This strange encounter left Charlie feeling unsettled, but he decided it was best not to ask any questions. There was something about the entire situation with Fana that felt off, and pressing the issue might only make things more uncomfortable.
They left the resturant after their meal, but before they parted ways, Megan offered a polite and motherly suggestion. "You and Charlie live close to each other, and since you're colleagues, it might be nice to spend more time together. You could help each other out with work and maybe hang out on weekends, too."
These were just ordinary words of courtesy, something a parent might say when meeting their child's friend. However, Fana's reaction was anything but ordinary. Her face grew serious, her expression intense as she listened to Megan's suggestion, almost as if she were taking the words as a directive rather than a casual remark.
As they said their goodbyes and began to walk away, Charlie couldn't shake the feeling that Fana was still standing at the fork in the road, watching them. Even after they had merged into the crowd, turned a corner, and were well out of sight, Charlie couldn't help but feel that her gaze lingered, following him long after she was gone.
"She's a pretty girl, isn't she?" Megan said with a warm smile as they walked, her tone light as if trying to start a casual conversation.
"Umm, sure, I guess?" Charlie replied, his voice laced with a hint of skepticism.
He couldn't deny that Fana was strikingly beautiful. Her features were delicate, almost otherworldly, and she had an ethereal quality that made her stand out. But there was something else about her that was hard to pin down, something that made Charlie uneasy. Her temperament was odd, and she was so sparing with her words that it almost felt unnatural. Throughout their entire meal, she had spoken in clipped phrases and short sentences, barely stringing together a complete thought.
Megan, however, didn't seem to see anything wrong with Fana's behavior. She seemed to view Fana's quiet demeanor as a sign of being well-mannered and reserved, a mark of a well-behaved young woman. To her, Fana's lack of chatter was a positive trait, an indication of a thoughtful and considerate personality. But to Charlie, it felt different. He couldn't help but wonder if there was more to Fana's story, perhaps something darker lurking beneath the surface.
He mulled over the strange moment when Fana had mentioned living with her mother. Was it possible that she had lied? Maybe she was living alone, the only name on her household records, and had said otherwise to avoid pity or judgment. But then, there had been that sudden spark in her eyes when she talked about her mother. It didn't seem like the reaction of someone fabricating a story. If she was telling the truth, then the situation was even more troubling.
There were unsettling possibilities that crossed Charlie's mind. What if she wasn't living with her mother in the conventional sense? Perhaps it was something supernatural—was Fana living with the spirit of her deceased mother, communicating with a presence that only she could see? Or was it something psychological, where Fana's mother existed only in her mind, a figment of her imagination that she believed was real? Either scenario felt dangerous.
Despite these unsettling thoughts, Charlie knew he had to trust the system in place, at least for now. Fana had passed the psychological evaluations at the Service Division, not to mention that Miyazaki had seemingly vouched for her stability. Charlie could only hope that they knew what they were doing. For now, though, he decided it was wiser to keep his distance from Fana, to avoid entangling himself with someone who might be dealing with deep-seated issues.
To take his mind off the day's strange events, Charlie decided to spend the rest of the afternoon taking his mother on a leisurely walk through the shopping district. They wandered from store to store, enjoying the simple pleasure of browsing through various shops. As a small gesture, Charlie bought some new clothes for Megan. Despite the chaos and unpredictability of his job, one of the perks of working at the Secret Service was the decent salary. Even for someone like Charlie, who often found himself in the background, the pay was nothing to complain about.
It wasn't enough to buy a house or a luxury car, but it was more than enough to treat his mother to a nice meal and buy her some new outfits. Megan didn't say much, but her smile was radiant, and Charlie could see the joy in her eyes. There was a certain pride and happiness in receiving a gift from one's child, and Megan's expression said it all.
Afterward, they headed toward a dessert shop that Charlie had read about online. The place was reputed to have some of the best treats in the city. But when they arrived, they found a long queue stretching out the door. Disappointed, Charlie and Megan decided to skip it. The wait was just too long, and after a full day of shopping and walking, they didn't have the patience for another long line.
It seemed that everywhere they went, there were queues. Whether it was for food, drinks, or even something as simple as buying dessert, the lines were reminiscent of the ones you'd find outside the women's restroom at a busy tourist spot—waiting an hour or more was the norm.
By the time they had finished their day out, Charlie felt that his energy levels were back up to full. After returning to his apartment, he settled in front of his computer and logged back into his work system.
When he logged back in, he found that the DNA comparison results from the Ferb couple's home the previous night had finally come through. As he had suspected, there was a match.
It turned out to be a child.
The DNA matched that of Raya Hatta, a twelve-year-old girl. She had a record of burglary, which meant her DNA was already in the FBI's system.
Raya had no parents and no immediate family members, according to the records. She was listed as an orphan living in an orphanage on the south side of the city.
The file detailed her discovery in a field in the countryside, found by a couple who were driving by late at night. The couple had heard her crying, and despite the darkness and eeriness of the situation, they had bravely ventured out of their car with a flashlight and followed the sound until they found her.
Her life, however, had not been an easy one. The burglary record from a year ago was just one of several offenses. Raya had been a problematic child from a young age, frequently getting into trouble with the law for theft, fighting, and even fraud.
Despite her troubled past, Raya was adopted from the orphanage about a year ago. Her adoptive parents, Jordan and his wife, weren't particularly wealthy, but they were comfortable enough by the city's standards. While they might not have treated Raya as if she were their own biological child, they certainly didn't treat her poorly.
But her time with her adoptive parents was cut short.
Not too long ago, Jordan and his wife mysteriously disappeared on the same night.
The FBI was quick to respond, arriving at the scene to investigate, but they found no clues. All the doors and windows of the house were locked from the inside, and there were no signs of forced entry. It was as if the couple had simply vanished into thin air. Their whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
With no relatives willing to take her in, Raya was returned to the orphanage where she had grown up.
Then, about a month ago, Raya herself disappeared.
The investigation records detailed her disappearance, noting that it was just as strange as that of her adoptive parents. The agent in charge of the case was baffled, unable to explain what had happened.
Like the previous case, Raya's disappearance occurred overnight in a large dormitory where she slept with seven other children.
The seven other children in the dormitory claimed they hadn't noticed anything unusual during the night. It wasn't until morning that they realized one of them was missing.
The night guard insisted that no one had entered or left the building throughout the night, and the agent doubted that anyone could have taken a twelve-year-old girl out of the room without waking the others. The children also confirmed that the door was still locked when they awoke.
The investigation had stalled, and Raya remained missing. But now, Charlie had found her DNA in the Ferb couple's house, indicating that she had been there at some point.
After considering his options, Charlie decided that his next step would be to visit the orphanage.
The orphanage was located in a relatively remote area compared to the urban center. Charlie had never been to such a place in real life, and his impressions of orphanages were shaped by movies, books, and other works of fiction.
This time, though, even though Batman was still being remotely operated from his computer, what he saw on the screen left a lasting impression.
The orphanage was nothing like what he had imagined. As a place meant to house and care for children, it was devoid of warmth. The first impression it gave was more akin to… Arkham Asylum.
That's right—the moment Batman arrived outside the building and surveyed the scene on the screen, that was the first thought that came to mind.
The iron gate at the entrance was secured with a heavy padlock, and thick, rusted chains were wrapped around it like a serpent coiled tightly around its prey. The yard beyond the gate was deserted, not a soul in sight. The cold wind rustled the bare branches of the trees, creating a ghostly whispering sound that sent shivers down Charlie's spine.
The lighting in the courtyard was poor, casting long, eerie shadows that seemed to stretch and twist like dark tendrils
. The place had the look of a horror movie set, where the sun rarely shone, and even during the day, the building seemed shrouded in perpetual gloom.
It was literally a place where the sun didn't shine.
Getting into the building was easier than Charlie had expected. The guard in the security booth next to the gate was lazily reading a newspaper, his legs propped up on the desk, while another guard at the entrance of the building was engrossed in watching short videos on his phone.
The yard and the building itself were utterly lifeless, devoid of any signs of activity or inhabitants.
Batman moved silently down the corridor, his footsteps soundless against the cold, hard floor. As usual, Charlie relied on detective mode's x-ray vision to avoid detection, but he couldn't help but think that it might not have been necessary. Even with the full-range view of detective mode activated, the corridors ahead, behind, to the left, and to the right were all empty.
As Batman passed by a classroom, Charlie noticed some children inside.
But it wasn't like any school or kindergarten classroom he had ever seen. There was no noise, no chatter, no laughter. The room, despite being filled with over twenty children, was eerily silent.
One child sat in a corner, his eyes rolling back in his head, drool slipping from the corner of his mouth. Another child stared blankly at the blackboard, his body occasionally twitching as if in response to some unseen stimulus, letting out a strange, hollow laugh that echoed in the empty room.
The few children who appeared to be "normal" were anything but. They were silent, their faces devoid of expression, their eyes dull and lifeless. They were children, but they looked more like ghosts, shadows of what children should be.
Sanity, it seemed, was a curse in this place. To be sane here meant to be fully aware of the bleak, oppressive reality that they faced every day.
Batman finally reached the dormitory where Raya had slept. Her bed was still vacant, untouched since her disappearance. Other children were living in the dormitory now, but with the passage of time, most of the clues or traces that might have been left behind had long since vanished.
Charlie was about to initiate a scan when he noticed movement outside the room through detective mode.
Someone was approaching.
"The FBI department is still investigating… but they're saying the chances of finding anything new are slim," said a man's voice.
"If you want to see for yourself, her bed is right over here. But the FBI has been here several times, and it's been a while since she disappeared. I don't think there's much left to find…"
Before they could enter the room, Batman slipped out of the window and perched on a narrow ledge outside the building, sticking close to the wall, hidden in the shadows.
Charlie observed the scene through Batman's perspective, and facial recognition in detective mode quickly identified the newcomers.
The man speaking was Deacon, the director of the orphanage.
And walking beside him was… Fana?
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