Everyone sat staring at Officer Rock, while he spoke.
"The first to disappear was a man living alone in his home, after his wife died last year."
"We discovered his disappearance after we received a report from his boss at work telling us that he could not find the man or contact him no matter how hard he tried for two full days "
Before he could finish, Ellen asked " How long has it been since this "
Rock replied " Counting today, twenty days have passed "
He put his hands together as he continued in a serious tone
" After that man, we received two reports at almost the same time, one from a mother reporting the disappearance of her nineteen-year-old daughter after leaving her at home alone and the second was about an elderly man who was in a hospital bed "
With these words, Rock took out several files and placed them on the table
" These are all their case files; it contains everything you might need to know "
Then he separated them into two groups "We are already working on these" he said while pointing to the larger pile.
"But our forces are not enough to look into all the cases at the same time, so we want you to take over some of them "
With these words he pushed the small group of files toward us.
I looked at the files for a few moments before asking " What is the last disappearance case you recorded "
Rock looked at me and then replied " It’s a man who was seen on one of the garden benches by a passerby from a distance late in the evening when the place was almost empty "
He reached for the files and pulled one of them out and set it aside " This is his file if you want to see it ... it has been three days already since his disappearance "
I looked at the file, but I didn’t touch it " I’ll see it later " Rock nodded at my words while Ellen asked another question
" Are all the disappearance cases of individuals alone? "
Rock shook his head in disagreement " No ... there is a case where a married couple disappeared together in their home "
So, the disappearances are not individual cases.
What followed were some other questions that Rock answered all of
No one noticed the time that passed until midnight arrived
Rock stood up to leave " I hope my answers will be useful to you, as for now I must leave, if you need anything you can contact me and I will be at your service "
" If you meet security elements at the disappearance sites just show them your cards and they will allow you to intervene "
With these last words he wished us a good night and left the place
We all sat there in silence for a while each of us holding one of those files and flipping through its pages
Finally, Leona put a file on the table " So how are we going to do this, guys "
Ellen looked at all of us and then replied " I suggest that we split into pairs tomorrow and each two of us go to one of the sites "
Talia looked at Leona " I’ll go with Leona " The latter nodded in agreement
" Then Izel and I will form a team " Ellen chose Izel as her partner while Elliot looked between me and Kyle
" Then let the three of us form a team " Elliot spoke
I took the file I was reading and stood up from the sofa " No need I’ll go alone "
With these words I waved to them and went to my room
...
While I was walking through the empty city streets, the sky began to lose the blackness of the night and slowly turned to gray, paving the way for the blue color indicating the start of a new day
It was four o’clock in the morning now, so most people were still asleep; I was only able to see one or two people from time to time
The fresh morning air hit my face, chasing away any trace of drowsiness
It didn’t take me long to reach my destination in this small city
I stood at the entrance of a public garden, it was small, perhaps only a few hundred square meters only
Benches were scattered here and there among the trees and green plants; I walked into the garden while looking for a specific bench until I found it.
The place was surrounded by signs and a tape preventing approach, probably placed there by the police to prevent citizens from approaching
I walked toward it and bypassed it easily, I reached the bench and looked at it intently ... well it was just an ordinary garden bench, nothing special from the outside ... so let’s look in another way
The essence moved in my body as I activated my ability, in the next moment my sensation flooded the areas around me while my vision changed, and I could see the essence particles in the air
I looked around the bench and everywhere, but I didn’t notice anything unnatural, so I walked and sat there, but nothing happened.
I leaned against the back of the bench with the morning breeze hitting my body while my sensation penetrated almost the entire garden, and even underground, without finding anything out of the ordinary.
I looked at the sky obscured by tree branches as I muttered " This is really strange "
Suddenly an idea occurred to me as I felt something on the tree
I stood up from my place and climbed the branches until I reached a thick branch at a height of about four meters
There I found a small nest, and in its center were two small eggs, obviously, they were recently laid because I didn’t feel any life inside them
I didn’t touch them instead I jumped from the tree and headed to one of the benches several meters away and sat there
Time passed and the sun rose while I was still sitting there staring at that spot
I continued doing that until night fell again