Max woke up the following morning with a headache, and while he would''ve liked to go back to sleep the smell of his now dried barf prevented him from doing so. The smell was so strong, and so horrid Max could not help but sit up, it seemed his disgust outweighed his tiredness. He made his way down to the laundry room, gathered cleaning supplies, and a set of new sheets for his bed.
On his way down he passed the bathroom which was radiating the worst smell imaginable. The toilet must be clogged, and whoever did that would be spending their morning cleaning that up, Max did not envy them.
Putting whatever happened in the bathroom aside Max spent his morning cleaning up his own mess upstairs in the attic.
The weekend schedule for the orphanage was very similar to the schedule the children followed on the weekday, but instead of spending time in a classroom the children were taken on a walk to a small park in the district, and they got to play outside longer than usual; though play would be limited due to the cold.
It was breakfast time, but Max had no appetite, and was in no mood to eat. Instead he did what he normally did on mornings spent at the orphanage. He made his way to the play area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the morning news with Madam Vine, just as he did on Tuesday. Unfortunately for Max however, it was not Madame Vine seated on the couch, but Ms. Finch. With a disappointing sigh, Max sat next to the woman on the couch, and tuned in - luckily the broadcast had yet to air.
Max could feel Ms. Finch''s cold uncaring eyes on him as he studied the TV, but he pretended not to notice. This wouldn''t be the first time they spent their morning together watching the news, and usually the entire segment would pass without either of them saying a word to each other, but this time things were different.
"You look absolutely dreadful." Ms. Finch had said, "sit further away, I don''t want to get sick."
Without a word Max moved his body to the furthest edge of the couch. Max knew that he wasn''t sick, but he sure did look it, which was probably a good thing all things considered. He did not need Ms. Finch questioning the authenticity of his "cold" after all.
Shortly after the news came on, and the same woman with short brown hair appeared on the screen. Max thought about her again considering whether she was new since he never saw her around.
''What was her name again?'' He thought. ''Oh that''s right it was-''
"Good morning Eden Springs! Samantha Holmes here, and welcome to today''s news broadcast!"
"Tch, so unnecessarily jovial. There''s no need for all this excitement, they should bring back the older gentleman, the one from before. I wonder what happened to him!"
Max had no idea who Ms. Finch was referring to and if he had to guess neither did the rest of the city. The fact that Max even remembered the name of this broadcaster meant that she probably wasn''t going anywhere.
"First things first, following up on a story from Wednesday, students at Eden High were shocked to find the corpse of a massive buck on Iyola avenue, a small wooded path connecting the school to the football field! After reporting it to the proper authorities, local journalists here at ENTV arrived on scene, and managed to capture footage of the creature before it was extracted! That footage is being shown now!
Max was surprised that something like this made the news, but he was happy that Kacey pulled the strings to get it taken care of. Oddly enough, in the footage ENTV captured Max recognized one of the boys from class standing a few feet away from the body. It was the boy with the camera, what was he doing there?
"Look at the size of that thing! This is the school you love so much? Now we have to worry about poachers wandering onto school property?! What if a student was hit?!" Ms. Finch declared.
There was a tarp covering the body so Max could not blame Ms. Finch for mistaking this as a simple hunting accident, but the truth was far more interesting. That body had been torn open, and its insides strewn about like it was nothing but a play thing, and on top of that nothing had been eaten, but that may have changed by the time reporters, and animal control services arrived on scene. It''s very likely that other wildlife appeared, and feasted on the remains as soon as him and Richard left the scene.
The thought of Richard immediately left a sour taste in his mouth, Max quickly raised a hand to prevent himself from throwing up as the events of the previous day began to flash into his mind again.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"If you can''t sit there without making pained expressions you need to go up stairs and go to bed." Ms. Finch said.
"Please tune in next week for another update to this developing story! We should have all the details regarding this animals cause of death, as well as an interview with a local biologist! Now let''s move on to the next story!
"I''m fine." Max said with a wave of his hand. He''d managed to keep it down. "As for that carcass. I''m just glad it''s gone now."
"South Eden was in chaos last night as the district was plagued by a horrific crime.. Authorities are still trying to piece together a motive. The Eden General Store was ransacked, and its owner Luis Rodriguez, a caring husband, and father of three was brutally attacked yesterday evening by three assailants. Please be warned as some of the imagery you''re about to see is quite graphic."
An image of the outside of the store flashed on the screen, the front entrance blocked off by police tape. Then, the screen showed a slide show of pictures that were taken inside of the store. It was insane to Max how much destruction had been done in so little time, and all of it by one person. If Max had switched roles with Draco he wasn''t sure if he''d been able to match that level of chaos, but he was sure that Luis would be in a much worse condition. The screen flashed photos of all the broken glass that littered the floor, then it showed how messy the aisles were, with almost every item of food opened and dumped to the ground. The last few photos were of the pools of blood on the ground, a direct result of Max''s violence.
"But Luis was not the only victim of this vicious attack! The initial report came from a small office who saw a young girl stumbling across the railroad tracks in their direction. Gabriella Martínez was set to start working under Luis at the general store, and had tried to enter the building from the back, when she was pulled in and assaulted by one of the assailants! Both her, and Luis are currently being treated at the hospital for their wounds."
Max began to feel sick again looking at the images flashing on the TV, but luckily those thoughts were interrupted by Ms. Finch who was eying max curiously. "You were just there the other day weren''t you? Any idea how this could''ve happened?"
"From what I could tell Luis is a caring guy, I can''t imagine him crossing anyone. This could''ve just been a random act of violence." Max suggested.
The lie came out smooth, and easy, as if he''d practiced this answer over and over again in his head. It seemed to satisfy Ms. Finch however, she leaned back into the couch, and turned her gaze away from Max, and back onto the TV.
"You''re lucky these hooligans didn''t attack the store while you were there. Knowing how stupid you are, you probably would''ve fought back and died. You better do your shopping in Wavecrest from now on or all of us will suffer for it."
As Ms. Finch spoke Max was scrolling through the contacts on his phone, only to realize that he never actually saved Gabby''s number.
"Yeah, you''re right Ms. Finch." Max said too tired to argue. "That''s what I''ll do."
He checked his text messages, and scrolled all the way down, and that''s where he saw it, a text from Gabby from back in May when summer vacation started. He''d given her his number at the end of last year, but he explicitly told her he wouldn''t be reaching out to her. Why did he give her his number? Max couldn''t even remember the reason. The text itself was just a question, she''d just asked if he wanted to work together on their summer assignment, a request Max flat out ignored.
"Did you know that girl?" Ms. Finch asked. "Her parents shouldn''t have let her work in this district."
Something about that question bothered Max. It was a question that seemed to peel back the very fiber of his person-hood, and everything he represented. Of course he knew her, he''d known her for the last five years.
"She sits next to me in class."
"Oh, what''s this?" Samantha Holmes brought her hand to the ear piece she was wearing. "We''re just now getting reports of another incident on the opposite side of district one, hold on I think we have video."
The screen changed to a feed from a camera showing live video of paramedics, and police outside of a home. There was a gurney being carried by two men, and on it was a woman''s body, one of the men quickly covered the body with a sheet as it was being loaded into the ambulance for transport.
"We have yet to identify the victim, but we can confirm that a murder took place at this residence last night, and eye witness accounts report seeing three perpetrators fleeing the scene in different directions."
"Lord have mercy." Mrs. Finch said. "I won''t be letting the children go outside for a few days. Things are getting too dangerous."
Max found it interesting just how much coverage district one was getting this morning. Under normal circumstances neither of these events would''ve been reported to the media, but the recent meeting probably had something to do with what was going on behind the scenes. Maybe he''d be able to get some insight out of Rose about it later.
"We''d just reported on Wednesday that the Eden Springs safety commission as well as the police department have issued a joint statement committing to an increase of the departments budget, and a hyper focus on gang activity. Could these recent crimes be a direct response to those statements? As of right now there''s been no link between these heinous acts and the Archangels, but the department has stated that they aren''t ruling that possibility out."
"Finally some good news! I know the headmaster will be happy about this!" Ms. Finch said.
"And that''s all for your daily news roundup! Samantha Holmes over and out!"
As soon as the broadcast ended Max stood up, and started to leave the room. He planned to stay in bed all day relaxing, and formulating a strategy to deal with everything coming his way, but as he started to leave he caught a glimpse of no less than five children all hiding behind the door, peaking inside the room clearly watching the TV. As soon as they caught a glimpse of Max they all vanished into other rooms, all but Luke who seemed way too happy to see Max.