It was Saturday.
He knew, he has been a bit too early, but his colleague, Arthur,who was also part of their little weekend hobby team has also arrived shortly after him and now it was twenty minutes after the arranged time and Ludwig as still not there.
Arthur spit on the floor in annoyance.
"That's wrong with the brat." he muttered and mustering Abel. "He's never been late. I know the kid since he was in kindergarten and he'd never miss an appointment of any kind!"the Dutch man shrugged. This was not like the kid at all. He's known since he was a toddler... Ludwig was neatfreak, he'd never be late to anything! The kid was always perfect on time.
They played football on every Saturday, there was no way he'd have forgotten that.
With them being teachers and the German boy being a few years younger and still in school, they had wanted to stop it. However Ludwig was stubborn. For two Saturdays he had been standing there on the field waiting for them for hours, while they watched him from the staff room, then they'd given up and came down to play again.
All of them liked the tradition, even though most of the time it ended with them forgetting the ball and getting in a fight about something stupid sometimes leaving all three of them bruised and with black eyes. It was fun acting like a boy instead of a responsible adult sometimes and it was nice to see the kid relax around them.
It had rained before, so the football area was wet and muddy, but that never had stopped them before.
This was weird.
It was Saturday and Ludwig was not there to play football with them. They always played football on Saturdays!
Angrily Abel kicked the ball in the air and caught it with his hands. " It's starting to rain. Do you still want to play or do you want to go inside?" he asked his colleague watching the first heavy raindrop falling on the muddy ground, drawing circles in the puddles.
"No, let's go inside and search for the kid. I feel like giving him my two cents about not turning up when having an important appointment with his teachers." grunted the English teacher and started to runv towards the school building. When they reached the dormitory for the teachers Abel was soaked to the bones and his usually spiky hair fell soft and heavy in his face, hiding the prominent scar in his forehead. Still the muddy football in his hands he just waved Arthur good-bye and wanted to go take a hot shower and get out of his cold, wet cloths, when a hoarse voice stopped them.

"Well, that explains a lot." muttered Arthur, toweling his hair a few minutes later,looking around the complete staff in the teacher's lounge. "You guys know, that we play football every Saturday...he didn't show up." he explained.
The teacher for French and Art sighed dramatically. " It's Saturday." he echoed Arthur "There are still some students out in town."
the headmaster nodded "we informed the police and they bring all students back to school they can find." He nipped at his Grappa, as if he wanted to calm himself with it "It'd be great if one part of the teachers would also leave school and search if they can find either the missing boy or other student and bring them back to school."
Abel sighed and rubbed the his forehead. It was clear that he would be one of the teachers that would be send to herd the remaining flock of students back to school... it not like Mr Roma would send someone like Mr. Edelstein for that job. He may be dense but he wasn't stupid.

He was wet to the bones for the second time this even when he came back late, shooing a young Finnish boy to the student dorms...he had found him in a pub drinking alcoholic beverage he was definitively too young for and listening to metal music. They'd have to talk about when this nightmare was over. Mr. Wang just came back too shoving a certain American troublemaker through the door muttering aggravated in Chinese. They drank a cup of tea together, talking before check the room of the security service for news a last time, then they called it a night.
Ludwig was still still last thing Abel noticed before falling asleep was that the window of his colleague at the other side if the building was still illuminated and the shadow of the English man walked around the room restless.