The child looked up at me but didn’t respond to the name.
I studied the remaining three children in front of me. Their hair and pupil colors weren’t right. I didn’t need to take a closer look.
“Where are you from?” I didn’t give up and continued questioning the boy.
“The Sliver Moon Pack. My stepmother sold me.”
The boy lowered his head and began crying after answering my question.
It seemed that he wasn’t Arron. Although I was highly disappointed, I still reached out to stroke his hair.
“Don’t worry. I will get you out of here.” The little boy slowly stopped sobbing. I went around to check on the other children. Most of them had either been sold by their parents or had been kidnapped by human traffickers. I memorized their names and backgrounds, snuffed out the torch, and made to leave. It looked like the boy who had been taken away was indeed Arron. Crystal must have had stumbled upon some clues of his whereabouts, and that might be the reason she had abruptly disappeared I had to hurry back there.
However, when I turned around and approached the door, I heard a child sobbing behind me.
“Don’t go. I’m afraid,” a little girl sobbed while grabbing the railing. Her blue eyes looked like sapphires. Tears clung to her long eyelashes. Soon, her face was also drenched with tears. I stopped and turned back to comfort the frightened children. “Hang in there. The royal family has dispatched soldiers to save you. You will soon be free.”
“Really?” a timid voice asked from the corner. A little boy with dust-covered hair walked to the iron railings.
Although he didn’t say that he was afraid, his hands that were holding the railing were shaking slightly. He watched me unblinkingly. His big black eyes covered nearly half his face.
“Of course, I promise,” I answered in an extremely serious voice after a brief pause.
“Okay, I believe you.” After saying that, the little boy picked up some food from the pile in front of him and began eating.
More and more children joined him. Just then, I heard a noise outside. I instantly rushed to the door and hid behind it.
Rufus’ POV
Some of the kids screamed, their fear raw and palpable in the air.
“Be quiet,” I said in a hushed voice. Thankfully, most of them did as told. Their sobs became quieter, though they never really stopped. I felt a pang in my chest as I realized that the poor children were doing their best to stifle their weeping.
“Remember, you must not tell anyone that I was here, okay? If we meet again in the future, just pretend that you’ve never seen me before.” I paused, unable to leave despite myself. “Don’t be afraid,” I added. “I promise to come back soon and save all of you. But for now, I need you to wait. Can you do that for me?”
I saw several heads bob timidly, and that was all I needed I pushed past the door and walked out of the room.
After wandering down the hall for a while, I heard some noise coming from one of the open rooms.
I pressed against the wall and stealthily poked my head through the doorway. The room was filled with the clown goons, who were mostly pacing around restlessly.
One of them had a more slender build, and was wearing a pink mask. It must be the she- wolf they had been talking about. What really piqued my interest, however, was the little boy in her arms.
He was wearing a mask, too, so I had no way of seeing his face. But from what I could tell, he looked to be the same size as Arron It hit me then-there was a high chance that this was indeed Arron!
Unfortunately, the she-wolf held him tightly, as if she was afraid that someone would snatch him away. She never put him down, even as she moved around the room. Needless to say, I couldn’t take the child away without causing a commotion.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that I had to rescue another group of children from the second floor as well I was mulling over my options when the clowns’ squabbling grew louder, and I couldn’t help but listen in on their arguments.
“There are spies here,” the she-wolf said angrily. There was a sharp quality to her voice that made my scalp tingle.
It almost sounded like long nails being dragged against a chalk board.
“Thai’s not possible,” The res-masked clown Jack countered in a booming voice. “Lee said so himself. Are you saying that he lied?”
Jack faltered upon hearing that, and he shut his mouth and hung his head.
That man, Lee again. By all accounts, he seemed to be a very dangerous enemy. He found out about our presence in such a short amount of time.
“In any case, it’s not our fault. We’ve only done as we always have. The spies should be blamed, damn them and their excellent disguises. The chaos from earlier didn’t help, either. But get this-Lee managed to catch one of them, a female. She pretended to be Crane, and almost fooled me, that bitch! Luckily, Lee arrived just in time and took care of her.”
“What do you mean? Did he kill her? We can’t risk getting exposed. That woman must be silenced, no matter what! If Lee needs someone else to do the job, I can get on it right away!”
This came from one of the clowns, who appeared strangely frantic.
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. I’m pretty sure he has already eliminated her by now. Anyway, she was skulking around my room and even tried to take the boy away. She was already knocked out when I left. I doubt Lee would let her go after everything.
I felt my heart stutter when I heard this, and then it picked up its pace, thundering furiously inside my chest.
Damn it! She must be referring to Crystal! Lee had captured Crystal!
I take a few deep breaths trying to calm myself, but my mind kept racing with barely cohesive thoughts.
Rufus’ POV
My mind was clouded with rage. It was all I could do not to rush forward and tear everyone limb from limb.
The sharp crack of the door frame snapping in my grip pulled me back to my senses, and Omar took this opportunity to rein me in. “Calm down, Rufus. We both know Crystal is strong and capable. She won’t be killed so easily.”
“I know.” I closed my eyes and took another deep breath, telling myself to stay rational about this.
I needed to take it one at a time, and for now, the most urgent problem is the one before me. I couldn’t let them discover me, or I would be in for even more trouble.
No one would go and save Crystal if I was caught, or Arron, or all those children. First things first. I needed a chance to confirm that the child in the she-wolf’s arms is indeed Arron. Then, I would take her hostage and force her to take me to where Crystal was. And if she refused, I would kill her there and then Now that I had a plan in place, my nerves finally settled down. I resumed my eavesdropping.
They had gathered around and were about to discuss what to do next.
“Don’t let your guard down,” the she-wolf said, her back turned to me. “We checked the surveillance videos and found that the female spy had a tall, male companion. Lee suspects that this other man also disguised himself as one of us and sneaked into our ranks.”
I saw Jack perk up when he heard this. “Is it Mike? If that wench disguised as Crane, then the other one must be pretending to be Mike, right? Those two are practically joined at the hip. I did notice the odd way they were acting. It all makes sense now.”
The others fidgeted and looked at each other. “Where is Mike, though?”
“He’s not here. Hurry and find him! Don’t let him escape?”
“How did he even manage to slip away? We need to find that bastard.”
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