Food for a Month

Leonhard Alexander Booth handed the cashier a one-hundred dollar bill. His hands were firm and steady. He looked down at the back of his fingers, seeing the creases that come with adulthood. He was silent as his gaze moved from the bill to the cashier's eyes. His clean clothing, his tight gaze, his small frame, all of it was composed, ready, and laser-precise as he moved the bill closer to her hand. He optimized every movement, controlled everything about his body, watched everything she did with extreme care.

The cashier popped the bubble of her bubble gum, rolling her eyes at the bill. "Gotta check this now." She smacked, twirling her curly blonde hair. He tilted his head. Her hair was dyed. Dyed like the idodine pen that she used to check the bill. She pulled the black wand from behind the register, and swiped it over the bill. Her skin was indicative of someone using cheap makeup that isn't their color. The acne and skin issues showed someone who slept in their makeup, too afraid to take it off, lest the surface be seen for the reality it was. Like an iodine pen on cheap cash. She stood with one leg bent slightly, to make herself look shorter. This over-stresses her hips and calves, and was likely she would develop joint issues from her poor posture. Weak nutrition didn't help, either.

"Checks out. Whatever." She said, putting the iodine pen back into the drawer. She handed him a large bag of groceries, primarily steaks. "Have a nice day. Be well." She said, rehearsed from six months of working. She just got her 25 cent raise. He could tell because her uniform was slightly better than the cashier behind her. It was a common practice, in most supermarkets, to offer such incentives as short-term bonuses to retain their employees. Often times, the costs incurred in hiring new staff was less than the cost of giving bonuses to those already there.

Leonhard used real money. But he knew how to fool that pen. Leonhard knew a lot that the FBI had taught him.

"Thank you very much." He muttered.

*ding*

*sssshhh*

*clack*

The sliding door behind Leonhard closed. He squinted at the bright setting sun, now invading his eyes. He raised his free hand, gloved, to cover the light. His other hand was being dragged to the earth by the heavy grocery bag. As he shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness, he saw something. Now, his experience made him acutely aware of his surroundings. In fact, Leonhard was confident he could identify a visual hallucination quite well, having seen a few already. What he was seeing, was veritably real. This was surprising, because if it was real, it needs some sort of causality. Leonhard believed that. Real things happened because of other real things. Reality begets reality.

So for him to see a young child riding a white wolf through the middle of Chicago suburbia, would require an extreme act of causality. What inputs could cause such an event? Where did the wolf come from? Why was the child not at risk? His head followed the canine across the street before he tilted it in surprise. He made a reassurance glance at those around him, to see if they saw it.

They didn't.

He frowned. Were they so imperceptive that they couldn't see the very clear animal running across the street? Or did they, in their mental states, truly believe that each individual had experienced an act of God, or a hallucination? Was it that hard to break verisimiltude? Was it that improbable? That impossible? Why the hell weren't they screaming?!

The tension rose in his face. He needed verification. He needed to know he wasn't going crazy, but all of the patterns, all of the signs on the faces of the others and the motions of the animal indicated otherwise. He dropped his hand, allowing the bright sun to cover his face as he leaned down to look at his watch. 5:15. Daily savings time had just taken effect, and the sun was setting at only 5:15. He didn't have anything to do tonight.

...why weren't they screaming...

He looked up from his watch. The sun flickered once. His knuckles tightened around the bag in his hands. He had to know. If he never knew, it would violate some law. Some rule about the universe. He felt like he just saw one half of a puzzle, and desperately needed to see the whole picture.

*bam*

The bag fell to the concrete outside of the supermarket's sliding door.

Leo pulled his coat around him, and started walking in the direction of the wolf's path, hailing a taxi to follow it.

The sun dipped below the horizon, and darkness, at last, touched on the City.

Leon could see the kid sitting on the sidewalk as the taxi approached. Good. He didn't lose sight of him in the alley. There was still a chance of success. He tried to think carefully about what he had witnessed. They still can't see him. Leon thought to himself. That must be it. He remembered at the faces of those who would have seen the kid, if he had made himself available. The pattern was clear, indicative of one cause: they couldn't see him, but Leon could. Leon had no idea why, or how, and it violated a lot of physics, but he knew right now he had to first catch the kid to be able to meet up.

But once you violate those rules, once you ignore basic causality, many more things become possible. Pigs could fly. Squirrels could talk. Wolves can follow boys. This was no hallucination, yet it was something only Leon could see. If he could accept that, then the wolves made sense. Now it was a matter of elimination, proving that this figure was indeed, real. With shock, he looked up to see the kid enter an alleyway.

"Turn around, turn around!" Leon told the Taxi driver. He leaned forward, head between the seats. The car nearly hit the kid. The taxi driver shouted something in another language that Leonhard didn't understand. The words didn't need to be translated however, Leon knew what they meant. He tried to convey the importance of turning around to the Taxi driver, who was unable to see the kid he almost ran over. Leon shook his head a few times and then pushed away from the seats. "Fuck it..." he muttered as he opened the door and ejected himself from the vehicle as it slowed for a turn. He rolled onto one knee before getting up and returning to the Alley.

He wasn't stupid enough to shout, but it was pretty obvious what was happening. He walked briskly behind the child, keeping his distance. It was then, as he gazed into the darkness of the alleyway. His mouth tightened as he pulled his coat closer and cautiously stepped forward. He kept moving, slowly, toward the area. He wasn't carrying a weapon, but he didn't feel any immediate danger.

As he moved in, he first saw the blood. He closed his eyes, and exhaled loudly. Dammit. He thought to himself, as he started looking for an explanation. The closer he got, the bloodier it was. His eyes carefully gazed over the scene, taking in all of the details, searching for the patterns. Was it just unfortunate timing? Where did the wolf go? The child? Did they just disappear?

Leonhard looked behind him to cover his back. He then kneeled down next to the violence, and put his hand up to his foreheard. ...how are these things related...? He shook his head, considering his options now.

Silus wasn’t a fool by any means. He might be weak, and he may be the only member of his family that lacks powers, but he’s still plenty capable of taking care of himself. Hopefully it didn’t come down to a physical brawl because…well.. Silus was eleven…this guy was probably thirty six. Odds weren’t good. Although when was Silus ever alone? He had his own little wolf pack following him around almost twenty-four seven. But he still hadn’t seen Hocus or Kaisses yet. He stopped running and paused for a second, catching his breath and calming himself. He looked perfectly normal now. That was one thing Silus was rather good about, he seemed to notice that humans seemed to linger on and dwell on fears or sorrows for long times after their passage. Silus on the other hand immediately calms himself and moves on from the previous moment to the next.
 
       What is going on? he wondered to himself as he turned and looked back, he thought he spotted his little Canine companion. ”Abra!” Silus called out, and there was a little whine in response. Silus turned around to look, the way the whining was echoing too much for him to discern the true location of his rather large canine comrade.
 
      ”I’m gonna find yoooou...” Silus sang in a hushed voice as if it were a game. He heard four whines. Four whines, four letters. LEFT! Silus turned to look to his left and started watching, his eyes constantly surveying the area. He kept on it until he heard four more whines. He turned left and kept going. He was purely human, and he had to rely on his pet’s hearing and their powers to get by.
 
       Abra let out a small growl, causing Silus to turn and look at the prismatic pooch. Silus smiled and ran to the wolf, pulling it into a hug. Abra whined as he looked at the dead end. Did Abra lose the culprit? Darn, that means Silus has to wait to catch this killer. For now though he still has a particular person he’d like to get a little attention from. He looked at Abra, whom still whined, as if it were disappointed that it let Silus down. Silus just hugged the large canine and kept petting it. Silus then had the wolf stand, so he could ride him for just a little while longer. The wolf began to grind his teeth, but he would make due as he struggled to sustain himself on moonlight alone. Abra took off with Silus, just another three blocks or so, carefully avoiding human eyes by taking the darker alleyways, which in turn only made Abra a little weaker, but soon enough they made it to the library. Silus looked down to Abra, only to feel a whipping tail to the back of the head. Silus looked to him with an arched eyebrow and a fake look of shock.
 
       ”What’cha do that for?” He asked playfully as he hopped off the dog and walked in. The lights made it much easier for Abra to take advantage of his energy and power, and he immediately removed the alteration from Silus, and instead bent the color scheme around him, making himself virtually invisible to the average man. Silus looked around and snickered as he whispered into Abra’s ear what to do. Abra looked around and eagerly complied, suddenly the colors of the room were altered. In an instant the color spectrum had totally changed, and when people began seeing inverted colors, they went screaming, which was bound to get attention. As Silus commanded the books became green the cards turned a distinct Auburn, and the desks turned silver-ish white. It was a tricky little puzzle of course, then again Silus needed a smart person to help him catch the killer, not just anyone could do this. Silus commanded Abra to make himself scarse, an compliantly the large wolf took off into the deep city.
 
       Meanwhile, Silus went to a park bench across the street and sat, waiting to see who could decipher his puzzle.

"Yeah. Dead for maybe a half hour, max. I'm pursuing. Get a cop car here immediately." Leonhard hung up his cell phone, putting it away. He had to call in the murder, and would have to give them more details later. For now, he had to pursue. He crossed the alley, and kept to the locations through the distance.

He looked at the outside of the alley, and noticed a clean patch of ground. His eyes narrowed. Someone sat down here. He then saw tire tracks in front of him. "sudden braking." He followed the path of chaos, little signs here and there. He had truly no idea whether he was on the trail or not, but his suspicions were soon confirmed.

He stood at the end of the park, looking at a library across the street. "What the fuck..." He muttered. People were leaving the library en masse, screaming. Little did Leon know, he was standing six feet away from Silus. He then ran across the street, still oblivious to how close he was to Silus, and into the library to investigate.

Once inside, that's when Leon began to panic. "This isn't modern art." He whispered to himself. He turned around before entering, checking his hands to make sure they were the right color. He pulled out his cell phone. "....yeah, it's me again. I'm at the Library on Grant. It's... uh... well..." He racked his brain for a possible explanation. "I think it's been drugged, maybe. Some gas? People are screaming, there's panic." He saw a few police cars pull up. "CPD got here... I think...."

Realization crashed over Leon like a wave. The murder. The panic. "....I... I'll have to call you back." His eyes were wide.

I have been set up. He said. I was the only witness to the murder... and now this panic is covering up the real killer's escape... His heart wouldn't stop pounding. He had to sit down. He held his cell phone feebly in his hand as he sat on the same park bench as Silus, still unaware of the boy's presence. He might lose his job over this, or worse.

The conversation played through his head:

Oh yeah, I, an unarmed, untrained, desk agent saw a murder! See, the guy was just murdered, but I saw no one. So I purused an invisible wolf to the Library, where people panicked due to some hallucinogen that only worked while they were inside!

His fingers trembled, and he dropped his phone. He looked around at the cop cars who were now entering the Library.

What if they don't find anything... what if I really am going crazy...

"...there's no pattern..." he muttered, slumping over on the bench.

The dejected man was sitting there, slumped over and he just started talking to himself. He stated that there was no pattern tot his, and Silus just looked over at him with a twinkle in his eye, almost as if he felt bad for the guy. There was a pattern, but he needed to have a child-like mind to get it, which was something he didn’t have. The pattern was a simply double standard. Silus stood up and pulled on the man’s sleeve. The second he had the man’s attention he’d attempt to lead him over to the library. Silus didn’t exactly feel like giving up his secrets but of course when he caused someone mental anguish he just had to be a good kid. Curse his good nature. That’s probably the only reason he couldn’t be a villain like his dads.
 
       Silus stepped into the area, humming a little nursery rhyme, it was a highly out of tune “Little boy blue”. Silus liked that one a lot, so much so that here he is in an eleven year olds body still humming it. He looked around, his shimmering blue eyes darting all over the place, the quality of a highly perceptive person. He hummed out loud as he took out a piece of paper from his hoodie, which was WAY too big for him. He took the piece of paper and borrowed a pencil, still grey having the color stolen from it. Silus looked around the room. He drew a small little image. It was each color left in the room, and each object that still had the color. The picture read

the following:

.
 
       He looked to the detective man and hoped that he could decipher it form there. Silus then took out a second piece of paper and placed it in front of the mysterious man. This guy didn’t get the pattern right off the bat, which was fine because of the stress he was probably under. Silus could tell from his reaction that he was just a normal human with a great gift. He was one of the “Old Heroes” that Silus was so fond of. He obviously wasn’t used to dealing with things like this, things that were so met human. Silus understood it. He wasn’t special either…he was just a plain old person, in a family of twisted villains.
 
      ”It’s a double-standard pattern. It starts off Associative and then it goes alphabetical…” Silus explained, after he figured the man knew it. Silus looked at it and looked sad as he realized that he alphabetized it incorrectly…he alphabetized the color, but that didn’t do anything. Silus crossed out the word Library and reordered it appropriately. Getting

this:

The pattern revealed the pattern and the first word of every color was their key. Silus looked up to the guy, almost like he was a superhero. He might be after tonight, especially if he catches this killer

Leon was in a state of shock. His brain wasn't functioning properly, after all, anyone who had just witnessed a pallet change of the very world occur in front of their eyes, while being put at risk of going to jail, was going to be in considerable shock. When he felt the tug on his sleeve and turned his head to see the boy that he had followed earlier, he literally could not believe his eyes. It was as if the boy could appear and disappear at will. Needless to say, when prompted, he stepped forward lazily, like a zombie, following this apparition.

He stood in the middle of the insane chromatic room his heart continued to pound, his mind racing, as the child showed him some scribbles on a piece of paper. He didn't even consciously process them, standing straight up with his arms at his sides, gazing listlessly down at the words. And then, without warning, he started speaking. His words were rapid, sudden, and acutely articulated. It was like the rambling of an idiot, with seeds of genius.

"Green, Auburn, Silver, alphabetical, Books represent knowledge, Cards represent access or action, Desks represent security and location. Wolves smell blood. Prismatic movement of the light makes you visible from only certain directions, at certain angles. The setting sun allowed me to see you in the bright light. It's not magic. It's science. Despite your cloak, you follow the wolves's path, that's why they move through the city between cars, the wolves don't follow you. You are being protected by them, not using them. That means that they aren't a figment or a trick, the wolves are real, or at least with their own minds."

He paused, wobbling on his feet, before regaining his balance. When he did, he spoke more calmly. "You.... you're a child. You never would have gone into the alley on your own. You did, and the wolves showed you something. They showed you the murder and...." He shook his head slightly. "That means you didn't commit the murder. And neither did they."

His eyes suddenly shot up at Silus. He could hear the police sirens outside of the library now, as they started entering to check what was happening. Leon stood up and moved toward Silus purposefully. "...can you get us out here without being seen? And undo..." He glanced around himself. "...undo whatever you did?"

            ”It’s just an illusion.” Silus said bashfully as he avoided eye contact. He was so used to being compared to his brothers that he himself was virtually an untouchable to people. He had no powers and so he was worthless…him talking to a human wasn’t even fitting...humans were “above him” as far as his people were concerned. ”Abra did it…it will fade in a few minutes…I’m a normal kid…the wolves do it all.” he said with a slight tinge of sadness in his voice. He didn’t look sad, but the faintest sound of it could be heard. He walked outside and a few people looked at him. He was plainly visible now and he handed the note to Leon. Green, Auburn and Silver…it spelled GAS. Silus was truing to tell the detective they needed to go to the gas station.
 
       Silus made his way to the gas station calmly, just a kid walking down the street. He didn’t want to answer any questions where he wasn’t absolutely sure things were safe. Michael has ears everywhere in this dang city. The next thing Silus knows, Michael might end up running this city from the shadows. Silus hurried to get there to wait for the detective man.  Abra revealed himself there, with a new little clue. A letter, handwriting dictating exactly what was happening. The fact that it was a handwritten note didn’t mean much, considering it was now tampered with by Abra. Silus took the note form the prismatic wolf, and then took out a note from his pocket, comparing the two.
 
      ”Look at these” Silus said as he handed the noted to the detective. He motioned to Abra, who lowered itself for Sius to step on him. Silus grabbed hold  of the wall, trying not to fall, as he peered over the detectives shoulder. The two sets of writing were different, save for certain little marks. ”When we write, our consciousness is active, however as the writing goes on and becomes more natural, and we get momen-momenemetum…momen…I-I can’t say it…as it gfoes on we get sloppier. But neither of these letters get sloppy later on. The person is thinking the entire time…and though the style is different we can tell it’s the same person ‘cuz of this and the fact that their t’s are the same when they are in the middle of a sentence and the T’s are different when they begin or end the sentence. It’s an ideomotor phenom-peneomo…” Silus began tripping over his tongue again and stopped attempting at the word phenomenon. He felt stupid and he sighed as he went over to the wall and sat down, his face still like stone, almost unreadable. It was clear that he had practice at trying to remain unreadable, if nothing else it was apparent that the kid had one hell of a poker face.
 
      The note read:
            “Seven score, seven more. Each one begot another, each one now worm fodder.
      Everything is set in place, Waiting for Darkness embrace
      I will strike but two more, the first one at the tallest door”
 
    Silus sighed. This guy wasn’t very smart…or at least he was struggling with rhymes. The T in strike and struggling and the T in tallest and two were indeed of a different style of writing drawing Silus to the conclusion that the man was trying to cleverly guise his writing each time…had it not been for that mistake and a few others he would have done it too…
 
     ”So…what do we do?” Silus asked him, a little glimmer in his eye, looking to the detective like man, hopeful for an answer. True enogh he just met the guy, but he had a good feeling...he looked up to this guy a little. He was smart...hopefully Silus just wouldn't let him down...like he does his siblings.

"Nothing."

Leon turned his head to look at the boy over his shoulder. Instead of surprise or happiness, his face was pure conviction. There was a laser-precise viciousness in his gaze. "I do nothing." He moved away from Silus and put both notes in his pocket, refusing to give them back after they were handed to him. "Not yet, anyway. Not until you tell me more. You're obviously hiding something. I know you think it's cute to pretend not to know anything... but no innocent human child would be able to maintain a stoic face in light of these events."

From the timid, shocked face of before, blood and life rushed back into Leon. His mind was back to him, and with a fiery strength. Confidence emitted from him like radiation, as his brow lowered. "If you wanted to deceive me, you would have been better off acting scared. You're too good at hiding your emotions to be genuine."

He stood up and stepped away from the boy, making sure not to show his back. "That wolf is influencing your actions.... but also more than that. I believe that you don't just get your abilities from them... but some of your thoughts from them as well." He raised a single gloved finger at the boy. "I first noticed it when I entered the room they had altered. If the wolves made the color shift, then you would have had to decipher the pattern all on your own to find their meaning. No, they communicated the pattern to you first. And you then relayed it to me. That was their doing, and their idea. You're just a medium for them."

He nodded. "I may have been shocked, but I don't have to ignore reality. There's no magic here, just careful tricks of light and communication. I bet you're not even a child. You might not even be real."

His finger remained pointed at the boy for a full ten seconds, the room completely silent. He let his accusation ring in the air for a minute. His coat hung around his shoulders, swaying occasionally. But his hand remained stable. Then, it slowly fell, and his shoulders relaxed.

"But no matter what you are, people's lives are at risk. So I will tell you some things, but no more." He swallowed, holding back his conviction. "You're right. It is the same person, that much is obvious. But they weren't thinking. They rehearsed this. They only had to focus on the writing because the actual words were already well-placed into the mind. He's done this many times before, perhaps in practice." He frowned. "It is indicative of someone who is extremely cautious."

"But they weren't in the same location. More importantly, the weight of the fiber on the second paper indicates a luxury paper, probably sourced from a hotel, post office, or stationery store. The first is on a traditional notebook page." He smirked. "Not to mention that it has less soak through the pages, and fewer wrinkles. I've seen a lot of notes in my time, and I can assure you, the nicer page came later. That means our killer is targeting higher-profile locations and individuals as times goes on. Likely he started with poorer, or easier to find individuals, and is now moving to the upper class. That means he didn't plan it all out ahead, and he's probably selecting targets as they become available, or as he becomes more confident."

"But the content of the note, that's more conjecture than reasoning. I can guess though... Seven score and seven more equate to 147. Two more makes 149. I doubt it's the number of killings, that many murders would not go unseen. That being said, it's a prime number, composed from primes seven, seven, and two. Or Score may mean literally twenty, giving us Seven Twenty Seven, the calling number for a Boeing aircraft. "Score" may be indicative of a game, score could imply victory. This may mean that there are actually 14 plus 2, making 16 total murders, and at least seven were fought as a victory for the killer. Seven is the number of scores needed to make a best-of-13 game, which he may view these killing as. Darkness is capitalized, indicates it a proper noun, and is going to be an individual person or organization. This implies that the killer is waiting for someone else, a master or leader perhaps, or perhaps some ideological figure, to accept the killings. 'begot', implies familiar relationships, family perhaps, or a religious connection. It may indicate that the killer uses each victim's own life, family, choices, or some other data from the victim to determine the next victim. But the Tallest Door..."

His eyes narrowed. "That's all I will tell you. Now, quid pro quo, you tell me more about your wolf. Because I think you already know who this killer is. Or at least, your wolf does. You're not a normal child, no matter how much you deny it, and your animal isn't a normal animal. You don't even seem to question whether that wolf is manipulating us. If he can make you go invisible, who's to say he can't also forge that note? Now why should I trust you, much less your dog?"

His eyes narrowed. "So tell me. Everything. Or else." His fists tightened. His focus was rising, anger from years of a mild life, he had never felt so free or so alive before. It was rejuvenating, it brought life to his bones and made him want to scream in a world that had kept him silent. For once he felt like he was about to make a difference, with such confidence, the likes of which he had never felt before.

       ”No wonder they hate people…” Silus said, hurt. He looked up to this guy slightly, but now the guy was being a total jerk. He was even threatening him now with that “or Else” things that the humans loved so much. Silus just hugged his knees with his back against the wall. He should have listened to his dads…they were right. Humans are weak, pathetic things that only try to hurt you for personal gain. The second that the detective said “or else” he likely wishes he hadn’t. Abra let out a fierce growl, his prismatic hairs shimmering as his hair stood on end. ”J-just stop Ab!” Silus snapped as he drug a sleeve across his face. He didn’t like people seeing him cry…it was bad enough he didn’t have powers like the rest of his family…but to show a weakness like crying…but it was hard…everyone he looked up to always did this…they accused him of something, or were just a flat out jerk to him…everyone except his daddy…
 
       ”I’m from a place where I’m the only human. These wolves understand me but I can’t understand them…the protect me because where I’m from there are things strong enough to level a militsry bunker because they felt like it, my three brothers are people who do it just because they can. I’m the only one without the power to do anything…I need protection and these wolves protect me.” Silus said, trying not to cry. He took in a shaky breath, but he didn’t let his face change, even as tears eventually came. He was constantly scared for his life. His brothers weren’t exactly a family for him…the scars on his arm were testimony enough for when Jordan got hold of Ouro’s Death Penalty whip. Abra, even for a wolf looked deep concern as he whined and went to Silus, his tail between his legs. The wolf sat at one side and tried to work its face into Silus’ cheek.
 
      ”Humans are all the same…he tries to warn you, you don’t listen and then there is another murder. Finally he tries to show a human that he KNOWS what he’s doing and they accuse him.” The would snarled as it glared at Leon. Taking a step forward.
 
      ”A-A-Abra?“ Silus asked, total shock on his face, red with puffy eyes from crying. Abra looked back wide eyes and a high pitched whine as he realized tha the had just spoken... He turned from silus to look back to the Leon man.
 
      ”Even IF we knew who the murder was if we do anything then we are vigilante’s and we are then marked criminals ourselves. He was TRYING to help you find a legal way to take down a mass murderer…stupid human.” It snapped. Silus sniffed and stood up, wiping his eyes again. Abra shirked at the sight, knowing what Silus was going to do. Silus ran….he did what he always did…he ran back to the hotel room where he had been staying with his relative. Abra looked back to Leon. ”wonderful..now he’s alone, unprotected and at the top of a serial killers hit-list, are you happy human!?” Abra snarled with a fierce growl.
 
       Abra took off in the direction after Silus but in the end lost him at the main road. He looked around frantically, growling, sniffing and whatever else he could do to try and pick up on Silus. He whined, and whined and whined until he went back intot he ally to lay down and brood over his failure. He knew he should have listened to Silus, but he didn't. He spoke to the man and Silus heard him...Silus knew he could talk now. This was bad...very..very bad.
 
       "Now he knows I can talk..." He whined as he rolled over onto his side.

"A place where I'm the only human..." Leonhard thought. That sentence had a lot of implications, Huge ones. But they are ones he couldn't dwell on for now.

*pat, pat, pat*

Leonhard followed behind the wolf in the dark, running gently until he caught up. At last, he stood behind the wolf, shrouded in the darkness of night.

Leonhard narrowed his eyes. "I was right. You can communicate." He said, his fists loosening up as he took a step forward. "Heh." He let out a small sound as his frown lifted, turning into a smile. "Sometimes, all it takes is a little force." He clearly feld no remorse for making a child cry, in fact, in his mind, Silus wasn't even a child. All Leonhard needed was the Wolf.

"One thing you should know about humans, and take it from someone who has studied them very carefully, is that we're driven by survival too. You threaten my job, you take me out of my comfort zone, you change my reality and drag me away from what I used to know, and as a human, I'm either going to roll over like a dog..." He looked down at the wolf on its side. "...or I'm going to growl like a wolf." He said, lowering his brow again. He raised a hand up. His fingers were shaking, barely. "I won't lie. You could tear me limb from limb if you wanted to. That frightens me. But some humans are not going to act out of kindness, or fear. Most of them will, and I've learned how to identify them."

He lowered his arm. "But humans like me? We make up for our lack of strength with our intelligence. And now that we're on even terms.... we can make a deal." He looked down at the wolf, and narrowed his eyes. "Your human friend is also driven by survival. By fear. That makes him easy to control. I used to do that with people who annoyed me, people who made my job difficult. But now I can do it to save lives."

Leonhard started walking around the Wolf, in front of the animal. "If he's really the next target, that puts us at a huge advantage. The killer would never strike if the child was surrounded by the wolves. He will wait until he is an emotionally compromising position. Like the one I just put him in." Leonhard's plan was starting to be revealed. "I already told you. The killer is finding victims as a first-come-first-serve basis. He's impatient. If the kid is that important, he will not miss this opportunity to strike while he is without his protection. But right after that murder, our killer will be completely unprepared. He will need to acquire notes, to continue writing. He will need a location, he will need to track down kid before anyone else can."

He pulled out his cell phone and showed it to the wolf. "I'm going to assume you're still not well-versed in the ways of humans, but with a few phone calls, I can raise a small army of police and FBI all ready to search for this child throughout the city. It's my job. Then, we position them in a pattern around the likely locations, and wait for the killer to make himself present. If we're lucky, when he makes his move, he will be shot to death and we can avoid a trial at the taxpayer's expense."

"You want to do things legally? This is how they are done." Leonhard frowned. "I have no love for murderers. And your human has only brought me shock today. But this might just be the opportunity to boost my career into a comfortable seat. So that's the deal I offer you, wolf. I've set the trap, I've sent out the bait. Now all I need is for you to help me track this boy, so when the killer is there, we can be right behind him."

"Do we have an agreement?" He said, lifting the smartphone to his ear.

      Abra didn’t even bother to entertain the idea. In fact the second the phone was presented, Abra glared and with a vicious snap of his fangs, he lunged out and took the phone from the man’s grip, and snapped down breaking the phone. Abra pounced upon the Man, and snarled in his face. He wanted desperately to tear into the man, but he knew that it was against Silus’ consciousness, and if Abra killed a man…Silus would ultimately feel responsible. Abra let his temper settle as he glared into Leon’s eyes. HE snarled again as he leaned in with an open mouth, as if he were ready to bite. He drew back and spoke.
 
      ”A Deal where only you gain? I am not the only wolf that looks after him! I love how the child looks to you as a hero, wants to help you with that damn career of yours and instead of being a man worthy of the position, you are nothing more than a mortal driven by greed. We told him not to trust you…his fathers begged him to not place faith in your kind…I cannot wait for the day that someone like you breaks his fragile heart one too many times…I will seek you out and destroy you for this, you sickening filth!” Abra said as he turned and took off at a normal human speed, a basic little trot to be more precise. He listened desperately for the call of a pack mate, listening for an alert as to where Silus is. He got it…a deep, almost demonic bellowing of a wolf-howl
 
       ”AARWOOOOO!” Abra’s ears perked up and he took off. Hocus had seen Silus. Abra made his way, he just hoped it wasn’t too late.

...You... idiot! Leon's face was a grimace of anger. Not only had the wolf now made it significantly harder to find Silus, but was going to do it on his own.

He turned to one of the empty cop cars now, hailing a police officer. "FBI. I need to commandeer your phone." He said, flashing his badge. The police officer nodded, handing him the phone with wide eyes. "T-Thanks" He stammered.

"This is FBI agent Alexander Booth. I need to call in a suspect, on the run. Young child, probably 10-12. Possible murder, likely an accident. Could be armed. He is a missing child, and is accompanied by a large... uh... a large dog. Dog is hostile. Was seen leaving the Modern Art Library five minutes ago, and is heading west. Set up a perimeter, repeat, suspect is an 11-year old child accompanied by a large animal, may be armed."

He pushed the police officer aside and took the wheel of the car. He then paused. "...also, I'm going to need your gun."

The officer started suddenly, looking down at him with surprise from the sidewalk. "Sir...? For a child....?"

"For a wolf." Leon said.