"That's it! I've had enough!" said Matilda, catching her breath.

After the fright they've been through in Mrs. Cobbs's garden, they needed to stop at the playground, now almost empty.

"We must go to the police! We must tell what we saw," said Ben in between gasps.

"And what is it we saw, Ben?" asked Ferry.

Matilda seemed furious with his remark, "Isn't it obvious? Mrs. Cobbs is behind the disappearances. Somehow, with the help of an accomplice maybe, she kidnapped the people in town and holds them hostage in her basement! Who knows? Maybe she even murdered some of them. She says the Unseen were to blame but in fact, she's trying to hide away because she is the one to blame."

And Matilda stopped talking so she could breathe. A cold breeze blew between the trees at the playground, giving them the chills. The shadows of the night seemed now even closer, and the memory of the howl in Mrs. Cobbs's basement still resounded in their ears.

"I don't know, Matt..." Ben said. "If I come to think of it, Ferry is right. And besides, we don't have any evidence."

"Evidence?! Why would we need evidence? Didn't you hear the moan? Something wrong is going on in that house."

But Ferry shook his head, "Ben is right. What if we send the police and they find nothing? I don't even know what I've seen. Maybe she has a wild animal in her basement. You know Mrs. Cobbs is a bit... eccentric."

"Then we should keep Mrs. Cobbs under observation for a while," Ben suggested.

⃰

There was no time to waste. Operation VDS had to continue. So Mrs. Cobbs's house was put under observation the next day, after school. The three little detectives thought it would be best to stay together. If one of them had gone for help, the other two would have stayed to watch the house until the police arrived.

But the observation proved to be boring. Three days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Except for Tootsie, Mrs. Cobbs's niece, nobody went in or out of the house.

"That's it! I'm going home," said Matilda rising from the bush in front of Mrs. Cobbs's house. She was just about to leave the observation spot when Tootsie came out of the house.

In her grey, large clothes, Tootsie always walked keeping her eyes down, avoiding everyone's gaze. She was over sixty years old, and she's never been married. She was raised by her aunt with austerity after she lost her parents at a very young age. Ever since, she dedicated her whole life taking care of her old, strange aunt.

"Let's follow her," Ben suggested. "Maybe Mrs. Cobbs is sending her to do the strange work in her place."

So the children followed Tootsie easily since she never paid attention to anything around her. But even this pursuit proved to be boring. Tootsie bought some fruits from the market, and then she entered the grocery store with the children following her steps.

They crowded near the candy machine, pretending they were interested in the new caramel candies but in fact,  they didn't let Tootsie out of their sight. She acted like she was invisible. She never talked to anyone, and no one talked to her. They saw her buying some cheese, detergent, and some razor blades, as well as shaving cream, which the salesman put in a paper bag.

She then came out, her gaze to the ground and headed home, with the little detectives following her closely. When Tootsie went into the house, the children were already debating the woman's strange shopping list.

"What did she buy?" asked Matilda, trying hard to keep her voice down.

"I didn't see too well," said Ben, wiping out the lens of his glasses with his shirt. "I thought she bought razor blades and shaving cream..."

"That's exactly what I saw," said Ferry.

"Me too!" said Matilda. "Why would she need razor blades?"

"Maybe she shaves her legs," Ben suggested.

"Nonsense!" Matilda concluded. "Why would she do that? Can't she use wax? Besides, why would she shave her legs since I've always seen her wearing that long, long skirt? You can't even see her ankles from beneath those sacks she's wearing as clothes. I'm telling you, something odd is going on in that house."

Their discussion was suddenly interrupted by Mrs. Cobbs in person. The old lady went out the front door, holding a lantern in her hand. Leaning upon her walking stick, she started to examine the traps in the garden. Once in a while, she would lift the lantern and check the fruits and candies hanging from the trees. The children went silent, watching the strange ritual that took place in front of their eyes. When suddenly, the old lady pointed the lantern at their observation bush, as if she saw them. Then, with a slow, but firm pace, she made her way towards them. She was just a few steps away when Ben couldn't bear the tension anymore and jumped on his feet and out of the bush, soon followed by Matilda and Ferry. When Ferry turned his head after a while, it surprised him to see Mrs. Cobbs staring at him as if she could see to the depths of his soul.

The second day, they decided they should change the observation spot since the bush wasn't safe anymore. So they chose the poplars across the street. Ferry and Matilda climbed the trees while Ben suggested they should also have an observation spot on the ground. But soon, Matilda got bored again, so she began to throw branches in Ben's head. In return, Ben was making desperate signs. The girl understood their meanings only when she saw Mrs. Cobbs coming out of the house. From up there, Ferry could clearly see her. The old lady merely walked, feeling the road in front of her with her walking stick. She looked right ahead, the way the blind persons usually did.

But then, things started to become even stranger. The children could barely breathe when they saw Mrs. Cobbs crossing the street and heading towards the poplars that served them as hiding places. She stopped a few steps away, then raised her head and looked at Ferry dead in the eye.

"She found us!" Matilda yelled, jumping from the tree. Her shout woke Ferry up from the dream state he was into. He jumped, and they all ran as fast as they could from that place.

"What are we going to do now?" Matilda asked after they stopped at the playground. That turned out to be the perfect place for cooking up another plan for Operation VDS.

"It seems it's useless watching her house. She knows we're there," said Ferry.

"But how? I thought she was almost blind," Ben wondered.

Matilda knew better, "I don't think she's blind at all. I think she's just pretending to be blind so that people see her as a poor, helpless old lady. When she's, in fact, a cold-blooded criminal, I'm telling you. We should go to the police. What if Danny is held prisoner by her and her weird niece?"

"But we don't have any proof... No one will believe us. No one will take us seriously," said Ben. "How are we going to show her connection with Danny's disappearance?"

Matilda seemed in difficulty. "I don't know... How about you, Ferry?"

But Ferry was also clueless. All his theories were somehow connected with fairies. And his friends had to see it to believe it; he knew that for a fact.

"I think we should examine the place where Danny disappeared. Maybe we've missed something..."

"That's a great idea," said Ben, feeling enthusiastic about it. "I've read that usually, criminals come back to their crime scene. It's like they're attracted to it."

This time, Matilda was happy with the plan. They decided to go to Shepherd's Forest that day. They took their bicycles so they could get there faster. Ben took his flashlight. Matilda brought her dog, Shadow. Ferry took nothing. He couldn't think about anything that could help him there, so close to the land of fairies.

They arrived at the edge of the forest when the sun was still burning. The forest was silent and still. No wind's blow, no leaf moving. Only the insects buzzing in the trees were letting them know it wasn't completely lifeless.

Yet, there was someone else there. A thin, tall silhouette, wearing grey clothes, who was studying the same tree where Danny vanished. Mrs. Cobbs. 

Her presence there was surprising, more surprising than all the weird things that surrounded her put together. The three friends were so astonished, it took them a while before they came to their senses. They didn't even have the time to get off their bikes. When they realized what they just saw, the children took the back trail without second thoughts.

When the oak tree and Mrs. Cobbs were far behind, they stopped. They needed a plan.

"That's it! We're going to the police!" said Matilda, looking determined.

"Yes, we have to go," Ben added, his face pale. "Something is terribly wrong with Mrs. Cobbs. And we don't need any proof. She was right there, right near the tree where Danny vanished..."

But Ferry was still not convinced.

"Come on, Ferry," said Matilda, "you have to admit that she has something to do with Danny's disappearance and maybe with all the other ones. And she most certainly has an accomplice, a twin sister or something like that. How else would she be in two different places at the same time? Not even the fastest man in the world could get that far so fast. You know we last saw her in front of her house. Not to mention she's almost blind!"

"Maybe she doesn't have a twin sister," Ben suggested. "Maybe her niece is wearing her clothes, and she's doing the dirty work for her. If you come to think of it, no one is paying her attention. She's so dull, no one ever sees her. It would've been easy for her to go unnoticed..."

Matilda agreed, "Ben's right. We have to tell Mr. Smith to call the police from the Big City back."

Ferry gave it a thought. He knew Mrs. Cobbs was somehow connected with the disappearances. But to be the one causing them, that was hard to believe.

"All right, let's just say that Mrs. Cobbs is behind all this. Why would she do that? And how? Even with an accomplice, it would still be difficult not to leave any evidence. And then, there's Billy's story..."

"You know we can't trust Billy," Matilda interfered. "Besides ─"

But something made her stop. They were at the foot of the hill and the sun was still sending spears of hot light, making the grass sparkle. But it wasn't the grass. Matilda picked up something from the grass. It was a small silver watch. It looked old, and it had a clover pendant attached to the bracelet.

"Hmmm, I wonder who lost it here..." she said.

Ben looked around, ready to take his magnifying glass out of his pocket. But then, his friends saw him staring at something.

"There's a door there!" he pointed right at the foot of the hill.

Ferry and Matilda looked closer. There was indeed a wooden door, hidden behind branches and leaves. It was small, like the door of a dwarf's house. And it was open.

Everyone's jaw dropped.

"We must go in!" said Matilda. "We must see where this door leads..."

But Ben was hesitating, "I don't think it's such a good idea..."

"Think about it," Matilda insisted, "we have the flashlight. We can have a look. And we also have Shadow."

The boys looked at Matilda's so-called dog smelling a flower and ignoring them completely. Yes, his size was impressive, but he was far from fiercely.

"I don't know if he's the best protector," Ben observed.

"He's certainly better than your muffin-eating lizard," Matilda cut him short.

Ferry interfered, tired of his friends' discussions who would start from almost anything, "All right, let's go in! It might have something to do with Danny."

Ben nodded without too much enthusiasm, so Matilda opened the door. In front of them there stood the dark entrance of a tunnel. The girl couldn't help it, and she shouted, "Hello! Is anyone there?"

Her echo came back after a while, letting them know the tunnel was rather long.

"I don't think we should yell," Ben suggested. "We'd better see where it takes us. Quietly!"

Ferry took the flashlight from Ben's hand and he went in, followed by Ben; then by Matilda and Shadow.

It was a tunnel, but whoever had dug it wasn't very good at it or had done it in a big hurry because sometimes the children were almost touching the upper part of the tunnel with their heads. The tunnel was strengthened with wood boards, but from how decayed they looked, it must have been very old. Yet how was it that no one knew about it? Ferry heard no one talking about a tunnel. And where was it leading to? After about a quarter of an hour, they reached another wooden door.

They stopped, not sure what to do next.

"Maybe we shouldn't go in," whispered Ben.

"We didn't come this far to go back seeing nothing," Matilda whispered back, making herself room so she could take a better look at the door.

After a moment of hesitation, Ferry opened the door; it was hard to open because it was swollen from the moist air in the tunnel. It led to a small room lightened by a light bulb that spread a dim light. They could feel a heavy, moist smell in the stale air. On the right side, they saw some brick stairs leading to another door. But that was not what drew the children's attention—it was the wall in front of them, entirely covered with paper cut-outs. Ferry pointed the flashlight closer and read the titles. Some of them were old and hard to read. But they were all about the same thing—the disappearances in the forest. Different faces were smiling from the cut-outs on the wall. Matilda recognized her mother's face. Then they all could see Danny's face from the picture of the class.

"It's everyone who vanished into the forest," Ben whispered, shaken by a shiver. "All the paper cut-outs are about the vanishings in the forest. Someone has collected them all..."

Ferry also felt shivers down his spine, "That means that whoever did it is—"

"... the one who has something to do with all the disappearances," Matilda whispered, also frightened. "Let's just get out of here!" she said, heading towards the door behind them.

But then she stopped. Shadow was staring at the tunnel's door, gnarling. Somebody was coming. They could hear the steps, echoing in the tunnel.

"Quick, the other door!" Ferry shouted, and they all crowded up on the brick stairs. But the door was locked. They were stuck. And the footsteps were getting closer.

Thank you for reading and for being a part of this adventure! Don't forget to vote and comment! I'll be here, biting my nails, waiting for your thoughts :)