Capítulo 2: There's Nothing Uglier Than The Ugly Truth
After a month since adopting Payne to their family, Mr. Gulden went on to investigate the truth about the Rupus clan. He never actually met the family members before therefore he had no idea where their residence are. He only heard about them based on the stories he were told when he was a kid. So he asked and asked each locals until one of them finally gave a clear direction.
"It's on the near top of the mountain. I recommend taking the high road to get there" the old man he was talking to said.
"Thank you" Mr. Gulden replied.
"It's a real shame what happened there"
The parting words of the old man caught Mr. Gulden's attention. He decided to check it himself to see what really happened. After minutes of walking, he finally arrived at the footsteps of the Rupus' residence. It was a huge place that resembles the palaces you see straight out of the movies.
He tried knocking on the gate but no one answered. It wasn't that long when he realized the gate was actually unlocked. He went inside and all he could hear is dead silence. There was no one there. Mr. Gulden explored each of the building in the residence. All he saw were appliances that were left open, untouched decaying food in the table and many more. It seemed like everyone just left and deserted the entire place.
On the verge of giving up, he finally saw someone. It was wearing a hat and was standing in front of the fountain. Mr. Gulden approached the person to hopefully get the answer he needed.
"What in the world happened here?" he asked.
The man kept silent for about a minute before answering Mr. Gulden's question.
"The entire clan.... is..... they're already dead"
Mr. Gulden was shocked upon hearing the words uttered. The man then continued to explain everything.
"All of them were killed last month. Not a single one was spared. Women, children, they're all dead now"
There was one survivor unbeknownst to him which was Payne.
"Who was responsible for it?" a doubtful Mr. Gulden asked.
The man then explained everything to him.
"Word is that the ones who did it were the Phantom Hunters. They're an extremist group of hunters who's sole purpose is to exterminate monsters of this world. It's not really a surprise that they would target the clan"
"Since that they've been living reclusive for a while now and they're notorious for having the Wolfgang genes, most likely that's the reason why the police didn't intervened. They didn't conduct an investigation or whatsoever and this didn't made it to the news"
After finishing his explanation, the man then went away. Before he could get away any farther, Mr. Gulden asked him a question.
"How did you knew all of this?"
The man then look Mr. Gulden in the eye from afar. He had a scar in his right eye.
"I was there... kinda" he answered.
He would then continue to walk away from where Mr. Gulden was standing. It didn't crossed Mr. Gulden's mind to pursue the man in order to probe more information. He sensed a menacing aura to the person and engaging him any further would only cause harm. He knew that the man could be trusted.
Mr. Gulden did some further investigation in order to support the mysterious man's statement. He went back inside of the houses in order to find something new. Sadly, it was still the same stuff. This was not until he saw a tiny spray of blood in the wall.
"This can't be, it is indeed blood" Mr. Gulden thought.
The stain was located at the bottom of the wall. He also quickly noticed that the blood trails toward the floor which was carpeted. Mr. Gulden removed the carpet and what he saw would shock him entirely. Blood stains were heavily scattered.
He didn't saw it the first time obviously since it was covered by the carpet. He then checked the other rooms and did the same thing. The results were the same as well. The floor was heavily stained by blood.
"Not much of a great cleaners those guys must be" he thought.
Mr. Gulden was already satisfied by the information he got and decided to make his way back home.
Meanwhile, Zaqiel and Payne were at school, studying. After staying for a month now with the Garnett family, Payne was enrolled to the same school Zaqiel was attending. He still haven't gotten his memories back.
It was already their dismissal at that time. Both of them then went to ride the school bus in order to go home. The trip took about an hour and finally, they're at the gate of their residence. As Zaqiel and Payne went inside, they could hear their parents talking from the front door.
"You look kinda tired honey"
"I'm fine *cough*"
"How's the investigation you did?"
"The situation was way worse than expected"
"Why, what happened exactly"
"The thing is... all of Payne's relatives... were already dead"
As soon as Payne overhead about this, he quickly ran to them. He was catching his breath and his eyes were wide open. He couldn't believe what he just heard. Zaqiel went on to catch up to him. Mr. Gulden had a worried face and was apologetic the whole time.
"I demand to know what happened please" Payne said in a desperate tone.
Mr. Gulden looked at Mrs. Sylvia first, looking for a signal before he explained everything to Payne.
"You're family... they were killed by a group called Phantom Hunters"
"No.... Way....." Payne said in disbelief.
"No one else survived except for you" Mr. Gulden added.
Payne in denial, kneeled while processing everything. Zaqiel crouched behind Payne's back in order to comfort him.
From almost dying on the evening before Christmas to having lost all of his memories in his life and now, hearing that all of his family members were already dead, things has been tough for Payne lately. One would assume it would crush him and his will to live. But no, he stood up afterwards. Full of determination and anger, he pledged.
"I, PAYNE OF RUPUS CLAN, SWORE ON THIS DAY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE. I WILL FIND THOSE BASTARDS RESPONSIBLE FOR MY FAMILY'S DEATH AND I WILL KILL THEM ALL!"
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