章 55: Chapter Fifty Five
The men continued to wait in the cold windy weather. A wooden cabin, covered in trees and mud to make it look more like an anthill in the forest housed their supplies and sleeping quarters, along with one other package that they'd been holding as part of the boy's plans. "Hey, Chad, do you think the package in there will last longer?"
"Yeah, that one's resilient… not going anywhere in my opinion. Just don't let your guard down," the alpha replied. "What I'm wondering is what's taking that brat so long to get here…"
"Well, if he's survived this long in the place they call the residence of the Rogue killer, then I don't see what the fuss is all about. He'll definitely get here," another said.
"I've heard these rumours about this self-proclaimed Rogue killer. I don't think there is a hunter that's deserving of such a name. Where did it come from?" another asked. This man sounded cocky and spoke with a passive tone that undermined the words of his comrade.
"So you haven't heard the stories then. They should have reached you in your camp. I know you were only recently transferred, but haven't you heard of the Rogue killer yet, Demitri?" Chad asked him.
"I've rumours and folktales of a blur that takes the life of all those that see it and that there is a designated distance from the town that triggers its awakening. I hear of all this, and yet I wonder how that information came to the rogues when there was never a survivor. It all doesn't sound right to me," Demitri boasted.
"Watch your words, Demitri. They might just be your last. The information, as well as the naming of the Rogue killer, was delivered by the same spy that we are waiting on. He has been able to get the closest look at the Rogue killer. Rumour has it that he was so good at keeping his cover that he was even able to speak to the abomination without being discovered. We all know of the sharp instincts that hunters possess. What I want to know is how that boy got past those defences and stayed safe for nine years without being detected," Chad said.
"You all accepted the rumours from a spy who doesn't know how to get his stories right. What a bunch of wimps! I don't think I'd ever let myself get taken out by a hunter if I was on a stealth mission. From what I heard, the Chase family is the only family with sharp enough instincts to detect a person on such a mission and even so, many have been known to sneak past them. My skills lie in that category. I just don't see what the fuss is about," he said.
"Maybe when the boy gets here, you will hear the story directly from him," Chad said.
"The boy is already here…" a rushed voice sounded. The boy collapsed immediately he was in sight of the campfire, breathing heavily and dropping his rucksack to the ground. He shivered from the cold and gripped his bag searching for something.
"Took you long enough…"
"He doesn't smell like a werewolf. Were we waiting on a human?" Demitri asked.
"No, part of why he went past the Rogue killer undetected is because he had his wolf suppressed. All the spies do so in order to blend in with the human population and gather intel on the werewolves and hunters," Chad said, ordering another to bring something to cover the thin boy. The boy continued to search through his bag until he pulled out an orange bottle. A single rattling sound came from it indicating it contained a single item.
The boy threw the bottle to the ground and frantically searched the bag for something else, "Please be in here… I'll be screwed if you aren't…"
"What are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for my pills. If that medication wears off, I'll shift before we even get to the werewolf king," the boy said.
"Where did you leave them so that I can get them for you?" the boy stopped checking through the bag for a moment, his shivers leaving his body. The rest of the men present had also gone silent on hearing the suggestion. The boy raised his head to meet Demitri's eyes.
"That would be the craziest things I've heard all day and trust me, I've heard crazy things today," the boy said before realising Demitri was actually serious, "Wait, you're serious. Do you realise that I don't have my werewolf abilities, I'm thin as a twig with no athletic abilities and yet I ran here straight from the town at my top speed with no intention of stopping for a rest?"
"Well, considering you're as thin as a twig. There is probably no way you could have devised survived if you were discovered," Demitri replied.
The boy was amused by the man's level of arrogance… or was it stupidity? He looked around and noticed the others did not say a word and didn't look like they were going to say something. That confirmed his suspicions, Demitri did not know what he was talking about and was not going to believe anyone. This time the boy got up and dusted himself… he was finally breathing normally again, though his body had regained a bit of the shivering from the cold. The man that had been sent into the cabin came back with a towel which he placed on the boy's shoulders to help combat the weather.
The boy walked up to Demitri and looked him straight in the eye, "Have you heard of the Rogue killer?"
"I've heard that it's a rumour that you've made up to keep rogues scared of this place," Demitri said. The boy remained quiet for a moment before falling to the ground in laughter. The rest laughed along with him although not as loud as he did. Chad remained quiet waiting for the boy to regain his composure. When it looked as though that was not about to happen, he spoke up.
"Kyle, get yourself together and tell the man," he said.
"Yes, yes, it was just too hilarious…" Kyle chuckled before sitting up, cosying up to the fire, "Anyway, since I got into my position as the Head spy of this remote town, I have never been able to give a well-informed description of the Rogue killer because of the way the communications were always time-sensitive. So you will probably be the first person that will be hearing this story in the way that I am going to narrate it," Kyle said. The rest took seats on the ground around the campfire to listen to the tales of the Rogue killer.
"This must be good…" Demitri commented.
"Nine years ago… the Rogue King received intel that something that was of great value had been taken to this village for safekeeping. I was not given all the details to avoid information from leaking out just in case I was to be discovered as you know how the Rogue king uses his spies. I was, however, the first spy to be sent to this region and was immediately in charge of all the others that were sent here. I watched my target grow and gave constant reports. At first, the Rogue king was reluctant to take action and thought it best to leave the child to grow up and kill them when they least expected it. When security around the child was much easier to get past. However, he never thought she'd become what she is today," he said.
"She…" Demitri chuckled, "The Rogue killer is a woman… I feel safe already." This seemed to amuse him so much… well, why wouldn't it? To the rogues, women were considered weak and it was impossible for any of them to attain the level of power that men were capable of and as such, they were treated as breeders.
"Will you let me finish the story then? Perhaps you will find it less scary now that the fact of her gender makes you feel so safe and powerful," Kyle replied.
"Oh, please go on…" It was at that moment that Kyle's motivation to save this particular rogue diminished and he continued the story, cautiously leaving out parts that would have, without a doubt, scared him witless.
"When the Rogue King realised the girl had become more powerful than he anticipated, he sent rogues on stealth missions to snuff her out while she was still young. I would sit in school waiting for the news of rogues found in the forest, but not once did I hear such a thing. There was no proof that the rogue king had gone through with his words... that was until I contacted him on the matter. His answer scared me… He'd been sending parties of rogues and they weren't returning. It wasn't making sense where it was that the rogues were vanishing from.
Well, that was before I carried out my own investigation. No one… not even the Director of the Hunter agency or her parents themselves knew about it. Well, at first that is. Every single rogue that got in within a mile radius to the town would be killed, by none other than the Rogue killer. By the time we started wondering what was going on, we had lost over fifty rogues at the hands of a single person. It soon became apparent that unless a spy was sent to infiltrate this region, there was no way a rogue could get in."
"Well, can I ask something?"
"Go right ahead," Kyle replied. One of the rogues in their small circle retreated to the cabin and came back with a kettle which he set above the fire using a structure that he'd made from wood to suspend the kettle in the air above the fire by its handle almost like an adaptation of a rotisserie.
"Have you ever seen the Rogue killer in action?" he was asked.
"I thought I wouldn't get to see it and only continued to report the information I was receiving. That was… until we were ordered to shake things up. The rogue king was getting desperate and wanted the girl dead… the Rogue Killer. I don't know why… so he asked us to create a diversion and try to throw her off her game. Things got interesting when we tried to use the prisoner to our advantage. I watched each of them get taken down. It was quite futile to send untrained rogues at that age into an attack," he continued.
"Nothing you've told me is cause for alarm… so I'll ask again, where did you leave your medicine?" with that said, Kyle directed Demitri, the rest staying perfectly quiet about this course of action.
"If I don't return by midnight tomorrow, then leave without me," he said before starting his run in human form, his steps barely audible as he did. This already proved how skilled he was as his scent would have been hard for the royals to pick up, but Kyle knew that's not what would have him caught. It was the same reason why he'd run from that town at top speed and made sure he was miles away before checking on whether she had triggered his trap yet.
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