Damien and Penelope saw themselves out of the magistrate’s office and walked away from there. Penny out of curiosity asked,
“I thought we were going to gather all the case files,” it was why she had mentioned it in the mansion. By making use of the files, they would be able to pick up patterns on what the irregularity cases were. As they had found nothing from the villagers who were receiving food from the Artemis, they had decided to go along this route but Damien had opened the files and then had dropped them down and here they were.
“There was nothing in there.”
She frowned hearing this, “What do you mean?” she had taken a glimpse at the papers that had writing and she had also read some that spoke about case files.
“All those are old ones. When a case file is created, it is mandatory to place the date of when the case was assigned. The dates are almost four months old with no recent record.”
“Not even one?”
“Not even one,” he confirmed to her, “Either the village has been good that as we see, people are going to sleep early to avoid any possible trouble or something is truly wrong. Of course, we all know it cannot be the first option. I mean did angels descend from heaven to wipe out every little bad doing? It is very common for people to fight over little things. The usual brawls, or the usual neighbor or money being stolen.”
“Wouldn’t that mean the magistrate woman is hiding something?” asked Penny, her footsteps stopping along with him. The woman had appeared stern, her voice and eyes sharp.
Damien then pulled her along to walk back in the direction they had come from, which was back again towards the magistrate’s office, “Mouse, she had no identification proof with her. If she showed, we had to show.”
“You were sure…”
“Sometimes we bet on luck and roll the dice,” he grinned, his eyes shining in amus.e.m.e.nt, “Now if we go there, I can tell you something.”
When they reached the office again, the lantern inside was still burning brightly along with the unfinished vegetables that were on the desk, “That the woman would not be here,” Damien commented looking at the empty.
She noticed that Damien was right. The magistrate lady was no more there in the room and had left everything as it was. The lantern was still burning brightly at her desk. For her to leave everything on their departure, it only pointed on how things were possibly not the way it seemed.
Penny walked forward, going to the desk to look at the vegetables that were fresh and supple in touch. Stepping in here the first time, Penny had first made sure to look at the woman’s fingernails. The last time when they had gone to get the book of moon signs written, they had met a black witch and she had failed to notice it on the spot. This time, she had been meticulous about it.
“Where do you think she went?” Penny asked him, walking around the desk to take a look at the drawers which were empty, “There’s nothing in here,” she said looking up to meet Damien’s gaze.
“It hasn’t been too much of time since we walked out of here. Finding here where she went might be difficult right now when there are other things on hand,” said Damien, looking around the room, he said, “We should go find where the guards are. That is if they are still there.”
Damien gave his hand for Penny to hold, “Just to make sure you’re close and with me. Also that we don’t get lost,” he said before they walked out of the empty office.
They walked around the village, searching for the village guards but there was not a single soul who was outside. The magistrate was nowhere to be found. Walking to one of the houses which were in the far end, Damien stepped forward and knocked on the door.
Penny found it to be strange that with the number of houses that were in the village, there was not a single light that was lit from inside the house. They were all dark and closed.
“There are no animals here,” she noted, hearing Damien knock on the door again. The knock on the door felt slightly harsh on their ears because of the silence they were surrounded in. Damien gave the third knock, hearing no one come out, Damien bowed his head and then looked up at the door.
Raising his leg, he kicked the door and in one kick the wooden door broke into pieces. Penny flinched hearing the sound of the door crash. Damien was the first one to step inside the dark house, picking the unlit lantern along with him.
Penny was still standing outside, waiting there as her eyes moved left and right to make sure there was no one or no one had heard them break into the house forcibly. Suddenly the house lit up from the inside and it seemed like Damien had found the matchbox to light the lantern. Taking another look behind her, she stepped inside the house, her eyes widening and looking startled to see the people in the house who were awake.
There was an old couple, a young man and a young woman. Their eyes wide and very much awake but they said nothing. There was no reaction on their face. For a minute Penny didn’t know why the four family members of the house didn’t react over the loud intrusion that took place.
They had been sitting like this all the while in the dark?
“What’s going on?” she asked Damien, unsure as she made her way to where he stood.
“I don’t know,” Damien said, walking towards the young man who was standing still and looking in their direction, “I have never seen anything like this. They look as if they are in a daze,” which was true.
