Courage's Curse

The White Van

"No. Just no." Milo spoke, thankfully finding his voice again.

Hollander looked at Milo confused, he was ripping up the letter as fast as a man could and smiling widely. "Oh. Even better!"

The boy shifted slightly. "So .. you're taking my resignation?"

"What?" The detective let out another hearty laugh. "You implied you want to go alone," and without waiting for a reply, he stood up. "There's a white van in the back, one of my friends will drive you to the address." 

Milo didn't have time to protest as the lady from before entered the room, appearing more cold than ever. 'Dang it-' He muttered angrily inside his head as he was escorted outside, he didn't even want to even look back at the detective any longer.

Making it to the yard, Milo found the van that Hollander had spoken of earlier. Sure enough, there was a rough-looking person inside. 

The boy swallowed hard again before opening the door on the passenger's side, deciding to not look around at the exterior of the vehicle first. "U-uh I assume you know where I'm supposed to go?" He spoke. The man inside the car turned his head to face Milo and nodded. "Yes. And I don't have all day either." He responded gruffly. 

Reluctantly, Milo stepped inside the car and without the slightest hint of hesitation, the van took off.

Some time past, and the van had traveled into smaller, winding roads, filled with eerie passages to abandoned homes. The whole sight gave Milo the shivers. He was broken out of his thought when he felt a heavy bag land on his lap. Wincing slightly, Milo looked over at the driver. 

"There's a gun, and a walkie talkie there. You should be able to contact the boss from there if you need any help." The man explained.

Milo attempted not to wrinkle his nose in disgust. The last thing he wanted to do was to contact Hollander. He was the one who got Milo into this whole mess. Then again, Milo recalled what had happened a week before he had applied to become the detective's assistant.

"WHAT WAS I THINKING ?!" Milo screeched in his head, almost yelling out loud. "What made me think that becoming this psycho's assistant would make me look like a hero?" 

Pressing his nails against his scalp, he tried not to break down. "It's going to be fine. I know it will." Milo kept telling himself, but every time he said so, he thought of the letter, and how stupid he was to have knocked on the door earlier.

"We're here." Was what jolted Milo out of his anger. Peering outside the window, there was a massive house, run down and overgrown with weeds. He felt as if a thousand knives had started to point themselves at his back as the driver glared at him seeing that he was hesitating. 

"The sooner you'll get there, the sooner you'll be done." He commented, still in the gruff voice that the man had. 

Done? Milo didn't know which definition of 'done' the man meant, but he somehow was idiotic enough to get out of the van, which sped away as quickly as he had come, leaving the boy alone with the package, a gun, and the walkie talkie.