Secret Scent Of Lavender

In the quiet town, only the lamps on the street could light up the night as the people were sleeping soundly, it was almost midnight. All the buildings were covered by darkness except a medium American house. The light could be seen from the window on the second floor. Three young men were in the room moving slowly across the place while one of them was sleeping on the couch in the corner. The place was equipped with various digital devices, lockers, boards, LCD and a big screen hanging down from the ceiling. The bookshelves containing many important files were placed from corner to corner. “Mr. Mason, reported to be lost at sharp ten last night.” Said the one on the couch. He looked so tired and sleepy with that messy blond hair and hazel eyes, his glasses almost dropped off his nose bridge. His name was Mark, known as the king of keyboards among the group. “Cannot track his phone and SNS account either.” With a piece of pizza in his hand, the oldest reported while munching on the food. That one was Seth, always addressed as Eagle eyes. He had black hair, a well-built body and tan skin. With his almond-shaped eyes and facial features, he looked fierce yet his voice came out low, deep and calm. “We also cannot reach his location…and that’s strange,” Mark said, tossing his phone playfully. “Interesting…” Mumbled Kaiden, who owned the nickname ‘Mid-sentence hanger’. He would never ever finish his sentence and always limited his words in talking. His upturned-shaped eyes made him look like he’d kill anyone anytime. Among the agents, he’s the one who had no particular skill because he would randomly do anything without specific reason and he did it well. “Yep, no dead bodies were found…” Mark added, looking at the news on the big screen in front of them. “No sign of a murder case either.” Seth started picking up a picture to examine carefully. “…” They all turned to the last person who was supposed to say something and, as usual, found themselves deeply asleep. “I wonder when he will take things seriously,” Mark mumbled, looking at the boy. “He looks so tired.” The eldest chuckled, hitting the boy’s head gently. “Idea?” Kaiden asked before turning to the big screen in front of them. “Here, the list of the lost men from the city so far.” Seth showed the pictures of the missing men on the screen. “Five men are missing. Families reported that they have no serious illness, debt or whatever reason they would run away or commit suicide. The assumption for now is they are being kidnapped.” The oldest explained thoroughly. “But why are we handling this case? Police?” Mark asked, pushing his glasses up. “I think you should ask your boss for the answer,” Seth joked, and Mark shrugged his shoulders in denial. Encountering their boss was not an option. “And the places?” Rith, who had just woken up, asked in his husky voice. Finally, he woke up and caught some clues about what they were talking about. His sleepy, deep-set eyes carried dark brown orbs which made him look more serious. “Most of them disappeared from the hotels and there’s no footage at all.” Replied Mark. “Time?” Rith continued. “Between 11 pm to 1 am in the morning, no specific time yet.” “What did they do before missing?” The young boy continued his question as he found it was getting interesting. “Brought a girl in.” “All of them?” “Yup.” “And what happened to those girls? Who are they?” “Girls from the clubs and they were found in the room unconscious. Police firmly stated that they were innocent, no drugs involved,” Seth gave all of the details. Rith rubbed his sleepy eyes while losing his deep thought. “And…I think there’s one thing you might need to know, Rith…” As Seth continued, Rith’s right eyebrow jumped up. “Every room where the men disappeared, we found the presence of…Lavender’s scent.” “What?” Rith’s eyebrows were pulled together immediately at the mention of the flower's name. “Seriously, we smelled lavender there,” Mark supported his peer. “But could it be if the hotel used that scent in the rooms…” Rith broke in, hesitating. He was not sure why he stated that idea, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear either. Deep inside, he was happy as he finally had some clues. Ten years ago, his father was killed along with a chemist couple in a lab and soon after that, they put the case as a revenge murder without any evidence. Rith couldn’t believe anything as it made no sense to him at all. He continued to seek the truth from scratch. Still, he got nothing but a little secret about a new d**g which was discovered by the chemist couple that year. The d**g was not well developed yet back then. The project was proposed by the couple many years before their death. Perhaps their deaths had something to do with the new d**g project, but not a single clue was found to be attached to the case. The family of the victims accepted the case as a revenge matter as well. Even their mother was forced to accept her husband’s death because of the duty on a mission, making it harder to continue to investigate their case. And the d**g project hadn’t been mentioned ever again those ten years. There, the name of the flower was randomly mentioned in the recent missing men's case. Rith had some hopes to invest his efforts in discovering his father’s case. “No, the scent of lavender could be scented only in the room where those men stay.” “…” The young man got lost in his own thoughts again. Seth hit his shoulder gently to comfort the younger boy. “Take it easy, dude. We’ll disclose it together.” Mark tried to ensure his friend. “Right…” Kaiden nodded. But that didn’t calm him down at all. All the sleepiness went away as he stood up. He waited for 10 years and finally it was about time. “Wait, where are you going?” Seth stopped him as Rith grabbed his jacket. “This case…I’m on.” He announced before walking out of the room. “He’s really serious this time,” Mark mumbled. “He’s always serious when it comes to his father’s case,” Seth pointed out, and everyone couldn’t help but agree. The young men were secret agents, two of them half Asian. They worked secretly but legally under the government. They were trained as skillful agents who have helped police for years. No records, no positions nor had any credits been named under their names. And it didn’t matter to them at all. Those young men liked freedom more than anything else because they would flee from place to place to investigate the case here and there. Sometimes, they would separate to enjoy their short vacation after completing some missions. Although they were young, the years they had gone through the training system had paid off so well-plus they started their job as secret agents since they were teenagers. ******* The sun started to rise, the birds started to sing while flying happily in the morning blue sky. It was early, some people lazily got up to get ready for work, but for some homeless people they were still in their deep sleep in the cold weather. A girl in a mask and cap, with a paper bag in her arms made her way toward an abandoned tunnel where homeless men would come and sleep on the cold thin clothes under the cardboard. She owned a tall but not too thin body. In jeans and a simple purple blouse, she already looked gorgeous. Her hair was dark brown and long, it ran freely from her back down to her waist. She stopped and took out a small bag of bread and milk, then placed it just beside a sleeping man on a long chair under a tree. A black cap covered his face so she couldn’t identify his face, which she didn’t wish to see either. The girl quickly moved forward as he kicked his legs and sat up. The cap fell down as his eyes shot open while his nose twitched. His eyes darted toward the figure which walked at a quick pace. “Lavender…this scent…” He mumbled and was about to get up but his eyes caught a bag beside him. Picking it up, he realized that the girl was giving him food-as usual. “Again?” he mumbled to himself again. It had been three days since he disgusted himself as a homeless man and he received food from the girl every day. What was the point of being homeless? Getting food? No! Absolutely no. He had been working on the missing men's case in the town and he walked around the places to get familiar with the night life. Two days passed and it was just a boring journey and the third day got his full attention as the girl’s soft lavender scent filled his nose. She didn’t wear it for two days. His head shot up into the tunnel, which was packed with homeless men. He quickly approached it and peeked his head to see the masked girl placing the small bag beside the sleeping man. The boy continued to follow her secretly from a distance which she didn’t realize about his presence. His quick wit told him that she must have something about the case, at least the lavender smell. Finally, he followed her to her house without her consciousness. It was just a simple house and nothing fishy. However, he would not let it go because of the lavender scent. The young boy made his way to his car which was parked a bit far from the place and drove to his next destination. Rith then parked his car in front of the house which he shared with the other members. “Hey…” Kaiden was the first one who greeted his friend. They were all busy with their own tasks in their messy room. “Where have you been these three days, Rith?” The keyboard pro asked, didn’t even stop typing before pushing his glasses up as they almost fell off his nose tip. “Work,” the boy replied, tossing the car key onto the table. “Well, this is the first time ever since our debut that you get out of the basement and run the investigation, isn’t it?” Seth stated and the other nodded, couldn’t agree more. They were right. Ever since they started the job as secret agents, Rith was so careless. Not that he didn’t work hard, but he rarely got his hands on the investigation, he just did whatever he was told by the boss and his friends. But this time, he was eager to take down the criminals. “Take it easy, dude.” Kaiden mumbled as Rith tiredly plopped himself on the couch beside him. “Thanks.” He closed his eyes, letting out a very low voice of his, making the one who was typing turn slowly to study his friend’s expression. Rith was already gloomy and there he looked even gloomier. “Are you ok?” Mark asked worriedly, trying to see whether his friend was doing fine or not. “I’m fine.” With a very low tone he mumbled, wishing he was really fine. “Don’t make it too hard for yourself.” Seth gently sat on the arm of the couch, placing his hand on the gloomy guy’s shoulder. “Just take it slow.” “I know it’s hard, but we’ll get him no matter what.” The members tried to pacify the boy but it didn’t make him feel at ease at all. “I want to be alone,” Rith said with his usual low voice. The next moment, they could hear the soft g*n shot from the basement after the agent went in. With a g*n in his hand, Rith shot straight into the target board, throwing all of his anger at the board while thinking about the man he wanted to shoot all along. His father’s dead body, blood and blood-stained shirt appeared right in his face every time he closed his eyes. If possible, he wanted to kill that man with his hands, his own hands, the hands that he used hard in training, just to get the man who killed his father ten years ago. Rith kept firing the target board until it broke into two pieces. Slowly, he dropped his hands to his sides and closed his eyes to calm himself down. Then the boy tossed the g*n to the couch before walking to the table. He sat down on its edge to calm himself down. After a while, his eyes were back to his usual bored indifference. Grabbing the knife from a small table beside the couch, he threw it to the dartboard on the wall in front of him. “See you soon…” He mumbled to himself while throwing the knife. His fierce eyes showed no mercy nor feeling, full of sentimentalism. They have turned lifeless since his father’s death though. His mother became a single mother. She tried hard to raise him alone without thinking about remarrying and only focused on her career and her son. But thanks to his grandparents’ wealth, they could keep both mother and son living comfortably, because his mother was a doctor as well.