Candle Lit

The steadying, the separation and the search

Olive stands up and walks silently into the middle of the room concealing something flat and long inside her jumper pocket where Betty stands beside her and places her arm around her shoulder in a comforting way.

Everyone slowly calms down and goes quiet, noticing them in the middle. She slowly places the item on the table and begins to unwrap the paper item. Everyone is feeling tense but also confused as to what it is.

The crinkling of paper and the crackling of the fire are the only sounds that could be heard in this silent pressure. Olive picks up 2 highlighters from a shelf under the table and uses a vibrant pink one to circle a something on the map. I push past Steven and Bob to get a closer look and see a big map of the local area spread across the table. Olive has been circling her house, Berty's house and the house we dared them to go. She has picked up an energetic green and has started to plan out a route to the house, her tongue poking out of her mouth in a concentrated way. 

She stands up and darts out the room to leave us all crowding around the table to find out what she's doing. Confused murmurs erupt from the crowd, seeming like more noise than 9 people should make but completely stop in synch eerily when Olive returns. 

She's holding 4 bags and a pack of torches and dumps them on the floor "We need to go immediately" she says as she jogs out the room again, "I'll explain on the way, everyone get ready."

More confused murmurs fill the room as we see what she has dumped on the floor. She walks back in with a washing basket filled with stuff and tips that on the rug before returning to her map, assuming we know what's happening. 

"Come on! Our children won't find themselves!" She says with excitement as if she has woken up from a long sleep. We jump into action and start putting on our shoes on as she kneels on the carpet and shovels the pile of stuff into the rucksacks with efficient speed.

We have finished putting on our coats and look over to Olive coming at us with the rucksacks, all zipped up with a final manner. They are shoved at us as she goes past to lace up her black DMs, almost as dark as her eyeliner and black outfit no one had noticed her put on. She looked the same as the photos on the wall of her as an emo in her 20s.

I guess this is really getting to her.

The 10 of us head out the door and she pulls it shut.

With the map in her hands, Olive leads on down the middle of this quiet road. She barks orders at us which we follow immediately as we have never seen her this determined and together. She is no longer the gentle, frail women we have known. 

"Ruble, Alsh you 2 are a team, take a rucksack and stay together at once. Amy, Roberta and Betty, you will be with me in a team. I will take care of this rucksack. Bob and Peter, ditto. Steven and Carl ditto. In your rucksacks, there's enough food for the team. There is also a wind-up torch each so you all will be able to see. I also found 3 cameras in my house and I know Betty carries one at all times so please take care of those."                                                                                                          

We split off into teams and stay within earshot.

"Our mission is to find the girls, if we cannot, find any evidence of anything being there at all and take pictures before you touch it, ok?" 

We all reply 'Yes' quickly, a new found terror of this lady forcing us to.

"If you need any weapons, i have put a different tool from the shed in each bag. You could have a hammer, a screwdriver, a saw or a spanner. Please don't use them unnecessarily, any questions?" 

"Yes," Alsh quickly replies, "what about the police, have you called them yet?" 

"Nope, and we are not going to, think of it as an adventure that we are all writing, a best seller!" Olive exclaims excitedly.

And we march off with a new air of adventure in out step. Towards whatever awaits in this house.