The Broken

4 - Unusual Sightings

   The drive was short, about 15 minutes or so. We made sure that we brought our emergency weapon: Ray’s carbine rifle. We hardly use it, but if we’re going to face an entire gang, then we might as well take it. We brought extra knives and three pistols, with a crate full of ammunition. I wouldn’t say I’m ready, though. Kaylee could be dead by now. She could turn on me and kill all of us. They could have done anything to her, and I wasn’t ready to find out.

“Where do you think they could be hiding, brother?” John asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s look for clues.” Oliver replied. I was looking for possible blood or broken glass. Those are usually good clues. We looked everywhere and didn’t find much.

“Well, let’s not give up, then. Keep searching, there’s gotta be something around here.” Oliver said. I looked down an alleyway and found something white next to a dumpster and picked it up. It was a broken half of a mask. It had a rose and pink lightning bolt on the right eye, and a red mark that looks like it’s supposed to be a smiling mouth.

“Look at this!” I shouted. “Could this be a sign?”

“Maybe,” Oliver replied. “There’s a rose on it.”

“How come we haven’t seen any of the Roses wear this?”

“Not sure. For all we know, this could just be a regular mask. But I’m thinking it has to be used by them. Maybe someone of higher rank wears it.”

“Maybe…” I looked at the mask and examined it carefully. The red rose started to fade away and I felt a cool breeze. It was night time, but it wasn’t cold or windy. Weird, I thought. I put the mask in the dumpster next to me while nobody was looking. I heard a door slam and hid behind the dumpster while the others were searching. There was a tall figure but all I could see was a shadow. I couldn’t see what they looked like. I saw a red glow, thinking it was a sniper rifle laser and ducked. When I looked back up, the shadow was gone. I was starting to shake and pulled out my knife.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” I asked. I wanted to turn back, but I’ve come too far. “Anyone?” There was a door and I tried to open it. Locked. I tried to pick the lock with my knife, like Oliver did, but I couldn’t. I started to turn back and get the others.

“Turn around.” I heard. I turned back and nobody was there. “Come back. She’s here.”

“Where are you?” I shouted. “What do you want?”

“She told us everything, Elise. Come to the door,” I didn’t listen and started running. The alleyway was longer than I thought. At least it was when I walked in it. I was halfway through the alley when something tripped me. “Silly girl. Why don’t you like to talk to strangers?” The shadowy figure appeared in front of me. It was about a foot away from me, face-to-face, and all I saw was a shadow. The person had a deep voice. I stood up and looked at their face. I was barely able to see the mask that they were wearing. It was the one I found earlier. The figure had glowing red eyes and all I could see was their mask and eyes.
“So, you managed to find us?”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Names aren’t of importance, but I’m the Pale Roses leader.” They started to see me shake and they put their hand on my shoulder. “You don’t need to worry. What do you want with us Roses, anyway? Why do you always chase us down?”

“I… I…” I couldn’t think of something to say. “They started it… They stole from me first…”

“What did they steal from you? Your money that you took back from them? You see, your pathetic gang of runaways escalated this problem. We didn’t know that was your money. But once us Roses get our hands on something, it’s ours. You guys made the issue worse, which led us to fight back. That’s us. We don’t play around, Elise.” I was speechless. All I wanted from the Roses is my best friend.

“Where is she? Where’s Kaylee?” I asked, impatiently.

“Our word is revenge. We got it.” The figure started to walk away.

“You killed her! You killed her, didn’t you?” They wouldn’t answer. “Come back! Wait!” The others heard me and ran down the alley.

“What’s going on?” Oliver asked.

“That shadow person. They’re the real leader of the Pale Roses.” I replied.

“What shadow person?” Ray asked. I turned around and they were gone.

“B-But… there was a person, and I-I…” I felt weak. Oliver put his hands on my shoulders.

“Calm down, Ellie. Did you find Kaylee?”

“No, but there’s a locked door at the end of the alleyway. That could be where they’re hiding her.”

“So be it,” Ray said. “Let’s go, then.” We approached the door, and Oliver picked the lock, opening it. We slowly crept inside. We heard a bunch of people talking. I decided to go away from the noise and look for a quiet room where Kaylee might be. Sure enough, we found a cell room. All the other cells were empty, but we found one that almost made me pass out. There was blood all over the floor and walls, and writing that read ‘help me!’ and ‘get me out of here!’

“No…” I said.

“Where is she? She can’t be dead!” Oliver said.

Just then, we heard a loud scream.