บท 4: CHAPTER 4 - The Golden Staff 3

Back at the police station, the bald man whom was also known as the chief of police, was found in a room accompanied by two women and two men, as they all stood facing an empty pedestal.

The expression on the chief's face, was one of surprise and bitterness, as he was trying to come to the realization of what just happened.

"I thought you said earlier that the state museum had already sent it's retrieval team to acquire the staff"

Sarah O'Connor of the DSS spoke beside the chief as she slowly turned her gaze on him.

The chief refused to return her stare, as he could feel the heat of accusation and anger emanating from that stare.

He gritted his teeth in annoyance.

The annoyance of the situation he found himself in.

The truth of the matter was that the police were patrolling just close to the area where the bus accident occurred and after the ambulance arrived to carry the injured and dead victims, the staff was found close to an unconscious teenager.

The ambulance operatives therefore handed the staff over to the police as a form of evidence to the accident which witnesses described as freakish and mysterious.

Investigations were demanded to know the cause of the strange accident.

Not long after the staff was brought to the station, the chief was contacted by the state museum, who requested to acquire the staff from him.

He found it quite strange that the state museum would be interested in the staff, but was then made to understand that the staff was actually stolen from the museum sometime ago by unknown persons.

The chief was still skeptical about handing the staff over due to the fact that it was considered as evidence to an investigation.

Not until he was presented with a shocking sum of a hundred thousand dollars!

He couldn't believe his ears, though he knew that the staff was gold plaited and quite a treasure but he was quite surprised that the museum would go that far just to acquire it.

Deciding to play a bigger hand, he asked for a larger sum of money and to his surprise, he was presented with two hundred thousand dollars as the final deal.

Two hundred thousand dollars!

That was a lot more than he made in a year!

Accepting the offer, he was instructed to keep the staff safe until the retrieval team arrives the next morning.

And now he had somehow lost the staff.

Well he could kiss his two hundred grand goodbye.

*******************

Peter's sleep was filled with strange dreams and visions. He tossed and turned continuously as he couldn't seem to have a peaceful sleep.

By the time he was opening his eyes again for the twentieth time, it was already dawn.

Rising up from his lying position, he noticed that the golden staff was floating vertically beside his bed.

He couldn't believe that he was actually experiencing such a phenomenon. He reached out his hand towards the staff and it slowly floated into his outstretched hand.

Unknown to him, a smile appeared on his lips.

After having dinner with his mother the previous night, he quickly ran up to his room as he decided to experiment with his newfound 'toys'.

First of all he discovered that he could actually summon the strange panels that displayed his stats information. To summon them, all he had to do was think about it or say 'info'.

He practiced with this for almost an hour before moving on to the golden staff.

He discovered that the staff was extremely light. It was so light that it felt like he was holding a hollow aluminum object.

If not for the fact that this very object could eerily float in the air and glow in golden light, he would have thought that it was just a cheaply forged piece of metal.

He also noticed that the staff had strange markings. These markings looked very much like the ones you see on the ancient Egyptian temples or the ancient Sumerian tablets.

He couldn't make sense out of anyone of the markings no matter how much he tried.

He even went so far as to browse the Internet in search for any similar markings found from the archeological sites of ancient civilizations. But he found none of such similarities.

"Well you're one weird staff ain't you?" Peter asked as he stared at the golden staff in his hands.

For some strange reason, he felt a bond or connection to the staff that he couldn't explain. It was like having an extra mysterious arm or leg.

As he kept caressing the staff in absentmindedness, a knock rapped on his door.

"Peter are you awake yet?" The voice of his mother called out.

"You should bathe and get dressed so that you won't be late for school"

Peter immediately frowned when he heard that.

He was actually not planning to go to school today, because of the embarrassing incident that took place yesterday at school, he felt staying back would be better.

But at that moment, an idea came to him.

He could go out under the pretense of going to school, but actually he would go to the woods at the South Park area and see if he could find out more about this strange phenomenon that was happening to him.

"Okay ma, I'll be down in a minute" he said in reply as he jumped down from the bed in enthusiasm.

Few minutes later, he had already bathed and was dressed up as he emptied his backpack with the intention of stuffing it with snacks and water for his self made trip.

Peter was a foodie, so whenever he found the time, he made sure to keep his mouth busy by eating.

As he emptied the backpack, he came across the permit slip which needed his mother's signature for his school trip to the museum today.

"I don't think this will be necessary anymore"

He threw the permit slip into one of the drawers as he headed for the door, only to pause in his tracks as he discovered one problem;

The staff.

It was six feet long and golden—there's no way in hell that it won't be easily noticed and he couldn't put it in his bag that's for sure.

Racking his brain on how to keep the staff hidden, he came up with an idea, as he went under his bed to bring out a long piece of dull colored cloth which was quite dusty.

Shaking off some of the dust from the cloth, he used it to wrap the staff. Thankfully, the dull colored cloth was well enough to wrap up the staff completely.

_"Yes this will do"_

Peter nodded to himself in satisfaction as he examined the result of his quick thinking.

"Talk about hiding in plain sight" he grinned and walked out the door.

"Mum can I take some snacks to school? I won't have time to eat breakfast here"

"Sure son" his mother watched as he began stuffing his backpack with various snacks from the shelf.

She wasn't surprised though, she knew her son's love for anything eatable.

"But are you sure you don't want to eat something before you go? I made your favorite; ham and eggs"

"No mom" Peter replied, which shocked his mother a bit.

Her son was not one to refuse his favorite meal so decisively.

"Am gonna be late for school" Peter righteously said.

But he still couldn't resist taking a bite or two out of the delicious ham as he rushed to the door.

"Hey wait, you haven't collected your bus fare yet" his mother said as she took the money on the table and gave it to him.

Peter was supposed to refuse, as he wasn't actually going to school and wouldn't need the bus fare.

He actually had a bicycle which he was planning to use to go to south park, but of course, his mother had never allowed him to ride his bicycle to school, as the distance was few kilometers and the traffic was quite busy.

So if he were to refuse and tell her that he would be taking his bicycle, she would know that he wasn't going to school.

"Okay thanks mum"

Peter stretched out his hand to collect the money, but his mother frowned as she noticed a peculiarity with his hands. She noticed that when he was about to collect the money from her, he did a gesture of exchange from his right hand to his left hand, as if....

"What do you have in your hand?" His mother asked as she gestured at his left hand which appeared folded.

"Uh...." Peter glanced at his left hand as a look of slight nervousness flashed through his eyes.

"It's a school project that I was going to submit to my class teacher" he anxiously lied as he waited for her to reply.

But then he felt his beat accelerate, when he noticed that her frown had deepened.

"What school project?" His mother said as she bent forward slightly to take closer look at his hand.

He became quite agitated within him, as he knew that if his mother were to ask him to unwrap the piece of cloth from the staff, he would have a lot of explaining to do!

But at that moment when he was about to panic, his mother said something that shocked him greatly;

"But where is the school project?"

"Huh?"

"Your hand is empty, I don't see anything in it"

_"What?!"_

**************************

Inside a well secure and grandiose mansion, in one of it's large and well decorated rooms, a young and beautiful girl could be seen painting on a white tripod board.

In fact, the large and spacious room had no beds or luxurious furniture, but was filled with various paintings.

Some of the paintings were beautiful and well designed, while others were abstract and seemingly out of context.

While this young lady painted, footsteps sounded behind her as a middle aged woman whom seemed to be past her prime walked into the room and stopped few steps behind the painting lady.

"Lady M I have news" the middle aged woman said as she patiently waited for the girl's reply.

"Lady M"

The middle aged woman frowned slightly when she received no response from the young lady.

Stretching out her right hand to touch the shoulder of the girl, a raspy voice replied;

"I heard you the first time Carla"

The young lady paused her painting activity as she slowly turned her head to face the middle aged woman.

When the woman saw the girl's face, a quiet gasp escaped out of her lips as she immediately bowed her head to the neck level with her gaze facing down. Well this reaction of hers was not without reason, because the young girl's eyes were not in their natural appearance.

Her eye balls at this point were completely white, with rings of dark shades encompassing around both eyes.

The middle aged woman had spent five years by the lady's side and yet even she finds it quite unnerving to stare into those eerie eyes.