Paradise on earth

14. Homecoming

The sound of the heavy door knocker echoed from inside Mrs. Limbreys's home. Pope slams the handle down thrice more giving you all a questioning look, "Was that too much?" 

"It echoed the entire house that's for sure," JJ responds. "So they definitely heard it."

"Maybe nobody's home?" Kie says. Pope lifts the handle to the door knocker and slams it down twice more, on the second knock a man with light brown hair, dark circles around his eyes, and a scruffy beard opens the door. He surveys the group and smirks, pointing at the boy to your left. 

"You must be Pope."

Pope hesitates, then asks "Are you Mr. Limbrey?"

"Ms. Limbrey" The man corrects, "was expecting you yesterday."

"I'm sorry, my car broke down on the way up here-" Pope stutters.

"Carburetor blew up in the middle of nowheresville." JJ tells the guy, "Sorry about that."

"She was really upset when you didn't show up."

"We tried to call, but there's no number on the invitation." You piped in, "We got here as fast as we could."

"She also expected you to come alone." The man reels the attention back on Pope.

"These are my friends, they helped find the royal merchant too. I-"

"The instructions were explicit, your friends can stay outside." He forces a smile, an attempt to seem nicer than what he was demanding.

JJ tries to negotiate by telling the man that the group was a package deal but Pope shuts him down. "It's okay, I got this. I'll be good."

"Yeah, we'll be right here" Kie smiles reassuringly.

Pope whispers with his back slightly turned to Mrs. Limbreys lackey "Keep the car running." He squeezes Kiara's hand and followed the man inside. He lets the door shut behind him and you wince at the sound. The idea of Pope being alone with the unkempt-looking man and the strange woman who was apparently highly upset that he didn't show up on time, left you feeling uneasy. 

Nevertheless, you, Kiara, and JJ got comfortable inside Hayward's truck, keeping a close eye on the large yellow house.

"If Limbrey's legit then Ward gets arrested, and maybe Sarah gets the gold," Kie explains as you watch Pope get swept to the backyard of Mrs. Limbrey's house. He looks at the truck but it was hard to decipher if he was in trouble or not. 

"Does that look voluntary?" You ask the others. The man who was now following close behind a blonde woman who you can only assume would be Mrs. Limbrey, pushed Pope to look forward. 

"That would be a negative," JJ said.

"Come on," Kie was ready to go after them until JJ laid a hand on her shoulder to keep her from going. "What?"

"They're going into the alley," You notice. "So we should go around the back."

"Yeah, we'll meet them on the other side." JJ turns the key to the truck in the ignition and slowly goes around the block. You and Kie stare intently into the alleyways but there was no sign of Pope, Mrs. Limbrey, or the man. 

"Where did they go?" You questioned.

"What if they went underground?" JJ started with his unlikely theories, "In C.H.U.D. when they took people down into the sewers, it would turn the humans into humanoids 'cause of the radiation. And then all of a sudden-"

"JJ, that doesn't even make any sense." 

Kie gives the both of you a fixed look and returns to her search for Pope. Five-Ten minutes pass and no sign of him, you pull out your phone in hopes that there would be service. You open up google maps and set it to satellite mode, tracing where Limbreys house would be to any potential paths they could have taken.