Sirens. Blaring Noises. Incoherent Voices. Flashing Red and Blue Lights. The courtyard at the reserve was filled with hustle and bustle. But instead of tourists, there were an innumerable number of police uniform wearing officers walking around and grabbing statements from anyone that may have been involved in the incident. Six children had gotten kidnapped 2 hours earlier. This was definitely a huge issue that could even make front page news on every news paper in the country. They had to be quick and efficient.
A Mercedes Benz Coupe pulled up at the front and a large man walked out of it. He had a stable on his chin with aging lines criss crossing all over his bloated face. His body stood tall at almost 1.9 meters but his largest aspect was most definitely his towering belly that flopped side to side as he walked over towards the other officers and detectives.
"Constable Jacobs sir"
"Constable"
"Constable"
The officers all around saluted the large man but disdain flashed in the depths of their eyes. Clearly none of these men and women respected the man, they only respected his position as a superior. The man himself did not seem to care in the least though as he raised his arm as a sign of acknowledgement to all those officers and stood next to one of them while gazing at her questioningly.
"Sir as far as we know some children from a school nearby had been going on a tour of the reserve park and all was going well until they were stopped by army standard SUVs with men armed with semi automatic rifles inside them. Those men killed the Rangers and took 6 of the kids with them and drove away leaving everyone else in the busses. That was 2 hours ago. We arrived 30 minutes ago and that was all the information we got" said the officer is slowly and concisely as she possibly could.
"Hmm... Did we set up search teams to go find them?" asked the constable while while lowering his gaze from the officer's face down to her chest and then to her thighs. The officer could only grit her teeth at this.
"Yes, we have prepared a search team. We have gotten some rangers to join us and they have already left 10 minutes ago. They are radioing in every few minutes with updates as we speak"
"Good, Good. You're very good. People like you are the heart and soul of our police force. If you ever want a raise in the future just come talk to me I promise we'll work something out" said the man while licking his dry lips and using his hand to scratch his crotch. The surrounding officers could only watch on in silence. This constable is no good man. There have been numerous cases of female officers being fired or demoted in the past because of his harrassment. It seems he's found a new target.
"Thank you sir I'll go busy myself with other things" said the woman trying to create some distance between them but the large man reached over and grabbed her hand.
"Uh uh... You seem like the smartest one here, I want you very very close to me. Okay everyone, now that I, Constable Jacobs, am here I will be in charge, so I want everyone to-"
"Actually, No. I'm in charge here" said someone from behind the constable before he could finish his words. The constable became angry. When had anyone ever undermined his authority? He was the Constable of the regional Police department. How dare they interrupt him when he speaks.
"And who the fuck are you?" said the constable while turning, only to see a large group of almost 30 armed personnel in black suits walking over. They looked over everyone and said some things to themselves in a different language that none of the officers understood.
The constable was fuming at being ignored. "Excuse Me!! Did you not hear-"
"Trust me I heard you, but this is beyond you jurisdiction. Tell your men to set up a perimeter over here and bring vehicles to search here and here. We'll handle the rest from there okay fatty? Okay boys let's hear out." said the agent that spoke before. He seemed to be the leader of the group and everyone followed his directive.
The constable was interrupted twice by now and he could not give a damn about anything that the agent said. This was his backyard, he's a King here. Whoever sent this man had better have a damn good explanation, but so long he could start making trouble for them.
"How dare you? Who are you? I have reason to believe you are part of the people who kidnapped those innocent kids. Officers, arrest these men" said the constable with a tomato red face.
Seeing this, the officers could only go along with their superior. "Yes sir" they said while approaching the agents.
"You better not resist, otherwise we will shoot to kill. Now as I was saying-"
"You don't want to do this" said the head agent calmly. Even though he and his men were surrounded, he seemed like he had the whole situation under control. This further enraged the constable. It's the third time now. Before he could say anything the agent spoke first.
"Pick up your phone"
"..."
"What do you m-"
*Ring Ring*
The constable grit his teeth with scalding hatred radiating from his eyes. He wanted to not pick up the phone. But then he remembered the calm look that the agent had and a foreboding feeling came over him. His hand somehow shifted away his flabby stomach to reach into his front pocket where he was able to grab his phone and pick up the call.
"This is Constable Jacobs, who am I spea-"
"Shut up!! You fucking idiot Shut up!! Do you know who you're dealing with? I just got a call from the High judge at the Supreme Court telling me you're being a nuisance in an investigation. Listen here you piece of shit... I've been wiping your ass since you were a fat-faced little fuck of a baby and now you're a fat-faced fuck of a piece of trash 45 years later and I still have to wipe your ass?! You better listen to those people. Or else losing your job might be the least of your worries."
*Click* ... *Beep Beep Beep*
"..."
"..."
The man on the other end dropped the call but the constable couldn't bring himself to say anything back. Why? Because that was his father, the police chief in the province. His father was the reason why his time in the force was so easy, why he could strut around doing nothing and still get accomplishments and even why his harrassment of lower officers never gets any repercussive actions.
It seems like this time he really kicked the bucket.
And to make matters worse, that phone was on speaker. So all the officers in the area heard the embarrassing call. They all stopped and looked at the embarrassed figure standing there looking all shriveled up and although they had the impulse to laugh they held themselves back. The constable also came back to himself and spoke.
"Stop Stop. How dare you try to arrest such upstanding citizens. You better apologise." said the constable offloading his anger at the officers. He looked back at the agents apologetically but the agents did not even glance at him and looked at the detective instead.
"You questioned all the witnesses and sent out a search party already that's good. We already have some teams heading here from the South African Army and they should at least add some numbers. I'm not going to lie your South African Army isn't really the best, but it's all we can manage for now. When are those search teams sending communications?" said the agent while walking towards the setup tent of the detectives. The other officers started following them as well.
"They should be sending communications within the minute as they've been sending them every 5 minutes now" said the female detective respectfully. She couldn't help but note the odd accent of the man. These people may not be South African.
"Okay good. Keep me posted." said the man, but before he could do anything there was a major commotion within the tent.
"What's happening?" asked the female detective to one of the officers who were currently moving towards them. The officer looked a bit dazed and surprised.
"They found them. They found the kids. They were driving back by themselves. They're being brought back as we speak" said the officer with Audible excitement in his voice.
"What?!"
There was shock in the countenances of all the officers. Even the agents were surprised by this turn of events, but they hoped that the person they were looking for was among the kids they spoke about, otherwise the consequences may be dire.
"Don't relax, set up a blockade at the inner gates. We will wait for them in case anything happens"
"Yes sir" said the rest of the officers. After a few minutes the blockade was set up and the officers were armed and ready for action.
And so, 15 minutes later some police vehicles from the inner wildlife park pulled into the area and out walked the kidnapping victims all of them alive and well. Among them, a blonde girl walked out causing the solemn looks of the agents to brighten up considerably.
"Prin- *Cough Cough* Young Miss Rosaline, we've come to bring you away. Please come with us." said the agent while bowing slightly causing surprise to flash in the eyes of all those present.
"Okay" said the blonde girl while walking towards the men. The men formed a protective line around her and walked her out of the area. But before she could leave, she glanced back at an unassuming boy that just came out of another police vehicle. The boy only glanced back with a flicker of a gentle smile in his eyes.
"Alright the rest of you should follow the officers. You guys should get them checked out. Make sure nothing happened to them. I mean nothing at all. Also after some time, take some statements from them on what happened. I want to know everything" said the head agent who remained behind with a few others.
The kids were taken towards a medical station where they were checked out and although they had some bruises, most of their scars would most definitely be of the mental and emotional kind. After some time the children were questioned by some detectives only to find out that the main reason why the children were able to get away was because of the actions of one among them. And after some questioning the looks on their faces became all sorts of shapes and colours.
The boy was currently surrounded by some officers who were currently quiet after the boy gave them his account on what happened. They could not believe it.
"So you said that the SUV you were in somehow flipped over on itself allowing you to grab a gun from one of the kidnappers and shoot them while they were dazed..." asked one officer with disbelief laced in his tone only for the boy to reply with a short and sweet answer.
"Yep"
"..."
"And then you waited until some other guys came from the front and the back. You shot the guy at the front and managed to do the same to the other guy too..."
"Exactly" said the boy with a nod. The officers could only curse inwardly at how calm the boy was back then and even now. What kind of boy could do that?
"And then you approached the third vehicle and shot that kidnapper too and then hid and waited until the final kidnapper approached only for you to shoot him as well this killing all the kidnappers..."
"Yes, that is exactly what happened sir" said the boy with another nod. The officers were sweating at this point. How did this kid grow up? Something told them the kidnappers were unlucky to meet this kid.
"..."
"..."
"Umm sir, am I in trouble?" asked the boy respectfully after a brief period of awkward silence. His dark, black eyes radiated a calm and confidence that gave the officers the feeling that this boy was definitely not simple.
"*Cough Cough* Ofcourse not, kid. The situation back then was absolutely not under your control. You merely acted in self defence to protect yourself and the other kids around you. You're definitely a hero." said a detective with a thumbs up. The other officers joined him in congratulating the kid for making it out and having the mental strength to be okay afterwards.
The boy merely smiled and nodded towards them but no surprise or agitation was seen in his countenance.
"Okay you must be hungry Neh? Ooi, someone take this boy to the cafeteria where his other friends are and get him some food as well."
"Yes sir" said an officer who called out a teacher to bring the kid back. The officers were now waiting for confirmation of the information based on the descriptions of the kids and then they would handle the situation as it progresses.
Meanwhile, the not was walking towards the cafeteria with a calm and collected atmosphere about him. Although his clothes were stained with blood it wasn't his. This somewhat terrified the teacher beside him who wished for nothing more than the ability to make time go faster so he didn't have to spend another minute around this unfathomable child.
"Okay here we are you can go on and hang out with your friends now" said the teacher as he slinkily sneaker away to go tell the other teachers what he found out.
Leonidas could only smile wryly at this. He had been cultivating the image of a Demon the whole year. And now it seemed that it had finally turned into a reality. He looked around only to see all the other children whispering to each other and blatantly failing to meet his gaze. He shook his head, grabbed a meal and sat down at an empty table.
So what if he killed people. Life is a struggle. They may not understand this now, but they will in the future.
Well, hopefully from now on all those idiots won't bother him too much.
...
At another location, a fireplace shone resplendently while emitting beautiful light in a room. The walls of the room were adorned with famous paintings from the greatest reneisance era painters. There was one man seated in the couch drinking aged red wine. Another man stood respectfully before him as he was explaining the events that happened in the reserve park.
"... And that's what happened my lord" said the man while bowing respectfully.
"Hmm... A 13 year old boy disrupted our plans? Find out all you can about him. He might be a hidden guard for the Princess." said the seated man, whose features were shrouded in darkness.
"Yes sir" replied the other man, a cold glint flashing through his eyes. This was a mission that he had set up, and it failed. The boy had to die.
"But no matter who he is or what he is capable of, make sure to kill him" continued the man almost as if reading the servant's mind. The servant merely smiled and walked backwards while still bowing. After reaching a certain distance away, he turned around and exited the room.