Chapter 36 - Croydon?

Slowly Angeline opened her eyes. As usual, every time she woke up from her deep sleep, David was not there.

Angeline rose from her sleeping position, loosening her joints a little, which were stiff from her deep sleep. Angeline really liked life after she married David. She is free to stay up late to watch her Korean dramas as she pleases without fear of being knocked on her door by her aunt to remind her that tomorrow she has to get up early because of school.

She didn't have to get up early to wash the dirty dinner dishes her aunt didn't have time to take care of.

She didn't have to think about her future because she knew that David's wealth would not run out even if her grandchildren had grandchildren later.

Every morning, there must be a different breakfast menu that is presented on the dining table, and the great thing is that David makes the breakfast himself.

And even more fun, David's overly cute attitude whenever they were together.

Angeline got up from her soft bed, walked towards the dining table. A smile was painted on Angeline's lips when she saw the four layers of pancakes covered with strawberry sauce, with a glass of fresh cow's milk beside her.

Angeline sat in front of the breakfast menu that looked tantalizing. But Angeline's ringing cellphone made her have to walk back to the room to pick up the call.

"Elly? Why is she calling me so early?"

Angeline frowned when she saw the name Elleanor Cerelie appear on the screen of her iPhone 11 Pro, the Apple phone that David had just bought her.

Wait a second.

Angeline covered her wide open mouth with one free hand, while the other was holding her cellphone in a trembling state. She forgot that today she had to go jogging with Elly.

She looked at the digital clock printed on the screen of her cellphone, making her tremble even more when she found out that in five minutes she would be late.

Angeline put her cell phone back on the table, let her ringing tone continue while the girl ran to the wardrobe and looked for the right set of clothes to wear. The choice fell on white super-shorts made of cloth that only covered a small part of her thighs and a light blue T-shirt that fits her curves perfectly.

Angeline put her cell phone in the arm-band she was wearing on her right arm and ran towards the shoe rack to put a pair of Nike Airzoom Pegasus on her legs, fastened the strap and ran towards the lift to get down to the ground floor.

She doesn't need to bother locking the apartment door because it uses a fingerprint security system, and the door will automatically lock every time it is closed.

As hard as she could, Angeline tried to get to the city park as soon as possible, where Elly was waiting for her to be there.

"I'm screwed ... I'm screwed ... I'm screwed ... "

***

Elly runs at a speed above average for a tall person like her who is jogging. It cannot be denied, that the former world champion of MMA - mix material art - does have extraordinary stamina and endurance. Even after running nearly one lap of the city park jogging track which had an area of ​​one thousand two hundred and sixty-nine square meters without stopping, her breathing was still steady.

From a distance, something averted its gaze. To be precise, the horde of men who were huddled and surrounded someone who was sitting on a long chair.

Elly could not see who the person was sitting on the bench clearly, until a few more meters she ran, she could only see Angeline's face, who looked confused in the midst of a crowd of men who dressed like they didn't come to the city park to exercise.

Yes. Elly and Angeline decided to have some light exercise in the city park which is located not too far from the apartment where Angeline lives. As you know, Angeline has physical strength that is quite weak.

But it seems Elly didn't realize that Angeline was no longer behind her when they decided to go jogging. Because Elly ran so fast, of course Angeline couldn't keep up with Elly's running speed, so it seemed like Angeline decided to sit in a lounger waiting for Elly to finish one lap and come back to follow her again later.

Visitors to this city park are divided into three groups. The first group is the group of people who have the desire to do light sports activities such as jogging, cycling, gymnastics, yoga, and some people are seen jumping up and down to practice parkour.

The second category is the category for people who come for recreation with their families and partners. Not even a few also come to find love partners. In an artificial lake in the middle of a city park, recreational facilities are provided, such as paddle ducks, water balloons and so on. However, because today is not a holiday, almost no one comes for recreation, only some people who come from outside the city do it.

And the last class of visitors are people who come to work. Like several people who are seen playing their fingers on their laptop keyboards and gaze focused on their respective laptop screens. There were even some people who sat on a mat they had spread out on the green grass to hold small meetings.

Recently, city parks have been used as a place for small companies to hold meetings because the area is very green and beautiful and is free of charge because it is a public area.

The atmosphere in this city park looks in stark contrast to the situation in the city which is full of dust and pollution from the fumes of vehicles that crowd urban traffic from before sunrise even until the moon is on its throne in the sky.

The city where they live is known as the city that never sleeps. Be it day or night, it hardly makes any difference. The only difference is that during the day, if we see someone wearing a black suit, we can conclude that he is someone who works in the office.

It's a different story with people wearing black suits at night. It would be difficult for us to distinguish whether that person was someone who worked in an office, or even a member of several mafia syndicates operating in the area.

Elly ran over to where Angeline was surrounded, but she accidentally hit a small child who was running while holding a balloon in his hand.

"Huaaaaaa ..." shouted the little boy who was crying because of two things. First, because there was someone with a very hard body who hit him so that he fell to the ground who felt no less hard than the person who was bumped him.

And the second thing was the most painful thing for the poor little boy, it was the balloon that he had been holding while running around was now free from his grasp and flying freely into the sky.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Elly stopped and crouched down to align her body with the little boy who was crying uncontrollably. "I'll buy you a new one, okay?"

The child kept on crying ignoring Elly who tried to negotiate with him.

A woman who appeared to be in her early thirties took the crying child and carried him with great affection. "Hush ... hush ... hush ... my dear son. Why are you crying? The balloon flies, huh? Too bad ... Mom will buy it again, okay?"

Elly gave her guilty glance at the woman who was the mother of a child she accidentally ran over. "I'm sorry, let me pay for the flying balloon."

The woman smiled kindly at Elly, "Don't think about it, it's just a balloon. I'm sorry that I was distracted, so I didn't realize that my son was running on the jogging track."

Hearing this woman's words made Elly smile with guilt and bowed her head as the woman walked away while continuing to try to calm her child who was still crying in her arms lovingly.

Seeing the very beautiful love a mother has for her child makes Elly feel touched. It was as if warmth filled her heart. But Elly suddenly widened her eyes when she realized something very important.

She turned around and cast her eyes on a long chair which was now empty. At first the long chair was occupied by Angeline with several men standing around her, now they are all gone.

Elly looked around in all directions and couldn't find Angeline or the people who had gathered around her.

Elly took out her cellphone and tried to contact Angeline's contact but the call didn't go through at all. Did Angeline turn off her cell phone?

For a few moments Elly ran while still paying attention to the surroundings, until something caught her attention. Someone had just closed the back door of an orange van covered in graffiti[1] on the body of the car. The man looked around before getting into the front and sat down next to the steering seat in a hurry.

Elly could recognize the jacket she was wearing. The jacket has an image of a clown's head on the back with under the clown's head the words CROYDON in tribal writing-style.

Elly knew exactly what kind of group Croydon was.

Croydon is taken from Latin which means clown. They are a group of young people who come together to form a group that has one main goal; have fun to death. Unlike gangs who operate in almost the same field as the mafia syndicates, Croydon is more like a crowd of people who worship the pleasures of the world.

They have their own base, it is in a nightclub located not far from the city park. Even though they are just a bunch of fun-loving social trash, their names have recently attracted attention because some of their members were caught by the police in cases of random kidnapping of women and making their victims a means of gratification.

All of the victims were deliberately addicted to illegal drugs in order to obey their orders. And what's even more terrible, none of them ended up in prison.

No one knows what kind of person was behind Croydon. What is clear is, Angeline must have been taken away by them.

And that is a very bad thing.

***

[1] Graffiti : Scribbles on a wall that use a composition of colors, lines, shapes, and volumes to write certain words, symbols, or sentences. The tools used today are usually spray paint cans. Graffiti is also sometimes used as a forum for some artists who want to voice their opinion on an issue that is happening in their environment through visual media.