Rita pulls the car up just before a sign stating the villages name, 'old wood village'
"Doesn't seem too bad I spose.... for a village, not sure about that name though. old wood is never good." she spoke, glancing to Carlton for a reaction. Not much for a bunch of fields, Rita only occasionally visits rural areas for the fun of it, its not like she wants a home in the countryside anyway. although the visits are usually a let down, nothing good to steal, not much of value to break.... ah well, make the most of it while she lays low for a little after that last break in didn't go so well. Stupid cops.
Rita stepped out of the car, slamming the stolen cars door as she stood beside it looking into the village immediately eyeing for the most expensive home.

Carlton was sitting in the front seat next to Rita trying to keep his eyes open as he drifted in and out of a listless sleep. However the car rocked as it moved through a pothole in the road and Carlton was soon shaken awake as they came upon their destination. Carlton looked up at the sign as they slowly passed it and Rita called out the name "Old wood village". Carlton couldn't help but grin at the odd name and turned to Rita, "Hopefully any folks we bump into aren't as odd as their namesake".

Carlton looked round as the car moved on and glanced over the fields with small farm houses dotting the area and then what looked like the village ahead of them.. It barely equaled the size of a small estate in the city but Carlton thought to himself that it had an odd homely appeal to it. As the car came to a stop, Carlton composed himself and followed after Rita as she quickly jumped out of the car, clearly eager to find an empty property.

"Remind me again how a stupid young girl managed to convince a respectable old loser like me to do this again?" Carlton called out to Rita, as he watched on as she strode off towards the village in the distance.

"well for one thing I do hope you use that word respectable loosely, mostly your fault for waving that gun around. cops dont much like guns I hope ya know, your the stupid one" she retorted with a little more defence than really needed, glancing him a crude look before spinning back round
"but I spose 'cus I like people.... I think I shoulda been a teacher. Don't ya think?" she grinned as she spoke, casually kicking a small pot causing it to smash and crumble against a nearby fence. "Id be one of those fun teachers of course." Rita continued walking, having picked out her next target, her stride slowly got a little faster not bothering to see if Carlton would keep up with her or not.

Carlton chuckled to himself, "Does any part of me really look respectable? I think the last time I showered was 4 days ago, surprised you could put up with the smell to be honest". Carlton pulled his gun from his holster and looked down at it, making sure to check the safety was on as he looked down the sights aiming it off into one of the large fields beside them.

"And this old thing? Well.. old habits die hard I guess", in this brief moment Carlton reflected on what his life was before the accident that had taken his wife and son from him. Carlton was once a police officer, only a beat officer mind you but still a respected member of society. Carlton snapped himself back into reality.. He did not want Rita having any clue of his past and he did not want to think of it either. He had become closed off since and wandering thoughts in the countryside was not about to change that.

Carlton looked up at Rita confused after being deep in thought and not listening to Rita, only catching a "Don't ya think?" as she kicked a small pot aside against a nearby fence. Luckily for Carlton she followed it up explaining she'd be one of those fun teachers. Carlton smirked again, "Oh yeah, you'd be a great teacher, I can see it now.. you'd be the art teacher. The kids would have no idea who Picasso was but they'd be expert graffiti artists, am i right?", of course Carlton had never seen Rita draw any graffiti but he guessed to himself it might come with her carefree lifestyle.

Rita started to stride ahead and Carlton slowly moved into a small jog in order to keep up. However, he soon came to a stop as he looked off into the distance and saw what appeared to be a figure of an elderly person in the distance..

"Hmmm yeah I thought I smelt something rancid, assumed u'd killed someone and stuffed them in the boot or something." she giggled oblivious to his mocking her being a teacher. "Anno right? who knows what a picasso is anyway, I for sure don't, besides.... Graffiti is a life skill y'know."she glanced at him briefly "Although I wanna teach the brats in gym too, dodgeball is more useful than you might think!" she continued kicking anything that came into her path not noticing the figure ahead of them. Rita stepped up to the door of the home she had picked out and immediately peeked inside, it doesn't look like anyone was in. Grinning, she test kicked the door before looking back for Carlton, he was staring again but she didn't bother to check in the direction he was looking, Was it her or did he drift off quite a lot? pfft. "Carlton, Are you coming? if there's hot water I claim the shower first!" She Tried a second test kick.

"Well if it smelt that bad that I'm even more surprised you didn't mention it before", Carlton smiled to himself as Rita continued on down the path, kicking anything that she could along the way. Despite Rita being almost the polar opposite of him he couldn't help but admire her carefree spirit and how everything seemed to simple to her. Perhaps that was what made him come along in the first place..Carlton, in a way, was jealous of her and found being around her helped him forget easier.

Rita continued to talk about being a teacher and how dodgeball might be more useful than one might think. "Dodgeball ey?", Carlton questioned whilst he scratched his chin. "I suppose that agility might be useful in our line of work, no?" Rita was too busy kicking down a door to a place to pay attention to what Carlton had to say, she turned to him and claimed to shower first if the hot water was running, "Hey! You're the one who said I smelt like a dead body, think i'll be needing that shower more", Carlton called back as Rita's second kick knocked the door in and she head straight inside. Carlton followed quick but looked off into the distance again with one last glance at the figure who surely must have seen them entering the house, if not kicking it in. However the figure did not move, He or she just stood there with there arms now my clear hanging over towards the ground and clearly in a bit of a slouch. Carlton shook his head as he followed inside after Rita, desperate for that hot shower he desperately needed.

"while you definitely need a shower more, I think you'll find the phrase is ladies first" she grinned bounding up the stairs, on first notice the house seems to be abandoned anyway, nothing of value in sight.... wallpaper had begun peeling from the walls and the staircase creaked loudly with each step all that without mentioning the obvious stench of damp, decaying wood.
she reached the top of the stairs looking right then left for signs of a shower of course it would be the last one "always" she sighs, pushing the door, its locked. a quick surge of adrenaline and she doesn't bother to look back to check if carlton had actually followed her up the stairs or not before she whispers "someone must be here..." she steps back a few paces from the door mentally deciding whether to bash it down and grab the person inside or whether to leave before they notice they were there... "forget what I said about that gun, could be useful right about now." she nudged him, elbowing his side. Ritas adrenaline subsiding, it was going to be easy, just grab them... scare em a bit and lock them in a room, its fine. This big guy had been there for her to help out with the heavy lifting before... she'd stopped counting how many times he'd made the better decision for them both, not that she'd admit that of course.

Carlton watched as Rita bounded up the stairs towards where she figured the shower must have been. Rita had been in so many houses in this line of work so she seemed to know the layout plan far better than most estate agents even would. Carlton began to climb the stairs as he looked over on what appeared to be the living room. There were some sofas, a coffee table and a bowl of fruit sitting in the middle. It looked like it had gone off but it hadn't rotted yet.. Someone must of been here not that long ago.

Carlton suddenly felt a sharp elbow into his side whilst he continued up the stairs staring down into the living room. Rita looked panicked and Carlton knew that face well enough to know she thought someone was here. Rita told him to grab his gun from his side and Carlton nodded in response as he pulled open his jacket and slowly grasped the gun from the holster he wore under it. Carlton reached for the door handle and checked again to make sure it was locked for sure, he shook his head at Rita as it wouldn't open. Rita kept staring at the stairs down behind them as he motioned her to stand back, ready to kick the door in and see what was on the other side.

Carlton took a few steps back out onto the landing and charged forward with a loud "Arghhhh!" as he kicked the door in and hoped to scare anybody enough inside so they wouldn't bother them. However, as the door came flying open it became immediately obvious that this wasn't going to be the case. Carlton brought his hand up to his face as he coughed into it in disgust. The body of a woman who had hung herself was dangling above next to a chair on its side and what appeared to be a series of notes on the floor. Rita was still out on the landing looking intently at Carlton.. "You may want to see this".

Rita watched as Carlton kicked down the door in the usual fashion, it wasn't until the door was fully opened and carlton had already protected his nose that the stench hit her. Choking a little in surprise, it caused her to squint slightly as she stepped forward in response to Carlton. "what is it?" she asked rhetorically but not recognising the smell of death, Rita peered into the room. It was moments like these that she recalls the 'Curiosity killed the cat' Phrase quite vividly. "Yuck, Carlton. what the hell" she immediately looked away and stepped back from the door, she'd seen a dead body before but not like that.... she could feel her throat tense a little as she closed her eyes away from the sight. Carlton seemed to be unphased by the body as much, had he seen this all too often? Rita hadn't even noticed the notes on the floor. "Carlton just close it, we'll go somewhere else or something"

Carlton looked back at Rita as she repulsed backwards from the sight and smell of the body.. She looked disgusted, scared and it was clear she had never seen anything like this before. Carlton had done a few house calls to for dead relatives but he himself had never seen anything quite this disgusting before. However, he felt fairly unfazed by it and moved into the room. Rita told him to close the door and move on but Carlton's curiosity couldn't help but get the better of him.

He moved slowly into the room, making sure to cover his mouth and nose at all times to hide the stench. He knelt down a little and looked at the hanging girl dead in the eyes..it almost looked like she was looking right back at him..Carlton shook his head for a moment as he looked back at Rita who was now watching vividly at the doorway. Carlton stood up properly before moving the hanging body to the floor to show some respect.. some flies buzzed off of her and out of the room past Rita's head. He grabbed a nearby cover and place it over the body of the dead girl.

He picked up some of the letters from the floor.. "Rita, come take a look at these.. I'm gonna go take the body downstairs.. She deserves to rest better than this damn place".

Rita felt a little better when carlton covered the body, if anything it felt as though the smell had decreased significantly, even though it probably hadn't. Better enough to walk back over towards the bathroom, she watched as carlton began to carry the body, wondering if the woman was heavy as dead weight or not. it had been there a while. Not mentioning her petty thoughts she picked up the notes. "probably some soppy suicide letter to her partner or something," she grumbled trying to lighten the situation a little, taking a glance at them but without actually reading before following Carlton out of the room.

Glancing at it again after closing the door she had read the word 'sorry' and immediately knew it was going to be soppy. "I cant read this." more like, just didn't want to, in any case she quickly caught up and stuffed it into Carltons back pocket as he carried the woman. Rita was never particularly good at pickpocketing so he probably noticed her putting it there, ah well. "you gonna dig a hole for the body? it's dark already"

Carlton walked past Rita with the body of the woman draped over his shoulder as she walked past him back into the room and picked up what appeared to be the suicide notes on the floor of the bathroom. Carlton carefully climbed down the stairs making sure that the body never got in front of his vision and blocked view of his feet so he could place each step with care and precision. He closed his eyes as he reached the bottom and shook his head.. It was moments like these which made Carlton question why he was here in the first place. But no, he could not be thinking this way.. thoughts like these are just ones that lead him down paths which lead back to the same night he had repeated far too many times over in his head.

Rita was now down the stairs and passed Carlton with the notes and stuffed them into his back pocket, "I can't read this, you gonna dig a hole? It's dark already", she carried on. Carlton turned to her as he rest the body on the sofa in the living room. "You're right, it's getting too late already.. I'm gonna leave her here for now and then dig the hole in the morning.. It was a long trip out here and this kind of thing has taken it out of me already. I'll have a look at these notes if you want to shower?"

Rita appeared to nod as Carlton grabbed the notes from his back pocket. There was a large handful of them and the first one read as he expected, "Sorry my love, I cannot bare this world any longer. Take care of Anna for me, signed Jill." Carlton sighed as he shook his head, How could any mother be so cowardly to leave their own child motherless? Carlton had his life ripped for him so he had little respect for those that would take their own so easily. However, once he began to scan through the rest of the notes.. It suddenly started to make his heart pound a lot harder. The notes were not of someone taking their own life.. But of fear of those around them. The notes described that the neighbors were slowly become aware of her presence and how she wouldn't be around much longer.. Eventually the notes devolved into the same message over and over. The same suicide note that started with "Sorry my Love.." but the letters became more distorted and disfigured as he quickly scanned from note to note, almost chucking each one aside..

"SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE SORRY MY LOVE "

The last note was covered in the same phrase uttered over and over to the point that there was no white left on the paper except between the letters themselves. Carlton was no longer tired.. He was terrified. He needed to tell Rita about this.