Tatia hit the accelerator, the slope was vertical at almost sixty plus degrees and her scooty stubbornly refused to go any further, with its engine growling in agony every time she hit the accelerator until frustrated, she jumped off her seat and tried pushing the scooty herself up the hill with force, while the engine was still running - 'oh, come on, don't do this, we have to reach the top, don't fail me, not now', she pleaded as she wanted to get to the top anyhow, and, she dared not go walking the four miles to reach the tower, where she hoped to get some clues atleast of the missing children's puzzle somehow - the entire town was gripped with fear as more and more kids were disappearing every few days.
There had been extensive search but all seemed futile as the police and authorities still couldnot solve why the kids went missing...nobody left any clue or demands - so, the mystery only deepened, which somehow triggered the detective in Tatia to take matters into her own hands and try solve the mystery herself; she knew of the old abandoned tower in the hill at the outskirts of the town and thought it'd be a good place to search as she remembered a story her granny often told her while she was still a child.
Tatia's granny always used to tell her many night-time stories, but one particular always ended with a warning for it was of the abandoned tower at the hill on the outskirts of the town which she said was once ~ centuries ago ~ used by the native pagans as a sacrificial ground for young children which by doing so made them acquire mystical powers to achieve anything and defeat the enemies - nobody had searched that area yet, so, Tatia thought to herself to be the first one to get there and solve the mystery, and perhaps, get a reward or recognition later as the town's newest official detective - oh, how she'd love that.
But only if her scooty didn't act funny and decided to play games, she thought quite irritated; her scooty ~ usually her best companion, never failed as she zoomed around with it in the plains, but here on the hill, it had become unexpectedly cranky and unreliable, she switched it off and started again few times, and finally, it seemed to move a bit until it went dead altogether much to Tatia's disappointment leaving her with only two options ~ to give up accept defeat and head home or walk to the tower herself on foot - a scary thought but, she decided to go anyways...so, leaving the scooty under a tree, she set on foot, clutching a small pocket knife, her only defence.
Was she being stupid to be going up there all alone, her mind questioned many times, but Tatia shrugged the thoughts away - if she wanted to become a detective for real, she had to be brave and she'd complete the mission - to reach the abandoned tower and check for clues, her granny's stories still playing in her mind; and with every step she took, she felt that maybe the kids were indeed held there somewhere and the ancient practices was still going on - well, she had to find out, and so Tatia continued walking up the hill, not discouraged by its steepiness or how exhausted it made her feel until she could finally heave a sigh of relief when she could spot the tower appearing slowly before her eyes.
It was late noon but the thick foliage barely let any sun-light in so it was quite dark and Tatia decided to climb the tower's boundary wall that she saw ~ which was full of weeds and algae growth thus being quite slippery as well, but thankfully, broken at many places too - and so without much struggle she got to the other side slowly creeping around the tower until she saw a makeshift tarpaulin shed hidden right at its base which was quite surprising and that hinted someone lived there along with some faint muffled sounds coming from inside it too... hoping noone saw her, Tatia then tried peeking in through the material that was torn at places ... and, she saw the childen confirming all her doubts, almost twenty of them tied in a circle with their mouths gagged with tape - Tatia, knew at once, she had to report to the authorities asap...but, would she get out of there?
May Tatia rescue those children.
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