#08: Out Of Place Bakery

The day was hot, no cool wind blew in any direction. Ben was walking along a deserted pavement where gloomy structures stood tall. Initially, Ben was doing some investigation on the whereabouts of Nana on that street. Nik and a few members of the force had been investigating Nana's neighbourhood, and some informants had seen a strange woman dashing along the area. But as noon drew nearer and the sun's heat was at its peak, Ben had been looking for refreshments rather than for clues.

Eventhough the buildings around him were built high, the heat of the sunlight still managed to shower itself on Ben. Covered with sweat, he wished that at least a single breeze would come his way to make him feel better. "I'm going to die," Ben whimpered as he dragged his feet with his eyes closed. As he was about to lose it, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound followed by a very cool wind. It was so refreshing, ben thought that he had died and gone to heaven. A loud robotic voice made him come back to his senses.

"Welcome!" the voice whirred. Looking on his left, an automatic door stood open as it flowed air-conditioned breeze. Ben took a few moments to revive his spirit before he took a good look at the building. From outside, the structure was quite small if it was to be compared with the others. However, it was freshly painted and glimmered a sort of warmth and calmness. Ben took the liberty to read the cute golden signboard hanging firmly above the entrance. It read 'A. Bakery'.

Ben grinned. "I'm saved!" he cried out aloud as he dashed inside the bakery. Once inside, smells of freshly baked breads filled his nostrils. Lunchtime had came to a near, so it was no surprise that he felt hungry. As Ben browsed through the selections of food on display, a low and sweet voice of a woman welcomed him from behind the counter. "Good afternoon sir! How may I help you today?"

"Oh, hello!" Ben replied as he faced the woman. He went into a state of shock when he realised that the woman looked very much like a person he knew in the past. "A..Amirah?" Ben stammered. The woman wore a confused look. "Do I know you sir?"

Sighing, Ben replied, "It's me, Ben."

#07: The Photographer - Out On Field Work

A cool morning breeze swept gently across the agricultural land of Central City. As usual, a few workers of Joey's Apple Farm were moving up and down the fertile land checking it's apple trees. Since it was almost harvesting season; the large farm looked spectacular with neatly rows of trees blooming reds all over. Mrs. Fran, one of the workers, was carefully checking her row of trees when a few clicking sounds disturbed her. Glancing towards her left, she saw a young man taking pictures of the dangling fruits. She cleared her throat loudly.

"Excuse me mister, but I believe that this is a restricted," warned Mrs. Fran as she stepped closer towards the man. The photographer noticed the lady, and politely replied, "Oh, don't worry about me miss. I've already got the permission from the landlord to be here." he smiled warmly. "My name is Dwane. Quite a large farm this place is, don't you agree?"

Mrs. Fran observed that Dwane was not there to cause any trouble. "Yes, it has to be a few hudred acres here," she replied in a more friendly manner. "I am Mrs. Fran. What are you doing here? Taking holiday pictures of a farm?" Dwane laughed. "No, I'm not on a holiday," he answered as he placed his camera inside a sling-bag. "I'm here for work. My boss at Eastern Meadows wanted pictures of nature here among the city, so here I am taking pictures of apple trees."

"Wow, you're actually from that far away," said the lady in amazement. "Well then Mr. Dwane, I should really get back to my work. Good luck!" And off she went to continue her work. Dwane gave a short wave, saw a blue hummingbird resting on a branch at a distant and quickly took out his camera again.

*************************************************

"You know, two days before, a weak young woman came by this farm during the evening." It was almost noon, and the ladies who had finished their rounds at the farm were gathering under one of largest apple trees there for lunch. Apparently, Mrs. Fran saw dwane nearby and invited him to join them. As she swallowed her food, Mrs. Fran asked her friend that had started a conversation. "What was the woman like Carrie? Was she the same age as you?"

Carrie shook her head. "She was probably two or three years younger," she answered with a deep concern in her tone. "Anyway, her clothes were dirty and her face was weak. It look as if she had walked for miles! I gave her some food and water; and then she began to burst into tears. Though I ask her what was wrong, she didn't say anything. I think she must be lost."

All there seemed to nod in agreement. Dwane who munching an apple, offered some help. "If it's a lost person, maybe I can get notice from the police. Did you get that person's name Miss Carrie?" Carrie thought for a while. "Oh yeah, I did," she suddenly remembered. "It was Nana." Dwane choked. "Again?"

#06: In Search For Nana

"Yo Ben! Hey there Zatil! Long time no see," exclaimed Dwane when he and Bee arrived at a local restaurant. Knowing that Nana went missing, Zatil had suggested that they all meet up there at Dia's Diner. It was pretty crowded and hot inside, perhaps because it was already lunchtime. Ben grinned as he saw Bee and Dwane arrive. "Hello you guys! Take a seat," Ben urged. His face showed excitement, but Dwane noticed a trace of extreme concern on that grinning face. After a bit of catching up and all four of them were comfortable, they began to order.

"Please wait 10 minutes," the waiter said before leaving their table. "So, why aren't we at Nana house again?" Bee asked Zatil who was fiddling a fork in one hand. "Well, it seems Nana's not at home. The place looks odd, and we think that Nana is missing," Zatil replied, turning her head towards Ben as her voice trailed off.

"Most probably, she has been kidnapped," Ben continued with a worried face. "I've asked my partner to investigate the place, we can go there later after this. Don't worry, I've locked the place." Bee and Dwane listened in astonishment. This is something big, something far more serious than anything that both of them had experienced. Dwane thought for a moment, and with a determined face said, "Well, if you need any help I'll be here for a month. The more help the better, right?"

Zatil smiled. "Yeah, count me in too. Though I may be busy with work, I'll try and do what I can." She looked at Bee who was also smiling. "Since it's a school holiday, I'm free. So maybe I could look around town," Bee said energetically. All of them seemed eager to help out with the case.

"Alright," said Ben as he looked at all of his old friends. "Lets do this. We've got a missing friend to find." As he finished his sentence, their food arrived and they began to chat about other things.

#05: Central Train Station, Lunchtime

The Central train station was packed with people that day. People were moving hurriedly from one platform to another, desperately trying to escape from the heavy crowd. It was quite normal for such a situation to happen on a day off. A train from Eastern Meadows had just made its stop on platform 3, and people were already pushing to get out. A man who was holding his bagpack firmly with one hand sighed from the back of the pushing passengers. "Why are these guys in such a hurry? It's not like the train's going to move suddenly," he huffed, swinging his head in dissapointment.

The cool looking man in shades had waited until the hassle subsided, and made his way out of the train. He plugged out the earphones of his M-Player and looked around the station. "Man it's hot eventhough it's winter," he complained to himself. Still gripping his bagpack tightly, he manuevered his way towards the main lobby. "Well, at least I made it safely here. Here comes Dwane, Central City. Watch out!"

Dwane was a professional photographer from the eastern side of the country, coming to Central City for work purposes. It was Dwane's second time here in the Central City air, ever since he moved to Eastern Meadows after completing TESL. He could feel the tense atmosphere of the city, and was excited of his one month stay here. As he stepped into the main lobby, he continued to look around as if he was looking for someone.

His cellphone suddenly rang. Dwane picked it up and answered, "Where are you?" A soft yet squeaky voice then responded, "I'm already here near the exit. You're late!" Dwane laughed and hung up. He was already in a lot of trouble trying to get through the crowd in the lobby, and as he reached the exit he saw the person that was waiting for him. With a grin, he greeted the woman.

"Hey Bee! What's up? Sorry I'm late," Dwane said apologetically. "The train was delayed a few times." The petite woman huffed, apparently Bee didn't seem to accept the reason. "Well, you could've at least called first," she cried in dissapointment. "You know we're going to meet up with Nana and the others later. It's a long drive to Nana's house you know., and I bet they're worried already."

Dwane apologised and grin. Bee had changed quite a bit, but he was still happy to get in touch with an olf friend again. He can't wait to meet the 'others' that Bee was talking about. "Thanks for picking me up. I've tried to contact other people, but most were busy and had changed their contact numbers," said Dwane as they walked up towards the parking area. "I thought your husband was going to...woah! You're driving this?"

They had came to a halt near a blue Porsche. It was sporty and looked very expensive. Bee was now wearing a huge smile on her face. "Hehe, guess I made my dream marrying a rich guy come true," she giggled. "And yeah, my husband was suppposed to come too but he's away for a few days." Dwane stood in front of the car in awe. I guess she's still the same after all, he thought to himself. "Can I touch the car?" Dwane joked.

They laughed. Little did they know, a shadow was observing them intently from far. "Aha, now all the characters are present."

#04: The Mystery and The Psychologist

Ben couldn't believe it. The woman dressed in a white formal coat standing in front of him was Zatil. She looked a bit different from what Ben had remembered; perhaps because she was now wearing a pair of elegant glasses and was taller. Perhaps much taller than himself. He could only recognise her from her voice. "Zatil, you look...tall," exclaimed Ben. Zatil grinned. "That's because I'm wearing heels now." Both of them laughed.

Meeting an old friend in the past made Ben excited. He almost forgot that he was about to break in Nana's house, until Zatil asked in a joking manner, "So, you really are breaking in?" She was already poking her head through the partially opened door, and was quite surprised to see the house in an unusual stillness. "Why did Nana left the door unlocked if she was out?" continued Zatil, who now sounded worried. She made her way inside the house.

Ben followed her, glancing rapidly around him in a search for any clues to answer the weird sensations they were feeling. The curtains were up and the fan in the living room was on. Knowing Nana, she could never be such a careless person. Zatil was ahead of Ben and moved further inside the building, heading towards the dining room. As Ben slowly observed more of the living room, a call from Zatil made him skid towards where she was, "Ben, something's strange here."

The dining room looked like every other normal dining room, with a medium-sized table in the middle neatly decorated with a fancy cloth. Zatil was standing behind a chair, holding to something on the table. Ben moved closer. "Hold this," said Zatil as she let go of the object. It was a mug filled with a chocolate drink. Ben gulped and held the mug. It was still hot!

**************************************

"You think this is a kidnapping case?" asked Zatil in a worried manner. Both of them were outside sitting on the porch now, after spending almost half an hour searching the house for Nana. "The house looks like as if she was there this morning. We should get in touch with the cops."

Ben nodded. "Eventhough I'm part of the force, I can't clearly deduce what really happened on my own," he shrugged regrettably. "I'll try and call my friend Officer Nik for assistance." He searched his jacket for his cell.

"Woah! You're a cop now?" cried Zatil in amazement.

"Kind of...I'm a detective here in this area," replied Ben, feeling embarrased. He then thought of something. "So what are you doing nowadays? From your actions inside the house, you look just like a cop yourself."

Zatil giggled. "No, no. I'm a psychologist in this city. I've been to a few crime scenes to help investigations," she replied modestly. Ben just nodded with a smile of amazement. Zatil has been an observant and caring person in the past. As he was about to dial his friend's number, he realised that it was already late. "Hey, I thought Bee was coming as well?" he notified Zatil curiously.

"Oh, you didn't know?" said Zatil. "She's picking up someone at the train station first."

#03: Where Was the Host?

It was such a surprise to Ben that Nana was living quite close to where he was staying. Nana had texted her address along with the date and time of the meeting. It was set on that Saturday around lunch hour. Ben continued his regular activities until then. The odd sensation he felt during his conversation with Nana was put aside, and he hoped to find an explanation about Nana's weird pauses when they meet.

The day finally came. The sun shone brightly among the cloudless sky, and heat was still bearable to the human body. Ben was out of his house and was driving away towards a residential area just ten minutes away from his home. He had just moved into the area recently but he already got the hang of the roads and places there. He even had become really close with his neighbours. Ben never thought that Central City houses lively and peaceful people before. From the rumours he heard up north, the people in Central City were really bad in terms of attitudes and actions. That's why the crime rate were said to be pretty high.

"Well, at least the place where I'm staying have good people," said Ben to himself as he looked for house number 612. When he had found the house, he parked his car and made his way towards the gate. The atmosphere was rather quite for someone who was expecting guests. Was Nana out? A car was there at the porch, and the lights were on. But why was it...eerie? Ben pushed aside any negative thoughts, and went towards the door to knock.

He knocked. No response.

He knocked again. Nothing.

"Hello! Nana?" he exclaimed when no one came to the door the third time he knocked. An odd, chilly sensation came. Worried that something was wrong, Ben tried to open the door. To his amazement, the door was not locked. Something was definitely wrong. As Ben was about to enter the house, a tap on the shoulder made him spun around in surprise. A neatly dressed woman stood in front of him. "Hi Ben! Are you breaking in or something?" giggled the woman. Ben immediately recognised the voice. "Zatil?"

#02: An Unexpected Call

"Sorry Nik, I'll get back to you later. Keep looking for clues okay?" Ben said to Nik as he took out his cellphone from his jacket. Nik gave a thumbs up and moved away from the glass door. Ben looked at his phone, and noticed that the number was unknown. "Now who could this be?" he mumbled. He then quickly answered it.

"Hello? Is this Ben...Detective Ben?" it was a voice of a young lady. Ben seemed to recognise the tone of the voice, but he was totally unsure to whom it belongs. To satisfy his curiousity, Ben replied cooly, "Yes, that's me. And who might I be speaking with?" There was a pause, before the lady continued excitedly, "This is Nana, Ben! Nana...do you remeber me?" Her voice seemed to be shouting from the other end.

"Nana? Nana from the TESL program?" Ben said, rather surprised. Now he remembered that voice's owner. Nana was one of his classmates during his basic trainings in TESL. Before this, all of them in the class were very close with one another. They had loads of funs and troubles together, and they were said to be the strongest group ever in terms of their bonding. Eventhough ten years had passed and most of them had lost contacts with each other, the strong memories they had would never waver. Now that Ben recognised his caller, he suddenly shifted himself into a more casual style of speaking.

"Hey, how are you Nana? It's been years since I last saw you. How'd you come across my number?" Ben asked cheerfully. He could hear Nana giggle before she replied, "I'm doing fine. And I hear you sound pretty good yourself. I just came across your name in the pagers, and decided to try and call up. Guess my instincts are sharp huh?" They laughed.

"So what's up?" Ben continued the conversation. "Where do you live now?" There was another pause. This time it's much longer than before. Weird. Even though the sun gleamed strongly outside, Ben felt a sudden chill rush through his body. What is this feeling? Ben thought to himself. "Nana? Nana? Are you still there?"

Almost in an instant, Nana responded. There was a slight tremble in her voice this time. "Ben, can you meet me up at my place tomorrow? Zatil and Bee would be there as well. I...need to talk to you guys about something. I'll text the address later okay? See you." She suddenly hung up withiut saying goodbye.

#01: Presenting The Detective

It was his first homicide scene in the area. Ever since he completed TESL, he has always been working way up north of the country. Recently, he had been transferred to Central City for personal reasons and had only just started working for a few days. Detective Ben stared at the disasterous scene in front of him. Blood splattered everywhere, the furnitures' arrangement were tossed upside down and a body lay cold in the middle of the living room. The stench of blood filled up his nostrils as he took a deep breath.

"The man's name was John Elliot, working as a manager of a jewelry store nearby. We believe robbery was the main objective here," explained an officer standing next to Ben. "It's safe to say that the cause of death is from the loss of blood through multiple stabs on the body. We've got a crazy one this time." Ben just nodded. He continued to observe the surrounding closely from where he stood, trying to grasp an image of what had happened in the scene.

Ever since he was young, Ben had a unique sense of observation. He was almost always accurate in deducing a flow of events, just through looking and 'feeling'. Many called his psychic, but normally he would just say it's intuition. After looking around for another minute, Ben called out towards the officer. "Nik, is there any other trace of blood other than here in the living room?"

"Well," replied Officer Nik coolly as he flipped through his notebook. "We did find bloody footprints leading outside the lawn, but something was quite weird about it." This made Ben excited. He had always loved mysteries. "Show me," he asked. Both of them headed inside the large living room, with Nik leading them toward a glass sliding door. As they reached there, Ben observed the floor closely.

"You see," explained Nik. "These footsteps lead towards the lawn, but when we checked outside the blood traced stopped halfway." Nik was now pointing outside towards a neatly cut lawn. Ben was following the footsteps closely, from the floor of the living room towards the grassy area. He was surprised to see that the steps seemed to disappear midway, right in the middle of the lawn. According to Nik's further explanation, there were no possible signs of the steps' owner taking off its shoes or jumping towards the ledge. It was as if the person had floated into mid air.

"Hmm...now that is strange." Ben was about to continue giving his thoughts on the case, when his cellphone rang.

#00: A Stir Upon A Strange Night

What year it was nobody seemed to care anymore. The modern world had left humans with more important stuff to deal with, only noticing that day had come to an end and night was crawling in slowly. For most of them; there were only today, yesterday and tomorrow. No speacial date to remember, no important time for the future. It seemed like everything was following a cycle, a certain rule. The world was mechanical.

A few though, tried to create important dates on their own. The moment they graduated, or the time they got a child; those who actually cared did count up their own days, their own weeks, their own year. These people who actually cared have a strong bond, strong emotions among themselves. However these people were seen as people disrupting the cycle. Demolishing the balance. And in this modern world, anyone disrupting the balance will pay in the end.

Another night came yet again. The full moon shone brightly, filling the empty park with unnecessary light. The atmosphere seemed calm at first before a young woman came bursting out of the bushes. Her face showed signs of fear and paranoia, and her breath was irregular. As she dashed across the eerie park, she kept glancing at her back as if someone was chasing her. But who? Nobody else seemed to be there.

A few days before this, the woman had went out with her boyfriend. It was like every other regular date, but something looked different about the guy. He seemed a bit nervous and far more reserved than usual. The girl was confused of this throughout the date, and only at the end of it she knew why. The guy had been ready to propose to her; and when he did, she was extremely shocked and delighted. She said yes. That day she had cried happily all night, thinking that she was the happiest woman in the world. "I'm never forgetting this day."

The running woman had came to a halt. Her eyes were wide open in shock and disbelief. In front of her stood a dark cloaked figure of a man, its face covered with a smiling mask. Cold sweat began to run all over the woman's body. Suddenly, she wailed loudly; breaking the silence of the night. "Why? What's wrong with being extremely happy?" she sobbed angrily, glaring at the masked man. "And...what do you mean I have to dissapear?"

The masked man bobbed its head. He took a step closer towards the woman and giggled. "To maintain balance, you have to dissapear," he said in a cold tone as he stretched out his right arm. "Don't worry. You're man had already dissapeared."

Then, the silent night came again. No more wails, no more sobs. The park was also empty as it originally was. Suddenly, a silent whisper seemed to echo among the moving winds. "Who's next? Who's next? Ah...the TESL group."