The Black Raven's Heart

#07-A Confidential File

"Wait, Pa! Where are you going?" Tears fell from the man's eyes as he gently caressed his son's tender cheeks. Then a forced smile drew from his brims as he looked into his innocent confused eyes.

"Aries, son. Will you promise Papa you'll look after Mama?" Words that came out from his father's utterances. The boy seemed to be clueless about what his father had said, but he managed to nod his head in response. And so the man began turning his back from his son and prepared to leave.

"But where are you going?" the boy asked again. The man came back and gave the boy a very tight embrace.

"Papa has to leave for work in a few weeks. Mama might get lonely, please take care of her for me."

"Hmm, Don't worry Pa. I will take care of Mama." The boy's innocent smile brought ache from his father's heart, yet he tried not to show it to his son.

And so the young boy gladly bid his father goodbye until he finally left the house. Little did he know, that would be the last time he would see his father.

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

*KKKRRIIIIIIIIIINGGGGG!!!!~*

The deafening noise from the alarm clock filled the whole room as soon as it pointed at seven in the morning. Groans of irritation escaped from the young man as he listlessly covered his ears with the pillow to continue sleeping. He just doesn't have the mood to wake up yet since he finished finalizing his work late.

Aries ignored the alarm until it finally gave up and stopped. A moment of silence engulfed him as he peacefully went back to his sleep. Not until the sudden ringing of his phone woke him up. Irritated, yet, he managed to get a grip on his phone and answered the call.

"Hmm..."

"Hey, don't tell me you're not up yet?" He didn't have to glance at the caller since the loud feminine voice already told him it was Hailey Specter, his best friend and colleague. They've become friends ever since they were still in college and also worked in the same company.

"Hm, I finished my entry late last night. Uh, why did you call by the way?" Aries asked and got up from the bed.

"Sir Wilbert is looking for you. I don't know why." The young one annoyingly blew air from his lower lip. He could see that stern–faced old man.

Ugh, what is it again? Aries mumbled to himself. The last time he was called was because he was asked to cover something beyond his specialty. He was supposed to slump on his bed or relax at his favorite park today, but then all of it was already ruined.

Annoyed and sleepy, Aries climbed down from the bed and hastily grabbed his towel before entering the bathroom. He spent almost forty minutes in the shower to fully awaken his whole system. He doesn't care if that old man would scold him if he's late. Just a little bit longer and he'll definitely resign from that company and go travel abroad. He just needed this to gain at least a year of work experience.

After preparing his laptop and the hard copy of his next manuscript, the young man quickly went to the counter to take a sip of warm coffee since he didn't have the time to prepare anything for breakfast. He grabbed the apartment key on the table and glanced at the family picture on the small cabinet.

"Ma, I'm off to go. Pa, I will do everything to find you." He murmured and left the apartment. Since that day, his dad never came back to them. He could still remember his mom asking his father's subordinates about his father, but they got nothing from them. They never lose hope that one day his father would come back. Until his mother's body suddenly weakened and passed away one year after she was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer.

A few years after his mother's death had never been easy for him now that he only got nothing but himself. Now, he was the only one left who still believed that his father was still alive although his subordinates gave up on the investigations. He was still holding on to the promise he made to his mother before she left. He promised to find his father or to know who caused his disappearance.

Aries hopped out of the cab as soon as it stopped in front of a four-story building.

*New Times*

Yes, he was fortunately hired at one of the best online magazine companies in the entire Black Crest City as one of the mystery writers in the Fiction department. Well everyone was cool, and nice to him except for their Chief Editor Wilbert Jole who kept on ordering him to do other articles that had never been in his field.

The young man took the elevator and pushed the 3rd button that would take him to their department.

"Hey Cooper, I thought you'd be sleeping soundly in your room today?" Coulter—one of his colleagues—whispered mockingly at him. Aries sighed from his lower lip and nodded.

"Supposed to, but guess what, I was summoned by the demon again?" He replied and put his stuff on his table. He heard him cackle.

"Wishing you good luck, bro."

"Ha! Thanks tho." Aries intended to put sarcasm in his words before he left the table and headed to the Chief Editor's Office. He breathed deeply and knocked at the door before he entered the office. The black swivel chair that was facing outside the huge window turned to face the newcomer. Sitting was a man in his early sixties, with white hair, wrinkled skin, and frail hooded eyes that seemed to have a lot of things hidden inside.

Aries remained standing as he reached in front of the table, waiting for the man to start the conversation.

"I haven't finished reading the manuscript you submitted last night, but I could say you did great..." The man commented. Aries silently heaved out a deep sigh of relief, thinking that this might be the chance that his boss might want him to write some exciting mystery or crime articles this time.

"Now, I want you to look into this." The man took out a brown folder and gave it to him. Confused, the other party crossed his brows yet he still reached out for the document and took a glimpse at its contents.

"Someone asked me to dig into that person. I heard he's doing some strange errand that's beyond the authority's knowledge. I can't really tell you anything more about it, but I'm sure you'll thank me soon..." The man suddenly paused when the door opened.

"Sir, Mr. Fred is here." The lady announced upon entering.

"Let him in." The man replied.

"This information is confidential, no one could know about this except you." Aries didn't have a choice but to nod. He didn't stay in the office for long and decided to leave just when the guest came to enter. With such a firm grip on the document, he left the building and again took a cab back home.

As soon as he stepped foot into his apartment, he immediately put the folder on the table and threw his body on the sofa bed. He spent a few minutes staring at the white ceiling of the apartment. Deep earful sighs escaped from the young man's utterances before he drifted his attention to the document resting on the table.

"No one could know about this except you."
He reached for the folder and started scanning its contents. His brows crossed upon conducting a detailed examination of the paper. He tends to stare at the picture pasted on the upper right part of the paper. Why does the man seem to be familiar to him? Yet he doesn't have any idea why.

Bryan Hilton, a smart-looking man in his early fifties with a respectable stature, dark gunmetal hooded eyes, and thin lips that go well on his well-defined muscular and balanced features as a man.

Aries spent the rest of his day familiarizing the man and his other details so that it would be easy for him to do his job.

Bryan has been one of the most successful business tycoons in the city owning three car companies, and four companies that are well-known for selling household furniture, cleaning products, and appliances—Aries continued. But what caught Aries' attention were the pieces of articles cut from newspapers.

"Bryan Hilton Denied His Business Allegations"
Written on the article headline. He could say these were some old articles since the color and texture of the paper are quite different.

He read the other articles about Bryan and he could feel something was strange in these articles until one article made his brows crumpled and his breathing unsteady.



"Murdered Detectives Case: Closed by City Police for Unknown Reason"