Haunteds

Chapter 24

Inside was a small conference room. The kind used for meetings. On the left side of the wall are wooden shelves with glass sliding doors. A flat-screen television is mounted on the wall across the room. There was just one table, a white and oval one, but it was large enough to be shared with a dozen people. Major Coleman had us take a seat on black, modern chairs while he and the librarian busy themselves over one of the shelves.

"Of course it goes without saying that everything you learn here remains a secret," Major Coleman said as the librarian set down a white storage box. The words Cult Investigation was written on the lid in red ink.

"You kept something like this in a public library?" I asked.

Major Coleman pointed at the door where we came in. "That is a public library. This room here is a government facility for storage and documentation," he explained, pointing down the floor with both his fingers. "Everything you'll see is strictly confidential. We usually keep this type of information private for obvious reasons, even for haunteds' eyes."

"I think haunteds would think twice to mess around with something like this," Leo said.

Major Coleman just shrugged. "Can't be too careful."

Cato picked up on my question. "So acquiring the museum, building a library on the second floor—"

"A misdirect. A sleight of hand," he stammered for a bit, seeming lost for words. "How do you kids call it?" His face lit up and snapped his fingers. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "Trolling!"

No one dared to correct him because he looked so proud of himself of knowing that word. And I don't want to be the one to wipe the grin off his face. "Right," I encouraged. The others started producing somewhat convincing noises of approvals.

I thought that the librarian was going to get more boxes out of the shelves but she went out of the door. Cana lifted the lid off. Her eyebrows knitted together. "Is this it?"

I stood from my chair and lean over. There was just one brown, folder inside. I picked it up. "Major Coleman?" I asked him. "We need everything."

"You're holding it," Major Coleman said, his face was a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. "We know very little about them. We don't know what their goal was. What they believed in. Their current whereabouts."

Everyone started crowding around me. "Current whereabouts?" Caprice said. "My teacher said they were all killed during the massacre."

"All that was present, yes," Major Coleman said. "As you will read inside, we never found their church."

My hand was about to open the folder when Major Coleman stopped me. "You should also know that the pictures inside are quite graphic."

He wasn't kidding. Attached to the reports were pictures of the gruesome encounters. The first photo was what I assumed to be after the massacre took place, based on the number of dead bodies shrouded in black cloth.

Another picture showed the students hanging from the ceiling, suspended with cables and meat hooks through their necks. Their heads were missing. Not chopped off, because that would show bones. No. Their heads were gone. Like it was photoshopped out of their bodies.

"I'm guessing this is how the Haunteds Identification System was established?" Cato said.

Major Coleman leaned over. "Ahh, yes. At first, we don't know what to make of the missing heads. But years of comparing photos through generations of haunteds, it stayed consistent. This led us to theorize that this is how the Shade marks its intended victims."

Any other kid would have thrown up or burst into tears seeing these photos but not us. Compared to Kent's and Eris' deaths, these gory images are boring. Besides, we have a goal in mind. We were too busy to be scared.