PROLOGUE 

Remember me

        His footsteps crashed against the pavement, sending an electric shock up his body every time. The adrenaline coursing through his veins pooled up in all of his organs, it made him sick. He desperately want to stop running in fear of collapsing and vomiting all over himself. But hearing the screams, gunshots, and a chainsaw behind him and his friend pushed him farther.

Remember me

        The feminine voice who first said that seemed to be imprinted in his mind. He couldn't stop those two words from going on and on in a loop. Her, the Misses, got in Ajay's head. As for his friend Lucia, she kept trying to suppress it. She was ready to give up, but Ajay grabbed her wrist and dragged her forward. He knew exactly where to go, before even exploring the neighborhood they established a safe spot.

The sounds of the people chasing them died out in the distance, it would give them enough time to hide. Ajay thought that taking any guns or knives left behind in the house would be a good idea, and making a run for the gate.

        "No!" Lucia huffed. Her chest burned so bad, she was sure she would have a cardiac arrest. Her sweat soaked, long brown hair stuck to her face and made her feel even more uncomfortable.

Ajay locked his green eyes with her brown ones for a moment while he was catching his breath. He was dumbfounded. "What the hell do you mean no? They're going to kill us!"

"It won't work, we need a better plan!"

        "Well do you have a better one?!" Ajay shouted at the top of his lungs. Lucia jumped forward and cupped both of her hands over his mouth.

        "If they hear you, we're both dead. Let's just get to the safe spot." With that, she started jogging down the perfectly kept road. All of the odd houses of different shapes, sizes, age, and colors made the both of them not only queasy but scared. Those people, those psychopaths, were clever and knew exactly what they were doing. The duo had no idea if those people were planning some sort of ambush or if they themselves has already been compromised from the moment they woke up in her house. Luckily, they made it to their safe spot, a small abandoned house that everyone there seemed to have forgotten about. The two friends entered through the back door, they wanted to make sure they left no traces anywhere in the front for them to notice.

         "Ajay, what are we going do?" Lucia asked as she anxiously walked into the kitchen. Her eyes immediately found the three nine millimeter guns, two packs of ammo, and two knives.

Ajay walked in behind her and quickly snatched one of the guns the moment he got in the kitchen. "We're going to do what I said. If you have a better plan, then please tell me."

        "Ajay..." Lucia didn't want to grab one of the weapons, she didn't want this.

He ran a hand through his extremely grown out blonde hair so he could see better. "What?"

       "I don't know if I can do this" she breathed quietly.

       "Lucia, we have no choice-"

       "Why don't we?!" She snapped, already feeling tears roll down her cheeks.

Ajay scoffed. He couldn't believe what one of his best friends was saying. "If we don't fight back and escape, we will DIE."

       "I don't want to kill anyone!"

        Lucia's screamed echoed through the old, rickety house making it shake. Sobbing, she fell to her knees and tried to hold back her urge to puke. Her body felt like it had been set on fire, her jeans and t-shirt stuck to her limbs. Her breathing seemed to be completely cut off, her heart beat faster and faster, pushing her to survive that.

Ajay squatted down next to her and gently told her, "I don't want to either. And we don't have to, these weapons are for self defense. I promise you we will try not to kill anyone."

He extended a hand towards Lucia and she grabbed on. She was livid, rage invaded her bloodstream, she couldn't believe how stupid she was.

       "This whole night was a mistake, we should have never come here. I can't believe I was stupid enough to follow after you, you dumbass" Lucia hissed in utter disgust.

Ajay chuckled, but it wasn't a cheerful one. His patience with his friend was wearing very thin. "You think I wanted this to happen? You think I wanted to lure us in a death trap?!"

        "You knew about this place and what the people do and you thought it'd be fun to come here! You knew this was a literal death trap and you still took us here!"

Ajay stayed silent, he was very close to exploding with anger.

        "And guess what? Three of our friends are dead because of this ‘little night out’."

At that point, he couldn't hold back his tears any more. They came pouring down his face, his heart ached at the sound of Lucia's voice. His heart ached at what she had said, because she was right. This whole night wouldn't have happened if it wasn’t for him.

        "I'm... I'm sorry" he croaked. His entire body started trembling.

Lucia cocked her head. "I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to be so... harsh with you. They killed our friends, you had nothing to do with it."

       "And it's my fault they got in that situation!" He screamed in complete fury while slamming his fists on the kitchen counter.

Lucia jumped and gasped at the sound. They stayed quiet for a couple of moments, only the soft cries of Ajay were heard. She made a firm decision then and there, it was time to be brave and do something. She took one the guns off of the table and shoved some bullets in her jacket pockets.

        "Let's go" she announced. Ajay looked up at her with his red, puffy eyes. He nodded and snatched some of the bullets and placed them in his jean pockets.

He sucked in a deep breath to try and regulate his breathing. "Alright, here's the plan. I say we try to set up some sort of decoys-"

        A loud thump, something must have fallen on the house. Or someone was trying to get in. The both of them stood as still as they could be, not having the audacity to make any movement or sound. Their hearts were beating in sync, pounding away and slowly eroding their ribcages. They jumped at the sound of someone pounding the door. Neither of them moved for a moment, until Ajay decided to cock his gun.

        "Guys?" A masculine voice said. Another knock, it was coming from him.

        "... Cole?" Ajay asked.

        "Wait, is it you guys?! Help me, please, they’re going to kill me!" Their friend cried in a panic. He began pounding on the door again, Lucia was sure he’d break it down before anyone arrived to assist him.

Ajay bolted out of the kitchen only to be pulled back by Lucia.

        "What if it's a trap?!"

        "It's Cole, it's him, we have to help him!" He broke away from Lucia's grip and ran towards the front door.

        Ajay quickly flung the door open to find a frightened, shaken up Cole. His dark t-shirt and blue jeans were torn and splattered with blood. It was pretty clear he had to fight his way out of wherever he was. For the most part, it looked like Cole got out with no fatal injuries. Ajay smiled and quickly pulled him into a hug.

        "Cole man, how'd you get away? Are the others okay?" He frantically asked.

His friend sighed and pressed his lips together. "No, they were all shot in cold blood."

        "We have no time to think about that right now" Lucia said behind them. "We have to get out of here now. Cole, I'm glad you're okay, but we'll talk about it later. There's a gun in the kitchen, I'll go grab it for you."

The two boys smiled at her as she turned back to take the last gun. As she checked to make sure it was loaded, Ajay screamed. Lucia dropped everything and ran out to find the front door empty. They were both gone. She immediately took out her gun and aimed it out the door.

        "You're pointing that the wrong wrong way, dear" a woman remarked behind her.

Lucia's heart dropped ten stories down and she felt her face go pale. She slowly turned around to face her, the Misses. Lucia’s vision was clouded with tears, she could barely see the vile woman.

        "Why are you out so late?" The woman spat. "It's lights out."

        “How are we supposed to get over that?” Sam asked me as she shook her flashlight at the gates.

        I stared at the giant lock first, chains tightly held it and the gate shut. The silver had already started to wear away, but not enough for us to be able to break it with something. Through the metal bars, I gazed at a quiet neighborhood, a large road right down the middle and a line up of old houses on either side of the road. Some houses had a warm yellow light from the inside, giving the dead look a little more life. Climbing would be our only chance to get inside, but not near the trees, there was nothing but thorns and poison ivy. We’d have to use the chains around the giant gates to our advantage.

        “I hope you guys brought your climbing gear,” I finally said, shoving my flashlight in the pocket of my black trench coat. I heard two sighs as I walked up to the gates.

        “Why the hell even keep the damn lock?” Indigo asked, pulling her navy blue coat tighter on her. “If any people want to leave they can just jump the fence. Unless legend has it that nothing but dwarves live here.”

        “Actually,” I said, already starting to climb up the fence. “Legend here has it that monstrous psychopaths are hiding clues to the biggest secret this neighborhood has ever seen.”

        “Yes,” Sam agreed, but continued with her own idea. “But legend also has it that once you set foot here you’ll never be able to come back out.”

Indigo shined her flashlight up at me. “Ya know, that might explain why no one’s left this place.”

I finally made it to the top of the gate and sat at the top, making sure to keep my balance. “That's not the reason why. They're hiding something classified, I doubt they'd just let people waltz in and take it.”

         “Oh look, it's Miss Sherlock Holmes with her clever deductions again” Indigo mocked, shaking her flashlight around.

         “Well, I suppose those university classes I have almost everyday for criminal investigation and detective work is finally starting to pay off” I said loudly, making sure Indigo could hear me.

         “Yeah, and when I find your dead body, I'll be sure to use all of my hard work in forensics and medical classes and determine what an idiot you were,” Indigo laughed.

I noticed Sam next to her roll her eyes and chuckle. “Are you done yet?”

         “No,” Indigo answered, running up to the gate.

 By the time she started climbing I was already on the other side. Within the second my foot hit the ground I felt something off. It was negative, it was strange, it was exactly what we had come for. You’d expect a couple of university students to be at a frat party on a Saturday, taking shots of vodka and making out with the nearest person. But not us, we liked to get our careers started early.

          We go around to places people suggest or that we find, and Sam is the one who keeps a blog about it. Most of our cases deal with real life murders or mysteries, but there have also been cases dealing with the paranormal. That's where Sam comes in, our blonde haired medium who style consisted of a lot of plaid and blue jeans. She definitely made it easier to debunk whether a place was haunted or not. She's not very loud, in fact she was the quiet type and preferred to sit back and observe.

Then there’s Indigo, our smart but very sarcastic forensic specialist who was born in South Korea. Her clothes matched her personality half of the time, which happened to be all black. I would say that if she spent as much time on her work as she does making dark jokes, she’d actually be doing something useful. But instead, she does both and uses that ability to her advantage.

         “Hey so uh, Claire” I looked up to find Indigo already sitting atop the gate. Her dark eyes locked with my dark brown ones for a moment, part of me thought she might fall. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. “What sort of clues are we looking for here?”

I pulled out my IPhone and unlocked it. I wrote down everything about the case in my notes, so there I went. “There's not anything exact about them, but claims say they’re small pieces of paper taped onto different places in three different houses. There are only three slips of paper, and the houses are described like this-”

          My answer to Indigo’s question was interrupted by the sound of her feet hitting the ground next to me. She ran her fingers through her shoulder length, midnight black hair and bangs that stretched across her forehead. Sam was right behind her, struggling to keep her flashlight from falling out of her maroon coat.

I continued. “One house is actually a mansion, the door shines white with a golden doorknob and knocker, even the inside is beautiful. It's said that it looks that way until you walk deeper into the house. The objects and rooms start morphing together, making it extremely difficult to know where you're supposed to go next. The first clue is hidden on a painting in one of the grand rooms downstairs. The second house is described as unusually small and worn down. Relics of a war are everywhere, some people have said it’s like a commemoration. A tight, cramped staircase will lead us upstairs into the attic, but people aren't sure if the clue is actually up there. Some of them barely escaped that house, it's rumored a relentless murder lives in there.”

          “You mean like the rest of the people here?” Indigo asked while fidgeting with the power button on her flashlight.

          “Not all psychopaths are killers, Indigo” I replied without glancing up from my phone. “The third house is also described as ordinary, but something hidden so well in plain sight you won't even give it a second thought. Ironically enough, it's described as normal and was built that way for the purpose I've said before. It's not said where the last lead is, but there is one word that gives us a hint… ‘mother’.”

         “The third one is super helpful,” Indigo sarcastically commented.

         “I'm really glad my jeans didn't tear any more,” Sam mumbled behind her while staring at her already ripped jeans.

I took out my flashlight from my pocket and put my phone back in the other pocket.     “Sam, are you getting any weird feelings?”

She stared over my shoulder, as if she were looking directly at someone. Her eyes then scanned the rest of the area, and she studied every corner. “No, there’s nothing out here. Perhaps in the houses I might be able to tell you the scale of deaths here, or at least when we get deeper into this neighborhood.”

          “Onwards, then,” I exhaled with a hopeful smile.

          We ventured down the road, which was in surprisingly good condition. In fact, there were no cracks or tire tracks. As I kept looking around, I also noticed that there weren't any cars out either. Does everyone keep their cars in their garages? I thought, do these people even leave their houses? The moon illuminated part of the neighborhood, but it wasn't enough light for us to not use our flashlights.

         What came off as even more strange was the lack of street lights. The houses themselves didn’t come off as average. In a regular neighborhood there would be a line up of houses that were similar in size and infrastructure. Here, the houses ranged in size and grandeur. It gave me an unsettling feeling, nothing really seems to fit together. As we followed the road, we kept on the lookout for a mansion. That was interrupted by the sound of cans dropping in the distance and a shout.

         “Hey!” A masculine voice boomed. We froze in our positions, not daring to make a noise. “You're not from around here, are ya?”`

I decided to make the first move and answer his question. I really didn't want him to start chucking more cans at us. “What makes you say that?”

         “Are you sure you want that answered?” Indigo hissed next to me.

I rolled my eyes.

         “Like you could come up with anything better.”

          I turned to my right to face a man in his forties smiling at me - with half his teeth missing - and his clothes stained with dirt. He had four scratch marks on his cheek, big and wide ones at that. I ruled out animals, as their claws tend to make thinner and longer cuts. Humans, on the other hand, leave deeper and wider ones. It was clear someone did that to him, there must have been a struggle, a fight. On his right hand, he had a wedding ring that seemed to be cutting off the blood flow to his finger. I glanced down at his feet and observed a black garbage bag that was filled to the brim with objects that looked like cylinders. I quickly turned my head and found the can of beer he tried to throw at us lying on the ground. That was a lot of beer for just a man and his spouse.

         “You want to know why I know you're not from around here?” He slurred his words together. Brilliant, I thought, he's drunk too. “Because no one leaves their house unless she says so.”

         “Who's she?” Sam perked up.

The man chuckled, his rotting teeth made me throw up in my mouth a little. “The Misses.”

I rose an eyebrow and turned my head back around to face my friends. Their faces had the exact same perplexed look as mine. So, I thought, some woman runs this place. Perhaps it's a secret of hers that everyone know that she's trying to hide...

         “Stop making that face,” the vicious snarl of the man cut through my eardrum.

I quickly looked back at him. “What face?”

         He leaned up against the old, wooden railing of the upstairs balcony. That balcony looked like it would fall any second, perhaps even by the light weight of a pin dropping on it. His dark smile made a reappearance. “You're thinking. Stop doing that, it makes it harder for me. The Misses doesn't like it when people think, and if she sees you doing it…”

We all watched as the man buried his face in his hands. He began yelling and tearing at his already torn up shirt and jeans. Tears flooded his eyes as he stepped back, almost tripping over a garbage bag filled with empty beer cans.

        “Move, move!” I said, pushing Indigo and Sam forward.

        “Get away from me! Stop!” We heard the man shout in between our fast breathes and pumping hearts. “Get out of here, never return you whores!”

         His tortured screams faded the more we ran up the path. Eventually we slowed down when we realized he was too incompetent to actually follow us. My mind flashed back to him, particularly the ankles of his jeans and his shoes. There seemed to be a dark, red substance that stained them, I knew from the get go it was blood. He had said that no one left their houses unless the Misses said so. By the man’s outburst we witnessed, it was clear people abided by the rules.

         So no one could have snuck in and he couldn't have snuck out, there was only one person who he could have harmed. His spouse. It confirmed the scratch marks on his cheek were from that person. A really bad fight must have taken place, there was quite a bit of blood on his jeans. The one thing I wasn't able to confirm was whether or not she was badly injured or killed.

         “What did you do to them?” I blurted. My two friends gave me confused looks as they caught their breath.

         “Do to who...?” Indigo asked hesitantly.

I sucked in a small breath. I knew it was going to be a long night of explaining murders. “That man we just spoke to has a spouse, he physically fought with them but I'm not sure if they're still alive or not.”

Sam blinked and bit her lip when I looked over at her. “I sensed her while we were there.”

         “What? Her?” My eyes must have bulged out of my head when she announced that.

         “Yes, he had a wife. I actually saw her in her battered and torn clothes with a bullet through her temple,” She explained. “The woman was mouthing something, I couldn't really make out what she was saying. I asked her to speak up, but then realized that she was actually mute when she started using sign language.”

        “Well, now I know for sure where the blood came from. Since this neighborhood follows strict regulations, they must have something against killing their own kind, right? Maybe the reason no one gave a damn about her death was because the man was smart. Perhaps he made sure no one would hear her scream” I hadn't realized I went off on my own tangent. I heard Indigo scoff at me.

        “Or maybe no one really gave a damn. This town is really messed up, it would not surprise me if they have cult meetings every Saturday, sharing cookie recipes and bonding over who they've killed.” She was always the one who tended to look on the pessimistic side of things. I really couldn't blame her for that or her sarcasm, our cases would drive anyone to insanity.

Sam sighed. “She's right, but the woman was mute. I tried my best to focus on her mouth, what exactly she was trying to tell me.”

I crossed my arms. “And?”

         “This might not be accurate,” she warned. “But I'm pretty sure she was trying to say “it's a lie”.”

         I knitted my eyebrows together, giving her a puzzled look. I first assumed that maybe the woman was trying to say what the man was saying was a lie. But the only flaw with that was that he was partly drunk. I doubt he'd be able to lie in his state, not even that he was drunk, but also insane. I decided not to rule it out as a possibility, but we had more important things to focus on than a crazy man and his deceased wife.

         “Let's save that for another case, right now we have to find the first house. We don't want to be here all night. Quite frankly, I don't think any of us want to witness seventeen murderers all happen at the same time” I said. Indigo and Sam nodded at me.

          We continued walking down the road, and I made sure no people were following us or attempting to talk to us. For the most part, it was extremely quiet; no crickets, no wind, nothing could be heard. Just the grimly sound of our hearts beating in sync and our footsteps hitting the ground. I had read up on that town, I knew that other people went there and tried to discover things for themselves. The sad part is, none of them ever returned to tell the story. While walking deeper into their territory, the atmosphere seemed to become more and more dense, I felt like I was choking. I hated it whenever the air was thick, it always meant that there was more going on.