Heya All! Can't believe we got another couple of sleeps until Christmas! It always seems to creep up on me every year!
Well I'm all prepped for Christmas! Well I say that now, but sometimes you forget something and have to get it!
It feels more like a hurricane's coming when I shop for Christmas even though the stores only closed for a day! And it's only once a year! lol!
I got one more day of work tomorrow Christmas Eve, Boooo! But then I got Christmas Day and Boxing Day off! Yay!
Anyway, I managed to get another chapter up before I go and enjoy Christmas! Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Breakthrough
Later that evening in a police department building in Chicago, Hugh stood outside an interview room where he saw through the two way glass three women sitting with the children of the Hate Preacher.
The children were weeping and sobbing and being comforted and offered snacks and drinks to compose themselves so they could be interviewed about what they saw.
Looking towards his colleague Sergeant Harris he narrowed his eyes.
"Poor kids." he said "Must have been awful for them! To witness what they saw."
Harris nodded in agreement.
"I felt sorry for them before, being fed such horrible stuff by their parents, but seeing them here, after something scared them so much..." she sighed.
"Any news on the victims?" Hugh asked.
"Only update I've received is they still jabber insane stuff and their usual preaching, saying stuff like the devil has come after them and we must repent."
Hugh rolled his eyes.
"Seems the attacks didn't do much, apart from drive them more insane than they already were to begin with."
Harris nodded.
"True." she said "But this is more advanced, something really scared the shit out of them! They've been affected mentally more than physically."
"How are the forensics doing with the evidence they gathered." Hugh asked.
"Still working on them." Harris said "But still so far, they still haven't found anything out of the ordinary, either the attacker was very clever at making sure they didn't leave a trail, or, this is something else."
"Like supernatural something else?" Hugh asked, pretending to look surprised yet at the back of his mind he thought about Tyroth and the Knights.
They were always good at hiding their tracks, but there were times he had to destroy any evidence and this attacker was good at not leaving a scent.
"I don't know." Harris replied "But this is getting more and more weird, and scary."
Hugh nodded then looked to the children who were still being consoled by the women then he heard their voices from within via a speaker.
"Listen children." one of the women said drying the eyes of the little girl "You need to tell the police what you saw and what happened, then they can catch the bad man who did it."
"It wasn't a man!" the daughter wept "It was a monster!"
The boys nodded in agreement.
"Yeah! It was!"
The women looked at each other and frowned sceptically but they looked at the children gently.
"Listen, I'm sure it wasn't a monster." the second woman said "There's no such thing as monsters."
"But no really! We saw him!" the daughter insisted, fresh tears falling, He hurt mummy and Uncle! He also confessed to hurting daddy!"
"Yeah!" one of the boys agreed "He hurt them! And burnt the messages of God!"
The women looked at each other then decided seeing there was no other way to talk to the children about there not being any monsters, they made the choice to play along.
"Okay kids." the third woman said "What can you tell us about the Monster that hurt your parents and Uncle?"
"It was dark in the basement." the older boy said "We could barely see anything, apart from hearing the sounds of our screaming mother and uncle, then we saw a fire, then his shape!"
"A Large Bird!" the second boy said "A big nasty black bird!"
"A bird?" asked the women.
"A bird?" Harris questioned then looked at Hugh.
"A bird?" Hugh muttered as he looked at Harris then back through the two way glass.
"You sure it wasn't someone in a costume?" asked one of the women to the children.
"He was big, and he cawed like a crow!" the oldest boy insisted.
"It was horrible!" the daughter wept "He cawed and cackled and mummy screamed in fright!"
"He opened his wings and cawed and laughed!" the second boy described "And he told us he was the Devil!"
"Diablo!" the daughter said as she wept harder "Mummy screamed Diablo!"
"Diablo?" Harris asked.
"Spanish for Devil." Hugh said "The attacker calls himself Diablo."
As he continued to listen to the children describe the attack on their parents, more thoughts came to him as he thought more about the way they were attacked.
"A Large black bird." he thought with a frown "A Crow? Raven..."
As soon as the word Raven came into his mind, Hugh's eyes widened as a light went off in his head.
"No!" he thought "No way!"
He remembered three nights ago when he came to Mutopia to tell Tyroth and the Chicago Knights about the Hate Preacher, and how he had been introduced to two new members.
Monalisa's brothers, Jake and Callum. Jake was human but Callum had been forced to drink the water from the well to live after Shredder stabbed him.
And Callum had mutated into a Raven!
"Callum!" he thought "No! No that can't be? Could it?"
He tried to think hard about the Raven in Mutopia, he didn't know Callum well, apart from his backstory and his mutation and what lead up to it.
"If he is the attacker." he thought "Why would he go after the Hate Preacher and his family? And would he strike again?"
"Hugh?" Harris's voice brought him back down to earth.
Hugh almost jumped out of his skin.
"Sorry Harris." he said "I was two and a half miles away for a second."
"What do you think of this sir?" Harris asked "About the children's claims about a large Black Bird attacking their parents and Uncle."
Hugh swallowed hard.
"I don't know what to think." he said "It doesn't sound right, I don't believe in Monsters, nor the Devil at that, my only option is that it was a man in a costume, and a way done costume at that."
"Maybe we should talk to the Fancy Dress shops in the city and the surrounding district to find out if anyone purchased a Raven costume or materials to make one?"
"That's a good idea Harris." Hugh said "Let's get to work."
"Okay!" said Harris.
"Also." Hugh thought aside to himself "I'll be doing some side investigation of my own..." he patted his pocket where his cellphone was.
Back in Mutopia, Tyroth was taking a few deep breaths getting himself ready to meditate quietly in the temple of the Well, the only quiet place he could sit and think.
Yet his silence was interrupted as he heard his phone ring in his pocket, which he regretted bringing with him.
"Awww man!" he groaned as he hated being interrupted, yet the reason he kept his phone close was just in case he heard news from above, especially after all that was going on.
Holding up the phone, he looked at the screen and saw it was Hugh and his heart beat faster.
He quickly swiped the screen and answered it.
"Hey Hugh!" he said.
"Tyroth." Hugh's voice came on the other end "I have an update on the attacks."
Tyroth almost spat out a few flames in shock as he heard those words.
"You have!?" he gasped "Spill!"
He heard Hugh suck in a breath and he explained about how the Children of the Hate Preacher had been interviewed about the attackers their mother and Uncle.
"The children described the attacker as a monster." Hugh said.
"Monster?" Tyroth asked raising an eyebrow, yet he felt a niggling feeling in the pit of his stomach "You mean, not human?"
"No." Hugh said "Neither man, nor beast, but something else."
Tyroth swallowed hard as he thought about what Hugh had told him, he remembered the Demons several years ago, and he knew about the abominations of Dr Arden.
The first thought that crossed his mind, was that it one or the other, but then again he and his team along with the Turtles and Mona had defeated the Demons and they never returned, and also why would Dr Arden's creatures be in Chicago, if there were any, especially since the Foot didn't know about Mutopia, let alone even know that he and Sephie lived in Chicago since he never let loose his tongue under torture those years back.
"What are you suggesting Hugh?" he asked.
"Tyroth," Hugh sighed "I don't want to accuse, but after what those kids described, the creature they saw looked like a mutant animal, unless it was someone in a costume, my colleagues are going around the Fancy Dress Shops in the City and the surrounding district to investigate if anyone hired out a costume that fit the description."
"And what is the description?" Tyroth asked.
"A Large Black Bird." Hugh confirmed.
"A Bird!?" Tyroth gasped against almost spluttering out some flames in shock.
"A Raven." Hugh said.
Tyroth eyes widened.
"Callum...." he whispered "No...he...he couldn't? He wouldn't? Would he?"
"Tyroth." Hugh said "I don't want to jump to conclusions since I don't know your newest mutant member very well, but from what the kids described, he matches the description, I'm also checking the evidence before I point any fingers, as is my duty."
"Thanks Hugh." Tyroth said, his eyes narrowed "Listen, you continue doing what you're doing up top and I'll deal with Callum, I'll keep an eye on him!"
"Thanks." Hugh said gratefully, "Again I am sorry as I don't want to point fingers, but..."
"But nothing mate." Tyroth said "We need to get this looked at, even if the preacher, his wife and brother deserved what they got, there could be more to this, I'll keep you informed if I learn anything."
"Thanks Tyroth." Hugh said "I'll speak to you later."
"Bye!" Tyroth replied before hanging up then staring at the wall, the thoughts of Callum being the one responsible running through his head.
"No..." he thought "I heard he got into fights with those who pissed him off when he was human, but would he really go out and do something like this? Hunt down and torture people?"
He thought back to when Callum saw the video of the Hate Preacher on Hugh's Phone, then not long afterwards the Preacher was found attacked in his own church.
"It was only after Hugh showed us the video!" Tyroth theorised "He saw the video along with the rest of us!"
He chewed his lip.
"Shit!" he thought "What if he is? After what Hugh said?"
He then thought of how Mona and Jake would react, would they not believe it? He knew they would be upset, but he needed their help if he was going to watch Callum.
It wasn't going to be easy, especially since Callum wasn't on speaking terms with Mona and Jake, and if Callum was guilty, he would just deny everything.
"I need to approach this carefully!" Tyroth thought "Again as I said before, even if the Preacher and his family deserved what happened to them, this is the wrong way to go."
The Dragon stood up and decided to go and find Jake and Mona, he also knew he had to careful not to let Callum in that he was suspicious of him.
"I'll take this one step at a time, and I'll do some other investigating too!" he picked up his phone again and called Hacker.
"Hacker here!" he heard the spider's voice on the other end.
"Spider man, it's Tyroth."
"Hey Big T!" Hacker said "What can I do you for?"
"Listen Hacker." Tyroth said "I need you to check the cameras for the past couple of days during the sleeping hours."
"Why boss?" asked Hacker.
"I believe that we might have had someone leave the sanctuary," Tyroth said "I don't know who, but after the activity that Hugh informed us of, he has a suspicion that the attacker might be one of our own!"
"He what!?" he heard the Spider shriek.
"Calm down Hacker!" Tyroth said "Look, I'm not sure who, but I need you to check the cameras, I hope I'm wrong but we need to check this out."
"You can count on me boss!" Hacker said "I'll report if I find anything!"
"Thanks!" Tyroth said before hanging up then looking around the village "Now to find Mona and Jake."
Uh oh! I think they're starting to put the pieces together! The kids have described seeing Callum, and Hugh's starting to suspect the Raven! Now he's told Tyroth, and the dragon is about to do some investigating. Yikes! Looks like Callum's secret's not going to be as secret for long now!
How will Jake and Mona react when Tyroth comes to them? Well stay tuned to find out.
Since this is my last chapter before Christmas in a couple of days, I wish all of you on Fanfiction a very Merry Christmas! Hopefully I may get another chapter up before we go into 2019, but if not I also wish you a Happy New Year!
See you all soon! Love Bloodrayne666