Kid

48

Mary jumped into the water; she was waist deep as she looked around the water for Kid. Kid resurfaced giggling as she appeared before Mary. Mary sighed with relief as she picked Kid up and started walking out of the water, Kid still a giggling mess.

"Oh, ha-ha, so funny," Mary commented bluntly as she put Kid down.

Kid still giggled as everybody else came down; Goldie had fallen into the water at some point and landed in the pond. He was somewhat laughing as well as he crawled from the water and attempted to dry off.

The Professor managed to come down, his researchers were panting when they got to the bottom, their stamina and endurance for running virtually non-existent.

Kid waited for everybody to appear at the end of the stream and soon started walking again.

The group stood before what looked like a burnt down building. The debris was left everywhere, everything burnt a panther black, and crumbled whenever someone stood on anything, which made it hard for the agents when they walked around to inspect and collect whatever was left.

Kid didn't help, she simply watched.

The building use to be a library. And there was a lot of evidence that it was indeed a library or something with many books. There were several pages that were almost burnt beyond being readable. Mary ran her fingers along the charcoal, she picked up the burnt wood and narrowed her eyes, the burning was old, but it wasn't new. It was maybe... a few days old.

Goldie kneeled down beside her, "this is a few days old," Mary whispered.

Goldie agreed, "The smell is still in the air," he confessed.

"But what did this?" Mary whispered, "Kid couldn't have, she's been with us for a few weeks, and apparently Dominick has been missing for longer."

"Is someone else here?" Goldie asked.

Mary shrugged, "I haven't seen any other sign of life other than critters and us," Mary informed, "Unless those frogs can breathe fire, I don't know what did this."

Kimberly kneeled down to the ground before them and pulled out a page that was literally crumbling away in her fingers, "you'd think someone didn't want any of these to be found."

Neon kneeled down to the edge of the ground; it was almost painful to see all of these wasted books and paper. He wasn't a big reader, but he knew information was a main tool in his type of world. Knowledge was literally everything, for him to be lacking was like a fish forgetting how to swim. He kneeled down to some wood; it practically crumbled and splintered under his grip. But underneath it, he saw a book, a book that was still a whole. He held onto the book and looked at it, it had been burnt, but it was still a readable book. He opened it, words were charred and the pages a burnt brown like someone had overcooked a marsh-mellow.

Out of nowhere, something erupted from the bushes, making everybody react and scrambled.

A hive of Shades were attacking, mixed with underdeveloped Nightmares. The Nightmares looked like faceless humans who could hardly walk, they looked like demonic young girls or boys that fell over, pushed themselves to their feet and turned into a mass of shadows.

Mary was shocked by what she was seeing, how hadn't she seen these?

Or heard them?

How hadn't anybody had known they were there?

She and Goldie took out their weapons while Kimberly flew up to deal with the Shades. The researchers, Neon and Kid scrambled backwards. Mary revealed her badge and attempted to shoo the Shades and capture the Nightmares they were protecting.