"What the hell?" Mrs. Aniston clicked her tongue, dissatisfied as she slammed her hand on the remote control while pointing at the television in front of her, which was displaying a blue screen with a small grey box in the middle, inside of which the words 'No signal' was written in white. "Max! The television isn't working!"
"Just hit the remote control a few times, mom!" A voice came from the second floor of the house, instructing Mrs. Aniston on what to do. She did as she was told, and slammed the remote control multiple times with her slim hands. But to no avail. The television still didn't seem to work.
"It's not working, Max!" She yelled loudly.
Thud! Thud!
The sound of footsteps was heard, moving down on the stairs. A young boy with long blonde hair wearing a yellow flannel shirt came into the living room and stood next to Mrs. Aniston. His gaze fixed on the television for a few seconds, before turning to look at the middle aged woman who had her hands tightly gripped on the remote control. "It might be the problem with the broadcast. Just wait a few minutes. Maybe it'll get fixed after a while."
"Oh, I hope so." Mrs. Aniston sighed. She then turned to look at the young boy and asked, "Are you ready to go to school, Max?"
"Yeah, mom. I'm about to leave." The boy, Max Aniston, replied with a smile. Mrs. Aniston nodded her head and then turned back to face the television.
Max slowly retreated back to the kitchen and opened the back door. "Bye, mom!" He said as he exited through the door, and Mrs. Aniston waved her hands with her face still facing the television, not turning around.
Max opened the gate to the fence that surrounded the backyard and stepped onto a small alleyway, where three boys were waiting.
"Took you a while." A boy with red hair, wearing a black striped shirt said with a click of his tongue as Max walked up to them.
"Sorry about that guys." Max replied with a bitter smile on his face. "You know how my mom is."
"Wait, I thought she doesn't let you out when there's no school because of the missing cases." A boy with black curly hair and wearing a red shirt stepped forward. "They were broadcasting the news about having no classes today on television. How the hell did you escape?"
"Easy. I just pulled the plug of the television." Max shrugged his shoulders. "My mom's not too good with electronics. She won't figure it out anytime soon."
"Goddamn." The kid with the glasses and wearing an oversized blue hoodie whispered under his breath. "Yeah, you better hope to god that she won't figure it out."
"I'll worry about that later." Max rolled his eyes. "We should probably leave now."
The four boys then dashed towards the mouth of the alley and entered Melvin Street.
------------ BEAST SOUL ------------
The New World police station was probably one of the oldest remnants of the city before it was remodeled. It was an old building that stood out in the middle of the modernised streets of the New World City.
Noah stood in front of the police station, staring at the building for a few seconds before sighing and walked up to the front door.
"Noah! Good to see you again, kid." Detective Lewis Fitzgerald, who was standing right next to the front desk and was talking to the receptionist, immediately noticed the teenager who entered the building and waved his hands at him.
"Detective Fitzgerald," Noah waved his hands back and began walking towards the detective. "You wanted to ask me some questions?"
"Ah, yes!" Lewis snapped his fingers. He then ended the conversation with the receptionist and motioned Noah to follow him as he headed towards his desk.
"Sit down, kid." Lewis pointed at the chair right opposite to his desk as he sat down on his own chair.
"You aren't going to make me enter the interview room?" Noah asked as he sat down.
"Ha ha.. no, no." Lewis chuckled as he took out a notepad and a pen from his pocket and held it close to his chest. "This is just a simple Q&A. I just want to ask you a few questions and then you can leave. It's that simple."
Noah narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe Lewis' words, but he nevertheless nodded his head.
"Before we start, do you want something to drink?" Lewis asked, and he pointed at the coffee kettle that was placed right on top of the table beside him.
"A coffee would be nice," Noah answered.
"Alright. Coffee it is." Lewis got up from his chair and grabbed two cups.
As he was doing that, Noah caught a glimpse of a document that was just lying on the table. Since it was a few metres away from him, Noah thought that he wouldn't be able to read it. But to his surprise, Noah realized that he could clearly read what was written on the document even though it was far away from him.
'What the hell?' Noah thought to himself. He then narrowed his eyes and began going through the document, which he finished reading almost instantly, surprising him yet again.
The document contained details about the disappearance of Billy Becker's body.
'I thought Wolfe had killed the beast though?' Noah scratched his chin. Was there another creature in the vicinity as well?
Right then.
"Here you go!" Lewis had finished pouring the coffee and handed one over to Noah, interrupting his train of thought. "Thank you," Noah said with a smile as he received the cup. Lewis sat back down in his chair and placed his cup on the table.
Noah took a big sip from the cup, and then got right to it.
"Okay, Noah, we've talked to the kids who were present at the junkyard the day you saw the wild animal. And I've also spoken to the doctor who was in charge of treating your friend, Adrian Nascimento in the hospital." Lewis said, and he looked at Noah. "The kids say that you were fighting Adrian in the junkyard. And the doctor does confirm that there were injuries other than that made by an animal on Adrian's body. Although Adrian did deny such claims when we tried to speak with him."
'Damn it. I should've told him the truth.' Noah scratched his chin. He was afraid that the detective would suspect him and would think that he was making up the story about the wild animal if he had told him the entire truth, which was why he lied during their first interaction. However, it seems to have backfired. He really didn't think that one through, and now, he would most definitely look like a liar to Lewis.
"You want to tell me anything about it?" Lewis asked.
"Yes, I was fighting Adrian at the junkyard." Noah sighed. He had decided to tell the truth this time.
"Okay. Why were you fighting Adrian?" Lewis asked, and Noah began the story at his school, and took it from there. He mentioned the bullying he had gone through under Billy, him fighting back, the confrontation between him and Adrian in the classroom, the decision to take the fight to the junkyard in order to not get into any trouble, the sudden appearance of the creature and how quickly it chased them. He used as much detail as he could remember, and to his surprise, he realised that he could recall almost every second of those incidents.
That's weird, he thought to himself. His memory wasn't all that bad before, but this was definitely something else. It was as though he was rewinding through a video file.
Noah walked Lewis through the whole event, describing things in excruciating detail exactly as they had happened.
This meant that he had to tell them about the appearance of Wolfe as well. From what Lewis had told him, Noah knew that they'd already questioned Adrian, who had also seen Wolfe. And although he wanted to shield Wolfe's presence as much as he could, he was certain that lying would only make him look suspicious.
Of course, he didn't mention his very first interaction with Wolfe. Only the part Adrian has also seen. Noah decided to keep the rest to myself.
"And that's it," Noah said when he was done and turned his gaze towards Lewis, who had been jotting down notes occasionally on his notepad. He put the notepad down and looked at me. "You look like a good kid, Noah." He said. "I can understand why you choose to lie to me the first time. You've had it rough, kid."
Noah simply nodded his head in response.
"So, about these creatures," Lewis said. "You haven't told anyone about them, have you?"
"Uh, no, sir." Noah shook his head.
"Good," Lewis nodded as he pulled open his drawer and placed his notepad inside.
Before he closed the drawer, Noah caught a glimpse of a document inside, which had a sketch of a different creature on it. One that Noah had never seen before. Underneath the rough sketch was a three letter word; BS-T.
"Keep it a secret for now, alright?" Lewis' words brought Noah back to reality. "We don't want to cause a panic." Lewis said. "You understand, right?" He looked at Noah, who nodded his head.
"Alright then," Lewis stood up from his chair and walked over to Noah. "You're good to go now, kid. I'll call you if there's anything more to discuss."
He stretched out his hand. Noah stood up from his chair and accepted the handshake.
"That's a good grip you've got there, kid. You work out a lot?" Lewis said as he let go of his hand, and Noah scratched his head in embarrassment. "Kind of."
Noah left after saying goodbye, and Lewis returned to his chair. He then grabbed the coffee cup, and took a sip.
"Ouch!" He instantly pulled the cup away from his mouth, and bit his lips. The coffee was too hot to drink.
"The hell?" As Lewis was rubbing his lips with his hand, he caught a glimpse of the cup he had given Noah. To his surprise, the cup was completely empty.