Len woke up, his vision was blurry. He looked around, then rubbed his eyes. A man in a black suit appeared in front of him kneeled down, staring at him.
The man looked at him, he noticed the kid seemed just fine, he lifted Len's torn shirt and noticed there weren't any marks that matched the holes in the shirt. He looked up at Len's face, and noticed his eyes were open looking back at him.
"Did you do this kid?"
Len sat up, and looked around.
There was blood splattered all over the walls and the corpses of the two men were motionless on the ground, one chest disfigured, and the other face unrecognizable.
He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't recall what exactly happened before he woke up, he only knew that the only person who helped him, Doc, was on the ground dead and now a man whom he had never seen before was just in front of him, and talking to him.
"Not answering?"
The man sighed deeply and brought himself to a standing position, he turned around, passing his gaze across the room towards the stairs where footsteps could faintly be heard, then the man yelled.
"Anderson!"
His voice sounded loudly, and a pair of heavy footsteps quickly paced down the stairs, revealing a giant man in a black suit running down.
His hair was dark brown, the same as his beard. He wore thin glasses, the lenses acting as windows, opening up his radiant red eyes to the world.
"Detective?"
"Come here and take this kid back to the office, he may prove a great help in solving the recent disappearances."
The man put his hand on Len's shoulder and pushed him softly towards Anderson, wanting Anderson to take him away from this sickening scene before them.
"Sure detective, but why is the kid important?"
"It's not the kid himself that's important, but what he experienced. He may be able to give us intel on what happened here, so just take him out of here."
Anderson looked down at Len, at his torn shirt, and dark baggy eyes. He thought Len was a walking corpse at first, his skin and frail body were enough evidence that he could be one, but he realized that Len maybe, wasn't anything, those eyes he stared into, they didn't show a spec of light.
He looked back up at the detective.
"Why don't you bring him back?"
The detective raised his right hand and flaunted a small vial between his thumb and index finger, shaking it vigorously. Inside rippled a fluorescent purple substance that darkened quickly with the fast shaking of the man's hand.
"I plan on heading to the lab first, I found this vial of a certain liquid, and I'm sure it's the same as the others we've found previously."
"Really? I can't believe we found another one."
The detective's face flattened.
"I found another one, I did Anderson."
Anderson looked off to the side, voiding his gaze away from the detective.
"Sure, sure…"
"Just take the kid and leave."
He sighed loudly, then gazed back towards Len.
"Fine, fine, I'll do it."
He walked behind Len, turned back around and put his hand onto his small shoulder, shoving him a little, telling him to start heading up the stairs.
"Go on up kid, we need to take you somewhere."
Seemingly unbothered, Len nodded, agreeing to do so.
They walked only a few steps before Len's legs began to shake and a few seconds later, they soon collapsed.
Anderson looked at Len on the ground who again didn't react, Len turned his head and looked up towards Anderson, causing him to feel a sense of sympathy for him.
Anderson sighed deeply, then crouched down to Len's level.
"You look pretty frail there kid, let me help you out."
Anderson hovered his arm around Len, and picked him up, holding him with one arm across his chest. They continued up the stairs and slowly reached the red room.
Len began looking to where the mirror was and he noticed the reflection was missing. All he could see was the scarlet wall behind it.
Anderson continued through the house, eventually reaching the entrance, a presence loomed nearby.
The sky was almost orange, just a moment ago, it was noon, but hours passed while Len was out, and now the sun began to fall.
Up the driveway, two black cars were parked just outside on the cement, and a tan woman with short black hair stood next to one of them, looking at the two as they came out. She glanced at Anderson, then looked down and noticed there was a small boy with him.
"Who's the kid?"
"We don't know yet, we just found him."
She looked puzzled.
"Where'd you find him?"
"He was in a hidden room along with the corpses of two men."
"Corpses?"
The woman approached Len and kneeled down to his eye level. She patted him on the head.
"Sorry you had to see those, kid."
Len's face was still blank, and she noticed so.
"Are you alright?"
Len nodded.
"Really? You don't look so good."
He nodded again.
She sighed.
"If you say so…"
Anderson looked down at the two talking, then directed his sight at the woman, and interrupted them.
"We think he may be the one that caused the graphs to spike."
She looked up at Anderson.
"This kid?"
"Correct."
She looked back down at Len and examined his weak body.
"I don't see it."
"Well, when the detective looked in the room, everything was destroyed and there were two bodies lying there on the ground. This kid was the only thing in the room that was unharmed."
The woman sighed deeply then stood back up, reaching her normal eye level.
"Well anyways, you two come with me, let's head back to the office."
Anderson looked down and put his hand on Len's back.
"After you kid."
***
A black car suddenly pulled up to the curb in front of a tall glass building, reaching far past any other building surrounding it.
Anderson stepped out, and adjusted his loose tie, on the other side, closer to the curb, the woman opened her door, she went to the back door of the car and opened it for Len to get out. They approached the sidewalk, and Len looked up at the building, noticing it towered over him, and the city. He looked back down, and noticed there were some words in white just above the entrance to the building.
"Natural Protection Agency."
"Welcome to the N.P.A. of Breleye"
The N.P.A. of Breleye, just a portion of the N.P.A. that resided in the Breleye Sector. The agency was an organization that spread its influence throughout Vinterbelle, tasked with protecting the city from unconscious threats that lurk beneath the public's eye, the supernatural, or even the risks of widespread damage, no matter the case, the N.P.A. made itself involved.
The three approached a pair of glass doors at the entrance and they slid open as they approached, revealing a spacious room covering the entire floor. On either side of the entrance there were sets of chairs each surrounding small black tables, and on the other side of the room there was a wide counter that sat between two elevators.
The sun shone through the surrounding glass, bringing light to the room, creating a golden glow as the sun began to fall.
Len noticed it was bustling with people all wearing black attire. People were talking with each other, making calls, and panicking, it seemed to be the norm here.
The three approached the white marble counter at the other side of the lobby, a lady sat just behind it, frantically typing on a computer in front of her.
"Hey Luci, is Marko available right now?"
She looked up, noticing Anderson towering over her.
"Ah, your back Anderson!"
She looked over beside him, and only saw the woman with him, the detective wasn't there. She stood up and looked over the desk but didn't see him, only a small child.
"Where's the detective?"
"He decided to head to the lab, he's got some business there… Anyways, can you call up to Marko and see if he's available right now?"
"Team Leader Marko? Sure, I can do that."
"Thank you."
The woman picked up a phone next to the keyboard and started tapping on the pad next to it with her index finger, and the phone began ringing, then it quickly halted.
"What do you need, I'm busy."
A deep voice could be heard through the phone.
"Team Leader, Anderson returned and wants to meet with you, do you have time?"
A loud sigh suddenly came through the phone.
"Why does he want to meet with me?"
"Well, I'm not sure, but he is with Ms. Alex and a child."
A loud noise came from the phone, and the man began to yell.
"He's with my daughter and a child!?"
"Yes sir."
The phone went silent, no sound came from the other end…
"Are y-"
"What!?"
Luci let out a small laugh.
"Calm down sir, the kid doesn't look like either of them."
Somehow, Marko didn't hear Luci. His sudden anger took his mind off the call, and put it straight into his words.
"Well, it looks like some time has opened up right now, tell that fucker to come to my office this instant!"
Luci looked at Anderson, smiling.
"Okay, yes sir."
The phone stopped emitting noise, and Luci set the phone down, returning it to its original position, then she looked back up towards Anderson.
She started to laugh at him, but she read Anderson's confused face, and came to her composure.
"Sorry about that… He said he is free right now so you can go ahead and go up to his office."
"Alright, thank you Luci."
She began laughing again as the three turned their backs to her, and she shouted something at them.
"Good luck!"
Anderson turned around, he didn't understand why Luci had said that, but knew something might happen, he recalled back to the day before, remembering the beating he got for showing up a few minutes late, a beating that dug deeper in the scars that Marko had left on the agency.
The three walked over to an elevator just right of the counter, and saw that it was already open. There were buttons ranging from the lobby all the way up to 24, and Anderson moved towards the panel and selected the number 19 on the right side of the panel.
The doors slowly closed, and a woman's voice sounded through the elevator.
"Going up"
The elevator shook, then slowly started to ascend towards the 19th floor.
"The Team Leader is a rough one, so just prepare yourself for the worst kid."
Len didn't seem interested.
"My dad's not that bad, Anderson."
"Well you are his only daughter, so of course he's gonna treat you kindly. He treats the rest of us like we're just ants."
She suddenly batted an eye towards him.
"Well maybe you should do a better job since you keep blowing off missions."
"I'm not gonna argue with that one."
The elevator slowly came to a halt, shaking Len's already weak legs. A dinging sound played just inside the elevator, and the doors parted open to a hallway with gray steel doors on each side. The gray carpet below acted as a path, leading towards two glass doors that stood near the end of the hall. Through the glass, a man could be seen sitting behind the desk, looking impatient, waiting for the three to enter. He had gray hair, tan skin, and a deep scar that went down the left side of his face from an incident that occurred when he worked as a government agent.
The three approached the office and opened the glass doors. The man looked at Anderson and Alex, then looked down at Len. He started to laugh.
"Haha! Looks like I was worried about nothing!"
He suddenly turned his body and picked up his feet, the chair below him started to rotate, and he started spinning fast.
"Worried about what?"
He suddenly set his feet down, causing the chair to stop. He faced towards the wall behind, so he maneuvered his feet to the left and rotated himself to face the three standing before his desk.
"Oh nothing! Haha! Anyways, why'd you want to see me?"
Anderson suddenly grabbed Len by the shoulders and moved him in front of him.
"Well sir, it's about this kid."
The man looked down, and suddenly dove on his desk, inching his body towards Len. He began to examine his desolate face.
"Hmmmm. What's with his face?"
Anderson looked down towards Len who stood there with a blank expression.
"What?"
"Is he alive?"
Anderson looked back up.
"Well, we found him next to two bodies so..."
Marko pushed his body back and he kicked his chair by accident, sending it backwards. He got off the desk, then he stood up and looked towards Anderson.
"Bodies? What happened?"
"Well that's why we brought the kid here, to figure that out."
This wasn't necessarily a beneficial idea, Marko had no involvement in this case, so why would he possibly know anything?
"So why'd you bring him to me? Wait…Where did Morin go? Wasn't he with you? "
"He headed towards the lab, to run some evidence."
The man looked down at Len, and began talking to him.
"Hey kid, what's your name?"
"L-Len." He quietly responded.
"So the kid can talk huh. So Len, what happened?"
Len just stared back at the man, not saying a word.
"You don't know what happened?"
Len shook his head.
"So you do or don't know what happened? I'm going to need some words from you."
"I-I do."
"So let's hear it!"
Len only stood there silently, he avoided Marko's scary face.
Marko sighed deeply.
"We're not going anywhere with this. So Anderson, why exactly did you bring him here?"
"The detective told me to sir."
"What did Morin say?"
"To bring the kid here."
"So he just left you with this kid?"
"Well he found a vial of a substance that matches the ones found in the other cases."
Marko's eyes widened.
"K2W-4?"
"Yes."
"So that's why he went to the lab. Anyways, I have a meeting in a few minutes so let's continue this conversation tomorrow, when Morin returns."
"Yes sir."
K2W4, or Control-Alloy, was a drug-like substance created for the purpose of creating empty shells of humans, to later be used as weapons by the government, allowing them control over vast armies of bodies stripped of their free will.
The three of them turned around, and began making their way to the door, but Marko interrupted them.
"Anderson, I have one more request of you."
They stopped, Anderson turned around, and opened his ears, not wanting to get on Marko's bad side.
"Y-yes sir?"
"It doesn't seem like this kid has a place to stay, so why don't you let him stay with you."
Anderson's face froze, his mind went blank, he didn't want to live with this random kid he just met, he had zero connection to anyone in the agency, so why not just keep him there?
He stood there for a second, processing Marko's words… a wave of emotions, confusion and more spread down his face.
"Why me?"
"Well, you're the only person here that I have a reason to fire, so if you want to keep your job, let him sleep at your place for the night."
He suddenly turned his head and looked over his shoulder, moving his face away from the team leader. He suddenly began mouthing swear words, 'fuck,' and 'Marko your a bitch.' He tried hard to hide his emotions and yet, tears still flowed out of his eyes. He turned around and looked at Marko who was anxiously waiting for him to respond.
"Y-yes sir I'll do it!"
Alex started to laugh. Then so did Marko… Family indeed.
"Haha! That's good to hear. Now get your crying ass out of here, I have a meeting here soon!"