Chapter 4. Feyona

She froze in place, terrified of the unexplainable turn of events. The man stood there, point his gun at her and said, "Get out of my property, thief!" "Sir, you've mistaken, I'm no thief, I'm here to ask you some questions that's all" said Candice with a shaky voice. That's when they were startled by a car stopping with a loud screeching sound. Mykal stepped down of the car and said, "What's going on?" "Oh! So, you've called for back-up, huh?" said the man, pulling back the chamber of his gun. Mykal quickly pulled out his gun and said, "Its better if you get back inside your house, Sir, no one needs to get hurt" and the man intimidated by him, lowered his gun, and went back inside.

"Who are you? And what was that all about?" he asked her. "I am Candice Garrison, I work for News Today, I was just looking through the window if the house was occupied, after there was no response of the knocking." She answered. "You could've tried shouting. Never mind, why were you peeping anyway?" "I just wanted to ask some questions, but who are you? And why are you asking me so many questions?" "I am Mykal Darke, detective, asking questions is what I do for a living.." "Oh! So, you're the famous unkillable detective huh? To be honest, I thought you'd be bigger, you know, with the 'unkillable' and all." He raised one of his eyebrows and said, "Is that your idea of a joke, cus that was lame" and walked away.

"Hey! What're you doing here?" she asked, "That's none of your paparazzi business" he said while still walking. "Wait! I just need to you ask you some questions" she insisted, "What do you think you've been doing all this time? Look woman, I don't have time for this, it's better if you leave and let me do what I am here for" "I am here for my brother, his name is Peter Garrison" "Well I'm here for the same reason, to find out where your brother and the captain vanished off to, but I don't need your help, I work alone." "It has been three months; I haven't seen my brother…." "HE'S NOT THE ONY ONE WHO'S MISSING!!!!" Mykal cut her out. There was silence for some time, he calmed down and broke the silence, "The captain was a good friend and more importantly, a very able man and I'm sure your brother's a great man too and I promise you that I'll find them both, but you need to back to your home." "I'm not going anywhere until I find my brother and bring him back myself."

He let out a sigh, thinking, how annoyingly resilient. "Fine you can join my investigation, but you will not speak, I'll do the talking, you listen and take notes of everything, alright?" "Fair enough" she said with a nod. "Alright then, follow me." And they started walking. "So where are we going?" she asked, but he only pointed towards the creepy old house, the one nearest to the woods. "Why?" he stopped and looked back at her with the same one eyebrow look but continued walking without saying anything. "What?" "Nothing, I just realized, which maybe the reason why the police haven't found anything about the officers." He said. "And what reason may that be, exactly?" she taunted. "Because, the police, like you may have skipped the house of that 'creepy old woman' as you call her, thinking, what could that creepy old lady possibly know about anything, but in your case, you didn't go just because you were too scared to go in there, aren't I right?" he said with an evil half-smile. "Yeah, no one likes a 'know-it-all' But why would someone keep their house like this, I mean, hasn't she heard about maintenance."

The old house looked like it had survived everything nature could throw at it. Withered, broken at some places, no recognizable color whatsoever, except for grey. It seemed the house could go down like a house of cards if someone closed the front door too hard. He noticed a small rune on the doorknob and before he could make out what it is Candice said, "Well? What are you waiting for? Knock!" he let out a sigh and knocked the door, but there was no answer, so he knocked again, but to no avail. "Why don't you ring the bell?" Candice asked annoyingly. "Do you see one?" he replied mockingly.

"What kind of a house doesn't have a doorbell?" she asked, and he replied with a sigh, "A really old kind. Wait there's something written here." He took out his napkin and cleaned the moss on the door to reveal a word "Feyona" as soon as he said the word, the door opened up with a creaking sound. But what they saw inside was totally unexpected. The interior of the house was perfectly clean, well-furnished, and beautiful, as if it were untouched by the chaos of the outside world. There was also a pleasant fragrance that somehow Mykal found familiar.

"WHOOOOAAA!!!! Is this real? Or am I still in my bed?" exclaimed Candice, so Mykal pinched her on her arm, "OWWW!!! What was that for?" she cried in pain. "Well, you're certainly not dreaming" "You're no gentleman, are you?" the voice came from behind them. Then they turned to find a fairly beautiful middle-aged woman, with long dark hair and small eyes with a sharp gaze. "No, he's most certainly not" said Candice rubbing her arm. 'Why do I feel like I've met her before, I don't know' he thought. "Don't try." The woman caught him off-guard. "What?" "You're trying to remember if we've met before, you won't remember so stop trying." The statement startled him for a moment, 'How did she know what I was thinking, she might probably be just as good as me at deducing people, gotta be careful' he thought, "Didn't you hear our voices, when we called out to you?" he asked the woman, "Oh, the door is quite fortified, neither sound nor light gets through that door," said the woman. "Wow that's really cool!!" said Candice excitedly. "On the contrary, it is a dumb idea for a door, I mean, no offense, but, if you can't see or hear anyone coming, anybody can pick the lock and sneak in, don't you think?" "Well, when you put it that way." Said Candice unwillingly agreeing. "Not everyone is capable of getting that door open from the outside" "Well, we sure did, a lucky coincidence I guess" taunted Mykal. "I believe that everything happens for a reason." She replied. Before Mykal could reply, Candice jumped in the conversation and fired her questions, "What is your name? How long have you been living here? And why does your house look so ruined from outside and so beautiful from the inside?"

"Now there, this is my house after all, so I should be the one asking you questions." Replied the woman calmly. "I'm sorry ma'am, I am Detective Darke and This is Miss Garrison.," "Please, call me Candice..." "Nice to meet you Candice and did you say… Darke? That's an unusual name." "Yeah, I get that a lot I presume your name's Feyona?" said Mykal. He noticed her surprise at mention of his name. "Well, you aren't wrong. I am Feyona." she said to him. "I'm sorry, am I missing something here?" said a confused Candice. But Mykal chose to ignore her and continued his conversation with Feyona, "If you didn't open the door then who did, it's not like the door has a mind of itself" "The door won't open on its own." Said Feyona with a cunning smile. "Now would you go through the trouble of telling me why the both of you have come to this house?" she said before Mykal could say anything.

"We are here to ask you, if you know anything about the vanishings that happened a few months ago in the woods" asked Candice. "Right, why don't we talk about that over something to drink perhaps? I'll be right back" Mykal quickly started looking around the unusual house. "Hey!!! It's not cool to poke around somebody's house," said Candice. "That woman didn't seem even a little suspicious to you?" asked Mykal while still observing. "Well, she's the only person so far who seems to know something about the vanishings-," "Exactly my point, if she knows something then why didn't she tell the cops about it? Why didn't the cops interrogate her?" he said while looking for anything that could confirm his doubt about knowing Feyona if he did. "Maybe they couldn't get the door open like we did." Candice suggested. "That door is what's bugging me, even if it works on voice command, how did it recognize my voice? I have never been here, or perhaps I have and that's why she always changes the subject whenever I tried to talk about it. There is something more to this woman than meets the eye, it would be better if I did the talking while you note down if you find anything suspicious." Mykal cautioned her. That's when he noticed a colorless photograph on one of the walls. The photograph was of a beautiful young girl with a bright confident smile. He could see that same house in the background in the exact same state, looking like a ruin. The girl had short hair and the picture looked rather old, it could probably be Feyona's picture clicked when she was younger. But then he noticed something written on the bottom of the picture, 'In the memory of Liv. D.' as soon as he read it there was a blackout and Mykal fell with a thud.