Lila gingerly poked at Ayano who was taking a nap at her desk. Eyebrows knitted together in slight concern, she finally decided to shove Ayano, hard.
As Ayano fell she grabbed onto Lila, snorting in amusement when the two collapsed into an uncomfortable heap onto the floor. The two looked at each other for a moment before guffawing; hurried steps approached them and the two scrambled away, dusting themselves off awkwardly as their boss looked at the two before sauntering back into their office down the hallway. A few minutes go by of them chuckling when Luke poked his head into the block.
"What happened?"
"Lila pushed me and we both fell over."
"Only because you fell asleep at your desk! Then our head came over and looked at us before walking back. Like what the fuck!"
"Jesus, Lila, chill."
"I am chill."
Ayano rolled her eyes playfully, "Anyways, how's it going with your case Luke, you're going on Wednesday?"
"You're clear with everything now?"
Luke nodded, "Yes, thank you. Your help is appreciated."
Lila wrapped an arm around Luke, "So, me and luke will leave you to the work. We're going to the boba café. Do you want anything?"
"My usual please."
She settled herself at her desk, opening her emails and checking if there was anything from Akimitsu. There was an email, subject saying it was Harold his secretary. As she opened it, the email detailed where they might be and the main parts of the original file. Ayano felt sick seeing the devices that they used to extract information. Reading the file name again, she sent an email asking if they knew the facility's name.
When she read the name, a sinking feeling rose in her stomach.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Harold had finally gained access from the Rosewood police to start looking into the security cameras around the town. Looking at his laptop he zoomed in on a group covered in filth, but their faces were extremely distorted, not by something from the camera, it was almost as if there was a film of dust over their faces, almost indiscernible from the surroundings. Taking a picture of it Harold tried clearing it up so that he could be sure that [Name] was in the group.
Getting up, he called the station house officer, he asked if they could get a warrant to go into the house that is two streets away and the main occupant should be an elderly lady. When the SHO asked what the warrant was for Harold told him the people he was looking for might be there.
Asking for the warrant was like pulling teeth. But in the end, they were allowed to go into the house, under the observation that they were accompanied by two officers, to which Harold agreed.
After he got off the call he sprinted out of his room and started frantically knocking on Akimistu's door. Harold practically stumbled into the room and told Aki the news.
In less than ten minutes they were all bundled into the back of the SUV and they were zooming down the road, ignoring the disgruntled looks of the officers who were probably counting how many road laws they were breaking in their heads. Akimitsu only laughed internally as his brother would have thought the same. He remembered his first driving lesson and [Name] was always like half a second away from a heart attack when he was in the front passenger seat, teaching him how to drive.
The houses blurred together, only clearing when they were stopped by lights. Then a slow turn into the secluded area. Rosewood is quite different from what Aki had expected. He had pictured it to be more grey and dreary with the people harsher looking and the local dialect rough on the ears. But it wasn't, the people although different and harsher, showed their care through their actions instead.
________________________________________________________________________________________
[Name] knew he should have listened to his gut when it told him there was something wrong with the old lady. Now he was gagged and strung up like cattle hanging from a hook in the ceiling, the others were bundled up on the ground, bound and gagged like he was.
He tries swinging, and once he started gaining momentum he managed to kick Ben on the side of the head, jolting the other awake.
When Ben woke up he started struggling immediately, before getting kicked again and glared at. He understood the look was telling him to shut up. Scared, Ben looked around him and gently shook the others awake. Alex scooted over to one of the brick edges and started grinding the rope on the brick edge. Once the rope gave away, he reached over to try and untie the others when they heard the ominous creaking of the door at the top of the stairs. They watched as the old lady walked down and started mumbling in another language.
[Name] felt a burning sensation on his scalp, gritted his teeth against the pain. He was changing into his demon form without wanting to, he saw the surprise and shock on their faces before he fell to the ground, as he dissipated the demon form he blacked out, only hearing the sound of frantic shouting before being picked up.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Akimitstu felt weird the moment he entered the house. The elderly woman smiled at him, with what one would say is a pleasant smile. Nonetheless, it made his skin crawl in distaste. Just something was off with the house. The others followed into the living room and the elderly lady was chatting relentlessly about nothing of importance and the police seemed more inclined to listen to her than them. He was not going to let this opportunity go to waste.
As he walked into her kitchen he heard a thump. Stilling, he tried to locate the noise. Thump. There it was again, he moved closer to one of the doors that had a lock on it next to the toilet. Thump. Aki took a step back just as the elderly walked into the kitchen with the others following behind her. He caught the minute widening of her eyes and glared at her.
He smirked at them all.
"Madam, if it's not too much trouble. Open this door for me."
"I-I can't I lost the key- "
Her protests were silenced when Aki raised a hairpin, "I can pick it for you."
He started bending open a bobby pin until it made a right angle and remove the rubber piece on the straight end to make a slight bend at the tip of the straight. Aki then pushed it into the lock, moved it around for a moment before it clicked open.
"There, the door is open. Lead us down there."
When he looked over the women's face was ashy pale, her hands were trembling slightly, and he would have felt bad. If it wasn't for the overwhelming amount of resentment in her eyes.
She stockily walked over and walked down the stairs, he then started hearing mumbling from the woman in front of him. Then the smell of sulphur and something burnt, irritated his nose until he had enough and pushed the lady away and saw the group bound and gagged on the floor, his brother was in pain with some extreme burn marks on his body in weird places.
They took him out of the place and called the ambulance. Then there was a flurry of actions, the lady was apprehended and the others were given shock blankets and bundled into the back of another ambulance at the scene too.