Several hours later, they returned to the trailer park where Bard had spoken with Edna several days earlier.
The day he met the retro 5-0.
On the way there, Bard tried calling her.
“We’re sorry, but the number you’re trying to reach…”
He hung up.
Twenty minutes later, he tried again and listened to the rest of the recording.
“…is currently unavailable. Please hang up or call again later.”
Click.
“Okay. That’s bad news,” Bard said.
“Hopefully she forgot to pay her phone bill.”
Eventually, they reached the trailer park.
It was well past midday now.
As they approached, Bard immediately realized something was terribly wrong.
Yellow caution tape surrounded the entire area. A series of large wooden barricades had been placed across the entrance, all marked with some variation of:
DO NOT ENTER.
The whole place had been turned into some kind of police nightmare.
There might have been thirty or forty police vehicles scattered across the property.
Bard didn’t slow down.
He continued past the entrance, glancing toward the fields where Edna’s horses should have been.
Not a single one was there.
They drove for another fifteen minutes before Bard pulled over somewhere remote.
Both of them got out and met between their cars.
“Well, this is fucked now,” Bard said.
“As if it wasn’t already.”
“Not exactly sure what we’re supposed to do.”
“I guess we could find somewhere to watch the place for a while.”
“That sounds insane.”
Calypso shrugged.
“What else are we supposed to do? Keep driving around on the same road looking for something that isn’t there?”
“Yeah. You got a point.”
Bard looked back in the direction they had come.
“Let’s see what we can do.”
It took them another half hour or so to find somewhere they felt comfortable leaving their cars. From there, they walked the distance back toward the trailer park, circling around until they came in from behind the property near where the horses should have been.
They settled into a small patch of trees on the other side of the barn and horse fences.
Then they waited.
And waited.
A couple of hours passed.
A few times, Calypso rested her hand softly against Bard’s back without saying anything.
Each time, he felt a strange rush of warmth and energy move up his spine.
For a few moments, he almost forgot how badly the rest of him hurt.
Eventually, the waiting paid off.
Bard noticed movement near the house where Alex’s family lived.
A young Hispanic couple was being led out by a normal-looking police officer.
In fact, all of the police here looked normal.
So to speak.
As normal as any of this could look.
Bard lightly tapped Calypso’s leg with the back of his hand and nodded toward the house.
She followed his eyes.
It sure looked like the police were taking the couple for a ride, but neither of them appeared to be handcuffed or under arrest.
Bard and Calypso were left scratching their heads.
About an hour later, the couple returned.
Bard and Calypso remained hidden.
They spoke as little as possible, occasionally typing observations into a phone and passing it back and forth rather than talking out loud.
Eventually, the police began packing up.
They removed the caution tape.
They hauled away the barricades blocking the entrance.
And strangely enough, one of them finally walked over to the barn and let the horses back out into the field.
Then, as night settled over the property, the police left.
All of them.
Bard and Calypso looked at each other quietly in the darkness.
“I think we’re good to talk now,” Bard finally said. “Looks like maybe we’re gonna have a shot at meeting Alex’s parents.”
Calypso looked toward the house.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I don’t really think we have much of a choice otherwise.”
He paused.
“Of course, that being said, you’re always welcome to leave. I have some personal investment in this.”
“I do too now,” Calypso said, looking at him.
They started toward the house.
Assuming the couple they had seen really were Alex’s parents.
They couldn’t know for sure.
But it was the only lead they had.
Bard knocked on the door.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
No answer.
He waited briefly, then gave the door a couple of harder knocks.
Still nothing.
Bard rubbed a hand over his face and frowned.
“Maybe we should look around back,” Calypso suggested.
They circled the trailer.
A medium-sized fence surrounded the backyard.
From where they stood, the back door was clearly visible.
Wide open.
No one appeared to be inside.
Several lights were still on, and because it was a trailer, they could see through much of the interior from outside.
Not every room.
But enough.
“They were definitely back here,” Bard said.
Calypso nodded.
“So where’d they go?”
Bard looked along the back edge of the property.
There were portions of the house and yard they hadn’t been able to see clearly from their hiding place.
“They could’ve left out the back while we were watching the other side.”
Calypso stared at the open door.
“Pretty quickly, apparently.”
Bard studied the house for another moment.
“You stay here and keep watch. I’ll go inside.”
She shook her head.
“Strength in numbers.”
“Yeah, but at this point there could be literally anything lurking in there. Hopefully it’s just a couple of parents, but what if I walk in and there’s another guy throwing balls of fire at us?”
Calypso looked toward the trailer.
“I’d rather one of us have a clear shot out of here,” Bard continued. “Somebody’s gotta try and save that kid.”
She bit her lip.
“Okay. I guess that makes sense. That being said, if I see someone coming, I’m probably gonna run in there and try to bust them in the head anyway.”
Bard chuckled quietly.
“Fine. If that’s how you feel, you better come along.”
They crept toward the entrance.
A floodlight snapped on.
Both of them froze.
Completely illuminated.
Nothing happened.
Bard leaned toward one of the windows.
Still no sign of anyone.
Finally, they climbed the creaky, crappy homemade stairs and stepped inside.
The trailer was dated and narrow through the hallway, opening farther back into a small living room.
It was a double-wide.
Two doors opened off the hallway.
The first bedroom was immediately to their left.
It looked like a normal couple’s bedroom, although slightly disheveled.
Drawers had been left open.
Maybe somebody had been looking through them.
Maybe somebody had simply forgotten to close them.
A suitcase lay on the bed with clothes scattered around it.
Maybe somebody had been packing.
Maybe that was just how somebody got ready for work.
They checked the rest of the house.
There was no obvious sign of anyone.
But there was definitely the impression that somebody, or several somebodies, had left in a hurry.
“They probably went out the back,” Bard said.
“Really does look that way.”
“We don’t wanna stay here too long in case they come back. Or in case there’s anybody else lurking around here that we don’t wanna cross paths with.”
They searched for about ten minutes.
Finally, Calypso walked up to Bard holding a small bent notebook.
“I found something pretty interesting.”
Bard looked at it.
“It looks like the parents have been dealing with some mysterious people surrounding their son and his ability to have some kind of slight prophetic abilities.”
Bard took the notebook.
Calypso pointed to one of the entries.
“It says pretty plainly here that some government drones showed up and were pressuring the mother and father into letting them take Alex to some kind of facility near Red River.”
Bard kept reading.
“This looks like the dad’s journal.”
He turned a page.
“David Fernandez…”
He stopped.
“Shit. There’s even an address listed here.”
Calypso stared at him.
“Well, I guess we got some kind of a hint.”
Bard closed the notebook.
“We better go talk to those fuckers.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I don’t think we have much of a…”
Calypso cut him off.
“Don’t finish saying that.”
Bard looked at her.
“You keep saying we don’t have a choice. We do have a choice. This is just the choice that makes sense, right?”
He thought about it for a moment.
“Seems like the right choice. But we’re in the middle of so many things right now, it’s hard to say if either of us are thinking clearly.”
“It would be nice if we could get some proper rest. Camp somewhere or something. Maybe we’d actually get some insight after taking a decent break.”
“Let’s check things out in Red River first. Then we can camp out, provided we’re granted the opportunity.”
“Fine,” Calypso sighed.
Continue the story on Patreon: H.M. Nocturne