Up To Them 3: Blood and Choice

Chapter Four

The city of Kobe wasn't as quiet as the villa. Business such as coffee shops, restaurants, flower stores, and other places were quite animated with people in and out. Some cars were parked in parking spaces and there were booths with newspapers, program guides, maps, and sheets and options for people new to the city. As they walked down the sidewalk pavement, not a lot of people spoke or interacted with them. Some gave looks of concern. Machi narrowed his eyes at a dog that was barking at him. "This dog is challenging me." Idris shook his head. "It's just barking at you."

"Something with such a small area shouldn't draw attention to itself." Machi mumbled under his breath. Idris took his arm and dragged him along before he could approach the dog.

After a few turns, they made it to the entry point of the docks. When they got there, there were six different docks, three on one side and three on the other. There were stands for fishing bait and boat rentals. They looked around for a while before searching. Reagan and Feirin noticed that each dock seemed to have something written in blood; numbers. "234", "875", and "098" were the ones they could see. Ellio and Wrena found nothing but litter and an ant hill near the stands. "The numbers might stand for something." Feirin noted, kneeling down to take a closer look. He soon saw bits of skin and what appeared to be bones from the hand of a person . He stood up quick when he caught sight of it. Reagan took pictures of the numbers and the bones. "It's kinda gross."

Ellio picked up the litter and threw it away in a nearby recycling bin. "People these days."

Wrena crossed her arms. "What are you, 65?"

"No, just saying that people have no respect for property."

Cynthia noticed that there were nets clinging to the side of ones of the docks. She began trying to free it from where it was stuck. Her eyes widened when she saw dismembered body parts. From legs to arms. She immediately let go of the nets, goosebumps forming all over her. Adriel noticed and ran over to her. He saw the nets and became pale. Kamiko raised an eyebrow. "What the fuck?" The others ran over. "That's sickening!" Ellio exclaimed. Silah wanted to gag. Callum was on his knees by the edge of the dock, gagging and throwing up. Wrena knelt down by him, rubbing his back to comfort him. He soon stood. "I'm okay, Wrena..Just felt sick from that." Wrena hugged him which Capri awed at. Reagan took a picture of the nets and Silah did his best to get a sample of the blood and skin. Afterwards, they walked back up the wooden platform.

Reagan turned to see someone sitting on one of the docks. Wait..They weren't there before. Where did they come from? She got the attention of the others. They turned to see them too. Reagan began to approach the person. When she was close enough, she noticed he had dark brown, messy-curlyish hair. Their skin was tan in color and looked to be in their early twenties. They turned when they heard Reagan's footsteps and Reagan got a good look at his eyes: Wide set and a light brown with goldish edges. He even had freckles on his cheeks which were a little hard to notice. "Sorry to bother you." Reagan said with a nervous laugh. The boy grinned. "You aren't bothering me at all. Are you guys here to swim or fish?" He asked. Reagan shook her head. "No, we're here for mission reasons." The boy stood up. "Oh..Did something happen here?" His face turned to concern. The others walked over. Reagan nodded. "It's one of the places the threat we're looking for has been." The boy looked over at the other docks. "I saw that stuff when I came back one evening..The blood and skin and limbs..It's really sick and I want to throw up just thinking about it." Cynthia stepped closer. "How long have you been here?"

The boy counted on his fingers. "Way too long to count! I don't even have enough fingers to tell you how long exactly!" Feirin questioned, "Do you live here or something?" The boy fixed the thin sleeve of his shirt. "I guess you can say that. I'm waiting for my family to come back. I've been waiting to see them for so long and one day they'll come back!" He smiled. "I'm Malco by the way."