They had set off around 4 am and traveled down to Rockport from San Antonio. A 3 hours drive was made within 2 hours. Derrick drove like the devil was on his tail. With a map of Rockport and all canyon lakes around it, Derrick and his team explored the forest along the seashore, places where humans will normally not venture.
They had metal detectors, shovels and mini drilling tools with them. But the landscape was too large to cover in a day so they divided it into four places and went about searching for signs of excavations, metals buried underground, building materials that could be left behind and anything that signified the presence of humans, be it recent or in the past.
They found nothing.
They had worked till sunrise and were just about to take a break when Derrick's phone rang. It was Rolph.
" Boss." He spoke into the phone.
"How far?"
"Nothing yet."
Rolph heaved, disappointment evident in his signing.
"Pack up and come back. We are going back to Marfa tonight. The Demonic's order."
"Okay boss." Derrick replied without hesitating and Rolph disconnected the call.
It was past noon and he had hardly touched his meal. He wanted something but he didn't know what he wanted. He was angry, scared and longing for something that seemed elusive.
He had always felt like this. Like his life is missing something vital. He wanted to search for what is missing but how does one search for something one can't identify or describe? Where do one start from? Who do you ask for help? How do you ask?
Since whatever was missing was so elusive and abstract, he always tried not to think about it but each time he found himself in dire situations like the one he was in presently, he always missed and long for whatever it was that was missing.
He longed for it so much, he became frustrated. It was as if, if that thing was with him, everything would be okay.
Rolph signed heavily again, closed his eyes and imagined himself underwater in his Denver lake.
Rolph loved water.
He grew up swimming with Hannah and their mother in the lake in the forest behind their home in Denver.
Whenever he was too frustrated and there was no one to transfer the anger to, he goes back to the lake and from his memories, he would bring to life his mother's laughter, Hannah's cackles, the sound of fish splashing against the water surface, fighting for it's life after being hooked to the line, the smell of roasting fish, sometimes games their chef bought at the village market, the rustling of dry leafs when they stepped on them, the sounds of leafs on branches of huge trees when the wind blows at them, the gentle breeze and the strong winds, the sound of rain as it pours into the lake, disrupting its flat, smooth and shiny surface and creating rippling circles, the smell of the soil just after the rain.
He remembered everything. And it calms him down.
But these days, his mother's face isn't so clear anymore. No matter how much he concentrated, he couldn't bring up her face anymore. Her dress, her hand holding him as she swings him around, he could remember that.
But her voice and smell was gone and her face was flat with no eyes, no nose, no mouth.
The smile that reassures him is gone.
Rolph snapped out of his reverie and angrily hit the meal tray with his left hand. It went crashing down.
The door opened and the door guard rushed in, gun drawn and eyes alerted.
He came to an abrupt stop when he saw food scattered on the floor.
Without looking at his boss, he withdrew his gun, spoke into his wristwatch and retreated.
When he got back to his position, he made a call.
"Derrick, you need to come back as soon as possible. Master is losing his shit."
"What about his slave?" Derrick asked worriedly.
"He already put him in a coma."
"Shit!" Derrick grunted.
"But I heard he is awake now and going back to Marfa with us in a cage."
"This is bad. Anyway, I am on my way."
"Yes boss."
The guard ended the call.
Soon, men dressed in chef's uniforms came in and cleaned the floor.
Rolph was reclined in his chair. He didn't acknowledge their presence. His eyes were closed once again and this time, he was at the beach and that boy's head broke the surface of the water, his body emerged slowly as he walked out of the sea like a beautiful, powerful demigod.
In his mind, Rolph took a picture of that moment, just before the strange girl came in. He placed that picture before himself and kept staring at it.
The more he stared, the calmer he became.
'Where are you?'
'Who are you?'
Slowly, Rolph slept off.
Four hours later, Derrick was back and Rolph was still sleeping.
One can't really be sure. He had the habit of closing his eyes and not moving for a long period of time. Even hours.
When Derrick saw him, he decided not to disturb him and went ahead to oversee their preparation to move. Not that there was much to do, but it was better to make sure nothing goes wrong that could upset Rolph now that he had chosen a new bitch.
Whatever they do wrong, the bitch would suffer for it.
After making sure that everything was intact and all that remained was for them to wait for the blanket of darkness, Derrick went to their infirmary to see Ben, the new bitch.
What he saw made him cringe.
Ben was bruised all over and the main injury was to his nipples. They were almost cut off and needed stitching. The nurse who attended to him had done her best to make the stitches neat.
Ben was lying on his side and his back was also covered in whip lashes but luckily, his skin didn't break. Even though Rolph was furious, he was careful. If he had used full force to whip Ben, the twink would have probably died.
Derrick signed in relief and woke the sleeping twink up.