Total blinked at the sky, wondering what he was doing there. His back was cold, pressed against a hard brick wall. He felt filthy concrete under him, and heard the sounds of distant cars.
His head ached to blazes, and his whole body felt worn and tired.
And then he remembered.
Total struggled to stand, but a wave of dizziness swept over him, and he stumbled against the wall, breathing heavily.
"Iggy," he moaned, looking frantically about the alley. "Iggy?"
But he was gone.
"Oh no, oh no," Total panicked, still searching as if somehow, Iggy would suddenly appear. "Oh no."
Iggy had been kidnapped. Iggy had been kidnapped.
That was a strange term to fit his head around. A mutant bird-kid had just been… kidnapped. It hadn't been an Eraser. It hadn't been a Flyboy. It hadn't been a scientist. Just a dirty man who had knocked him out and… and kidnapped him.
"I have to tell Dr. Martinez," Total groaned, managing to stumble out of the alley and make his way past the abandoned groceries and into the forest. "I have to tell her."
"They've been gone for a while," Dr. Martinez worriedly admitted, staring out the window at the sky.
"Yeah, but Iggy can take care of himself," Ella said, waving her hand around and eating a cookie.
Valencia continued to peer at the sky. It was growing dark, and she had sent Iggy and Total out early that morning.
"It's been a long time. They should be home by now…"
Ella finally listened to her mom and consented to look at the sky. And she noticed just how long it had been.
"But," she started, frowning and turning to the clock. "Oh, gosh. It's been hours! He wouldn't be gone so long…"
"I'm worried," Dr. Martinez stated, nervously clutching at her necklace. "What if he's in trouble?"
Ella tried to comfort her. "Don't worry, mom. He's probably going to knock on that door any second and walk in with that stupid grin plastered across his face…"
Suddenly, the two of them heard a furious tapping at the front door. Ella jumped up and rushed to open it, smiling furiously.
"See? He's back! Look, he's…"
But when she opened the door, she only found a very tired, very scared Total, limping on the doorstep. She squealed and bent hurriedly to lift him up and pull him inside.
"Total!" Valencia Martinez exclaimed. "What's wrong? Where's Iggy?"
Total gasped in a tired breath; he had apparently walked all that way up through the mountains from the city to the house.
"We were shopping… Iggy heard something from the alley… went in to look… a tall man, hit him in the head twice with a bat, then knocked me out… and they were both gone when I woke up," Total gasped, always able to form a speech, even when winded and frightened.
Dr. Martinez and Ella exchanged nervous looks.
"Was it an Eraser? A scientist? Is the School or Itex back in business?" Dr. Martinez asked frantically. Total shook his furry little head.
"No. Just a man."
Dr. Martinez and Ella exchanged a look, then they both rushed out the door and to their car, Ella still carrying Total.
"Where are we going?" Total asked doubtfully as Ella climbed into the front seat and Dr. Martinez started the car.
"To the police station," Valencia answered in a monotone. "Iggy has been kidnapped. We have to tell the police."
The car started quickly and they began to drive quickly down the road. The road was actually basically a very, very long driveway; one that wound through mountains and forest before finally adjoining to the road in the city in the valley. It normally took thirty minutes to drive all the way there, but when Dr. Martinez was nervous, she drove quickly; it only took them fifteen.
"Okay, Total, explain to me exactly what happened," Valencia Martinez ordered him as she drove.
"Well, we were shopping. We got all the groceries and everything. And then Iggy wanted to sit down, so I led him to a bench near the edge of the forest. It was in front of an alley."
"Wait, why did he want to sit down?" Ella asked quickly, and Total sniffled, rubbing his injured head ruefully with a front paw.
"He said he wasn't as 'better as he'd thought'. He felt sick."
"Oh, no!" Dr. Martinez exclaimed, shaking her head. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears of worry for the boy she considered her un-biological son. "I never should have let him go!"
"That's true," Total agreed, "But it can't be helped now. Anyway, we were sitting, and he said he'd heard something from in the alley. I said it was probably a rat. But he went to check it out. And then…" Total broke of in a whimper as he found the source of his pain; a dark bruise just behind his left ear. He patted it nervously. "And then a tall man comes out of the shadow. He had this long metal baseball bat. He swung it and hit Iggy in the back of the head with it, then hit him a second time in the side of the head. It knocked Iggy out. I had charged the man the second he hit Iggy, but he hit me with the bat as well. I got knocked out too. And when I woke up, both of them were gone."
"Can you describe to me what this man looked like?" Valencia inquired, continuing to speed down the driveway to the city. It was coming into view about a half-mile ahead. The police station was on the furthest edge of the city as possible. She muttered a curse.
"Well," Total began, pausing thoughtfully. "He was very tall. You know, Iggy's really tall, but I think he was even taller. And he was really wide, not like Iggy, because you know, he's so skinny. He had really broad shoulders, and lots of muscle, like he worked out a lot. His head was big, but his face was small. His eyes were sort of beady and close together, and I think they were blue. His nose was really hooked. He had blond hair… but it could have been ginger, he was in the shadow. And he was white, and he was in shadow so he could have been pale, but if not he was either dirty or tanned. And," Total added as somewhat of an afterthought, "he had really small feet."
They were passing through the city, now, on the way to the police station.
"Okay," Valencia acknowledged, going over the information in her head. "Got it. I'm going to have to be the witness, because we can't have a talking dog bare witness. Okay," she said again, and the car pulled up in front of the police station. "Let's go in."
The odd trio rushed hurriedly up the steps and through the double doors. Right inside they raced up to the desk and started clamoring simultaneously.
"Hold on," the woman at the desk stopped them, holding up a hand. "Please, let your mother speak."
Dr. Martinez took a deep breath and began.
"My… son has been kidnapped. It happened around eleven-thirty this morning. My name is Valencia Martinez."
The woman took out a note-pad and started to write. "Eleven-thirty a.m., Valencia Martinez… and your son's name?"
"Iggy. Iggy… Martinez."
"Okay. Please take this," the lady told her, tearing off the piece of paper and handing it to her, "To that office over there." She pointed to a small office to their right. "Since it hasn't been much time, it is very possible that your son is simply a runaway. This case isn't imposing."
"But..!"
Then, a man in a police uniform walked into the building from behind them.
"Good evening, June. May I ask you what these people are here for?"
"To file a missing person. She claims that her son was just kidnapped," the woman said. "I told her to visit the runaway's office because this case was not necessarily…"
The man waved his hand, looking at Valencia, Ella and Total with an odd expression.
"No. They can come with me. I'll handle this."
The woman answered him, looking slightly confused and taken aback. "Um, okay, sir."
Dr. Martinez followed the man, with Ella following and continuing to carry Total, down the hallways and into a rather large office. A desk in the middle of the room bore a plaque with the name Police Chief Sam Garner etched in the brass. He moved in, took off his hat, and mussed his sandy hair with a rough hand. He sat heavily in his chair and turned to the two women, gesturing for them to sit in the two chairs in from of the desk.
"Please, sit, and tell me of your case."
Dr. Martinez sat nervously, glancing around. But she was happy, nonetheless, for her case to be taken by none less than the chief of police.
"Well, my son went to buy the groceries. Before coming home, he stopped to rest on a bench near the edge of the forest. There was an alley behind him, and he heard some noise, so went to investigate. There a man hit him twice in the head with a metal baseball bat until he was unconscious."
"And… you witnessed this?"
"Um…" Dr. Martinez didn't know how she could convince this man of the severity of the case. If she claimed that she was, indeed, the witness as she had planned, then she would have to explain why she just watched her son be taken. But she couldn't just say that Total, her talking dog, was the witness instead.
"No, sir, I was," Ella suddenly spoke up. Valencia threw her daughter a questioning glance, but Ella just looked determined.
"Okay, miss. Could you describe the kidnapper?" The police chief turned to Ella.
"He was tall, with blond-ish hair. Very strong. Blue eyes. Uh, small feet..?"
Sam Garner nodded, appearing very focused, and turned to a file cabinet next to his desk. He fished around until he pulled out a manila folder, and from the folder procured a large, glossy photograph.
"Was this the man?" he asked, showing it to Ella. Total stiffened in Ella's arms and stretched to, apparently, lick her ear; however, he actually whispered the tiniest of words to the girl. Yes.
"Um, yes," Ella stated, staring at the picture.
It was of a man, over six feet tall; broad shoulders, heavy-set, with uncomfortably large biceps. He was walking hurriedly down a street with his hands in his pockets. His face, turned to look at the camera, seemed frightening; small blue eyes that looked sunken, a large, hooked nose, a thin mouth. His hair was a ginger that most likely became blond during the summer; very light, the red coloring hardly noticeable.
Sam Garner sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I feared this was the case."
"Um, sir, who is this man?" Dr. Martinez asked. "Why do you already have a photograph of him?"
"This," Sam Garner began, setting the photo down on his desk, "is a serial kidnapper named Henry Terry. He has previously kidnapped five other adolescent/pubescent boys. He has not yet been caught, due to the fact that each kidnapping has occurred in different towns miles away from each other. Because of this, he is not yet well known in towns other than those from which he has taken a boy."
"But why? Five boys? How could he not have been caught yet?" Valencia asked hurriedly.
"Well, we have never caught him. Usually, the way we find the boys is that he actually sends the police station in the general area the address at which he is keeping the boys. And since he appears to choose towns at random, no city is ever prepared. He is not yet even a wanted criminal." The man grimaced. "Although, due to his methods, I strongly believe he should be."
Ella's eyes widened nervously, and Total whimpered. Dr. Martinez frowned.
"His… his methods..?"
"May I have a description of your son?" Sam Garner suddenly spoke up, looking towards Valencia. Dr. Martinez nodded.
"He is tall for his age… I believe he recently hit six foot, two inches. He is very thin. Very pale. He has strawberry-blond hair, and blue eyes. He's… blind."
Sam Garner suddenly looked extremely sympathetic.
"I am so sorry, Ms. Martinez," he comforted. Then he turned back to his file. "I have actually been researching Henry Terry for some time, ever since a boy from my hometown was taken. This man kidnaps only boys in their late adolescents, early pubescent… boys who are tall, pale, and blonds with blue eyes. I believe this is due to the fact that this description matches that of his own son, who ran away from home at age fifteen." He shuffled again through the papers, staring at each individually. "His wife passed away a year later. His neighbors stated that afterwards, he had begun to act quite oddly… then one day, he disappeared from his town. Since then, he has kidnapped a boy once every three months."
"So… these boys… you said they were found again, correct?" Dr. Martinez spoke up, interrupting him.
"Yes," Sam Garner agreed. "However…"
Dr. Martinez was beginning to get quite nervous. "How... however..?"
Sam Garner looked back up into Valencia Martinez's eyes, a sad glint in his own. "All five of them were traumatically abused and tortured. And all five reside in mental hospitals and institutions."