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<img src="Image/PrologueImage.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<h1>PROLOUGE: Strange Sightings</h1>
<hr>
The wind breeze is chilly down to the bone and the rain falls down hard like a shower. A tired, no-nonsense-looking red haired woman stares out of the window, wondering when it will stop so that she could go out and order some chinese food. She was staring across the city, admiring the bright lights in the distance. Across of vision, a shadowy figure was just staring back at her. As she tried to focus on that figure until.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGG! Her focus was interrupted by a sudden loud ringing of her work phone. She look over to the phone for a second and then back to the window to find that weird silloulette. However, the silloulette disappeared from sight. she rubbed her eyes to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. You look back and saw nothing at all.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGG!
She mentally cursed the phone and proceed to [[answer it.]]
0.
<<audio "Page" play>>She reluctantly picks up the phone and answers
"Detective Department, Detective Ricarda Redwood speaking"
The caller's voice was a familar young male to Redwood. His voice was quite young, meek with a mixture of worry and gentleness, even with the frequent stutters that was coated onto his words. "B-B-Boss, I-it's me, Ro-Rolf W-Wyatt! The chief wants u-us down a-at the P.D as early as possible tomorrow! Th-there's been a case t-that recently popped up that the other officers are struggling to solve. I-is that okay for you t-to come down early tomorrow?"
Redwood complied "Yeah, give me the time so I can make a note of it." Redwood heard scuffing over the phone and Wyatt spoke again.
"The chief s-said 6:30 am in the morning. I-I'll talk to you tomorrow after the briefing. B-Bye!"
Redwood hanged up and put the phone down. She checks the time and wonders if the chinese takeaway is still open. She walks to her table and reads the Chinese takeaway menu's timetable. "Damn it... it closed a few minutes ago. Nevermind, I'll just head home. "
Redwood leaved the room and locked up her office door for the night, heading down to the car park to get to [[her car.]]
1.
<<audio "Page" play>>
Redwood head into her car and drove all the way to her apartment near Florida Park. After fiddling through her pockets for the keys, she managed to find them and enters the apartment building entrance.
The building was rediculously tall with a square shaped spiral staircase that gets more and more headache inducing as she keeps looking up.
From the ground level, She knew that taking the stairs can take long looks around and sees two methods of heading up to her apartment: One is an [[elevator shaft]] that can easily take her up there or a [[staircase]] that she can walk up.
2.
<<audio "Page" play>>She chose to take the lift. Pressing a button to call it, she waited until the lift reached her floor. Entering and pressing 7, she stood still and waited patiently. While ascending past the third floor, she could have sworn that she saw a glimpse of someone just staring as they closed the door.
She blinked and looked back, seeing or hearing nothing from that door as she passes by the fourth floor.
"Hmmm....Strange...." She thought to herself before the sudden jolt from the lift stopping at floor 7.
The door opens and she leaves the lift and headed to her [[room's door.]]
3.
<<audio "Page" play>>She decided to needed to do some excercise by going over to the staircase and walk up to her apartment. The climb was long and agornizingly boring as it takes longer to reach one floor level to another. While going up the stairs, she couldn't help but feel like there was somebody watching her somewhere.
Looking around from the sides, in front and back of her, and finally upwards, she just saw someone pull away from the balcony of the next level. She tries to run up and see who it was but saw nothing around there, annoying and confusing her.
"This is just weird....I swear there was somebody..." She thought to herself and decided to not think too much about it and just focused on heading to her floor. After walking past five agonzing levels, she managed to reach her floor. She breathed in to recover and walked along the hallway to find her [[room's door.]]
3.
<<audio "Page" play>>Floor had a long hallway with each door labelled 700-799. She walked along, looking at each door to try and find her apartment door number. While looking, she was thinking to herself "704...715...719, there you are."
She reaches to her apartment door, takes out her key and goes to open her door until she quickly looks back, making sure that she wasn't followed. She waited for roughly 10 minutes until her supcion became minimal.
Walking inside, she goes over to her sofa and sat down for a moment to rest and think. At least until her stomach started to growl, telling her to eat something.
"Alright, alright shut up stomach...."
She gets up from the sofa and heads over to her apartment's [[small kitchen]] to see if there was anything to eat.
4.
<<audio "Page" play>>Entering the small kitchen, she turned on the light and saw a black bird eat out of her bin. She saw it and walked over, waving her arms at it to get it to leave.
"Shoo! Shoo, get out of here!"
This sets of the bird to the point where it was flying around in a panic, smacking into the cupboards, the microwave, the fridge and even Redwood.
"Oof! ACK- Get out here, you damn bird!!"
She saw the open window to her kitchen and ushered it out until it was gone. She slammed the window close and proceeded to check the fridge for any food. Inside was a wrapped pre-made [[ham sandwich,]] some milk, a pack of "I can believe it's butter" a container of vegtables and codiment bottles.
"Of course I forget to restock...Peeerfect..." She mentally said to herself.
5.
<<audio "Page" play>>She grabs the ham sandwich from the fridge and heads to her bedroom to eat while also taking out a book she is reading called "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". 8 mins later, Redwood finished her sandwich and slowly started feeling tired. She quickly slaps herself awake, getting up and going into her bathrooom to quickly brush her teeth and change into her pajamas. Eventually, she gets back into bed, turn off the lights and tries to sleep.
She couldn't however so she tries to tire herself out by just stares into darkness. While doing so, she thinks to herself and reflects on those strange silloulettes she swears that she was seeing. "Today was strange... I can't be seeing things, right? Was those shadow figures even real? ...GAHHHH, this is ridiculous...Let's just go to sleep..."
Eventually, her eyes start to slowly close, exhausting her enough so that she finally fall asleep until the next morning.
[[PROLOUGE END]]
6.
<<audio "Page" play>><img src="Image/Chapter1Image.jpg" />
<h1>CHAPTER ONE: A NEW DAY</h1>
<hr>
The next day, a loud blast of an alarm caused Redwood to flinch and woke her up. She cocks her head to the alarm and violently slams her hand down on the snooze button. Half asleep, she looks around and goes to her bathroom to try and wake herself up.
While showering, her mind started to drift and nearly fell asleep again.
BANG!
"Ghk! Damn it!"
She hits her head on the showerhead, causing her to wake up from her moment of peace. She quickly washes up and grabs a towel to dry herself with.
After drying herself, she gets dressed, brushes her teeth and then checks the time. As she saw the time, she tensed up and mentally cursed to herself while quickly trying to get everything [[ready for work.]]
6.
<<audio "Page" play>>"crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!"
She has 20 minutes to get to work, causing her to rush and miss breakfast. She grabbed her files, suitcase, wallet, apartment and car keys and immeditately rushed out of her room.
While she quickly locked her apartment door, she now needed to think quickly about what would be quick enough to get her to the bottom floor.
"Ahhh crap! Which is quick enough?"
She has the choice of going down [[the stairs]] and just running all the way down or to try and take [[the lift]] again. Whatever her choice, she needed to be quick.
8.
<<audio "Page" play>>She decides to go for a easy route and ran over to the lift. She quickly clicked on the upper arrow and waited for the lift to come up A few minutes later, the lift didn't come. She tried clicking on it a few times to make it work to no avail.
A nearby janitor near the floors staircase walked by and said "That there lift ain't working for today! The maintence crew are closing it off to try and repair it!"
She cursed to herself and had no choice but to take the stairs. After 9 minutes, she reached the ground floor and ran outside, heading to parking area, get inside her car and at full speed, drove off to the Police Department. While driving, she needed to take the motorway in order to drive down the quick route that leads to her work. Unfortunately, she was forced to endure the BIGGEST annoyance to every driver that had to drive to work: being caught in traffic.
Angry was not a single word to describe how much she feels when being in traffic. To make matters worst, she checked her watch to see how much she has. By now, she was 10 minutes late to work and the traffic didn't seem to be moving at all. And when she tried to turn on the radio, she pressed too hard and wedged the play button in its own slot. She looks down at the steering wheel, reels back her head and hits the horn pad, drowning out her own voice as she proceeds to let out a big bad word from her mouth.
[["FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"]]
8.
<<audio "Page" play>>
After some quick thinking, she decides to risk running down the stairs. It was risky since she can't stopping running. A few times, she nearly tripped and almost lost her balance. Thankfully, she caught the railling and decides to hold onto it while rushing down the stairs.
After 8 minutes, she reached the ground floor and ran outside, heading to parking area, get inside and started shooting off to the Police Department. Unfortunately, she was forced to endure the BIGGEST annoyance to every driver that needed to drive to work: traffic.
Angry was not a single word to describe how much she feels when being in traffic. To make matters worst, she checked her watch to see how much she has. By now, she was 5 minutes late to work and traffic didn't seem to be moving at all. She looks down at the steering wheel and proceeds to let out a big bad word
[["FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"]]
8.
<<audio "Page" play>>Inside the debriefing room at the police department, five people were gathered around a rectangular metal table listening to the police chief. Among this group was a tall, lanky yet wiry young male with round reading glasses. He was checking his watch a few times when the police chief isn't looking. He couldn't help but feel confused as he looked up for a moment and looked around the room, wondering if he heard the sound of someone being really angry somewhere. He decided to put aside that thought and focused on the Police Department's Chief, Dwight Langos.
He also glanced at the door to opposite the chief, wondering where Redwood is and if she is alright. Without realising, the police chief was beside him, yelling "Mister Rolf Wyatt, are you even paying attention?! I am trying to let you all know what is happening with today's case!"
That yell suprised and spooked Wyatt, causing him to quickly look back at the chief and responded with.
"S-S-Sorry, Chief! Y-Yes, I-I did hear you, sir!" His stutter was starting to kick in when he is feeling pressured. Just as the chief was about to speak, [[Redwood burst through the door,]] causing everybody within the room to look over to her.
9.
<<audio "Page" play>>She arrived 11 minutes late to the briefing, her face expressed tireness and annoyance. She was subtly panting and was looking around the briefing room. The place was casually messy, papers and files scattered and unkept in a messy pile while the floor looks like it hasn't be cleaned up.
The chief looks up at her and starts off by saying "I see you have decided to finally turn up. Would you care to explain why you are..."
He quickly checks his watch to see that it's 6:50am
"...11 Minutes late for this briefing?!"
She is just staring off into nothing as he kept rambling on and on. The chief gets progressively more angry as he keeps going on with his long rant. This ends when one of the briefing members interrupted the boss.
"Sir, I believe we should focus on [[today's task.]] We need to get to work as soon as possible because the police over at the crime scene is waiting for us and they are STRUGGLING with stopping these idiots from looking into it."
10.
<<audio "Page" play>>The chief was still angry but he put his mind back into focus and explained to Redwood the case.
"Two days ago on Saturday, 27th April, there was a break-in at a local pub called "Willow's Tavern". He turns back on the projector and switches to a picture of the tavern. "A day later, Mrs Meles tried calling her husband through her cellphone, asked the people close to the Tavern, called his husband's friends and even looked through the tavern herself.
He changed the projection to a picture of a 50 year old woman who was smiling next to her husband in front of the tavern. "She looked around for her husband but couldn't find him leading it to the police to try and figure out what happened to her husband."
He changes to another slide, showing a map that had dots in certain areas. He continued with his briefing "Currently, the police on checking around those dotted areas in order to make sure that he is close by. But so far they found nothing regarding a clue as to his sudden [[disappearance.]]
11.
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood gestures Wyatt to follow her. He spots her, quickly like a wolf, he takes several pieces of information and follows after her. She orders Wyatt to wait at his desk while she quickly headed off the loo.
"And be sure to tell me anything important you have heard and know from this mornings brief. I'll be right back." She leaves Wyatt at his desk so that she could do her business in the bog. While Wyatt manages the information from this morning's brief, he decided to quickly head off the breakroom to grab something.
A few minutes later, Redwood came coming out to Wyatt's desk, noticing that he was gone. "Ah for th- Great, now where has that little meek run off to??" She kept looking around until she saw him come by with a coffee cup full of instant coffee and two butter filled crossiants.
"H-Here Boss, y-you look like you needed something to wake you up."
Taking the coffee and slowly drinking it, she feels alert and awake. She looks over to the information provided by "Pup" and [[takes a look.]]
13.
<<audio "Page" play>>Within the folder, there is an arrangement of each Detective on the case. She sees her name with Wyatt as her assistant and was assigned to investigate the inside of the Tavern. Inside the folder, there was several pictures of the Tavern from various angles: Back, side and front. Redwood wondered if there was any witnesses on the scene. Maybe she could find out if they have seen anything.
"Hey, Little Guy." Wyatt walked over and awaited for what Redwood has to say. "When we get to the Tavern, I got a small side task I need you to do after this crime scene. Are you up for it?"
"Sure, Boss! I-I'll look into it." Wyatt writes down this task into his notepad and follows Redwood to the storage room to grab two cases: One marked 'Crime Scene Equipment' and a strange looking case marked 'Abnormality Equipment."
They both head into the car park and hopped into Wyatt's car to head down to 'Willow's Tavern'.
[[CHAPTER 1 END]]
14.
<<audio "Page" play>>
<img src="Image/Chapter2Img.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<h1>CHAPTER 2: CLOAK AND DAGGER</h1>
<hr>
The journey to Willow's Tavern was long. The traffic delayed the duo's travel to the crime scene. They tried to put on the police siren to make the other drivers let them pass but the roads were over crowded with a lot vechiles. Redwood distracted herself by looking over the files while Wyatt focused on the traffic. Wyatt opened the window to see if there was any changes to the traffic.
"I-It seems t-that there's a accident at the end...S-Should I inform the team near the crime scene that we will be slightly delayed-"
Redwood was occupied with the file to even listen to Wyatt. She looked through some of the details that came from the investigators on the scene. Some of these details mentioned that they couldn't find any signs of break-in, abduction nor any signs of somebody else inside this crime scene. She suspected some possiblilites but they are minimal until she could actually see the crime scene herself.
She takes her focus off the file and finally responds to her partner. "Yeah, tell them that we are stuck in the motorway for a while, Little Guy." Wyatt nods and informs the police officers on the scene that they will be delayed for a moment. They waited until there was a voice on the other end that sounded Solemn and cold.
[["Roger that... Red..."]]
15.
<<audio "Page" play>>
<<audio "Page" play>><<cacheaudio "Page" "audio/PageTurn.mp3">>
<<cacheaudio "Book" "audio/BookClose.mp3">>The voice sounded ladylike yet it was laced with seriousness and slight venom. Hearing that voice caused Redwood's attention to shot up and face the radio, her fustration rise up inside as she recongnized that voice. She mentally thought "Ahh, crap...What the hell is SHE doing there?" as she tried to relax herself by opening the window, take out a cigarette and light it to smoke it.
Her partner clocked onto this and gazed his attention over to Redwood for a minute and then back on the road to finally see the traffic dying down. Hesitant, he goes to ask her an obvious question.
"You-you okay, Boss?"
Redwood sighed as she stared back at Wyatt and then back in front, inhaling and the blowing out smoke, breathing a few times to also trying and calm herself.
"Little Guy...Just drive already."
He nodded and drove out of the lane and onto another, driving all the way to the [[crime scene.]]
16.
<<audio "Page" play>>The drive was long but they managed to reach the Tavern at 13:01pm. Wyatt parked his at a nearby neighbourhood close to the Tavern. As they both got out and went to grab their equipment, they saw a small crowd of people gathered in front of Willow's, complaining and angrily yelling at the Police officers in front of the building. Redwood took a moment to think about how she and Wyatt can get to the Tavern.
"Hmm...Looks like we have two ways of getting into the Tavern. We could try and look for a back entrance that can get us inside or we can take the risk and try to get through this bloody crowd and head through the front doors..."
She looks at Wyatt and waits for an answer.
"I-I'm not r-really good at picking choices. I-It doesn't usually end well for me when it comes to picking. Y-you're really good at thinking about the outcomes for these choices so I think you should decide, Boss."
She decides to do what he says and make a decision. Should she and Wyatt [[go through the crowd]] or go around to the back of Tavern and see if [[there's an alternate entrance?]]
17.
<<audio "Page" play>>"Let's try getting through this crowd. Try to keep up with me and head to where the crowd are facing." Redwood went on ahead of Wyatt as he locked up his car and tried to catch up.
Redwood jogged over to the back of the crowd and looked for gaps. She found one to the right and started barging her way through, passing through or shoving away anybody that stood in her way, nearly making each person she comes across loose their balance. She shouts in anger and annoyance. "OI, MOVE IT! GET OUT OF THE WAY! PD DETECTIVE HERE! GO ON, MOVE!" As Redwood got through the first few row, Wyatt came over and hesitated until he decides to try to shove his way through, getting caught up and nearly stumbled from bumping into a few members of the crowd.
After making her way through, she finally reached the front of the Tavern where 8 Officers blocked off every civlian and a few others that were busy with either making phonecalls, went inside or outside the Tavern to look for any clues. Among them was a tall, blond haired woman with black sunglasses and formal Detective Constable clothing. Redwood glared at her as she knew who this woman is. Redwood walked over to [[that woman and said.]]
18.
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood thought for a moment, staring at the crowd and then stared at the side of the Tavern. There was a tall brick wall on either side but she wondered if there is a gate or a small section of the wall that shethe back and Wyatt can climb over.
She turned her head to Wyatt and spoke to him in a calm tone "Come, Pup. Let's see if there's a back entrance to this place." They both picked up their gear and quietly moved away the crowd. They evaded the crowd, folllowed the brick wall to the back and turned the corner to see that back section. The walls were slightly worn out and mose filled but they held up strong and matches the walls height.
Wyatt looked behind him, hearing the crowd still talking among themselves from a distance. "O-Oh nooo... looks l-like we need t-to turn back an-" Before he could finish, Redwood interrupts Wyatt.
"Wait a minute, Pup..."
She saw a few spots that she could climb up the wall from. "There's a few spots that I could use as [[climbing]]... Pup, come here and give me a boost up!"
18.
<<audio "Page" play>>"Detective Constable Wanda Marigold...What are you doing here?" Redwood expresses her words calm yet bitter manner. Wanda in kind expresses in a subtle mocking yet serious tone herself.
"Trying to do my job...Although it looks like I could also be doing yours as well since you took your time..."
Redwood fires back at Wanda "Shut it and move, Blondie. I got a job that I need to do. I'd appricate that you do yours and don't interfere with mine."
Wanda shrugs and walks away.
"I already got what I came here for...You're welcome to try and prove me wrong...since I pretty much got a culprit in mind. Tah Tah for now...Red Hoods.."
Redwood was suprised but annoyed with her Rival. She knew Wanda long enough to know that her words aren't total bluff but at the same time, she could also be trying to get under Redwood's skin. She shakes her head, shows the Officer's her badge to let her pass and get inside the Tavern through the front [[door.]]
19.
<<audio "Page" play>>Wyatt hesistated and quickly glances at her feet. She was wearing suit pants along with some chelsea boots. Thankfully she didn't wear high heels otherwise it might hurt Wyatt's hands.
He squats slightly, places the palm of one hand behind the back of the other and readies himself for his boss to step onto him. "R-Ready Bosss!" he exclaims while looking back at Redwood. She walks over, places one foot on his hand and quickly catches onto a cracked hole to keep her suspended. She nearly fell backwards but Wyatt quickly wrapped on arm around her calves and leaned backwards, repositioning her back to the wall.
After that recovery, she climbs up to the top and looks around for something that Wyatt can use to climb over. He politely shakes his head and tells her that he can go through the crowd. After he leaves, she climbs down from the wall into the back garden of the Tavern. For now, she decices to investigate the garden later because she needs to meet Wyatt inside the Tavern to plan out their next move. She walks over and heads inside through the back [[door.]]
19.
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood head inside of the Tavern. She took a moment to look around and notice the place having a nice wooden-esque structure, similar to a traditional saloon seen within the Wild West Period. It seems to have subtly updated in certain areas to make it look more modern. Inspite of it's appearance, there was a faint aroma of alcohol and cigarettes near the bar's counter. Theres also some areas that contains dust and cobwebs. "The owners properly didn't give this place a quick spring cleaning either." Redwood spoke to herself until she looks at the front door.
Redwood sees Wyatt just managing to reach the front door, quickly opening and closing it as he got inside. He looks around until he saw Redwood, approaching her with a flashlight, a walkie talkie and a weird looking bracelet of some sorts. "Her-here, Boss. I forgot to hand you one of these. My radio frequency is already inside it. You just need to turn it on, click on the arrow keys here to change frequency and then press and hold this phone signal here to call me.
A-And that bracelet should be useful when talking to someone about anything. It should be useful for you know what whenever something is wrong with what they are saying." Wyatt awaited for an order while Redwood is quickly testing the walkie talkie with Wyatt while also making a couple of quick flashes with the flashlight. After testing both equipment, she checks through her file for anything specific they were asked to do and faces Wyatt. She gives him this order.
"Wyatt, I need you to explore behind the bar counter and the kitchen. If you see anything supcious, I want you to take a picture of the scene and analyse anything suspicous, anything that is out of place, even a cigarette butt that shouldn't be there, Understand?"
Wyatt nods and heads to the counter to start his investigation. Redwood decides to head to the back entrance again and investigate [[the garden.]]
20.
<<audio "Page" plays>>Upon entering the gardens again, she took into view of her surroundings. It looks worst for wear as a line of plants on one side looking serverly dry and the grass unnaturally tall, almost to the point of even acting like jungle bushes. The concrete ground is quite uneven too, some pavement slabs were slightly sticking up at random, making nearly anybody that tried walking through nearly trip and fall over in the process.
Just then, a police officer walked past Redwood to get to his police friends near the wall. As he walked onto the uneven pavement, he followed through with the previous narration.
"Hey, where do you neee-woWHOOUAAAAAHHH!!"
He started to trip on one of the pavements and in a comedic, funny way, he fell over while swinging his arms to try to maintain his balance, falling face first into the overgrown grassy lawn. Some of his colleuges striffened a chuckle as one of them helped him up to his feet. Redwood chuckled to herself as she look around to try and start her investigation. She looked to the right to see Mrs Meles sitting on a bench, [[being questioned by three officers.]]
21.
<<audio "Page" play>>Both police officers were side by side of Mrs Meles, both of them were asking a few question regarding where she was at the time of the incident, whether she does anything outside of work, how her relationship with her husband is alongside other more personal matters. Redwood noted that these three officers aren't doing a great job at getting anywhere since they are making the interviewee feel uncomfortable. She decided to interrupt these three officers by calling them out.
"Hey you two. Mind telling me what are you doing to Mrs Meles?" Just as they turn around, she didn't recognize either of the duo, making her alert and standoff-ish. "Wait, you are not in our department. Who are you and why are you here??"
The two officers looked at each other. They both looked very similar to each other except one was male while the other was female. Redwood deduced that they could be siblings but she needed more proof later.
"Alrighty then! We will introduce ourselves in just a mere moment." The duo said in unison and near perfect sync. Redwood didn't like where [[this was going.]]
22.
<<audio "Page" play>>The brother places a hand on his own chest and says "I'm Andy!" while the sister does the same her gesture, saying "I'm Mandy!". They both then say at the same time. "We are the Andy and Mandy Tweedle!". Mandy and Andy look at Redwood for a moment and goes to raise their hands at her, expecting a handshake. Mandy speaks first "And what about you? What is your name?" Redwood stares at them for a second and hesistantly raises her hand before shaking both of them. "Redwood....Ricarda Redwood..."
She looks over at Mrs Meles for a second and then back at the twins.
"Do you two mind if I borrow Mrs Meles for some questions? It's really important?" She says in a serious tone, subtly trying to intimidate the twins to make them easily submit.
Andy replies "Oh that's okay, Detective! We were finished with our lines of questions anyway. She all yours! Lets head back to HQ and talk to Boss about what we know." Mandy replies "Okay, Mandy! Let's go!"
"I'm Andy! You are Mandy. I'm telling you, this is the third time this day!" "What do you mean, 'third time'? You called me Andy!" The Twins were bickering with each other all the way out. Now it's time for Redwood to resume with her own mission.
She faces Mrs Meles and quickly takes out her notebook to begin her [[line of questions.]]
23.
<<audio "Page" play>>Mrs Meles saw Redwood approach her and greeted her. "Hello Deary. what can I do you for?" She manages to get up to her feet and then held up her balance with a wooden cane. Redwood looks at Mrs Meles, she saw quite short for her size and her head height reaches up to Redwood's waist. Redwood says "Okay, madam. Before we can continue, do you mind if you wear this bracelet? It's a standard procedue for my line of work." She holds out a strange looking braclet with two buttons next to each other: Green and Red. She continues on with her statement "Don't worry, it's not going to harm you or put any sort of straint on your wrist but I need to have your permission with wearing this."
Mrs Meles thought for a moment. Her answer was followed with a simple nod proceeded to hold her arm out. Redwood wrapped the bracelet around Mrs Mele's wrist and rubbed the two buttons with their thumb.
Redwood was thinking "Hmm, hopefully this bracelet still works...The bracelet should act like a lie detector and react to anything when her pulse, bloodlevels or anything that causes a reaction within her body..." She flips onto a empty notebook page and readies her pen because today, [[it's question time.]]
24.
<<audio "Page" play>>
"Okay, so lets get through the basic, I'll ask some questions. You answer with honesty. Please don't lie or it can lead to some serious consquences. Understand?"
Meles nodded, adjusting her herself on her seat to feel comfortable, patiently awaiting the questions she needs to answer.
Redwood mentally thought "I should listen to what she says and dive into anything she says. It could help navigate me into another section of her story...maybe even a clue..."
She snaps out of her thought and faces Mrs Meles "Tell me who your husband is and what does he do around here first." She says to her interviewee, following up with "And if you could, tell me if you knew anything about the last time you have ever seen him or talked to him."
Meles wiped her glasses, put them back on and then stares at Redwood.
She breathes in and out, finally speaking "Okay...My husband's name is Kenneth Meles...He's 2 years older than me and like me, works at this tavern half the week. S-See, he left me in charge of taking over this place because from Monday up to Wednesday...he has to go to his other business... [[his other job...]]"
25.
<<audio "Page" play>>"Elaborate on his other job, please." Redwood said, writing down several notes. Meles looked at the ground for a moment, thinking until she remembered. "He works as a boxing coach, working down at the local boxing gym called The Three Bill's Gym. Back in his younger days, he was a real heavyweight champion, knocking down opponents with a barrage of punches so quick, so percise. But after retirement, he works at the gym, training youngsters like you to box in the ring-" Unaware, the braclet's green bead lit up, making Redwood tick her statement.
Redwood interrupts "That's fine, Madam. Just needed to know about the job, nothing else. You don't need to go into too much detail unless I say you can... Anyway, you said that he worked Monday to Wednesday here, Yes? Could you tell me about the last time you spoke to him?"
Meles slaps her own head to focus "Ahh, sorry officer...Okay...Okay...Yes, the last time I spoke to him, it was last Saturday. He said that he wanted to grab some tools from here to repair something at the gym. He also said that he needed to quickly restock some of the taps here." Just as Redwood continued to write, she saw the red bead light up. [[Mrs Meles was lying about something.]]
26.
<<audio "Page" play>>To Lucy Meles, it was a normal looking bracelet with two crystal-like beads with one red while the other is green. To Redwood though, it was different story. The braclet was a magical, capable of detecting lies that the wearer is or isn't aware of, making it easier for people like Redwood to sense a contradiction from the wearer's response. Redwood found that lie but she needs to know at what part of her statement was wrong. Enter another piece of "Special" equipment, a long brim crimson red hat.
"Mrs Meles, could you repeat what you previously said? I may have misheard it." Redwood took the hat and placed it over her own head. She lightly held the rim down over her eye level, blinding her view. But in a mere 8 seconds, the under part of the brim suddenly turned transparent, showing Lucy Meles looking confused as she stares at Redwood.
"O-Okay? Ummmm....t-the last time I spoke to him, it was -last Saturday.- He said that he wanted to grab some tools from here to repair something at the gym. He also said that he needed to quickly -restock some of the taps here.-".
As she said that statement, Redwood felt some pulse from Lucy, looking top to bottom until the pulse grew rapidly. Her eyes shifted down towards Lucy's right hand, noticing a nervous sign or "tell" from Lucy's right hand. Her right hand shows some quick yet subtle movements of her right thumb tightly rubbing against her index finger. Redwood makes note of her specific phrase she mentioned onto her notebook and writes down her [["Tell" habits]] next to Lucy's name.
27.
<<audio "Page" play>> CONTENTS:
=========================================================================
PROLOUGE: STRANGE SIGHTINGS 1.
CHAPTER 1: A NEW DAY 6.
CHAPTER 2: CLOAK AND DAGGER 15.
CHAPTER 3: CURIOUS AND CURIOUSER
CHAPTER 4: INTO THE WOODS
CHAPTER 5: OUT OF THE RABBIT HOLE
[[SPECIAL THANKS]]
<<audio "Book" play>>To my mother, father, older brothers, family, old and new friends and even Tye, my silly worrier dog. I thank all of them for helping me with my journey so far.
And of course, to youa big thank you, reader, for taking your time to read this first (interactive) short book I created called 'REDWOOD'.
Hope you enjoy, now lets start at this storie's [[Beginning]].
<<audio "Page" play>><img src="Image/Backcover.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<<audio "Book" play>>Redwood stares down at this rustic, metal door found deep within the Tavern's storage room. One this door showed signs of heavy corosion on the door along with the skid marks made from opening and closing this door, like it has been kept there and constantly been in use for weeks, maybe even years. She looks around the storage room and wonders what was the reason for this door being covered up in the first place. "Could there be more to this place than meets the eye....Could the culprit have used this to somehow get around and nab the victim?"
Redwood thought of that but decides to save it for later because she needs extinguish her curiousity. Her first method was to examine the door to see if there was a lock. There was an obvious keypad lock that hangs between the slot on the door and the slot on the wall. She reached into her pockets to take out a cigarette only to grab a key that was left inside her pocket. She had an idea of what this key could be. "Maybe Wyatt's find was important after all."
She took out the key in one hand, grabs the lock with the other and sticks the key into the lock, mentally repeating "Come on" while turning the key to see if [[it will work.]]<img src="Image/Chapter3Image.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<h1>CHAPTER 4: Into The Woods </h1>
<hr>
Hours past. Redwood was knocked out and felt woozy in the head. As she waited longer, she suddenly felt pressure in her head, causing her to wake up from her unconcious state. She looked around, seeing furnature other objects hanging from the ceiling. The pressure to her head suddenly made her realise that she's actually upside down. From looking up, she saw that her legs are wrapped up by several loose vines while below her, her notebook, the magical wide brimmed hat, her wallet, packet of ciggarettes, her signature lighter, her Detective badge and a few loose rounds from her ammunition pouch.
She tried and failed to shake, swing and pull herself out of the vines. After one failed pull, she felt her gun holster bounce around on her chest. "Ohh yeah, I have a gun on me. Let's see if I can..."
She manages to reach her holster, undo the strap that holds her weapon inside it's holster and tried pulling it out. The revolver fell out and just avoided smashing into her face, passing by and hitting the floor underneath her. Unfortunately, the revolver just landed a few inches from her arms reach. After trying to stretch out her arm as much as she can, she decided to stop for a moment and think. While letting her eye wonder about the room, she noticed a massive hole above her. The hole's distance seems to be quite deep but she wonders if anybody could hear her from up there.
"HEY! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME UP THERE??!! IF YOU CAN, I NEED SOME HELP DOWN HERE!!" She let out a loud yell to try and get anybody's attentiion. While she waited, she had no choice but to [[examine this place that she has fallen into.]]
<<audio "Page" play>><img src="Image/Chapter4Image.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<h1>CHAPTER 5: Out of the rabbit hole</h1>
<hr>
[[Back page synopsis]]
<<audio "Page" play>><img src="Image/REDWOODFront.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
[[REDWOOD: CONTENTS]]
"Madam, you seem to be quite shaken about something regarding the day you last saw Mr Meles and the task he did here. Are you sure you aren't lying to me? ...Because it's an offense to refuse to an officer or detective like myself, when asking about something else than the truth." Redwood says while looking through her transparent brim. Lucy was caught off guard. She asked back at Redwood "W-WHat d-do you mean? How-"
"Let me ask this: did you really see your husband last Saturday or did you not? And be truthful with your answer this time."
Lucy loooked suprised, staring at Redwood in confusion and tried to reach up at Redwood's hat. Her wrist got grabbed by Redwood, making her feel tense about how Redwood knew that she was going to grab her hat but curious as to how she can see that action with the brim blocking her view.
"W-What, How-, wha-what do you mean??"
Redwood answered her question "Because everytime you feel pressure or you are unsure about anything-" Redwood points at Lucy's right hand, continuing with her explanation "your fist tightens up while your thumb rubs against your index finger." She lifts the brim to look down at Lucy, speaking in a calm yet serious tone. "Now tell me the true, was it EXACTLY your husband that you saw or not?"
Lucy took a moment to think until her face beamed up as she remembered something important "I-I do remember something! Last Saturday, I went outside to leave but before I went home, I looked at the Tavern one last time. When I looked inside, I swear I saw a shadow of someone. I thought that was my husband so I didn't think much of it at the time and just went home." Redwood nodded, making a note about this while also remembeing experiencing a [[similar sighting of shadows from yesterday.]]
28.
<<audio "Page" play>>
"KLCK!" The key turned all the way round. The padlock shifted it's metal bars out of the locking mechanism and loosely became moveable.
"Nice! Looks like that find was important after all. Now lets get this off." She takes the lock out of the slots and grips to the door's rusty handle. She goes to try and open the door, only to be stopped by the door handles refusal to move. Redwood tried to push it down at every angle to try and make it shift. Nothing happened so she took out her walkie talkie and changed the frequency to Wyatt's.
She flicks the switch and calls out to Wyatt. "Hey Pup, I need your help with something. Could you grab some crowbars and come down to the Tavern to try and help me with moving this door I found? ...Over..." She waits for about 2 minutes and then heard Wyatt respond.
"R-Roger that, Boss! I-I'll be down soon as I can, o-over!"
After that brief radio chat, Redwood quickly walked outside the storage room and decided to take a quick smoke. She was now comtemplating on whether Lucy is a possible suspect or if there was somebody else that seems to know her husband. On the one hand, Lucy's motive could be to have full ownership of this Tavern since this place is both popular in this towns community and worth a lot of money when being up for auction or the deed being worth a lot when sold to a [[real estate agent.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood found a cigarette, lit the end with her light and smoked away, thinking about that being a motive but then talks to herself when nobody is looking. "But on the other hand... Would she have gone through the trouble of doing all this? ...She doesn't seem physically capable of planning and executing this crime. She could barely stand and walking away with a cane could make her presents known to her husband. Not to mention that her history with her husband is positive so it raises some doubt about that." She sighs to herself and continues on with her monologue.
"But then again, I can't deny her being a subject just yet...Not until there's some proof that can point out the possiblity of another suspect." She checks her watch. It was already 12 minutes after the radio talk with Wyatt. "Where is that pup anyway? Surely he is capable of getting a few crowbars from-"
Just then she heard the sound of the door creaking open and lightly slammed open on the other side. She almost dropped her cigarette in the process. She rushes back inside, taking out her Colt Detective Special Revolver and rushing inside to confront whoever entered through the door. She was only met with nobody there and the metal door was[[still closed.]]"B-But the-e, how is that possible?! I just heard it, the creaking and everything! Somebody must be in there!" She tries opening the door through the handle again, this time putting in much more force and gripping the handle even tighter. She reels herself and keeps pushing down on the handle.
"GRRRRGRAGGGG, Come on, COME ON YOU STUPID PIECE OF SH-" The handle breaks off from the door, causing Redwood to fall over and hit the floor in the process. She looked up at the broken door handle on the door and the actual handle in her hand. Her voice was coated in anger, causing her to stand up immediately and kick violently at the door to let out her fustration.
After a few kicks, she grabs her walkie talkie and tries calling Wyatt's frequency again, only to recieve the sound of white noise. She tries with the other officers walkie Talkies. It's the same result, just loud buzzing static. She looks at the door's metal hinges and the now broken door handle. She checks her revolver's chamber, there was five bullets inside ready to shoot. Redwood make a deduction about what she could do.
"If I shoot the door's hinges, it might make the door fall over. Shooting the door handle won't work for....obvious reasons...." She says that while cluching her shoulder when she remembered that incident from her first time as a police officer. She looks at the door behind her. "Its either shooting the hinges or leave the room, find anybody in this squad and see if they can help me with opening this goddamn door!"
She now has chose: [[Take the risk and try to shoot the metal door's hinges]] or [[run outside the storage room, look for other officers and see if they can help her open this door.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She walks over to entrance door, uses the wall to take cover and sticks her head out to see if she could see the metal hinges. As she sees them, she aims her pistol at the hinges and cocks the hammer, sweat forming from her forehead in fear that it could go wrong. She thought for a moment and decides to let out a warning to anybody nearby, letting out a large shout of "EVERYBODY STEP AWAY FROM AROUND HERE! I AM GOING TO SHOOT MY GUN AT THIS DOOR!" to anybody that might be nearby.
After waiting for roughly 8 minutes to make sure that anybody nearby has left, she aims her revolver at the hinges and squeezes the trigger four times.
BAM!! BAM!! BAM!! BAM!!
She fires four times, two shots at one hinge above and mirroring the same two shots at the bottom. She makes sure to take cover behind the wall after each shot to avoid getting hit by any ricocheted bullets. Thankfully, there wasn't any rebounds from the bullets but at the same time, these shots didn't matter. They hit the hinges but after the impact, they just got wedged into the hinges. Redwood stepped out from hiding, astonished yet annoyed that the hinges took the hits without being badly damaged.
She looks at the door and wonders if it could have maybe made it more loose. After a few hard kicks to the door, the result was just the same as before, not hing changed. She looks at her gun, takes out the empty shells and reloads the chamber with four more bullets. She quickly holstered her gun and decided to take out her flask real quickly, sipping a few times at its contents to calm her thirst and herself down. A few rushed footsteps made her nearly choke as she quickly tighten the lid on and put it away. The footsteps belonged to two crowbar wielding Tweedle twins. Wyatt came in after them, carrying [[two crowbars and a forehead drenched in sweat.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She quickly ran out of the room and looked for any available free officers to help her with this task. Almost every officer on the scene were busy with their own tasks except for two certain detective assistance that were on the scene. The Tweedle Twins were talking with each other, exchanging notes between each other and on a few occasions, talk with any officers that just wanted to talk. Reluctantly, Redwood approach them.
"Hey you two. Could you do me a favor?"
The two twins look at Redwood and then back at each other, nodding once and then faced Redwood. Mandy spoke first "Ahh, The Red Detective. How can we help you?" Redwood rubbed her own cheek and said to both detectives "I need some help with prying open a heavy looking door. The handle broke off after I tried doing it myself. Wyatt is...somewhere but everybody on the scene is busy. Think you can spare some time?"
Andy looked at Redwood and gestured Mandy over. He quickly says to Redwood "Do you mind if me and my partner quickly check our schedule?" Redwood nodded and just waited. Andy and Mandy were looking at each other's notes and then both nodded. He responds to Redwood. "Sure, we can help." They both went over to their car quickly to get some crowbars and followed Redwood all the way down to the storage room. Because it was their first time to seeing this door, Mandy spoke in a suprised manner "Well, that's new...let's see if we can pry it open." She hands one of the two crowbars to Redwood and they got into postion to pull it open. After trying for a few times, they took a five minute break. They all heard a few rushed footsteps making their way down towards them. The footsteps belonged to Wyatt. He came in with [[two crowbars and a forehead drenched in sweat.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>"S-Sorry... g-got delayed by the traffic. A-Anyway, I got two crowbars that we can use to get that door open...Whew, Just a second..."
Wyatt breathed in and out, catching his lost wind from his rush. He looked around the room, looking at Redwood, the two detectives and the big metal door in front of him. Redwood wondered and asked Wyatt if he could examine the door and find areas that would useful to pry from.
He, with the help of the two assistant detectives, checked around areas that they could place their crowbars. He pointed at the gaps that were bigger than the others and told the two twins to place their crowbars there. When looking for another spot to place his crowbar in, he noticed that there wasn't any other spots to place his bosse's crowbar.
"T-There doesn't seem to be any other plac-places f-for the other crowbar. M-Maybe you could r-ready y-your gun j-just in case something pops out from here. T-Tha-that should- A-Ah what are you d-doing?"
Redwood gripped onto Wyatt's crowbar and stood across from him on the other side. Wyatt's face was blushing when seeing his boss just suddenly standing close to him but she doesn't seem to notice as she is staring at the metal door. She said in a commanding tone "On the count of 3, we all need to pry open this bloody door. Ready?!" Wyatt snapped out of his embrassed state and prepared himself while the twins stiffened a chuckle in order to focus on the task at hand. Redwood says while gripping Wyatt's crowbar [["1... 2..."]]
<<audio "Page" play>>This place was really strange. The room's walls were pentrated by some vines. These vines stretched around the room and covered certain spots such as a section of a wall and floor. Besides the heavy amount of plants stuck at random, the room seems to be a basement and a lab. There is a wide book shelf with each book seemingly worn. In the center of the room, there is a table that contains some mystical looking objects that looks like something from a fantasy story: a orb, worn scrolls, mortar with a acidic smell aroming from it, a quill inside a bottle of ink and other miscellaneous objects just resting on the table.
Redwood thought to herself, thinking "Man...what is with this place? This doesn't seem like the Tavern's basement... and what's with those weird looking objects? Gahh, I'm still stuck in this stupid vine! I need to get out of this thing so I can leave!" Redwood kept trying and trying, but she hasn't made any progress still. She took a moment to think about possible ways to escape.
After thinking and looking at her dropped objects, she had come up with two ideas to help get her out of those vines. "If I could reach down, grab the lighter and notepad and use it to construct a type of makeshit match" She looks over at the gun and came up witu another simple solution. "Or if I have the chance, I could somehow grab my gun, aim and fire at the vines." she thought about the two ideas again and made mental notes about the risks from either plan. "If I'm not careful with the makeshift match, I could end up burning myself whereas if I don't make the shot, I will have to reach over to the bullets to try and..."
Redwood tried and failed to grab some of the other bullets dropped earlier. Both choices seem to have a risk but it's all she has right now. She needs to either [[get the gun]] or [[get the lighter and notebook.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>"And now, ladies and gentlemen. I shall be attempting a trapeze performance: shooting at a vine while I'm upside down...Hooray..." She quietly says to herself in a jokingly yet unenthusiatic tone. She starts off by swaying her upper body back and forth like a metronome, repeating this until she slowly builds up momentum. This in turn would make her swing in longer distances. Eventually, the distance started to get close enough to the gun. With the perfectly timed swing, she manages to reach the pistol only to fail to grab it, causing her to slightly wobble in disbelief, but she put a stop to it when she saw that the swinging distance was getting smaller, so she repeats the previous steps to try again.
On the second try, fianlly manages to grab onto her pistol and grip it tightly. After she has slowed down enough, she held onto the cylinder and quickly covered the chamber slots to avoid any bullets that could have fallen out. She felt one bullet left inside the gun. She sighs to herself, looks over at all her bullets scattered across the floor, noting that there's only five bullets that she could reach. She decides to take the risk and see if she can [[hit a vine with one shot.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>"Arson seems to be a good idea for now." She jokely makes that comment as she looks over to the pile of dropped items and tried to stretch out her arms to grab them, more specifically the lighter and notepad. It didn't work but she had another idea. "If I can find the way to make the vine loose, I should extend my reach. But how...I wonder if my core strength is good enough to do THIS!!" She grabs the vine wrapped around her legs and somehow pull herself up. She managed to uphold her balance by holding onto the vine. She wonders if she could climb out of her predicament but as she tried to climb up the vine, about a quarter of a war, she felt the strength of the vine starting to giveway.
"Ohhh SHIII-" THUMP!
Redwood smacked the back of head as she dropped to the floor, momentarly stunning her until she felt the vines slowly moving in a animated fashion. These 'vines' were slowly moving back to their original position, slowly tugging Redwood along. In that brief moment of thinking, she decided to not waste time by quickly crawling over to the pile, gripping the notebook and the lighter tightly before being put [[back into her old predicament.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She readied her gun at the vines, looking for the one vine that appears weaker than the others. But when she tried to find that weak vine, she noticed that there was some vines that are automatically moving towards another, wrapping around and tightening around the weaker ones, making it visually remind Redwood that it looks like a snake wrapping around their prey and suffocating them. Redwood needed to act fast or she could be trapped in these vines forever. She looked around the vines, trying and failing to look for that one weaker vine as they ended up covering the entire hole. In panic and desperation, She decided to screw her previous idea and instead places the gun's barrel close to the vine she is connected to from her ankle.
Sweating and mentally praying that this works, she lets out a big shout, saying "WORK, DAMN IT!" and then pulls the trigger, shooting the gun and hoping that the bullet penetrates and breaks the vine.
Successfully, the vine breaks from impact, causing Redwood's leg to drop and giving her the chance to move away. She quickly crawled away and then in a panicked like state, ran forward while trying to stand up. She hits the wall, turned around and sitting with her back close to wall, witnessing the 'vines' [[repair itself.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She stares at the vines, noticing that they were strangly repairing its torn parts. From a mere glimpse, she saw some neon brigh green shine within the torn sections until it was covered by its own layer of plant. From looking around the room, seeing these oddly designed objects and now these slight sentient vines, she was able to deduced that these vines must have been created through magical means. The more she thought about it, the more she was even more confused about this case she has been forced into. "Damn it, I knew something was strange about this place...Screw it, I'll figure this out AFTER I get out of these bloody vines!". She angrily blurted out before preparing the lighter and notebook.
She quickly shakes the lighter. Unfortunately but fortunately, there's was some small amount of oil inside, making it possible to escape but with a limited amount. She knew that just lighting the vine with the lighter would drain it quickly so she decided to tear out an empty page and with her other hand, flicks the lighter's flint a few times until it activated a flame. She quickly set one end of the page on fire and burnt the vine enough for her to escape. She quickly crawled away from the vines, witnessing the 'vines' [[repair itself.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>The vines that she shot started to slowly repair itself. While repairing itself, it also began to replicate and expand in size, making the room shake and rattle. Redwood looked at the vines until she saw the pile of items began shaking violently, noticing the floor in the middle started breaking apart and collapsing in on itself. The pile of Redwood's items were seperating, her pack of cigarettes, several bullets and the red, magical hat fell into the abyss below, disappearing from sight. The few items that hasn't fell into the pit slid towards the wall she is sitting close to, these items were her wallet, detective badge and roughly 10 bullets.
As she quickly grabbed these items and put them away, she suddenly collapsed to the floor, noticing the center of the room just suddenly being pulled apart by a massive vine, dividing the rooms and taking the section opposite Redwood's view down into the darkness. She lets out a fearful "Ohhh SH*T, OH SH*T!!" as she looks around the room. From her right side, she saw a closed door that she needs to take to get away from the room she's in. While trying to violently open the door in panicked state, she saw the floor slowly breaking and falling down into the darkness, making her more violently ram and kick at the door until the door finally shifted open.
Redwood sprinted out of the room and kept running until she tripped and fell. Looking over, she saw the room that she was inside of. The building was a small wodden cabin, the exterior was in a state of decay and covered in those vines. And now, Redwood just witnessed this cabin just be violently torn apart and eventually pulled down into the darkness underneath it. After regaining her composure, she took a moment to look around where she was and it was clear as day that she was [[in another world.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood's eyes couldn't believe in what she has seen. First was those magical vines that kept growing and now this place that she has litteraly stumbled into. The landscape was a semblance to something from a fairy tale. She stood up from the ground and walked alongside the path near her. The path took her downhill, opening up more to the environment around her. From the bottom floor of the path, there was a massive amount of heavily thick trees, emitting a lustrous green that made Redwood remind her of Emeralds.
Alongside this forest, she also saw a lot of animals roaming around and reacting to her presents: Rabbits hopping away, a male and female fox staring at her before walking away and a few birds letting out a cheerful turn. As she walks along, She notice the terrain getting more brighter and colourful until she reached opposite side of the treeline. She sees a massive field of green, mountains in the distance with summit covered in clouds. At one moment, the sun was blocked off by another castle, this one was on top of a cloud. A few minutes passed and the castle moved away from the sun, releasing it's bright ray onto the field.
Redwood took a moment to think and relax. She sat down and took in her surroundings, admiring the peaceful atmosphere and the soft gentle breeze. She stood up and kept moving, eventually taking a path that leads to another section of the forest. Much like before, there were many healthy trees but this time, these trees were getting dark, suddenly shifting the entire atmosphere from peaceful and happy to grim and eerie, the branches becoming distorted in shape. She felt the presents of somebody watching her. She took out her revolver, ready to protect herself from this mysterious, threatening presence. The rustle of a bush from one side, the shaking of leaves from above and the faint footsteps from behind her. She felt tense, the air was getting thicker as she kept moving forward. She heard it get closer and closer from behind her, causing her to quickly turn around and [[aim at this thing.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>"3!" They all pushed and pulled the crowbars, trying their hardest to pry open this door. The first attempt failed spectaculously, with the Mandy loosing her footing and accidentally butting heads with Andy. Redwood, meanwhile lost her grip and ended up collapsing onto Wyatt, both being slightly stunned and subconciously holding onto each other. Redwood and Wyatt saw the predicament they were in a quickly and quickly moved away from each other to avoide being seen by Mandy and Andy. When they looked at the detectives, they were relieved that the twin assistants didn't see what happening otherwise it wouldn't have ended well for Redwood and Wyatt. The Twins stood up and were arguing to each other about whose fault it was for making them trip up. Redwood slammed the butt of her revolver onto the door to snap them out of attention. An awkward silence stood between the four police members for a moment until Redwood broke the silence with her voice. "We need to focus on this and try to get this door open. We-
Andy interrupted first. "Hey Boss lady, I got a suggestion." Redwood hated being interrupted but she decided to let it slide. Andy pointed at the hinges "Why don't we try to remove the hinges there? We could use something powerful enough to break them and then we can simply pull it away!". Mandy snapped her fingers and pointed at Andy, replying with excitment "Yeah! We could use some small explosives or a massive drill on-" This time, Redwood interrupted the twins "Bad idea...This can lead to several complications later on. The crime scene would be tampered with, the hassle and risk with setting up those types of equipment. Not to mention, we would need permission from both the owner of this building and the provider for the explosives or drill...And that can take all day...No, we need to keep trying to pry this open." Redwood picks up Wyatt's crowbar and grabs hers. This time, she orders both detectives to share bone crowbar between them. Redwood and everyone else hope that this [[next attempt would work.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>From the second attempt, they all used their strength to try and pry the door open. The amount of force used with the crowbars causes the door to slowly but eventually open up, making the door howl out a metalic creaking noise. Everybody started to nearly fall over after manging to open the door. Redwood noticed the door slowly trying to close on itself and shouted out "CRAP, HOLD THE DOOR OPEN QUICKLY!" just as Wyatt and Andy rushed over and held back the door from closing in on itself.
After the door stopped moving, Wyatt and Andy pushed the door to the other side, close to the hinges. They stood there and waited until they could figure out how to keep it from closing. Mandy looks around until she found a box of office supplies. Mandy rushed around the room until she found a box. "Detective, I found something we could use to hold this door open! Over here!" Redwood looked over and ran to Mandy. She was standing near 2 boxes, each one having a sign on them that reads 'OFFICE DEPO: 1000 REAM PACKET OFFICE PAPER'.
"Perfect! Quickly now, help me lift it up!" With the help of Mandy, they both lifted on box and carried it towards the metal door, placing it in front of it and repeating this process for the last box. As soon as that last box was placed, Andy and Wyatt gently and carefully stepped away from the door. They all were releived to see the door be held in place.
Andy rubbed and clapped his hand, positively exclaiming "Good job, you guys. Looks like that door won't be going where!" Both Wyatt and Redwood looked uneased about it and quickly looked around the room to make sure there is another box of Office Paper. There was indeed one more box. They both rushed over to the box, picked it up and placed it near to the other two boxes in front, [[adding more resistance against the weight of the door.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>
"Okay, that's a start. Mrs Lucy, I want you to talk about those tools that Mr Meles was getting. I need you to remember if you have actually seen or heard what your husband was trying to get for his Gym."
Lucy looks at the floor, closing her eyes to remember anything. She looked back up and said to Redwood "I...I think I remember a glimpse of something he was holding...I-it looked like he was holding two things but...I'm not sure because he ushered me out of the room...quite angrily too...I don't know why but I could have also sworn that for a brief moement he looked really...worried?" Lucy was confused when she mentioned it but through that thinking, she started remembering moments of her husband. "A-Actualy, recently he looked shaken up every Saturday, like he has seen a ghost or something. Because he seems to being worried everytime and like every Saturday, he seemed to always mention about getting his tools for the gym. I-"
Redwood interrupted her quickly "Was it everytime or has there been a point where it didn't happen?" This made Lucy think for a moment until she recalled. "Yes actually. This all happened after his arguement with Jack Salfish, an part time ex-employee that worked here. See, Jack wanted to go full time in order to run this business instead of us because he said that he had experience with managing a business. I considered it originally but my husband thought otherwise and told Jack that he couldn't because he knew Jack didn't have any experience with management and that he was [[lying through his teeth.]]
29.
<<audio "Page" play>>Just then, Mrs Lucy was visibely upset about something, nearly tearing up until she wiped her tears away. "This....arguement ended up with Jack quiting a-and....well, Ja-Jack....he off'ed himself." Redwood handed her a tissue and waited for her to wipe away her tears and blew her nose. "S-so, I t-think t-that must have shaken Kenneth up. H-He seemed distant from things, looking around, slightly worried and fearful about things." Redwood made a few notes about this incident between the Meles and this Jack person. She realise something about this place, noticing that there is a lot of civlians waiting from the outside of the Tavern, angrily trying to get through. She decided to question Lucy about this.
"Before I got into this Tavern, I noticed this place having a lot of customers waiting outside, trying to get in, even getting angry at us from blocking them. Is this place THAT important to them? Why is it that case?"
Lucy tilted her head and gave her a confusion expression like how a dog would. "You mean you never heard of the Willow's Tavern? We provide a unique blend of fruit flavoured drinks that makes the people out there want to come back and enjoy. See, this place is actually close to the construction builders, engineers, miners and other local shops around here so a lot of the workers would often come down here during lunch time or after work to relax and quench their first. Our speciality here is the Willow's Wonder Cider, each one flavored with 5 types of fruits. Because of this land, there was a lot of free estate agents practically begging to buy this tavern from us at a massive price. I-"
While Lucy kept talking, Redwood made a note about this Tavern, why its widely liked and the brief talk about this place being regularly being asked for purchase. In Redwood's mental note, she may have discovered [[a motive for this crime.]]
30.
<<audio "Page" play>>"Lucy Meles, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Redwood said, snapping her out of her long talk about the Tavern. She rubs the back of her head in embrassement and apologies to Redwood for that.
"Sorry about that, must have been rambling like an old cow. No, you can ask me any questions, deary" Lucy waited while Redwood thought of a question. "Do you mind telling me how your relationship with Kenneth Meles is in general?" This caused Lucy to be taken back and immediately answer in a flustered tone "W-What?! W-Well, me and Kenny a-are doing fine of course!"
Red. The bracelet's red bead flashed a bright red, implying some lies behind that statement. Redwood pushed on with her questioning, readjusting her hat to find some contradiction. "Lucy Meles, I am going to ask you again. How...IS... your relationship with Kenneth Meles doing at the moment?" Just then Lucy's words started to slip and her habit is reacting again. "Ke-kenny and me are doing fine! *We have n-no issues between us and t-there isn't any sort of grudge from both of us!* An-"
Redwood interrupted her "That's enough. I know that you are lying to me. Your habit is reacting again to you and kenny having 'no issues between us' and that there 'isn't any sort of grudge'. Lucy, remember what I said to you before starting all of these lines of questions. If you don't be truthful, then you will be detained and questioned at the station. Understand?"
Lucy was about to respond but she knew that Redwood was right. She then took a moment to breath and then spoke to Redwood, sounding exhausted and defeated. "I-I...I feel there was some...distance between us. Ever since the day Jack died, Kenny changed. He became more quiet, skeptical, stressed out and fequently moving about things of the late. He didn't talk to me about his own troubles and rarely spoke about anything in general, becoming more of [[a loner than a husband."]]
31.
<<audio "Page" play>>During the conversation, Redwood mentally thought about this whole case. "Hmm, this Jack fellow...You know, why does his name ring bells whenever he gets mentioned...now that I think about it, there's something strange about this case: strange shadow figures, the way the crime scene is seemingly left untouched, the recurring theme of this Jack character and the way Mr Meles has changed after Jack commited suicide. I will need to look into this Jack figure when I get back into the office, something bugs me about him." Redwood to flipped open her notebook and written all these subjects onto a new page. She looks at Lucy, takes off the magic-like lie detector bracelet. She gentley places her other hand on Lucy's shoulder to both make her calm down and get her attention.
"Mrs Lucy Meles, I believe this will do for now. If it's not too much trouble, I would like you to go inside the Tavern and look for my assistant in this picture here." She shows Lucy a picture of a group picture. This picture contains her, Wyatt and some close friends inside one of the police departments offices. She points at Wyatt in the picture and adds onto her previous statement "Look for him, tell him about me and what we did here today, and he will take you to the police station to add onto the witness testimony. Don't worry, he's nice and he can watch over if you want him to."
Lucy nodded, letting out one tearful message to Redwood before limp walking into the Tavern with her walking cane in one hand "Please...please find my husband. I miss him a lot." Redwood decided to leave the crime scene to head back to her office to look into this Jack Salfish figure. She takes out her walkie talkie, flicks the on button and manually switches the default radio frequency to [[Wyatt's frequency.]]
31.
<<audio "Page" play>>She clicks and hold the phone button, waiting for Wyatt to pick up. He answers and listens to his Boss. "Wyatt, it's me, Redwood. I need you to let me know how goes your progress so far, over." She waits for his response.
"So far, th-there isn't anything I could see in in the kitchen or behind the bar counter. I did see a storage room in back of the kitchen but there was nothing strange I could find in there either, it's all just empty boxes, a dustpan with a broom attached to it, some empty lockers and some boxes containing office suppiles. It seems that this place was untouched. I got several pictures of the places I was in, do you want me to send it to you later, over?" Wyatt asked Redwood.
Redwood respond "That would be nice. Listen, I had a conversation with Lucy Meles, the wife of the missing victim and she has a few statements that sound interesting to listen to. I need you to finish up with what you are doing and kindly escort her to the station to add onto the witness testimony. Could you do that, over?"
As expected, Wyatt complied and obey Redwood's command "R-Roger that, I will leave to look for her over. U-Umm Boss, what will you be doing from now until I have dropped her off, over?"
Redwood took a moment to think and then told him "I'm going back to the police station to pick up my car and then head over to my office to look into a matter regarding a certain person she mentioned, along with the history behind this place. After you drop her off, would you like to continue with investigating this place or would you like to help me with my task?" Wyatt had a bit of time to think, hesitating until he responded. "I-If it's not any issue with you, I'll head over to your office to help you look into this matter, Over." Redwood made a small smile and responded [["Roger that, see you at my office. Over and out"]]
32.
<<audio "Page" play>>She ends her conversation with Wyatt and decides to leave the scene quickly. She walks past the officers, informing their superior that she will need to leave the scene to look into a matter regarding the Tavern.
"And be sure that nobody tries to enter the scene. When you and the other officers are finished for the day, I'd recommend you lock up the scene for the night, and reopen it in the next morning. Until then, keep anybody out who are not involved in this case, civlians, officers and other detectives that have no clue about this case nor any clearance to do so." Redwood said to the officer's leader. The leader nodded and relayed her message to other members of his and other team while Redwood left the scene the same way she has entered it. She debated about how to get back to the police station and decided to head to a nearby Police Station for a few reason, mainly to save the trouble of waiting for Wyatt to arrive with Lucy and to make the journey less awkward for her and Lucy.
While waiting, she took out another cigarette, lit it with her lighter and smoked it away until her bus arrived. She quickly extinguished her cigarette by sticking it into a nearby smoke bin, got onto the bus, paid her fee and then sat down on one of the seats. While riding along, she was forced to endure a painful 14 minutes of five year old children letting out loud high pitch screaming while also enduring two 16 year old teenager girls from behind her. Between the the two teens chatting out loud about their boyfriends and talking bad about their 'friends' and the really earscreaming sounds of five years, Redwood mentally cursed to herself and wished that she should have just waited at Wyatt's car for Wyatt and Lucy, and endure the awkwardness inside his assistants car than dealing with these loud obnoxious sounds made inside this bus.
[[END OF CHAPTER 2]]
33.
<<audio "Page" play>><img src="Image/Chapter2Image.jpg" width="1080px" height="1920px">
<h1>CHAPTER 3: Curious and Curiouser</h1>
<hr>
After enduring a painful hour of travelling on the bus, Redwood immediately booked it out of the bus, thanking the driver and rushing over to the police station opposite. Rubbing her ears, she walked away from the bus stop and took the zebra crossing to get to the Police Department's car park.
"Hopefully, the chief doesn't spot me here....Otherwise, he'd give me a stupidly large amount of paperwork to do like always." Redwood said to herself while sneakily walking up to her car. She takes out her car keys and opened the driver's door. She quickly makes her way inside, places the keys into the ignition and drove out of the car park.
She drove back onto the motorway, praying that there isn't any massive traffic like this morning. When making a turn into a different section, she saw a long line of cars but this time, it was better than the morning's traffic because there was some room between each car and from what Redwood could tell, the workers on the motorway reopened another route for drivers to take, reducing the traffic by half.
The drive on the motorway only took 20 minutes, giving Redwood the chance to reach her office sooner than later. She parked her car nearby, got out and locked it, making her way to the office building. Her office was on the second floor so she just needed to take the stairs to reach the office. The door of her office had a plaque that reads 'DETECTIVE REDWOOD' to let anybody know who works in there. She goes through her pockets until [[she found her office key.]]
34.
<<audio "Page" play>>The group took a moment to recover their lost energy and then readied themselves as they entered the room. Redwood took out her flashlight along with her revolver and entered first, followed by a M9 wielding Wyatt and the two twins. They made their way into this dark, abyss like room. They looked around and saw nothing of interest, noticing the lack of anything.
"Nothing....Nothing in here at all...Wait a minute, what is that there?"
Redwood shined her flashlight on a trapdoor. She gestured Wyatt to follow her and ordered him to keep the flashlight on it. She took a step forward and reached down to try and open it. The odd thing about this trapdoor however, is that when she seemed to have grabbed the handle, she actually was gripping onto a single vine that shapeshifted into a handle.
"What the..." She tugged on it gently and then suddenly, her arm gets wrapped around by that same vine, [[violently tugging her down to the floor and trying to pull her through.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She opens the door, hangs her coat and hat up on the coat rack, and headed to her desk. She sat down and rested her body, letting her mind wonder a little to relax. She did a couple of breathing excerises and reflected on the case so far. This ends up being deconstructed as she took out a cigarette and began smoking it. While she was smoking, she looked through her notes, reading Lucy's testimony. While looking through the testimony, she turned on her computer and logged into her departments website.
She typed into the crime case files for the suicide of Jack Sailfish along with any cases regarding the Willow's Tavern. There was a few articles about the Tavern, mentioning the history about how it became widely liked in the community. She looks through any articles mentioning Jack Sailfish but suprisingly, there wasn't any mention of him. She looks through regular articles but there was no information about Jack Sailfish's suicide.
During a read through an article, she heard the sound of her office phone went off. She checks the time and notice that she was in the office for 3 hours. [[She picks up the phone to answer the caller.]]
35.
<<audio "Page" play>>He checks the time and then quickly flickers onto the next screen. It showed today's task for each member inside the room, Redwood and Wyatt included. He says in his serious, slightly angry tone "Here is what your roles are going to be for today's case. Check through the files on the table and then head off. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR??!"
All members in the room let out "Yes sir!" excluding Redwood, who mouth gestured those words instead of actually saying it. Wyatt took notice and stiffened a chuckle. The chief was about to say something until his stomach growled rather violently "Damn it...OKAY, THAT IS ALL DISMISSED!" He rushed himself out of the room and shoulder barged the male toilet's door, letting out a loud painful yell.
Everyone in the room all saw that but they didn't question it and decided not to because for now they all needed to look at the board and rewatch anything they failed to write down during the morning's briefing. Redwood stood up and without realising, nearly fell asleep. Wyatt could tell that she was stressed out and tired so he decided to help her with [[prepping for today's case.]]
13.
<<audio "Page" play>>"Redwood's Detective Office, how can I help you?" Redwood says in her normal phonecall response to the caller.
"B-Boss, it's me. I-I wanted to let you know that I have dropped off Mrs Meles. B-B-But..." Wyatt sounded normal but then sounded sad about something. He takes a deep breath and then says "But Mrs Meles...was arrested and detained."
Redwood stood up and grabbed the Phone holder. "Tell me the reason why...and who..." Redwood sounded tense, she looked out to the window and looked at the carpark. Wyatt responded "D-D-Detective Marigold arrested her. She said that Mrs Meles h-had a motive a-and that she also said that she could have been the only one to know the ins and outs of the Tavern, since she has a key to it."
Redwood was annoyed. She knew Wanda would try to one up her by trying to solve this case herself. She must have used the twin detectives to secretly listen in on her and Meles conversation. She rubs her eyes and responds to Wyatt. "Use your laptop and look into the Willow's Tavern...I think there's [[something about that place that really bugs me.]]
36.
<<audio "Page" play>>"WHOA WHOA WHOA, IT'S ME! IT'S ME!" The figure revealed to be one of the Twin Detectives, Andy Tweedle. Redwood lifted her head back and breathed in relief but she fired back at Andy. "Then why the hell didn't you SAY something?? You could have been shot, you idiot!"
Andy shrugged and responded "because I thought you was the culprit." Redwood didn't even bother responding, just rolling her eyes instead. "Okay, so if you are here, where is everybody else?" She questioned him.
"We all are at a nearby shack. Follow me!" Andy guides Redwood through the forest all the way to the shack. The shack was fairly decent looking but still could do with some work. He went up to the door, knocked three quick times and then one slowly timed knock. The door opens, revealing Wyatt and Mandy opening the door. "B-Boss! A-Are you alright?"
Redwood nodded "Let's get in first before we ask anything."
Wyatt and Mandy side stepped and let Redwood and Andy in, closing the door behind them and moving a [[rustic, slide down styled lock down into it's slot.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood sat down and talked to the others about what happened to her, expressing the large, sentient vines that kept growing and ending up being chased out of the room only to discover being in this weird yet familar world. The others said a similar story but they escaped much more differently. They all decided to take a few moments to relax. Just then Wyatt mentioned to them about something important.
"I-I think I found a way out of this place!" The other members turned their head and paid attention to Wyatt. "T-There was this small cave near here. I-I think that if we could find it, we can get back to the surface." They agreed and decided to go look for it. Before they left, Redwood looked at the shack she was in and felt...some deja-vu from it. It was a mixture of good and bad feelings, especially when she saw Wyatt stand near the bed, looking out to the wilderness like a wild animal.
She decides to think about that later, focusing on trying to get out of this strange, wonderfully familar world that she has entered. Before leaving, Redwood stepped on [[something that sounded like glass.]]
<<audio "Page" play>>"CRAP! S-SSSON OF A BIT-" Wyatt ran over, dropping his flashlight and trying to pull apart the vine. This failed in the end so he tried to shoot at the vine but held back when he saw that the only exposed vine was too close to his boss. He shouts "H-HELP ME HERE ALREADY!!!"
The Twins ran over, trying to pull Redwood out. This failed and Redwood was started to lose her conciousness as the vine grew and wrapped around her neck, choking her.
Andy remembered something and he quickly ran out of the room. He ran back in with one of the crowbars and started stabbing at the Vine. The vine loosened around Redwood's neck and arm, making her able to breath again. They decided to escape but the massive door had a vine fling towards it, gripped the handle and shut it closed. The quartet suddenly felt something rubble underneath, opening up the floor and making them all fall into the abyss below them. The darkness grows as Redwood slowly sucumbs to sleep.
[[END OF CHAPTER 3]]
<<audio "Page" play>>She hangs up and grabs her coat and hat. She locks up her office and heads to the parking lot. She walks over to her car, opens it and drives off to the crime scene again.
It took her 45 minutes to get there but she arrived at the scene, noticing that the crowd is gone for the day. She walks up to the front, showing the badge to the guard in front and looking around for the Twins.
She walked around the outside front part but couldn't find them there, causing her to go through the front door and look inside. She notice a few police officers and investigators here, meaning that it should be easy to spot them. She goes upstairs and checks the toilets, the spare bedrooms and empty storage rooms. Just then, she heard the banter from downstairs, the voices speaking were the [[two detectives twins she was searching for.]]
38.
<<audio "Page" play>>
She walked down the stairs, spotting the twins and angrily called them out. "OI, YOU TWO! DON'T YOU DARE MOVE!" spoke Redwood as she reach the bottom step and head towards them. She looks at the two then at the other nearby officers. They watched them but then they looked away when Redwood looked at them.
"Outside, now!" She said, speaking to them both. They walked outside, close to the entrance of the pub. They waited for Redwood to speak to them. "Okay, for one thing, you two shouldn't be here since you are clearly not assigned to this case but now I got several questions of my own regarding about recent events here. Answer now and I'll let this slide, understand?!"
The two twins nodded and waited for Redwood's questions. She took a moment to think about a few questions and then asked about the obvious question. [["First off, why did you arrest Mrs Meles?"]]
39.
<<audio "Page" play>>"We listen to your conversation between you and Mrs Meles. We heard about how she felt that she was distant between her and husband along with the fact that the Tavern is worth loads of dosh. Should she get rid of her husband, she would be able to do whatever she wants to the place." Mandy says to Redwood. Mandy took a moment to breath since she said all of this to Redwood in one breath.
Redwood fires back "but have you searched around the place for any signs of the culprit? I would like you to bare in mind that Lucy can't walk properly without her walking cane. If she was able to get rid of her husband, then she would have a few problems: The first is that she couldn't balance herself...Not to mention that her husband is an ex-boxer. If she tries to take him out, she would have been beaten down badly."
The twins were a bit taken back, Redwood did have a point. Andy: Perhaps...but she could have drugged him, dragged him away and then cleaned up later. I mean, she DID appear at the Tavern with her Husband so she would [[know a lot of this places room and storages.]]
39.
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood hate to admit it but they were right. Lucy does know a lot more of this place than herself. Not to mention, she would know more about her husband so there's the off chance that she could have drugged him. But then there's the question and she jumped at that chance to use it.
"Perhaps but you forgot one thing about Mrs Meles...Her age and mobility." Redwood says and continues "Don't forgot that she would need to carry him away from the scene. Her age is one thing since she is quite elderly but there's also the problem where she isn't able to walk properly. This would mean that she would need to carry him around without the risk of tripping and falling over. She couldn't carry him upstairs nor downstairs otherwise she would risk hurting herself!"
The twins were suprised and shocked that they didn't come up with that point. They try to think about it but they couldn't figure anything out. Just then they remembered something. Mandy and Andy did very British 'after you, no after you' thing between them. Mandy eventually spoke first [["Ahhh but have you examined the kitchen's small lift?"]]
40.
<<audio "Page" play>>Redwood stiffen up, suprised by what they said. She then mentally cursed to herself because she forgotten to examine the crime scene herself. Redwood proceeded say nothing and just walk to the front door of the Tavern herself. She made her way inside and walked into the kitchen area. The interior of the kitchen reminded her so much of the kitchens that the chiefs used in the Great British Menu, bright, metallic, organized and fairly clean.
She walked around, examining every mook and cranny, including the refridgerators and the Freezers. So far, they were filled with food and other ingredients. eventually, she found the small elevator near the kitchen's backroom. She saw that the elevator shaft seemed just big enough for her to use. She decided to follow where this elevator goes towards.
She asked a nearby officer and they told her that it goes down into the small storage room below. They told her to look for a room number reading 'SR-7'. She thanked the officer and walked downstairs to find [[Storage Room 7.]]
41.
<<audio "Page" play>>She made her way downstairs to the bottom floor. The bottom floor was arranged in a narrow hallway with each door being lined up next to each other. She walked along until she saw the initals 'SR-7'. And when she opened it, she heard the buzzing sound of the miniture elevator making a stop in the room.
Upon opening the door, she saw a simple storage room, containing a few lockers, empty boxes and a few boxes containing office suppiles. She ignored those objects and decided to examine the place. The lockers were empty, containing nothing but dust. Inside the office suppiles was a massive amount of paper, all neatly kept within the unopened packages.
She quickly decided to look into the other rooms, examining and looking for any clues. They all ended up being nothing but a waste of time as she just saw empty dust covered rooms. She ends up going back to Storage Room 7 and decided to have a cigarette break. As she lights her cigarette and puffed a few smokes, [[she let her eyes wonder and her mind think.]]
42.
<<audio "Page" play>>
"Damn it...So far, this is getting nowhere. They said that she could have used this lift to move him but then what? The rooms here were just empty and barely untouched...Wait....untouched..." She looks around the room she is in and saw that this place had barely any dust inside, exluding the lockers. This means bad news for her since Lucy could have took him down here, disposed of him somehow and then cleaned up here to avoid leaving footprints.
Redwood went for another puff of smoke but then she stopped for a moment. She stares at her cigarette and saw the smoke going towards one part of the wall. The smoke is flying towards the wall opposite the door, getting disappearing and barely bouncing off the wall.
"Curious and curiouser....I wonder..." Redwood knocked all around the wall, each noise sounds hard until she heard a faint metalic sound. "Hmm..this means.."
She went to the office supply box and took out a pair of sharp sisscors. Using it like a knife, she scratched and stabbed against the wall, revealing a layer of metal underneath a thick layer of paint. She has discovered a [[large, metal door.]]
43.
<<audio "Page" play>>She looks down and sees a picture frame with a picture of three people next to each other. Redwood takes a closer look and sees two people with Xs across their face. But the indiviual that stood out between them was a young adult. When Redwood takes the picture out of the frame, she sees some writing from behind it. It reads 'To Jack Sailfish, From The Meles'.
She looks around the room and takes a look for objects, anything that gives off some indication of that this person's shack is Jack Sailfish's. While the others were waiting outside, they saw Redwood walk through the rooms, causing them to go back into the shack.
"Uhh, Redwood, What are you doing?" Andy said to Redwood, watching her pace back and forth, looking through, around and under things.
"Take a look at this....I knew something felt wrong here..."
Redwood shows the picture to Andy. Mandy looks over his shoulder while Wyatt did the same thing. The twins were confused by this image, looking at each other, but when Wyatt looked at the picture, he started to [[understand what this means.]]"O-Oh my god...S-So it turns out that he's still alive...W-Wait, then that means that HE'S the culprit!"
Redwood nodded, looking back at the trio. "That's right. Jack must have faked his death in order to plot this scheme..." Andy asked bacl at Redwood. "Wait, what scheme? Who is this Jack Sailfish? What's going on?" Wyatt explains what he knows about Jack Sailfish. "W-Well, from what I heard by Lucy, she talked a-about an ex-employee who used to work at her Tavern. I-I-t's apparent that he's trying get the deed to owner the Tavern in order to sell it off to the highest bidder. T-This could mean that Jack Sailfish is alive and planning to ransom Kenneth Meles for the deed!"
The Twins were shocked and immediately rushing back inside Redwood's house to help her with searching. The pair helped lift up heavy objects while Wyatt and Redwood looked for some clues or evidence of Kenneth Meles or Jack Sailfish.
[[Last Chapter]]
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