forum The Castle//One on one//ask to join

Started June 29, 2020 by @StarkSpangledMayflower_Mad_Elder

tune

“Sounds like a plan,” Arabelle stood as well. “I’ll meet you there.”

(Sorry idk what else to say)

(Its fine, I'm going to timeskip to the airport)

Caelen had a duffel bag as well as a laptop bag around his shoulders. The duffel bag held all his clothes and personal item whereas the laptop bag held some gadgets he grabbed from the tech. He looked around for Arabelle, spotting Maximus waiting by the small plane for them.

Walking inside the airport, Arabelle looked around. She spotted Caelen and went over to him, carrying a bag and small suitcase.
“Where’s Maxi-“ she looked just ahead of him and saw Maximus. “Oh.”

"I feel that he follows us but I cant be too sure. His eyes are always fixated on his cell phone." He joked. Maximus saw them walking over to him and frowned. "You are exactly 4 minutes late! You realize I have important things to do! Hurry, inside. The director has a video call to explain how you are to settle. You will be living together in a house near the edge of town so he will be explaining how to live."

Arabelle raised her hands in mock surrender. “Hey Max, you know I’m not the most punctual person in the world. Give me some slack.” Chuckling, she lowered her hands and went inside.

The male hugged and briskly walked towards a black car that was waiting for quite I bit of time. Caelen chuckled and got comfortable in one of the seats and waited for the screen to light up with the director's face. "Hello agents. There is a small house near the edge of the town not too far from the nearby forest. You will be living there under the guise of either coworkers writing a report about the town or a couple visiting on their honeymoon. You have all the information. Have a comfortable flight."

For some reason, Arabelle was in a funny mood. She usually didn’t take these missions too lightly.
“So,” she said jokingly, “how do feel about pretending to be a couple, honey?” Smiling, she sighed. “Nevermind, I won’t do that to you. We can just be coworkers.”
She sat back, going over the information in her mind. The mystery this case presented was intriguing, she had to admit. A castle far older than the townsfolk say it is. A missing group of teenagers. Well, that part isn’t new. But she was surprised at how excited she was. Maybe it was because it was just her and Caelen. When she was with a larger group, she somehow felt like she was just one of many. Like they were the police that showed up after an incident in a movie. Whatever the case, she tried to relax as she waited for take off.

"Of course, Dear." Caelen winked. He was glad that he was paired with someone closer to his age. "So what is our plan when we get there?" He asked, buckling himself in as the plane took off.

Arabelle winked back, appreciating his sense of humor. “I’m not much of a planner, but I thought we could search the surrounding forest first. I know those students were last seen at the castle, but I think it would be possible that some of them could be there. And we’ll need to ask the townsfolk some questions too.”

"Old fashioned splitting up? You're leaving me on the day of our honeymoon?" He asked dramatically, a soft chuckle escaping his lips.

“I leave only to return with a gift, my love,” she grinned, pausing for effect. “Possibly valuable information.”

"I like you." Caelen decided. "You're fun to be around." He smiled and got comfortable in his seat again, grabbing the file and reading up in the background of the teenagers.

“Thanks. You too.” She leaned over to look at the file as well.

"It says here that the teens weren't natives if the town, they came for a visit and went to take pictures but never came back. It was the hotel manager that discovered this as he went to talk to them about paying for their rooms but couldn't find them. The local police searched for them but couldn't find any trace. All clues led back to a single dead end, the castle." Caelen read the police report and frowned. "This doesnt give us much to go off on. We could examine the hotel room but we would need to be discreet about it."

“Ooh I do think examining the hotel room would be a good idea,“ she put a hand to her chin in thought. “Even if there aren’t any clues as where they might be, I think getting to know them would help with certain details.”

"Well my dear it seems we will have to pretend to be on out honeymoon, it says here they booked one large suite. Either they were rich, or they got lucky." Caelen rubbed his chin thoughtfully before looking at Arabelle with a curious look. "Would you be willing to share a room?"

“Of course,” Arabelle shrugged. She didn’t mind that too much. “Do you know the room number? Where they stayed? Or maybe we could just ask when we get there.”

"Ok so we pull on the grieving friends act then?" He asked. Before he could a response from Arabelle, the pilot alerted them that the plane would now be landing. "That was quick, but then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from the agency."

“Yeah,” Arabelle agreed. “I don’t know… I feel too old to be a ‘grieving friend.’”

"Relatives then? Other than that, we could act as P.I's that their families hired to search. It's the closest thing to our actual job. Oh wait, we could also be those weird people who go to abandoned places to look for ghosts and things." Caelen said, listing 5things on his fingers.

“Aw c’mon. I am a weird person,” Arabelle grinned again. “But in all seriousness, maybe being a ‘weird person’ would be more inconspicuous.”

"Alright." Calen grabbed his luggage and climbed the stairs down to where the car was waiting. Once both he and Arabelle were in the car, it started driving to the hotel. "I'm glad I got some of these gadgets from our tech department, they will make our story more believable." He grinned

“Nice,” she fell quiet, opting to look around at the Scottish landscape. The green hills rolled past, with the occasional copse of trees and small cottage. She couldn’t help but think of her own rural neighborhood as the scenery went by…
Why was she shaking all of a sudden? She looked away from the window. Don’t get distracted. You have a job to do, she told herself.

They arrived at the hotel and unloaded their things and walked inside. "Do you want to do the talking? I hate receptionists." He grumbled, glaring at the young redhead talking on the phone.

“I can try…” she cringed. “Honestly, I hate receptionists too.”
Really, she just hated talking to people like receptionists. Every conversation felt so awkward. But she gritted her teeth. That doesn’t matter. Don’t make this harder than it should be.
Arabelle went up and waited for the redhead to get done with her phone call, trying not to fidget.

Caelen sighed in relief, he really owed his partner one for doing this. The redhead finished her call and looked at Arabelle with a suspicious look. "What can I help you with, ma'am?" She asked, tossing a piece of gum in.her mouth and chewing it.

Arabelle cleared her throat. “Uh, you’ve heard of those missing teenagers right? I was wondering if I could have their room number. Me and my, uh, my partner here are paranormal investigators. We believe their disappearance has supernatural causes…”
She decided to leave it at that.

She popped her gum and looked at Arabelle with an uninterested gaze before turning to her computer and typing something. "Room 726, it's on the top floor, there are only two rooms up there because they're the penthouse suites. It'll be $590 per night. Will that be cash or…" she trailed off, holding it her hand for the payment. It was then that Caelen walked up and handed her the company's special card. "Credit please." She took it and swiped before turning the machine and giving it to him. "Put in your pincode and here's your key." She said, pressing the cool metal object in his hand as he took his card back.