Dorian’s eyes quickly opened, waking him from what was a deep sleep. Sitting up, he glanced over to his right and spotted Farnell still fast asleep in his bed. However, as he looked towards the left, he noticed that Digby was missing. Feeling a bit thirsty, Dorian swung his feet over the side of the bed and walked towards the only door in the room. Opening it, he walked into a large hallway. There was no one in the hallway as Dorian made his way towards another door. Opening it, he walked into a small, well-lit room that housed a sink, some glasses, and some fruit that had been left in a basket on a table.
Dorian grabbed a glass and filled it with water. Chugging down the water, Dorian let out an audible exhale of air as he lowered the glass from his mouth. As he was about to quickly rinse the glass and head back to bed, he heard the door behind him open, revealing Digby. “Oh…did I wake you up?”
Dorian shrugged. “Probably. I woke up not too long ago and didn’t see you in bed. I was thirsty so here I am.”
Digby chuckled as he also grabbed a glass and started to fill it with water. “Sorry about that. I just had the sudden urge to take a quick walk. I have a hard time falling asleep sometimes if I’m not familiar with the area.”
“Ah I see…I take it your military upbringing is the cause of this?”
Digby shrugged, taking a sip from the glass. “Maybe. All I know though is that when I was younger, I had major insomnia. There were nights I couldn’t fall asleep at all as I was feeling restless. We moved a lot thanks to my father being ordered to different posts. Changing bedrooms all the time definitely didn’t help as a change of scenery would only make me even more restless. Eventually, I had gotten the idea to make sure I was completely aware of my surroundings. I took a lot of walks, memorizing where everything was. This, along with the energy I exerted in doing this, would help calm my mind and allow me to sleep. Over time, I’ve gotten better at this, but occasionally this still happens, so I decided to take this walk.”
Dorian nodded. “I see…but wait a minute, how did you and Evanna maintain your friendship if you kept moving from place to place?”
Digby chuckled. “Surprisingly, her father was also transferred to the same posts either at or around the same time my dad was. Since she was one of the very few people I knew besides my family, we were nearly inseparable. So it wasn’t too surprising to both sets of parents when we both said we were going to attend the academy together.”
“Ahh…makes sense, especially with what she said during our first day that she has to look after you.”
Digby nodded, finishing the water that was in the glass. “Anyways, I think we’ve stayed up long enough. We still have way too many questions than answers concerning all the strange things happening here, and we’ll need to be at our best.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get back to–”
The sound of someone banging on a door interrupted Dorian. The two of them rushed to the door and opened it, looking into the hallway right as the sound of the banging against another door started. Looking over, the two of them spotted Jac being the person behind the banging. Dorian rushed over to Jac. “What’s going on?!”
Jac looked at Dorian, a look of concern on his face. “Good, you two are already up. Quick, get the other two and get ready. There’s been a major update to the cases, and it’s not pretty. I’ll meet you all at the garage.”
As Jac began to jog away, Olive opened the door to her room, looking tired and confused. “What’s going on?”
Dorian glanced at Jac as he disappeared down the hallway. “Looks like there’s been a major update to the cases…and it’s not a good update apparently. He wants us to quickly get ready and meet him in the garage.”
Olive groaned but nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you guys in a few minutes.”
Dorian and Digby quickly rushed to their room and entered it, both shocked that Farnell was somehow still asleep despite the banging. After waking him up and getting him up to speed, the three of them quickly dressed, grabbed their weapons, and waited outside Olive’s room until she appeared a few minutes later. A couple minutes later, the four of them were at the garage, boarding a vehicle. Jac entered the vehicle as well as dozens of troops entered the other vehicles. Seconds later, the small caravan exited the facility and were on the road.
Jac cleared his throat before speaking to the four of them. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why we woke you up this early and what updates I have for you.”
The four of them nodded but were silent, waiting for Jac to continue. “First, let me confirm something: you four did a patrol near the two farmhouses, correct?”
Dorian nodded. “Yeah, we did, but we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
“I see…well…shortly after you had passed by, several policemen were attacked by that shadow man.”
Their eyes widened, shocked by the news. Dorian leaned forward. “What happened?”
“From what we’ve been told, one of the officers ran into the farmhouse, babbling something incoherent before hearing a scream outside. They went to check what the screaming was about when they were attacked. Four of them were killed, three were wounded. The only one who didn’t get injured was the first officer, who was found upstairs and unconscious. After the attack, one of the injured officers managed to report what had happened. We were just informed of this less than thirty minutes ago.”
The four of them looked at each other before Olive looked at Dorian. “Wait…didn’t you feel something was off during our patrol?”
Farnell nodded, looking at Dorian. “Yeah, you were acting strange both before and after we saw that cat. Digby said there wasn’t anything there, and we kept going after that.”
Jac looked at Dorian. “Is that true?”
Dorian slowly nodded his head. “Yeah…it is. I suddenly felt very uneasy and stopped to look around. Everyone else also stopped and made a comment about it before the subject of conversation changed to the cat. As I was making a comment about how it had failed a hunt, I felt that same sense of uneasiness and…dread. It was then that we continued with our patrol.”
Jac’s hand caressed his own chin, his brow furrowed. “I see…that might have been the only warning about what was about to happen.” Jac sighed and straightened his back. “Well, regardless, the military is now taking control of the investigation. When we get there, I have a favor I need to ask of you all.”
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