Black car at the other side of the street

He arrived at the location they had instructed him to go. It was a dead-end street, and the houses appeared to have been abandoned after some kind of accident. The atmosphere was unsettling, and he struggled to maintain his composure in such a place. Adding to the eerie nature of the street, there were numerous trees that obstructed his view, making it difficult to see beyond.

His heart raced, and he couldn't help but scratch his arms nervously. He kept glancing over his shoulder, constantly on edge, checking if anyone was nearby or approaching.

Amidst the overwhelming anxiety, the only thing he managed to observe once he gained control of his emotions was a black car parked on the opposite side of the street.

******************

Some hours before that...

"Okay, I'm going home to have lunch with them, okay?" said Sato as he was leaving the store.

Yesterday was a really weird night. Sato could swear he saw some guys in front of the store, so that made him very cautious the next day. Today is the first day he is coming home to have lunch at his house. Tomoko took Yuu to the police station to report her lost ID, so Mio and Suei stayed home, taking care of the house obligations.

Today's day is cloudy, making Sato worried about getting caught in the rain on his way back to the store. The path to their house was normal, and he kept looking behind to make sure he wasn't being followed. Next to the house, nothing seemed different, so he entered the house.

He walked straight to the kitchen where he saw Mio and Suei. They were already eating, but Sato noticed that Yuu and Tomoko weren't home.

"They aren't home yet?" asked Sato to them while making his dish.

"No, they haven't even called us. I just hope they don't decide to eat in the city without inviting us," said Suei, sounding troubled.

While they were eating, Sato asked them how they were and how long the girls had been gone. He discovered that they had been gone for two-and-a-half hours. If they weren't in an unpleasant situation, he wouldn't have bothered with it. But he knew about everything that had happened the previous day, perhaps even more than the two girls.

He was having lunch with them, so he wanted to stay calm. Before he left the kitchen to go back to the store, he decided to chat with the girls a little. They talked about how they were and how Auntie was doing. It was a good time to see if Uncle had talked to them or not.

It was almost time to go back, and before leaving the house, Sato looked at the sky to check the weather. It looked like a storm was coming soon.

"Can you give me an umbrella?" asked Sato to Mio.

"Yes, wait a moment," she answered.

While she went to grab the umbrella, he looked out the front house window. He focused on the road and the nearby forest, clearly admiring the view. But the emptiness bothered him. Not a single person.

"They went on foot..." he thought for a moment.

The footsteps in the house became silent as he focused on the view. He could hear the sounds from outside the house before he opened the window, but now nothing came out of it. Only his eyes gazing at the landscape.

The road was empty, and the forest only had trees and leaves shaking and swaying with the wind, which also made no sound. Only the bushes moved until where he noticed.

Sato focused on the bushes then. The air was touching and pushing them from side to side. He noticed a pattern in the movements since he could also feel the air touching his forehead. And there he noticed an irregular movement in one of the bushes.

"What is that..." he thought to himself.

"SATOOO!" With this voice, he suddenly looked to his left, where Mio was trying to give him the umbrella he had requested.

"Am I getting paranoid...?" he thought.

Mio handed him the umbrella. In her shy way, she also hinted that he should be more careful and pay more attention. He checked his cellphone to see if he was running late, but he still had time.

He found it funny for a second because he had gotten lost in thought while analyzing the surrounding area. He said goodbye to both of them before leaving the house to go back to the store.

"I'll see you tonight," said Mio before closing the door. After that, he could only hear the sound of it closing.

He looked behind him. There was no sign of life on the road, which made him think the girls hadn't come back yet. The silence was absolute. Nothing moved, not even the trees and leaves. It wouldn't make sense to just stand there in front of the house, looking at his path back, so he continued.

The silence still reigned as he got farther and farther from the house. Now he could hear the sounds of nature again. Birds singing, cicadas screaming, and the flow of air. Until he heard another irregular sound.

He looked to his right, trying to identify what it was, but he had no success. There was nothing there, just him and a bunch of trees.

"I think I might be going crazy. What the hell..." he thought.

"I'm pretty sure there was something there. At least I heard it." Without success in identifying whatever he thought was there, he continued on the path until he finally reached the end.

At the end, he saw a police car parked where the path met the city. It gave him some relief.

"Yes... They told us that the patrols have increased nearby," he thought.

There was a police officer standing beside the car. Somehow, Sato felt like he recognized him. He started getting closer and noticed who it was. The cop guarding the entrance to the path was Hitori, the guy he suspected the day before.

It was better to have an unfamiliar cop guarding the place than no one. Sato couldn't say much about him since they had only met the other day, but during that time, he had gained some trust in him before leaving the store.

"Well... I guess it won't be bad if I just stop by to say hello."

He approached the entrance when his pocket started vibrating. He put his hand in his pocket and took out his cellphone. It probably started vibrating now because there was no signal strength back at their place, making it simply impossible to make contact.

He looked at the cellphone to see who was calling, and it was his father. He paused for a moment to answer the call.

"Sato, good afternoon. Is everything alright there?" asked his father on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, hi dad... Yes, everything is alright... What about you and mom?" asked Sato this time. He was obviously pretending that everything was fine, even though he knew things weren't the best. But he couldn't let his uncle and aunt deal with it all alone.

"Yes, everything is fine, son. We miss you two tonight at home," his father said.

"Your mother and I were thinking about inviting the girls to our place in the winter. What do you think about it?" he asked.

"I think it's a great idea, dad. Actually, I was even considering the same thing yesterday. When we get back, I'll probably ask you two about it," said Sato, laughing a little afterward.

"Yeah, then invite them when you get the chance, okay?" his father requested.

"Oh, okay... I think I'll talk to them about it this weekend," he answered.

"Ah, one more thing, don't forget to..." his father said, but his voice cut off.

"Hey, I didn't catch that. What did you say?" Sato asked, but there was no response. He took the phone away from his ear, and right after that, he received another call.

"I didn't hear you before. What did you say?" Sato asked his father right after answering the call.

"Is that Sato?" a strange voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"... Yes... Who is this...?" he asked.

"I'm representing the families... Your little Yuu is with us here. You better come before the boys decide to have some fun with her," said the unknown man.

Sato froze. He couldn't believe what the man had just told him.

"Is... Is this a prank...?" he asked, sweating and feeling extremely nauseated.

"No, boy, you better stay quiet and come here by the start of the evening." The guy told him the location he needed to go to, and the call suddenly ended.

"What, why?" Sato said, feeling desperate at the moment, but there was no answer.

Another call came to his phone.

"Sorry, son, I just went through a tunnel here. So... where was I?" said his father on the other end of the call.