Dorian’s eyes were quickly glancing back and forth, keeping an eye on every person he saw. His senses were heightened, and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. As he glanced behind him to see how the others were doing, he saw them starting to lag behind, the traveling and pressures put on them today clearly starting to take a toll. Dorian began to slow his pace for the others to catch up. “Everyone alright?”
Farnell yawned but nodded his head. “Yeah, I am at least. That’s not to say I’m not wanting to crawl underneath that bench over there and go to sleep.”
Olive nodded her head in agreement, but Digby chuckled. “I may be tired, but I do know that we have our orders and tasks that need to be carried out. We can’t rest until we’ve completed them.”
Olive groaned slightly and sighed. “I guess I’m in the minority then. I’d rather just go to bed now and focus on everything when our minds are rested and we’re at our peak.”
Digby glanced over at Olive and shook his head. “In the military, they don’t care if you’re tired or need a rest. If they order you to do something, you do it. No questions asked or waiting until the morning.” Digby’s pace started to speed up. “Anyways, we’re wasting time debating this. We have a patrol to finish.”
Dorian gave a sympathetic look to Olive and nodded. “You heard the man. Let’s get a move on. The quicker we finish our patrol, the quicker we can write our reports for the day and get some much needed sleep.”
Olive and Farnell nodded and quickened their pace to keep up with Digby. Dorian jogged up to Digby, slowing down to match his pace once he caught up. “Quite the brave face you put on there, considering you were as slow as them earlier.”
“I was just making sure they were alright. But this isn’t the time for talking. We need to stay on alert for this ‘shadow.’”
Dorian nodded and gave his surroundings another quick glance. At this point in the evening, and with them having passed the city center a while back, there weren’t many people out on the streets. As they walked away from the city and more towards the countryside, the group soon passed the second farm. The place was still swarming with officers, who were scoping out the outer edges of the property for any possible clues they might have missed.
“They seem to be as busy as ever.” Farnell said as they continued their patrol.
Dorian nodded. “I’m not surprised. This case is rather personal to them. They’ll probably be there well into the morning.”
As Dorian finished speaking, he suddenly got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Looking around, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Olive looked at Dorian, noticing his sudden change in demeanor. “Everything okay, Dorian?’
Dorian looked at Olive and slowly nodded. “Y-yeah, I am. I just suddenly felt a bit uneasy.”
Farnell and Digby both glanced at Dorian and then out to their surroundings. “Everything looks quiet to me.” Farnell said, as he continued to survey they area. “Unless you count that cat on the wall over there as suspicious.”
Digby laughed. “I guess we’ve discovered what Dorian’s afraid of. Don’t look now Dorian but I might have noticed a cat or two in the city earlier.”
Dorian chuckled and shook his head. “No, I’m not talking about that cat, though it failed attacking a rodent earlier and is now sulking on that wall.”
Digby looked a bit shocked. “You not only saw the cat, but saw that it failed a hunt?”
“Kinda hard to miss it when it was running like–”
The pit in his stomach returned as he was talking. He again quickly looked around but didn’t see anything. The others also quickly glanced around before looking back at Dorian. “There’s nothing there, Dorian.” Digby said, sounding slightly annoyed. “Now let’s get a move on so we can be done with this and finish our reports.”
Dorian didn’t respond, continuing to look around before sighing. “Yeah…yeah you’re right. Let’s go. We’ve wasted enough time here already.”
As they began walking again, the uneasy feeling in his stomach only continued to worsen, soon changing into a feeling of dread. I can see why Miriam would put this into her reports. This feeling is suffocating. But if I’m feeling this way…then I’d be willing to bet that we’re on the right track with this shadow.
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Meanwhile, back at the house, a police officer was on his knees, feeling his way through the grass, looking for anything that could possibly count as evidence. As he was searching, he heard some footsteps behind him. Looking back, he saw another officer walking up to him. “Still searching for some evidence?”
“Yeah, I’m hoping that maybe there was some sort of weapon or tool used by the killer and dropped in the grass.”
“Ahh. Well you’ve been at it for hours? Don’t you need a break?”
“No, I don’t. This bastard killed my friend. I’m not going to rest until we capture this person.”
The other officer gave him a sympathetic shoulder pat. “Look, I know this is upsetting for you, but you need to at least take a break. If you don’t, your body will fail you when you need it most. That, and the chief told me to tell you that you need a break, and I don’t feel like getting chewed out by him. So you’ll be taking a break.”
“Fine…” As he began to stand up, the two of them heard a noise on the road. Looking over, the didn’t see anything. “You heard that, right?”
The other officer nodded. “Yeah…sounded like there were some footsteps, but I haven’t seen anyone since those kids from earlier today walked by.”
“Ah, them. I’m not sure why the chief wasn’t so happy about them being here. I think they could provide an outsider’s perspective about what’s going on.”
“They’re just kids. I don’t see them really doing anything to–”
A stick cracking to their right caught their attention. As they looked over, in the distance, they saw a silhouette of a man at the end of the street. “Do you know who that is?”
“No…I don’t.” The officer put his hand on the hilt of his sword and walked towards the man. “Excuse me, sir, do you have any business–”
As he approached the man, he suddenly felt an extreme feeling of dread, stopping him in his tracks. Staring at the man, he slowly began to back up. Tearing his gaze from the man, he looked back and saw that the other officer had a terrified look on his face, seemingly petrified with fear. Looking back, he couldn’t see the figure anymore. “W-w-what was that?!” He said to himself, his legs shaking from fear.
The sound of something running up behind him shocked the officer as he spun around and spotted a cat running down the road. Terrified, the officer sprinted towards the house and to the security of being around other officers, leaving the other behind.
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