Dark Days & Darker Hearts (Mod/Fant/Rom/Supernatural/1x1)

[ChibiMonkey]

As she pulled up to the house and they just stared at it while talking, she shrugged her shoulders "Some reason I doubt thats the case, that they ran off. They didn't sound worried or panicked on the phone, though, they certainly did seem to want to get off of it" she commented as she looked at the lights on in the house. At his further comment of how to approach this, she considered his comments on how they may react to certain reasons of why she was trying to get to Ashley's room and find more out about her. "Well, lets hope they care enough about her. Usually estranged families can sometimes be more willing to want to help their daughter - if that is how they are, anyways. I'm not going to go in just barging to see her room and violate privacy rights. I already have a feeling they wont let me. But we already have the advantage. They only know of me, and think that I'm the only one coming. So while I talk to them, you focus on getting in, finding Ashley's room, and getting the information we need - which hopefully is in her room. If it was just me, sure, I'd be more worried about how to convince them to let me into her room, but since I have you, that's not really an issue anymore. Now I can focus on just distracting them long enough, though, I'll still ask about the room so it doesn't seem to weird that I'm no longer as focused on getting in or anything. Any parents, even ones not close with their children, care about them. Even more so if they don't see their child all that often. I'm hoping I can get them to just open up and talk about Ashley, and tell me any behavioral or personality quirks that might be of interest and helpful. Hopefully they'll spill all they know about their daughter" she explained as she turned her car off.


"In the meantime, I'll focus on keeping them talking and distracted. With them thinking I'm the only one coming, they wont even think to worry about a second person. So you focus on your part, and I'll do mine" she said with a nod of her head as they got out of the car "Close your door at the same time as me, so they don't hear two doors simultaneously" she said nodding to him as they both shut their doors, "About twelve minutes. Got it. That should be easy enough. Good luck" she nodded to him, letting him disappear around the bend of the house while she headed up to the front door. Thankfully, the sun was setting now and it was getting a bit darker. The house was also in a suburban lot too, surrounded by trees - which really wasn't a surprise. The entire town was pretty much like this, lots of land, not crowded with houses and buildings and such.

 

[fuzzehpolarbear]

The father seemed about equal parts nervous and annoyed that she'd shown up, despite the fact that they'd told her not to. Most people were at least a little good at hiding the fact that they were acting suspiciously, but this guy was absolute crap at it. Never-the-less, he invited Eliana in for a cup of coffee. During this time, Ian was carefully working his way around the back yard looking for points of entry. Open windows, open back door, out of place looking rocks.


Windows closed, not unusual this time of year. Security system... Doesn't look like it's a very high grade one. Audio detectors, meant to go off if anyone breaks a window or kicks a door down. Not that that would be an option anyway, they'd definitely hear me. Ah, here we go, open window, looks like a bathroom, it's not very big but I should be able to fit through, just gotta be quiet about it. Won't be able to displace the screen from this side, I'll have to cut through. Ian drew a knife from his coat and began carefully slitting through the bathroom's window screen.


Meanwhile, inside, Ashley's father had herded Eliana into the kitchen where the mother had been waiting. The wife apologized for her husband's odd behavior, assuring Eliana that it was because they were still feeling the effects of believing that their daughter was missing.


After he'd managed to cut through the screen, Ian, as carefully as he could, pulled himself in through the window and lowered himself onto the tile floor. Easy enough. Right, standard home layout I'm assuming, master bedroom back and to the left, secondary bedroom just across, adjacent wall. He listened until he was certain by the sounds of their voices that no one was facing the door to the bathroom, and then slipped through it, making his way rapidly but as silently as possible into the hallway.


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Ian managed to quietly traverse the distance between the bathroom and the hallway without being heard, and was now free to make his way into the back of the home while Eliana dealt with the parents.

 

[ChibiMonkey]

As Eliana reached the front door, she rang the bell, glancing over to a window not far from the front door and seeing movement of a shadow inside, as expected, they were home. She highly doubted it was Ian who had already gotten in so quickly. Moments later, the front door opened to Mr. Flores answering it, and, getting rid of her distaste of being sociable and friendly, Eliana dawned a bright smile as she looked to the older man before her.


"Mr. Flores, wonderful to finally meet you. It's too bad its under such reasons and circumstances that we meet, however" she said, making short small talk with the man before the rather awkward male invited her in for coffee. She was a bit surprised at how easy it had been to get inside. Hopefully they weren't as eager to show her to Ashley's room as they were to let her in the house, since that would mean they would end up finding Ian on their way, probably.


As she stepped into the kitchen, she smiled and just as cheerily greeted Mrs. Flores, before the woman apologized for her husbands odd behavior. Even still, she couldn't help be putt off by it. But she didn't let her conflict with her goal or anything. She needed to keep them distracted. For a good twelve minutes - Eliana made it at least fifteen minutes in her head, not only to be safe, but also slight doubt that Ian could find useful information of which they didn't even know where the information they were looking for would be like, or look like, and the fact he was looking for it in a room he'd never been in before.


Shaking her head, Eliana politely smiled "That's quite alright, I understand how distressing it can be for your daughter to have gone missing" she said, noticing their use of having 'thought' Ashley was missing. "Unfortunately, Mrs. Flores...I have reason to believe that your daughter may still be missing. While you did receive a letter, which of course is a good sign, I take my job seriously, and like to be 100% sure. Do you mind if I take a look at the letter? She didn't happen to mention where she was in it, did she?" she asked, not knowing that the parents actually did very well know where their daughter was, without it even being said so in the supposed letter. If there even was a letter.


Eliana was too focused on finding out more about Ashley that she didn't even suspect the parents as a threat of any kind, even if they both looked healthy and the father looked as fit as a twenty year old, despite him not being that young an age anymore. She had no idea that her poking around questions to what she thought would be concerned parents would be an issue, other than the fact that they may simply clam up or something of the sorts. She didn't expect anything more than that.

 

[fuzzehpolarbear]

Ian managed to make his way into Ashley's room without incident. It was a cluttered mess of black cloth and posters for heavy metal bands he'd never heard of. You didn't have to fit my theory THIS well, Ashley... Alright, need to find a diary. He began poking around, trying to be both quiet and efficient. It was something of a difficult dance, but he managed it - this wasn't Ian's first rodeo. This girl, he reasoned, probably was the kind to eschew the traditional diary in favor of keeping an electronic log, so he needed to find a laptop or a phone. Likely he wouldn't find her phone, since it was undoubtedly with her wherever she was (hardly anyone traveled without a phone anymore, let alone a young woman), so laptop it was. Hopefully that, and not her phone, was where Ashley kept her diary.


Being a big clunky piece of hardware, the laptop wasn't hard to find. It was located under a black hoodie in her closet. Pulling it out, Ian opened it up and set it on the bed. No charge... Damn, of course, she's been gone for over a week. Need to find a charging cord somewhere. Ian searched through a few drawers until he came across the charge cord for the laptop, which he plugged in to both the computer and the wall before booting up the machine.


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It made the standard "booting up" sound, but luckily it wasn't turned up loud enough for the sound to carry into the other room. Ian breathed a sigh of relief - he'd forgotten about that. The laptop had a password on it, but it was easy enough to crack, one of the names of one of the bands whose posters was hung up on the wall: Avantasia. Once he was in, it took him less than a minute to locate the file he was looking for.


Alright, gotta do this quick. He scrolled through, reading as quickly as his eyes would allow, marking down any locations that Ashley mentioned in her writings. As he read, however, there was something that didn't entirely add up. There was friction between Ashley and her parents, as Ian had predicted, however... Hmm... Interesting passage. "Mom and dad made me go to some stupid social thing that their friends were having, and it was totally weird. It was in this big old house, which was cool, but everyone there was a total creeper, this one guy spent the whole night checking me out. He told me I was "perfect" in this really creepy way, like oh my god dude I'm like half your age, what kind of perv are you? I wasn't really digging getting creeped on, so I snuck out the back. The house is right by this lake, whichever one of the weirdos owns it must be super rich, and there's a bench under a willow tree back there. I met this girl, Anna, she's totally cute, a lot better company than my parents and a bunch of other crusty old people."


Ian had the information he needed - a house by a lake with a single willow tree behind it. But he was now terminally curious - it was a flaw of his - so he kept on reading. Damn... I thought that Anna was in love with Ashley and that Ashley used that to lure her into the clutches of the cult, but from this it looks like the feeling was mutual. She refers to these people as her parents' friends, and it doesn't sound like she ever wanted to get involved but her parents kept dragging her out to this place. Sounds like Ashley was just a bystander in all of this after all, and that her parents... Hell, Eliana is talking to them right now.


Ian quickly pulled out his cellphone and tapped up a text message to Eliania. "Found the location, the parents are involved, get out of the house."

 

[ChibiMonkey]

As she had brought up the mention of the letter, Eliana wasn't all that worried or concerned at the tense reaction received by the parents. With how the mother acted on the phone, it didn't surprise her there was still just as odd of a response to the mention of the letter again. She didn't think anything more suspicious of it other than the act itself, still not even conceiving that the parents might be the real ones involved of this whole mess they were investigating.


"Oh, the letter...?" the woman brought up, in a seemingly casual voice "Well, in any case there's no need for you to see it anymore, is there? We appreciate your concern for our daughter, however, it's no longer needed" the older man stated in a rather standoffish way, clearly wanting Eliana to be gone. The woman, while, still equally suspicious in acting, put on a nicer front at least. "As I tried to mention on the phone, our daughter is just fine. It's normal for her to disappear for several days like this. I tried to save you the trip of coming all the way out here for nothing."


Eliana raised an eyebrow as she just looked between the two in uncertainly. She certainly did not believe the daughter was okay, or at least, didn't believe that there wasn't anything to investigate about Ashley, and now certainly, was even more suspicious with the way the parents spoke to her. They were unusually calm in tone, but their body language was fidgety, and almost anxious. They way the spoke, although tone calm, they were in such unison with their words and sentences, speaking after one another. Not at all blaming the other in any way, as seemed to often be the case with parents when their child went missing.


"Right..." Eliana spoke softly, her tone clearly showing that she didn't believe them and wanted to discuss further. However, feeling her phone buzz and the tone sound off that she got a text, she smiled politely before reaching for her phone, glancing at the message. She furrowed her brows a bit, before looking back to the older couple before her "Well, if that's the case, it seems I'm not needed here. I'll leave you two be, sorry for the inconvenience" she tried to excuse herself politely before turning to head for the door.


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The moment she turned her back though was her first mistake, as she felt a throbbing collision to the back of her head, causing her to gasp out and stumble forward. Her vision in front of her eyes blurred as her hands grasped to the counter to catch herself and keep herself from falling over completely.


"Leaving so soon, Ms. Richards?" A darker tone of Mrs. Flores' voice reached Eliana's ears "We insist you stay. You already came all this way. Let's not let it go to waste now, shall we?"


Hearing their words, Eliana knew they weren't being polite in their phrasing of words. There was certainly a darker, more malicious intent to their tones, and she grit her teeth as she steadied herself after the hit to her thread, still causing it to throb. As she turned around, she just barely saw Mrs. Flores moving to grab her in time, and managed to shove her away. Mrs. Flores was certainly the weaker of the pair - and not just for the mere stereotypical fact of her being a woman. Quickly analyzing the married couple in her mind from when she first started talking to them on the phone up until this moment, she concluded that they certainly made a smart pair. Mrs. Flores, while lacking physical strength, was more tactful, and logical, she was a smart woman. While Mr. Flores, sure, has some intelligence to him, he was more the brawns of the pair, with a body fit of that matching an athletic man in his twenties, despite being twice that age.


Even still, Eliana wasn't on fair fighting grounds. While she had a fit body and was a strong independent woman that often could hold her own, against an older man twice her size, and a second person leaving her outnumbered, even if that second person wasn't all that strong, she didn't have the upper-hand. Especially when she hadn't even been expecting such malicious intent from what she thought would be normal, simple, grieving parents.


While she had kicked Mrs. Flores away from her, causing the woman to stumble back into the kitchen table, Eliana didn't have enough time to recover to catch nor block the fist to her gut from Mr. Flores, knocking the wind out of her. That gave Mr. Flores enough time to grab Eliana, wrapping both hands around her petite neck and shoving her against the wall "You really shouldn't have come. You would have been far better minding your own business."


Barely having enough time to recover from having the wind knocked out of her as a fist landed to her gut, she tried to catch her breath, only to be unable to as she felt a strong grip of fingers enclosing around her neck firmly, cutting off her windpipe. Mentally cursing in her head, she struggled, instinctively kicking her feet out at the man and hands clawing at his hands on her throat in a feeble attempt to get him off. Eyes wide and bloodshot from the lack of oxygen, her green eyes darted around the room, trying to think quickly. Noticing the cup of coffee that the parents had invited her in for so 'kindly' earlier, sitting on the counter not far from her, she swung her hand out. It was nearly in reach, and she struggled, flailing her hand out and barely managing to have the tips of her fingers catch the handle of it, causing it to go flying to the floor with a loud shatter as it broke upon contact, hoping that it would be loud enough to catch Ian's attention to come help.

 

[fuzzehpolarbear]

Ian knew exactly what the broken cup meant. His suspicious were confirmed. Already one dead young woman in this case, potentially two, best not let the count rise any further. No time to call anyone, they wouldn't arrive in time, going to have to do this myself. Ian reached into his coat and drew from its holster a Beretta M9. There was no longer any point in trying to be subtle, so he kicked the door of Ashley's bedroom aside and rushed to the kitchen where he discovered the fight already in progress. His eyes darted from Mrs. Flores, who appeared to be on her way to grab a knife from a block in the corner of the kitchen, to Mr. Flores, who was viciously gripping Eliania's neck. I'll bet even a man who'd allow his own daughter to be kidnapped still cares about his wife. It's not guarantee, but... Let's hope so.


Making a snap judgement, Ian aimed his weapon at Mrs. Flores. Ian wasn't a spectacular shot, he never had been, but in close quarters like this, not even he could miss his target. "Mrs. Flores, there is a military issue Beretta M9 handgun currently aimed at your back. If you don't stop what you're doing and put your hands above your head, I'll be forced to shoot you." Mrs. Flores was no fool, as Eliana had deduced. She could hear by the tone of Ian's voice that not only was he not kidding, but also that he wouldn't hesitate. She did as Ian asked. "Mr. Flores, if you value your wife's continued existence I would suggest that you unhand my partner immediately."


"Ha, and what're you going to do if I don't?"


"I'm going to shoot your wife in the back, Mr. Flores."


The statement caused a tremor in Mr. Flores, whose grip on Eliana's throat loosened somewhat with uncertainty. It wasn't quite enough to wriggle free, but it was enough for a few difficult breaths to be pulled down the windpipe. "Like hell. You're a cop, right? Cops can't just go around shooting people."


"Private investigator actually, Ian Cooke, perhaps you've heard of me. Now, technically speaking, I'm not supposed to just go around shooting people either, however I think you'll find that when people threaten or harm those I work with it doesn't tend to end well for them. Clearly you and Mrs. Flores were never meant to be parents, or you'd not have given your daughter over to a group of people that likely intend to kill her, if they haven't already. However, I imagine that, even though you don't care about your daughter for whatever reason, you do care about your wife. Unfortunately for you, I do not possess that inadequacy. So I'm going to ask you one more time, Mr. Flores. Let my partner go - now - or I will pull this trigger."


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Mr. Flores clearly wasn't convinced. "You aren't going to do a damn thing."


Mrs. Flores was about to explain to her husband that she didn't think Ian was kidding when the shot rang out. Blood spattered against some of the kitchen's cabinetry, and Mrs. Flores sunk to the floor.


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Ian had been doing his best not to kill her with the shot. Dead suspects were worth a lot more paperwork than were living ones. He wasn't a particularly talented marksman, but he knew his anatomy well enough, and the shot had been made at close range. He'd fired low, the round from the Beretta going through Mrs. Flores' intestines. No less painful than a shot anywhere else, but provided help arrived in time and peritonitis didn't occur, it wouldn't prove fatal.


The gamble worked. Mr. Flores' eyes went wide, and he released Eliania in favor of attacking Ian instead.


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Ian had been fairly confident that if such a thing occurred, he could take Mr. Flores, as he was normally quite skilled in close combat. Unfortunately for Ian, this particular fellow was something of a powerhouse, and fighting him hand to hand proved difficult. Ian attempted to use the grip of his weapon as a bludgeon, but Mr. Flores quickly knocked the weapon out of his hand and then struck him hard in the face, which disoriented Ian as he stumbled backwards into the living room. Here he held his own for a few moments, bobbing and weaving expertly around the larger man's vicious attacks and landing a few punches, but he couldn't catch the juggernaut anywhere important, and eventually took another hard strike, this one in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him rolling onto the floor.

 

[ChibiMonkey]

The lack of oxygen was starting to get to Eliana's head, or rather, it wasn't, quite literally, causing her head to throb and her vision to blur, as well as the more than obvious burning sensation in her lungs. After successfully smacking the cup to the floor in shattered pieces, Eliana's hands had instinctively gone back to the strong, calloused hands gripping around her neck currently. While, she was typically smarter than that and knew her petite fingers wouldn't be able to pry Mr. Flores' strong grip off of her, it was about all she could do anymore. She couldn't muster the energy to flail about any more, so it was all she had left to do, until, hopefully, Ian would come to help.


Honestly, part of her had no idea if Ian really would help her. She hadn't known him for that long, and the short time she did know him a little bit, he didn't seem all that loyal of a person, at least not if it didn't benefit him in any way. However, he also seemed to be a man of his word...but he had never given a word about protecting her or anything like that. He was rather odd, so honestly, she wasn't entirely sure if he would risk himself to help her. But then again, she had the car keys. Thoughts like these going back and forth were racing through her mind at lightning speed with her panic induced state and adrenaline coursing through her body from the lack of air and struggle.


When she heard his calm voice breaking through the room though, catching both Mr and Mrs. Flores by surprise, she felt relief was over her. However, it wasn't really enough relief to make her feel that safe or anything. She was nearing the point of passing out due to the prolonged lack of oxygen to her body. She squinted her bloodshot eyes open to look over her attacker's shoulder, seeing what looked to be Ian standing there with Mrs. Flores at gunpoint, though she couldn't entirely tell since her vision was blurred, and she was no longer able to keep her eyes open, feeling heavy headed and seconds from passing out.


She couldn't even focus on the words being passed in the room any longer, though a few more moments later, she felt the coolness of air slipping past her throat as the grip on her neck had loosened, though not enough to give her any energy back. She felt the sound of a gunshot echoing through the room, and seconds later, she was dropped to the floor, her body crumbling to the ground with a loud, lifeless thud as Eliana gasped out, inhaling sharply and coughing violently from the burning sensation of her lungs desperately trying to take in all the air the had been lacking the past few minutes all at once, causing her lungs and throat to burn as she coughing, hands barely holding her up just a little off the ground.


She could hear the sounds of another fight breaking out, but she could currently hardly move, her body numb and heavy to move from having not been able to breath for the past few minutes. Her muscles were shaky, barely able to hold herself up as she got herself on her hands and knees, breathing ragged and hoarse.


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Lifting her head, she could see the struggle breaking out in the living room between Ian and Mr. Flores. Mrs. Flores, on the other hand...well, she certainly wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. She noticed neither Ian or Mr. Flores had the gun that she had heard fall to the ground moments ago though, so, even if Mrs. Flores couldn't really get up, she wanted to get the gun to make sure that the woman couldn't get to it and start shooting up the place.


Just as she found the weapon, she heard a loud thud come from the living room, and looking over that way, she only saw Mr. Flores standing, which mean Ian was the one that had gone down. Cursing, she struggling to get to her feet. A few minutes had passed, and while she was still weak and disoriented from the lack of oxygen, she could at least stand up now. She didn't trust herself taking a shot - especially in her current disoriented state, even if she was a good shot, in her current state she could easily miss. And not only miss, but accidentally hit Ian instead. She wasn't about to risk that, not only for the obvious fact Ian was on her side, but also because if Ian went down, she definitely wouldn't be able to take Mr. Flores by herself, again, especially not in her current state. They would both be as good as dead.


Putting a hand to the wall to steady herself as she got to her feet weakly, she made her way into the living room. Just as Mr. Flores was pummeling down on Ian, he was too distracted to think about her, so with Mr. Flores' back turned to her, she raised her arm as high as she could with the gun in hand, and with every ounce of strength she had left in her body, swung the object down colliding hard into Mr. Flores' head.


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Mr. Flores stumbling forward to the ground, the hit impacting hard enough to send him to the ground, as well as splitting the skin on his head, not only leaving a trail of blood, but also likely going to leave a rather unfortunate lump on his head tomorrow.

 

[fuzzehpolarbear]

Ian staggered to his feet once Mr. Flores had fallen, unconscious, past him. His face was bruised and bloodied from having been struck rather hard a number of times. There he stood for a moment, catching his breath, before finally managing to say, "I know where Ashley Flores was taken. Large house, probably a manor house, right along the river, bearing a dock no doubt, with a bench and a willow tree, probably just one willow tree, behind it. I'll need a satellite view to get the exact address, but I can use my phone for that while we travel. In the meantime, we need to make our way to Ivy Loop Road, that's where our cult compound will be."


Ivy Loop Road was a suburban drive in an area where the elite nested, minor celebrities whose fame had dried out before their money, a few retired political figures, local captains of industry. It was a lovely area, on the outside at least, albeit with the deep core of unpleasantness one might expect of a place where the rich and powerful made their homes.


"Come on, deep breaths, bring yourself back around, I need you to drive while I find out where the manor is and call emergency services. If Ashley Flores is still alive, there's no telling how much time she may have left to be that way. She wasn't involved in this, I'll explain on the way. Also, I appreciate the assistance, but I am going to need my gun back."


As they drove, Ian did indeed explain. He explained how Mr. and Mrs. Flores had been members of this cult, how they'd given up their daughter to it, probably in exchange for some amount of power, either political, supernatural, or both, within the cult. He explained how Ashley and Anna had fallen in love, and the likely circumstances of Anna's death. He explained how Anna and Ashley had first met behind the manor, how Anna had likely gone back to meet Ashley again the evening she'd disappeared and been captured by the cult. He also called emergency services, telling them about what had happened at the Flores residence, and that they were currently inbound to Ivy Loop Road. Specifically, as Ian narrowed down, 3288 Ivy Loop Road.