Ward 48

Chapter 6 [Edited]

 The wind whistled in their ears as the four girls rode down the bumpy road towards their homes.

"Well that was certainly something, wasn't it?" Kayla remarked.

"Yeah, I thought we were all done for there, and we were there so long, it's night!" Vera said. "my mom is not going to be happy,"

"Same here," Lucy said, rubbing her temples.

Nicole stayed silent, taking in the scenery. Up until today, where she nearly died, Nicole never realized how beautiful their little town was.

The lingering light was quickly replaced by a tarp of black, for the time they had spent in the hospital had been over 4 hours. The once salmon and violet sky transformed into a vast expanse of jet-black that engulfed the entire town. A canopy of luminous stars was sprinkled over the inky lake. Some were dull, merely flickering into visibility every now and then, but there were an adequate amount of silver gems to illuminate the moonless night. Next to the small dock, there were little boats bobbing in the waves. The lake glistened, mirroring the dazzling assemblage of stars and the luminescence from the fancy french restaurant and open corner booths that lined the marina. A faint wind blew by, rippling the reflection in the water.

"Nicole! Earth to Nicole!" a loud voice, presumably Vera's snapped her out the trance she was in.

"Yeah?" Nicole asked, a little dazed.

"You were kind of in your own little world. You okay?" Vera asked, her bike coming to a halt at the viridian sign that read Maple Street in thick white text.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was thinking about how we nearly died today, I never really noticed how pretty our little town really was," Nicole said.

"Well, it's nice to know that we see our town in different light, considering the fact that a 40-something year old man nearly killed us today," Vera said.

Maple Street soon approach

"This is where we all part ways. See you tomorrow!" Kayla said.

"Wait! Before we go, what time should we meet up at the community hall? School is a half-day tomorrow and it would be a prime opportunity to get some more investigating done," Lucy asked.

"You're right. It's the last day as well. We can do a lot more investigating over the summer," Vera noted.

"School ends at 12:30, so I think that 1:30 might be a good time to meet up for lunch, then at 2:15 we could go to the community hall," Lucy said.

"Well, let's just all get a good night's sleep. We're gonna need it," Nicole said.

"Bye guys! See you tomorrow!" Kayla yelled, pedaling down towards her house.

"Same here! Bye!" Vera screamed, loud enough to wake people up.

Nicole and Lucy got off their bikes and walked the rest of the way towards their neighboring houses. Nighttime stretched far ahead in the road, the once vibrant hues of yellow and blue now faded into a striking charcoal hue. The birds were silenced, only to be replaced by the chirping of crickets and buzzes of the lively nighttime life.

"So, Kayla mentioned something about getting a scratch on his cheek. If the culprit shows up tomorrow with a scratch on his cheek, then we have our person!" Lucy said.

"Yeah, but it could be problematic. What if there's more than one person with a scratch on their left cheek?" Nicole asked.

Lucy pondered on that thought for a minute. "But, how many people have a fresh cut on their cheek? And on the left cheek?"