Mr Roland and the Constables continued with their search once it was sunrise. They were all starving having not eaten the whole night.
"I'm starving", Mr Roland said inwardly after hearing his stomach rumbled. Looking up at the trees and seeing a lot of ripe fruits displeased him because he knew he could not have any.
A fruit then suddenly fell right in front of the ground. He stared at the fruit for a while until he gradually got hypnotized while the Constables were ahead.
He bent down to pick up the fruit when his Constables realized he was not following them and turned back to find out what was keeping him. They called on him and ran to him to prevent him from biting from the fruit. One of the Constables threw the fruit away from his hand, as they surrounded him.
They figured out he was being controlled and tried to shaking him off the hypnosis. "Sir! Sir!", they called on him. He slowly came back to himself again.
"What happened?", he asked in a low voice feeling slightly dizzy.
"Seems you were hypnotized Sir", a Constable replied.
"They wanted you to eat that fruit", said another, pointing at the fruit. They became anxious and quiet when they noticed the fruit was shaking violently. It opened up and a large army of ants again marched out of it towards them.
"Let's get out of here fast!", Mr Roland raised his voice. Immediately, all of them ran for their lives with the ants chasing after them.
* * *
Dominic and Rita went to the house of Mr Joseph. Dominic was shocked to see three police vehicles mounted on each other, all in a very sordid state. Rita had not yet noticed it.
"Why did you tell us to come here? Anything you forgot to take with you?", she asked. She then noticed the damaged vehicles by the side of the building and gasped, covering her mouth with the hand in utmost shock. "How did this happen?", she gasped out.
Dominic walked up to the scene and saw the book of Black Magic when he managed to open the glove compartment, after squeezing his hand through the compressed window. The glass was completely shattered on the ground.
"So that is why we came here", Rita eyed at him strangely.
"Wonder who did this to these vehicles. Didn't see this last night", said Dominic, ignoring her complaint.
"But why are there three when we came with two vehicles?", Rita felt curious.
Dominic surprised by what she said, looked up and saw it was true. "Didn't realized this", he said, "So that means the police are already in the community", he deduced.
"But where are they?", he became worried, treading some distance away to find out if anyone was stuck in the uppermost car. "No one's in the car", he said.
"They could be somewhere in the forest searching for us too", replied hopeful Rita.
"So you saying this happened after they left?", asked Dominic as he walked round, observing the cars.
"It could be...maybe by Father Christmas who has already chased the students out of this house", she replied, "This house should be haunted by him", she added with a shrug.
Dominic thought about searching inside the building and briskly went inside it. Rita looked round, feeling nervous to be left outside alone. "Every second spent here scares me the more", she said to herself.
After a while, Dominic came out of the building and joined Rita. "There's no one here. Hope they're safe", he said in a low voice, glancing round to see if he would find something suspicious.
"Let's go back and get the kids out of this community", Rita spoke in desperation, "You know quite well Joseph could be watching us and we don't know."
"He's not watching us because I'm sure if he was, we'd have been dead by now", he said casually.
Rita stared at him with a straight face and held Dominic's hand, dragging him along with her out of the place.
"Are you with the rope of tiny skulls?", he asked her.
"It's in my pocket", she answered, showing it to him.
* * *
The students waited in front of the house, all set to leave. They had all showered, though they still put on the same clothes due to lack of clothes. They were getting worried over Dominic and Rita not yet showing up earlier as they all expected.
Tricia went up to Lieutenant Donald to ask questions about her brother and his fellow Detective. "Why did my brother and his colleague go back to the land of black magic?", she gazed at him with suspicion looming around her.
"They went to investigate on something concerning that building you guys were staying", he replied.
"What do they want to investigate again?", Tricia was becoming impatient.
"We're the police. Let's do our job", he replied, "We know what we're doing", he assured her.
Meanwhile, the farmer couple were having their own conversation. "By now these children would have been out of this community. Wonder what those two went to do in the black magic land", the wife whispered to her husband.
"Asked Mr Donald and he claimed both of them went for an investigation", the husband whispered in return.
"The students are dying to go back home", she said after watching their different facial expressions.
"I'm hoping they'd be back anyways", replied her husband, "For his sister to be here and he still left to go do something first before leaving this community, just be rest assured it's something very important for all of them", he gave his reasons.
Mark, the SS1 student, went up to Ben and Grace to ask if they knew anything about what was going on. "Anyone know why Tricia's brother went back to the land of black magic with his fellow detective?", he asked both of them.
"Tricia doesn't even know why. Who are we then to know?", replied Grace, looking nervous.
"You guys should calm down", Ben replied, "I'm sure what they went to do is important. Once they get back, we'll be out of here", he assured them. Unlike many of them, he was never slightly bothered about the situation.
"I pray so...I really pray so", said Mark inwardly.
* * *
Mr Roland and the Constables were still being chased after the fast crawling army of ants until they just crossed over a very narrow flowing stream into a not cursed and pure land. Mr Roland, who was the last, turned back while running only to find out the ants were finding it difficult to cross over the narrow stream. "Stop!!", he called on the rest.
They gradually went back to meet him. They became very much relieved as soon as they saw the ants not being able to cross over the stream.
"Thank goodness they can't cross over", said one Constable, trying to catch his breath.
"But I'm surprised as much as they are, they are scared to cross over the narrow stream", said another one.
"They must be scared of water then", replied the third.
"We're on a search so let's continue. Time's not on our side", said Mr Roland, who checked his phone to know what the time was. He exclaimed in excitement and surprise when he discovered he had reception available, though not a strong one. The Constables got startled by his sudden excitement, so eager to know what had just happened.
"What happened Sir?",. questioned one of them.
"There's network reception over here", he answered, taking some steps forward. Suddenly, he saw the reception really strong, "Now the network is really strong", he said.
"Let's call someone over the phone for help", suggested another Constable.
Mr Roland gestured for them to calm down, not to call anyone yet. They checked out their phones and confirmed they also had fairly strong network.
A thought went across Mr Roland's mind and he decided to confirm it. He went back towards the stream. Just a few steps back and he saw the reception dropped to fair strength. He widened his eyes and decided to venture further.
The Constables called on him out of worry when they saw him getting closer to the stream but he returned deaf ears. They decided to follow him quickly so they could stop him.
"Seems he's been hypnotized again", inferred one of them.
About approaching the stream, Mr Roland noticed his reception dropping suddenly to weak strength. "Across this stream, there's no reception", he adjudged, turning behind to see the Constables quickly approaching him.
"Were you hypnotized Sir?", asked one of them.
Mr Roland returned a grin. "I was only trying to confirm something", he replied, "Across this stream is the land of zero reception", he giggled. The rest checked out their phones and realized their reception were of weak strength, deducing what Mr Roland said could be true. The ants were still across the stream, staying at a place.
"Don't we think standing close to these ants could anger them?", a Constable asked, feeling very anxious.
"The most important person to call right now is Dominic", said Mr Roland, getting away from the stream by a reasonable distance, followed by the rest. "Let me call him right now!" He dialed Dominic's number and waited for him to pick up the call. "His phone is actually ringing", he said with surprise.