Entering the bakery, Maggie walked over to a table that was occupied by an old man. “Good morning, Mr. Franklin. This is Sammy and Elias, the two I told you about,” Maggie said. Mr. Franklin stood up. “Hello, Maggie. Hello, Sammy and Elias. Please sit.” We all sat down in wooden chairs around the circular table. Mr. Franklin was sipping a cup of coffee. “I’m going to go get drinks. The usual for you two?” Sammy said, pointing to me and Maggie. We both nodded, and Sammy walked over to the counter. “So, what do you want to know?” Mr. Franklin asked. “We want to know about the demons. What are they, why were they here, why did they disappear, and now, why are they back?” I listed the questions that had been floating around in my mind for weeks. Mr. Franklin scratched his graying beard, deep in thought. “The demons were created by the Elite, nearly 200 years ago, as part of a top-secret operation called Operation Lost Ones. The Elite genetically modified the test subjects and turned them into nearly invincible soldiers. No one knew that this was happening. People noticed others were slowly disappearing, and only later did they find out that they were being kidnapped and turned into soldiers. One day, the soldiers escaped, their minds destroyed. A week later the Elite made an emergency speech, explaining the problem. The Elite enlisted the help of the citizens to catch the demons. That was how catching started. Groups of three or more would circle the demons, and the demon would disappear. Not die, just disappear. Every so often, a lone person would get caught and killed by a demon. It was quite an effective system. And they never ran out of demons. People believed the Elite kept creating more, to keep the population under control. It worked, for a while.”
231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq2yujtHkVf
I was starting to piece together the parts of the puzzle. The population had grown too large, so the demons reappeared to get rid of some of us. Jay was the first. Mr. Franklin took a long sip of coffee and cleared his throat. Then he continued. “The demon population slowly started to dwindle after an… incident. It’s the one Maggie showed you in the article about Reaper being sighted. People believe that the Elite found a way to call back the demons, and have been keeping them somewhere. The demons became rarer and rarer until there were none left at all. And catching stopped. Salef became a safe haven for people looking to escape the outside world. That’s what Salef was created for, you know. After the world descended into ruin, Salef was formed. And everything was fine, for a while. But then too many people started to enter. So the Elite released the demons. When the population was under control again, the demons disappeared. And now they are back, for whatever reason. I assume it is population control again, but you can never be sure. The Elite work in mysterious ways, ways I wish to never need to understand. Whenever someone would get too curious, well, let's just say the Elite have ways of dealing with people. Two of those people happened to be in that article. Cierra and Damien. Damien is the one who was killed. Cierra continued to live her life. Even started this bakery. But she was unfortunate enough to have asked too many questions.” Sammy came back over to the table, balancing three drinks in his hands.
231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwrRjJGkTUk
I took my drink and Maggie took hers. The warm stream rose in spirals towards my nose, where the sharp scent of coffee lingered. “Have I answered all your questions?” Mr. Franklin asked. I nodded. “I suppose. There’s one more thing. After a demon attacked us in the woods, I fell unconscious for a while, then woke up at my house. I don’t know what happened to me, but I wrote two letters, both of which ended up in a stranger's mailbox. Do you know how that happened? At the bottom of the letters, there was this symbol.” I showed the triangles to Mr. Franklin. “Do you know what that means?” Mr. Franklin thought for a moment, then said, “That symbol hasn’t been used for ages. It is the old symbol of the Elite, called the Tribaum. It stopped being used a hundred years ago or so. I have no clue where you could have learned about it. Every single place that had one of those has been replaced. As for what happened to you, I don’t know. You could always check the video archives.”
“Video archives? What’re those?” Sammy interjected. Mr. Franklin smiled warmly. “I was getting to that. The video archives are a section of the archives. But they’re videos, not documents. The Elite have cameras all over Salef. They can see what is happening anywhere at any time, except for private residences. You could check the video from the woods to see what happened. They are in the archive center in the Brick. It might be worth taking some time to go look at them.” I nodded. “That’s perfect. Thank you so much, Mr. Franklin.”
“You are most welcome. Good luck.”
231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVsK2KuppIW
Sammy, Maggie, and I left the bakery. We walked back to the Brick and got into an elevator. We climbed dozens of floors until we arrived at the floor of the archive center. Entering the center, a blast of cool air hit me. I walked to the front desk, where a boy was sitting behind the counter. “Hello there! My name is Gabe; what can I do for you today?” He asked in a mousy voice. “We need to look at the video archives,” I told him. He nodded, grabbed a set of keys from a drawer, and ushered us forward. We walked up a flight of stairs and past many rows of metal shelves. Every shelf was filled with labeled boxes. We stopped in front of a small table. There were two chairs, and a large screen mounted on the wall. On the table, there was a keyboard and mouse. Gabe stepped forward and turned on the screen and keyboard. I heard machines whirring to life, and a blue light started to blink steadily on the bottom right corner of the screen. Gabe then plugged in a password on the keyboard. He stuck one of the keys into a slot and turned it. Something clicked, and the computer prompted him for the password again. Gabe plugged it in, then turned back to me. “You’re all set. The videos are organized in a calendar-like format. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy4izRh46K8
I opened the folder of videos from the day in the woods. Scrolling through hour after hour, I finally found the beginning of the interaction with the demon. We watched as the video played out. It started with us seeing the demon and running. Jay started to run and left the frame. The demon followed him. I quickly typed something on the keyboard to find where Jay went. The demon chased him down the path a bit and grabbed him by the shoulders. The audio was muted, but I could see Jay scream as the demon threw him to the ground. The demon raised its hand, then quickly brought it down to its side. Jay’s face contorted with pain. A moment later, I appeared in the frame. Jay was lying crumpled on the ground, motionless. I watched myself crouch down next to him, sharing a few last words. The demon threw the dagger. The angle of video showed me the scene from a different angle. I was watching from the other side, so I could see my reaction. I stood to face the demon. It ran, and I collapsed. That was the last event I remembered of that day. Everything I saw after that was completely foreign and new to me.
231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡboh8QqoEWK
I paused the video. “That’s all I remember. Where were you guys at that point?” I asked. Sammy typed something on the keyboard, pulling up a blurry image of him standing at the edge of the woods, mid-stride. “I ran home after that. My parents were still at work, so nobody questioned where I had been.” Maggie stepped up, pulling up a different still image. She was climbing up the ladder into the tree house. “I went back there. I left when I got a message from Sammy, asking what happened. We met up to talk. Eventually, we contacted you.” I nodded. Now was the moment we figured out what happened in the woods. Now was the moment we figured out what happened to me. I pushed play, and the screen went dark. Correction, not just the screen. Everything went dark.231Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Qw0wvidau
