THE NIGHT GANG

Chapter 2: The Six Boys

I'm gonna start writing from whoever's point of view this is now, seeing as it's about to get very complicated. As I sit here, in the scarce reception area of the University of Doncaster, I'm beginning to get very nervous. I've only been here 5 minutes if that. I've signed in and i'm awaiting on a lad called Luke Cavort. Posh sounding I know, more or likely won't be in the flesh. Boredom is taking over second by second, but I'm beginning to get more and more intrigued. I'm the only person in this lobby waiting area apart from the receptionist. On the small table beside me is a leaflet holder, actually a flurry of leaflet holders engulfing the top of the table. Thank god I don't have a drink, there's no where to put it on that table. I guess some mindless reading about condoms, sexual health or the pill will pass the time. I lean over to pick a leaflet, the first one I come to is.. drum roll... 'Get To Know Your Body Better.' No thank you. These leaflets must have been here years, as they're not all the same and have been completely muddled up. 'Sexual Health and you' is the second one I come across, mind if I don't? I continue flicking through the old panflets, I must look completely insane to the poor receptionist lady. 

Then, suddenly something takes my eye, the leaflet. The MISSING leaflet from the car park of the station earlier today. This copy however is alot sturdier than mine, it doesn't rip in your hands with one delicate touch. It's alot clearer as I can read every word and see every picture as it should look. It looks alot more recent too, maybe a reprint. Why would they reprint something that happened so long ago, surely it's been buried in the dust if nothings surfaced by now. The top of the paper reads 'MISSING' in the great, big white letters like you see on the evening news. Underneath that is a collage of 6 images, all of young boys. They can't be any older than me in the pictures, but I guess they'll be alot older now seeing as this is 6 years old. That is, if they're still alive... 

"Poor little darlings." My thoughts are interrupted suddenly by the old receptionist lady, who gives me quite a fright with her thoughts. "Such a shame isn't it?"

"Sorry." I apologise. "I'm not familiar with this area, let alone the local stories. I don't know what happened to these boys."

"Come here sweetheart, let me have another look at the flyer."

I rise from my seat, not reluctant at all because I'm beginning to believe this woman has answers. Answers that I'm desperately craving more and more, second by second as I think about this mystery over and over. I reached the desk and she smiled sweetly up at me, as I passed her the flyer. 

"Ah yes." She sighed, lifting up her glasses from the bridge of her nose and placing them caringly on top of her head. "It doesn't seem like 6 years ago now but it is, poor little beggars they we're all so young when it happened. I dunno why they keep printing these worn out things, it's the church you see, they keep up the hope. Not fair on their poor families..."

"If you don't mind me asking." I interrupted, feeling terrible once I did. "I've seen these all over town since I arrived this morning. Do you know what happened to them?"

For a moment she just looked at me, smirking slightly before looking down at the pictures. 

"These 6 young boys all went missing, about 6 years ago now." She explained slowly, circling each face on each picture as she went. "I can't remember many names, only one was called Roman, he was  a local boy, such a sweet boy but a bit of a trouble maker as he got older."

She pointed to the photo of the boy in  the top middle square, it looked like a school photo. 

"Were they all young when they disappeared?" I said, looking at all the pictures now, they all looked really young, maybe even middle school aged. 

She mumbled under her breath to herself before nodding. "That's the strange part really. They were all around 16 or 17 year old when they vanished. On the news they called them tearaways that had probably run away from home, but, they're only young lads they can't survive on their own for this long."