Mind Breaker

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 3

21 Hunter Street Ashford.

Raden typed in the name. A bunch of pictures of an old town popped up.
Everything in the pictures looked abandoned. Except for the tall coast redwood trees in the back ground. Many knew that this place was done, there was never- there is never a living soul in spot.

Years ago the families that once lived in those houses had to run because the amount of air strikes that had been miss calculated leading it down straight to the Ashford.

Lucky no one had ever died from those, but people were still cautious.

Raden thought to himself, exactly why this Roman guy wood fly out to that town. If he's an explorer, it would make sense, but based off of his dead wife's age and looks, he too would be to old to go exploring places like Ashford.

Maybe he has a team... But if Roman never returned, that would mean his team... they're either ghosted or somewhere else.

There was a buzz from the cellphone that layed on his desk.
Raden picked it up to hear his partner on the other side.

"uh yeah, sir we found some skin, uh, samples from under the woman's nails. Seems like she happened to claw the intruder, we've sent it in to be tested. Hopefully we find some lead."

"Great thank you, Parker. I'm busy with the research, it seems the Roman guy was in Ashford..."

"Ashford, the abandoned town, yeah?"

"That's the one, so I'm trying to figure out what the hell he was doing there."

"Okay, let's keep each other updated then. Talk later sir."

"Stop eating while on duty"

"I'll try, sir"

Raden ended the call, sinking back into his leather chair.
He stared up at the ceiling...

"... I need a coffee"

☆

Casual music played through the speakers in the convenience store.
Most stuff out of stock.
The woman who is supposedly the cashier always popped up from around the corner watching Raden Sokolov. She seemed to be pretending to work.

Raden stopped at the coffee racks, thinking about what coffee to buy this time, or at least how many. His hand twitched as he noted the spec of dust on the shelf.

The cashier girl came up to him, all smiles and happiness at this hour of night, almost midnight to be exact.

He looked at her name tag before speaking.
"Ms Shorrt, do you happen to have no decaffeinated coffee in the back? They seem to be out of stock" He smiled, her cheeks went instantly red.

"I'll go check." She giggled, and hurried off.

Raden rolled his eyes in annoyance, heading to the ice cream corner.
He opened one of the freezer doors, and took buckets of chocolate ice cream.
The smell of sweet aroma filled his nostrils, he looked down at the ice cream in the basket.

His eyes looked left.

It was the same woman he met in the alleyway.
She was busy looking down the freezer, the same as Raden.
She took the vanilla boxed popsicles.

When she finally turned, the two locked eye contact.
Like a grey cloud hovering over the Atlantic.

Her big grey eyes went from surprised, to big orbs of happiness as she started smiling. Pushing her long wavy black hair behind her ear.

"Good evening, Mr. Sokolov"

"Good evening, Astoria. Seems like I'm not the only one shopping at this hour."