Candice rubbed at her eyes as she leaned back in her uncomfortable leather bound office chair. She could not put the strange encounter she had a week past from her mind. There was just something off and unnatural about the events of that cold November night. It wasn't just the red haired young man being impossibly fast and strong. He was ominous in his warnings, she could still hear that warning echoing in her mind over and over. It was those words: "Some people..., some things?"
The boy was running from someone, and whoever it was had traumatized him to the point of desperation to keep away from them. He had been damaged significantly psychologically by what had transpired with the demons that were chasing him. Not only did she have an endangered youth on her hands, but she also had dangerous fugitives after him, people who needed to be behind bars in the darkest prison possible, permanently. People like the ones that occupied her thoughts the past week were the reason she became an officer of the law in the first place. They abused her as a child, beating her until someone intervened on her behalf, and lifted her out of her own nightmare in a home where she was a prisoner. The constant neglect and physical abuse had left her scared, and the threats of retaliation for reporting the abusers had bestowed on her a feeling of helplessness. Candice could still remember the days after her abusers were jailed, the fear and anxiety of being tormented further. A nice lady in the apartment complex happened to see the bruises through the dirt and called the local police who performed a wellness check. The abusers were arrested and she was saved by an unnamed angel. Finally, a healing process could slowly happen and with healing, purpose.
After a long road in college, with a major in Criminal Justice and then police academy, she now led the charge to lift others, to save them from the hell life had cursed them with. Life had landed her in a little town called Willow Springs, Missouri, in the southern portion of the state. She had not been able to do as much good as she had hoped but some change was better than none. Here was a rare chance to make a change for a youth in danger. Candice had very little evidence to use to try to track the young man. She had been able to lift a fingerprint on a piece of her equipment that he had inadvertently touched but could not find a matching set in any database. Candice had a few of his stray red hairs from the encounter but nothing from the DNA. The kid had never existed. He had never had a passport, never had his prints taken at school, never had DNA stored for fast search as some parents do, and sometimes, especially with troubled youth, they had run-ins with the law, but he was not in those databases either. He was not in the Homeland Security Database, Department of Health, or DMV, there was nothing.
There was something about his features too. He had sharp, tightly drawn features, almost impish. His complexion was lighter, almost grey like he was locked away for most of his life in a dark place, but his eyes had spooked her the most. They were almost clear, stormy grey. When he tackled her, it had to have been the suddenness, the fear, but it was as though it was feral with the way he bared his teeth. His canines looked as though they were lightly extending as his anger increased, but everything happened very quickly, and with what he said he had been through, if some stranger had touched her, she would have reacted in kind. She had reacted the same way in the past when others had touched her shortly after her ordeal. She would shift between cringing, unexplainable fear, to episodes of exploding anger.
He also seemed at first to be suffering from apprehension from the encounter with her, skittish at the sight of her. But soon, as kids who had been through trauma, he had warmed up to her, or so it had seemed. Soon it had shown that trust was an act and he lashed out at her. It all would fit together that his abuser would be a woman. He showed both fear and distrust toward her and he showed extreme anger when he thought himself betrayed by the woman.
A knock came at her office door softly, interrupting her thoughts as she pondered her new case. She glanced up at the clock and it read 9:15 PM. Candice furrowed her brow worriedly. As the Chief of Police, she worked at all hours. Someone at the door of her office this late at night was never made for a good meeting.
"Come, it is unlocked," She called to the stranger on the other side of the door. She sat up straight in her chair, doing her best to smooth her uniform. Taking a quick drink of the lukewarm coffee sitting on her table, Candice made a mental note that it needed re-heated after she got done with whoever was coming through the door. She looked at the cluttered desk and quickly covered up any of the sensitive information but it was hopeless to make it presentable in the short span before the door opened.
A middle-aged woman with greying brown hair and an albino youth opened the door quietly. The woman meekly came to the desk with her head bowed slightly, silently holding a picture face down while heaving a small sob. Candice took the picture and upon examination, she saw the face of the endangered youth that she was looking for. Candice's face hardened some as the realization dawned on her that these were the people who must have traumatized the young man, the ones he was so desperately running away from. The Chief of Police gestured for the pair to take a seat at the pair of wooden chairs positioned in front of her desk.
"Have you seen my bo..my boy officer?" the woman asked as she could no longer hold back her tears. The lady was wearing sunglasses though it was dead of night. Something did not feel right about this encounter with this pair.
"I may have, but if I did, I would need to ask some questions first," Candice said sternly. She was not going to relinquish any information to the pair until she had some idea about what was going on with the young man and his home life.
"Of course, whatever is needed to find him! Please.." the unidentified lady said with another sniffle.
"Well, first I need to see some identification for you and your boy. Standard for any case involving a minor. We need to establish that you are in fact his guardian." Candice asked politely, trying to keep things professional.
"Oh, to hell with this!" the albino snarled. He pushed past the sitting lady, knocking her to the floor, and drug Candice over the desk by the front of her uniform. Candice let out a scream but she knew it was useless. Willow Springs was a small town with a small department. Tonight, the shift was hers and she was alone. The albino had a maddening grin plastered on his face and she gazed in horror as his canines grew into large fangs. Her eyes locked his and she felt her will drain from her.
Candice watched now, trapped in her own mind, limp in the fist of this immensely strong man, the lady picked herself up off the ground.
"I had this Joshua," the woman said, glaring at the albino irritably, " there was no need to resort to compulsion or risk exposing us to the mortals."
Joshua laughed hysterically, "Why worry about exposure? These ants can't compete with gods. They are cattle and nothing more! Grow some balls, Karen."
"Need I remind you that your father left it to ME to lead this? You have never left the walls of Marumures. I think you will find these cattle a little less tame." Karen shot back at him angrily.
These are not things, these are monsters... Candice's brain screamed. Her armpits screamed in pain as her coarse shirt pulled at them as her heels dangled six inches above the wooden planks of the floor. For some reason that she could not fathom, Candice could not muster her limbs to respond to her commands to move.
"Well then, get on with it. You have her will, command her to give us the information." Karen said with some reluctance.
"See, was it so hard to accept this was easier?" Joshua said smugly, then setting Candice down none too gently he continued, "Now why don't you find us the information you have on our wayward sheep, every scrap, and hand it over?"
Candice's body, at the man's command, started moving collecting everything she had on the encounter of the boy, down to the scrap pieces of paper. There was going to be nothing left for evidence except her recollection of the events. She handed the small stack of papers to the smiling man, who thrust it victoriously at the woman.
"There is one more thing to take care of now," He said caressing her neck softly, "I have never got to taste wild human before."
"Really, NOW??" Karen demanded furiously. Joshua looked at her innocently, the smile never leaving his face and gave her a little shrug.
"She is the last well of information that he was here, so I am going to take care of that."
"Why don't you just wipe her damn memory like the rest? BODIES raise questions up here more than ludicrous stories of an impossible youth." She said almost completely exasperated.
Candice's heart rate became extremely elevated as she knew her death was imminent. She tried to bid herself, beg herself to move but there was still no response from her limbs. She was just a spectator to her murder, not an actor.
"Who said anything about draining her? Turning her will be so much fun for dear father, don't you think?" he asked sarcastically.
"He won't like it. You know we are already overpopulated."
"I know, but neither did I like going to the surface like some kind of Dhampir scum either!" He retorted bringing Karen's face to a furious beat flush. He turned back to his victim taking his time, looking her up and down appreciately. Karen walked to the window and stared out it.
"Just get it over with then," She finally said quietly.
Joshua gently tucked her in and she felt the bite on her neck but she couldn't move, she couldn't scream. A burning sensation started coursing through her body racing down her neck first and soon the pain increased to such a degree, then she felt the blackness of the void slip over her.
