You edge closer, I can feel it. How brave.

The taxi’s arrival had awoken Lucia from another one of her lengthy naps, sleep had been given a new meaning in her life, a more addicting meaning, and one that she had difficulties reversing. Perhaps this is what Aiden felt all the time, she would never be sure about that, but she could always imagine. Right?

The plan would be to find the gifts and open them, and then what? What if she didn’t get the answers she needed in this batch, this would be a huge waste of an adventure... Until Madeleine introduced the idea that by some odd chance, Kieran could be linked to it. That name should have been the hint to Lucia that this was a lost cause, but she couldn’t help herself, but how could she? She loved him way too much and the idea sounded too good to be turned down. Too good to be true. They all looked like Antarctic researchers with their thick coats and boots, treading through the snow in the plaza in hopes to find the store that they were looking for.

“Hello? Sir, have you seen this store?” Jake asked, shaking the paper in a stranger’s face, ignoring his look of abhorrence, at the grotesque building, everyone they had asked had all denied knowing anything about the shop, or its whereabouts, and they were about to give up before Cynthia had found an alleyway concealed by a stack of boxes and recycling bins, she looked at Magnus’ compass and pointed it in the direction of the alleyway,

“North, this is the way to go,” she declared, leading from the front she trekked through the alleyway, the rest of the group following.

The alleyway was dark, lined with moss and ivy, it looked like a victim to nature’s influence, the walls of the alleyways were worn out and broken and looked like they’d collapse at any time.

“I get déjà vu from this place,” Jake smirked, carefully treading through the alleyway, to make sure not to dirty his new shoes.

“Oh, shut it, dude,” Lucia scoffed, rubbing her eyepatch instinctively, “do you ever drop things?”

“Now’s not the time for you two to bicker,” Magnus commented, sighing at his juvenile friends, the sun was setting above their heads, sinking the ground to darkness, but blinding them with the golden light that glimmered from the sky. “I wonder what this gift will be! Maybe it’ll be another address,” Madeleine said excitedly, “Speaking of which, have you still got the alarm clock?” Lucia asked, mockingly, “Haha, very funny,” Aiden retorted, reaching in his bag and pulling out the alarm clock, still in pristine condition “I sure hope it isn’t another address, all this travelling is tiring me,” he continued, ducking over some clothes that were hung over airers, flowing in the breeze, “Are you sure that this is even the right direction?”

“I was following instinct... And Magnus’s satnav,” Cynthia pointed out, “Hey, don’t blame me, I don’t even want to be here,” he sighed, shaking his head as he hit it on a signpost. Before they could continue arguing, the exit to the alleyway could be seen, which lead them to an entirely different part of the plaza completely, a more eerie, darker part. In the centre of the section, was a little store that matched the image Lucia had, now that she could see the building more clearly, she could make out the name of the shop better,

“C’s Curios...?” She squinted, “Thats quite an odd name, but it looks here to be the right place, so I'm not sure...”

“Just enter the shop, it’s freezing out here,” Jake scoffed, Lucia rolled her eyes and trudged through the snow to get to the shop, the door was wide open and swinging in the wind, the rest followed with fearful hesitation, especially magnus who was becoming visibly pale at the egregious aura it gave off to him.

The room was quite small, and the group could barely fit within, it was dimly lit by a flickering yellow light which seemed to be longevous and outliving its time, the warped ambience made Lucia feel uneasy, to her left and right were dozens of ornaments and bibelots stacked on worn out shelves, showing no effervescence. The only life there was to be seen in the store was the shopkeeper in the counter who had been focused on them as they gazed the store, he looked to be a man in his late thirties and had jet black hair gelled back in a ponytail, with the odd strand or so of white hair standing on end, he looked at the group with lifeless blue eyes and an unsmiling stare. On his grey shirt, there was a gold badge that read the name “Colton,” Lucia had picked that up.

“Hello? My name is Lucia, and we were told that there-”

“I know why you’re here,” He spoke in a deep raspy voice, he moved under his desk, searching for something. The group exchanged glances, he picked up a gift, larger than the last one, yet still as fancy if not less, the ribbon was blood red, and the wrap was gunmetal, seeming drained from life, like the rest of the store. Lucia took it, weighing it under her palm, it was cold and light, giving Lucia an uncomfortably cold feeling in her chest.

“Thank you for stopping by at C’s Curios, I hope you have a pleasant rest of the day,” he said, seeing them out.

“Wait!” Madeleine stopped him, “I have a question,”

Colton raised a brow in irritation, “What do you want?” He asked, seemingly exhausted.

“I just wanted to ask if you’ve heard of a ‘Kieran Fillmore’...?” She asked, with the intent of getting answers, Colton looked down at his desk, his face concealed in the shadow, the only facial feature Madeleine could make out was his unnaturally widening smile, which he tried to cover with a veiny hand. “You shouldn't ask questions you don’t want the answer to, child,” he chuckled, “That’s not a good enough answer,” Jake shook his head, “Well, it’s the only answer you’re going to get, you don’t want to find the man you’re looking for,” He started laughing, louder and louder.

“What did you do to him,” Lucia muttered with malevolence, looking straight at Colton. “What did he do to himself? You should ask that instead,” he looked up slightly, his otherwise blue eyes were glowing red with malice, still half concealed by his hands, “Leave, while you still have the chance, perhaps you won’t meet such an unfortunate fate,”

“I'm not going to leave without answers,” Madeleine stood her ground adamantly. Colton sat back, in his chair, clasping his hands together,

“So be it, then,” he said with continued laugher, “I must warn you, the truth is poison,”

“Poison is better than living a life full of lies,” Lucia continued, Colton gave her an impressed look, “I doubt you’ll leave here without answers, but I'll assure you that everything you want to know is in that,” he said, pointing to the box in Lucia’s hand, “If I told you now? I'd be spoiling the surprise, where's the fun in that?”

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“This doesn’t really feel very fun to begin with,” Magnus gulped, in the back, “Gotta agree with Magnus here pal, this is a very twisted game you’re playing here,” Jake said, examining the trinkets on the shelves, Colton sat further back, with outstretched arms, “Not fun? I don’t suppose that’s the reason why you're here regardless?”

“Touché...” Jake snapped his fingers to Colton’s gloating smile,

“You’ve gotten what you came here for, so I suggest you’d leave me and this place before I have second doubts about having such benevolence,” he muttered under his breath, leaning towards the group in a threatening stance.

Lucia stormed out of the store, the rest followed, making their way back through the alleyway and into the main plaza, “Yeah, that’s not good, not good at all...” Aiden said nervously, sitting on a bench near a café “I really think we should call authorities or something, because this is way beyond our jurisdiction, that man did do something, and we now have the evidence to prove it,”

“The evidence lies here too, you know, we drag the authorities into this and we’ll make a big mess of it,” Jake said, pointing to the gift, “if we fight fire with fire, we create more fire, and I for one don’t want that right now,”

“Well, should we open it then? We went all this way for it, but there's doesn’t really seem to be any notes on this one...” Lucia pointed out, turning the gift around, shaking it.

“Might as well, the creepy shopkeeper said it had something to do with Kieran, makes the gift all the more valuable,” Magnus said, agreeing with Lucia, she nodded, opening the box, she undid the ribbon and carefully removed the wrapping paper, revealing a similar sleek black box underneath. The contents were more bizarre than the last one, the first thing she picked up was a sheet of paper rolled up in a vial, with some effort, she removed the piece of paper and unrolled it, revealing it to be a blueprint of a railway system, nobody could figure out what city it belonged to, that information was beyond their knowledge. She chucked it to Cynthia who placed it in her pocket, the second gift she pulled out was a bunch of ripped pages, stapled together, they looked like they belonged to a book of the sorts, Lucia began to read the contents, understanding the words, but not the meaning, the others however couldn’t make sense of a thing she was reading, it was all gibberish to them,

“How strange...” Madeleine whispered, as Lucia stuffed the pages into her notebook, she had noticed the pin on Lucia’s eyepatch glowing even brighter as she read. “Is there anything left in there?” Aiden asked, with deeper fascination than before.

“There’s a couple of things in here, actually, 3 more from what I can see,”

Lucia pulled out a silver letter, within was a piece of crumpled paper with the address...

8446, Kingfisher St, Calneclare, London SDE75 9PD

“Another address, that is absolutely wonderful!” Aiden scoffed, clapping obnoxiously.

“I don’t think that this one is as far as the last one, though, it's still in Calneclare, so perhaps its close,” Madeleine reassured, “Maybe like down the street?” Pointing to a distant road with buildings to each side, attached to the letter was a small golden key, tarnished with age, it felt light under Lucia’s grasp. She placed it in her pocket and fished in the box for the final two items. She picked up a small, silver GPS, which had a red dot glowing in the centre, flicking in a seemingly infinite pool of black. She shook it, trying to see if she could fix it, which was ineffective.

“It’s broken, you can have this one,” Lucia chucked the GPS at Jake, “Oh gee whiz! Thanks for this compassionate... thing,” he said, placing it in his backpack, in slight disappointment. Lucia picked up the final gift from the box, inspecting it carefully. She couldn’t quite make out what it was.

“It looks like a dagger, without the sharp bit, you know, like the handle of it?” Madeleine noted, looking at it with piqued curiosity, “Can I, have it?” She asked.

“Uh sure, knock yourself out Maddie,” Lucia said, tossing the strange gadget at her, catching it with one hand and holding onto it.

“Wait a minute, there's something else in the box... I can see something,” Cynthia mentioned, pointing at the box with a shivering hand.

“Oh, yes, you’re right, I didn’t even notice that,” Lucia said, picking up a small card, she was evidently wrong about the gift not having any notes in it. The group moved behind her to read it with her.

“Brave explorers, for you I must applaud,

With lost gold or lost blood

I cannot see a more fitting reward

But don’t be complacent young explorers

Full of hope and life,

You still must travel, alas, your job is only halfway done,

You are to dwell upon lands full of strife,

But a soldier must rest and collect his thoughts,

So, a key I grant you

To have a siesta under the quartz,”

“Which poet did your brother go ahead and nark?” Magnus sighed, looking into the darkening sky of dusk. Lucia shrugged, taking out the key from her pockets once more, twirling it on her finger.

“I get it now... The address and the keys are probably accommodation while we find out how to get to the bottom of this,”

“I suppose, do you reckon Kieran lived here? Seeing as this plaza was supposedly the last place he went to before vanishing,” Cynthia posed, rubbing her chin, deep in thought, Aiden nodded his head, impressed with the question. “That makes sense, actually, knowing your brother, he didn’t really seem like the plaza type, so I don’t really know why’d he visit this place for any other reason,”

“How do you even remember that? The last time he was on the map was 7 years ago, and even then... He was quite... distant,” Lucia started, getting up from the bench.

“And by distant, you mean overly obsessed with his research?” Jake pointed out, “I mean, no offense to you, Lucia, but in my lifetime, I've seen Madeleine more times than I've seen Kieran,”

“Aw, thanks!”

“That wasn’t really a... Uh. compliment,”

“Oh,”

“I don’t know, I guess that’s what happens when you aren’t around for 7/10ths of a decade,” Lucia riposted, Jake started counting on his fingers, trying to calculate the length of a decade, Aiden followed with similar obliviousness. To the facepalms of the rest of the group.

“I guess we should start looking for this house then, it’s getting dark, heaven knows what lurks out here in the night,” Madeleine proposed, looking up into the darkening sky, and shivering in the progressively colder weather.

“Yeah, I’d rather not freeze to death, that’d be really nice actually, not sure about the rest of you though?” Magnus shrugged. They all nodded with quivering heads.

“Well, how do we FIND the place anyway?” Lucia asked, looking around at the plaza. Aiden jumped triumphantly on the bench.

“We go north!”

“You mean the direction where the creepy store was?” Jake tapped Aiden’s forehead in agitation, “Use your brain for once,”

“I think the best course of action is to ask around again, I'm sure it isn't that far from here,” Magnus suggested. Aiden got down from the bench defeated and sulking.

“Yeah, that works too...”

Colton looked onwards towards the group vacating the plaza, with his abnormally wide grin,

“Sweet dreams, children.”