Chapter Five

  Part Seven

  Ali hopped over the wooden fence on the south side of the farm to avoid the group at the front. It wasn’t her first time sneaking into somewhere she shouldn’t be, she would also be alone during this. But now she was closely followed by Hyde. He was extremely quiet, sometimes Ali would forget he was even behind her. She thought he could do with a bell or something so she could hear him, but she supposed that would defeat the purpose of being quiet.

  Ali moved behind a large building and came to a tinted black window that was bolted from the inside. She glanced at Hyde, sizing him up and figured that he would probably be able to squeeze through this window.

  She then took a hidden dagger from her leg, and began chipping away at the putty holding the window.

  “Ali? That’s going to take a while” Hyde said.

  “Do you have a better idea? One that doesn’t make sound?” she asked that last question just before Hyde’s fist almost collided with the window.

  Hyde slowly pulled his arm back “maybe I can check the roof?”

  “you’re going to scale a wall? A wall with no hand holds or anything? It’s even too tall for my fifty-foot rope”

  There was no response.

  Ali looked round “Hyde?”

  Hyde wasn’t behind her anymore, but instead he was on top of the tiled roof.

  “H-how? How did you get up there?”

  “I ran”

  Ali stared at him “you ran?”

  He knelt down and held out a hand “here”

  “Hyde. I can’t jump that high”

  “You said you had a rope”

  Ali glared, then sighed. She then pulled out a thick white rope end from her sleeve. She threw the rope end, and it snaked around Hyde’s wrist. Ali followed up with a little wall run and let Hyde pull her up the rest of the way. The rope then disappeared back into her sleeve.

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  “There” Hyde pointed to a skylight that was ajar.

  Ali yet again sent her rope end to snake around Hyde’s wrist and descended down into the building. Hyde just jumped down after her, landing with no sound.

  This building was a warehouse. Wooden boxes were stacked on top of each other, and various hung meats were left to dry. Ali couldn’t help but to cover her mouth and nose from the smell of meat. She genuinely thought she was going to throw up.

  The pair moved through the warehouse, coming to a small clearing free of any hanging meat. Don’t throw up, don’t throw up. Those words were the only words in Ali’s mind right now.

  Seeing Ali’s discomfort, Hyde moved past her and began searching the boxes on his own. But then Ali noticed something. On one of the longer wooden boxes were some burn marks. Ali wasn’t as smart as Line, but she still knew that those burn marks should definitely not be found on some box in a warehouse like this.

  Ali made her way to the box and pushed the lid open. What she found inside came as a shock to her. There were vials and measurements, there was even a small lighter. Also in the box were some vials of a clear translucent liquid and small boxes of a green scentless powder, along with some other chemicals. Everything was placed perfectly, and neatly.

  “Hyde!?”

  Hyde looked up from his box “yes?”

  Ali could only say “Hyde!?” again.

  Hyde came forward and saw the same thing Ali was seeing “this is a problem”

  Ali took a breath “we still need to find the murder weapon and see if there’s another body somewhere. But still, we now have a reason to shut this farm down. So if we don’t find anything, the royal guards might”

  Hyde gave a nod “let’s continue”

  *

  They had moved from that building into what appeared to be the slaughter house. This building was directly connected to the warehouse, so it was easy to get into. Lining the walls there were gnarly looking blades, all hanging from thick chains. With wide eyes, Ali moved to a butcher’s knife with a slightly longer blade.

  She grabbed onto the chain holding said knife “Hyde! This is it”

  She can’t believe Hyde actually hushed her “quiet”

  With a quieter tone Ali asked “should we take it?”

  “shit” Hyde suddenly grabbed Ali and pulled her over to a locker of some sort. After forcing her inside, Hyde also squeezed himself into it too.

  “what are you-“

  Hyde placed a hand over her mouth and a finger to his own lips.

  “damn it!” a voice suddenly rang out. Someone had entered the building “fuckin’ nobles! Think they can do what they want! The fuck did he do to me!?” as he talked the sound of his voice quieted and grew louder, like he was pacing back and forth “my only daughter I have left, and he wants to take her away too! How fuckin’ dare he!” there was a rustle of chains “I’ll kill him! I’ll fuckin’ kill him!” the man’s footsteps quickened followed by the sound of a door being slammed, then nothing.

  Hyde finally removed his hand from Ali’s mouth and stepped out of the locker. Ali followed not soon after.

  “The knife is gone” Hyde stated.

  “We should go back to the others. This is bad”

  Hyde gave a nod and followed Ali back through the way they came.