"I knew your father was a high-ranking official in the church, but I didn't know he was one of the people who managed the orphanage before." It was confusing.
"Me neither. Maybe it was important to have him in the orphanage so he can look after the children's health?" What Philip said didn't sound convincing, even to him I bet.
"But look at these. These documents were dated about two months before your family left."
"What do they say? What are those documents about?" Anita asked.
"I don't know. It's just part of a file. I think it's some kind of budget proposal." Then I turned to Philip. "Your father's signature was needed, but he didn't sign it."
"A budget proposal? For what?" Phil asked while looking through other documents.
"I don't know. It just says here that it's important to have the proposal accepted as soon as possible. That it's the next step to freeing the humans from fear of the vampires. What does that even mean?"
"Were they planning to massacre the vampires? That's impossible." Anita said firmly.
"Gosh. This is draining my brain." I was out of my wits. "Wait. Phil, do you think this proposal had anything to do with your father's resignation?"
He didn't say anything for a while. "I don't know. But if we're going to interrogate him, we'll have to do it now. He's leaving tonight."
"Okay. The two of you should go back to the city. I'll stay here to watch over Amelia. I'm worried she might mess up our headquarters. And I'm going to look into the other documents." Anita volunteered. She sounded like she was having fun with all the detective stuff.
We didn't have any other place where we won't be seen or heard by anybody, so we decided to make the cabin where Amelia was staying our headquarters. Of course, we couldn't enter through the main gate and still had to sneak in. But, it was for the best. We finally had a lead and I knew we were almost there. The truth was almost at our reach.
We saw Philip's father getting out of his friend's house, carrying a suitcase. We hurriedly ran to him. He was surprised when we called out his name.
"Whoa. Slow down kids. Is something wrong?" He asked.
"Dr. Caesar, may we ask you a few questions?" I said, panting.
"Right now? Maybe we can just talk it over the phone later? I can't miss my flight."
"Please it's important." Then I handed him the documents with his name. His eyes widened in shock. "Please."
"Where did you get this?"
"Well, we found it." I lied. "Please, we need your help." I begged.
"Alright. But not here. Let's get inside."
We followed him to the house. The house was nice and cozy. It was so different from the castle. It was more welcoming. The smell of fresh brewed coffee filled the air, mixed with the scent of freshly laundered linen. It was a home.
"Before I tell you anything, I want you to be honest with me. Where did you get this?" Dr. Caesar asked.
"We…..stole it." I confessed.
"And the rest of the file?"
"I didn't get the chance to steal the rest." I said. "Doctor, why is your name in the document? What did they need your signature for?"
"As you might have guessed, it was a proposal. It was for some kind of research the Church wanted to pursue. I was a high-ranking official in the Church so they needed my approval as well."
"By why didn't you approve of it then? If it was for the good of the church…"
"It was a research to create an army." He answered.
"I'm sorry. What does that mean?" I was confused. The words didn't sound understandable to me.
"Well, to be specific, they wanted to create a superhuman army." He explained.
The words finally sank and it didn't have to take a genius to understand what it implied. "You mean human experiments?"
"Yes. It wasn't just simple experiment, though. They wanted to see whether humans can have vampiric abilities. They wanted to copy the vampires' super strength, super speed and heightened senses. They wanted to create an army that can go against the vampires."
"But, how can they do that?" I asked, though somehow I already knew the answer.
"The Church had been taking vampires, especially low-level ones since they're easier to capture. At first, it was just to study their traits, just to know more about them. Then later on, they proposed to start using them. They proposed we try draining them of their blood, extract their venom, and mix them with some other chemicals. Then, inject them to human experiments. I didn't approve of it because it meant living sacrifices. It's dangerous and it's cruel. It goes against everything the Church believes in."
"By living sacrifices, you mean the children at the orphanage?" I asked, tears fell from my eyes.
"Not just children. It was an experiment, and experiments are done by trial and error. It would need human experiments that would range from children to old people. In the proposal, it was stated that we could use the heretics, the homeless, and yes, the orphans, and other people they can take without risks. It was inhumane."
"What happened after you disapproved?"
"They said they would start the research even without my consent because majority of the officials wanted it done. They said we needed our own defense against possible wars with the vampires. It was the reason I resigned. I didn't want to get involved and I didn't want to risk my family's safety. I talked to my wife, and we left."
"Mother knew?" It was the first time Philip said anything since we arrived.
"I didn't tell her the whole truth. I just told her the Church wanted to do a research which goes against my morals and I didn't want to do it." The doctor explained. "I didn't tell you anything because I didn't know the issue would resurface. After we left, I buried it thinking it was impossible for them to proceed with their plans anyway."
"But they did. They're doing it now." Phil said.
"What? That's impossible. I just visited the Church yesterday and things seemed normal."
"Well, they've become pretty good liars." Phil said disgustingly.
"Doctor, who exactly proposed this research?" I asked.
He stared at me for a moment before answering. "It was your father."