Alex and Patrick give up their search in the house and head back outside. “Where the hell is she?!”, Patrick yells. “I don’t know man, maybe she ran back into the forest and this was just a trap after all?” Alex replies. The men look at each other for a while. “We should head into town, maybe she’s hiding, she’s a scared little girl after all”, Alex jokes while he laughs. Patrick agrees and they head towards the little town a few minutes down the road.

In the meanwhile the woman is walking down the main street of the little town, nervously looking around. It must be past midnight by now, all the shops are closed and the only lights on are the streetlights. The woman runs in a shady alley and almost trips over a homeless man lying on the ground. He yells “Hey, watch where you’re going woman!”, but she doesn’t stop, she keeps running. She sees the end of the alley and a police office at the end of the alley. They will be able to help her, she thinks while running towards the building. Before entering the police office, she takes a deep breath, looks around her if there’s any sign of the two men chasing her, but the streets around her are empty. She runs into the office. There’s a young man sitting inside, he looks up with a worrying face when he sees her.

She slams her hands on the desk where a male officer sits. “You got to help me please” she yells with a half-whispering voice, she wants to yell, but doesn’t want to ruin the quietness in the building. “I escaped from them, two men, they kidnapped me and my family, they killed my mother, you have to help me, I don’t want to go back, I’m sure you’ve seen it on TV by now, I’ve heard it from the basement!”, she continues. The male officer looks up with a laughing face. He laughs while saying “Ma’am, please calm down. Listen, you’re the fifth woman today who enters the building claiming you’re ‘one of them’, one of the people who got kidnapped… But I got to admit, you’re the most original one. Soaking wet in a pretty white dress. Please go home already” he tells her while rolling his eyes. “No, please, you don’t understand! If they find me, they will kill me, I’m sure of it!”, she lost it and yells while crying. “Okay, ma’am, take a seat, an officer will be with you shortly”, the male officer says while waving at one of the black concrete benches at the entrance of the building. He couldn’t care less and continues watching something on his phone.

The woman sits down on the black concrete bench next to the main front door, in front of the young man who’s clearly waiting for someone. The woman is very nervous and starts shaking her legs up and down. A few minutes later a female officer walks up to the woman, “Okay, it’s time for you to go now, we’ve seen enough of your performance. Go home, take a shower and get some sleep”, she tells the woman in a firm tone of voice. “No, please, you don’t understand, it’s true, we were with five hostages, I escaped… They killed my mother, they’re deep in the forest, please believe me, please”, she tells the officer before she starts crying. “I’m not sure if I’m willing to understand, ma’am. But now, it’s time for you to leave, come back in the morning when you’re still feeling the same way with… I don’t know, fantasies in your head”, she tells while pointing at the door. The woman is clearly still nervous and getting colder by the minute. Her greasy blonde curls are everywhere in her face and her wet dress is tightly clinging to her body. And let’s not get started about her wet, muddy feet. This must be horrible, the young man sitting in front of her thinks.

The woman stands up and unwillingly leaves the building. The female officer closes the big glass front door and locks it. “I’m sorry you had to see that, sir. But do not worry, you’re safe here. She’s just another lunatic who saw the news and is in desperate need of attention”, the officer tells the young man. “An officer will be with you shortly”, she continued while walking away. The woman in the white dress walks up to the glass door with tears in her eyes. The young man in the police office stands up and slowly walks towards the door. The woman places her both hands on the glass. The young man looks deep into her eyes and places his hands against the door as well, there’s nothing he can do for her, but how he’d wish to be able to.