Chapter 11. Where

Charm slowly walked down the stairs of the courthouse. She was lost in the overwhelming thoughts of the courtroom. Especially the disgusted gaze of Inspector Flake. Thus, she only noticed when her sister was immediately in front of Lyle. She could imagine Cherish abducting Lyle in front of everyone.

"Hi?" Cherish looked at Lyle, who stood in place like a stone.

"Hi…" Lyle tried to smile but could barely. He looked at the facial features that somewhat resembled like Charm. But the feeling that this seemingly harmless face gave off was on a completely different level.

He tried to avoid Cherish's face and indistinctly looked at the girl's extended hand. An insurmountable feeling eclipsed his body, as it seemed like there was no escape out of this situation. He took a step back without looking up.

"Are you fine? It seems like a fever," Cherish said in a worried tone. Comet and Elliot found nothing strange to her behavior.

"Rest assured, young lady, in the presence of young master, there is nothing to worry about," Elliot said.

"It's just that his face looks sick," Charm smiled and extended her hand. "Let me check the temperature."

Lyle looked up and saw the hand extending towards his forehead. Elliot didn't say anything. Whereas Comet was only annoyed a bit, since this girl was sitting on the police's side earlier. But Lyle felt as if the walls were closing in. He took multiple steps back and slipped on the stairs. His phone slipped out of his pant's pocket just as his butt hit the stone.

"Are you alright?" Cherish walked up the stairs. She was really close to Lyle now. A smile escaped her lips, but it seems devilish to the only person who could see her face now.

As the scene played out in front of over 30 people, only two were looking at the broken phone that fell out of Lyle's pocket. Charm felt as if cracked ice was splashed on her face. She jumped towards her sister.

"Cher, stop it," she said as she held her sister's hand.

"For now, I guess," Cherish sighed and stepped away from Lyle.

Another person who broke out of his current mental state was Lyle. He stood up, dusted his clothes and darted away. Everyone, including Comet and Elliot, was shell-shocked at the current development. At first, people thought of Cherish as a nice girl, but something felt off when Charm stopped her. And now this taxi driver outright ran away?

Cherish's face turned dark as he saw the taxi driver run away. She carefully strolled in the opposite direction to draw distance from the crowd. The area in the front courthouse had people, but at midnight, there wasn't anyone on other sides. She confirmed that no one except Charm was looking at her and vanished around the corner in the blink of an eye.

Lyle didn't look back as he raced through the empty streets. His toes ached because of the formal leather shoes. Thus, he briefly stopped to quickly remove them along with socks. The direction he ran was incidentally towards Witchburrows, the place where he already rented out a new apartment.

The winds howled, and Lyle huffed. He had been running for about an hour now. It was clear from his pace that he would soon fall if he didn't stop for a break. He looked back to see if anyone was around. Not a soul lingered in these empty streets, but a feeling that walls would close in.

Lyle rested with his back glued to the wall. He left out a huge sigh, but just as he blinked, a girl appeared in front of him. The surroundings were dead silent, except heavy pants from Lyle's mouth. There was a considerable distance between them, but it was not enough to make a run.

"Let's see what you are hiding," Cherish stepped forward to reach out of Lyle's head as if it was a watermelon. The force, she thought, would be enough to make this human faint.

The only thing that she touched, however, was the wall. Lyle fell into a hole that suddenly opened up beneath his feet. Charm couldn't react to this unexpected development. She could detect the human fall into the space that kept expanding beneath while closing from the upper end.

She tried to focus and soon closed her eyes. Lyle was falling farther and farther down the Earth. She could also see that the sand on either side was now slowing his fall. After a while, the human taxi driver fell farther than she could detect.

***

Back in front of the courthouse, Charm was standing in the same spot as before. She looked in the direction in which Lyle ran. It wasn't a particularly cold night, but her hands were hiding inside her jacket's pocket. Some of the police officials were now leaving.

Charm's fingers were fiddling with the phone inside her pocket. She was lost in thoughts when Flake approached her. But she walked away before the Inspector could say anything.

"I saw you pick up the phone, give it to me," Flake whispered loud enough for Charm to hear, but his words were ignored. "Give it to me. It must have something that we can use." He added as he followed Charm.

"There's nothing in it," Charm said. She tried to hide her annoyance.

"Or you found something. Are you trying to protect that criminal?" Flake's voice increased towards the end.

"He is not a criminal," Charm stopped.

Elliot was observing Charm and the annoyed police officer. In fact, he had seen the girl pick up Lyle's phone. He whispered something in Comet's ear. The latter smiled and walked towards Flake.

"Is this what I pray it is?" Comet spoke aloud for everyone to hear. He took out his phone and waved its camera at Flake. "What a wild night. Now we have a fallout between the police."

Flake didn't even express anything. He walked away from Charm. Inside, he was burning with rage and frustration. Little did he know tonight he would end up cursing Charm, the police, the chief and everyone who he knew, until sleep. On the other hand, Comet merrily executed the plan cooked up by Elliot.

"That's Lyle's phone, as you know he is my patient and a dear friend." Comet said to the newbie police officer. "What do you want his phone for? If I recall correctly, he doesn't use it much. As for the call records, you police can directly have the telephone company hand it over."

"No, no, I want to return it to him." Charm took out the phone from her pocket and offered it to Comet.

"Young lady, you can return it yourself. If you want." Elliot chimed in and emphasized on the last line. "We are unsure where master Lyle ran off to." He waited for Officer Charm to put down her hand with the phone. "We will be glad to know when you return the phone." He quickly took out a small business card case from his pocket and handed a card to Charm.

"I will, thank you." Charm readily accepted the card and walked away from the courthouse.

"Will this be worth it?" Comet asked when Charm turned around the corner of the courthouse.

"Excuse me, but Master Lyle's phone has no value. It was a great investment to make." The old butler, Elliot, respectfully said.

"But we will need more people looking for Lyle. What if someone means harm to him?" Comet expressed concern.