The Streets 2

Chapter 9: The search

Today, of all days, the men knew, was going to be a tedious day. The roses of the dead are something they have never heard of. Until recently. 

As they left the house to begin looking for the things, Catriona followed shortly behind them.  "I almost forgot." Arthur and Corey turned around. "You can't just pick up these flowers with your hands." she added. "What?" Arthur asked. "You will need these!" Catriona explained as she tossed out a couple pair of gloves. Corey caught both of the pairs and gave one to Arthur. "The roses of the dead contain elements of the corpse." Catriona explained. Arthur's face turned pale. "So we're going to be touching parts of a dead body?" he asked uneasily. "Not if you wear the gloves." Catriona added. 

As they left the house, Corey forgot to zip up his pocket. He grabbed his zip but realized it must've been cut off. How strange. "I could've swore I left this closed." he thought to himself as they began trailing around the place. "Where will we start?" Arthur asked. "We begin in an area where the missing person reports are displayed the most. That is our primary clue." Catriona replied. 

The search commenced. The group first visited a street close to the house. It appears to be empty. Dead silence. Stacks of leaves scattered across the concrete of the neighborhood and some of them slid into a small flowing stream of water along the kerb. It was a creepy effect, like they were fleeing away from an invisible enemy. And the glowing sight of light from the streetlamps somehow made the atmosphere surrounding them even more scarier. 

"looks like there's nothing down here." Corey said. "But we didn't even check the whole street." Arthur added, sounding excited to waste time strolling down a street where there's nothing interesting going on. Corey sighed to himself quietly and followed the two of them down the street. 

As they wandered through, there was the sound of a piece of paper flapping in the wind. Blowing very violently. But manages to resist being ripped apart. Arthur, Catriona and Corey followed the direction of the sound. They crossed a crossroad style street which was intertwined to connect all 4 streets. They continued to proceed forwards until the sound noticeably stopped.  "Wait. What?" Arthur asked. The paper that was practically flapping in their eardrum had disappeared radically. Now they're lost in a place they don't know about. "We'll go back the way we came from and we'll search another location." Catriona said. "ok." Corey replied as they turned to go back.

After navigating their way through what it seems like a maze of streets, they have reached the end of the road that connects to a main road. "I know for a fact where the recent person disappeared came from somewhere over there." Catriona explained and pointed to a row of houses blended behind a line of trees. "So we should check over there to see?" Arthur asked. "Correct." She added. 

So the three of them trolled off in the direction Catriona pointed in. 

As they made their entrance to the estate, things were beginning to get weird relatively quickly. First of all, the streetlights to their right were all turned off, even during the night. The walls on some of the houses were cracked, almost ready to tumble down and bring down their occupants with them. The group continued through the walkway and stopped in their place when they soon spotted a missing person report. Catriona walked over to the lamp post and pulled it down. She read through the document but no new information was posted on it. "This is a first step. We are slowly getting closer to find the rose." She added as she put the report into her trousers pocket. "So... we just go around the place, rip these things down and then a rose will appear?" Arthur asked. "Did you not listen the first time?" Catriona asked, slowly sounding impatient. "Sorry." Arthur added panicky. "We find the rose where the victim was attacked." She added and walked on. "Is it just me... or does it look like she's... off??" Corey asked nervously. "Corey, you are being paranoid. Wise up man." Arthur replied and the both of them walked on.