The Nocturnals

chapter eight

The sun has not settled in when Kara's father prepare to go to the Head's lair, knowing that from only there can he seek help to find back his daughter, assuming she's been trapped with the virtually believed beast. 

He rushes out, through the front door, bursting his way up the lane, where side ways are very lowly trimmed grasses, with tints of dull yellowness on their tips. He passes by the bridge, his legs creating a firm stance while he passes through such that he didn't slip. 

By the time, he is getting closer to his destination, the sun has started to shown, however the street of Mulan is still emptied of its people, all door are still shut, making his heavy breaths of increasing exhaustion sounds vibrant.

There are two guards at the door, thankfully it's open. He disregards those guards, as he go to running up the steps past them into the building, where inside is the Head, the hunter for the village, his generation sworn to protect the people from the beast.

From either sides, two muscular hands grab him, writhing him back so that he is stumbling to their front.

"Please...please, I beg of you, let me pass. I need to see the Head right now—" as he trails off, his sobs chocking his words, making them go inaudible, yet the guards pay no sympathy for his condition. They just stare at him.

"Don't you hear me?!" Kara's father exclaims, his tone very different from the way he use to use them. He's never really been in the situation where this kind of tone will be appropriate, but under this circumstance, it surely is.

"You have no invitation." One of the guards says, after a short silence. Well, it wasn't an absolute one since Kara's father ragged breathing fills the aura.

"I can't remember the last time, where it's said that any citizen of Mulan should have a pass before seeing the Head."

"You are the maniac here, so undoubtedly, you'll be the one to figure that out." The other guard says, chuckling only to then, burst into hysterical laughter. The first one follows after. Kara's father, stunned, he fumes and watches them both with a frown on his face.

"I'm not a maniac." Even though it's a fruitless attempt to want to convince them that he's not what they suppose him to be, he can't help it. "I'm a scientist. I—I help." He adds.

"Oh, sure you do. Isn't that what you were doing yesterday's midnight. Helping?" In the middle of his laughter, the first guard jokes.

They knew? Kara's father's thought chimes in. He hadn't expected anyone to know since they all live at a very much distance from his.

"I—" he begins, but was shunned.

"Actually, not all of us do get the opportunity to sleep at nights when there's a beast out there, wanting to yank out our head off, and we won't be found again." The second guard contemplates, although his eyes wears an horrific expression all of the sudden, as if he's seeing an event unfold right before his eyes, right after he shudders in an irk manner.

"So, yeah we heard what happened this midnight. That noise..." He drawls, not finishing his speech, but his demeanor instead — doing the job for him.

Kara's father doesn't know what to say, he hadn't expected any of this to occur when he rushed out of his house. Now, the sun is beginning to flourish, bringing in yellow lights that brightens up everything it beams on.

He says nothing, turn his back and prepare to leave when a masculine voice talks from behind him. 

"Mr. Nickolas, good morning, and I'm happy to see you come at this time."

On turning his back, the guards are now lowering their head in greeting at the figure, eyeing each other and not saying anything.

"My apologies for not coming out to see you sooner, before my... abusive guards disrespected you." Ronald, the Head points out, at the same time, his eyes roam the guards, whom are still bowing their head slightly low. 

"Impertinent, I will rather vouch for." Kara's father, Nickolas says.

"Pardon me?" 

"Nevermind. I just meant that they were being rather insolent than abusive." Nickolas adds. "Well, yes, they were being abusive in a way though, but it's more of a...um...of a..." He stops, halting his stuttering, realizing that the guards and Head are now looking at him with confusion-laid eyes, not understanding his approach. So he keeps his mouth shut.

"Shall we go in now?" The Head ask, and Kara's father nods, entering with him...and they begin to walk side by side in a syncing manner. "You do came at the right time though."

"I suppose so." Nickolas mention ironically, remembering the few seconds back when he was being humiliated by those guards. He shakes his head. "You do know about midnight's issue, right?"

"Of course." Ronald pauses, cutting his eyes over to Nickolas. "I'm sorry, but I must confer to any chrips that comes my way."

"Even when it could be a rumour?"

"Even when it could be a rumour." Says lowly, and drawl-ly the Head. He then pats Kara's father on his shoulder, causing him to briefly tense. "So, what have you came here in the first olace?" 

"A report."

The Head scoff, nodding his head attentively. "Don't worry, you'll report all today." 

The way he speaks, his kind of tone, sends unwanted chills down Nickolas' veins.

They both say nothing to each other, causing a weirder aura to envelop them— or perhaps, only enveloping Nickolas. They stop in front of a door, the guards there open it for thier entrance. As the door opens, murmurs of people invades Nickolas' ears, making him panic even as he doesn't show it. He thinks of what the villagers might he planning on him. Or if they are not planning anything, then why are they here?

"Come stand in the middle." Ronald says to Nickolas, his job's voice crawling up to under-wrap those calm, drawling tone he was using seconds ago. 

Nickolas eyes scan the room, wandering round the room to access the lots. They all give him a look that wishes he shrinks and the ground swallows him. Even though he doesn't believe in things like that, he still can't help but think that the ground could perhaps swallow him up this time around. He stands in the middle of the room.

"All this people have a responsibility." The Head begins. "They all have works to do this morning, but will instead they risk all those things they are suppose to do to come here and all of them reporting the same thing." His eyes that were roaming round the room earlier, now came to rest on Kara's father's frame. He feels his heart accelerate.

"What your...works—what they are doing to our land, to our people is unfair. The exhaust, the sound, the air, it's all disturbed."

"Polluted." Nickolas quickly adds.

"You say?"

That's the right word to use. He thinks. But he says nothing, he was being stupid enough to correct the Head in the middle of an important speech...one that speaks against him. Ronald continues.

"Most people who lives near you have been complaining everyday, wanting those sounds— especially this midnight's sounds is disturbing them." He finishes.

"We want it to stop." Cole, who is sitting beside the Head state. Now I know why Kara hates him. He thinks.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" He is asked by the Head. He lowers his gaze, knowing that if he says what he came here to complain about, then this people will win, but thinking of it deeply, he has no choice. 

He can't afford to build another machine which will find his daughter and save her from the beast, or any other danger that lurks behind those bushes. it will take time before succession.

"My daughter is in the woods. Kara..." He gulps, "she's in danger." He hears the gasps that fills the room, followed by whisperingly muttering of comments.

"How come?" The Head is deliberating pushing.

Kara's father gives up, saying all truth of what happened. "My machine, the tech-cart, it went haywire this midnight — it caused those sounds — and somehow when we were trying to turn it off, it encloses Kara inside itself, and takes her off into the woods, or the land behind it. I'm not quite sure."

"See!" One of the people says from Eastward to Nickolas, a man. He knows he will have no choice than to stop his inventions after this very meeting.

"Even his machines are killing him. So, how can we be sure they won't hurt our family or make them disappear into the woods." Another man says.

"They don't make people disappear." As much as it makes no sense defending himself and his machines, he still does anyway.

"Then how does it take your daughter away?"

"I said..." 

"Enough! We have no come here to fight." The Head stops whatever it is that Kara's father wants to say. "I'll have a search party look for Kara, but on a condition. No more machine, no more creations of what might harm any of Mulan's people and the next towns. We are not gods, you are not gods. You should stop creating things that does what humans are suppose to do." 

Nickolas is frustrated, his eyes checking the room once again, taking in everyone's face in the room. How can they be so naive? They think he is trying to be a god for wanting to help humanity? He's only trying to help them and the coming generation. But instead, all he gets his rejection, no support, and insults. He had not done anything to deserve any of this. Again, he has no choice. He reminds himself of that cruel fact. He needs to conform to every condition they lay in front of him in order for Kara to be saved, and also, she's far more important than any machine. 

Sighing, letting his shoulder slouch, he says. "Find my daughter, and I will stop creating any invention." His eyes are piercing into Ronald's eyes, who's also staring back. A tint of smile shows up on his face.

"Decision very well made, Mr. Nickolas. You may go home now. We will be getting in touch with you shortly." As he turns his back to leave the room, that's been suffocating him ever since he walks in, the Head adds. "Your daughter shall be found." As if he's very certain, he state. With a last nod of apprehension, Nickolas leaves the room with exasperation.