{Monday, 12th September 2022}
ADRIAN HUNTER
“Happy one week anniversary to the time you almost died!” Melanie exclaimed. Her clapping and cheering garnered her the tired stares of everyone else in the classroom, but she could clearly care less. Mr. Harrows hadn't arrived for their lesson yet, so she could be as loud as she wanted till then.
“Thank you very much,” said Adrian, with a yawn.
“Thank you, and shut up,” said Alex, who had his face buried in his books, “Hey, how much have you guys actually read for this lesson anyways?”
Everyone tried, and failed, to sneak looks at each other and gauge their reactions. Adrian knew him and Isabelle had nothing to worry about. They were studying together over breakfast just the other day. He hadn’t gotten around to talking over any of the content with Neil yet, but he always looked deadpan, so his expression wouldn’t have given anything away anyways. Melanie was…Melanie. The only person Adrian wasn't sure about was Lyla.
“I'll just go ahead and put my hands up," she said, “I didn’t understand a word on any of those pages. All that talk about…nests, and…links. Mel, did you read anything?”
As expected, Melanie's only response to the question was a smug chuckle.
“Yeah, that one was obvious,” Adrian said, kicking his feet up on his desk.
"I'll skim over it later," she said, with an air of pride in her voice, "Knowing me and my overwhelming talent it can't be all that bad!"
Lyla sighed and threw her face into her hands. “Between this and the fight on the first day, I’m convinced she might be insane.”
“Woah, woah, woah, that thing was different.” She hopped onto her feet and walked over to grab a ruler from Mr. Harrows’ desk at the front of the room. “I was defending you,” she said, pointing the ruler at Lyla. “I heard that other brunette bitch talking shit to you, so naturally, I had to intervene, right?”
“I mean, you didn’t have to,” said Lyla quietly, “But thank you, I guess. You’re still crazy.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie!”
Everyone froze after what happened next. It even had Alex lifting his head from his book. Neil laughed. And at one of Melanie’s dumb antics, no less. It was more of an 'exhale through the nose' than a laugh, but still!
“...What?” he said, as everyone turned to look at him.
“Y-you can emote?” Asked Isabelle.
“Yes? You barely talk half the time either.”
“Yeah, but…Oh, yeah.”
“Hey, actually, This is a perfect opportunity,” Melanie said, taking a seat on Mr. Harrows’ desk, ”I’ve been meaning to ask you two for a minute, but what’s it actually like living for two of the richest families in the country?”
Both of their faces froze for a second as they turned to look at Melanie, then shifted to solidarity as they turned back to each other.
“It’s not that great,” Said Isabelle, unaware that Neil had started talking too.
“Could be better,” Neil said, repeating himself once the room was silent.
“Damn…Maybe I shouldn’t have asked... Adrian, what about you? Your dad used to be a total superhero!”
“Me?" He asked, rocking back and forth on his chair, "Pretty normal for the most part. I don’t live in a huge house or anything. I think dad wanted to get away from all that after he retired. He didn’t even want me to be a spirit hunter at first. My cousin used to help me train in secret when I was a kid, and eventually it got to a point where dad pretty much couldn't ignore how much progress I was making. My mom's also a scientist for the association, if that's important at all, but she's overseas right now. I haven't seen her in a while.”
“Interesting,” Melanie said, "Sounds like somebody was a bit of a problem child." Adrian didn’t say a word back. He wanted to see if she’d even noticed that she was sitting on the teacher’s desk while calling him a problem child. Even as the knowing smile on his face grew, she didn’t change her tune, or budge an inch. “Problem child!”
“...Ok, man.”
“Oh, everyone,” said Lyla, peering out the door, “He’s on his way.”
Melanie sprung into action, scrambling to get to her desk as fast as possible, and tripping in the process. “Shit!”
Not long after, Mr. Harrows entered the room, carrying a black folder along with him. His disinterested gaze was immediately directed towards the girl who had obviously just crawled back to her seat. “...I'm choosing not to make a comment on whatever that was,” he said, walking to his desk, “We’ve got a different start to the lesson today.” Adrian turned to his friends to see they were all just as curious as he was. Mr. Harrows took a heavy breath before saying, “All six of you are being given a choice. A choice to participate in the investigation of the cluster that was discovered last week.”
Instantly, Adrian took his feet off the desk and came to attention. This could be a chance to settle the score with the rogue spirit that had put him in the hospital. How could he not jump at the opportunity? Everyone else was talking among themselves about the sudden announcement.
“Students on a mission like that?”
“It sounds like it could be fun though!”
“You just don't understand the concept of danger, do you?"
Isabelle tapped Adrian’s shoulder and asked him, “Are you gonna do it?”
“Hell yeah! All three of us should, right?” he asked, turning to Alex.
“As long as we get paid, I don’t see why not.”
“Let me clarify,” said Mr. Harrows, “We're low on capable spirit hunters in the city right now. The choice you’re being given is to help out in smaller roles, but there’ll still be opportunities to grow stronger and help us out in the process. So, put your hand up if you’d like to be-”
Adrian's hand shot into the air before Mr. Harrows even finished talking. Isabelle, Alex, and Melanie's hands all went up shortly after, but Neil and Lyla opted to keep theirs down.
“Lyla, you don’t wanna come with?” Asked Melanie.
Lyla shrunk down into her chair while twirling her hair. “No…I’m not good enough. I’d probably mess up somehow.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Neil?”
“I don’t…I don’t have a reason to," He said dismissively. Adrian could tell there was more to his short answer, but knowing him, it wouldn’t be easy to get him to elaborate.
“It’s completely fine,” Mr. Harrows said, “For now, you two and Melanie will be on stand-by. You can change your mind at any time.”
“Why am I on stand-by?!" Said Melanie, waving her arm around, "I put my hand up!”
“We already made the decision. No matter who decided to join, Adrian, Isabelle and Alex would be the first to be sent out.”
Perfect, Adrian thought, his body trembling with excitement. All the stars were aligning for him perfectly. Meanwhile, Melanie had folded her arms and started pouting like a toddler.
Finally, opening the black folder, Mr. Harrows called for everyone to gather around so he could give them further info about what had been discovered so far. Adrian’s jaw dropped the second he saw what was on the first page. He spun his head to Alex and Isabelle who both wore the same expressions. It was a screenshot of the same picture they'd seen on Alex's phone during the exam; the same picture that had led them to the rogue in the first place.
Mr Harrows pointed to the date underneath the picture. “This image was posted on the thirty-first of August by this sixteen year old girl, Kaya Winchester."
On the next page was a selfie of a freckled girl in a blue basketball kit making a peace sign towards the camera. The caption underneath read, "Fit for the day!" with a bunch of emojis next to it. It was posted about two hours earlier than the other picture, on the exact same day.
With his chest tightening, every implication based on these limited facts began to bounce around Adrian's head. “Mr. Harrows, what happened to her?”
“She and her two friends went missing on the same day. Their current status is unknown. Considering both of these pictures were posted around the same time, it's extremely likely that the rogue you three came across is related to the disappearances.”
“...Crap,” He said under his breath.
“Her two friends are only children. The police weren't able to get any useful info there, but Kaya has a younger brother. They decided to question him, but all the Info they managed to get was that they went to play basketball on that day. No specific location was given."
“How come?” Alex asked.
“The report says Ray was clearly distressed; too distressed to answer any of the other questions. Apparently this isn’t uncommon for him. He’s eight years old, and his parents say that he has trouble warming up to new people. Especially adults.”
“That’s so sad,” Lyla said.
“It's a tough situation, I know. But that’s where you kids come in. Try and be nice to him, and get him to open up a bit more so we can find out more about what happened."
“When do we roll out?” Asked Adrian, a flash of determination in his eyes.
“...This Thursday," Mr. Harrows said, hesitantly, "Based on any info you may get you can investigate further, but if you come across anything you know you can’t handle do not engage in combat. Take a picture so we can add it to the database for the case, and deal with it ourselves, understood?”
In response to the stern look he gave them, Adrian, Isabelle and Alex all said in unison, “Understood.”
...I really shouldn't lie like that, Adrian thought, walking back to his seat. But a family out there was missing their daughter after all. If it was his dad, he’d definitely dive in head first to reunite them no matter what. It doesn't matter how tough the challenge is. As long as I come out alive, I'll try again as many times as it takes.
Still, he wouldn’t know what would be possible until Thursday came around. The next few days till then were going to be long.
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{Thursday, 15th September 2022}
BRUCE
Things had been going smoothly since Bruce started his alliance with Tyran and Sharir. Well, as smoothly as things could possibly go when working with rogue spirits, but it was nothing that would put the plan in jeopardy. He had moved them and Kaya out of the cave he found them in, and over to the location he and his human associates had been operating from. An old warehouse in an abandoned construction site outside the city. It’d be much harder to get tracked down this way. The big doors out at the front were jammed shut. They could have forced them open using their spirit abilities, but decided against it, as to not draw too much attention in the case that someone was ever nearby. Luckily, the smaller door around the back was already ajar when they found it.
It was eleven o’clock in the morning and he was returning there after making some preparations for phase one of the operation. As soon as he walked in, he was hit by an intense stimulus overdose, but didn't show it in his reaction. His practice at remaining stone cold was starting to pay dividends.
There were two ongoing situations; both of which he knew he would have to attend to eventually. Beside some old metal cylinders to his left, Tyran was holding down Kaya, who had escaped from the ropes they had placed her in. A cloud of dust was picking up around them due to her flailing around as she tried to get away.
In all honesty, Bruce was more than happy to leave her untied, but she had a sharp tongue, and far too many escape attempts for his liking. Usually it was Sharir’s job to keep her in check, but it was currently out making preparations for their eventual phase two.
“Human! You’d better get over here fast! This is her eleventh attempt Y'know?” Tyran said, squeezing her arms, “I might really kill her this time!”
“Get the hell off me!” Kaya shouted. She was coughing profusely as tears flooded down from her blood shot eyes. She stared directly at Bruce, and he looked back at her, refusing to even let his face twitch, let alone for his expression to change.
Thanks to the first ten attempts, he knew Tyran wouldn't really kill her. It was far too interested in the fun that his plan would provide, so he could trust it to keep her here for now. From his coat pocket, he pulled out a sandwich he had stolen and tossed it on the floor next to them. “Make sure to feed her,” he said. “We need her to be healthy for the twenty-fifth so have your fun, but make sure you don’t kill her.”
Bruce ignored the various curses Kaya was spewing his way as he turned to his right. His human associates, Terry and Joanne were frantically wiping their clothes next to a makeshift table they had created out of a rusty metal sheet being held up by two crates.
“Bruce-y, darling.” Joanne said, tying up her brown hair into a ponytail, “You wouldn’t happen to know where we could find another lab rat, do you? We seem to have had a little accident with the old one.”
Her face and clothes were covered with dust, and what looked to be streaks of blood, though it clearly wasn't hers. If Bruce had any reason to believe she was a normal person before this, her calm, and somehow elegant demeanour, despite the circumstances, would have been unnerving, even for him.
With a look of scepticism on his face, he turned to Terry; the gentle giant, and bundle of anxiety stood next to her. “W-well, we thought we were getting closer to the finished product,” he said scratching his hands, “After a few more tests we should have something ready for the twenty-fifth…”
Still without a word, Bruce peered over their shoulders and took a look at the state of their experiment. Test tubes and syringes containing the remains of different coloured liquids were scattered around at random, and in the centre of all that mess was a cage containing the scattered fleshy remains of a lone rat, still twitching as the life left its body. “Well, not every serum is going to be a winner,” he said calmly, “Perhaps we could set some traps out for a new one tonight?”
“Remind me again why we can’t run experiments on the girl?” asked Joanne, pointing at Kaya, “That rogue is going to kill her anyways. We might as well get some use out of her before then, no?”
They looked over at the two. The only things about the situation that had changed, were Kaya’s attempts at wriggling out becoming less frequent, and Tyran’s smile widening to an anatomically ridiculous degree. It was quite literally smiling from ear to ear.
“I have no doubts that Tyran will keep Kaya alive. It truly believes in, and follows, its desire as a rogue spirit.”
Joanne stared him down for a second then sighed and turned away. “Well, you know best, I suppose, sugar.”
“A-anyways, how were things on your end?” Asked Terry, eagerly.
“Perfect,” Bruce responded, “The nest went up without a hitch."
Terry looked star-struck. If the comics he read as a child were real, Bruce was sure he’d have seen a light shine from his eye, “Amazing. The plan really is amazing, Bruce. I mean it!”
Bruce considered the whole week to have been a fruitful one to say the least. A second negotiation with a third rogue spirit on top of Tyran and Sharir had given them more options and personally elated him beyond belief. It wasn't that he was of little faith before, but this really proved it for him. That this hindrance known as the "human heart" was something he truly could discard. Making sure to keep his ego in check, however, he responded. "Well, it’s only the natural course of action. Any information matters at the moment. If we’re lucky, that bear may also bring back some spirit hunters’ bodies as well.”
“The association losing a few of their pets is something I'm definitely not opposed to.,” Joanne said, lighting a cigarette, “It'd be their own fault for torturing themselves by staying at a place like that."
“...I-I don’t think the time we spent there should be something we hate,” Terry said, “Cuz now we get to use all the things we learned to tear it all down, right Bruce?”
“Precisely... Being destroyed by the very product you created? I don't know what else to call it but poetry.”