the boy showed her. 

"There's a lot more to it, but since it's getting dark, you guys should come back to the inn. It won't be safe to search for the strange house at night anyway."

"Ah, about that. I'm afraid we can't!"

"Why not?"

Annabelle ended the call, then a moment later, Joon's phone vibrated, and Annabelle was facetiming him. 

He opened the notification and leaned closer in so that Dove could see as well. Annabelle was in the camera frame, smiling as usual with her free hand gesturing toward the hiking trail she was standing out of. 

"We are currently heading to the woods to find it right now!"

Joon slapped his palm on his forehead as Dove processed the words. 

"Why, would any of you do that? Especially at night? Weren't we supposed to wait until Leon's brothers got here first? Why are you alone?!"

Annabelle kept smiling, but something was off. Her face was so still, even though her tone and voice matched how she usually spoke. 

"Because we found out where it is! The other two already went in, I was waiting outside, just about to call you. Come out and we can search for this place together!" 

There was silence, followed by Joon and Dove giving each other a side eye. Joon pointed his phone up towards the ceiling, they could hear Annabelle's voice through the phone going 'Hello? Are you both still there?'.

Dove passed her phone to Joon and gestured to the furthest corner from them. 

'Call Vernon.' She mouthed. 'Or Enzo.'

He nodded and went to the furthest corner, while Dove continued humoring this Annabelle, facing the camera back to her face alone. 

"How did you guys find the house?"

"We followed this hiking trail of course!"

"What told you that this hiking trail would lead you to the farmhouse? We didn't even find any clues or anything." She asked, squinting her eyes with suspicion. 

Annabelle's face seemed to crack, or whatever was impersonating her, was almost slipping. Her smile wasn't as sharp, her tone was kept the same, like monotonous. The Annabelle that I'm familiar with, is energetic, and would definitely be shaking the camera, moving about and all. She hates being still, unlike whatever this impersonator is doing now.

"We hiked of course! What else would we have done?"

"Hiked? On random? In clothes that weren't even made for hiking?" Dove asked with a more suspicious tone. 

The impersonator was wavering. And then Dove lightened her tone.

"Now that would've been funny to see! Let me guess, you just up and decided to walk off course, found the trail, kept going, and they had to chase after you?"

The Annabelle on the other end blinked, and then quickly responded with a wavering tone.

"Well, of course! If you come out here and join me, I can show you exactly how funny it is."

Dove smiled at the phone. 

"Which hiking trail is it? I'll look it up and we'll come to you."

Her eyes wavered again, and the thing looked away from the screen, to what seemed like something behind it, still smiling, but less like an Annabelle smile and more like a painted-on smile. The camera was beginning to shake. 

"Or, if it's an unmarked trail, you can just like, stay there and use your phone to send us your location?" 

The impersonator beamed again, eyes darting sharply back to the camera, similar to a doll whose plastic eyes were designed to track and follow movement. 

"Yes! I will use this device to send you, my location! Come here quickly! The others are waiting for us!"

Dove let out a chuckle she was suppressing before the Annabelle impersonator could hang up, along with her smile that she was really trying to hide. 

I was not hiding my smile and laugh for reasons you might be thinking.

"If you weren't so weird all the time, I would've thought you were an illusion. We have got to come up with a codeword."

The girl nodded to the screen, saying nothing, and then just staring at the screen with a smile. Like she had no idea how to end the call. She was staring so hard, it was almost like she was trying to manifest getting to the girl through the screen. Dove ended the call for them, but not before reminding the impersonator to send her location. 

Just in time, a knock was heard at the door. Joon had long ended his call and was waiting. He looked to Dove, gesturing with his hand for her to stay quiet as he stepped near Enzo's bed, where his bag of weapons was. 

He had placed a chair underneath the doorknob earlier after ending the call. 

"Joon? Dove?" A muffled voice called out. 

Then there was a beep, the door being unlocked after scanning the card of the room key. The doorknob shook but wouldn't budge due to the chair. The muffled voice sighed. 

"Joon? Dove? Please open the door. I'm not an imposter."

"What's the password?"

"I am not saying the silly password. I have the key card, and I will name all your hijinks at the lab if you need more convincing."

"Say it."

"Why did you have to come up with the sillie-"

"SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS! NOW LET ME IN AND SHOW ME THE THIEF WHO TOOK MY PHONE!"

Screeched a voice that clearly sounded like the real Annabelle. 

Dove could not help but laugh out loud, and so did Joon as he removed the chair from the door.

Annabelle bursted in and would've tackled Dove to the floor if the girl wasn't so durable and already sitting on the edge of the bed. She reached for the phone in her hand and stared at it, a crazed look mixed with an annoyed expression. She snapped her head as she looked sharply at Dove. 

"Did you get a glimpse of the thief?"

"No. The person holding the phone was impersonating you, almost like a perfect copy if only they had acted right."

Annabelle let out this growl, not at Dove, but rather at the phone in her hand as she crouched to the ground, almost ready to pounce on it in the hopes of getting through to the impersonator on the other side. 

"FOOL! NO ONE CAN IMPERSONATE ME!" She screeched again. 

Vernon took the phone out of her hands, handed Dove hers, and gently tossed Joon's phone back to him. The boy sighed in relief, genuinely thinking Annabelle might break it.

Enzo rubbed his temple. 

"Please clear some space kids. We have a guest." He said, before stepping to the side to show the person standing by the door. 

A woman with braided hair, a sweatshirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. An ordinary woman, but based on her body language, a normal woman who was feeling nervous, and uneasy, standing by the door. 

"This woman is Hillary Helms, the person we were initially looking for. She has some information that I think will be very useful." He introduced her. 

"We met when she was snooping around my car, apparently looking for clues of her own, and my car looked suspicious for some reason."

"It was new in town and different from the ones I was used to seeing, so..."

She waved hello awkwardly. 

Joon clapped and made his way back over to Dove, grinning at his phone screen.

"Well, nice to meet you, Miss Hillary! Wow, you guys did great, finding her so soon! Wanna know what discoveries we made on our end." Eager to brag about his and Dove's own achievements, looking to Enzo.

"Oh! That's right, what did you both find?" Annabelle asked as she got up after plotting a plan whilst sitting on the carpeted floor. 

Dove closed the camera app on the laptop, now that the woman who requested her help was right in front of her. She needn't worry about monitoring and showing actions anymore. After a quick search online, she turned the screen to show their results. 

"The names of the creatures we frequently saw throughout the house, and-"

"A possible trail leading to the location of the creepy farmhouse!" Joon popped up, showing his screen next. 

The messenger app was open, showing a text history between him and Annabelle. The most recent text was a link to a shared location that can be shown by tapping on it and going to maps. 

Annabelle looked at the screen.

"You saved me in your contacts as 'the real scary doll'?"

"Your name has always reminded me of the raggedy Ann doll. I couldn't help it."

While the two talked about what was found on his phone, Dove carefully handed the laptop over to Enzo so that he could read the article she pulled up. 

"Pukwudgies?" He asked for clarification.

"We managed to get multiple views of the things, called Laurence to give him a description of their physical features, and that's the result we got. Except, Laurence seemed unsure about them being actual Pukwudgies."

"Well, that's understandable. These creatures are said to be typically found in either Massachusetts or Indiana, not in Maine. But it must be plausible as they mainly originated from the Northeastern states." 

"Well, that and he said that it was strange for these creatures to be cooped up in a dark building, just walking around. Joon and I even found the voices of two people locked in a room. But they sounded very much alive."

"What did they sound like?!" Hillary sat up from her seat, face now wide awake and alarmed.

"Did either of them sound like a woman???!" She asked. 

"Neither of them sounded feminine, we couldn't really tell. Their voices were muffled." Dove told her.

Enzo eased the woman to sit back down, although now she looked more nervous.

"The Pukwudgies that you described don't sound like the ones I've heard of from Ursa." Enzo responded. 

He skimmed the rest of the article quickly before handing the laptop back to the women. She took it and looked up, awkwardly making eye contact with Dove. 

"You must be Dove, right?"

"You mean you only know her name but not what she looks like?" Joon asked, but then Vernon wrapped his mouth up with some leaves growing out of his little potted plant, muffling him. 

The girl only nodded to the woman. 

"How do you know my name?"

"I-I never meant to hurt you anything, I just really needed help finding someone. A guy recommended me to you, but he told me you wouldn't believe me if I told you everything, so he said I needed to trick you into playing a game or threaten you." The woman responded, eyes flicking between her laptop, and the girl she now knew as the Dove she was told to contact. 

Dove gripped her arm a little tighter, but she kept a blank face. Vernon went and sat beside her.

"You're younger than I thought." She muttered. 

"Hm?"

"Nothing, just- my sister is missing. A lot of missing person cases have been happening lately, but no one has been doing much about it!" 

"Is it because the ones that have gone missing were people one could easily overlook?" Enzo guessed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the desk provided in the room. 

The woman nodded, opening up the camera app on her laptop, and not even a minute later, she took a sharp breath and closed the laptop. 

"There was one who would often complain about living in this town. saying they were sick of staying here and was planning to one day leave and go somewhere else. He didn't have any family or friends, and one day, it was rumored that he left overnight. Car was gone, but he left a bunch of his stuff behind. Some people think that he was so eager to leave that he just up and left. But it felt too sloppy, his house wasn't put up for sale and most of his stuff was gone. But then the other kidnappings started getting less sloppy."

"In what way?" Dove asked.

The woman was quiet, and then she took her large tote bag that she had with her, and pulled out a bunch of papers. 

Enzo got up and cleared the desk for her. 

The case of missing people had been going on for apparently a few weeks. 

"It all started in July. The first victim was the guy I told you about, the next was a tourist, a woman from out of state, and then an elderly person that a lot of people knew actually. There were talks about him leaving town soon to go visit travel one last time, and yet he didn't give his friends any notice when he disappeared. Some assumed he committed suicide, since he was alone." She laid out a photo for each victim, photos of the woman was a printed copy of a screenshot from her social media. 

"The most recent was my sister. She loved going hiking and wouldn't listen to a thing I or anyone said about being careful.

When she got kidnapped, she did manage to call me. And thanks to me studies in technology, I tracked her phone GPS." 

Then there was the map.

Rangeley is a popular place due to its forest, lake, amazing views, and it's a known place where you can hike and explore nature. Because of this, the stores or gift shops for out-of-town visitors has lots of pamphlets and maps.

Hillary had one and had been using it to mark all of the dense forests in the region, it was covered in marker, and with some tiny holes in the corners or in certain spots crossed out with marker. This hinted that she had previously pinned it up. 

She pointed to a specific spot marked with a red X, far from the other marked trails, pretty much near the mountain area based on geographic indications.

"Her phone GPS showed me this random spot, and that's how I found the farmhouse. Unmarked and off the grid, and yet you could easily find it if you just knew where to look."

Out of curiosity, Joon compared it to the shared location he received from the imposter earlier. The map side of the pamphlet was unfolded all the way as Joon opened the link, also showing him a marking on a map, and he made sure to zoom out before comparing it to the spot marked on Hillary's map.

"It's the same then, no need for confirmation." Enzo said as he patted Joon on the head. 

"So then, can you help me find my sister? I know I sort of threatened you with blackmail, but I didn't know what else to do." Hillary said. 

Enzo looked at her and waved his hand to Dove. 

"You'll have to ask her." He said, surprising the girl. 

Dove frowned, thinking Enzo would be eager to help after confirming the location, or at least explain that they should at least wait until daytime. 

"I really need help. The police and especially the sheriff in our town won't do anything. Planting the cameras was as much as I could do before whatever things in the house could get me next."

Hillary looked at her, her hands interlocked together. 

Dove blinked and frowned, but before she could even think of a response, she noticed something ended up making a faster decision for her. 

"Wait, where's Annabelle?" She asked, causing everyone else to look around. 

Vernon casually tapped her shoulder and then pointed to the window. 

Hillary yelled in surprise, seeing the fully, toothy, smiling face of a girl staring dead at the window, her face right up to the glass, outside in the dark. She was holding one of the guns Enzo had brought with them, causing Enzo to check his stockpile as soon as he noticed. In her other hand was her phone. Joon's phone.

She had sent a text to Vernon, Vernon in turn, read it out loud to everyone. 

"Since the location was confirmed, I am going after the pickpocket who took my phone. No one gets away with stealing from a professional pick pocketer." He read out loud. 

Annabelle, still standing outside the window, nodded in confirmation, before bolting off to the location. 

Joon panicked. 

"Wait a minute! She essentially took off with my phone. Shit!" He said, picked up his baton, and ran out of the room. 

Enzo, out of reflex, grabbed his suitcase holding most of his main weapons, threw on a coat, and chased after the boy. 

Dove, stunned and quiet as the woman who watched the whole thing, turned back to her with a very confused expression.

"I... had a spare phone in my bag if they needed-,,, you know what, never mind." She turned to the woman as she picked up her own baton. 

"It looks like the teams are split again. Enzo, Joon, and Annabelle will go search the farmhouse, and they'll find your sister. Vernon and I will stay here with you to keep you safe, unless one of them calls on Vernon for support." She said to her and mostly herself to keep a clear head. 

Hillary nodded. She handed Dove back the laptop.

Dove opened it and went to the cameras' app again. 

"In the meantime, we can still help them from a distance by using your cameras." She told the woman before looking back at the screens. 

Suddenly, sounds of screaming and cries could be heard from the computer's audio, and many of the camera screens were turning to static. 

With the moving camera, she nearly froze as a face came into view. The face of a person, holding the moving camera up with his hands, looking at it, and then smiling as the view shifted. Blurry and wavering, until it became still and the view was that of a door to a room. 

The person from before, it was difficult to see his features now that it was fully dark. Dove tried to turn on the flashlight, but nothing was working. He had likely broken it upon finding the device. 

There was mostly his silhouette in the dark, of what looked like a rugged looking man based on the shape of his clothes. He used one hand to open the door of some room. 

Inside the room was a bit of light, appearing to be coming from the top. A skylight, and it looked natural based on how clean the light was able to come down, and the shadows making a neat circle around the light. 

Positioned in the light was a corpse with its eyes scooped out, mouth hung open, sitting in a slouched posture on the floor. Like a doll. His hands were both nailed to the floor, planted in a way that kept him up, or there was probably something else holding him. Hard to tell as the rags he was wearing covered whatever must've happened to his body. He was dressed like a scarecrow character. 

The man who opened the door, you couldn't see much of his features, but you could see his pearly white teeth, smiling at the camera as he presented his work. 

Dove slammed the laptop shut. Turned to Hillary.

"It'll be okay." She said out loud, but her tone sounded more like she was telling herself. 

Hillary stared with wide eyes, for she saw what was on the screen as well. Dove could see the panic rising in her face as her eyes became glossy. 

"That man..." She said as her voice quivered, both hands reaching up to cover her mouth. 

"What if the kidnapper did the same thing to my sister already?" She sobbed. 

Dove was still, and pale. Vernon put a hand on her shoulder, wondering why she suddenly became so silent. 

I felt like a really bad person in this moment, because after seeing that corpse on the screen and the silhouette of the guy in the background, likely the killer and kidnapper, I suddenly just wanted to leave. I suddenly, deeply regretted going to this town and should've just waited for Leon's brothers to get there so that we could all go together. But then I had to remind myself, if we didn't act quick enough, more victims, like Hillary's sister, would've been murdered long before we could save them.

I shouldn't have frozen like a coward, but I got so scared, because seeing that corpse, and the mysterious man in the camera footage, and with the knowledge that Hillary was told by a guy, about me, I was so scared. 

I thought the man from my true nightmares was back and found me, deciding to haunt me in a new way. 

Dove passed the laptop over to Vernon, hands shaking. He gently set it down as he stood close by Dove. He watched as she got her phone out and hesitated calling Laurence again, but then her phone rang before she could find his contact. 

Unknown number. 

She pressed the 'answer' button but couldn't muster a 'hello'.

"Dove? It's Leon, I asked Laurence to give me your phone number. Is everything alright?" Said Leon's familiar voice from the other end. 

Dove nearly let out a gasp but instead cleared her throat and silently took a deep breath. 

"I see." She responded. 

"We're currently in a tense situation now, so you nearly scared me there. Sorry." 

"No, I should be saying sorry. I didn't think about how late it was anyway, but I needed to tell you something that I was hoping might bring some comfort. Laurence updated me earlier that your team ended up having to stay for longer."

"It's no trouble, just something to get used to. What is the good news, if I may ask?"

"My brothers are heading over to Rangeley now. They were just here at the agency a few minutes ago because Laurence needed to give them a capture book, and they should arrive in Rangeley in just a few minutes now." 

Dove let out a sigh, and made a positive face to show Hillary, hoping to ease her worries just a bit.

"That's very good to hear, thank you. We're in a bit of a situation, ah, Annabelle charged off to go find our perp at this unknown location, Enzo and Joon went after her. Vernon and I are here with the victim, Hillary. We'll wait for your brothers, and I'll tell the others."

"Of course. Be careful child."

Call ended. 

Dove was quick to tell Hillary that backup would be arriving soon. The woman still was not put at ease. 

"No! I can't wait!" Hillary said as she began packing up her items.

"That monster is that the house, along with those weird, creepy things! Who knows what they're doing to my sister right now!"

"I understand your concern, but you have to leave this to the professionals. Please stay here where it's safe ma'am, otherwise, you might just end up-"

"What?!" The woman turned harshly to face her.

"A burden? Another victim?" She said to her face.

"I don't care! I've waited long enough; I've watched and stayed put when others got kidnapped and now that my sister was taken, I tried to change that. I took the responsible action of going to the police, and they did nothing. I tracked down the mysterious house, but couldn't get far because I was scared, so I reached out for help. You and your group came, but still nothing is happening. You may have been able to also find the location of the house, but aside from that, you've done nothing! I'm done waiting and doing nothing. So far, anytime I took matters into my own hands. I got something. You can either help keep me safe while we do something, or you two can wait here, while I go to the farmhouse as well." 

Hillary took a deep breath. 

Dove was silent. And then she heard Vernon moving. During Hillary's rant, Vernon got curious and tried to see what Dove saw on the screens, but when he opened the laptop again, all of the screens showed nothing but static. There were no more working cameras. 

Down the drain went my safe plan and retort.

Dove looked between the laptop and Hillary, who reshuffled her bag and began making her way to the door. 

"Please wait!" Dove blurted out. 

The woman paused at the door. Dove attempted to hide her expression from the woman, not because of any other reason, just that she for some reason had this sad face when trying to stop the woman from leaving. The girl then shook her head and re-focused. 

She looked to Enzo's bed for any weapons she could use and then looked to her suitcase on the bed with the next of pillows. 

"... Ah, shit." She whispered under her breath before going to grab. 

Then after making sure Vernon grabbed his potted plant, she walked up to Hillary, then past her, and opened the door for the woman. 

"We'll escort you." She told the woman.