Parted Ways

Chapter 7 : Connections

CHAPTER 7

The old lady kindly organised rooms for us to stay in, her house seemed very big, even bigger than where our agency stays.

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The room remained dim as the sun slowly started to rise outside as I lifted up my head from the soft pillow. A soft knocking sound echoed slightly in my room. Lucia nudged the door open as I jumped out of bed in my pyjamas. 

"Winter, the old lady wants to show us something, and apparently it has something to do with our missions," Lucia whispered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm late," I replied.

"Oh no, no-one else is awake, I still need to wake them up."

"Okay, thanks."

I quickly slipped on a long sleeve shirt and long black plant. I made my way out of the room as I tried to adjust my eyes to the brightness of the house. Pulling the door shut behind me, I looked around the hallway, Lucia was heading towards Alice's room to wake her up. I ran up to help her, waking up Kira took a long time. He was like a whining brat on a weekend morning, now I finally understood my Alice doesn't really care if he's with us or not. 

After everyone was ready, I hurried down the stairs to the lounge room. The morning frost covered the window as no-one could make out what was going on outside. Everyone gathered together as the old lady took out a locked up safe. 

"My granddaughter gave it to me, I think it has something to do with your mission, she gave it to me because she wanted me to keep it safe," the lady said. "My granddaughter has gone into hiding because there are some people after her, apparently." I frowned and twitched my nose slightly at the information we just received.

"Thank you for the information, can we please see it?" Alice asked politely. The lady handed the safe to Alice with great care. We peered over Alice to have a better look at the safe, a lock dangled from the opening, it required certain numbers to open it, but I realized in small bold writing across the top wrote, 'ONLY ONE CHANCE'. I gasped, we couldn't just guess, we had to find the answer. 

"Looks like it's time to find out how to open this and what's inside it, let head guys," said Alice sternly. We nodded as I turned to see the clock, five o'clock in the morning.

"You guys should be careful, this time is the time that most people are afraid of because of the murderers, also you should take the safe with you," the lady said.

"Okay, thank you for everything, now we will take our leave," Alice replied with a smile. I grabbed my coat from its hook as I walked out the door. River shut the door behind him as he glanced back with a sort of suspicion, I waited for River whilst the others kept walking on into the inner town. 

Suddenly, I felt a dark presence lurking behind me and River, I slowly turned, trying not to look suspicious, I moved my eyeball from right then to left, not noticing anything peculiar in the surroundings. River had taken over me and had almost caught up with the group, I ran after them as I still kept an eye on my surroundings. 

Despite already checking, something still didn't feel right around me. I couldn't resist constantly glancing back. 

"What are you looking at?" asked River in a soft voice.

"I think someone's following us, but I can't see anyone behind us or in front of us," I replied as I frowned slightly, there was worried tone in my voice. River glanced back but still looking as if he was looking forward. 

"Yeah, I sense someone." 

Suddenly Cinna stopped as he stared at the safe intensely, as if remembering something important. Then he looked at the lock and gasped.

"Guys, I think I know the password, when I was with the lady on the day we arrived, when she had bent down to grab something, a slip of paper dropped onto the floor." Cinna grinned."There were a set of numbers on the paper, I didn't know why, but I made an effort to remember it, and so now, I still do. The numbers were: 3, 9, 5, 1 and 7. I also felt that the lady didn't want to show me that because she quickly took it up and crunched it in her hands." After saying that, he frowned and thought carefully as to why she took it away so fast.

"Then why don't we try it out," said Zylen looking at the safe, slightly leaning to the left. The rest of us nodded but Alice looked uncertain.

"You see, there's a slight problem, if we get it wrong, we're done, we only get one chance," Alice replied with a frown.

"Come on, just lets try it," Kira smiled. Alice leaned forward to the safe and started to press the numbers, slowly she entered all five numbers and then turned the lock. 

The opening swung open, but I couldn't believe my eyes, it couldn't be. The safe was empty, there was nothing, the old lady had tricked us.