Sa:cryd ZERO

Chapter 7

It was now Saturday as Lexus had received orders to come to headquarters yesterday. However, he woke up late after not sleeping early due to thinking about the dumb thing he said to Vanessa and therefore had to prepare to leave quickly. Unbeknownst to Lexus, the day had more installed for him. Ding-dong! The alarm in their apartment kept ringing as Alice went to check who it was. When she opened the door, she saw a very pretty girl around Lexus' age, which kinda surprised her. “Hello miss, I’m looking for Lexus. He told me that he lives here and I’m here to pick him up for our joint assignment this weekend. Did he inform you?”, the girl said in a polite tone. “Oh well yes. I didn’t think you'd come get him yourself. He’s running late, isn’t he? I’ll go call him for you”, Alice answered. “Thank you miss”, the girl said as she proceeded to wait. Lexus was in his room when Alice suddenly burst inside. She had a sinister look on her face which greatly startled the poor boy. “What’s wrong? Who was at the door?”, Lexus asked. “Oh, just a super pretty girl who came to pick you up for the joint assignment you mentioned last night. I must say you’re one lucky guy”, Alice said with a smile. “Pretty girl?”, Lexus asked in confusion as he immediately rushed to the living room to confirm. Seated was Vanessa wearing a very elegant top and a beautiful skirt. She looked extremely pretty as she smiled gently when she saw Lexus. “Holy s**t”, Lexus couldn’t help but curse out loud as Alice soon arrived. “So won’t you introduce me?”, Alice said while nudging Lexus with her shoulders. “Uhh yes. This is…umm Vanessa. She is my classmate from school”, Lexus said with a shy voice. “Oh, nice to meet you, Vanessa. Thanks for taking care of my little brother”, Alice said in a delighted tone. “Not to worry miss. If he’s ready, we’ll be taking our leave now. I must say you have a very nice home”, Vanessa said. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I just did my best”, Alice said with a smile. “Uhh so yeah we’ll be leaving now”, Lexus said as he quickly left the room as she pulled Vanessa along by her hand. “See you later miss, take care”, Vanessa said before they left the room. “You too guys”, Alice answered. “Go get her tiger”, Alice secretly encouraged Lexus. The two took the elevator downstairs as Lexus’ heart felt like it would burst. Vanessa had come to call him since he was running late!

“You have no mercy, do you?”, Lexus asked once they were out of the building. “You made me come all this way to call you since you decided to be late. I hate tardiness and you’re gonna pay”, Vanessa said, back to her old cold self. “I’m sorry okay”, Lexus apologized as the two made their way to the shopping district. “I don’t want to hear that. The mission this time is important so we have to get down there immediately”, Vanessa said as they made their way down the special elevator. Once inside, they made their way to the briefing room as Ezekiel and Shin were already presenting. Shin was about to say something when Ezekiel butted in. “Since you two are finally here, we can continue. I already told Shin the details, so I’ll just give you two a brief summary. Apparently, there’s been a killing in one of the special gated communities in the city. Our intel believes it to be the work of a kanizor that has managed to infiltrate the community and is now feeding on the residents. You three will be sent there as special residents in order to discover the hidden kanizor and kill it before panic spreads. Do you understand?”, Ezekiel ended the summary. “Yes sir”, both Lexus and Vanessa answered as Ezekiel took his leave. Shin turned to look at the two as he then got up and handed each of them their resident passes. “Let’s go. There’s already a vehicle waiting for us. Oh, and don’t think of screwing this up like last time”, Shin said as he exited the room. Vanessa then left as Lexus quickly followed. They took the elevator upwards as there was a vehicle waiting for them. The three entered as the vehicle then took off towards the community. That was the first time Lexus had gotten to see such scenery after Alice took him in, as he couldn’t hide his excitement. Vanessa was fairly surprised when she saw him gawking at everything as she rolled her eyes. They finally reached the community as one of the guards at the gate approached them and asked for their passes. They all raised their passes as the guard talked on the radio. Soon after, the metal gates swung open as the car made its way inside and dropped off the trio before heading back. Waiting for them was an old woman who was dressed in special garb as she opened her arms and addressed them. “Welcome to our most sacred community, blessed children. Oh, how wonderful it is for young children like you to be given the greatest opportunity to visit our holy place. Thank the stars!”. “Thank the stars”, her attendants said after her. “My name is Maggie but you can call me grandma. I’m the current leader in charge of all the blessed ones in this community. Even though you have just arrived, our community is faced with an issue, but not to worry. We’ll do our best during your visit here. I can assure you that. Follow me, blessed ones, while I take you around the community”, the old lady said as she turned around and started moving. “Thank you for your kind words. We’re most honored”, Shin said politely as he then followed her. Vanessa and Lexus also followed as they were then taken around the place. “This is where you three will be staying. You can call any of the attendants here for whatever you may need. May your visit be fruitful”. Maggie ended her speech then left. The three went to their respective rooms as Lexus let out a sigh. As they were taken around the facility, the looks on the faces living there were welcoming but they looked like they were in a trance of sorts. Lexus couldn’t quite put his finger on it as he paced around. Out of nowhere, Vanessa entered his room as he almost panicked. “You noticed it too, didn’t you?”, Vanessa asked. “Yeah. This isn’t any ordinary community, is it?”, Lexus asked while answering. “Well, what do you think, Sherlock? Of course, it’s not an ordinary community. The mission aside, this place is mostly free from the laws of the city as the residents here can do whatever they want. The leader of this place, Maggie, apparently offered lots of money towards building this community and is rumored to have friends in high places”, Vanessa explained. “I see. But it didn’t seem like whatever had happened to her was much of an issue there. Meaning she wasn’t the one that asked for help”, Lexus said after a thought. “That’s the issue”, Vanessa agreed. “Then I guess we’ll just have to look for clues. Starting with the person who notified us”, Shin said as he also entered Lexus’ room. “You two look for that key person while I investigate the residents. Whoever locates the kanizor should call it in for us to deal with it together. Though I wouldn’t be needing much of your assistance”, Shin said as he proceeded to leave soon after he entered. Vanessa couldn’t help but to raise her middle finger as Shin shut the door. Lexus let out a wry smile. “You heard the d**k. We have to look for this person, but I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy”, Vanessa said. “Yeah. I think they’ll be watching our movements since we showed up immediately after the incident”, Lexus said. “Let’s get going then. The sooner you find him or her the better. We have a monster to find”, Vanessa said with a determined voice. “Yes ma’am”. Lexus then left his room with Vanessa but they were stopped by one of the attendants when they attempted to leave the residential building. “And where might you two be headed?”, the man asked. “Oh, we were just hoping to take a lot at the gardens you have here. The scenery is quite wonderful as I’d like to take a walk with my boyfriend here. He loves the greenery as much as I do”, Vanessa said with a sweet and convincing voice. Lexus looked at her in disbelief but he had to put on a smile if they were to succeed. “That’s cute but my orders were to keep you here until it was time for dinner, so carry along”, the man said, not ready to yield. “But…”, before Vanessa could try once more. Another attendant came by as she approached them. “What’s the matter?”. “Ma’am the two, uhh couple would like to take a walk around the gardens but my orders were to…”. “It’s okay Joe. It’s just a walk around the gardens. I’ll personally watch over them for the time being”, the lady cut him short. “Yes ma’am. Praise the stars”, Joe said as he made way for the three. “Praise the stars”, the lady said with a smile as she took the two outside the building. “Thank you so much ma’am”, Vanessa said as they walked. “Oh, not all. My name is Agnes and I’m Maggie’s most exalted attendant”. Nice to meet you. Thanks for helping us”, Lexus said in a polite voice. “A couple ehh. Isn’t that nice”, Agnes said with a laugh. Lexus wanted to slap himself as he turned to look at Vanessa. Vanessa looked like she wanted to choke him to death as Lexus immediately looked away. “But we know that you guys are here for a different reason”, Agnes said, which startled the two. “Were you the one who contacted us”, Vanessa went straight to the point. “Well, yes. What happened couldn’t have been the work of a resident since most of them are thoroughly screened for mental issues before being allowed to live here. Also, there are no weapons of murder here as this is a peaceful place. But what was most concerning was that the body looked like it had been eaten by a wild animal, which was very concerning. I heard there were people that could help catch the culprit, and I immediately reached out, since Maggie looked like she wasn’t going to do a thing about it, as she blamed the deceased for wronging the stars and hence, his punishment”. Agnes explained as Lexus and Vanessa both had conflicting looks on their faces. “Well, now that you two are here I hope you will be able to find and kill whatever did this before there are any more deaths, correct?”. “Yes, leave it to us. We’ll surely give you guys a hand”, Vanessa said. “Splendid. I’ll come pick up you guys later in the evening for you to start work immediately. I’m so happy my call was answered. For the meantime, enjoy the flowers and trees while I wait on the bench. Call me when you want to head back. Praise the stars!”, Agnes said as she walked away. Vanessa then turned to look at Lexus. “Well, now that we’ve found her, I guess we will move tonight”. “Yeah, but don’t you find her strange?”, Lexus asked. “They all seem super strange to me, but I get what you mean. She’s definitely hiding something”, Vanessa said. “Let’s head back for now. We’ll figure it out once together”. “Sure”, Lexus answered as the two walked around a bit before going to see Agnes.

Agnes took the two back to the building as Shin was already waiting for the two back at Lexus’ room. “So, what did you guys find?”, Shin asked. “Well, we found the person who made the call. She’ll be coming to pick us up tonight in order for us to get to work”, Lexus answered. “That was fast. I couldn’t find anything useful either, since some of the residents didn’t even know that someone had died. I’m sure that works to the advantage of the kanizor as I’m sure Maggie is responsible for any cover up”, Shin said with an annoyed look. “You mean to say…”, Vanessa joined in. “Yeah. That old hag is in on it too, but I don’t think she’s our culprit. Also, this may not be the first murder either. There may have been several coverups since there are plenty of residents here”, Shin said. “I thought about that too. Maybe that was what Agnes was hiding”, Vanessa said after a thought. “Well, I suggest we all rest up. We’re in for a long night”, Shin said as he then left. Vanessa then left as Lexus decided to lie down.