The Missing Children (#OnceUponNow)

The Ratcatcher.

     As the sun set my nervousness and anxiety increased exponentially. There was a knock on the door and I jumped, having to bit my lip so I didn't cry out. Someone came in. From a quick glance, he's a parent of one of the young children. He's not in uniform, no gun or badge so not a cop. He's too young to be the parent of one of the older children, but he has the look of a person that's used to chasing after and cleaning up a tiny monster. But has the eyes of a man who's lost a child. The envy as his eyes darts to the four young kids playing simple hand games in the corner. He's wearing khakis, brown dress shoes, and a light blue polo. Dark brown eyes, dark brown hair.

     There are no windows and only one door. The room is empty excluding the dark wooden table and chairs surrounding it. The floor has a thin, worn, faded, gray-greenish carpet. The walls are a stained beige wallpaper and there's a single naked bulb dangling from a chain in the center of the room. The door matches the desks and chairs. There're a couple water bottles scattered around the room, the kids' have theirs nearby, Berkly and I's are on the table, there are some unopened ones on an extra chair. After scanning him and the room my eyes found him before flipping through one of the seemingly endless files scattered on the table, a couple layers thick, not a single empty space. I'd already memorized them hours ago but re-reading and scanning these helps me retain my sanity. The parent seems angry.

     "What do you want?" Berkly asked coldly. He's bored and tired. I'm bored, tired, my usual jaded self, and all that means I get irritated easier. Berkly knows that, so he's going to try to keep me from killing this man. The little demons in the corner are fine. They haven't been as annoying as I had originally thought. His glare annoyed me so I stood and stalked over and before I opened my mouth he started to talk.

     "Wir werden Sie Nikoli zu bekommen. Sie haben einmal entkommen. Sie werden nicht wieder. Dies ist Ihre letzte Warnung. Rückzug oder jeder stirbt. Aufs Neue. Es wird alles deine Schuld. Aufs Neue. Ihre Hände werden mit unschuldigem Blut befleckt werden. Aufs Neue. Merken." (We're going to get you Nikoli. You've escaped once. You won't again. This is your final warning. Retreat or everyone dies. Again. It'll all be your fault. Again. Your hands will be stained with innocent blood. Again. Remember.) He hissed at me. His hands moved too fast to catch but he hit some pressure points and my vision blurred as my throat closed. The hell? He induced an asthma attack with some fancy poking?! I fell to my hands and knees, clutching at my throat and fumbling in my pockets for my inhaler. There were children's screams and I felt Berkly freak out about me. The man is taking the only child that has yet to hear the music and fall prey.

     "You idiot. G-go after - get that - kid. Go." I rasped, wheezing. I pushed him off me and he did run after the man. I took a couple puffs from my inhaler and tried to calm down. After a couple minutes, I was fine. Ish. Enough to push through it for now anyway. I swallowed some water and stood, walking over to the remaining three kids.

     "Sir, what's going on?" The lame kid asked. They all had tears running down their faces. I shook my head, signing what I spoke (fluent in ASL) so they all understood me.

     "It'll be fine. I promise you'll all be safe." I went with English the first time but repeated myself in fluent German (fluent in DGS (German Sign Language) as well) just in case. I have a knack for languages and am fluent in many. I've been studying different ones all my life, and I'm now nicknamed the 'Translator' from my colleagues every now and again. Not all that impressive, it was easy.

     "Nikoli!" Berkly's strangled, broken scream ran out and my eyes widened. No one ever uses my first name (that guy doesn't count, but he shouldn't know my name).

     "Stay here!" I shouted in the four tongues and ran outside. I found him and the child that had been taken shaking Jame's motionless body. I slid through the mud. It's dark and rainy, that single lonely room in the middle of nowhere. I shouted at the child to get back to the others.

     The frigid rain had already chilled me to the bone but when I saw James my body went numb, adrenaline taking over. He's shaking, breaking out in hives, he's in anaphylactic shock. This is bad. It's a really bad reaction but I don't know what he's reacting to. I took off the EpiPen safety cap and stabbed it into his inner thigh through his jeans, pushing down the button to release the drugs into his system. His body stilled but I didn't see him breathing. I shoved the device into my pocket and took off my glasses, already blinded by the rainy night. I whipped them and held my sleeve over them so the rain doesn't fall on the glasses, holding the lens over his mouth. I put them back on and started to panic when they weren't the least bit foggy from breath. I turned my head and leaned my left ear on his chest, looking at his torso and audibly begging to hear a beat, see the rise and fall.

     I cursed like a sailor, tears filling my eyes. I can't let this kid die. I can't. I pounded on his chest, giving him CPR, trying to restart his heart. I forced breath into his lungs and kept pushing and pounding, trying to keep his blood pumping. I begged him, tears and sweat streaming down my face and mixing with the rainwater. I shook with the exertion.

     "Please. James. James, please! Come on kid! You stupid idiot, you can't die on me! You can't!" I screamed at him, trying desperately to save my comrade's life. He's better than me, innocent. He hasn't even killed yet. He is clean of any blood. Hell, he hasn't fired a gun in the field yet! He can't die! He can't! "No! No no no no no no! Please! Live!"

     My pants, useless begs, and cries filled the dark forest as the rain pounded down on my body as I tried to resuscitate the one person who didn't treat me like a freak. As my vision blurred from tears, rain, sweat, and exertion I heard the sweet melody of a flute began to play in the darkness of the forest surrounding me.