The next morning dawned early in Blueball. Even though it was Sunday, Blueball started chirping as soon as the sun started coming up. 

Nevertheless, with all the glitter that the rising sun showered, it appeared there was a smell of camphor that impregnated the atmosphere. This made the aura of a pleasant morning smell ruination. 

If seen from a distance, a girlish contour could be seen walking swiftly through the barren pathway leading towards a place known to be the Northside of Blueball town. It was a side that was reserved for the less elite, outsider people who were thought to have migrated from a different region to Blueball. This is where Jess, Mrs. Landy, and people like them have been living. 

On approaching forward, the shadow could be now detected as a girl with deep brown hair, a pair of round glasses resting on her nose, and a fluffy muffler wrapped around her neck. This is the girl we have been knowing as Emma. 

Emma walked past the houses swift and straight with a moderate walking speed towards Jessie's place. She stopped right in front of a mediocre bungalow-type house. The nameplate hanging feebly on the main gate read - Jones Residence. 

Emma slowly pushed the metal gate, which made a squeaking sound indicating its old and unmaintained state. She stepped inside and walked with leveled steps towards the entrance door to ring the doorbell. 

After a few moments, the door opened slightly, and a messy-faced Jess peeked out from the slit. When Jess espied Emma's presence in front of the door, her sleepy eyes opened wide. 

"Morning!" Emma chirped with a sweet smile. 

Jess opened the door entirely and signaled Emma to get in.

"Morning! Sorry, I have bad breath. I had a late night, so, didn't realize the time." Jess stated, suppressing a yawn. 

"It's okay! I was just curious about our investigation. Hence, a hurry!" Emma stated plainly with a grin on her face. She seated herself on the lounge couch, which had its cushions misplaced as if children had a slumber party last night.

"Have yourself comforted. I'll be back in a flash." Jess winked and exited towards the washroom. 

A few moments later, Jess re-entered the lounge with a towel in her hand and her flushed clean, with a few droplets of water resting on her forehead and some strands of her black-brown hair soaked in water. 

Wiping her neck, Jessie sat beside Emma and started to speak,

"Sorry for all the disarray!" Jess apologized with embarrassment and then added, "You had your breakfast? I might have some cereals. You want some?" 

"No, I am fine. I had milk and fruits early. I guess you had a party last night." asserted Emma with a mischievous look. 

"Nah! Just some brotherly calamity. You know!" Jess exclaimed, and then both of them laughed. 

"Okay, enough of the pep talks. Let's head to work. Follow me to the room, detective Styles!" saying so, Jess sprang out from the couch and started marching towards the staircase. Emma laughed and followed her lead. 

After a while, Emma and Jess could be seen sitting in front of each other on the bed. A meshwork of files and papers scattered all around the two of them.  

The window curtain was unfurled, and the sweet morning sunlight made its way into the room to spread the warmth. Both Jess and Emma had bunches of folders in their hand and were immersed in glancing through those paper heaps. 

Jess has already shared the details about the night before. Now the two of them were engrossed in search of Western Parks' history. They were so entangled in their own thoughts that they couldn't realize when Saffet entered the room with a tray of biscuits and tea and was now gazing at their immensely focused looks. 

"You guys, searching something about Western Parks?" inquired Saffet in his innocent boyish tone. 

The train of thoughts and theories running on full speed in Emma and Jessie's brains paused abruptly on hearing Saffet's voice. Both of their heads sprung up with a jerk. And for a second, they kept gawking at Saffet blankly as if attempting to come out of the flood of hypotheses they were into. 

"You guys!" Saffet exclaimed, waving a hand in front of their lost eyes. 

"Um! Yeah. What did you say?" Jess finally got out of her Alice in wonderland state and said. "And when did you come in?" She added.

"I asked whether you were searching for something about Western Parks, and I entered 5 minutes ago to deliver these to you!" Saffet answered both of her questions in one breath and placed the tray he held in his hands on the side table. 

"Thanks," said Jess, lifting a cup of tea and passing it towards Emma.

Then Jess held another cup and raised it all the way towards her lips to take a sip. After taking a teensy sip, she turned towards Saffet and said in a voice of deep thoughts,

"Hm. We were trying to get some trace about Western Parks' history. Seems there's much more to the story than we actually know."

"Yup! That's the case! See here." Emma nodded in agreement and pointed towards a paragraph in one of the papers she was holding. 

"It states that Western Parks have been the property of an unknown person's family since the town was established. No photographs of the person or any member of their family. Even the actual surname of the family is not yet known. The very first owner, however, was known to have died in a tragic death. And subsequently, the place was shut down. Also, before its abrupt shutdown, the park was used as some factory project, most probably something related to mining." Emma started giving out facts one by one, and at the end of her statement, she slid her glasses towards her back, on her nose.

"It was definitely a mining company!" Jess revealed confidently. 

"Here, look at this!" She pointed towards another paper in her hand, having some statistical graphs and diagrams on it. 

"These are some records about the financial ups and downs of the company. According to this report, the company's few initial years were quite successful. However, after that, the financial conditions of the company started deteriorating. At first, the reason was suspected to be the fast-draining out of the mines due to over-usage. Howsoever, it was later surmised to be due to the lack of labor required for mining activities. The company's financial state eventually went down the graph, and at last, it drowned to the depths of cessation. However, plenty of rumors have been widespread that the company is still operating its activities under some shady business affairs." Jess reported as if reading a news handle. 

"Isn't Western Parks the one which encircles around The Legend Of Marmoris?" asked Saffet, just as a thought passed his mind. 

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Jessie turning completely towards the little boy who stood tall in front of her.

"You know about this Legend too? I mean, how come it's just me who doesn't know about it, huh!" she snorted. 

"It is pretty well known, yet it isn't the most talked-about topic. Everyone knows it, but no one ever converses about it, which, if you ask me, is pretty weird." Saffet said, shrugging. 

"What's weird for me is, if it's not the most popular gossip talking point, then how come it's the most acknowledged one?" Emma said with her brows furrowed. 

"I don't know, either. However, when Alexa told me about this, she also said that it's just for information and that I should not talk much about it." Saffet replied.

"Who's Alexa?" Jessie inquired.

"The girl next door. I thought you knew her. She's in my school, Northside high. Same class." Saffet cleared Jessie's query.

"Anyways, why is it just me in the whole town that doesn't know about this freaking legend!?" Jessie was irritated at her lack of knowledge. 

"Maybe it's because you are too introverted and reserved," Saffet stated plainly. 

"Excuse me!" Jessie frowned. 

"No offense, sis! But you really cut yourself completely off the society after Sister Ann and your parents. I mean, who are the other people except me, Kyle, Nana, and your friends Ross and Em with whom you had an actual conversation for ages. No neighborly talks, no chit chats with any other people, no nothing. I know you have a lot of grief, but girl, you need to come out of it. You can't sequester yourself from the world. You see, I am an orphan, and I don't even remember my parents' faces. All I know is that they were your servants when they died. I don't have a house of mine, no blood relations. Still, I don't say I am the cursed one here. Come out of it. Try thinking about what you have rather than what you don't, or else you will lose everything you ever had." Saffet said with sympathy, and then without waiting for a reply, he headed back towards the door and left. 

After Saffet left, the only sound that was heard was of the door that Saffet closed behind him. The room was overshadowed with deadly silence for an appreciably long period until Emma uttered,

"Jessie, you alright?" 

Jess wouldn't reply. Instead, she kept staring at the bedsheet quietly. Her head was fully bent down, so Emma couldn't see her face. Only her dense, smooth hair could be seen falling on the sides of her face. 

After a long haul of time, she faintly started speaking,

"You know what, Em!? The words of Saffet weren't hurting. What hurts the most is the fact that whatever he said was actually true." Jess slowly raised her head up, and Emma saw splinters spread in her eyes. Her face was withered. Ashen-faced, her voice was filled with grief.

"But I am too afraid to make new relations. I am afraid to lose more loved ones. I don't want more people to hate me. If I break one more time, I won't be able to repair myself." Jess said to inhale a deep heavy breath. 

Emma sensed her friend's perturbation. So, to lighten up her mood, she placed her hand on Jessie's cheek and patted it. Emma, then, placed another hand on Jess' shoulders and pressed it gently. 

"Listen up, Girl! You're Baba's brave girl. You have to be brave. You cannot isolate yourself due to fear. Each suffering will end. Every scar will heal." Emma said in a firm, determined tone, looking right into Jessie's deep blue eyes. 

"Now!" Suddenly getting rid of all the stress, Emma chirped. 

"Get up and get down, Ms. Jones! We have a lasagna to nash! Rrrr!!!" Emma shouted like a hungry glutton making a growling noise at the end. 

Hearing how hilariously Emma portrayed her sentence, Jess chuckled a little and inhaled a large amount of air. 

"That's the smile!" Emma jumped off the bed, and snapping, she pointed one finger towards Jessie's face.

"That's the only thing that suits your face!" Emma said lovingly.

Jess smiled dearly at her friend. No matter what happened in her life, she knew there will always be her friends to comfort her in every situation. 

"Now!" She exhaled and thought to herself, "Time to munch on lasagnas!" She laughed at her own thoughts and followed Emma, who had already left the room and was now heading downstairs. 

After a considerable while, moving towards the kitchen, it could be seen that the kitchen top was cleaned, but the table had various dishes. The aura of the kitchen was like one you might experience in a Thai restaurant. On top of all of these, the two friends and their deary talks made the environment more pleasant. 

Suddenly, intruding all the positivity that surrounded the atmosphere, Saffet came running towards the table and almost stumbled on it. 

"Whoa! Saff! Everything alright? What's up?" Jess asked, watching Saffet's anxiousness. 

"Mrs. Styles was on the phone. She asked Emma to come back home. However, just as she hung up. Sheriff's son Samuel called Kyle and said that---" Saffet said in between breaths.

"Said what, Saffet?" grumbled Jess, her breath paused. 

Saffet once glanced at Emma's face, who was equally anxious and waiting for his words. He swallowed a ball of saliva and then spilled,

"He said that Chelsea's gone! He said she's missing since morning. When Stephanie went to her room to call her for breakfast, she wasn't there. She was gone." 

Saffet was rapidly saying many more things. Maybe what the police interpreted yet. The progress in the case. And many more such things. But Emma wasn't listening as she felt her ears have stopped working. She thought her heart was skipping beats. The sky had fallen on her. And if you ask Emma how it felt, she would definitely say- Boy! It hurts a lot!

Jess scolded Saffet off and was now comforting Emma. But Emma still wasn't in her senses. 

"Listen! Everything will be fine. We'll get there." Jess was saying.

Emma stood up suddenly, pushing the chair harshly, which hit the floor with a loud thud. 

"I need to go home!" Emma said with a shaking voice. Her legs were shaking. 

Jess stood up too. She said she would go with Emma. Emma headed towards the door, and Jess leaped behind her. 

Another move was played. Another life was at stake. What's to come is a mystery for all. 

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