His icy fingers gripped the cup of coffee tightly, trying to salvage the warmth. He glanced sideways at the hazy view out the window which was covered in a thin layer of ice, just looking at the blanket of snow that covered the streets sent chills down his spine. The view outside of the little coffee shop tucked away in a corner of a busy town, was of people, and snow, and stories untold.

It was 7:00 or maybe 9:00, the sky had darkened and the energy that had thrummed inside of the shop during the afternoon had died down and become a little buzz instead. The noise had died down, with people whispering to each other rather than shouting; it was pleasant. He had been sitting inside his little booth which had baby blue seats for so long that he had lost track of time, he had also drunk too much coffee, but nobody had told him to leave; so he hadn’t.

But as time passed the streets became less and less crowded and he finally got up, stretched, put on his black coat and wrapped his dull yellow scarf; tightly around his neck, and as he was leaving he discarded the coffee cup in the garbage bin.

He regretted leaving the cozy shop almost as soon as he stepped out. The harsh wind rushed to slap against his face making his eyes water. He blinked a few times to get his bearing back, and started his journey home.

He didn’t live far, though he did have to take the bus home. His apartment was an old rundown place, but the rent was cheap, and the building was hidden behind tall trees and taller buildings; it was a good place.

He got home and quickly unlocked his door to get away from the cold that clung to him. He had goose bumps running up and down his arm. He had to change out of his slightly damp clothes, which were the result of the persistent snowfall; into something more comfortable. He had gone to the shop to meet a client. The problem was, the client never showed up.

He sat down at his desk and opened up his laptop, sparing a quick glance to the photo placed at the side of his desk; it was a picture of his mom and sister, smiling at the camera. He always felt a dull rush of anger and sadness spike through him whenever he looked at the picture; it was a painful reminder of what had happened.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He opened up his e-mail and was surprised to see an e-mail that was sent from his client to him. He had found about this case when he was going through the “The National Hunters Union” website, a website only licensed hunters could access that provided information about cases, jobs, and resources.

The e-mail that was sent to him was a reason for concern, aside from his client not showing up.

“Hello,

Its Juliane hills, I contacted you before, but if you are receiving this e- mail, chances are I didn’t show up to our meeting. This message has been forwarded to you by a friend, in case I didn’t contact him.as you already know I had been investigating Gregory Anderson, a politician for a news story that I had been working on. I have attached all my research that you can access; and though I didn’t get to meet you in person, I would like to hire you, to find and save me.”

The e-mail ended with an address to the client’s residence. He didn’t like taking jobs like this; they were vague and required him to do more work than if it was just a simple hunting case.

He also had to research his clients before accepting any jobs to make sure they were legit. The only incentive he had at this point was the paycheck he would receive. The price that the client had mentioned the first time she contacted him was 5 grand, and considering he hadn’t had a case for a few months because of his injury, and was running a little low on money, he had to take this case.

As he was looking over the research Julianne had done, he couldn’t help feeling an abstract sort of horror. This man, Gregory was a monster. The research suggested that he had been kidnapping people off the streets, there had been 8 total cases and Julianne had found evidence linking 6 of those to Gregory, but that’s where the trail went cold. There was no solid evidence linking him to the kidnappings, and the evidence that was present was purely circumstantial, the working theory was that he was selling these people.

He had heard about the kidnappings, he knew that the NHU or the National Hunters Union was keeping an eye on the kidnappings, but it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. That was the police’s job, at least the kidnappings were, but he had been hired to protect and his client while she investigated the kidnappings. But since his client had been kidnapped, the kidnappings were now officially in his jurisdiction, which meant he could use the resources that the NHU provided to help with the case, including the case files and any of the investigation done by the police.

The research Julianne had done had been thorough but minimal. He needed a lot more to pinpoint what was going on. The police had yet to figure out what was going on even though there was a plausible suspect, which made the police reports a bit less helpful. This also meant he had to do some investigating of his own.