Chapter 3 - Undeliverable Letter

"We were too late." Hero Terra clicked his tongue whilst staring at the burnt corpse of Houston. The fire had already been extinguished but the smell of smoke and foul stench of charred flesh and blood still lingered in the air. Heat radiated from the walls and floors and the firefighters were still going around checking everything.

Terra was the hero that Kin's henchman had identified. He had dusty brown hair and green eyes. Around said eyes was a mask similar to those worn at masquerade parties, just less flashy. Terra's hero uniform consisted of a plain black tank top and cameo jacket, along with brown boots and black pants.

"Quite ironic that it was Ignite's own flames that mutilated his corpse." Beside Terra was another hero, Frost. He had white-blue hair and eyes. Frost's hero uniform was just a distinct red scarf and navy police-like uniform along with a black mask over his eyes.

Terra kicked a pebble on the ground. "We spent months preparing for this operation only to find him dead in his own quarters. If I find out who did this, I'll bury them 6 feet under!"

"Well, at least we didn't have to deal with him ourselves." Frost commented and walked out the room with Terra to get some fresh air.

Down the hall, they saw a member of the forensics team walking down the hall. Out of a whim, Frost spoke to him. "So, did you guys find anything?"

"Uh, a lot of things were lost in the fire but there's a room down the hall that's relatively untouched. We're checking it out right now." He replied.

"Hmm, let's go help." Frost suggested to Terra. He nodded and the two followed the forensics guy down the burnt halls, turning left and right in the maze of a building. At the very end of the hall was a burnt wooden door. It was charred black and but still standing.

The forensics guy pushed the door open, revealing a little room. Inside were partially burnt objects, but most things were relatively untouched. The fire hadn't quite made it there yet when the firefighters drowned the building.

The room consisted of a rather old and stained couch with a blanket messily thrown on top. There were drenched books stacked all around the couch and cardboard boxes lined up and put on top of each other like some kind of makeshift desk. Some of the cardboard boxes were opened, revealing a few sets of old, ragged clothes.

Perhaps the only lively thing within the room were the random pots of plants surrounding the window. There were cute and vibrant wild flowers, proud roses and tall ferns placed in a disorderly fashion. They were well taken care of, healthy and strong and survived the fire unscathed.

"Wow, the difference is quality is outstanding, even the hallway looks more decorated than this. Is this a storage room?" Frost commented.

"A storage room wouldn't be this empty, you idiot." Terra responded.

"I know. I was just saying." Frost chuckled. "So, what have you guys found so far?"

One of the forensics guys in the room was flipping through a book and answered. "All the books here are related to plants, mostly to do with illicit drugs and poisonous plants. I've flipped through a few of the annotated and tagged pages but they are extremely detailed on how the plant thrives."

Another forensics member chimed in. "If you turn the cover page, you'll see the same name written on all of them." He turned the book over, showing the name, 'Al Bert Hills' written neatly. "I think he was their botanist.

Intrigued, Terra knelt down beside the cardboard boxes that the guys hadn't checked yet and looked through the contents. He found another book inside. It was different from the others in that it wasn't a non-fiction book on plants but instead a novel. The novel wasn't very thick and was typically what a child would read.

"The Knight and the Dragon." Terra muttered, reading the title. He flipped the book over and raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Frost asked and walked over to Terra.

The back of the book had a white sticker with text printed on. 'Dolly Meadows Primary School', it read.

"What's a book from a primary school doing here?"

Terra flipped through the pages and noticed there was an unusually thick and stiff page. Thinking that it may contain some evidence, he tore the pages apart and found a photo inside.

It was an old photo, ones that had the date printed on them. It dated back three years and was a family photo. There was a father and a mother and their son smiling happily in the photo. The little boy was holding a cake in which the words, 'Happy Birthday, Albert' were written with icing.

Terra raised an eyebrow and flipped the photo over. There were words written in small font on the back.

"Dear Mum and Dad, after an excruciating 2 years, it seems I've finally been broken enough to write a letter that'll never be delivered. It's addressed to you but really, I just needed to TELL someone, something, how I feel." Terra read. He paused and continued.

"Still, it's a letter so by law I must ask you how you're feeling, right? Hopefully you're doing better than me (its pretty hard to not). I'm sure that even without me, life went on as usual. Mum'll make breakfast before going to work and Dad will stuff his face whilst complaining that he was late for work. Then, late at night, you'll both come home and chat for a bit before going to bed. Even without me, everything will go on as usual, as it should.

I want to return to that ordinary life. I miss having to worry about being late to school and forgetting to do my homework. I yearn for that mundane life. But I'm afraid. I'm scared of going back. I fear that when I return, no one will recognise me."

The steady, neat handwriting changed. It was shaky and written aggressively.

"I could hardly recognise myself. When I look into my reflection, a corpse stares back at me. His eyes are hollow, his cheeks are sunken in, he's scarred and broken…It's exactly like in those books about tragedies and war. At the end of it all, the main character is never himself. He stares in the mirror and sees a zombie, a shallow shell of his former self. I always felt it was strange but now I understand. A human can really live but not be alive.

My hands are stained with blood and poison. I am an unwilling accomplice to the villains. Death's scythe is inches away from my neck. I feel undeserving of a warm home. I scared that I'll taint everything I touch.

Maybe I've become a villain myself, become one of them. I'm useful to them. They'll never let me go. The day that I'm set free is also the day I finally die. But, rather than die obeying them, I prefer to die fighting. I'll let them know that I, Albert Hills, am a fighter. Even if it costs me my life, I'll make that monster feel my pain.

I'm going to do it soon. I'll stick a knife through his back when I get the chance. I'll go out with a blaze of glory. So, I'll probably never be able to see you again. But do know that I think of you everyday and will continue to do so from wherever I end up when I'm dead. With love, your dear son, Albert Hills."

Everyone fell into solemn silence. The contents of the letter were quite damning and they needed awhile to process it. From the shared name Albert, it was apparent that the author of the letter was the owner of all the books in the room. Thus, it was easy to make the connection as to what kind of things he was made to do.

Terra took a deep breath. "Frost-"

"I know, I'm checking it now. If a kid went missing, there should be some news online." Frost was tapping away at his phone, typing the words Dolly Meadows Primary School, Albert Hills into the search bar. Soon, articles related to the key words showed up. Frost's guess was right, the news did cover it.

"It's a match. They really did kidnap a kid." Frost revealed after skimming through the article.

Everyone sharply inhaled. The contents of the letter were real. That child…he was probably dead by now. Perhaps he didn't even have an intact corpse. Ignite did enjoy burning his victims to ash after all.

"Did they kidnap him because of his ability?" One of the forensic guys suggested, avoiding the more morbid topic. "Perhaps he had a plant based ability and so they took advantage of it to grow drugs and whatnot."

"That's plausible. Plant-growing abilities are quite uncommon after all." Another chimed.

Frost nodded. "From our research, Ignite's drugs were rather special in that they were especially addictive and apparently of better quality. It's likely that the boy's ability enhanced the drugs somehow."

"That's not important right now." Terra injected. "Look through all the boxes and anything in this room. I'm going to send everything not related to the case to his family."

"Yes sir!"

"Let's go, Frost." Terra took a photo of the letter and carefully stuffed it into his pocket. "We're going to deliver the letter."