My name is Mark, I’m an investigator with the Major Crimes Unit, beginning of the workday.
Tell me everything in order, I asked the woman, how it happened, when it happened, and what you saw or heard. The woman was obviously very nervous, her voice was shaking, her tongue was slurred. Don’t worry, we’ll find whoever did this and punish them severely. I tried to calm the woman, who was confused and couldn’t string a few words together.
Let’s try to get back together and tell you what happened. You said that lately our children have been behaving unusually. Can you tell me approximately how many days have passed since then? How did you notice it? What exactly was the nature of their strange behavior?
She mumbled that the kids used to be cheerful, always playing and laughing, and then suddenly they seemed to change, their faces changed, as if someone had scared them a lot. But when I asked questions, they were silent, although it was obvious that something had happened to them.
At first I thought maybe they were just playing silent or something, but every day their behavior became stranger and stranger, and the orphanage, which used to be full of children’s laughter and joy, turned into a real madhouse.
I started to think that she was worried about a few kids disappearing from the orphanage, but after listening to her story, I realized that there was something she wasn’t telling me. Nevertheless, I tried to professionally and discreetly find out additional details that might help with the investigation.
The woman went on to tell me that the children hardly spoke, even to each other, and that she was not always with them to notice if something was going on. She even went to the principal for help, but she didn’t know anything either and only shrugged her shoulders.
Suddenly, she remembered that before one of the girls disappeared, she had heard the boys talking before bedtime. But she couldn’t hear what they were talking about, because they were talking in very strange words, as if they were fantasizing about some monster that had taken up residence in the orphanage.
I asked if they were referring to a living person or something fictional, but she didn’t know the answer to that question. All in all, her story was a vague and incoherent fantasy nonsense, and now she was trying again to remember additional details.
I listened to her carefully and realized that this was a very strange and confusing story. There might be more serious things behind it and we should immediately contact the police and start a serious investigation and search for the missing children.
‘The woman only put her head down, nothing will come of it,’ I thought to myself. ‘Anyway, it’s too late today. Tomorrow I will come to your orphanage and try to talk to the children. And today I’ll send my employee to you just in case the “Monster” shows up again. You’re free to go.
After that, I escorted the lady out of the office and asked my good friend, who was also an operative, to go to the orphanage and stay there until tomorrow to find out something. I’d be interested to see if he could sniff out anything. This case doesn’t seem to be an ordinary one.
The next morning, after barely eating breakfast, I grabbed my stuff, kissed my sleeping wife, and headed to work. I was met at the shelter by the operative, Miguel, who told me that the night had gone quietly and there had been no suspicious events. He asked to go home as he had been up all night and was very tired.
He also reported that the kids at the shelter looked scared and their behavior was strange. When he wanted to start a conversation with one of the boys, he seemed ready to talk, but as soon as an older woman who called herself Martha appeared behind me, he immediately shut up and ran off to his room.
The place is really gloomy, and there was a feeling that the children here were not being treated as they should be. The whole environment made me gray overnight. I’m going to try to talk to the kids and see what they have to say. Maybe they’ll share some information.
Yeah and there’s nothing in the search for the missing kids yet. No leads or traces. So I’m staying in touch, and I’ll update you tomorrow with the results of my conversation with the kids and everything I’ve learned. See you tomorrow. I said goodbye to Miguel and lit a cigarette.
After finishing my cigarette, I went inside again, where I was already met by a thin woman in her fifties wearing a strict black jacket that was longer than my grandmother’s skirt. “Good afternoon, are you from the police?” - She inquired. “Yes” I replied. “Investigator on a case of missing children from your establishment.”
“Tell me, where are your children now? I’d like to talk to them.” - I asked. She said, “They’re having breakfast,” and she said, “Do you have any questions for me?”
Apparently, this was the supervisor from here. She answered all my questions quickly and confidently, and our dialog was not at all as drawn out and confusing as the shelter employee had been yesterday.
It seemed like they wanted to frame me for something related to these kids, as if I was to blame for their disappearance. But I wasn’t about to give up. Sitting with her, I watched every move she made, listened to every word she said, and even then I sensed that she wasn’t ordinary.
When I finished talking, I went to the playroom, where the children were still eating breakfast. Martha, however, never left my side. She seemed to be watching my every move, and I began to suspect that something was wrong.
As I tried to start a conversation with the children, I noticed that they were afraid of . They were hesitant to speak openly, as if she was intimidating them. All questions about where their friends had gone went unanswered, they just shrugged their shoulders.
But then I noticed one white-haired boy pointing his finger at Martha’s silhouette, which I noticed behind the glass door. It was a strange moment, and I began to suspect that she was connected to these disappearances.
Later, when I got back to the department, I was told that the same kindergarten teacher I had questioned yesterday had been found dead outside her house. She’d thrown herself from a tenth-floor window, and that was the subject of the investigation. Local residents saw her dead body in the street and called the police.
I was a little alarmed by this news. The whole story seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. I realized that something was amiss here and decided to take a risky decision. Taking my operatives, we decided to infiltrate the orphanage, posing as electricians to install cameras and wiretaps, hoping to find some evidence.
But the case continued to develop rapidly, and it became clear that Martha might be involved in the children’s disappearance. The children were still not saying anything coherent, and I realized that they had been intimidated and killed by the teacher who had first reported them missing.
However, the investigation was just beginning, and with each step it was becoming clearer that I had a very complicated case in front of me, and I would have to take risks to get to the bottom of everything.
Soon my plan yielded results, and the boys got the job done right. Now this damned orphanage was under my full control, and that very night the most interesting part began. Everyone had already gone home, only the duty officer and a few other guys were left, who sat in my office with me and watched the cameras closely. At first nothing happened - I spent endlessly long minutes there, trying to play on my nerves.
Then the very woman I wanted to see appeared. She walked down the hallway, chatting with the employees, and then pulled a large sum of money out of her pocket. She spread some bills out on the table as if it were a paycheck or bonus for someone. But we knew that the microphone we had hidden there was recording everything.
She said it was a share for one girl and she would bring it for the rest tomorrow. And she also mentioned that Annette, one of the kindergarteners, would never come out again because she accidentally fell out of the window. Apparently, she didn’t want anyone to bring the police to them again, It became clear that they were doing illegal things with children.
When these people left, I immediately reported what was happening to my colleagues and assumed that they needed to do something urgently. We all gathered quickly and drove to the orphanage. We were to go in quietly and carefully, so as not to scare anyone, and find where the children were hiding and what they were doing there.
As we approached the orphanage, we saw that there were no lights in the windows and we quietly walked to the entrance. The place looked even more horrible at night, especially after what I had to hear in the office. The first one we came across was a woman who, as it turned out, was getting her share of money for her participation in this criminal endeavor.
One of my coworkers quickly silenced her possible screams by threatening her with a gun so she wouldn’t do anything rash. We then asked her about where the children were hiding and she gave in, telling us about a hidden door in the basement. We now had the information and were ready to find the children and prevent further crime.
One of mine cuffed her and ordered her to show me this door. We went down into the basement, which was damp, dirty and very cold. What we saw there I will remember for the rest of my life: a long corridor filled with various things, old Soviet toys, and at the end of the corridor a light was on and strange music was playing. This music seemed more suited for a mental hospital, to soothe the insane.
Martha’s voice came from around the corner, and she must have heard her partner’s footsteps. My partner whispered something to the woman and she said she had some very important news to tell.
We burst into the room where the voice was coming from. Besides Martha, there were two men in the room.
The floor was covered with blood, bits of flesh were scattered everywhere, and the stench was unbearable. However, those who were there didn’t seem to feel it. They all seemed to be in the horrible business of organ trafficking or something similar.
When these people saw us, they rose abruptly and grabbed knives. Despite my warnings and a gun pointed at them, they didn’t stop and I had to shoot to disarm them.
We called in experts, forensics, media and doctors. According to our observations, there were several other people involved in this horrible gang and they were also apprehended the next day. It turned out that terrible things were happening at the orphanage, children were victims of violent crimes.
In the end, all those involved were punished and the children were transferred to another normal institution. The orphanage room was sealed, but shortly afterwards there were looters and homeless people trying to get in.”