Chapter 1

I opened my eyes to the sunlight shining through my window next to my bed and to add onto that, the birds were chirping away their song. Why does it have to be early already? Especially when it’s my day off? Sighing, I got up and went downstairs to get breakfast and the newspaper. I put the toast in and got my cup of apple juice, and just about as I was going to sit down, my phone rang, hoping that it wasn’t Tom, our main agent.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Kelly! Guess who has to go to work today?!” Heather, one of my fellow investigators, asked.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! We’re off today, remember?” I said setting my plate down.

“Nope, Alice called, Tom wants us in today. There’s a new case we have to get to!” she explained.

“Case? What case?” I asked knowing that we would’ve been informed this in advanced, or at least, we should’ve.

“Didn’t you see the newspaper?” she sighed.

I looked over at my door and opened it up to see the newspaper flat on my welcome mat. On the cover, big black wording took up most of the page.

MYSTERIOUS FIRE IN BASEMENT OF APARTMENT LEADS TO FIVE MISSING, ONE DEAD

“Sounds like just another natural case. Are you sure that Alice isn’t just joking around? You know that we don’t do these types of cases!” I explained.

“Alice, our leader? Joking around? C’mon Kelly, you know how serious she is! Just read the newspaper and get back to me! We’re going to meet at the main building at 10, so hurry up!” she said hanging up the phone.

I rolled my eyes as I took the newspaper inside continuing to read the front page.

A fire that started in the basement leads firefighters stumped. Bottles found everywhere in the basement leads officials think it was a chemical lab that started the fire, but some people think that it was the people who lived there. Six people lived in the apartment, five brothers and a scientist that works in our local hospital, but they were nowhere to be found after the fire, except for a skeleton that was later found throughout the rubble. Although, several witnesses say something else.

Wait, why are we involved? Sounds like a normal case to me!

A neighbor across the street say that before the fire started, he could hear screaming inside the house and glass breaking.

“It literally sounded like there was something going on in the basement, like a fight. But then for a split second, I saw a bright light shine in the windows of the basement.”

That’s not all; some say that they saw the five brothers escaping through the back of the house, towards the police station, but the police say that no one came that night. The police are currently looking into the situation.

“Interesting…” I whispered. “It’s like a ghost story…”

I looked at the clock that read 9:30 and I realized I had to get to work in 30 minutes! I quickly threw my plate in the sink and got dressed in the quickest way I could and I ran out the door and practically ran to work.

“Morning Miss Kelly, late again?” the man at the door, named Todd, tilted his hat.

“Not now, Todd!” I said as he opened the door for me and I ran in, showing my ID to everyone, although everyone knew who I was.

I ran upstairs to Tom’s office to see my four other teammates sitting down on the big couch that sat in front of his desk. Our leader, Alice, was seated in the middle trying not to give me a mean look for being late, Lucy and Sarah sat next to her, and then Heather sat on the very end of the couch.

“Kelly…you’re late!” Tom stated.

“Sorry…” I hung my head and sat down next to Sarah.

“Did you run all the way here?” Jessica asked.

“Practically! I didn’t have time to go through all that city traffic!” I answered catching my breath, while Tom coughed into his hand getting our attention.

“I’m sure you guys know why you’re here today on your day off,” he said folding his hands on top of the desk and placing them under his chin.

“The newspaper.” Alice stated.

“Exactly!” he threw the newspaper on top of his desk. “This case was directed to us once I heard it.”

“But it says that the police are on the case!” Lucy stated.

“That’s just a cover up,” Tom said folding his arms. “There’s more to this case than meets the eye. Right now there’s lost posters hanging around the town for the brothers, but the thing is…they’re already found.”

All of us gasped in surprise at this news. If they are found, how come they won’t say it?

“How?” I asked.

“We don’t know the details, but right now they’re in a special prison. But they contacted me to let you girls to investigate their story, they won’t cooperate with them. They heard of our cases and how good we are. And as you know, I’m still on that murder case, so I won’t be joining you.” He explained.

“So we have to travel to this prison and interview them?” Sarah asked. “What happens if they’re dangerous?”

“Sarah, we’ve done worse cases before, remember?” Alice noted.

“Yes, but that’s because we knew their back story, but with these boys, we know nothing!” she explained.

Soon Tom got up from his desk, opening a drawer and bringing out manila folders with names attached to the tops.

“I’ve got information about the boys; you will be each assigned one to investigate when you get there.” Tom explained as he spread out the folders in front of us. We each took a folder and looked inside at the papers.

Kang Daesung

Age: 22

: Male

Family

Parents: Unknown

            Brothers: TOP, Seungri, G-Dragon, Taeyang

School: Centaur High School

College: Richardson City College, Junior

Address: Apartment #17

Tenth East Street

Case: 889, special investigation

“This is everything?” I asked.

“Not a lot to observe before we go to them…” Heather sighed putting her file down.

“I’m sorry girls, but that’s all that they would give us,” he said as he stood up indicating that it was time to go. “The van for you is here to take you to the prison, don’t worry, you will be guarded.”

“How dangerous are these guys?” Alice asked sounding a little scared, but she was obviously trying to hide it. Wow, our leader sounding…scared? That was not like her!

“Just trust me on this,” he smiled. “Now, your van is ready for you. I trust you girls; you are the best investigators in town.”

As we all left the building and got into the van, I felt a bit scared. On our way there, I would sometimes look down at the paper that I was given re-reading the information.

“So anyone hear about these brothers?” Lucy asked.

“They went to our rival school when we were in high school,” I pointed out.

“That they did!” Sarah exclaimed. “But I don’t believe they were in any type of sports, so…”

“This is my first time hearing of them…” Alice said. “Remember girls, when we get there, we can’t be scared.”

“When are we ever scared?” Heather crossed her arms.

I looked at her knowing that she should remember that one case with the crazy serial killer that we had to talk to. Heather talked to him first trying to get the information out of him and we all saw that she was scared, shaking ever so slightly, trying not to show that she was scared of him.

“Oh…right…” she whispered after she saw my look.

“Kelly, you know how Heather felt about that case!” Sarah snapped.

We were all quiet the rest of the way to the prison, going out of the city and into a deserted place with nothing but sand and maybe a sign here and there and exits. I looked up ahead as the driver was coming closer to the prison. It literally looked like it was from Area 51. A doubled wired fence surrounded the gray building with two big locks in the entrance as well as a check station. The man came around from his little shack in the front and talked to our driver explaining where to go. As he opened up the front gate and the building came closer, we noticed there were watch towers on the top, with not one, but four watchers in each tower.

“They must be serious about these boys if they’re the only ones in there…” I thought.

Our driver parked in front of the big bolted doors that were guarded with four military men, two on each side. As we got out of the van and walked towards the door, I could tell that this wasn’t an ordinary case. The atmosphere just seemed more ominous than other prisons that I’ve been to. The doors opened up with a man all dressed in a nice white suit, with some guns on his hips hanging on a belt, came walking towards us smiling.

“Welcome, girls,” he opened up his arms.

“Hello, we’re here for the investigation sent from-” Alice began.

“Tom? Yes, I was the one who contacted him about this. Please, come in, by the way, my name is Ken Thompson,” he said welcoming us inside the prison.

We all looked at each other and nodded following Ken inside. As soon as we were in, the doors bolted shut behind us, making Lucy and I jump. Scratching my head in embarrassment, I took in the layout. White tiled walls with cameras at every corner of the hallway.

“Where are the prisoners?” Sarah asked Ken as we passed some smaller rooms that were empty.

“These rooms are for the people who did natural unlawful things. Not for special investigations, like you girls are on.” He explained as we got to the end of the hallway and into a big room with stairs leading to a walkway with nothing but…walls? There was nothing but walls in this room and a staircase? I looked at Heather with a questionable look and she had the same look on her face.

“Um…Mr. Thompson, I hate to be rude, but…what is this room supposed to be?” Lucy asked, while Sarah crossed her arms in confusion.

“It’s not what you see …but what you don’t see underneath.” Ken explained going over to a keypad on the side of the wall typing in a code. The walls in the room began to move showing the real cells behind, bigger cells than normal; each had its own bed, nice beds might I add, a desk, and a steel door in the back of each cell, which might’ve been a bathroom. Why are these rooms special compared to normal ones?

“These are theirs…” Alice began.

“Yes, they’re the brothers’ cells. We gave them the special rooms considering their…condition.” Ken explained. “They are in lunch right now, that’s why they’re not in there. You may look around, though.”

Alice was the first one to go and find the boy she was assigned to cell, followed by the rest of us. Daesung’s cell was the last cell to the right on the first floor. I looked inside his cell and saw that the bed was unmade and what seemed to be newspapers scrambled on his desk with the lamp still on. Two windows, size of wall calendars, were high above the door to the other room. I strained my eyes to see what the newspaper articles said, but I couldn’t really see it that well, other than big black letters on the top. There was something else in the slightly ajar drawer. Another thing I noticed is that this cell doesn’t have an overhead light like the other cells…

“Kelly!” Heather told me that made me look away getting me out of my observing. “We have to go with Ken in his office to talk about the case.”

“Oh, right…” I said as I looked back in the cell observing one more time. My eyes widened as I noticed that the lamp light was off. Wasn’t it on just a minute ago? I just shook my head and walked with the group, hearing an electric sound coming from Daesung’s cell.