Tales of the Red Rogue - A Heroes Arrival

Chapter 2

The house the girl lived in was small, two floors but barely one room wide, you could see the missing window on the top floor above entry way, the door was old wood and could probably have done with being repaired a few years ago, it seemed to have a small odd carving in it, I took note of that, it looked like snake head of some sort.

As I had my face placed close to the door examining the strange carved symbols, it began to creek open, stood there at the other side was an elegant woman, hair long and brown it fell past her shoulders in loose curls, her eyes were filled with tears days old, and I was currently staring directly at her chest.

Oh god, she's so pretty and sad and...

I shot up, straitening my back and attempting to quickly change the subject and direct attention away from how clearly flustered I was.

"Sorry about that, I have been sent by Keith to investigate Shean's case, you must be her older sister, it's nice to meet you."

I extended a hand towards her, and with a shy expression she took it with a light touch, her skin was as cold as ice.

"I'm her mother, thank you so much for looking into this, please come in, if you need anything please don't hesitate to ask, just please find my baby."

Her eyes filled with fresh tears, but she moved herself out of the doorway and gestured for me to enter, I did so with a small bow of thanks.

I can't even begin to imagine how bad this must feel, losing your daughter and having a town of fools looking for her, the only competent person seemed to be Keith, but one person doesn't make much of a difference, still... she carries herself like a lady even with all of this going on.

"Is it just you here, or is the father around?"

"He left some years ago, got caught up in a new religion and decided god was more important than his wife and unborn child, Shean never knew him, it's just me."

She seemed defeated, from the easy way she talked about how her husband left her, she had clearly lived a hard life.

"I'm sorry to hear that, do you have any idea what time she was taken?"

"I really don't, she sleeps in her own room now, she's only six years old but likes to think of herself as an adult, when I woke up the window was smashed and she was gone."

"Could I see her room please?"

She took me up the thin wooden crooked staircase that led to the second floor where she gestured to a door the led into her daughters room, it was mostly bare, it had a cot that was far to small for a six year old to be sleeping in and there was no blanket in sight, a few toys were scattered across the ground and amongst them was shards of shattered glass.

"Thank you, I'll take a look around."

The mother walked off almost lifeless out of the room to give me space to look around.

The glass is inside the room which means they likely entered in through the window, but there's no blood which means the girl or the kidnapper didn't get cut up on entry or leaving, this must have been someone careful.

The blanket from the bed is missing, if they tried to take her back through the window they could have used it protect her, but there isn't any material stuck to the glass remaining in the window frame, and they would surely have cut themselves climbing back out.

This doesn't make sense.

I approached the bed to take a closer look around the room and from the corner of eye I spotted a big dirt stain in the shape of a boot across the room.