Chapter 15: Fertilizer Kidnapper

Today, I noticed there was a troubling atmosphere in school. The hallways were packed with whispers and gave off an uneasy feeling. “I heard a few students from our school went missing, there were no words from them or those that might kidnap the adults could only bit their lips and wait for any news.” The one who informed me was Eric.

            Eric himself looked very nauseated and had his face facing the table the whole time while groaning from time to time, “I hate rumors, they always give me a headache!”

            I heard from Eric when someone told a lie, there’s a tingling feeling in his head. That’s why, when rumors started spreading around, people tend to exaggerated without meaning to, but to Eric, it felt like an alarm kept ringing in his head.

            “If it’s something big, I’m sure they would announce it on the screen.” added Loranne. We all turned to a transparent board screen, while in class it’s used for our studies at other times it’s used to relay important message and announcement in class. As if on cue, the board screen turned black and white words that said ‘Announcement’ on it written across it along with a BGM for announcement.

            The screen viewed the content next; it said there’s an ongoing kidnapping of espers around the area. The reports stated only fifth graders espers were reported missing and no witness were said to saw any abduction as of late, meaning no clues to the kidnappers. The school strongly suggests all class for both espers and non-espers to be wary of their surrounding and to not get out needlessly alone. The announcement also asked us to report any clues regarding the missing kids.

            The screen shifted and there were 12 names and their class reported missing. “Ah!”  

            “What’s wrong?” asked Eric.

            “There are name of my seniors in the Special Class, Claudia, you know them too.”

            I examined the names from the screen, but none of them rings a bell, then Loranne explained there were three names of the bullies who had cause us problem few days ago.

Carl Haywire Year 5 Class 4

Mortan Adolf Year 5 Class 3

Tailor Frecklin Year 5 Class 4

            He~ so that was their name. I tried not to think about it much, since I barely know them and the memory we have weren’t even pleasant. However, the part the kidnapper only abduct fifth graders worried me most.

            “Oh right, your sister is a fifth grader.” Eric pointed out.

            The announcement also included that all fifth graders will have a temporary break time from school, but that shouldn’t mean the kidnappers would stop from just that. I’m getting a lot more worried.

#

After recess was over, Loranne went back to her class very reluctantly. Class went on like normal, but it kept the lingering air because of the announcement from before. Every teacher that came in kept reminding us not to mind it too much with the police involvement and the fact only fifth graders were missing.

            “Claudia, since you’re on duty today, can you bring this to our history teacher?”

            “Sure!”

            Today, the school was over early. As expected, after that announcement, no one had the vigor to learn or teach. One of the cons of being an esper is that we don’t know when these sort of incident would come at us. At first sight, we the situation looked safe because the government provide us protection, but things are never what they seems.

            By the time I was thinking those, I arrived at the teacher’s lounge. Oddly enough there was no one there, I found it strange since usually there would at least be two teachers standing by.

            I put the stack of home works at the teacher’s desk, on my right, there were boxes stacking up with one another. Curiosity got the best of me and I took a peek on one of the boxes….or so was the plan. I heard numerous footsteps heading closer and in a panic, I hid behind the stacked of boxes and cover my mouth.

            As I expected, the teachers were back and they all had solemn look on their faces. They took a seat at their own desk and the three-left standing was one I was familiar with, Mr. Dalton or my father of my past life, a man with an official looking uniform, and the principal himself. I heard Mr. Dalton is a teacher from the high school section, but why is here?

            “and so I like to confirm once more, to avoid making a commotion I would like all of you to put a tight lip on this matter. I know most of you think it’s best to inform the students and their family and avoid them going to school, but if we only avoid the issue then we won’t be able to make progress on apprehending the culprit, causing more victims later on.” said the official looking person. This is only a guess, but could he be….from the government?

            One of the teachers stood up abruptly, “Then how do we know you are making progress, there are no witness, no clues, no suspects, the culprit kept going places to places kidnapping children as if passing by. How could we entrust our students to you people easily!” Many teachers nodded to his statement.

            I was sweating vigorously in the dark corner, I know I’m not suppose to hear this, and the mater involves the missing students. Aaah~ what should I do?

            “I also have a question, since we know espers are common target for kidnappers, isn’t that why we put the bracelet to them. Not only it recorded their brainwaves 24/7 it also has tracking device embedded into them with the latest technology with almost certain guarantee no one could hide its signal.”

            The other teachers began to murmur, and the government person hold out his hand for silence, and answered. “As you all know, the bracelet we give to espers are specially made with the latest technology which made it impossible to be taken off. Previously all though we kept tracking down the last movement of the missing students, the signal would always disappear in the middle of nowhere. On one lucky occasion at the Tennessee Kidnapping Case, we were able to kept track one signal until we found where it came from.”

            The teachers were listening intently, thinking it would be a great clue toward the kidnappers. “The place we found was an outskirt farm, we track down the signal only to find the remains of the tracking device. However, after further questioning the locals and investigating the place we found, we were able to found many DNA’s of the missing Tennessee children in the fertilizer they used.”

            It took a moment before the all the teacher’s turned pale and had a sickening look after swallowing his story. Even I tried my best not to groan, I felt puking from listening to the last part. What kind of nut job turned children into fertilizer?!

            “As you know, who we’re dealing is a dangerous and one with loose screws in his brains, I hope everyone’s cooperation to find and apprehend that fiend.”

            The man bowed and left, accompanied by Mr. Dalton and the principal. The room turned silent, I didn’t want to stay there any longer. When I found a window half opened hidden behind the boxes, I thought I could use this and slip outside through it.

            When I reached the ground, I was relieved on getting passed that trial. I looked at my side though, I froze on the spot to find Dale squatting. He looked just as surprised as me, but made a forced smile in the end, “Hey Claudia, what’s up?”

             This guy....to think he had the guts to pretend nothing happened. I'm getting more scared at him.  

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