Cachexia - Prologue

!Flash Report!

Location: Los Nostradame, 2030.

Date/Status: 08082030/Consigned/Cachexia/Heart Failure/Sustained/Under Heavy Treatment

Patient's NAME: Niles Cormagrion

Patient's ID: 112034B - Hospitalised inside Lavender's southwing, room 22D.

Patient's AGE: 26

Patient's GENDER: Male

Current status: Missing

Article: Was last reported missing on 080830. Current status: missing. Updated report: was last seen under a stone bridge near Los Nostradame's southern part. Last reported activity: Jumped from the top of the bridge and was missing. Not a body was found anywhere near the bridge or even inside the shallow river.

SAR's Report: A rope was found at the bottom of the river. A blunt knife was found on the crime scene. Not even a body was found inside the river after three days of thorough search that involves citizens around, Radius: 2kms away from the crime scene.

Concluded Report: Suspect may be still alive and living.

Current Status of Report: continued search of the body (dead/alive) for four days ahead.

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Date: 13th of August 2030

Time: 10:00AM

A loud crash and slam were heard from the front office.

Not only that, a loud bang too, followed not long after the loud crash and slam. Uncertain and slightly concerned on what was happening, the young officer who is still in his twenty five actually stood up from his deskーleaving all of his numerous sheets of what to do behindーand slowly made his way to the front office.

Just right before he can touch the handle, the next second the door was already opened abruptly, the male gulps. His forehead starts to get all sweaty when a male who looked like in his thirty throws a menacing glare to him.

"Jean Austane! Who told you to move from your desk and to involve yourself in this matter?" The older male asks in a loud voice as the smaller framed male who has the name of Jane actually fidgets and scratches the back of his head sheepishly.

His eyes starts to dart everywhere as he tried to find anykind of excuse he can make up, now the chief in charge seems to be in a foul mood.

"Um, sir, I was slightly concerned about what crashed inside yourー"

"ーIt's none of your fucking business! Go back and finish the contracts that you have yet to stamp and give them to me tomorrow, by due! Just don't make more of my works pile up now we have a case of missing person and a murder that haunts us for days already." And just like that, the Chief in charge actually shoves Jane's lithe body away from his view as he made his way through to the outside, with numerous folders in each of his hands.

Jean, actually relieved he can get away with such excuse merely sighs and stares into the direction where his Chief left.

He scratched the back of his head as he throws a glance back to the office's door that seemed to be locked already, now the Chief is out to somewhere and commanding him to finish the rest of his papers.

Jean, obviously returns to his desk after a minute of making sure no more chaos will brew inside the office now he is left alone with his married job, with no one going to ever bother him. He sighs and starts stamping the papers while pondering on what had just happened now the Chief is in foul mood.

"Certainly earlier he mentioned about the missing people... but he said, about the same murder too. I wonder what happened in Los Nostradame as of late...?" The young officer throws his body to the chair that made a small creak as he moves his body around, eyes darted to everywhere again.

Until he spotted a file on the floor that is just not far from his reach.

And instinctively, the male quickly jumps from his seat to snatch the file up and brought it across his face. His sweat dribbled from his forehead as he stares to the outside.

"Don't tell me Chief actually forgets this file... or does it actually fall from his hand earlier?" Jean quickly moves his hand to reach the telephone handle to call the Chief to get the file back in the office, but stopped once his eyes finds the headline on the article to be more than intriguing; compared to calling his Chief back now he gets to read what he might not have the chances later.

His eyes grows wider once he came to read the content briefly.

'BREAKING NEWS: A MISSING PERSON TURNS OUT TO BE A MURDERER. Niles Cormagrion, 26, was found on the street that is not far from the bridge he was last seen. He was apprehended after injuring at least twenty officers and SAR teams who tried to converse with him. Perpetrator seems to be more than an expert in killing area and now is taken custody to the law enforcers.'

Jean is confused at first, and starts pondering if this was what makes the Chief frantic earlier.

'But I thought Jean is sickly, so if that is really the case... how is he able to injure that much of people, if he has a Cachexia?' Jean flipped the paper to the back, looking at the details of his missing case and his illness status while furrowing his eyebrows, finding things to be odd here and there, if he really analyze it thoroughly.

"Some parts doesn't make sense..." Jean mutters as he starts rereading the whole article again before concluding everything in the best way, even when he isn't at least informed thoroughly about the recent report nor knowing the update, even though its really a trending topic in Los Nostradame City itself.

Yes, this case is actually the most renowned case in Los Nostradame during the last few days now even the young officers are informed about the odd situation of a missing patient from the Hospital, if his health is brought up upon.

A Cachexia is a terminall illness.

So how and why does a patient ran away when his life actually relies under life support were something that made the police wonder as well, especially after the Health Institute asks for the help to search on Niles himself. After an urgent report came to reach their ears, the entire department of Polices actually decides to put the status of 'finding missing person' on the bulletin as an emergency.

And that was how Jean came to learn about the famous case his Chief is trying to solve with.

Few days prior, Jean was entrusted with handling and distributing the papers of Niles's missing body. He was going around the town to ask for more informations but nothing much was gathered from; everything he'd learnt are the only things the citizen came to know as well. His notebooks were full of useless scribbles he just tuck the pages away and decides to end his investigation when he couldn't find any other 'clue' about the missing Niles.

Jean thought Niles actually ran himself away from the Hospital by the end of day he was about to return to the Office with empty hand. But that doesn't seem to be the case when he actually came to stumble into one interesting information he just gathered the next day, in which he directly put into the report: that Niles was last seen hanging around the bridge. The report itself, obviously, sends a huge uproar to every departments of the police who was assigned for this caseーa clue means an upgrade to their search.

The source itself came from a male that works not far from the bridge itself, just a bartender who had his name to be kept anonymous because he isn't directly involved, but sharing the information for cooperating with the polices.

Of course, every officers were actually trying to search the person named after Niles and waited for his appearance near the bridge for days straight after the booming clue, while still searching for his body; in case he was already no more. The search continued for three days aheadーwith most of the police officers are stationed everywhere nearby, but to no luck.

At least, until the very day Niles is still seated there on his chair while stamping his contracts.

"Then they apprehend Niles for assaulting the officers, just... today?" Jean concluded the whole situation from a quick analysis that takes him no longer than ten minutes approximate, with his brain starting to revolve around the case written on that article, and tried to find a connection. From the news, to the report, and even the important pieces that seemed to be clipped on the file the Chief carried; but left behind.

"No, no, everything doesn't really make sense." Jean concluded after matching the whole informations.

The male sighed at first but throws a quick scan to the photograph that was included in the news, then comparing it to the one that was added on his hospital report afterwards, just to make sure for one last time.

Jean furrows his eyebrows once he finds the expression of the twoーor even the generalization of their faceーare really different. The one who was apprehended had a mole near his lips, while the original Niles had no beauty marks spotted anywhere.

"...Is this really... Niles?" And Jean had to ponder further as his hand actually taps the wooden desk unconsciously, zooming to the file he held with the pair of sharp eyes.

He inspects every detailed part shown on the pictures from time to time, comparing it thoroughly. Once he spots the factual difference, he snaps his fingers and nods proudly; mostly for himself for pointing his guts about the whole thing.

'Yeah, no, this is different person.' Jean mused inwardly before grabbing the handle of the telephone again, and actually decides to give his Chief a call about the file now the timing seems to be perfect, as well.

And of course, telling him about what doesn't seem to make sense now he finds obvious differences in the report, even though he isn't directly involved with the Niles case; nor assigned for it. Though as he give a call, his brain starts to revert back to place zero and having all of his questions collided into one great question that bothers him so.

The question right now is: what on earth is actually happening?

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