Play@YSDC

When asking about Jane Norris, the investigators are led to a small ivy-clad wooden house, relatively close to the harbor.
The house walls are furry with moss that sparkles silvery with the dew. The roof is thickly thatched with coarse straw and a chimney stuck up like a solitary erect ear listening for the rustle of a coming predator.

Jane is a slim and fragile woman, whose long brown hair hides part of the freckled face. She´s beautiful-looking, but her introverted posture hampers her potential beauty. She wears a black cotton dress, like a woman in permanent mourning. Her sad face strives to smile as to maintain an appearance of normality.

The investigatores find her in her yard, as they approach the gate. The yard is filled with rose bushes and flowers beds. This little place is an accurate collection of plants and flowers.

Ivy hangs back with Michael so that the other two can make introductions. Wary of their proximity to the docks, she keeps an eye out for any freak waves.

"Good morning," says Kathryn, coming forward. "Mrs. Norris? I'm Kathryn Adams. May we speak to you, if you have the time?"

The woman welcomes the strangers in her home with some shyness and fear.
She has probably never received strangers in her house.
She turns to Michael.
"Good morning sir... my hausband will come back late in the evening... sir... maybe you and the ladies want to come back later. "

"Of course," says Kathryn. "About what time should we return?"

The woman seems embarassed.

"He... he should come back later... at about 8.00 PM."

She sensed that the investigators are here for something serious. She, however, takes it for granted
they are here to talk with the head of the household.

"We actually came to speak to you, not your husband," says Kathryn.

Michael figures that the little lady is intimidated by men, especially a hulking bear like himself. He decides to try a little bit of charm to put her at her ease, maybe open her up a little.

"This is a beautiful garden. You must be very proud of having such a green thumb."

The woman smiles with shyness.

"Oh... thank you, sir! "

She is surprised when she realizes these stranger are here to talk with her.

"Oh... you came to talk with me... oh.. I´m just a fisherman´s wife. What can I do for you?"

Ivy continues to hang back, watching the sea for anything unnatural.

"Nobody is just anything," says Kathryn. "Women are perfectly capable of doing all sorts of things. For instance, I'm a private investigator. I specialize in finding missing children, and my friends and I have reason to believe one such child was taken to Greyton. I've heard what you've been through, and I think you might be able to help us, and maybe we can help you too."

The woman´s reaction is more natural than one would expect.

"My little Johnny was taken by the sea. I have suffered a lot for this, but now I understand that God wanted so an' we cannot oppose His will, I reckon. This means I was not created to generate some other life. Women must not commit impure acts. They must not allow themselves to be tempped. Myself was punished for disobeying', an' for not following' the vow of purity an' chastity. This is why God merciful has taken back th' shameful life I had generated through my sins."

Ivy,The sea stays calm without any imminent danger, but Ivy feels something disturbing as she staress at the innoque waters. The oscillatory movement of the waves recall the breath of to a big living organism pulsating with life, hiding something threatening, deep down, somewhere in the unexplored seabed, where those things came from.

Ivy stares out to sea as if hypnotised by the rythm of the rise and fall.

"There's something out there..." She mutters.

She shakes her head, pulling herself together.

"We need to be quick," she snaps. "Madam, what sin did you commit, and with whom?"

"Something like that happened yesterday," says Kathryn. "We were at Amanda Weeks's house when a wave came out of nowhere and swamped it. Luckily, she and I are good shots, or we might have disappeared too. There were these creatures that washed in with the wave. One of them bit me." She shows Jane her arm. "My friends were hurt even worse."

Jane face is confused, her mouth open and her eyes lost in the void. She seems to struggle to bring something up to her mind.
"I have committed dirty deeds. I don't remember wel ... I forgot. Merciful God made me forget. But I know I fell into temptation ..."
She looks down at her body, with a grimace of shame and embarrassment, she refuses to remember something obscene. The woman bursts into tears. She heads to the front door and runs away.

At that moment, another woman comes to the house. She opens the gate and sees Jane running towards her. Jane stops in front of her and collapses on the ground. The new comer helps Jane to get up, but while her sobs and uninterrupted weeping continue. As soon as she gets up, Jane runs back inside the house and goes upstairs to the bedroom.

The new woman is Jane´s sister. Her name is Sarah. She´s about forty, older than her sister Jane. Sarah prepares a tisane for her sister so that she can calm down on her bed. Sarah does it as if something she already did many times. She let the investigators in to have a seat downstairs. She makes sure Jane will stay on bed and then gets downstairs to talk with them.

Sarah has short straight red hair and a harmonious face, while her body is much less attractive, being it short and slightly overweight. She´s wearing a crisp white broadcloth blouse and a large plaid skirt. Her attentive and sympathetic gaze and her calm voice convey trust and responsibility. Unlike her sister, Sarah seems to have a strong personality. She has lived for some time in the West Hills, while working in a now abandoned farm. She´s been living here together with Jane for some weeks. She is very worried about Jane´s mood, as she thinks Jane became almost autistic after her son´s disappearance. She realized that the investigator´s visit have something to do with it.

Ivy,The sea continues calm. Time passes but nothing happens. Even Ivy´s gut feeling fades slowly. Ivy is confused. What happened yesterday was terrible and may have created a suggestion in her.

As the feeling of unease fades, Ivy relaxes. She's not sure what just happened - had recent events unsettled her nerves, or was there really something lurking in the sea?

Dismissing such thoughts, she turns her attention to Jane's sister.

"I'm sorry if we've distressed your sister, but we're investigating the disappearance of another boy and there may be parallels with what happened to her son. Could you shed any light on what happened to Jane and her boy? She mentioned sinning..?"

When there's a lapse in the conversation, Michael will draw Ivy aside and whisper.

"You OK? You looked awful funny for a second there. What in Sam Hill did you see out there?"

Kathryn leaves Ivy to do the talking for now and listens to Sarah's response.

VictoriaSilverwolf wrote:When there's a lapse in the conversation, Michael will draw Ivy aside and whisper.

"You OK? You looked awful funny for a second there. What in Sam Hill did you see out there?"

"I honestly don't know. Just a feeling I suppose - a feeling that there's something under the sea, waiting and watching..." She straightens up, pulling herself together. "Probably just my imagination getting the better of me."

Sarah lowers her sad voice in speaking, as if she were afraid of something.

"Mary Jane was on the beach one summer afternoon with her son Johnny, when suddenly a big wave submerged the point on the beach where he was playing. They were alone. No one saw the scene. Then, the fishermen have searched, but his body was never found.
Her mind is linking Johnny´s disappearance with something else that happened to her long before. But at the same time, a part of her refuse to recall this memory.
Something weird happened indeed. Nine months before the child´s birth to be precise. One Sunday, we had a walk nearby the Walington cave with Darcy Mooney. At a certain point, we lost Mary Jane. When we found her, she had a severe haidache an' lost of balance. She assured us she was fine an' she just had an attack of th' vapo's. But I had the feelin' that something happened to her during that time. I could see it in her face.

Who is the missing child you are investigating about? "

"His name is Timothy Gilbert," says Kathryn. "He was taken from Portland, we believe by Jason Carson."

Emma nods. "The boy's my nephew, his mother actually visited Greyton a few years back. Say, do strange things like this happen often near the caves?"

Ivy leans towards Michael and whispers:

"Darcy Mooney again. Notice how her name keeps cropping up?"

Sarah´s face lights up, and quickly turns to Emma.

"Hey.. wait a minute.. are you talking about Alyssa? She´s been here years ago. At theat time, Carson was her goof. He came from Portland for a visit, and Alyssa came with him. We became friends.. she said she would write me, but I haven´t heard anything from her. Is this missing boy Alyssa´s son? I didn´t even know she became mother. How is she?"

"Yes... I´ve been thinking about something strange happening in the Wellington cave... some years ago a woman called Weeks was found on Kenneth beach in a state of confusion, I think it was nearby the cave entrance. She claimed to have been raped."

"Yes, Emma is Alyssa's sister, and Timothy is her son," says Kathryn. "We believe Carson may have brought Timothy to Greyton. I'm sorry, but she passed away about a year ago. We heard about Emma Weeks, but we don't know the details. Is she related to Amanda Weeks?"

Sarah's face becomes gloomy and sad, but something in her intuition seemed to have already thought that Alyssa could have come to a bad end. She decides not to ask how she died. She takes this opportunity to have found someone who share her fears.

"Yes.... Emma Weeks was found on Kenneth beach. Emma and Amanda are sisters. Nine months after her accident, Emma generated an abortion. Despite her insistence, they never allowed her to see the fetus.

Something happened to Mary Jane, Emma and even Alyssa. Something related to the Wellington cave and to Darcy Moore. Then... something happened to their offspring. Nobody here in town would ever investigate this. Darcy is too popular.

Only two people tried, but without any luck. One is Father Colby. He knew details about Emma and Mary Jane's accidents, from her confessions. The other is Martin Thompson, Amanda´s boyfriend. He disappeared at sea...

It´s... something here... in this town... I cannot explain... Since I´ve moved here from the West Hills, I´ve been feelin' something strange. Strange things have been comin' to my mind, after two weeks since I´ve moved here. I begin to realize I was the worst side of myself, and so I found were the other people. At the beginning, such things were disturbing, but now they seem to become normal… and I´m afraid of that. Please, believe me. I´m not crazy.

"

It takes a second before Ivy manages to translate Michael's slang, after which she nods in agreement.

She listens to Sarah's tale with a sense of growing alarm.

"What's the betting that Selma, the waitress at the inn, is next? Her brother was very concerned about her talking to Darcy, and no wonder!"

Kathryn shivers as Sarah gives her account. "I believe you, Sarah," she says. "We haven't been in Greyton long, but we've already seen some things ourselves. We have to talk to Selma's brother and let him know, and then go with him to warn her about Darcy. How could she do that to other women? Where exactly is the Wellington cave?"

Sarah horrifies when Ivy talks about Selma.
"Selma! Darcy has targeted her now? Oh my God. I ... I can tell you where she lives. We need to stop her."

"There are two entrances to the Wellington cave. I can take you there. One is at the top of Wellington Hill, the other at Kenneth beach. To enter from the beach, however, you have to wait for the tide to fall, which would be this afternoon."

Ivy purses her lips, deep in thought.

"I think we had better make sure that Selma is safe before we go rushing off anywhere."

"Once we are satisfied that Darcy cannot get to her, then we should investigate the caves. Knowing how the sea-front can be... challenging... maybe we should explore them via Wellington Hill."

"I agree," says Kathryn, "our first priority must be to warn Selma."

After taking some notes, Ivy snaps her notepad shut.

"Quite so. Let us ensure Selma's safety and then find out whatever we can on this Darcy."

She nods curtly to Sarah.

"Thank you, you've been very helpful. I hope your sister's condition improves."