The Blue Eyes

"Why do you think like that?"

That question got him stunned. It seemed like he didn't expect that the girl beside him would catch his whisper. He seemed to forget that the girl was not just an ordinary human.

Jack stared at Blue with an unreadable gaze. Blue was unwavering and still gazing at him with the same gaze.

"Nevermind," Jack replied as he drew his gaze away from the young girl. "Let's go to another place." He then started the car engine.

Blue was still frowning at Jack. It looked like she was disappointed to hear that kind of response from Jack.

Even so, she decided to let the matter past and brought up a new subject. "There is an abandoned coal mine not far from here. We can go there and start our investigation," she stated as she fished out her phone from her pants pocket.

"There's a place like that here, but you didn't tell me earlier?" Jack asked in disbelief.

Blue didn't rebuke and just calmly looked at the map on her phone.

Seeing the girl was unresponsive, Jack could only sigh and started driving the black jeep.

"I've done a little research about this district last night," the girl finally replied. "I've known that there's an abandoned mine, but I wanted us to check other places first before investigating the mine. Unfortunately, nothing was suspicious in this district when we were investigating around earlier."

Yeah, what Blue had said was right. They had traveled around the district for an hour, but everything seemed normal to them. There were no places like secret bases or something in the district. The people in the district were also normal. Most of them were peasants who only knew how to grow crops.

"Won't you give me the directions to the mine? I'm not a local. Just in case you forget."

Blue chuckled when she heard the man's annoyed response. She just realized that she didn't give Jack directions to the mine. "Just keep go ahead for now," she then said.

Jack rolled his eyes and silently followed the instructions.

The atmosphere in the car was engulfed by silence. The black jeep shook a little as its wheels rolling on an uneven and rocky road.

"Kris was quite thoughtful to rent this type of car for us," Jack commented as he carefully drove on the road.

"You two are in a bad term now, but you can't stop talking about him, Jack."

Jack's eyes widened at Blue's reply. It seemed like he just realized that he mentioned Kris so many times today. He couldn't help but feel cringe.

The blue-eyed girl peeked at the man beside her. Jack was tight-lipped and seemed to have no intention to respond to her. She couldn't help but feel more curious. Jack was acting like a blurry book now. She couldn't read the man's mind.

The girl then turned her head ahead again and chose to brush off her thoughts. "You just need to follow this road. This road will lead us to the mine," she commanded as she fished her phone to her pants pocket again.

"What if we still can't find anything after we investigate the mine, Blue?" Jack asked.

Blue didn't immediately respond. Her eyes looked out of the windows, staring at the green paddy fields that seemed to move backward when their car moving forward.

"If we can't find anything here, then my uncle and Brother Kevin may find something in Rodein. You only gave us two alternatives, after all," she replied nonchalantly.

Jack seemed unhappy after hearing the reply. "So, you want to say that it will be my mistake if we can't find anything in the two districts?"

"Of course," Blue quickly answered. "We depend on your memory, Jack. It's a foolish way to do an investigation, but we have no other choice."

"A foolish way? You want to say that I'm a fool?"

"I didn't mean that, but your memory may be wrong. There are so many districts in Serein, after all."

Jack didn't rebuke anymore. He couldn't rebuke. Blue was not wrong by saying that. Humans and werewolves had limitations in their memories, after all. Jack's memory could be wrong, and their efforts could be fruitless.

None of them speaking again after Blue finished stating her thoughts. The blue eyes suddenly widened when they caught sight of a wonderful scene ahead. That was the abandoned mine!

The Jeep finally stopped, and the two youths then hopped down from the Jeep and walked over to the mine. They stopped on the edge of the mine and looked at the large pit. It was hundreds of meters wide and around fifty meters deep. It was just like a giant hole on the Earth.

"The coal company just left this site after they exploited the resources?" Jack asked as his eyes kept traveling around the mine.

"That's why it's called an abandoned mine," Blue replied. "The company obviously didn't want to spend money for restoration. They just left after they got what they wanted."

Jack shook his head in disbelief. "Can you guess what landscape it was before it turned to this large pit?" He asked again.

Blue didn't immediately answer. She glanced around the area and found out that the area was not completely plain. It was rather hilly and rocky, and there was no paddy field near the pit. Blue could guess that the soil type in that area was not good enough for agriculture. Moreover, the soils there looked harder and more solid than the soils in the paddy field area.

"It was a mountain before," Blue finally concluded.

Jack, who was standing beside her, furrowed his brows and turned to her. "How can you know?" He asked.

"Just look at the remaining hills in this area. There are cutting traces that remain on them. The rocks and the soil in this area are also more solid than the paddy fields area. It was a mountain many years ago."

Jack gaped at the girl's explanation. "I didn't expect that you're a genius, Blue," he said.

The young girl turned to him and stared at him with a lazy gaze. "I'm not genius. It's you that's not too smart."

Jack gasped at the girl's response. He was about to scold Blue, but the girl had started walking away from him. She walked down the pit, and Jack didn't have any other choice than to follow her.

"Do you know when did the company stop operating this mine?" Jack asked as he walked behind Blue. His eyes couldn't stop wandering to his surroundings. "It looks like we're on a journey to the center of the Earth, Blue!" He exclaimed while grinning widely.

That was hyperbolic, though. The center of the Earth was more than 6.000 kilometers deep. They were currently just going down around fifty meters deep.

Blue rolled her eyes but still answered the man's question, "I read on the internet that the company stopped operating the mine five years ago."

Jack's eyes stopped wandering and focused on Blue's narrow back. "They just recently stopped the operation? No wonder the traces of the mining are remaining."

Their journey to the bottom of the pit was quite long. It was no wonder since they had to walk following the circled road that used to be the road for the trucks to transport the materials.

"Do you know how did the company take the coal from here, Blue?" Jack was like a little kid who couldn't stop asking.

"They removed the topsoil, then drilled and blasted the strata overlying the coal. They then loaded and transported the fragmented overburden material, and finally drilled and blasted the coal. After that, they loaded and transported the coals. They should've have backfilled this pit with the fragmented overburden material after transporting the coal, but they didn't do that. That's why it remains as an open pit."

Jack was bewildered by Blue's detailed explanation. The girl was indeed genius that he was speechless. They didn't converse again as they continued walking down to the bottom of the pit.

It took nearly twenty minutes for them to reach the bottom of the pit. They were now standing at the center of the pit, looking up to their surroundings, and they felt like they were trapped inside a giant well.

"This place is spectacular!" Jack exclaimed, and his expression was like a little kid.

Blue didn't join the joy as she sensed something was not right in that place. Something was not right, but she couldn't find out what was that.

"But, it will be better if they restored it by doing backfill and plant some vegetation. Am I right, Blue?" Jack spoke again. He was smiling, but his smile vanished when he noticed Blue's strange expression. "Blue, are you okay?" He asked as he waved his hand in front of the young girl.

Blue blinked once and looked up at him. "I think I know why they didn't backfill this pit," she suddenly stated. "They didn't backfill it because there was no fragmented overburden material to backfill it. They moved that material somewhere!"