On the stretchers were dead bodies that were being carried one after another along the corridor of the Mansion, covered all over with white sheets soaked with stains of blood and dust. "Who did this to our high ranked people?" asked Micheal Janes as his voice shrieked due to anger mixed with dismay.
Micheal Janes was the leader of the Mansion of Janes, situated in the center of the city named Dervin, where Janes' family had been ruling for years, controlling all its matters including banking and accounting, media and entertainment, all small and large businesses currently ongoing in Dervin, either directly or indirectly through some secret agents continuously reporting to them about their internal affairs.
"Sir! We have lost eleven people! All of them were involved in torturing Mr. Bruce to death last Saturday night" said one of Micheal's close assistants named Ferello Hiles. Micheal was a tall, brown haired 44 years old man, with grey eyes. He had a large moustache with sharp peaks on both sides and his shoulders broad enough to make him look graceful in his black long coat having no buttons but both hanging sides were connected by two silver chains in between. He was wearing black long shoes, having no laces but plain in their overall appearance, going above his ankles but too low than his knees , with eminently rigid and stylish soles, giving only a tiny yet decent grace of silver thin lining across the bottom of the sole.
"Someone is taking revenge for Mr. Bruce… But who could it be…" said Micheal in a dim tone with frowns, as he was now seriously getting mentally disturbed due to continuous mysterious cases recently taking place in their Mansion.
Mr. Bruce, one among the Needies working in the Mansion of Janes, was Keith's recent tutor who was entitled to teach him astronomy, biology and chemistry. Keith Janes, only 9 years old, the middle son of Micheal Janes and his wife named Dina Samandra, unlike other Nobles' kids, was more drawn to Needies around him, having no feelings of discrimination or inferiority for them.
"Ferrello, investigate this case, use all the methods, see through all the CCTV footage, and give me detailed reports until tonight" said Micheal as his coat flipped due to a quick turn to leave.
After further investigation, Ferello Hiles became successful in finding out that all the dead bodies had 67 cuts on the same parts of their bodies, spaced at equal distance, making out the same angles in each of them and equal depths. Not only that, this pattern of cuts accurately resembled what they did to Mr. Bruce's body. After he reported these essential details to Micheal Janes, this case became one under the series of cases named "The Devil's Claw"
For the last many months, a series of brutal yet mysterious murders were being exposed one after another, in the Mansion of Janes, with the killer unknown. Mostly the Nobles and their entrusted class engaged in torturing and hunting the Needies in their parties were found to be targeted. Since hunting the Needies for their self satisfaction was a part of their ritual to pay tribute to the God for creating them superior humans, they had named these series of murders as the Devil's claw, considering it as devil's interference in their holy rituals.
Three years ago….
With the voice of spoons hitting periodically to the plates as they were having rice with grilled chicken in their dinner, Keith Janes, only 6 years of age, asked his father named Micheal Janes about the recent vanishing of Miss Kate who was Keith's caretaker, "Where has Miss Kate gone?" asked him, as he looked up towards the blank faces of his family indulged in eating, including his mother named Dina Samandra and his older brother Jason Janes who was 12 years of age. They were sitting in their main family hall, having large glass windows on all its sides, covered with large velvet red curtains laced with golden strips on all sides. On their top in the little right, there was a giant lantern giving golden dim light, having more than fifty tiny bulbs covered in glass all around, with hanging different shapes of glass and bells which could make high pitched beautiful sounds like that of birds chirping when touched by wind.
"We will soon arrange another caretaker for you, Miss Kate was being disobedient recently, I had to suspend her from our mansion" said Micheal in a calm tone, his face as casual as always.
"What disobedience did you notice in her?" asked Keith with questioning eyes, as he noticed the uncomfortable silence of his mother and his elder brother. Besides their royal dining table, at some distance was placed another comparatively small table for the family's servants including their personal workers, maids, caretakers, drivers etc. Among them was a lady named Miss Jenna who was feeding a rice cereal mixed with fruits to Watson Janes, Janes' youngest son, who was just a toddler at that time.
"You won't understand what I noticed, but you must have faith that whatever your parents do for you, is definitely best for you," said Micheal in a plain tone with a slightly rigid face, as got up from his chair to leave.
"But I had great admiration for Miss Kate, she was too nice to me…" said Keith as his eyes slid and his cheeks blushed. His voice a little higher to reach his father who was now at a distance from the table and was just about to reach the exit door.
"Don't worry honey! You will get another such admiration for another caretaker soon… Because you yourself are just too nice to everyone.." said Mom with chuckles, as she patted Keith's head while gesturing to her husband Micheal to leave comfortably without feeling any necessity to pause for listening to Keith's further worthless concerns.
Keith was a dark brown haired, ocean blue eyes, beautifully sensitive kid, both by appearance and by his heart. He got feelings of empathy for everyone he interacted with even during his childhood. Despite being the Noble's kid, he never hesitated in doing any act of kindness to all the Needies around him because he did not think of them inferior to him. He firmly believed in equality for all of humanity and that no one should be treated harshly like animals just because they were not born in any royal family.
Unfortunately, with whomever Keith developed feelings of admiration or established any kind of close bonding, that specific person got missing in a short duration of time, no matter if that person was his tutor or his caretaker.
Micheal and Dina were subconsciously becoming concerned about their kid's rebellious beliefs about the world's established system for ages with the passage of time as his age was increasing. Why was he not like all of them… Why he did not hate the Needies as they taught him to… It was a common practice among Nobles to inflict physical pain on their workers in front of their kids to teach their kids to carry on the same behaviour. Besides, there was also an innate need installed within them due to genetic changes, to pour out their mustered sadistic frustration onto Needies to satisfy their hunting instincts due to which they were not to be blamed entirely for their animal-like behaviour to the Needies.
Every Noble was born with such hunting instincts which they needed to satisfy by physically torturing the Needies, for which they had built special Red rooms in their royal Mansions. They had arranged Saturday's parties in which some Needies would voluntarily write their names on paper and put them into the box, from which one name would be chosen to be the prey to Nobles' brutal hunting that night, while all other names could become the Nobles' Entrusted class, the people to whom Nobles would rely on every situation, entitling them to perform some tasks, paying them heavy amount of money along with luxury lifestyles, providing them eminent fame and royal reputation, but Keith was not born like this. Instead of increasing sadistic desires with age due to Noble's naturally developing instincts, Keith was becoming more and more empathetic towards Needies.
Some Nobles were barbaric to the extent of practising cannibalism, namely the great triad of Superpowers, which include the Machia family, Najers Family and Rogera family. These three were the most influential families, in terms of their military power, classical history, aesthetic lifestyles and largely established businesses that made every other royal family rely on them for trade purposes and other kinds of worldly progress.