1 The Name of Fear (1/3)

Interpol headquarters, Team 01X report room…

Eight people ranging from late twenties to forties sat at a table while a beautiful middle-aged woman with glasses and long orange hair stood before a screen.

"This is our investigation target."

A photo appeared on the big screen, depicting a black-haired young man looking in his early twenties, wearing a black jacket on a white t-shirt and blue joggers. He looked handsome with a lean and fit physique of a model and gave off an innocent and cheerful vibe.

Everyone at the table was surprised at the candid photo of this young man smiling brightly and handing out a balloon to a little boy. His sunset colored eyes oozed out kindness and mirth with his smile at the little kid.

"An Interesting target and choice of the picture," a dark-skinned man with a bald head and muscular physique commented with raised eyebrows. "What did he do?"

"Maybe he killed some dogs and chickens."

The others chuckled. It was rare for them to see such a young man as their target of next operation.

"Laugh now because you won't be able to once you learn details of this case," the woman before the screen responded with a wry smile and pressed a button on the remote in her hand, causing the screen to change as a few photos appeared, all in different locations.

One photo had fifteen people in military-like mercenary uniforms lying dead in some city's abandoned warehouse.

Their limbs and blood were scattered on the ground.

Their weapons were broken into pieces.

Another photo had two men leaning against a dumpster in a dark alley, with their heads on their laps.

The third photo… was disturbing, to say the least. Two high-school girls and two high-school boys in the school uniform in their school's trash dumpster, their bodies littered with cuts.

The officers frowned.

"Haily, are you saying that the sunny boy you showed us is responsible for these brutal murders?"

"He is our one and only suspect," Haily sighed and replied, "These murders happened three years ago, but the photo you saw was a recent one."

"He is nineteen years old at present, but he started his hunt three years ago," Haily narrowed her eyes. "At sixteen, and he's been at it since then."

The officers were startled, even feeling disbelief.

"Stop joking, Haily. How could a sixteen-year-old boy cause such brutal murders?"

"That military troupe? Are you saying the kid did that? Haha."

"And where's the proof? You didn't tell us how he did all that and the proofs."

Everyone started voicing their thoughts

Haily tipped up her rims with one hand and changed the screen.

Everyone soon saw a picture of the black-haired young man in his younger days, when he was at sixteen.

"He is seen near all three sites," Haily said, "We only found him a few days ago, after connecting a total of…"

Haily took a deep breath before continuing, "A total of three hundred and sixteen murders in the past four years."

"Out of all of them, he is only seen forty-six times. The main difficulty in finding culprits of these murders was zero traceable evidence. Only dead ends."

"The murders were brutal enough that it would require a team of monsters to do all that, but it was hard to find and trace their deaths. The nature of their injuries and final cause of death threw all forensic experts into a spiral."

Haily narrowed her eyes and changed the screen, showing tens of brutal murder scenes.

The officers, both male and female, were tough and trained.

But some of them still felt revolted as they looked at the pictures.

"So are you saying he is the only suspect because he is seen most around these murders?"

Haily shook her head and replied, "Not just murders."

"We have named it…Justice Cursed Murders."

Haily changed the screen again as two photos along with their information appeared.

Everyone was confused.

"Now, who are these?"

"The first is a couple on their honeymoon. They were one of the many victims of that Iron Blood Mercenary group. But, as you saw in the first picture, this group was brutally murdered. Trained and professional, but still died as if someone played them to death."

"The two girls in the second photo were drugged and sexually assaulted. Found dead in the same alley where those two men died. Those two men were the culprits behind the unfortunate fate of those two girls."

The officers were surprised and understood the reason behind the name, but the next one clouded a doubt in them.

"What did those four high-school students do to be murdered like that?"

"I'm still waiting to know your explanation of how that young boy could kill like that."

Haily showed one more photo, showing a sixteen-year-old girl in her high school uniform.

"The four high-school students bullied this girl. Their classmate. After mild bullying, it escalated to them taking her nude pictures and blackmailing her. They made her their toy…"

Haily sighed and took a deep breath before continuing, "The girl killed herself by taking pesticide from the school's garden storeroom. Those four students practically got scot-free with a slap on their wrist because no evidence was found. The school also wanted to minimize this news and did their best to swiftly put this under the wrap."

"They deleted pictures and other things. The investigation was also shallow due to bribes from their parents and school."

Everyone's face soured.

"And then, those four died," Luke said as his blue eyes glinted. He was a blond-haired man in his thirties.

Haily nodded. "They died after three months."

After saying that, she changed the screen back to the picture of the black-haired young man smiling brightly while handing out a balloon.

Everyone waited to hear the explanation of how this seemingly jolly young man created such murders.

Haily took a deep breath and said, "Lastly, and most importantly, we still don't know how he killed them all, nor do we have any evidence that says that the culprit is this young man."

"Come on, Haily. What the fuck? What's your main basis then?"

Haily snorted and said, "Do you think I didn't feel the same skepticism as you all? These murders with no connection to each other have been piling up for the last four years! I spent the past three months sorting out everything and researching before coming to this fucking conclusion."

Some wryly smiled at her outburst while some grunted, but all eight officers kept mum afterward as Haily continued after clearing her throat.

"Aeron Blake is his name. In 2010, five-year-old Aeron was on a car trip with his parents for camping. They met with an accident on their way back that killed his parents while he survived with various injuries."

"According to the information from the orphanage where he grew up, Aeron behaved abnormally," Haily paused for a second before continuing, "He usually talked with air."

"Talking with air?"

Haily nodded. "According to Aeron, he was talking with people. He could also see strange things, but others felt that he was just being delusional and imagining things, which was normal for kids his age."

"He was also hospitalized a few times and had mental check-ups."

"At sixteen, he was cleared and ready to live alone in a government apartment with a further study opportunity and scheme to his name."

Haily's expression turned weird as she continued, "The orphanage caretaker's words of that time were that Aeron was more mature and intelligent than his peers, a kind and very optimistic young man."

"I still fail to understand, but maybe that traumatic accident and injury to his brain, may have turned him weird, but he was not mentally ill in regards to behavior, manners, learning ability, and such."

"He was a top grader through his school-time, and easily got a university scholarship."

"But he vanished and started living on his own somewhere," Haily's voice turned heavy. "In other words, I don't have information on him after he turned sixteen."

"However, we have his current location."

Haily pressed a button, and the screen changed as some words appeared with Aeron's picture below and a city's map with a red dot blinking on it at the city's peripheral area.

"Our job is as usual. In this Operation Ghost, we will tail Aeron, observe him, and collect information. Sniff around him, but don't let him find out."

The candid photo depicting a handsome and kind-looking young man, while he smiled brightly at a little kid handing out a balloon was seemingly the only bright thing in this dark office, but…his appearance gradually started transforming in everyone's mind, becoming a source of mystery and horror.

"He is still out there hunting people," Haily's eyes containing intense curiosity narrowed as she looked at her peers, and her clear voice echoed.

"And I want to find out how he hunts them."