David is perplexed about what he should do. Should he go undercover to try to find out more about The Paperboy? Or should he decline Captain Jackson's offer and try to lead an everyday life from now on?
He decides to go undercover and meet up with Captain Jackson.
Jackson is thrilled that David agreed to go undercover and explains the mission to him. He explains that recently the department received a call regarding the whereabouts of The Paperboy. This person had helpful information regarding The Paperboy's location. The man was apparently a survivor of one of The Paperboy's attacks. He tells David that the man is currently at the station and can go to an interview to gain more information on the situation.
Jackson tells David how they are having a hard time tracking the IP of The Paperboy due to him using a VPN when he uses his phone. He states that they are currently trying to crack the code, but that could take days, weeks, or even months to break. He then says that he wants David to talk to the survivor to try to get any more leads on The Paperboy.
"But what if he doesn't provide us anything useful?" David asks.
"We keep trying. We're not going to give up that easily," Captain Jackson says in a severe tone.
"I understand," David responds.
Captain Jackson tells David that they have the survivor somewhere safe and should go there now and talk to him about The Paperboy.
Detective Claire Masters sits at her desk reading through some case files. She has just come back from a massive success with helping the FBI, and it's time to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Namely, time off. She is going over old case files to see if any possible unsolved cases need to be re-opened. She finds a file that reads:
CASE 2934; Murder-Suicide, Victims (3), Survivors (2) Suspects (1)
She remembers the two kids they talked to and their cousin. Then something dawns on her. Their cousin said, "find the guy who did this, and you'll be doing me a great service." She opens the file and begins to read the interview notes when she stops at the name Uncle Jack.
"That's what the kid called him in the interview," she says to herself.
She then begins to feel sick to her stomach as fear begins to come over her. "How did we miss this..."
She decides that there is only one way she'll get more information on this, and it will be with a personal visit.
She packs up her things and leaves the building. She arrives at a bar that she knows him to go to. She waits outside for him until he comes out. He is surprised to see her.
"Claire, what a pleasant surprise," he says while trying to maintain balance.
"Mr. Morgan..." she says in a severe tone. "I know what you did."
Jack gets noticeably quieter and struggles to maintain his balance. She grabs him and pulls him into a random alleyway. She then shows him a printed-out dossier on what he did after coming home from the war.
"How did you...but I made sure to hide all evidence!" he says, panicked.
"People can only keep their mouth shut for so long, and the families of your victims wanted justice and with good reason," she informs him in a severe tone.
He backs away slowly from her as he reaches for something in his pocket. She draws her gun from her holster and aims it at him.
"Don't make me do this, Mr. Morgan," she says, aiming the gun at his head just as another squad car pulls up.
He continues to fumble with his pocket as he becomes more nervous. Then, an explosion knocks them off their feet.
The Paperboy watches as the package he dropped off at the bar goes off with a huge blast. He laughs as he grabs another box out of the hatchback. He lights it with his lighter and throws it into the alleyway. An explosion occurs shortly afterward as the bar is completely destroyed in a fiery explosion.
"See you in hell, pigs."
--
Detective Masters wakes up in a hospital room, heavily bandaged and with her left arm in a sling.
"Detective, you're awake!" the doctor exclaims as she enters the room. "You had us worried there for a bit."
"What happened?" she asks groggily.
"Well, after the bomb went off, you were barely alive. If first responders hadn't arrived when they did, you probably wouldn't be here now. One officer had minor cuts, and another had a broken arm, and those are the closest to "lucky" compared to you and Mr...." she trails off mid-sentence.
"Mr. Morgan," she finishes.
She figured as much. She's the only one in the hospital that got this bad; chances are Mr. Morgan didn't make it. She sits in silence for a moment while the doctor finishes her hospital checkups for the day and leaves her alone.
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"What a fool," she says to herself. "Who blows themselves up? Granted, I guess it does prevent him from going to prison and getting a crappy cellmate named Beep-Beep or something."
She chuckles at the thought, which hurts her chest. She decides not to laugh for a couple weeks.
--
The Paperboy strikes again in Little Havana; this time, two government officials and their chauffeur are killed when their car explodes. The only evidence is a cell phone found at the scene playing a recording of some creepy song. The FBI is stumped, the President is getting impatient, and the public is both angry and scared. The department is doing everything it can to capture The Paperboy, but he's proving elusive to the point where some think that he might not even be a single person.
--
David begins searching the dark web for clues about The Paperboy. After finding a few trap websites that nearly catch him into downloading some malware, he manages to find a forum post that mentions a dark website.
Hey, I found this dark website that has all this Paperboy stuff on it! (LINK REMOVED) ~paperboyroxs26
The Paperboy forums are full of people arguing over who the culprit is. Some say it's a teenaged Syrian Refugee; others say it's an overweight black guy that lives down the street. Most think it's a self-named "TNT Freak" who delights in making homemade explosives.
The forums are poorly designed and covered in terrible memes. Then coming across something that turns his stomach. He sees a video that looks like it was recorded from a tree, watching a girl in her house, then the video cuts to the girl being followed. David immediately shuts off the video.
"Found any leads?" Detective Gates asks from the doorway.
"Yeah...I think I found the Paperboy."
--
STILL MISSING PERSONS:
Daniel Mark Dixon - Age at Disappearance: 15 - Last Seen: In Buffalo, New York
Sara Dawn Arnet - Age at Disappearance: 16 - Last Seen: In Weippe, Idaho
Henry Ian Owens - Age at Disappearance: 16 - Last Seen: In Stillwater, Minnesota
Olivia Marizza - Age at Disappearance: 16 - Last Seen: In Grand Island, New York
David William Pacheco III - Age at Disappearance: 15 - Last Seen: In Nixa, Missouri
Emma Jean Campos - Age at Disappearance: 15 - Last Seen: In Redding, California
Hannah Priscilla Parsons - Age at Disappearance: 15 - Last Seen: In Conway, Arkansas
--
Theo's mom wakes him up from his sleep and tells him Uncle Jack went back to Chicago and won't ever be coming around anymore. She says the family is leaving for Missouri, and they will be living with her mom for a while until things settle. She gives Theo a new navy blue shirt and a pair of jeans, then packs his oversized wardrobe and destroys the rest. They head out at dawn. Theo understands that the events that took place last night must have made his mom afraid to live here.
Theo has never been to Missouri before, so he decides to look out the window instead of sleeping like he usually does while traveling. More cornfields go by for the next five hours until they reach the exit toward Missouri. They finally arrive at their destination in a little town called Edwood and sleep at their Grandma's house. She makes them dinner, and afterward, Theo goes out into the backyard and checks his TikTok as the sun goes down. He sees that he has a new message from PB.
Theo's palms begin to sweat as he unlocks his phone and clicks the notification. The message starts to play as he watches a video of himself asleep on the floor. It must have been filmed by someone else in the room. He sees his mom and another man in a mask enter the room and stick a needle into his arm. He watches himself begin to have a seizure as his muscles clench and his body goes into shock. Then the video ends.
Theo hears a strange ticking coming from behind him and turns around. A figure all in black wearing a white mask with a hole cut out for the eyes stands behind the fence.
Mom? He asks himself as the figure rises a hand shaped like a gun toward him.
--
Theo opens his eyes as the sun glares into his face. He looks next to him, expecting his mom to be there, but she isn't. He sits up and sees her putting stuff into the house from the car.
"Morning, sweetie," she says.
Theo looks around his room and sees they never left for Missouri, that it was another dream. He grabs his cell phone and sees he had a call during the night but decides to ignore it. He gets out of bed and walks downstairs.
--
David has found a way to contact The Paperboy using a hacked messaging app that erases itself shortly after the conversation is over. He uses code to avoid simple keyword detection but knows The Paperboy will probably have ways around that.
SO YOU ARRIVED SAFELY outside of the sandbox.
David texts back using his thumbs: YES, JUST ARRIVED THIS MORNING.
David walks back to the bedroom. He grabs a small flip phone and calls his contact at the diner.
"Yeah," says an older man on the other line.
"Hey, this is David."
"Hoo-rah, kid! You made contact?"
"Yes, the message will be relayed soon."
--
Theo's phone is getting blown up with DMs and tags to other videos. All the videos are private, so he has to follow the accounts to view them. He notices that the accounts all follow each other but have no other followers. The Paperboy is either a group of people or one really lonely person. Theo begins watching the videos; they're all amateur horror films that look like they were filmed by kids. Most of them look like The Blair Witch Project and nearly put Theo to sleep.
He is jolted out of his sleepiness when he comes across videos of himself. He is in worse shape, with most of his face covered in blood. The rest of his body isn't doing too well either, with many cuts and bruises. Theo feels lightheaded as he watches himself struggle against the tape that ties him up. His mouth is gagged; he needs water, but the only thing close by is his complimentary hotel water bottle. He keeps watching the videos and sees two people with him, both wearing masks, a man and a woman. Sounds like they are talking to each other, but the sound's quality is hardly any better than the video. It almost sounds like they're speaking another language. They continue to taunt Theo, who is still trying to get free of his bounds. The woman grabs him by the hair and slaps him in the face a couple times.
"Who could be recording this?" He thinks to himself.
The woman and man step out of the view of the camera for a moment. Theo wishes he could look away, but he is stuck to the screen like flies to... whatever icky thing flies like to stick to.
They return with kitchen knives in their hands not saying a word. They cut into Theo, and it hurts him more than he could have ever imagined. He looks down and, for the first time, sees scars on his body. He never knew they were there; he must have been in some sort of shock. He can hardly take it anymore as they carve into him, doing God knows what. Sitting and suffering through this has brought him to the verge of insanity. The bending point comes when he watches them carve "RAPIST" into his chest. He looks down at his chest and sees the leftover words starting to scar over.
"How could they know? How could anyone know," Theo thought to himself. He could feel his grip on reality slipping away from him. How did they know the awful traumas that have crushed him so easily forgotten? "Everyone will know, everyone will see the words carved into me and know about Hanna..."