"Did you hear that?" Commander Gideon asked.
No one spoke. Gideon and Kento listened to the quiet night and heard crickets chirping.
"Nothing," answered Kento. "It must be your imagination. You should try to sleep sometimes, commander."
"Should I?" He chuckled.
The small town of Fract was quiet as the dead. It only had approximately five hundred people, and was declining. No one dared to come here aside from its residence, and no one could leave even if they wanted to.
It looked like a ghost town at this time of the day. Even the people living here were afraid to go out after dusk. No one dared to seduce the lurkers of the night.
The commander and his sergeant couldn't sleep that night. They wanted to investigate more about the so-called animal attacks happening in Fract. They were at a dead-end. Even the other squad declined to take the case.
But according to Gideon, there was still something they hadn't done yet. Something no mortal would dare.
And yet, they did.
The recent attack took place at the East side of Fract near the woods. Good move. This way, the attacker could easily hide in this isolated place without being noticed. No mortals cared about the people here anyway.
Gideon was no different. He didn't like the Vad Tribe, no, he hated them. The reason? Who needs it? Every mortal loathed them.
But if the commander wanted to solve this case, he needed to do everything possible, even if he had to go to this filthy place. If he wanted to get to the bottom of these attacks, he would endure anything.
"Just to be sure," said Gideon, "let's split up. I'll go here. You go there towards the center of the town. We meet here again in an hour."
Kento sighed in disbelief, but didn't utter a word.
Gideon's eyebrows shot up. "Is that disapproval I heard?"
"It's your imagination." Kento turned around towards the capital without waiting for his commander's words, but he heard him laugh.
Gideon went to the noise he heard a while. Kento told him it must be his imagination, but his gut feeling was telling him that it wasn't. If he could take pride in something he possessed, it would be his instinct. This hadn't failed him ever.
He halted when the road came to a stop. The beat-up houses also stopped here, and he could see nothing in view for at least a mile away aside from the long stretch of dried farm. He looked back where he came from, and saw no other paths.
He crouched and inspected the dirty road. They were faint, but he could see some footprints leading straight towards the farm, and it was suspiciously long strides, like the owner was in a hurry or had unusually long legs.
"I told Kento we would meet in an hour," he whispered under his breath. Instead of wasting time thinking, he chose to continue walking alone. He still had time. It wouldn't hurt him to check.
After walking for a long time, Gideon decided that it was time to stop. There was nothing in the vicinity, not even animals that could console him. He thought it was another dead-end. A total waste of his time.
He was about to turn around when he heard another noise. This time, it was clearer. It was definitely the voice of a man, screaming. Gideon had heard a lot of screaming voices before, but this one was not screaming for help. He was screaming in agony.
Gideon was fast on his feet. He got to the house situated in the middle of nowhere. He didn't have the time to question why it was the only house there, nor had the chance to look around. He went straight inside the house, uninvited.
But he was horrified at the sight in front of him. He had been in the elite army for a year now, but he hadn't seen a crime scene like this before. Not to mention, the crime that was currently taking place.
A man was dangling in the air, his eyes rolled behind his head, and his fingers were curled—a scene Gideon hadn't seen in a while. The past came back to him, weakening his knees, but he immediately slapped himself before he could fall into the abyss.
The woman hugged the man close to her, like she was afraid he would run away. Black smoke came out of the woman's mouth, entering the man's mouth.
Not good.
Pulling a gun behind his back, Gideon shot two bullets towards the woman. It went past her. He clicked a button at his gun and fired another two, but the same thing happened. He was about to fire again after another click when something fell on the man's pocket.
Gideon didn't pay it any attention until the object glowed, blinding the woman. He didn't waste any time and ran towards the man, pulling him from the woman's grasp. The woman was still holding onto the man tightly, but because of the blinding light, her grip loosened.
The commander took that opportunity to pull the man with all his strength. The woman was shrieking while covering her eyes as if something was blinding her. Gideon was about to pull the man out of that house when the glowing stopped, and the woman could see them again.
"Sh-t," Gideon muttered under his breath before firing two bullets. This time, the bullets hit the woman in the shoulder.
She started shrieking again before attacking the man. But this time, she did something no one had ever seen or heard of before. The woman grabbed the necklace, pressed it in the man's chest and evaporated in the air.
Gideon was perplexed. He didn't know what to think of what just happened. Instead of attacking him and the man, the woman disappeared. But what she did confused Gideon. What was with the necklace? How did she disappear right in front of Gideon?
"Can murklins transport now? Well, d-mn." He laid down on the wooden floor and caught his breath.
"Commander!" called Kento from outside. He rushed inside the house, but stopped at the entrance when he saw his commander.
Gideon looked up and smirked. "You missed a lot of action, sergeant."
Kento peeked inside and said, "I can see that."
*
Gideon and Kento gave the family a proper burial at the back of their residence. Kento cleaned the house and made sure there was no sign of an attack. He erased everything, especially the blood splattered around the house.
When they were done, they stared at the man who was lying on the bamboo cot, bruised all over his body.
"I can't believe," said Kento, "that you let the attacker k-lled three mortals, hurt this man, and let it slip through your fingers." He was shaking his head in disbelief.
Gideon raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry? Who wasn't here to help his commander beat that murklin? Who was late again in the action and let his commander take on a murklin on a k-lling spree, and then blame everything on him when it escaped?"
Kento looked away.
"And just so you know, the three were already dead when I arrived, so you can't blame that one on me. You should praise me. I managed to save one. That's rare."
"It's not like you'll get promoted by surviving a murklin attack."
Gideon heaved a sigh before looking back at the unconscious man. "That's what I'm worried about. Will anyone believe me if I tell them I got to escape a murklin attack and then live to tell about it?"
"They'll think you're a mad man."
"Right?" He stopped for a while. "Don't tell anyone that."
"Not gonna happen."
They watched as the man slowly opened his eyes. He roamed his eyes around the place before stopping to see the two men staring at him intently. When the event that took place went back to him, he sat abruptly and searched the place.
"Carl!" he called. "Ate Charis! Nanay!" He tried to stand, but his knees gave way. He noticed how tired and out of breath he was. He didn't have any strength as well, and he couldn't even lift himself up off the floor.
"I think you should help him get back to the cot," said the tall guy, who was wearing a black cloak that reached his ankles.
The guy wearing a blue cloak did what the other told him, and lifted him up like he weighed nothing. And then, he said, "You shouldn't be moving just yet, young man. After what happened, it's not surprising that you'll become limp."
"What happened?" he managed to ask.
"Life happened." The tall guy chuckled. When the man didn't laugh, he cleared his throat. "What can you remember?"
The man looked from afar, like the answer was there. "I had a long dream… I saw my family… with blood splattered around."
"Well, unfortunately," the tall guy said as he reached for a chair and sat, "that wasn't a dream. It's real. Your mother, your brother and sister are all dead. Bummer."