The Adventures Of Ivory Arrow & Jackson Bale

Chapter XI

It's been three days. Three days since their son went missing and they're giving us hell for it. We don't have any leads, clues, witnesses, Nothing. We found their neighbors, the ones that were watching him at the time, in their own basements beaten to death.
Whoever did this was a gruesome tyrant with no mercy or guilty conscience. My colleague and I have seen nothing to this extent. They have joined us for the sixth time today in our lunch room. "How could you not have solved this in three days?" The lady paced the room nervously tapping her fingers on her arm. "Three days." Mr. Bale was more than pleased with our progress, being optimistic was all some grieving parents could be.
"Nothing?" He asked me. They come in at two hour intervals. Never a minute to late or early. I just shrugged at his question.
"If you must know Mr. Bale, none of us here at the station have come across cases like this. Whoever did this was some kind of demon from the deepest depths of hell. From what he did to your neighbor's kids and your neighbors themselves, I'd say we're dealing with a class A assassin, who doesn't fancy you both." The two started to pace together. But stopped, turned to me, and asked about the note, if they left any clues. It was a generic crime note, magazine clippings as letters and what not. It told us that their son was held by a man in black, and if they ever wanted to see him again, they needed to stay away from them and never solve another case.
"It's a strange bargain. For a character such as 'the man in black' to just ask you never solve another case, and you'll see your son again. I mean, why? You two ain't causing much trouble with your cases. And this is nothing to hold a life against." I placed the note back on our table, next to a donut I would gladly take for myself.
"Fine. But we came to the police because we are not able to solve another crime until Valor is home safely. We can't do this ourselves. We need to go about this," she gulped, "as normal people do." Mr. Bale stepped away shaking. Yes, they were falling apart. But who wouldn't, knowing your kid is held up with a murder, who doesn't just kill, but mauls his victims.
They decided it would be best, to head home for the night. I gladly agreed and sent them on their way. I headed back to my desk to work out this case. It was important to them, and it's just a kid. I remember all the trouble Mr. Bale went through to find this kid all those times ago. I will take this for the team.
Analysis on the paper concluded that it was made in a shop not a factory where most of it comes from. There was blood on the corner, of a man, not the child, whom I assumed attacked his kidnapper. The blood was from a boy though, that I investigated to be also missing. He went missing one night, twenty years ago, so he must've grown up in the wrong place. The boy we're looking for has his saliva on the entire page. I wanted to see why he licked the paper, so I went deeper into it. A black light, after I mixed in a chemical to cause another note to appear over the first, it showed he was going to a school. He drew a school with his saliva. There were exactly six schools in the entire city. I looked around further and found four that were no longer functional.
Picking up my walk-e-talk-e, I spoke to every surrounding vehicle. "I need cars getting to these schools ASAP." I named off the abandoned buildings and I heard enough acknowledgement from them to safely say, we are finding this kid. Oh, right. "I need everyone to be looking for a young Valor Bale-Arrow. He is three foot three, age five. Light brown hair, and his eyes match."
"Rodger that Boss." Repeatedly went off. And finally, after a long hour of waiting, another voice came on the radio. "Boss, we found him. It's not a pretty sight, but I think he's still breathing. Wait!" He paused on the other line. The heavy breathing was indicating that he was running. "There's someone else in here. Some-thing else. I need backu-" the line cut. He was gone. And not too long after that, while I was stirring with the device still up to my ear. The two young parents ran into the room.
"Nothing again?" Mr. Bale asked me. I looked at him, my eyes were clearly portraying my fears and horror at the sounds of flesh tearing was still sounding after his officer got cut off.
"No, Mr. Bale. We got the location. And found your son. But something is causing our delay, due to mastery of combat and thirst for blood." I gulped. Looking at the quarter eaten donut on my desk, I was so sick to my stomach that even a donut looked revolting.
"Really?!" The Miss smiled. But also seemed a bit uncomfortable about my description of the thing that's guarding her son. The thing that could turn on him and kill him at any moment. "Tell us where. We'll go and fetch him." I slid a piece of paper with the location over to them. It was definitely against protocol to let them into the case but when a monster has torn apart my men without much effort, then protocol is thrown out the window. Mr. Bale picked up the note and they ran out of the room. He turned while he was leaving.
"Thanks Capt'n. It was fun while it lasted." Mr. Bale and her were gone. I pondered over it for a second, then decided upon it and ran out after them. They seemed concerned at first, then relaxed their expressions and let me into the back seat of their iconic jeep. "A left up here and it should be the first run-down place ya see." Mr. Bale nodded to the broken windows, chipped paint, barred doors. "It looks like their trying to keep something out." He pointed to the bars over every possible exit, except one that was broken wide open.
"Or, trying to keep SOMETHING in." The Miss pointed at the hole and smiled at her partner's face. He was pale, and cold to the touch. "Scared?" She asked, pausing before stepping into the darkened halls of the Z Academy Of Art And Profession.
"It initially was an elementary school for gifted children. Closed for the summer. During that time, some kids bullied a student inside it's empty rooms, and the place was sued into closing it's doors. Now, it's a college, in the heart of the city." I explained. The two looked back at me like I was crazy. "What?" I shrugged. "Nothing like being in an old, abandoned, haunted, school to make you want to be educational." A loud crash and yelling was coming from a room adjacent to our own. The thin white door was cracked open with a small light beam coming through it. We got closer and knelt down to look inside. Four of my officers were battling an... It. A big It. It was seven feet tall. Face racked with scars and bloody bandages. It swung slow but when it hit one of them, my men would go flying across the room and into the next one through the wall. "GET OUT!" It'd scream. The two of my friends stood up from our hiding place and kept their eyes on something past the It's body. Their son was hanging upside down in the opposite corner of us. The Miss spun around and kicked the beast in It's chest. Powerful enough to get It to stumble back and fall onto the floor. Mr. Bale ran to his son's side and got him down from the ceiling. The boy was just as my partner described, bloodied and looking dead. I finally grabbed up enough courage to pull out my pistol and fired a barrage of bullets. The monster stopped instantly, any attack the Miss had, did nothing. It just stared at me, deeply boring his eyes into mine. I ran, the Miss told me to stop running but I said screw her and kept running in the direction of the cafeteria. I slid in and scrambled under a table. Trying the hardest to slow my breathing.

"I hear your breath." The creature whispered, I watched it's horrifying claws pass my table. "I can smell the fear." It's voice was raspy and dark. I covered by mouth to stop from audibly hyperventilating. A sudden loud crash sounded through the halls. And the creatures feet left the ground.

After several silent seconds, I grabbed up the courage to leave my spot under the table, only to find the creature, tall, lean and slimy, sprawled out over rocks from the wall he crashed into. Dead.

I looked around for any possible reasons why it was like that, and came to the conclusion that the Miss came in and then left. Judging by the smeared blood footprints all across the floor. I jogged my way to where their son was and found the young parents kneeling by him. I came over and kneeled across from them. "You're so young." I said to them. They chuckled with small smiles, that quickly left their faces, "young people shouldn't be parents. Ever heard of safety-" the Miss smiled and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Oh dear Mr. Policemen, I do think you're thinking us indecent." She said in a lady like fashion. "But, in all seriousness, Valor is not our biological kin. But he's our son, more than one would be if been related by blood." I smiled and asked about how he was going to survive. "Oh, he's a tough kid. He'll just wake up and walk out of here like a man." I widened my eyes. "Just Kidding. No, I called a medic friend of mine to help us out. She's magical in her profession. Seeing as how we can't disclose what really did this amount of damage to our son, we can't go to just any old doctor." I nodded and got up from the bloody puddle, brushing off my hands and shoulders.

"Very good. I'll see to it that everyone knows Valor is okay. And it was a pleasure working with you on this." I walked away from them, just as a beast several times larger than myself came up from the shadows. The very last thing I saw, was the shark like jaw that engulfed my entire head. And last thing I heard, was my bone curdling scream, the scream of Mr. Tobias Arnold Constantine.