Looking over at the picture he had drawn then he compared it with the oak tree sitting just outside the window. He found that they both had similar markings on them. Just then, the door opened and kern walked in.
“I need you to come take a look at this.” Kevin quickly called to him. “It’s the same tree from my dream the other night.”
“The one with the black birds sitting on it?” kern asked.
“Here, have a look.” Kevin brought kern to the window. “It’s exactly the same tree. It has the same markings on its body like the one from my dream.”
Kevin said, “Funny thing is it’s been sitting here all this time and I’d never noticed this tree was here until last night.”
Kern took the drawing from Kevin. Then he examined it running a scan in his head for any clue on what it meant.
When kern could not draw any meaning from the painted picture, he asked. “Does Cedric know anything about this?”
“He is already troubled from my sleeping problems. I don’t want to bother him with more of my problems.”
Natasha’s Dad walked into the school principal’s office looking formal on a neatly ironed T-shirt and a polished shoe. The principal quickly stood up and offered him a handshake.
“Mr. William Martinez… it’s a pleasure to have you here at my office.” He said
“Principal Mac Georgery, it’s a pleasure to see you again...” William took his handshake.
Mac Georgery made a gesture for him to have a seat. When William was seated he asked “Mr. Williams, what can I do for you?”
“My ward is Miss Natasha Martinez…” William said, “I beg a leave of absence from school activity on my daughter’s behalf.”
“I heard about what happened to your daughter…” Mac Georgery said wearing a sympathetic look “…am sincerely sorry for what had happened to her but as you already know, we have certain laid out rules and regulations which must be followed under any circumstance. One of which include regular attendance in class. If a student fails to have at least seventy percent attendance in class, then he or she will not be qualified to…”
William interrupted him in mid sentence “so what you are saying in simple terms is that my daughter should be wheeled down from the hospital every morning just to maintain a perfect attendance record?”
Mac Georgery exhaled loudly in frustration “sire, I think you clearly misunderstood what I just said. My point is that…”
“…your point is that you can’t grant my daughter excuse from school simply because you don’t want to tarnish the attendance record of your school.” William interrupted him again.
For a moment, both men were silent. “How long is she going to be away?” Mac Georgery asked.
“…a week.”
“…a week?”
“Yes, a week and nothing more. But if she does recovers before then she would have to resume as soon as possible.”
After a long comprehensible silence, Mac Georgery said “…a week it is then. Is there any other thing I can do for you?”
“No, that will be all. Thank you!”
Kern drove into the park with Kevin. It was late afternoon. He pulled over by the sidewalks beside the big park.
“Do you see them anywhere?” Kevin asked looking around the park for any sign of Mirabel or her mum.
“There they are…” kern found them seating alone at the far end of the park.
Mirabel lay in her mother’s arm fast asleep. The single mother sat on the molded seat under a big tree. She looked pale and sad.
Kevin took the some of the foodstuff from the back of the car.
“I’d be right back” Kevin said as he went out of the car.
“Good day ma’am” he said when he got to her “I’m sure you’d recognize me.”
The lady looked up at him. She strained her eyes from the bright sunlight hurting her eyes as she tried to recognize him.
Kevin didn’t see any sign of recognition on her face as she looked at him so he helped her remember. “…I am the one who gave your daughter the bag of coin yesterday.”
Her face immediately glowed with recognition and a faint smile appeared across her face “it was you… thank you so much.” She spoke in a native accent. “We would have both died out of starvation if my daughter had not run into you yesterday…”
A dull smile appeared on his face. Kevin’s eye rolled down to the little girl sleeping in her arm. “Is she alright?” he asked.
“We have been starving since morning and Mirabel had been doing the little she could to get us some meal by begging for arms around the park but she no one was going to listen to her and when the hunger grew intense, she cried herself to sleep.”
Kevin felt a prickle in his belly. He bends down to look at her. “Can I-?”
She let go of Mirabel and Kevin carried her in his arm, but she was still fast asleep.
“Is your home somewhere around here? He asked.
“Actually, it’s over there.” She pointed at a little bungalow, few clicks from where they stood.
“Alright then, let’s go over to your house.” he carried Mirabel carefully in his arms while struggling with the bagful of foodstuffs.
“Wait please… let me help you with your bag.” She insisted.
“Actually, the bag and everything in it is for you and your daughter. Kevin handed it over to her “…those are foodstuff I got from the market today. This should be able to take care of your feeding needs for up to a week until I visit again.”
She opened her mouth in surprise as she stared into the bag full of foodstuffs, fruits and various edibles.
“Thank you so very much…” she looked so elated at him “…you just saved my life as well as that of my daughter. I will forever be indebted to you for this.”
Kevin smiled when he saw the woman in a jubilatory mood. It gave him full satisfaction and happiness. She carried the bag carefully and followed him behind.
They reached the bungalow and she opened the door and then led the way. She quickly dropped the bag at a corner and showed Kevin to Mirabel’s bedroom. He gently placed her on her tender soft bed, and then he closed the door quietly careful not to wake her up.
Kevin walked around the sitting room, looking at the pictures that hung on the wall. Most of the pictures there were that of Mirabel when she was a little younger.
A particular picture caught his attention. It was a picture of a man on it. Judging from his looks, Kevin guessed him to be Mirabel’s Dad. He looked like he was in his late 40’s or early 50’s, and he wore an old navy uniform.
“That’s my husband… he died of skin disease few months back…” she stood beside Kevin also looking at the picture too.
“…we didn’t have the required amount to pay for his treatment. So he stopped receiving any further treatment. No hospital would admit him…” she sounded saddened as she spoke.
“He was military?” Kevin asked.
8“Yes. His colleagues always talked about how he bested them all at everything he does. After he passed away, that was when our problems started. We have been having problem keeping up with the house bills, let alone feeding. We live on arms and donations from kind hearted people such as you.”
Touched by her ordeal, he said to her, “Come live with me… I will make sure you and your daughter are well taken care of.”
She was quite for a moment.
“I really appreciate what you want to do for me and my daughter. I am really grateful for the kindness you’ve shown to us but this house is like home to me. This is where I married my husband and this is where he wanted us to raise Mirabel until she matures into a woman. Am sorry, but am going to have to decline this one.”
Michel gave her a disappointed smile “It’s ok.“
He reached for his pocket and then took out a card “if ever you need anything-“ He handed the card over to her “-just call me.”
A man in his late sixties dressed on a black tuxedo pushed the door open and t
hen walked right in, and then he closed the door behind him.
“Mr. Mottek, I’ve been expecting you” William spoke sounding a bit formal. William sat on a roller chair behind his desks.
The man spoke “…just Frank Mottek is fine since am not yet married.”
He then took out an A2 sized envelope and placed it on the table before William.
“…the file you asked for, sir.”
William opened the envelope and brought out a large file containing names and figures.
Frank explained. “We’ve heard growing incidence of this humans capable of transforming themselves into animal-like beings. I believe they are called shifters, since they can shape shift themselves to look just like an animal. We ran analysis on one of them earlier and the results proves they are a real threat to this city. This specimen showed some tendency of superhuman strength, speed and quicker reflexes after he had transformed.”
William who had been paying prompt attention to what he was saying asked him, “Do we have any strategy in place to catch these shifters, as you call them?”
The door opened and the both men looked in that direction. Derik walked in, then he closed the door behind him.
Derik noticed the way they were both staring at him when he walked right in, he could tell he had interrupted something.
“Am sorry for interrupting but…” Derik said looking over at William “…the men who raped your daughter, I caught one of them late night. He is now in our custody. I tried interrogating him earlier but he wouldn’t respond to any of my questions.”
William nodded his head at him, clearly impressed. “… and my daughter?” he asked.
“She is still recovering sire. They are making preparations for her discharge from the hospital.”
William again nodded in satisfaction.
“I was just discussing something with Mr…“
Frank glared at him. “…Frank Mottek.” William immediately corrected.
“I believe I was asking if we have come up with any strategy to track down these –shifters. Yes, shifters that’s what you said they are called right?”
“In other to catch these shifters, we would need help from one of them. We already have one animal-human in our custody and you’d be marveled at the things this shifter can do.”
“Wait a min…” Derik cut him of “I thought the point of this whole operation is to catch them and eliminate them and not work with one of them?”
“Well, you see here is the thing… This shifter in our custody is one of our lab attendants, Mrs. Eulich Clayton. She wasn’t born a shifter. She only volunteered to undergo a genetic transmutation process that will make her posses similar genes and characteristics of a shifter. She understood it was necessary in order for us to hunt down the shifters here in the city, that’s why she volunteered for the experiment.”
“Why haven’t anyone informed about all this?” William asked sounding a bit annoyed.
“Turning a normal human into a shifter sounds wasn’t something I had considered would be a success. No one has ever attempted to do something like that before. The probability of us succeeding at it was pretty low that’s why we kept everything about this experiment from you until the process had been completed. I didn’t want to raise your hopes up.”
Frank paused for a moment, and then he continued. “…now as a shifter, Mrs. Eulich senses has significantly improved. By that I mean, she can spot a rat a mile away, she can track even the faintest scent. Her hearing ability is incredible. Do you know what’s most interesting about her? –she can sense another shifter just by mere physical contact.”
Derik said “so you are simply saying, just by mare touch, she can tell if you’re a shifter or not”
“-exactly”
“Interesting…” William remark “how long until she starts working with us on the field?”.”
“Right now, we are testing her vitals to be sure she is in perfect condition before we proceed to anything else. A day or two from now, Mrs. Eulich would be joining us on the field.” then he paused.
“…again another thing I think you should know” frank added
William raised his eyebrow inquisitively
Frank continued “…most of the shifters in this city lurk around the park. I believe a greater percentage of the houses around that park belong to the shifters. Every day, while we sit here doing nothing this people increase in their numbers here in the city and if we don’t do something about it real quick then this city would be overruled by shifters. I suggest we burn down the houses around that park to rid ourselves of some of these anomalies.”
“What? No!” Derik quickly rebuked. “Some of those people living there are innocent. We can’t just burn their houses simply because they live with those animals which they have no idea what they are.”
He then looked at Frank “you said it yourself Mrs. Eulich could help us dictate who is a shifter and who is not. Why don’t we wait until she is out in the field with us?”
“What you are suggesting is suicidal” frank said firmly “they are tons of shifters living in those houses, do you think they will stand down and watch us while we try to sense out who is and who is not a shifter. If they decide to attack us during the process, our armed force wouldn’t stand a chance against their numbers and strength. We would all be slaughtered. This is the only way; we have to burn down those houses.”
CHAPTER SIX: BURNING HOUSE
Kevin went over to the hospital to see Natasha. When he got to her room, he first stood by her window to see if she was in.
He was elated when he saw that she was now standing on her feet again. Natasha was pacing around the room.
She suddenly stopped when she saw him standing by the window. Both their eyes met. For a long minute, they stared silently at each other.
Kevin then moved awkwardly to the door and opens it gently. For a moment they kept staring at each other. He didn’t know what to say to her.
“Hy!” he force the word out of his mouth.
“Hy…” she uttered almost immediately.
“Great to see you finally back on your feet again.” Kevin said with a smile “so I guess we would be seeing you in school pretty soon.”
“Yeah… am going to be discharged today, just waiting on my dad to come pick me up.” She walked over to the bed and then sat at the edge.
Kevin took a seat from the corner and then sat close beside her. Again, there was an awkward silence between them.
They both spoke at the same time.
“…am sorry for how I had behaved the first time we met” he said.
“Thank you for visiting yesterday.” She said.
There was an awaked silence between them. They stare at each other nervously.
“You go first.” Kevin said.
“There is really no need to apologies to me for what happened that day...” She said. “…It was kind of my fault I bumped into you the other day.”
“I still feel like I owe you an apology. I just have to apologize to get the guilt of my chest… I didn’t want to come in yesterday when I had visited because I thought you were still mad at me and you wouldn’t want to see me.”
“Of course not…” she chuckled.
“Well since our first meeting didn’t go so well, let’s start all over again.” He brought out his hand out to her for a handshake “My name is Kevin Logan …really nice to meet you.”
She took his hand with a little laugh “My name is Natasha Martinez, but my close friends call me Tasha.” She flashed a smile at him “…you can call me Tasha.”
Caressing her hand gently, he said. “Well Tasha, you’ve got a really nice voice.”
Tasha laughed out. “if you are trying to flirt with me then you are doing a really bad job.”
“Never been good at flirting...” He said “that’s a pick-up line I learnt from an old friend.”
“We would work on your flirting skills later…” She cupped her hand around his jaw then sh
e softly caresses his face. “The cuts and bruises… they are all gone.”
“What bruises?” He asked, suddenly feeling perplex.
“Derik told me you got yourself in a fight with the same group of thugs that had raped me earlier. He said they ended up beating you up pretty bad… seriously, what were you thinking?”
“You know Derik?” Kevin sounded surprised.
“Of course… he works with my dad at the taskforce.” Natasha said, “He told me about how you were beaten up so badly that you were left with several cuts and bruise.”
“I only did what I did because I just couldn’t stand watching you that way while the people who did this to you walk free.”
She just sat there smiling at him for a moment then she said “I don’t know if that is the most romantic gesture I’ve ever had or that what the most stupid thing a person could ever do. What if Derik hadn’t been there, those guys could have killed you.”
Just then a phone buzzed.
“Is that mine?” Tasha asked looking around.
“Those guys took your phone from you remember... so you have no phone.” Kevin smiled reaching out for the phone buzzing in his pocket. It was an unknown number which he hasn’t saved on his phone.
“Hello?” He said placing the phone a little close to his ear.
“Hello…” said a distressed feminine voice. “Please help us!” she cried out.
Kevin immediately recognized the voice to be that of the woman he’d visited earlier, Mirabel’s mum.
“Are you ok, ma’am? What is wrong?” concern grew over his face.
“My daughter…” she cried out. “Mirabel just collapsed. Please come help us.”
“What happened to her?” he asked also sounding distressed but she had already hung up. “Hello? Hello?”
He turned to Tasha, he was clearly disturbed.
“Is everything ok?” she asked.
“I have to go now” he said and then quickly dashed out.
“Wait… you haven’t told me how you healed so quickly…” she mumbled after Kevin was far gone.
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