The Missing Boy

Chapter 30 - Why?

Axel hates it here. As he walks down the familiar corridors, he can't shake the feeling that he belongs here. Axel knows he doesn't. He belongs with Miles, that he knows for sure. But as he drags his hand across the painted walls, he still feels like that 13 year old boy. Frightened and clueless, his family too far to reach. He was the missing boy. The boy who got snatched away at a crime scene that no one expected to come back. The boy who knew what death felt like. With Miles, Axel is no longer the missing boy. He's found.

Axel doesn't want to leave Miles but he knows how persistent Elias is. He always had a suspicion Elias was the one who killed Julian, when he saw Miles' face he knew he was right.

Elias had always been a killer, that Axel knew. But Elias also claimed that the deaths were justified. He thought the fact that they were rogues was a good enough excuse to murder them. Maybe they were to a frightened 13 year old boy. But Axel isn't scared anymore.

That's what he hates about the mansion. He has to remind himself that the 13 year old boy that entered this place isn't him anymore. That the boy here now is braver. So brave, in fact, that he isn't afraid to disobey Elias. So Axel does something his former self wasn't allowed to do, he goes into one of Elias' rooms.

Axel has always been a curious boy. He opens the large wooden door to reveal a spacious room. The furniture seems to all be very old in the sense that it was inspired by the Victorian period. They were antiques and therefore probably cost a fair amount of money nowadays.

There's a large pin board on the centre of the wall and on it there's a large map with deliberately placed pushpins. The title Rogues is written at the top in Elias' scrawly print.

Elias, unfazed by Axel's presence, walks into his room and places a pushpin onto the map.

The bar.

"Axel, why am I not surprised to see you here? You were always the wonderer."

Most of the time he was looking for a way to escape.

"You've seen the map. The red pins are all the places we know rogues are congregated, the rest are just hunches. You're friend has been very helpful."

Friend. The choice of wording intentional.

"I've already started to think about the attack. How my name will go down in history for the largest rogue raid. But don't fret, I will be sure to mention your name as well, but you must understand that the human can have no part in this. Humans aren't supposed to know of our existence. The fact that I even allowed him here is proof enough of my love for you Axel."

Axel hates that he feels an attachment to Elias. He was the man that taught him everything he knew. And even though his methods were far from humane, he did feel like a father to Axel. More than his actual father, Richard, ever did.

There were similarities between the two. Richard and Elias we're both very passionate about their work, and whilst Richard gave up on pushing his passion of science onto his son, Elias never quit. He was always so persistent.

"We are so alike, you and I." Elias places a hand onto Axel's shoulder.

We are nothing alike.

"I didn't realise my potential until my own mentor saw it in me. And now I see it in you. I want to give you something special."

Elias walks through a small door into another room and Axel notices another pin board. He isn't able to take a close enough look at it before Elias walks out with something in his hands.

It's wrapped in a black cloth and when Elias removes it, in his hand is a metal stake.

"I had this specifically made for you."

Elias hands Axel the metal stake and he takes a moment to appreciate its beauty. It's brand new, unused. The shiny metal cool on his fingertips. It's perfectly balanced, the point, needle sharp. Engraved on the metal was a snake, identical to the tattoo on Axel' neck. The tattoo he got at the mansion when he was only 16. It's immaculate. A masterpiece. The perfect weapon for the perfect killer. The one made specifically for him.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" Elias asks, incredibly proud of the weapon.

"It is." Axel says breathlessly, only speaking the truth.

"I promised myself I would give you this the day you returned here."

"How did you know I would come back? I didn't even know I would come back."

He promised himself he never would.

But he came back for Miles.

"Sometimes I think I know you more than you know yourself."

Axel doesn't argue.

"I want you to join me on the raid. We can lead it. You and I. We can make this world ours." There's an eagerness to his voice. The same excitement you would hear when Elias talks about the breakthrough.

Axel is about to say something when Elias' attention is redirected to someone calling his name from somewhere else in the mansion.

"Think about it, Axel." Elias says as he leaves Axel alone in the room.

He doesn't know what to think.

Join Elias in the raid? I can't do that. I know those people in the bar. I can't kill. Not them. Not anyone.

He looks down at the metal stake in his hands and hisses as he presses his finger to the point, a single drop of blood hitting the floor.

The cut heals automatically. The pain disappears just as fast as it came. Axel wonders if the statement Elias said before was true. If Elias really did know him better than he knew himself. Then he remembers the room Elias had gone into to get the stake and the other pin board on the wall.

There isn't a map on this one. Instead there's a different title at the top centre of the pin board: Crisis.

Underneath there's another title: People who know. There are dozens of names and beside them pictures of the people's faces, some of which have been crossed out with red marker.

Axel scans the list of names, his breathing stops all together as he comes across someone he recognises.

Richard Jacobson - cause for concern

One second Axel is breathless, the next he's hyperventilating.

Crisis

People who know:

Richard Jacobson - cause for concern

In this moment, nothing makes sense. Axel can't understand why he isn't able to breath, why his father's name and picture is on the board under said title, why he's even in this fucking mansion?!

He doesn't understand at all. The one question spinning around in his head.

"Why?"

Elias enters. "I'll tell you why."