The Power Within (ON HOLD)

Prologue

The man walked down the hallway, his footsteps echoing throughout the office building. For it being six in the morning, there were still numerous people working from the night shift. The man yawned. He usually worked away from the office building but he had received a call to come in immediately; there had been a development in a case.

This did not bode well with him. Those words could only mean one of the cases he was working on caught the attention of a higher up. The man had a feeling which case was flagged down. He sincerely hoped he was wrong. The man continued to walk down the hall towards the director's office. With each step he took, the man's dread continued to increase. The man finally arrived at the director's office where the door was left cracked opened. The man knocked on the door and pushed it open.

"Sir?"

There was no reply; the room was empty. The man glanced around the office and noticed a sticky note on the computer. He walked towards the computer and picked up the sticky note. Bring in this case immediately. You're in charge. The man sighed and set the note down. A video was set up on the computer. The man sits on the computer chair and hits play. The video only confirmed what he expected. 

On the screen, there was a little girl. She appeared to be in some sort of temple or church with a man talking to her. The camera zooms in to show the little girl's skin covered in a rash. Another clip plays. This one is of a news coverage.

"A teenage girl survived a severe car crash and escaped with fairly minor injuries. The girl was driving her coupe when a 4x4 truck going sixty miles per hour hit her head on. More on this story at 5."

The news coverage cuts off and newspaper clips are shown. The first photo shows a coupe completely destroyed; the car was rolled over with parts of the vehicle missing. Another picture is a comparison of the girl involved in the accident. The before photo shows the girl in the hospital bed. There is a breathing tube attached to her. A gauze bandage is wrapped around her head, cuts, and bruises seen throughout her body. Her right arm is placed in a cast. Her eyes were closed.

She looks broken here, the man thought.

The after photo shows the girl in normal clothes. She is still in the hospital bed but is no longer connected to the ventilator. The bandage that was wrapped around her head has been removed. A scar can be seen above one of her eyes. The cast on her arm had also been removed. Only a few of bruises can be seen remaining on her body. The girl looked as if she had been involved in a minor incidence instead of a life-threatening accident.

Another clip begins. This time the recording is in black and white, filmed from a security camera.

Crap.

The man frowned at the scene of a parking lot shown on the computer screen.

This video shouldn't exist.

The man continued to look on in disbelief as the video kept playing. A figure appears in the recording, staggering around the parking lot. The person is wearing a jacket with the hoodie pulled up, face unable to be seen. The figure clutches something in its hand. It seems to glint in the light. 

The knife.

The man kept watching as the figure crept along the screen with the knife in their hand. The man looked on. He glanced towards the top right part of the screen, waiting.

Any second now.

A ball rolls into view from the top right part of the screen and a little boy follows suit. He chases after the ball, not noticing the suspicious figure. The hooded figure seems to take notice of the little boy and starts to inch towards him, the little boy still unaware.

And then...

The man glances towards the bottom right of the screen just in time to see a girl, the girl, rush towards the little boy.  She grabs the little boy's hand and pulls him towards her when she notices the figure nearby. The girl stands between the little boy and the hooded figure. The figure stops advancing a couple of feet from the girl. The two seem to be conversing with each other, the girl trying to slowly back away from the suspicious person. All of a sudden the girl rams the figure down on the concrete of the parking lot, holding the figure down with one hand and pulling their arm back with the other. The attacker's knife was knocked out of their hand, far from their reach. 

The man sighs. He watches as yet another person comes into view. This time it is the man himself who appears in the video. The man watches himself pull the girl away from the attacker. He sees himself talk to the girl, gesturing towards the little boy and the attacker. In the video, the man grabs the attacker and carries him off camera. 

I could barely believe she managed to restrain a person who was massive in size compared to her. Now I know for sure how she was able to do it.

The girl stares in the direction of where the man walked off to. She then turns and reaches towards the little boy who runs crying into her arms, clinging on to her. The girl picks the little boy up and walks away, out of the camera's reach. The screen turns black. A replay button appears on the screen; the video was over.

The video only confirmed the man's suspicions; the girl was a new case assigned to him. The man stands up and walks out of the room. The man could not help but feel a bit aggravated; after all, his efforts to shield the girl from the eyes of his higher-ups were for naught. The man exited the building and walked towards his car. He glanced at his watch; he was going to be late. The man got into his car and sat there for a moment.

He knew it was futile to go against orders from those above. If he did speak against getting assigned the case, the end result would be for the girl to be placed under someone else which was something the man wanted to prevent. If the girl was to be recruited by the company, the man rather her be placed under his care where he is able to watch over her.

The man runs his finger through his hair and sighs. There was no point in contemplating this matter any further. The decision has been made already and nothing would prevent the company from pursuing the girl. There was nothing the man could do in order to prevent this from happening to the girl. After all, her fate was already sealed long ago.